 home
archives
last week
feedback
Rolla Peace News October 11, 2016 |
|
================================= Dear Friends:In this newsletter is: 1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THIS WEEK, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2016 2. BUEHLER PARK – PLEASE SIGN OUR ONLINE PETITION 3. DAKOTA PIPELINE UPDATE 4. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) A Few Remarks on Last Night's Presidential "Debate" b) Nobel Peace Prize – Might Be Useful If You Run Out Of Toilet Paper c) What Was It Like During The Cold War? d) Piracy On The High Seas
================================
We vigil for peace in front of the Rolla Post Office THIS THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 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 70s. 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 – PLEASE SIGN OUR ONLINE PETITION Citizens for the Preservation of Buehler Park has posted an online petition to the City of Rolla on change.org asking the city not to build a dog-park in Buehler Park. Please consider signing it and sharing it with family and friends. 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 still needed. Contact information here. 3. DAKOTA PIPELINE UPDATE Two days ago, a Federal appeals court lifted the injunction against the pipeline construction. On Monday, three federal agencies (Army Corps of Engineers, Department of the Interior, and Department of Justice) issued a joint statement requesting the pipeline construction company to voluntarily halt construction so that the objections of the Standing Rock people and others could be reviewed and considered (yes, and pigs may fly). Meanwhile, arrests, harassment, roadblocks and fly-overs continued to plague the water protectors in and around the campsite. Although the people are pledged to nonviolence, the local, state and federal law enforcement personnel, as well as a private security force hired by Energy Transfer Partners, have escalated their use of force and threats. Military vehicles have been posted at various sites in the area, and the Sheriff's Department is encouraging local landowners and citizens to carry weapons, implying that the protestors are a threat to them. It's almost as if they were trying to create an atmosphere of violence where none exists. Today, 5 climate activists shut down all 5 US-Canada tar sands pipelines in a coordinated act of solidarity with the activists at Standing Rock. Here's what one of them said about her action: “I have signed hundreds of petitions, testified at dozens of hearings, met with most of my political representatives at every level, to very little avail,” and “I have come to believe that our current economic and political system is a death sentence to life on earth, and that I must do everything in my power to replace these systems with cooperative, just, equitable and love-centered ways of living together. This is my act of love.” She's right about that; if we don't stop this now, we may not get another chance. There's a momentum and a unity around this issue that we should not let pass. Please do what you can, in whatever way you can, to help the water protectors. 4. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) A Few Remarks on Last Night's Presidential "Debate" b) Nobel Peace Prize – Might Be Useful If You Run Out Of Toilet Paper c) What Was It Like During The Cold War? d) Piracy On The High Seas A FEW REMARKS ON LAST NIGHT'S PRESIDENTIAL “DEBATE” Ol' Donald Trump created quite a stir last night with this exchange about Hillary Clinton's emails:“There are some things so serious you have to laugh at them.” —Niels Bohr Trump: “if I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation, because there has never been so many lies, so much deception. There has never been anything like it, ... you know what? People have been — their lives have been destroyed for doing one-fifth of what you’ve done. And it’s a disgrace.”Great riposte, Donald! If Hillary were in your class, she would have fired back, “If I win, you'll be in Guantánamo, strapped to a board with water dripping down your nostrils.” She'd do it too, Donald; and then gloat, “I came; I saw; he drowned.” Now, I'd like to focus on what remained unsaid or only half-said. Of course Clinton should be in jail. And so should 99% of our politicians, billionaires and policy-makers. If I had my way, I'd try them all for TREASON. I just can't think of any more appropriate charge for what the elite class has been doing to the United States of America and the entire World. Putting classified emails on a personal email server is probably the least of their crimes. And “People [whose] lives have been destroyed for doing one-fifth of what [Clinton did]”? Let's mention a few of their names here: John Kiriakou: sentenced to 30 months in prison for confirming the use of waterboarding which he described as torture.Note that these draconian sentences were for divulging information in the public interest and not for monetary gain. Were it not for these whistle-blowers, We, the People, might still be in the dark about certain treasonous acts of the elite class. NOBEL PEACE PRIZE – MIGHT BE USEFUL IF YOU RUN OUT OF TOILET PAPER Well, what would you call a prize awarded to Henry Kissinger, possibly the most evil man alive today, and Barack Obama, likely the most warlike president the United States has ever elected? This year the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia for negotiating a peace deal with the FARC rebels which might have ended Colombia's 50-year long civil war, had it not been voted down. FARC leader, Timochenko, and Cuba's Raul Castro, under whose auspices the negotiations took place, were systematically excluded as recipients of the prize. They used to say it takes two to negotiate a peace; apparently not anymore, according to the Norwegian Nobel Committee. WHAT WAS IT LIKE DURING THE COLD WAR? Last week an S&T student came by our peace vigil. He was concerned about the possibility of nuclear war with Russia, and asked me what it was like living during the Cold War. I hadn't thought about that for a long time. I tried to remember what it was like hiding under our desks in school during an air-raid drill. (Fat lot of good that would have done us in the event of a nuclear war.) I tried to remember all the gullible people who mortgaged their homes to put an expensive fallout shelter in their backyard. (Fat lot of good that would have done.) I tried to think back to the Cuban Missile Crisis, which Kennedy advisor, Arthur Schlesinger, described as “the most dangerous moment in human history.” Or as Major Don Clawson put it, “We were damned lucky we didn't blow up the world – and no thanks to the political or military leadership of this country.” Well, Russia just held a civil-defense drill involving 40 million people. I guess they are taking the possibility of a nuclear war with the United States seriously. So what can you do to prevent nuclear war? Come join us at our peace vigils in front of the Rolla Post Office every Thursday from Noon to 1pm. And come see the Russian National Ballet Theatre when they perform Sleeping Beauty at Leach Theatre on May 2 (assuming we're all still around then). Be sure to wear a shirt, hat or button that says both МИР and PEACE . And for God sake: Don't vote for political candidates who like war. PIRACY ON THE HIGH SEAS Israeli pirates illegally captured the unarmed Women's Boat to Gaza, 40 miles off the coast of Palestine. The women's boat was attempting to non-violently break the 10 year long blockade of Gaza, which is the world's largest open-air prison, boasting 1.9 million inmates, half of whom are children, living under horrendous conditions. The women aboard the boat have all been freed and vow to continue their work to break the blockade and free Gaza. ================== 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 ### |