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Rolla Peace News August 20, 2019 |
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Dear Friends: http://tomsager.org/Peaceletters/peaceletter082019.html In this newsletter is: 1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THURSDAY, AUGUST 22, 2019 2. CITIZENS CLIMATE LOBBY: 6:30, THURSDAY, AUGUST 22 at PHELPS COUNTY COURTHOUSE 3. GREAT RIVERS ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER TO HONOR KATHLEEN HENRY 4. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) Something Positive — Something Negative b) Iranian Tanker Sets Sail from Gibraltar c) Unbelievable Chutzpah d) The Boys in the Backroom: “Do We Really Need to be Doing That?” 1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THURSDAY, AUGUST 22, 2019 We vigil for peace in front of the Rolla Post Office, THIS THURSDAY, AUGUST 22, FROM NOON TO 1:00 PM (and most subsequent Thursdays until peace is established). 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. CITIZENS CLIMATE LOBBY: 6:30, THURSDAY, AUGUST 22 at PHELPS COUNTY COURTHOUSE Citizens Climate Lobby will meet at 6:30 on Thursday, August 22 in the meeting room of the Phelps County Courthouse. The movie, “The Human Element”, will be shown. 3. GREAT RIVERS ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER TO HONOR KATHLEEN HENRY At their annual awards celebration, Great Rivers Environmental Law Center will honor Kathleen Henry, retiring President of Great Rivers, for her decades of environmental activism. The celebration will be held at the Whittemore House, 6440 Forsyth Blvd. in St. Louis from 5:00pm to 7:30pm on Sunday, September 22. Tickets can be purchased online at Great Rivers' website. Were it not for Kathleen Henry and Great Rivers Environmental Law Center, Rolla would have surely lost Buehler Park years ago. Please join in the celebration if you can. 4. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) Something Positive — Something Negative b) Iranian Tanker Sets Sail from Gibraltar c) Unbelievable Chutzpah d) The Boys in the Backroom: “Do We Really Need to be Doing That?” Something Positive — Something Negative Last week, due to a suggestion by a reader, I wrote only about positive developments. This week I will try to be more balanced. I think it is important to cover both the positive, the negative, and all points in between. Iranian Tanker Sets Sail from Gibraltar The UK, which remains in the nuclear deals with Iran (JCPOA) has apparently decided not to risk further antagonizing Iran by doing Donald Trump's dirty work for him. Gibraltar, which is a territory of the UK, has allowed the Adrian Darya I (formerly the Grace I) to set sail from Gibraltar carrying at least $130 million of Iranian oil, opining that US sanctions carry no weight in Europe. The positive side is that War against Iran now appears to be somewhat less likely. The negative side is that all this oil will eventually be burned adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere and warming the Earth further. Unbelievable Chutzpah Israel has barred US Congresswomen, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, from visiting Israeli occupied Palestine, because the Congresswomen support the Boycott, Divestiture, and Sanctions Against Israel Movement, which seeks to end Israeli human rights atrocities against Palestinians. Bernie Sanders, who is Jewish and has lived in Israel, opined that it takes a lot of chutzpah to accept $3.8 Billion in aid annually from the United States and then bar members of the US Congress from visiting. Bernie, as usual, leads the pack in standing up for human rights against the swamp monsters. Many young Jewish constituents demonstrated in support of Rashida Tlaib and against personal attacks against her from Donald Trump. Tlaib attended the rally and thanked her constituents: And this is the way to make Peace! Indeed, it's the ONLY way to make Peace.“I can't wait to show my grandmother how I was supported by all of you—it would bring her so much joy. Thank you for hearing me, thank you for seeing me, thank you for loving me. And thank you for allowing me to be not just your congresswoman, but also a granddaughter of a grandmother living under occupation.” The Boys in the Backroom: “Do We Really Need to be Doing That?” Emmanuel Charles McCarthy of the Center for Christian Nonviolence in this Hiroshima Day sermon calls out the “boys [and girls] in the backroom” [scientists] for developing improved ways to kill more people more quickly; and he calls out the Christian Churches for their silence and failure to condemn this.“You don’t develop as much as Mother Earth can handle. For us it’s the opposite. You think about how much you can give up to promote more life. Every decision that you make is based on: Do you really need to be doing that?” —Leanne Betasamosake Simpson (Nishnaabeg) For the benefit of my Christian brothers and sisters, I wish to point out that they are not alone. Scientists of almost every imaginable religion (Buddhists, Atheists, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Animists, etc.) are hiding out in those backrooms working on deadlier and deadlier ways of killing more and more people more quickly. So maybe we should stop worshiping the Golden Calf of Science. Maybe instead of saying “Because we can,” we should be asking, “Do we really need to be doing that?” The above quote is a Nishnaabeg elder's response to a request to explain how the Nishnaabeg view our concept of sustainable development. McCarthy's sermon comes to me by way of Gary Kohls. 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, Helen helenm (at) fidnet.com |