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Rolla Peace News May 17, 2016 |
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================================= Dear Friends:In this newsletter is: 1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THIS WEEK, THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2016 2. SPLITTING APART 3. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) Yet Another Hottest Month In Recorded History b) And the War Goes On.... c) And On the Home Front
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We vigil for peace in front of the Rolla Post Office THIS THURSDAY, MAY 19, 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. SPLITTING APART The 23rd hexagram of the I Ching reads in part: “The inferior, dark forces overcome what is superior and strong, not by direct means, but by undermining it gradually and imperceptibly, so that it finally collapses.” Doesn't this sound like what has happened to our democracy? Reading further, “The mountain rests on the earth. When it is steep and narrow, lacking a broad base, it must topple over. Its position is strong only when it rises out of the earth broad and great, not proud and steep. So likewise those who rule rest on the broad foundation of the people. They too should be generous and benevolent, like the earth that carries all.” That a 3000-year-old Chinese philosophical treatise should have so much relevance to our time in history implies that we are once again trapped in a cycle that will repeat itself over and over again, until humanity starts to learn from its mistakes — which certainly has not happened yet. Both the Democratic and Republican parties are in tatters, as is our whole political system, because the “leaders” are not leading, and the “representatives” are not representing the people. Here are a few articles you might want to read concerning the mess our political parties are in. But no one but the I Ching and Bernie Sanders addresses the real problem. http://commondreams.org/views/2016/05/16/coming-democratic-crackup http://commondreams.org/views/2016/05/17/establishment-democrats-and-next-march-folly http://commondreams.org/views/2016/05/12/donald-trumps-unsurprising-surprise 3. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) Yet Another Hottest Month In Recorded History b) And the War Goes On.... c) And On the Home Front YET ANOTHER HOTTEST MONTH IN RECORDED HISTORY The world has just experienced what is by far the hottest April in recorded history. This follows upon the hottest March, the hottest February, and the hottest January in recorder history. 2016 is well on track for being the hottest year in recorded history as was 2015 before it and 2014 before that. Meanwhile the wildfire that caused the evacuation of Fort McMurray, formerly a urban area of 70,000 people in northern Alberta, continues to rage out of control, threatening large areas of boreal forest. How do you spell G-L-O-B-A-L W-A-R-M-I-N-G? This is one of many positive feedback loops that feed the warming climate. The warming climate makes hot dry weather more likely which makes wildfires more likely that burn trees and release their carbon content into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide which heats the Earth still further warming the climate which makes hot dry weather more likely ... Oops, we are not supposed to talk about global warming in the context of disasters like the Fort McMurray fire. For some reason, we are told it's not fair to the victims. If we don't believe that global warming is a liberal hoax, we ought to just keep our mouths shut and let others go on believing that monster storms, droughts, floods and fires are not fed by our industrial appetite for burning fossil fuels. Searching the media, pundits seem more concerned about the effects on Alberta's economy of this monster fire which has closed down Alberta's tar sands industry, than the loss of thousands of acres of trees. But if not now, then when? As Tim DeChristopher put it, “Protests are always criticized as being at the wrong time because those who need to protest are never the people writing the agenda. That’s the value of protest.” Oh, in case you didn't notice. We're having March weather in May this week in central Missouri. But don't be fooled. Weather and Climate are totally different concepts. Wish we could send some of this cool rain up to Canada. They need it! AND THE WAR GOES ON.... While our climate becomes less and less hospitable to human life as we know it, the war goes on.... As Peter Van Buren put it: The news from Iraq is that there is no new news. Our leaders continue to tell us that victory, whatever that might mean, is just around the corner. Van Buren sums it up this way: “when you have to repeatedly explain how much you're winning, you’re likely not winning much of anything at all.” AND ON THE HOME FRONT Bernie Sanders has just been declared the winner in the Oregon democratic primary. With 60% of the vote counted, Bernie leads by six percentage points. The pollsters who predicted Clinton by 15 percentage points got egg on their faces — again! And Bernie came within a half percentage point of staging another upset in Kentucky. update: Bernie won Oregon by 12 percentage points! Nevertheless, democratic party hacks want to give us a choice between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in November in spite of the fact that voters have never before found the presumptive nominees of the two major political parties so distasteful. ================== 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 ### |