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Rolla Peace News

September 3, 2019
Dear Friends:

Note from webperson: If you are having trouble reading this, it is posted at

http://tomsager.org/Peaceletters/peaceletter090319.html

          In this newsletter is:

1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2019
2. SEPTEMBER 20 CLIMATE STRIKE COMES TO ROLLA
3. GREAT RIVERS ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER TO HONOR KATHLEEN HENRY
4. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org)
          a) From Our Readers: Jair Bolsonaro and the Amazon Fires
          b) Bernie Sanders Speaks at Native American Forum
          b) Hezbollah Drives Israeli Soldiers Out of Illegal Settlement

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1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2019

We vigil for peace in front of the Rolla Post Office, THIS THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 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. SEPTEMBER 20 CLIMATE STRIKE COMES TO ROLLA

The Thursday, September 19 noon vigil for Peace at the Rolla Post Office has been moved to Friday, September 20 to coincide with the world-wide strike for the climate. Our September 20 vigil will be for the Climate and the Environment as well as for Peace

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) From Our Readers: Jair Bolsonaro and the Amazon Fires
          b) Bernie Sanders Speaks at Native American Forum
          b) Hezbollah Drives Israeli Soldiers Out of Illegal Settlement

From Our Readers: Jair Bolsonaro and the Amazon Fires

In reference to the fires in the Amazon, a reader writes:
“I don't think you gave Bolsonaro the condemnation that he deserves.” and “Bolsonaro ... is a right wing populist, in the ilk of Trump, whose policies have encouraged the fires. If he had any interest in fighting the fires, he would have taken the money and asked for more. In fact it wasn't until Macron shamed him that he even pretended to care. The fires are not only an environmental disaster, but a public health disaster as well. Respiratory problems especially among children and the elderly have increased in the area of the fires.”
My response:

I really can't argue with what our reader writes, although I think that what has Bolsonaro concerned is more the almost universal condemnation and the threats on an economic boycott than the words of one European Head of State.

For my part, knowing the gargantuan role my own country continues to play in global devastation, I have difficulty criticizing other countries and their heads of state. I believe it would be hypocritical for me to do so, without pointing out at the same time my own country's out-sized role in global devastation.

Incidentally, in spite of the ban on starting new fires in the Amazon, many new fires have started and old ones continue to burn.

The 2019 Northern Hemisphere Summer has been a terrible season for forest fires, not only in the Amazon, but in Siberia, Alaska, Greenland, Canary Islands, and other places.

Forests provide a carbon sink and help keep the Earth cool. Without our forests, the world's climate would be degrading even faster than it is now. Nurturing existing forests and replanting forests that have been destroyed should be a global priority in which all peoples and all countries must participate. Indeed, we must stop fighting each other immediately and start working together to reverse the degradation of our only planet. Think of all the positive things that could be accomplished with the almost $2 Trillion that the world spends on its militaries.

What can you do? Attend the world-wide strike for the climate on Sept. 20.

Bernie Sanders Speaks at Native American Forum

Bernie never stops impressing me. Speaking at the first Native American Presidential Forum, he asks that Native Americans take leadership roles in showing the rest of us how to live in harmony with nature.

Hezbollah Drives Israeli Soldiers Out of Illegal Settlement

This may be a game-changer. After many years of Israel attacking its neighbors and abusing the people in occupied Palestine with impunity, Hezbollah has driven Israeli soldiers from an outpost in an illegal settlement on the Lebanese border of occupied Palestine.

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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).

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Wage peace,

Helen
helenm (at) fidnet.com

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