Rolla Peace News
October 13, 2009

Dear Friends:

          In this newsletter is:

1. THURSDAY NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE
2. NOBEL PEACE PRIZES
3. THE MILITARY vs. THE ENVIRONMENT

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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 15, (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 around 50 with a 40% chance of rain. 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. NOBEL PEACE PRIZES

Howard Zinn notes that giving the Nobel Peace Prize to politicians who make war is nothing new for the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, (click here) . Here are some names of former winners: Woodrow Wilson (World War I), Theodore Roosevelt (Spanish-American War), and Henry Kissinger (Vietnam, Chile, etc.). Henry Kissinger's co-winner, Vietnamese Le Duc Tho, recognized the prize for what it was, and rejected it, stating that there was still no peace in his country! Some peace prize winners are deserving. Here's an article on former winner, Mairead Maguire, (click here) .

If you want to test a person's commitment to peace, ask them what they did on September 11, 2001 and the days immediately following. If they spoke out against going to war, you know they are for real. These are the people who should be getting the peace prizes.

3. THE MILITARY vs. THE ENVIRONMENT

It is so rare that one sees militarism and its environmental consequences discussed together. Sunday, while in Columbia for the "Eight years is eight years too many" peace demonstration, I visited the Peacenook and bought the book, "The Green Zone: The environmental costs of militarism" by Barry Sanders, a book that addresses this connection. Here is a short quote: "The military produces enough greenhouse gases, by itself, to place the entire globe, with all its inhabitants large and small, in the most imminent danger of extinction." Meanwhile the military continues to develop bigger more polluting weapons, (click here) , and environmentalists continue to discuss global warming as if it can be divorced from war and militarism, (click here) .

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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).

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Wage peace,

Yusha
tom (at) tomsager.org

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