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Rolla Peace News October 4, 2016 |
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================================= Dear Friends:In this newsletter is: 1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THIS WEEK, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2016 2. BUEHLER PARK 3. CAPITALISM VS. EARTH 4. INDIGENOUS PEOPLES DAY 5. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) From our Readers: Pakistan-Born Oncologist Speaks Out On Immigration b) Flint, Michigan Can Wait c) Doctors Without Borders Kunduz Hospital — One Year After Destruction d) Colombians Vote Against Peace
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We vigil for peace in front of the Rolla Post Office THIS THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2016, (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. BUEHLER PARK: The Parks Commission will meet in The Centre (12th and Holloway) at 5:30 on Wed. Oct. 26. Please consider attending the meeting and asking the Parks Commission NOT to build a dog-park in Buehler Park. Your phone calls and emails are really making a difference; but more are needed. Details and contact information here 3. CAPITALISM VS. EARTH It's becoming clear that the interests of the world's large corporate entities and those of humanity and our planet are completely at odds. One sees many ads these days, particularly from the large energy companies, chemical manufacturers, etc., patting themselves on the back for the good things they are doing for the environment. They may actually be doing the things they say, but for every positive action, there are many, many acts of destruction of air, water, and people's lives. I believe it is possible to have a profitable business that doesn't harm people or the environment, but not with the brand of capitalism that pervades the global economy. With few exceptions, the large corporations of the world have as their sole interest acquiring as much money as possible while giving as little as possible in return, and have no interest whatsoever in the consequences to the people or the territory they operate in. A case in point is the struggle between the Sioux at Standing Rock and Energy Transfer Partners over construction of the North Dakota pipeline, which if allowed to continue would destroy many sacred sites of the Native American tribes there, and endanger water supplies for many people. The Sioux see themselves as protectors of the water and the earth, while the energy company is interested in money, and has no care for what will happen to the people their pipeline impacts, or for what will happen to the planet when all that oil is fracked, and piped, and refined, and ultimately burned, raising the carbon emissions to ever higher levels. This is only one of many such situations in the world, but it's one that has a chance of working out positively, as our government has shown some signs of willingness to listen to what the Sioux are trying to tell us. There are thousands of people, from tribes all over America, as well as many non-native supporters, camped at Standing Rock, and they intend to stay. Winter is coming, and the people will need our help to make it through the cold months and continue to protect their land and water. Anyone who is moved to help with money or supplies can send their contributions to: Sacred Stone Camp PO Box 1011 Ft. Yates, ND 58538 or donate on line at Sacred Stone Camp website. 4. INDIGENOUS PEOPLES DAY Or, as those who only care about people if they are white would have it, “Columbus Day.” It's obscene to honor a man who killed thousands of innocent people because he wanted what they had, and who was the direct or indirect cause of the extermination of entire populations in the Caribbean islands, and the inspiration for an attitude in the first world nations that indigenous people don't matter. It's ridiculous that children are still being taught in school to revere this brutal murderer. Several large cities in the United States, and numerous smaller jurisdictions, have renamed Columbus Day (although not all of them call it Indigenous Peoples Day). Let's honor the indigenous people of the world, who care for the Earth, and are standing to protect her, and ultimately all of us, from the rapacious profiteers. 5. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) From our Readers: Pakistan-Born Oncologist Speaks Out On Immigration b) Flint, Michigan Can Wait c) Doctors Without Borders Kunduz Hospital — One Year After Destruction d) Colombians Vote Against Peace FROM OUR READERS: PAKISTAN-BORN ONCOLOGIST SPEAKS OUT ON IMMIGRATION A reader sends in this article written by a Pakistan-born oncologist which details the contributions that he and other immigrants have made to the United States of America and to the World. My response: The following brief history of immigration to the Americas follows closely the chronology given by Jared Diamond in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “Guns, Germs and Steel.”. Between 1/2 and 1/4 million years ago, modern (anatomically indistinguishable from humans today) man evolved in Africa. Somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 years ago modern man began spreading out geographically. They reached Alaska via the land-bridge that is now the Bering Straight around 14,000 years ago and over the next 2,000 years spread throughout the Americas. Some 500 years ago, people began crossing the Atlantic Ocean from Europe and immigrating to the Americas. Through the trans-Atlantic slave trade, people came from Africa through forced immigration. Soon the Americas were populated with people from every corner of the planet. Europeans were neither the first nor the last to immigrate to the Americas. So why do Donald Trump and his followers think people of European ancestry should be so much more privileged than anyone else? FLINT, MICHIGAN CAN WAIT The water in Flint, Michigan was deliberately poisoned 30 months ago in a money-saving measure to create more profits for the wealthy. Congress recessed last week telling the residents of Flint that they could wait until Congress returns from vacation for federal money to rebuild their destroyed water system. Some 10,000 pipes that are leaching lead into the public water system are yet to be replaced. Meanwhile, in a country that incarcerates 2.2 million people, not a single person has done even a single day of jail-time for poisoning 9,000 children. DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS KUNDUZ HOSPITAL — ONE YEAR AFTER DESTUCTION A year ago yesterday, the United States bombed the only hospital in Kunduz, killing 42 patients, doctors and staff and totally destroying the facility. This left the people of Kunduz without a single medical facility. Since then, there have been 77 other attacks on Doctors Without Borders medical facilities in Syria and Yemen. As DWB General Director, Christopher Stokes, notes: “A war without limits leads to a battlefield without doctors.” Isn't it way past the time to end all these vicious wars? COLOMBIANS VOTE AGAINST PEACE This is so sad. Colombia has been embroiled in a half-century-long civil war. The government and the rebels worked out a peace treaty which was put to a popular vote, where it was rejected by the slimmest of margins — less than 1%. The government and the rebels are back in Cuba, working out a new peace treaty. Both agree that the historic June ceasefire will continue in force. Well, the Colombians are way ahead of us. We're fighting multiple wars and haven't even put a single one of them to the popular vote. The Syrian ceasefire collapsed amid new US bombings before the ink on the ceasefire agreement had even dried. ================== 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 ### |