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Rolla Peace News August 22, 2017 |
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================================= Dear Friends:In this newsletter is: 1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THIS WEEK, THURSDAY, AUGUST 24, 2017 2. THE MANY FORMS OF OPPRESSION 3. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) From Our Readers: On “North Korea Crisis” b) Some Korean History c) On Nuclear Warfare d) Pivot Toward Afghanistan
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We vigil for peace in front of the Rolla Post Office THIS THURSDAY, AUGUST 24, 2017, (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. THE MANY FORMS OF OPPRESSION Racism has been prominent in the news for the last week, with the events in Charlottesville taking center stage in the media, and just about every politician except Donald Trump joining in to vilify the alt-right and their philosophy of white supremacy. Racism is one of many ways that some humans oppress other humans, other life forms, and the Earth itself. When violence like that in Charlottesville occurs, it's easy to focus on that and be distracted from the violence that is happening globally, every day. In fact, it's not too fanciful to consider that this event, and other sensational happenings, is intended to distract us from the real oppressors. Here I'd like to insert a quote from Aviva Chomsky's article on this subject: “Let us be very clear. The white nationalists who marched in Charlottesville, hate-filled and repugnant as their goals may be, are not the ones responsible for the U.S. wars on Iraq, Syria, and Yemen. They are not responsible for turning our public school system over to private corporations. They are not responsible for our separate and unequal health care system that consigns people of color to ill health and early death. They are not the ones foreclosing and evicting people of color from their homes. They are not the authors of neoliberal capitalism with its devastating effects on the poor around the planet. They are not the ones militarizing the borders to enforce global apartheid. They are not behind the extraction and burning of fossil fuels that is destroying the planet, with the poor and people of color the first to lose their homes and livelihoods. If we truly want to challenge racism, oppression, and inequality, we should turn our attention away from the few hundred marchers in Charlottesville and towards the real sources and enforcers of our unjust global order. They are not hard to find.”This is what makes me think that focusing on getting rid of Trump is the wrong place to put our energy. This stuff was going on before he entered the political arena, and will continue after he is gone. We need to be fighting for what works for everyone, not against an individual who I think is being used by the real oppressors to distract activists from noticing what is really going on. Robert Reich thinks that the problem of Trump will be solved by everybody just ignoring him, making him irrelevant. He notes that many Republicans are distancing themselves from Trump, perhaps not wanting to be impacted when he self-destructs. That sounds fine, but look at what they are actually doing. While the media has a heyday reporting his antics, behind the scenes the real oppressors, Republicans and Democrats and industrial tycoons, are going about business as usual. This is what needs to end. 3. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) From Our Readers: On “North Korea Crisis” b) Some Korean History c) On Nuclear Warfare d) Pivot Toward Afghanistan FROM OUR READERS: ON “NORTH KOREA CRISIS” In reference to my snippet last week: A Modest Proposal On The “North Korea Crisis:” Nuclear Disarmament, one reader writes: “Solid 9 points that others don't want to recognize. It's a do-as-I-say mentality rather than a do-as-I-do. But North Korea isn't listening.”My response: Thank you. Another reader writes: “Newsflash, Tom IT WORKED~FIRST PRESIDENT IN 60 YEARS TO STAND UP TO THIS SWINDLER AND HE GOT THE CHICOMS AND RUSCOMS TO GO ALONG! It's called LEADERSHIP, Tom.”My response: I began last week's snippet with a quotation from Bertrand Russell that read in part: “when the game [nuclear chicken] is played by eminent statesmen, who risk not only their own lives but those of many hundreds of millions of human beings, it is thought on both sides that the statesmen on one side are displaying a high degree of wisdom and courage, and only the statesmen on the other side are reprehensible.”This reader's response is a perfect example of what Russell describes. According to this reader our “statesman” shows “leadership;” theirs is a “swindler.” Russell continues: “This, of course, is absurd. Both are to blame for playing such an incredibly dangerous game.”The reader's remark on Russian and Chinese support for increased UN sanctions of North Korea also deserves a response: 25 years ago, Russia and China also supported sanctions on Iraq which were responsible in the short term for the murder of over 1/2 million Iraqi children under five years of age and in the longer term gave the world ISIS and al-Queda. I suspect Russia and China are thinking: “If the United States wants to destroy itself, let's offer our sincere encouragement.” If so, it is a very dangerous game they play. Clearly, no one will benefit from a nuclear war, no matter how big or small. SOME KOREAN HISTORY You are unlikely to learn this Korean history from any major news outlet. Korea hosted an ancient civilization with artifacts dating back at least 10,000 years. From 1910 to 1945, Korea was under the Japanese yoke. As in China, the most effective anti-Japanese resistance was under the leadership of the Communist Party. At the end of World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union divided Korea into two spheres of influence. No one bothered to ask the Korean people whether they wished to be divided or to be placed in anyone's sphere of influence. As in Palestine, South Asia (India, Pakistan and Bangladesh) and Vietnam, post-war partition was a disaster and led to bitter warfare. First the United States and later China, and also many other countries intervened. Millions died in the Korean War of 1950-1953. According to U.S. Air Force General Curtis LeMay, “we went over there and fought the war and eventually burned down every town in North Korea anyway, some way or another, and some in South Korea, too.” Since 1953 there has been an uneasy truce with more warfare always on the horizon. ON NUCLEAR WEAPONS “I have the means to make myself deadly, but that by itself, you understand, is absolutely nothing in the way of protection. What is effective is the belief those people have in my will to use the means. That’s their impression. It is absolute. Therefore I am deadly.” —Joseph Conrad (The Secret Agent, 1907)If you are a regular reader of my column, you already know that I love to quote Joseph Conrad. Writing 110 years ago, Conrad describes the current mindset of the United States and North Korea perfectly. They both have the means; and, many believe, the will to use them. Can North Korea deliver nuclear tipped missiles to the continental United States? Andrew Cockburn thinks not, at least not yet . But what does it matter? Why gamble a nuke on a long shot when you only have a few? Wouldn't Seoul, Tokyo, Beijing and Vladivostok be much easier targets than San Francisco and London. With nukes around the world on hair-trigger alert, that would likely be more than enough to start nuclear World War III. Conrad's “professor” carries a flask of high explosives on his person. His hand rests in his pocket on a rubber ball which if squeezed activates a 20 second trigger. He, it is believed, is perfectly willing to blow himself up along with everyone in the vicinity. And, he boasts, “Yes, I would give the stuff with both hands to every man, woman, or fool that likes to come along.” PIVOT TOWARD AFGHANISTAN Having found out that nuclear-armed North Korea won't be bullied, Donald Trump pivots to Afghanistan, which (as far as we know) is not yet armed with nuclear weapons. He vows to continue this 16-year-old war ad infinitum by sending 4,000 more troops, which is certain to make the United States even more unpopular than it is now. 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 ### |