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Rolla Peace News April 11, 2017 |
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================================= Dear Friends:In this newsletter is: 1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THIS WEEK, THURSDAY, April 13, 2017. 2. FROM “DANGEROUS MANIAC” TO “PRESIDENTIAL.” 3. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) Of War And Terrorism
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We vigil for peace in front of the Rolla Post Office THIS THURSDAY, APRIL 13, 2017, (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 70s. 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. FROM “DANGEROUS MANIAC” TO “PRESIDENTIAL.” Apparently, all it takes is a few millions (quite a few) worth of Tomahawk missiles to go from being mocked and reviled to being praised for doing something “presidential” by our sensation-happy mainstream media. The one factor in Trump's candidacy that sounded better than Hillary's stated platform was that he seemed less eager for foreign conquest. So much for that! Now, even Democrats are all over him for joining the war frenzy. He's been “blooded,” as it was called in medieval times, and now he's “one of us.” Sickening! Buried in the above article is a little bit of propaganda that will probably go unnoticed by many readers. I'm referring to the paragraph that puts the total responsibility for the 60,000 or so deaths of innocent civilians onto Assad and Russia. There has never been any convincing evidence that Assad was responsible for using chemical warfare on his people, neither in 2013 nor the recent attack that sparked Trump's missile barrage. The rebel forces that Assad has been fighting include troops from ISIS and Al Qaeda, who aren't known for avoiding civilian casualties. It appears to serve some political purpose to blame everything on Assad and the Russians, but it's hard to see what that could be, except to make World War III more likely. 3. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) OF WAR AND TERRORISM I've always felt that the most positive thing about Donald Trump was that he didn't seem to want to get in a war with Russia and in particular, he didn't seem to want a nuclear exchange with Russia. For this he has been called a wimp and Putin's poodle, names which I'm sure have hurt him terribly. Last week Trump showed the World what a “tough guy” he really was by escalated the War Against Syria by firing missiles at Syria's Shayrat airport. But, lets give credit where credit is due. He gave Russia advanced notice of his intentions, thereby reducing to almost zero the chance that Russia would immediately retaliate and the incident would escalate into nuclear confrontation. (I guess Trump really isn't such a “tough guy” after all. He doesn't seem to have the stomach for a nuclear war.) Russia denounced the missile strike, as has most of the world. But Russia stopped short of shooting back. (Let's hear it for the Russians!) It seems that Trump did only minimal damage to the airport, which is functioning again and bombing rebels, some of whom Trump supports. Trump is huffing and puffing about what he might do next, but his bluff has been called. And what about the chemical attack? Sarin is not so difficult to make. And with so many different actors in Syria, and shifting alliances and false-flag operations, we might never know who's responsible. Maybe it's time to declare Peace before things get any further out of hand: not just in Syria but throughout the Middle East and the World. In contrast to the international community, the US Congress and the major US media, with a few minor exceptions, are praising Trump for showing his resolve. One of the most relevant comments came from MSNBC's Brian Williams who, in talking about our tomahawk missiles, quoted from Leonard Cohen's, “First We take Manhattan:” “We are guided by the beauty of our weapons.” Probably unbeknownst to Brian Williams, “First We Take Manhattan” is a terrorist song. Here is what Leonard Cohen had to say about it: “I’m not sure of what it means right now because I had this long voyage from Chicago. I think it means exactly what it says. It is a terrorist song. I think it's a response to terrorism. There's something about terrorism that I've always admired. The fact that there are no alibis or no compromises. That position is always very attractive.” (backstage interview)Apparently, it was attractive not only to Leonard Cohen, but to Brian Williams and most of Congress and the major media too. Leonard begins the song: “They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom,Yes, changing the system from within is too slow and boring for the terrorist. The terrorist wants action, now. The song continues: “I'm guided by a signal in the heavens.This verse could be labeled the terrorist creed. We do as we wish because it's our destiny, as in “Manifest Destiny.” We do as we wish because of who we are, as in the “Indispensable Nation” or “God's Chosen People.” And above all because we can, because of our wonderful powerful weaponry. I was singing this song to myself and all of a sudden I found myself singing, “We are blinded by the beauty of our weapons.” Well, there is that too. Power is blind to its limitations. (Leonard, sorry for meddling with your poetry. It wasn't on purpose. It just happened.) And there are the complaints against society. Wrongs, on both a social and a personal level that must be righted: “I don't like your fashion business mister;If you really want to understand terrorism, listen to the Master. The rest of Leonard's backstage interview quoted above is also pertinent. “I don't like it when [terrorism is] manifested on the physical plane — I don't really enjoy the terrorist activities — but Psychic Terrorism. I remember there was a great poem by Irving Layton that I once read, I'll give you a paraphrase of it. It was ‘well, you guys blow up an occasional airline and kill a few children here and there,’ he says. ‘But our terrorists, Jesus, Freud, Marx, Einstein. The whole world is still quaking...’”So how many wars fought and people murdered in the name of Christianity and Marxist political economy? How much destruction in the name of the sciences pioneered by Freud and Einstein? Is it right to blame Jesus, Freud, Marx and Einstein as one would blame Hitler, Stalin or Kissinger? These are questions we need to think about if we are to wage Peace and come to terms with all the terror around us. Yes, perhaps it's time to declare Peace before things get any further out of hand. 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). If you don't wish to get notices of peace events in the Rolla area, let me know and I'll take you off this list. If you want to be added to this list, let me know. Wage peace, Helen helenm (at) fidnet.com ### |