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Rolla Peace News March 15, 2022 |
Dear Friends:Editor's note: Announcing My Semi-RetirementIn this newsletter is: 1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 2022 2. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) From Our Readers i) A Note From Linden Mueller ii) Lament to the Spirit of War iii) Russo-Ukrainian War iv) Russia’s Horrific Past Could Become Our Future Under Putin v) Joseph Conrad vi) Franklin Pierce and the Crimean War b) Some Further Reading on the Russo-Ukrainian War i) Environment ii) Displaced Peoples iii) Children iv) Bio-labs 1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 2022 We vigil for peace in front of the Rolla Post Office, THIS THURSDAY, MARCH 17, FROM NOON TO 1:00 PM. Please join us this Thursday in saying END THE WAR IN UKRAINE AND ALL OTHER WARS — LET PEACE PREVAIL. The temperature is predicted to be in the 60s. If you do not feel comfortable joining 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. Note1: This will be our last regularly scheduled Peace vigil. We will vigil for Peace occasionally from here on. Check on our website and/or request email notifications. Note 2: In case of inclement weather, vigils may be canceled or terminated early. 2. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) From Our Readers i) A Note From Linden Mueller ii) Lament to the Spirit of War iii) Russo-Ukrainian War iv) Russia’s Horrific Past Could Become Our Future Under Putin v) Joseph Conrad vi) Franklin Pierce and the Crimean War b) Some Further Reading on the Russo-Ukrainian War i) Environment ii) Displaced Peoples iii) Children iv) Bio-labs From Our Readers: A Note From Linden Mueller Linden writes: “That was so kind of you to publish [my statement on environmental activism] — thank you! I feel proud to be included in the Rolla Peace News.” My response: And I am so proud to have had the honor of having worked with Lewis Green, who founded Great Rivers Environmental Law Center 20 years ago. Thank you, Linden, for all your good work in keeping Lewis' dream of a public interest environmental law center in Missouri alive. From Our Readers: Lament to the Spirit of War A reader sends in this powerful, haunting poem about the sorrows of war, Lament to the Spirit of War, written by Enheduanna who lived thousands of years ago. Our reader remarks: “There's an irony, though, Enheduanna, priestess of the moon god at Ur, was daughter of Sargon of Akkad, warrior king and conqueror, builder of what is thought to be the world's first empire.” From Our Readers: Russo-Ukrainian WarLament to the Spirit of War In reference to snippets I have written about the Russo-Ukrainian War a reader writes: My response: If you want condemnation of Mr. Putin, try the New York Times, CNN or any one of a number of other mainstream media “war cheerleaders.” I am not responsible for Vladimir Putin. I am responsible for Joe Biden. I voted for him, which in hindsight was a great mistake.“You're quite outspoken in your condemnation of Biden. Putin who has actually started a war and threatened to use nukes doesn't get anything near that condemnation. Very strange.” Russia has a strong anti-war movement. Thousands have risked arrest and beatings to protest against the Russo-Ukrainian War. I suspect if we, too, had such a strong, vibrant anti-war movement here in the United States, the Russo-Ukrainian War might never have happened. And, incidentally, last week I wrote: “I don't think anyone will trust Russia either after their brutal assault on the Ukraine and the cavalier way they threatened the whole world with nuclear war. Russia's major ally, China, also seemed shocked by Russia's behavior.” And further: I find the behavior of the United States and the European NATO countries nothing short of perfidious and cowardly. While I would hate to see NATO and Russia get into a nuclear war, the way NATO has hung The Ukraine out to dry disgusts me. NATO has encouraged The Ukraine to challenge Russia at every turn. Now that Russia has responded with overwhelming force, NATO limits its support for The Ukraine to ineffectual economic sanctions and some feeble attempts to provide inadequate military and humanitarian aid. God forbid that Europeans should park their cars, turn down their thermostats and do without Russian oil and gas. God forbid that NATO should challenge Russian aircrafts in the skies over Ukraine. And God forbid that the United States should ever agree to a neutral Ukraine at peace with all its neighbors. Absolutely nauseating! And I think the ferocity of the Russian invasion has taken some “expert” war planners in the West by surprise. And I think the tough resolute defense of the Ukranians has taken some “expert” war planners in Russia by surprise. War seldom unfolds the way that “experts” predict. From Our Readers: Russia’s Horrific Past Could Become Our Future Under Putin A reader recommends the article, Now we know: Russia’s horrific past could become our future under Putin by Russian author, Dmitry Glukhovsky. The title summarizes the article well. From Our Readers: Joseph Conrad In reference to last week's Joseph Conrad quote: a reader writes:“I have the means to make myself deadly, but that by itself, you understand, is absolutely nothing in the way of protection. What is effective is the belief those people have in my will to use the means. That’s their impression. It is absolute. Therefore I am deadly.” My response: Conrad is also one of my favorite novelists. It is uncanny that the quote above from The Secret Agent (1907) could easily have been spoken by Vladimir Putin. Back, not so long ago, when Donald Trump was president, I used to compare him to Conrad's Mr. Kurtz in Heart of Darkness (1898). Consider this passage that, with a few minor changes, could have been written about Donald Trump:“By the way, Joseph Conrad is one my favorite novelists. If you liked The Secret Agent, I recommend also Under Western Eyes, another story of turn of the century revolutionary terrorism and tsarist repression. One more book you might find useful: The Origins of Nazi Violence, by Enzo Traverso. It fits in well with your comments about how the Holocaust is not a unique event. The book is very scholarly, ... It is published by The New Press, a non-profit publisher more interested in getting ideas and information out to readership than in making money. This book was acquired by my local library in 2003 and I can tell I am the first person to check it out. What a sad comment on where American interests lie.” And I love the way Conrad talks about Nature as a powerful living entity that wreaks vengeance on us humans for our “fantastic invasion.” Consider this passage:“You should have heard him say, ‘My ivory.’ Oh, yes, I heard him. ‘My Intended, my ivory, my station, my river, my—’ everything belonged to him. It made me hold my breath in expectation of hearing the wilderness burst into a prodigious peal of laughter that would shake the fixed stars in their places. Everything belonged to him—but that was a trifle. The thing was to know what he belonged to, how many powers of darkness claimed him for their own. That was the reflection that made you creepy all over.” and this one:“And this stillness of life did not in the least resemble a peace. It was the stillness of an implacable force brooding over an inscrutable intention. It looked at you with a vengeful aspect.” I have several more quotes from Joseph Conrad here.“And outside, the silent wilderness ... struck me as something great and invincible, like evil or truth, waiting patiently for the passing away of this fantastic invasion.” One of the things I hope to do in my retirement is read a lot more Joseph Conrad, including the story you recommend. Conrad wrote in English, which was his third language, after French and his native Polish. He was a truly remarkable man. From Our Readers: Franklin Pierce and the Crimean War In response to my snippet on Franklin Pierce and the Crimean War, a reader writes: My response: Franklin Pierce was President of the United States from 1853 to 1857. This was an era when expanding the United States beyond its continental borders was under serious consideration. The United States entered the Second Opium War against China in 1856. William Walker raised a private army and invaded Nicaragua in 1855 with the intention of joining the Union as a slave-holding state. It is certainly not inconceivable, perhaps even likely, that a more adventurous president, such as Theodore “I should welcome almost any war, for I think this country needs one” Roosevelt, would have sent US troops to Crimea. Franklin Pierce deserves credit for resisting the temptation.“Franklin Pierce is generally considered one of our worst presidents. He was a Northerner with Southern sympathies, and basically did nothing about the slavery problem which exploded into the Civil War four years after his term ended. I don't believe there was ever a chance that we would get involved in Crimea even if Pierce had wanted to, so I think you're giving him way too much credit. ... [Last year, “expert”] historians ranked the presidents. Trump wasn't last. Pierce is very close to the bottom.” I strongly disagree with your “expert” historians who rated the presidents. I wouldn't think of trying to rate presidents from before I came of age; but starting from 1945, I would rate Harry Truman and George H.W. Bush as the two very worst. They were presidents at times when the United States was the world's uncontested military and economic superpower. They could have used their position to further the cause of Peace on Earth. Instead, they opted for war and empire building. I would rate Dwight Eisenhower as the very best for having slowed the march toward war and empire, which was already well underway. In particular, I appreciated his having, without firing a shot, forced our “allies:” Britain, France and Israel, who had invaded Egypt in 1956, to turn around and go home. Just months after President Eisenhower's first inauguration, the Korean Armistice agreement was signed, ending the active phase of a terrible war that never should have begun. Some Further Reading on the Russo-Ukrainian War: Environment Modern warfare is extremely harsh on the environment. Even if the Russo-Ukrainian War were to end today, The Ukraine, like Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Syria and many other places, would be dealing with toxic pollution for decades into the future. As Ron David sagely noted in Arabs & Israel for Beginners: “One of the dirty little ironies of war is that it matters less who wins the war than where it was fought.” I still have not seen any estimates of how much CO2 the Russo-Ukrainian War has added to our already overburdened atmosphere; but I suspect it is considerable. Some Further Reading on the Russo-Ukrainian War: Displaced Peoples To the 84 million people, already forcibly displaced by war, persecution and violence, many of whom are victims of the so-called “War on Terror,” we can now add at least 3 million Ukrainians. Up until now, the vast majority of the displaced came from Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and parts of Asia. It looks like Europe is beginning to catch up. “What goes around, comes around.” Some Further Reading on the Russo-Ukrainian War: Children And while we hear much about the Ukrainian children killed in the Russo-Ukrainian War, we hear very little about how over 10,000 Yemeni children have been killed by Saudi Arabia and allies, largely with made-in-USA bombs and other military hardware. The killing goes on, but then again, as many have noted, Yemeni children are not light-skinned Europeans like Ukrainian children. Some Further Reading on the Russo-Ukrainian War: Bio-labs The US military has been running multiple biological laboratories in the Ukraine. Russia says the US was developing bio-weapons. The US says that is “preposterous” and “laughable.” But is it? While I do not know whether the accusation is true or not, it is certainly neither preposterous nor laughable. Read about the history of bio-warfare in Bionoia, and then ask yourself whether or not this accusation is preposterous. Not so long ago, I suggested that it is likely that SARS-CoV-2 was engineered in a laboratory, and advocated that all bio-labs be open to international inspection. Neither the United States nor China appeared open to this very sensible suggestion. Perhaps, the idea of international inspection of bio-labs will gain traction now. 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 |