Rolla Peace News
October 27, 2009
Dear Friends:
In this newsletter is:
1. THURSDAY NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE
2. REQUEST FOR ART WORK FOR UNITY DAY AT S&T
3. ARMISTICE DAY BALLOON RELEASE IN MEMORY OF AGENT ORANGE VICTIMS
4. NO SOLIDARITY AMONG THE OPPRESSED
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1. THURSDAY NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE
Our weekly noon vigils are on Thursdays. We vigil for peace in front of the Rolla Post Office THIS THURSDAY, October 29, (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 low 60s with rain likely. 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. REQUEST FOR ART WORK FOR UNITY DAY AT S&T
Erin Hoode, hoodel@mst.edu , 341-6829, is requesting submissions from the S&T and Rolla communities of art work on the theme, "What does unity mean to you?" Submissions due by 4:30, Nov. 2 at 218 Havener Center. More info at (click here) or contact Erin.
3. ARMISTICE DAY BALLOON RELEASE IN MEMORY OF AGENT ORANGE VICTIMS
There will be a balloon release in recognition of those whose lives have been affected by agent orange at the south end of Lions Club Park at noon, November 11, Veterans Day (Armistice Day if you are old enough to remember the real meaning of this Holiday, the day when both sides laid down their arms and made peace after years of fighting "The War to end ALL wars". Bring orange colored latex balloons, as many as you wish, or just come to watch.
Agent orange was the dioxin laced defoliant which the US military spread copiously over much of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War, 1961-1975. Agent Orange is thought to have affected 200,000 US troops and 3 to 5 million Vietnamese. It is known to be responsible for at least 16 serious diseases including Parkinsons, multiple cancers, leukemia, and birth defects. 400,000 Vietnamese are thought to have died of agent orange exposure and 500,000 children are thought to have been born with defects due to exposure, (click here) .
4. NO SOLIDARITY AMONG THE OPPRESSED
Chris Hedges points out that attached to the $680 billion Pentagon budget that passed last week, was the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Under cover of protecting innocents from hate crimes, congress voted $130 billion to wage war, the greatest of all hate crimes, in Iraq and Afghanistan, (click here) .
To place protection for those who are victims of hate crimes due to sexual orientation in the same bill together with $130 billion to wage hate crimes against the peoples of Iraq and Afghanistan is truly obscene.
Hedges points out, in the words of Theodor Adorno, that it is this twisted logic; this exclusive preoccupation with personal concerns and indifference to the suffering of others beyond the self-identified group that made fascism and the Holocaust possible. We should take heed.
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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 (links below my photo on upper left of home page).
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,
Yusha
tom (at) tomsager.org
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