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Rolla Peace News December 19, 2017 |
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================================= Dear Friends:In this newsletter is: 1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THIS WEEK, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2017 2. PEACE ON EARTH, GOODWILL TO ALL 3. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) Nuclear Sword Of Damocles b) Liar, Liar, Pants On Fire c) This Is Very Very Scary d) Not Welcome Here Or Anywhere Else e) Trumpsters Declare War On The English Language f) Why We Should House The Homeless g) Peace On Earth
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We vigil for peace in front of the Rolla Post Office THIS THURSDAY, DECEMBER 21, 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. PEACE ON EARTH, GOODWILL TO ALL Looking outward, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of peace on Earth. And there doesn't seem to be a whole lot we can do about it. We do what we can, and things appear to get worse. Maybe we are looking for peace in all the wrong places. All the great religions state, in various ways, that true peace can only be found within. You don't have to believe in a God to prove this to yourself. If you let go of old hurts, forgive the one who did the hurting, and banish hate and judgment from your heart, life gets better. Circumstances may remain the same, but you are able to meet them with equanimity, and you are able to be more effective in your outward actions in support of peace and justice, because they are not weakened by the negative emotions. Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, and a Joyous Winter Solstice! May all beings find peace. 3. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) Nuclear Sword Of Damocles b) Liar, Liar, Pants On Fire c) This Is Very Very Scary d) Not Welcome Here Or Anywhere Else e) Trumpsters Declare War On The English Language f) Why We Should House The Homeless g) Peace On Earth NUCLEAR SWORD OF DAMOCLES I've been reporting since March on the progress of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. It now has 56 signatory nations and three ratifications. Robert Koehler explains the importance of this treaty: It takes nuclear disarmament out of the hands of the nuclear weapons powers which have boycotted the treaty; and puts it where it belongs: in the hands of all peoples everywhere (and by extension, all life on the planet Earth). Since 1945 humanity has been living with a nuclear Sword of Damocles hanging by a thin horsehair over its head. At any time, without warning, one or more of the nuclear weapons powers may unleash nuclear holocaust upon the world. MAD, it's called: Mutually Assured Destruction. You can destroy me; but I can destroy you too, and the rest of the world to boot. We're told a nuclear deterrent makes us secure; but do you feel secure? I don't. I think I would feel a lot more secure if these weapons were banned forever. As the Roman orator, Cicero, commented on the Sword of Damocles, “Does not Dionysius seem to have made it sufficiently clear that there can be nothing happy for the person over whom some fear always looms?” LIAR, LIAR, PANTS ON FIRE No, this is not about Donald Trump. It goes back to 1990 when the Soviet Union was imploding. The West promised that in exchange for a Soviet withdrawal from East Germany leading to peaceful reunification, NATO would not expand one inch to the East. It was a lie, of course. In the wake of the destruction of the Soviet Union, US planners saw nothing standing between the United States and complete and total Global Empire. Of course, they did not only lie to the Soviets. Here in the US we were promised a “Peace Dividend;” but instead of a peace dividend, we got NAFTA and a corporate takeover. In Iraq, they lied to Saddam Hussein that they would not oppose an invasion of Kuwait. Step One in remaking the Middle East: the destruction of Iraq. Believing that lie cost Iraq a million children. There is blowback in lying. No one will ever believe you again, even if you're telling the truth. We would like North Korea to cash in their nukes for a promise of “security.” Can you blame them for not believing there is any security for themselves in such negotiations? THIS IS VERY VERY SCARY I found this article in Wired rather serendipitously . It's about ISIS's munitions factories. The scary part is not that so much of the ISIS arsenal comes from the United States; but that it is now so easy to manufacture sophisticated weaponry and to transmit the know-how. How far in the future before nuclear weapons can be manufactured almost as easily? Oh, Science! see what thou hast wrought. In case you think ISIS/Al Queda has been defeated, think again. Defeated insurgencies have a way of returning, stronger than ever. NOT WELCOME HERE OR ANYWHERE ELSE US President Donald Trump had to cancel a January visit to the United Kingdom after pissing off millions of Britons. Pence has “delayed” his trip to the Middle East after Adeep Joudeh, the custodian of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre said, “I absolutely refuse to officially welcome the American Vice President Mr. Mike Pence at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and I will not be physically in church during his visit.” TRUMPSTERS DECLARE WAR ON THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE When I saw the title of this article on seven forbidden words, I thought the seven words would be racial or ethnic slurs, like the N-word, or sexually explicit words, like the F-word. Oh, I was so egregiously wrong! Here are the seven terrible words, forbidden at the Center for Disease Control and other government agencies: Vulnerable, Entitlement, Diversity, Transgender, Fetus, Evidence-based, Science-based — far worse than the N-word or the F-word. WHY WE SHOULD HOUSE THE HOMELESS Seems like one of the recent California fires that burned through an upscale neighborhood in southern California started in a homeless encampment where folks were trying to cook a meager meal. There's still some poetic justice left in this world. PEACE ON EARTH Tonight is the final night of Chanukah, with Winter Solstice coming up Thursday, right before our Peace Vigil. Christmas is on Monday and New Years (Western) the following Monday. This is supposed to be a Season of Peace. Since we are not likely to get much Peace from our governments, that leaves it up to us, We the People. Please come and join our Peace vigils: every Thursday, Noon to 1:00pm at the Rolla Post Office. 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 ### |