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Rolla Peace News May 26, 2014 |
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Dear Friends: In this newsletter is: 1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THIS WEEK, WEDNESDAY, MAY 28, 2014 2. THIS WEEK ONLY, VIGIL CHANGED TO WEDNESDAY 3. THE NEW POPULISM: HOPE FOR AMERICA'S FUTURE 4. ANTI-GMO WINS A FEW BATTLES 5. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) ================== 1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: WEDNESDAY, MAY 28, 2014We vigil for peace in front of the Rolla Post Office THIS WEDNESDAY, MAY 28, 2014, (otherwise, 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 80s. 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. THIS WEEK ONLY, VIGIL CHANGED TO WEDNESDAY This Thursday, Tom has jury duty and Helen will be out of town, so we are having the vigil on Wednesday, May 28. We hope this will not inconvenience anyone. Please come if you can. 3. THE NEW POPULISM: HOPE FOR AMERICA'S FUTURE Last Thursday, Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and many other progressives attended a “New Populism Conference,” exploring possibilities for taking back our democracy from the plutocrats now controlling the government. The consensus appears to be that neither the Democrats nor the Republicans are looking out for the interests of the people. The Democrats talk a good game, but when it comes down to a vote, they serve the interests of the big money because without it, they can't get elected. The only way to elect a candidate who doesn't have big money behind him or her is by a mass movement of ordinary American citizens who care enough to not only get out and vote in their own interests, but to encourage and educate others to do the same. It won't be accomplished by a bunch of middle-class liberals sitting around and talking over their lattes. In a recent article, the author stated that the problems of the poor cannot be solved by the poor people alone, or words to that effect. That is possibly true, but the reverse is also true. If the movement is only populated by upper-middle-class liberals, no matter how good their intentions, it's going to fail. To paraphrase a biblical saying, we need to teach people to fish. In this situation, people need to be educated about their rights as citizens, and given some hope that they can make a difference. They need to know that their representatives have lied to them and cheated them, and that if we all stand together, we can throw the bums out. There will always be more of us than there are of them; the little men behind the curtain just need to be exposed for what they are. It isn't going to be easy to impact the hearts and minds of people who have been brainwashed and conditioned from birth to submission and hopelessness, but it's our only chance to save our democracy. 4. ANTI-GMO WINS A FEW BATTLES Two counties in Oregon (Jackson and Josephine) recently voted to ban cultivation of genetically engineered (GE/GMO) crops, despite the passage of a bill in the state legislature prohibiting counties from passing GMO bans. The Jackson county measure was on the ballot before the bill was passed, but the Josephine county vote will probably be challenged in court. The state legislature didn't move fast enough to block them both, though that was obviously their intent. These counties join Santa Cruz County, Trinity County, Marin County and Mendocino County in California, and San Juan County in Washington state, as well as numerous cities nationwide. The state of Vermont has passed a law requiring labeling of GMO food products sold in the state. This is heartening news, as is the report of yesterday's March on Monsanto, with millions of people from 52 countries worldwide expected to take part. There's no report on how many actually showed up, but Lauren McCauley's article has a Tweet feed in which people have posted pictures of some of the demonstrations. 5. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) 1,500 UNTHINKABLE ACTS OF SAVAGERY “To cut down a tree is murder to a child. The tree is snapped out of the drawing and its life is lost. A child knows that a tree has a life. To take down a tree is an unthinkable act of savagery to a child, because a tree is a friend.” — Diana Beresford-Kroeger, “The Global Forest: 40 Ways Trees Can Save Us” Israeli soldiers came without warning and cut down 1,500 trees on the Nassar farm West of Bethlehem in occupied Palestine. Israeli authorities simply claimed the farm was state land and that they had “papers from God” to prove it . How do you spell blasphemy? AN ACT OF GENOCIDE Francis Boyle has tallied the Iraqi dead from the 20 year (1991-2011) War Against Iraq: 3.3 million dead, of which more than half, 1.7 million died of sanctions. Taking Iraq's population as roughly 25 million, this amounts to 13% of the population and surely qualifies as Genocide. Boyle has been trying since 1991 to get the United Nations to take up the case of Iraq, but with no success. Not surprising when you think about it. The biggest killer was the UN sanction; so if the UN took the case, they would essentially be trying themselves. What is needed is an independent prosecutor and an independent court. Don't hold your breath waiting. Meanwhile the Rwandan genocide is being used as an argument for more “humanitarian” interventions like we witnessed in Iraq. THE REAL ENEMY REVEALED You might have thought the real enemy was the Evil Soviet Empire or Red China or Al-Qaeda or the Taliban or maybe even Saddam Hussein or Muammar Gaddafi or Bashar al-Assad. But if you thought that, you'd have been Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! The real enemy is our own home-grown non-violent demonstrators — at least according to our law enforcement fusion centers — and we all know that law enforcement is never wrong. Oh, and Cecily McMillan, member of the non-violent Occupy movement was sentenced to three months in jail for being grabbed by the breast by Grantley Bovell, one of New York City's finest police officers. Well, she could have gotten seven years, and probably would have, had it not been for the massive public support she received. Yup, the enemy is right here, and probably at a non-violent demonstration for peace, affordable healthcare, quality education or a free independent press; you know, one of those terrible things that only socialists and Muslims are in favor of. ================== 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 ### |