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Rolla Peace News

July 28, 2020
Dear Friends:
Editor's note: Please send in your work. I think readers would love to see more variety in this newsletter.

Webperson's note: If you are having trouble reading this, it is posted at
http://tomsager.org/Peaceletters/peaceletter072820.html 
In this newsletter is:

1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THURSDAY, JULY 30, 2020
2. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org)
          a) From our Readers: Cognitive Dissonance:
          b) Billions of Dollars Worth of Scrap Metal
          c) Sabotage
          d) A House Divided
          e) Ravages of Nature

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1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THURSDAY, JULY 30, 2020

We vigil for peace in front of the Rolla Post Office, THIS THURSDAY, JULY 30, FROM NOON TO 1:00 PM (and most subsequent Thursdays until Peace is established). Please join us again this Thursday in saying NO WAR AGAINST IRAN or any other country. 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.

Note: Since there are so few of us, generally 2 or 3, no need to cancel; but let's maintain social distancing.

2. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org)
          a) From our Readers: Cognitive Dissonance:
          b) Billions of Dollars Worth of Scrap Metal
          c) Sabotage
          d) A House Divided
          e) Ravages of Nature

From our Readers: Cognitive Dissonance:
“Cognitive dissonance is when you applaud secret police snatching up people into unmarked vans, then turn around and claim that having to wear a mask is like living in a dictatorship.”
My response: Excellent example! Here's another one:
“When you're up to your ass in alligators, it's hard to recall that your objective was to drain the swamp.”
Billions of Dollars Worth of Scrap Metal
“Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.”
          —Samuel Taylor Coleridge
          (The Rime of the Ancient Mariner)

“You call it war; we laugh at your battleships.”
          — Anonymous (hacker collective)
Michael Klare points out that all those giant aircraft carriers we've payed billions and billions for are nothing but death-traps in this age of the coronavirus; and the next generation of weapons will be small and robotic, able to function with or without a human in control.

So Congress has passed a $740 billion National Defense Authorization Act to develop and deploy all these shiny new robotic toys, while ignoring much-needed domestic spending. The United States is looking more and more like a failed state with every passing day.

Personally, I wouldn't feel any more secure with a bunch of killer-robots on the loose. How about you?

Sabotage

In early July there was a fire and explosion in Iran's centrifuge production plant at the Natanz nuclear complex — quite likely sabotage. Since then:

There was a fire aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard — also possibly sabotage.

An Iranian commercial airplane was closely approached by a US fighter plane causing injuries to passengers.

In a military exercise Iran destroyed a mockup of a US aircraft carrier in the Straight of Hormuz.

Some wonder when the missiles will start flying and the bombs dropping in ernest. Wouldn't it be in everyone's best interest to go back to the Iran Nuclear Deal (JCPOA)?

A House Divided

Meanwhile, Portland, Oregon is looking more and more like a war-zone each day. We are definitely a house divided; and as Abraham Lincoln (and Jesus before him) stated so clearly, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

Ravages of Nature

And while humanity battles against itself, Nature is getting her own licks in. Floods ravaged much of Asia from China where a dam was blown up to ease flooding to Bangladesh which is 1/3 under water. Meanwhile, Hurricane Hanna ravaged parts of Mexico and Texas dropping up to 15 inches of rain in places. Maybe Nature is trying to tell us something. Maybe we should stop what we are doing and listen.

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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: at the 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,

Tom
yushasager (at) yahoo.com

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