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Rolla Peace News

February 11, 2020
Dear Friends:

Note from webperson: If you are having trouble reading this, it is posted at

http://tomsager.org/Peaceletters/peaceletter021120.html

          In this newsletter is:

1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2020
2. DOOR-KNOCKING FOR BERNIE: 1:00PM, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2020
3. CITIZENS CLIMATE LOBBY: 2:00PM, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2020
4. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org)
          a) Two New Statistical Milestones
          b) Oops, Killed the Wrong Guy; Almost Started Another World War

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1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2020

We vigil for peace in front of the Rolla Post Office, THIS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, FROM NOON TO 1:00 PM (and most subsequent Thursdays until Peace is established). Please join us again this Thursday in saying NO WAR AGAINST IRAN or any other country. The temperature is predicted to be in the 20s. If you do not feel comfortable standing with us in front of the Post Office, please consider driving by and showing your support for our message by honking your horn and flashing a peace sign.

This Thursday we will complete 13 years of weekly vigils for Peace.

2. DOOR-KNOCKING FOR BERNIE: 1:00PM, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2020

Help Bernie become our next President. Details here.

Helen and I support Bernie because we think he is our best chance to avoid the twin catastrophes of war without end and global climate change.

Bernie won the Iowa caucus by thousands of votes. As of the time of writing, he is also winning the New Hampshire primary by thousands of votes.

3. CITIZENS CLIMATE LOBBY: 2:00PM, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2020

Citizens Climate Lobby will meet in the meeting room in the children's section of the Rolla Public Library.

4. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org)
          a) Two New Statistical Milestones
          b) Oops, Killed the Wrong Guy; Almost Started Another World War

Two New Statistical Milestones
“I hate statistics. What I got to know, I keep in my head.” —Jay Hanna “Dizzy” Dean
1. Yesterday the daily average concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at the Mauna Loa observatory surpassed 416 ppm for the first time since record-keeping began. (Just nine months ago the 415 ppm milestone was also surpassed at Mauna Loa.)

2. Yesterday the number of people killed by the Wuhan coronavirus surpassed 1,000.
What do these two statistics have in common? They both demonstrate the inability of “human civilization” to respond positively to global threats.

We've known for well over 30 years that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will heat the planet and make it increasingly hostile to “human civilization.” Yet, we seem totally unable to shed the behaviors that drive this crisis: Fighting wars, burning fossil fuels and eating meat (in that order) may be the three most important of these destructive behaviors.

“Human civilization” is primed for a global epidemic of gargantuan proportions. The Wuhan coronavirus epidemic may be only a harbinger of what is to come.

The United States, with it's for-profit health industry, is perhaps the least able of all wealthy countries to respond positively to such an epidemic. How do you fight an epidemic when a large part of the population is too poor to afford to go to a doctor? How do you fight an epidemic when a large part of the population is so afraid, that it would not bring itself to the attention of the authorities anyway? How do you fight an epidemic in a society that has become so used to blaming others for everything that goes wrong, that it has lost its power of introspection?

Here's an interesting article from Science about the World Health Organization and its director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Russia and Cuba are actively helping China to contain the coronavirus epidemic. US Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross, gloats over the damage the coronavirus may do to the Chinese economy and the possible boost to the US economy.

Oops, Killed the Wrong Guy; Almost Started Another World War

Iraqi authorities claim that the organization that fired the missiles that killed a US military contractor and set off a chain of events that almost led to World War III was an al-Qaeda offshoot and not an Iranian-backed militia.

But this is nothing new. Following the 9/11 attack on the twin towers, the United States totally destroyed Afghanistan and Iraq in revenge. 15 of the 19 perpetrators were Saudi Arabian. None were Afghan or Iraqi.

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Rolla Peace News is distributed by email once a week on Tuesday evenings (except on rare occasions) and is posted on the web at http://tomsager.org (click on Grassroots Rolla: at the top of rightmost column).

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Wage peace,

Helen
helenm (at) fidnet.com

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