!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> Rolla Peace Newsletter, March 17, 2015

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Rolla Peace News

March 17, 2015
Dear Friends:

          In this newsletter is:

1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THIS WEEK, THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015
2. DANGEROUS IDEAS
3. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org)
          a) Learning Limits
          b) Letter to Iran
          c) What Human Rights?

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1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

We vigil for peace in front of the Rolla Post Office THIS THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015, (and all subsequent Thursdays until peace is established) from Noon to 1:00 PM. Please try to join us. The temperature is predicted to be in the 40s. 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.

2. DANGEROUS IDEAS

Chris Hedges' Most Dangerous Woman in America, Kshama Sawant, is a socialist member of the City Council of Seattle, Washington. She was the driving force behind the raising of Seattle's minimum wage to $15/hr., and has been a fierce advocate for the working poor, the homeless, racial minorities, and other oppressed members of society. She is calling for a mass movement to a third party, which will have as its goal building a political and economic system that works for everyone, not just the few wealthy and powerful ones that benefit from the present system. She makes the important point that most radical movements end up getting co-opted, swallowed up, and eviscerated by the Democrats, which pretty much means End of Movement.

There is very little difference ultimately between the goals of the Democrats versus the Republicans. Both are owned by the corporate elite, and neither gives a rat's ass for the common man. It's like “good cop/bad cop.” The Republicans openly advocate greed and violence, and the Democrats say, “join us, we're not that bad.” But they are; they just hide it better.

Sawant feels (and I agree) that the only way to get real change is to bypass the fake two-party political system and create a national party that is truly by and for the people. She accepts no corporate donations, and the new party should neither seek nor accept any corporate money. A true grass-roots movement cannot be beholden to any except the people who compose it. This won't be accomplished in a day, or even a year, but it's worth working toward. For more about Sawant and her ideas and plans, read Chris Hedges' article.

3. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org)
          a) Learning Limits
          b) Letter to Iran
          c) What Human Rights?

LEARNING LIMITS

Richard Heinberg's article, Only Less Will Do, discusses limits of growth, and contains a valuable insight: Many of us like to think of indigenous societies as living in harmony with nature, while modern man, in his quest for more, seeks unsuccessfully to dominate nature rather than to live in harmony.

This is only a part of it. Heinberg writes: “All traditional indigenous human societies eventually learned self-restraint ... They discovered through trial and error that exceeding their land’s carrying capacity resulted in dire consequences.”

I would prefer to say “those indigenous societies that survived.” Many did not. The Anasazi and the Mississippian and many other indigenous cultures simply destroyed themselves by not learning limits and disappeared. It was those who learned, who, for the most part, survived.

The Arhuaco people of northern Colombia are among those who learned. Here is a saying of the Arhuaco:

“When you go to dig your fields, or make a pot from clay, you are disturbing the balance of things. When you walk, you are moving the air, breathing it in and out. Therefore you must make payments.”

It's not just living in harmony. It's making payment for the disturbances we make. Whatever we do, we disturb the balance. The secret is to make payment.

Our modern global society is built on theft and greed. We call it Capitalism. We revel in our failure to pay for what we take and for the disturbances we make. And if we cannot learn to take less and make payment for what we take — I fear that we will go the way of the Anasazi.

LETTER TO IRAN

Last week, in another violation of the separation of powers decreed in our Constitution, 47 senators wrote a letter to Iran claiming that no matter what the president says, Iran has two choices: surrender to all the demands of the 47 senators or face war. There's a parody of the letter at the end of this article. Read it — and laugh.

WHAT HUMAN RIGHTS?

2014 was the worst year in history for human rights. And 2015? It only gets worse.

When confronted with our many many violations of basic human rights, we say, like little children, but he's worse than I am.

Well, here's an instance where we are not only the worst, we are the only. The United States is the only nation that sentences children to life in prison.

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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: top of rightmost column).

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If you want to be added to this list, let me know.

Wage peace,

Helen
helenm (at) fidnet.com

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