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Rolla Peace News August 4, 2020 |
Dear Friends:Editor's note: Please send in your work. I think readers would love to see more variety in this newsletter.In this newsletter is: 1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 2020 2. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) Let's Ban All Nuclear Weapons b) From our Readers: Iran c) From our Readers: California Wildfires d) Israel: Just When I Thought It Couldn't Get Worse 1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 2020 We vigil for peace in front of the Rolla Post Office, THIS THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 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 around 80. 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) Let's Ban All Nuclear Weapons b) From our Readers: Iran c) From our Readers: California Wildfires d) Israel: Just When I Thought It Couldn't Get Worse Let's Ban All Nuclear Weapons This week is Hiroshima/Nagasaki week. 75 years ago on August 6, the first nuclear bomb was dropped on Hiroshima by the United States killing an estimated 120,000 people. Three days later, the second nuclear bomb was dropped on Nagasaki killing another estimated 80,000 people. It is absolutely incredible that 75 years later, nine nations carry nuclear weapons in their arsenals, threatening all 7.5 billion inhabitants of the Earth. These nations are: The United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France, Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea. To my knowledge, not one of these nations has even agreed to destroy their nuclear arsenal if the other eight would do so too. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is making progress. In July, Fiji and Botswana ratified the Treaty bringing to 40 the number of State Parties. Ten more and the Treaty goes into force. This is a very important Treaty. It represents the small nations of the world standing up to nuclear blackmail from the powerful nations. Sadly, not one nuclear-armed nation has signed the Treaty. From our Readers: Iran A reader writes: “Always grateful for your newsletter because you provide news I don’t get elsewhere. I had no idea about the Iranian incidences.” My response: Thank you. I think what I wrote is probably just the tip of the iceberg. Here's a more in-depth article by Reese Ehrlich. And here's the latest incident that I'm aware of: From our Readers: California Wildfires A reader writes: “[P]art of the problem is the same cause as many of our new diseases. Man encroaches upon nature, and as the saying goes 'nature bats last.' Another cause is the greedy utilities who spend money on executive bonuses, but underspend on maintenance of the power lines. Several of the worst fires in the past few years have been caused by PG&E powerlines. And finally climate change seems to have given California a warmer, drier climate which makes the state more prone to fires.” My response: Excellent summary! The California wildfire season is underway and may be a bad one. But, here's a place you wouldn't expect to see wildfires this time of year (middle of southern-hemisphere winter), Argentina. Seems like the rivers are drying up from all the forest destruction in the Amazon Basin and the Paraná River Delta is aflame. Yes, Nature Bats Last. Israel: Just When I Thought It Couldn't Get Worse In the middle of a global pandemic, Israel deliberately demolished a COVID-19 testing center in Hebron on the West-bank of Palestine. Viruses don't play politics or respect political boundaries. Israel has been hit very hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, Israel reported 1,768 new cases of COVID-19 or 192 cases per million population. By contrast, the United States reported 54,505 new cases or 165 cases per million; and Palestine reported only 229 new cases or 45 new cases per million. Like the United States, Israel is experiencing unrest from those who would rather see their own country-people get sick and die than see their social and economic lives disrupted. Perhaps, if Israel were more interested in taking care of its own citizens and less interested in brutalizing Palestinians, their COVID numbers would come down at least as far as Palestine's. (The data above are from Worldometers.info.) 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 |