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Rolla Peace News December 26, 2017 |
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================================= Dear Friends:In this newsletter is: 1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THIS WEEK, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2017 2. A LITTLE GOOD NEWS 3. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) Some Good News: California Fires Contained b) More Good News: Phelps County Gets One Half Inch Of Precipitation And A White Christmas c) American Dream Or American Illusion? — For Many, American Nightmare d) Puerto Rico e) Was Jesus An Illegal Alien?
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We vigil for peace in front of the Rolla Post Office THIS THURSDAY, DECEMBER 28, 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 30s. 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. A LITTLE GOOD NEWS You don't need to be told about all the bad things that happened this year, but there were a few positives. Medea Benjamin enumerates ten of them in her article. Note that the majority of those things happened because people (or countries) worked together to accomplish them. That's the key. More and more people are waking up to the fact that all life is connected, and what hurts one, hurts all. 3. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) Some Good News: California Fires Contained b) More Good News: Phelps County Gets One Half Inch Of Precipitation And A White Christmas c) American Dream Or American Illusion? — For Many, American Nightmare d) Puerto Rico e) Was Jesus An Illegal Alien? SOME GOOD NEWS: CALIFORNIA FIRES CONTAINED The fires that have been ravaging southern California for three weeks have been contained and are not expected to spread further. The Thomas Fire, at 281,600 acres, is the largest in California since record keeping began in the 1930s — still a piker compared to the 2016 Fort McMurray fire that burned 1.5 million acres of Canadian boreal forest, the 1.3 million acres burnt this summer in Montana and the 3 million acres lost to wildfires in British Columbia during the 2017 fire season. However, the record probably belongs to the 2003 Siberian Taiga fires that burned around 47 million acres. Charges were dropped against the two youngsters accused of starting the November 2016 Gatlinburg fire in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It seems Park officials decided to let the fire burn and five days later it swept down on the unexpecting town of Gatlinburg on equally unanticipated 90 mile per hour winds, killing 14. The connection between the teenagers and the death and destruction caused by the fire appeared tenuous at best. No charges have been filed against Rex Tillerson or anyone else responsible for the climate change that makes these fires more likely and more severe. In fact, for his part in causing these fires, Rex Tillerson was confirmed as US Secretary of State. The connection between Tillerson and the death and destruction caused by the Gatlinburg fire is far more concrete than the connection between the two young hikers and the fire. Now the bad news: These mega-fires are probably the new normal as the climate heats up and droughts become more severe. Due to a changing climate and perhaps other factors, forests, which soak up heat-causing carbon dioxide may not be regenerating as they have in the past. MORE GOOD NEWS: PHELPS COUNTY GETS ONE HALF INCH OF PRECIPITATION AND A WHITE CHRISTMAS Last week I reported what most of you probably already knew, that Phelps County was in moderate to severe drought. This week, we have received around a half inch of precipitation including some much-welcomed snow which still lies on the ground this Christmas day as I write. I wish you all a white Christmas. AMERICAN DREAM OR AMERICAN ILLUSION? — FOR MANY, AMERICAN NIGHTMARE Philip Alston, United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, visited the United States during the first two weeks in December. Here are some excerpts from his report: * US infant mortality rates in 2013 were the highest in the developed world.Alston's statement is somewhat long; but you can read a summary here. His full report should be available in the Spring. Here are two comments of my own: * Two of the great social upheavals in modern Western history, The French revolution of 1789 and the Russian revolution of 1917, occurred among great levels of inequality and corruption. Today, it is undeniable that the Great American Empire is disintegrating under the ever increasing burden of inequality and corruption.PUERTO RICO I've been looking for a good report on the devastation of Puerto Rico by hurricanes Irma and Maria for many weeks. There has been precious little in the news. Now, here's an article from New York Magazine detailing the devastation of the island, the callousness of the meager federal response and how the Puerto Rican people have courageously coped with the catastrophe. We may never know how many Puerto Ricans die as a result of Hurricane Maria; but it is surely in the thousands and will increase. 100 days after Maria, much of the island is still without power and potable water. Philip Alston (see snippet above) had much to say about Puerto Rico in his statement on extreme poverty and human rights in the United States: “If it were a state, Puerto Rico would be the poorest state in the Union. But Puerto Rico is not a state, it is a mere ‘territory.’ Puerto Ricans have no representative with full voting rights in Congress and, unless living stateside, cannot vote for the President of the United States. ... Puerto Rico not only has a fiscal deficit, it also has a political rights deficit, and the two are not easily disentangled. ... there would seem to be good reason for the UN Decolonization Committee to conclude that the island is no longer a self-governing territory.”WAS JESUS AN ILLEGAL ALIEN? Having allowed DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) to expire; our legislators will be home celebrating the birth of Jesus, while our Dreamers live in fear of arrest and deportation. So lets remember, as Juan Cole reminds us, that Jesus was a Dreamer. He was taken as a baby to Egypt to escape King Herod. At a young age, his parents took him to live in Palestine which had become a province of the Roman Empire (see Matthew 2:19). He had no citizenship and no papers. Had he been a citizen, he could not have been crucified. Crucifixion was for barbarians and slaves. As far as Pontius Pilate was concerned, Jesus was entitled to none of the Rights of a citizen of the Empire. Like our undocumented aliens today, he was “open to displacement and arbitrary arrest and punishment even though [he had] done nothing wrong.” Juan Cole ends his Christmas sermon with these words, “We have to decide if we want to be more like Jesus or more like Pontius Pilate.” Today there are over 65 million displaced people in the world. They feature prominently in Pope Francis's Christmas Homily: “So many other footsteps are hidden in the footsteps of Joseph and Mary. We see the tracks of entire families forced to set out in our own day. We see the tracks of millions of persons who do not choose to go away but, driven from their land, leave behind their dear ones. In many cases this departure is filled with hope, hope for the future; yet for many others this departure can only have one name: survival. Surviving the Herods of today, who, to impose their power and increase their wealth, see no problem in shedding innocent blood.” 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 ### |