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Rolla Peace News October 20, 2015 |
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================================= Dear Friends:In this newsletter is: 1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THIS WEEK, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2015 2. RIGHT TO KNOW 3. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) Ahmed Mohamed Visits The White House b) Slouching Toward World War III c) Collateral Damage — Our Souls d) Arctic Oil Lease Sales Cancelled In Wake Of Non-Violent Civil Disobedience ================================ 1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2015We vigil for peace in front of the Rolla Post Office THIS THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2015, (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. RIGHT TO KNOW While a number of states have passed laws mandating the labeling of GMO foods, lobbyists are pushing Congress to enact a federal law disallowing such state-specific legislation, saying that “consumers want consistent labeling across the nation.” The consumers I know fall into two groups: Those who buy whatever is cheapest and don't much care about labeling, and those who want the healthiest food for their families and are willing to take the extra trouble and expense to get it. The latter group are the ones who would presumably care whether labeling was consistent across the nation, and they all want consistent labeling of GMO products. No one is trying to force others to buy organic or non-GMO if they don't want to; they just want everyone to have a choice, and you can't have a choice if you don't know what you are choosing from. Of course we all know it isn't really about choice; it's about money, like everything else. Corporations know that if GMO products were required to be clearly labeled, a lot of people would not buy them, and they don't like that. Incidentally, this article just added another argument against GMO foods which I hadn't thought of — here's the quote: “While some genetically modified seed works by actually incorporating an insecticide into the plant, the most common incorporates resistance to common herbicides, allowing farmers to spray more of those herbicides without killing their crops. Thus, one can be sure that corn using Roundup Ready seed has been sprayed with Roundup to kill weeds.” And you can be sure that, no matter how carefully you wash the stuff, you are going to be ingesting some of that Roundup with your corn on the cob. Yum! 3. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) Ahmed Mohamed Visits The White House b) Slouching Toward World War III c) Collateral Damage — Our Souls d) Arctic Oil Lease Sales Cancelled In Wake Of Non-Violent Civil Disobedience AHMED MOHAMED VISITS THE WHITE HOUSE Ahmed Mohamed, the teenager with the “magic clock” that I wrote about last month, visited the White House yesterday for Astronomy Night and talked to the President. It is unlikely that any of the Irving, Texas police who took Ahmed out of school in handcuffs or the school officials who suspended him will ever be invited to the White House. Apparently Ahmed did not bring his clock to the White House. SLOUCHING TOWARD WORLD WAR III US and Russian fighter planes apparently came dangerously close to each other over Syria. Daniel Lazare lays out a description of many of the competing forces in Syria and the shifting alliances. This is how World War I began, amid a multitude of competing forces and shifting alliances. COLLATERAL DAMAGE — OUR SOULS Jeff Faux discusses the term, “Collateral Damage,” particularly in relation to the recent bombing of the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan. Faux writes: “Implicit in this notion of collateral damage is that war absolves its participants of murder.” And later, “Wars of aggression never were and never will be free of atrocities. The decision to invade another nation is a decision to kill those who resist and get in your way - soldiers or civilians.” Faux believes that ultimately we are ALL responsible for atrocities committed in our name. He ends his article: “So, by all means, let us urge the President to find out what happened that night in Kunduz. But let the search continue up the ladder of power. When the investigation reaches those ultimately responsible, we will find ourselves looking in a mirror.” This short article is a MUST READ. Don't miss it! ARCTIC OIL LEASE SALES CANCELLED IN WAKE OF NON-VIOLENT CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE The recent spate of Non-Violent Civil Disobedience against oil drilling in the Arctic has caused the cancellation of two major lease sales. This is being hailed as a great victory by the “keep it in the ground” movement. I suspect that if we became as passionate about ending our foreign wars as we've become about saving the Arctic, our troops would soon be coming home and our foreign military bases closing. ================== 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 ### |