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Rolla Peace News July 26, 2016 |
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================================= Dear Friends:In this newsletter is: 1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THIS WEEK, THURSDAY, JULY 28, 2016 2. DEFEATING ISLAMIC TERRORISM 3. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) President To Be, Donald Trump — Get Used To It b) Feeling the Heat c) Just Another Crazy Teenager
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We vigil for peace in front of the Rolla Post Office THIS THURSDAY, JULY 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 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. DEFEATING ISLAMIC TERRORISM There are many different reasons why people, in this case specifically young Muslim men, become terrorists. Peter Van Buren explores a number of them in his well-thought-out essay, and presents some ideas for changing the paradigm that motivates people to become terrorists. The first step, he says, is to acknowledge that what we have been doing so far isn't working, and to look for other approaches. Obviously, neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump will be interested. Another perspective on the same subject by Paul Buchheit shows in more detail some of the social and personal factors. It's certainly a fact that the Western nations have killed far more civilians in the Muslim countries than Muslims have killed in all the terrorist acts put together. One might question, who is the biggest terrorist? Until we stop invading, bombing, and destabilizing countries in the Middle East and elsewhere, terrorism isn't going to end. 3. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) President To Be, Donald Trump — Get Used To It b) Feeling the Heat c) Just Another Crazy Teenager PRESIDENT TO BE, DONALD TRUMP — GET USED TO IT Donald Trump has caught up and maybe surpassed Hillary Clinton (depending on which poll you look at). Well, as I said four months ago in an open letter to Donald Trump, “she's just not in your class — not even close.” The Democratic Convention is now in full swing. Yesterday, Bernie gave a rousing speech about how the political revolution will continue. He mentioned defeating the TPP, $15 minimum wage, single-payer health insurance, .... but not a single word about war or militarism. Bernie, I'll give it to you straight. All those good things you hope to accomplish in your political revolution — they are meaningless, unless you end the wars and bring the Pentagon under control. Good things for all here; built on denial of basic human rights over there. No Bernie, that is not going to work anymore. FEELING THE HEAT According to NOAA, June makes a string of 14 months in a row — each one hotter than any previous month of the same name since record keeping began around 1880 — and many by a whopping margin (see graph here). The United States just had a week of hot dry weather; with fires breaking out again in California; but that's nothing. Consider the Middle East — where temperatures soared into the 120s. War and climate change feed on each other. Imagine sweltering in 120 degree weather, while the people most responsible for climate change are bombing you out of your homes. JUST ANOTHER CRAZY TEENAGER We can all breathe a sigh of relief. The Munich shooter wasn't a terrorist at all — just a crazy kid who went off the deep end, like the copilot of the Germanwings airplane who killed 150 by locking himself in the cockpit and putting his plane on a crash course with a mountain top. How do you tell the difference between insanity and terrorism? It's hard, especially when someone is trying to kill you. Some might venture to say that there is no difference at all. But truly, we live in a culture that is almost certain to drive people crazy. We live in the time of, not so much the destruction of civilization, but the civilization of destruction — when the whole purpose of civilization seems to be the destruction of the world — both through environmentally destructive weaponry and through climate change. This insight came to me through this video by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf. Watch it. It's only six minutes long. ================== 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 ### |