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Rolla Peace News April 26, 2016 |
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================================= Dear Friends:In this newsletter is: 1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THIS WEEK, THURSDAY, April 28, 2016 2. TRUTH 3. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) A Terrorist Who Wasn't: Abu Zubaydah b) Too Little, Too Late: Flint, Michigan c) More Boots On The Ground: Iraq
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We vigil for peace in front of the Rolla Post Office THIS THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2016, (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. TRUTH Two articles by Robert Parry, Power Defines Reality and Unmoored FromFact, are worth reading for the detailed discussions of what the mainstream media (MSM) presents to us as truth versus the actual facts in the cases mentioned, and the motives behind such distortions. Adolf Hitler is often quoted as saying, “If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.” In the case of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, it appears that that was exactly what happened. There was plenty of evidence from our own intelligence that Saddam had no such things, but we wanted to invade Iraq, so the big lie came out. This agenda was helped along by the 9/11 attack, which had nothing to do with Iraq, but it was still used by Bush, Cheney, et al., as another reason to go to war. In some of the other situations Parry mentions, it could be said that rather than flat-out lies, those in power picked the possibility that best fit their motivation and ran with it. Then, as more and more evidence indicated they might be wrong, they did their best to keep that evidence under wraps. Tom Brady's case might not matter to most of us who aren't football fans, but it should. It's a perfect example of power trumping fact, and it's the sort of thing that happens all the time, to the famous and the unknown. What is truth, anyway? In one sense, it's different for every human being on the planet, since each person views events through the filter of their own personality, experience and knowledge, as well as the culture they grew up in. If you are a person who believes that your religion is the only truth, and unbelievers are destined for hell, then for you that is the truth, and anyone who tries to convince you otherwise is from the devil. There is so much information available now, whatever your point of view, you can find something to support it. It's important to have an open mind, and to listen to what others who disagree with you have to say, but the last word has to come from one's own judgment. How often have you heard someone say, “That doesn't ring true,” or “That just doesn't feel right.”? Each of us has what you might call a sounding board in our mind, and some things resonate with it, and others are “off.” Given that the media and those in power have lied to us repeatedly, it behooves us to cultivate our own sense of rightness. As it says on a T-shirt Tom once made for me, “Inquire Within.” 3. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) A Terrorist Who Wasn't: Abu Zubaydah b) Too Little, Too Late: Flint, Michigan c) More Boots On The Ground: Iraq A TERRORIST WHO WASN'T: ABU ZUBAYDAH “Abu Zubaydah wasn’t involved with al-Qaeda; he was the ringleader of nothing; he never took part in planning for the 9/11 attacks. He was brutally mistreated and, in another kind of world, would be exhibit one in the war crimes trials of America’s top leaders and its major intelligence agency,” writes Rebecca Gordon. In fact, Abu Zubaydah helped the CIA run a training camp for the Afghan Mujaheddin which defeated the Soviet Union in the 1980s. So why did we torture Abu Zubaydah? Why did we waterboard him 83 times? Why did we blind him in one eye? Because we could. Because we think we are the “indispensable nation,” the lone superpower, and not subject to the laws which others should be subject to. And because there is absolutely no accountability. Not a single person involved in our torture program has seen the inside of a prison, except whistle-blower, John Kiriakou — not George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld or Michael Hayden. And as long as there is no accountability, torture and abuse will surely continue. Isn't it way past time to charge those who tortured, authorized torture or enabled torture with war crimes and crimes against humanity? And why is Abu Zubaydah still incarcerated and held incommunicado? Maybe because he may talk about what we have done to him; and it isn't pretty. Read Gordon's article, if you have the stomach for it. TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE: FLINT, MICHIGAN Three underlings have been charged with relatively minor offenses in the poisoning of the city water supply of Flint, Michigan. So far no charges of domestic terrorism against Michigan governor, Rick Snyder, or Emergency Manager, Darnell Earley. And the worst thing is that among all the brou-ha-ha, two years after the poisoning of Flint's water supply, nothing substantive is being done to pipe clean water to Flint, Michigan. Again, where's the accountability? MORE BOOTS ON THE GROUND: IRAQ Meanwhile, we continue to escalate war in Iraq and Syria. We've just sent 217 more troops to the mission that was accomplished in 2003 and the war that ended in 2011. Why haven't Colin Powell and others who lied us into this devastating war been charged with Treason? Where's the accountability? Meanwhile, there is still no money to bring potable water to the people of Flint, Michigan. ================== 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 ### |