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Rolla Peace News November 28, 2017 |
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================================= Dear Friends:In this newsletter is: 1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THIS WEEK, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2017 2. BE VERY AFRAID 3. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) All Is Calm
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We vigil for peace in front of the Rolla Post Office THIS THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2017, (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 50s. 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. BE VERY AFRAID Although anyone with any sense realizes that no one wins a nuclear war, Trump and his minions seem anxious to provoke one. The military exercise planned for December 4th on the Korean peninsula, coming after Trump named North Korea a “state sponsor of terrorism,” can only make an already-paranoid country and its leader even more paranoid. When people are that afraid, they don't always think or act rationally. One wonders if Trump is trying to provoke North Korea into attacking the U.S., so that he can then feel free to bring down the “fire and fury” he obviously would like to perpetrate on the North Koreans. The state of Hawaii, feeling that they could well be the target of such an attack, is planning to re-institute the missile warning system they used during World War II, and to instruct people in how to (maybe) survive a nuclear attack. Hawaiian officials estimate that if these instructions are followed, 80% of residents could survive. Hawaii has well over a million inhabitants; that means that probably over 200,000 would not survive. That's twice as many as were killed in the attack on Hiroshima in 1945. Read this article to see what would happen to those 200,000 Hawaiians. Or better yet, read John Hersey's book, “Hiroshima.” If the U.S. responded to such an attack as Trump would probably insist, most of the 25 million North Koreans would meet the same fate. And that would probably not be the end of it. It's hard to believe that anyone, even Trump, would want this, but that's where his actions and rhetoric are taking us. 3. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) ALL IS CALM “What would happen, I wonder, if the armies of both sides suddenly and simultaneously went on strike and said some other method must be found for settling the dispute?” —Winston ChurchillIf you missed Monday's performance of “All Is Calm” at Leach Theatre, you missed one of the most powerful anti-war statements ever to come to Rolla. All Is Calm is a play by Peter Rothstein about the 1914 Christmas Truce on the western front during World War I. The words are mostly from letters and statements made by soldiers in the trenches. All Is Calm makes you realize to what lengths the politicians and generals must go in order to get people to fight wars. It also makes you realize why we fight wars at a distance, so soldiers cannot see the humanity in the enemy facing him. It also makes you realize why the next step in warfare will likely be robo-wars which may make soldiers, and perhaps all of humanity, obsolete. If you missed the play, here's a ten minute discussion with director Peter Rothstein along with excerpts from the play. And here is John McCutchen's famous song about the Christmas Truce. And here's a short piece I wrote on this subject ten long years ago. 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: near the 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 ### |