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Rolla Peace News February 1, 2022 |
Dear Friends:Editor's note: Please consider writing for our newsletter. It's always very exciting to be able to publish submissions from our readers.In this newsletter is: 1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2022 2. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) No One Wants War (Except the Government, the Media and Wall Street) b) Cuba Aims to Vaccinate the World c) Taliban Rescues Pregnant New Zealand Reporter d) More “Ban This Book” 1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2022 There will be no vigil this Thursday. Because of the incoming storm, we vigiled for Peace today. Sorry about the lack of notice. I'll try to do better next week. 2. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) No One Wants War (Except the Government, the Media and Wall Street) b) Cuba Aims to Vaccinate the World c) Taliban Rescues Pregnant New Zealand Reporter d) More “Ban This Book” No One Wants War (Except the Government, the Media and Wall Street) While NATO and Russia face each other across the Ukranian border, people clamor for Peace. Unfortunately, our “leaders” may give us War; perhaps even Nuclear War. Maybe it is time to revisit this famous quote of Hermann Goering: Let's prove Hermann Goering wrong! Let's muzzle our “leaders.”“Why of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally the common people don't want war: neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But after all it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or fascist dictatorship, or a parliament or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peace makers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” Cuba Aims to Vaccinate the World Having successfully vaccinated almost its entire population with home-grown vaccines and boosted over half the population, Cuba now plans to step up exports of its vaccines and technology around the world.“Medicines and vaccines are not a commodity. It’s not something to get rich with. It’s something to save people’s lives.” Here's an interview on Democracy Now with Dr. Mitchell Valdés-Sosa, the director of the Cuban Center for Neuroscience. Dr. Valdés-Sosa discusses Cuba's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Omicron variant in particular. Dr. Valdés-Sosa wonders: Well, Dr. Valdés-Sosa, if a trip to the emergency room might cost you your life savings and more, you might start distrusting the health-care profession too.“Public health in Cuba is free for everyone. We have family doctors in every neighborhood. People trust their doctors. So, we’re very puzzled when we see the news abroad that there are people that distrust the vaccines, that there are people that don’t want to get vaccinated.” Taliban Rescues Pregnant New Zealand Reporter Charlotte Bellis, who as a reporter for Al-Jazeera once questioned the Taliban about their treatment of women, opined that it was “brutally ironic” that after being denied permission to return to her home country, New Zealand, the Taliban has welcomed her with open arms. Bellis wrote, “When the Taliban offers you — a pregnant, unmarried woman — safe haven, you know your situation is messed up.” A Taliban official advised her, “Just tell people you’re married and if it escalates, call us. Don’t worry.” Seems like the Taliban cares more about pregnant women and unborn children than many Western governments, including our own. Remember that! next time you hear how the Taliban mistreats women. On a personal note, a dear friend recently sent me a copy of her memoire which included some chapters on being unmarried, pregnant and homeless. That's really scary — being unmarried, pregnant and homeless. How much scarier would it have been, if she had been stranded in a foreign country with no way back. Meanwhile, as Afghans face a Winter of Starvation, the US refuses to return $9.5 billion of money that belongs to Afghanistan, citing ... (you guessed it) ... “mistreatment of women.” Update(2/1/22): The adverse publicity proved too much for the New Zealand government. Charlotte Bellis will be allowed to return home to New Zealand. We wish Ms. Bellis and her unborn baby well. More “Ban This Book” Not satisfied with attacking books on Critical Race Theory, racial injustice, and homosexuality, the censors have moved on to attacking books about the Holocaust.“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” This latest effort to control the flow of information seems to have backfired. After the McMinn, Tennessee school district's decision to ban Maus, a Pulitzer Prize winning graphic personal account of the Holocaust by Art Spiegelman, Maus climbs to near the top of the bestseller list. A reader writes: “What Art Spiegelman did with Maus was create a new way to share history while processing something deeply personal. He was clearly grappling with what happened in his family and looking to express that.” Want to do something for freedom? Read a banned book! 15 years ago, I wrote: This seems to have happened. While it is no longer reasonably possible to deny the failure of our Middle-East policy of the last 32 years; we have seen a sharp resurgence of bigotry directed toward Jewish people.“The US is already experiencing a shift in sentiment. The public is beginning to blame Jews for the failure of the US Middle East policy. (No, of course it couldn't possibly be our own fault.) As the failure of our Middle East policy becomes more and more difficult to deny, I would expect to see a sharp resurgence of anti-Jewish bigotry in the US.” Yes, “Once you ban one book, you can ban them all.” And once you attack one racial group, you can attack them all. Rolla Peace News is distributed by email once a week on Tuesdays (except on rare occasions) and is posted on the web at http://tomsager.org (click on Rollaites for Peace: near the top of rightmost column).Wage peace, Tom yushasager (at) yahoo.com |