+' Rolla Peace Newsletter, Novemebr 1, 2016

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Rolla Peace News

November 1, 2016

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Dear Friends:

          In this newsletter is:

1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THIS WEEK, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2016
2. BUEHLER PARK – UPDATE - YOUR HELP IS STILL NEEDED
3. YES ON AMENDMENT ONE
4. STANDING ROCK: STANDING STRONG
5. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org)
          Last Days Of Empire

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1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2016

We vigil for peace in front of the Rolla Post Office THIS THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 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 60s. 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 – UPDATE - YOUR HELP IS STILL NEEDED

The Rolla Parks Advisory Commission (Park Board) met on Oct. 26. Crystal Watson, representing Royal Canin, and Kent Bagnall, owner of Kent Jewelry, gave a presentation asking that a dog-park be built in Buehler Park.

I presented reasons why Buehler Park should not be the site of a Rolla dog-park. You can view my presentation here.

Rolla Mayor, Louis Magdits, said that the city was looking into buying land that could be used for both an animal shelter and a dog-park; and after a brief discussion, the meeting was adjourned without the Commission making a recommendation.

At the July 18 meeting of the Rolla City Council, I felt certain they would follow through with building a dog-park in Buehler Park; but YOUR ACTIVISM HAS MADE A DIFFERENCE. Over three months later, the decision is yet to be made.

Please sign the petition; and ask your friends and family to sign too.

Your phone calls and emails have been very helpful. Please keep them coming. Contact the City of Rolla and ask them not to build a dog-park in Buehler Park: (573)426-6948, citycouncil@rollacity.org.

For more information click here.

Thank you for your help in preserving Buehler Park as the lovely little park that it is for all local residents and visitors to enjoy.

3. YES ON AMENDMENT ONE

Please consider voting YES on November 8 for Amendment One to renew the State Parks, Water and Soil Conservation tax for another 10 years.

More information here.

4. STANDING ROCK: STANDING STRONG

In spite of increased law enforcement and security squad violence, arrests, and a fire near their camp that was likely intentionally set (no emergency crews would respond to their calls for help), the Standing Rock Sioux have vowed to keep their peaceful vigil through the winter. Human rights observers from the UN and Amnesty International are meeting with the water protectors and pipeline and law enforcement personnel to investigate allegations of inhumane treatment and excessive violence toward the protesters.

It's interesting (and distressing) to note that meanwhile in Oregon, Ammon and Ryan Bundy and 5 of their followers were acquitted of conspiracy and weapons charges stemming from their armed takeover of a wildlife refuge early this year. Here's a group of armed men occupying land they have no claim to, threatening and intimidating law enforcement personnel and protesters, and they walk free. Contrast this with the Standing Rock Sioux and the many other tribes and sympathizers that have joined them, making a peaceful, prayerful protest on their own tribal land, and they are threatened, intimidated, beaten, arrested and thrown into cages with no medical attention, food or water. What's wrong with this picture?

And, as if to emphasize the concerns of the water protectors, there was a huge gasoline pipeline explosion in Alabama on Monday, that killed 1 and injured several others, following a recent gasoline spill on another segment of the same pipeline. To paraphrase a young Sioux girl's comment: Pipelines will leak, break and spill. It's not a question of if, but when and where.

5. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org)

LAST DAYS OF THE EMPIRE
“Plunderers of the world, after they, laying everything waste, run out of land, they probe even the sea: if their enemy has wealth, they have greed; if he be poor, they are ambitious; neither East nor West has sated them; alone of mankind they covet poverty with the same passion as wealth. Robbery, butchery, rape they misname empire: they make a wasteland and call it peace.” –Tacitus
Empires in their last days are in the most dangerous state of all. They are powerless to prevent their own destruction; and so also destroy all that lies before them.

Here is the latest from Syria and Iraq. The United States and its allies are bombing Mosul. Mosul, home to over one million people is likely to be destroyed, increasing human suffering and the flow of refugees. Aleppo is being bombed too – by Russia and the Syrian government. Here we support the rebels who hold the city, the same people we are bombing in Mosul. In neither case do the suffering inhabitants of these cities count one single iota.

10 to 15 million people took to the streets 13 years ago to protest against the invasion of Iraq – to no avail. Empire shut its eyes and ears. John Pilger notes that, “if journalists had done their job, ‘there is a very, very good chance we would not have gone to war in Iraq.’” Journalists too shut their eyes and ears and muted their voices.

In truth, The United States has not won a single war since World War II, unless you want to count the tiny Island of Grenada. In fact, winning a war in the last days of empire has ceased to have any meaning. It's the destruction, and only the destruction, that counts. What would it mean to “win the war” in Iraq? Think about this. I can't even begin to formulate a definition.

And lets not think that we are immune to the destruction we wreak elsewhere.

We come now to the end of the “Freak Show,” as Pilger calls the US presidential campaign. As we enter the final week, we have a virtual tie.

Clinton leads with an unfavorability rating of 60% to Trump's unfavorability rating of 58%. Never before have the two major presidential candidates been so unpopular.

As far as popular vote goes – again neck and neck, with Trump gaining. Electoral votes? Clinton seems to have the edge here; so maybe next week we'll see Clinton elected president with a minority of the popular vote.

Scary! The Trump campaign has already declared a Clinton victory illegitimate – and the election still a week away. What happens when a government loses the consent of the governed? Rebellion? Chaos? Martial Law, Military takeover? And don't forget that there are three million fire-arms out there, many of military caliber; and “it doesn't take much to turn a well-armed population into a mob.”

Sorry to bring such bad tidings; but there is something you can do to help. Work for Peace!

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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: 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

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