I am sorry for the delay in getting the newsletter done, but I became very ill with a skin infection and had to stay a whole week in the hospital. The hospital personnel told me that I should go home and never come back! It may take a while to clean up the hospital room. I got upset when the doc told me she had good news for me. She was naming a disease after me. Seriously, I thank the people who prayed for my swift recovery so I could get back to writing the newsletter. Casa is now 53 years old. We thank all the many volunteers and donors who have helped to provide hospitality to many thousands of homeless families, single women, refugees, and hungry people. The Casa community also helped many thousands of needy families with furniture, clothing, household items, etc. due to the donations of so many kind and generous people. May we continue to live Jesus. A smile is an act of resistance.
Colonel John Suggs, the new Commandant of Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, formally known as the School of the Americans in Ft. Benning GA., says that the school fosters peace throughout the whole region and gets things done. However, we know that the purpose and the results of the SOA and WHINSEC are the same ---training state agents in civilian targeted warfare that results in violent repression, torture, forced disappearances, massacres, forced migration, the criminalization of dissent, and imperialist coups to impose right-wing neo-liberal agendas. The US agenda of training and financing security forces throughout the continent to impose right-wing economic policies that benefit corporations and the elite is clear. The most recent intervention is the US-backed military coup against Bolivia’s President Evo Morales. President Morales resignation came only after the country’s top military commander, General Williams Kaliman Romero, who trained at WHINSEC, appeared on television with other high-ranking military officials and “suggested” that Morales resign. At least 6 of the Bolivian officials behind the coup have been trained at the SOA/WHINSEC. We condemn this imperialist assault on Bolivia’s people -- US intervention is never the answer! We stand with the indigenous and campesinx communities and support their autonomy, right to organize, and to decide the fate of their territories outside the grasp of the U.S. We all know that when you use of violence to get your way you will have no peace which is the great lesson given to us by Christ.
----Don Timmerman
DON’S JOKES
Heck is where people go who don’t believe in gosh. The Energizer bunny is in jail, charged with battery. A guy ate his family photo. Now he is a spitting image of his Dad. What’s the difference between a man running and a dog running? One wears trousers, and the other pants. If you can’t be on time, be early! You know you are getting old when your work is a lot less fun, and fun is a lot more work. We called a discount exterminator. He arrived with a rolled up newspaper. Your marriage is in trouble if your wife says, “You’re only interested in one thing,” and you don’t remember what it is. Have you seen the deer heads on the walls of bars, the ones wearing party hats, sunglasses and streamers? I feel sorry for them because obviously they were at a party having a good time when deer season suddenly arrived. Did you ever notice that anybody going slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac? Americans spend lots of money on lottery tickets? “What are you doing for your retirement?” “Uh, Powerball! When I was a girl, I had only two friends, and they were imaginary. And they would only play with one another. Have you ever wondered how many kids it takes to turn off the light in the kitchen? Three. It takes one to say, “What light?” and two more to say, “I didn’t turn it on.”
INTERESTING FACTS
During the Cold War , the U.S. nuked the Marshall Islands 67 times. It detonated a 15 megaton thermonuclear warhead over the Bikini Atoll. It was the largest nuclear weapon the U.S. had detonated. After that, it dropped biological weapons on the Islands. Once the U.S. had finished, it scooped up the irradiated waste, which ruined the Island’s soil, and put the waste into craters covering them with cement. Also, they shipped to the Island 130 tons of radioactive materials waste from the Nuclear Test site in Nevada. Now with global warming the concrete covers are disintegrating and eventually the radioactive waste will flow out into the Ocean. More than 50,000 people still live on the Island. ---VICE
The recent Keystone oil spill is the pipeline’s 21st, totaling more than 1 million gallons of oil spilled since 2010. TC Energy (formerly Transcanada), the company that operates the pipeline, promises that there’s no risk of further spilling, but that's what they said before the last spill. We’re not surprised. This is what pipelines do. They leak. -----Food and Water Watch The Keystone pipeline spilled 383,000 gallons of oil into N. Dakota wetlands and 210,000 in S. Dakota. (CNN) The Native population again suffers from serious environmental problems due to the greed of fossil fuel companies and those of us who use them. Some of the easements that allowed Enbridge to keep its Line 5 pipeline on the tribe’s land expired in 2013, and negotiations between Enbridge and the tribe to renew the leases fell through. Yet Line 5 is still funneling Enbridge’s petroleum across the Bad River Reservation. The tribe says Enbridge is trespassing, and has sued the company to kick it off their property. If a bill awaiting Wisconsin’s Democrat Governor Tony Evers’ signature becomes law, members of the tribe protesting Enbridge’s operations on their reservation could face fines of $10,000 and up to six years is in jail. ---Grist.org
The U.S. now wants to expand Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. People are outraged since the military wants to expand it over the Desert National Wildlife Refuge located next to the Nevada Test Site and Training Range. The Air Force currently already controls 2.9 million acres of the Wildlife Refuge for the Nevada Test Site With over 800 bases and installations at home and cross the globe, the U.S. military is not hurting for space for training. ----Veterans for Peace
The U.S. military cannot account for $21 Trillion. ----Forbes Magazine and Truthdig The Pentagon is the only federal agency that has not complied with a 1996 law that requires annual audits of all government departments. The Pentagon has spent tens of billions of dollars to upgrade to more efficient technology in order to become audit-ready. But many of these new systems have failed and been scrapped. ----Reuters
Ratio of the wealth held by the world’s 42 richest people is as much as the amount held by the poorest 50 percent of the world. Percentage of Afghan refugees who have had to flee a second time after returning home : 72 Estimated portion of global migrants who are traveling from one developing nation to another : 2/5
Number of Japanese with dementia who went missing in 2016 : 15,432 Number of residents of Matsudo, Japan, trained to find lost seniors suffering from dementia : 3,000 Portion of US greenhouse-gas emissions that results from energy produced on federal lands : 1/5
Number of US facilities handling toxic chemicals that lie in areas with a high risk of flooding : 1,400 There are 18 million bikes in the Netherlands, which is more than one per head of the population of 17 million. ---Harper’s Index
NOTES OF 21ST STREET: “Enjoy the little things, one day you’ll look back and realize they were big things.” The truth of this quote was brought home to me this week. I was told a neighbor, Therese, had died. She lived at Mapendo House, next door to us, and I was so sad to hear the news. Therese lived with other women who have mental challenges. She usually sat on the porch. She always spoke to me as I entered or exited our home. She would sometimes share a short story or comment on the weather or what I was wearing. I had been praying for her because I heard she was sick and was not sitting in her usual place on the porch. Upon hearing about her death it struck me how I will miss her cheerful, inquisitive presence. In our hustle and bustle society we hold people in highest esteem who are busy working for peace and justice or helping others in some way. It is good to honor such efforts, but I believe we miss something when we fail to notice or honor the people who are dealing with serious challenges, but still smile, greet and are interested in the people around them. It shows courage and character. I am humbled and honored to have known Therese. “Enjoy the little things, one day you’ll look back and realize they are big things.” Peace, Roberta
Each Friday at 9 a.m. there is a Jericho Walk at ICE, Knapp & Broadway, to demand no more separations of families and detaining of migrants. Contact Voces de la Frontera
Fri., Dec. 6 --- Free The Fuels. Milwaukee Climate Strike at 10:30 a.m. at Zeidler Park. Let us stop banks like Wells Fargo and Chase from continuing to invest in fossil fields, and start funding renewable energy 350milwaukee.weebly.com
Thurs., Dec. 12 ----Anti-ROTC Vigil at Marquette U. on 14th & Wisconsin Ave. starting at Noon. We ask M.U. to teach nonviolence, as all Christian institutions are commanded by Christ to do.
Thurs., Dec. 19 -----Anti-Gun Vigil at Brew City Shooters Shop, 43rd & Lincoln at Noon. To own a gun is to imagine using it. If you have a gun you are saying it is right to use violence to get your way. This is a “no-no” for Christians.
May we spread the Peace sent to us in the form of a baby.
Happy Birthday, Jesus!
Colonel John Suggs, the new Commandant of Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, formally known as the School of the Americans in Ft. Benning GA., says that the school fosters peace throughout the whole region and gets things done. However, we know that the purpose and the results of the SOA and WHINSEC are the same ---training state agents in civilian targeted warfare that results in violent repression, torture, forced disappearances, massacres, forced migration, the criminalization of dissent, and imperialist coups to impose right-wing neo-liberal agendas. The US agenda of training and financing security forces throughout the continent to impose right-wing economic policies that benefit corporations and the elite is clear. The most recent intervention is the US-backed military coup against Bolivia’s President Evo Morales. President Morales resignation came only after the country’s top military commander, General Williams Kaliman Romero, who trained at WHINSEC, appeared on television with other high-ranking military officials and “suggested” that Morales resign. At least 6 of the Bolivian officials behind the coup have been trained at the SOA/WHINSEC. We condemn this imperialist assault on Bolivia’s people -- US intervention is never the answer! We stand with the indigenous and campesinx communities and support their autonomy, right to organize, and to decide the fate of their territories outside the grasp of the U.S. We all know that when you use of violence to get your way you will have no peace which is the great lesson given to us by Christ.
----Don Timmerman
DON’S JOKES
Heck is where people go who don’t believe in gosh. The Energizer bunny is in jail, charged with battery. A guy ate his family photo. Now he is a spitting image of his Dad. What’s the difference between a man running and a dog running? One wears trousers, and the other pants. If you can’t be on time, be early! You know you are getting old when your work is a lot less fun, and fun is a lot more work. We called a discount exterminator. He arrived with a rolled up newspaper. Your marriage is in trouble if your wife says, “You’re only interested in one thing,” and you don’t remember what it is. Have you seen the deer heads on the walls of bars, the ones wearing party hats, sunglasses and streamers? I feel sorry for them because obviously they were at a party having a good time when deer season suddenly arrived. Did you ever notice that anybody going slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac? Americans spend lots of money on lottery tickets? “What are you doing for your retirement?” “Uh, Powerball! When I was a girl, I had only two friends, and they were imaginary. And they would only play with one another. Have you ever wondered how many kids it takes to turn off the light in the kitchen? Three. It takes one to say, “What light?” and two more to say, “I didn’t turn it on.”
INTERESTING FACTS
During the Cold War , the U.S. nuked the Marshall Islands 67 times. It detonated a 15 megaton thermonuclear warhead over the Bikini Atoll. It was the largest nuclear weapon the U.S. had detonated. After that, it dropped biological weapons on the Islands. Once the U.S. had finished, it scooped up the irradiated waste, which ruined the Island’s soil, and put the waste into craters covering them with cement. Also, they shipped to the Island 130 tons of radioactive materials waste from the Nuclear Test site in Nevada. Now with global warming the concrete covers are disintegrating and eventually the radioactive waste will flow out into the Ocean. More than 50,000 people still live on the Island. ---VICE
The recent Keystone oil spill is the pipeline’s 21st, totaling more than 1 million gallons of oil spilled since 2010. TC Energy (formerly Transcanada), the company that operates the pipeline, promises that there’s no risk of further spilling, but that's what they said before the last spill. We’re not surprised. This is what pipelines do. They leak. -----Food and Water Watch The Keystone pipeline spilled 383,000 gallons of oil into N. Dakota wetlands and 210,000 in S. Dakota. (CNN) The Native population again suffers from serious environmental problems due to the greed of fossil fuel companies and those of us who use them. Some of the easements that allowed Enbridge to keep its Line 5 pipeline on the tribe’s land expired in 2013, and negotiations between Enbridge and the tribe to renew the leases fell through. Yet Line 5 is still funneling Enbridge’s petroleum across the Bad River Reservation. The tribe says Enbridge is trespassing, and has sued the company to kick it off their property. If a bill awaiting Wisconsin’s Democrat Governor Tony Evers’ signature becomes law, members of the tribe protesting Enbridge’s operations on their reservation could face fines of $10,000 and up to six years is in jail. ---Grist.org
The U.S. now wants to expand Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. People are outraged since the military wants to expand it over the Desert National Wildlife Refuge located next to the Nevada Test Site and Training Range. The Air Force currently already controls 2.9 million acres of the Wildlife Refuge for the Nevada Test Site With over 800 bases and installations at home and cross the globe, the U.S. military is not hurting for space for training. ----Veterans for Peace
The U.S. military cannot account for $21 Trillion. ----Forbes Magazine and Truthdig The Pentagon is the only federal agency that has not complied with a 1996 law that requires annual audits of all government departments. The Pentagon has spent tens of billions of dollars to upgrade to more efficient technology in order to become audit-ready. But many of these new systems have failed and been scrapped. ----Reuters
Ratio of the wealth held by the world’s 42 richest people is as much as the amount held by the poorest 50 percent of the world. Percentage of Afghan refugees who have had to flee a second time after returning home : 72 Estimated portion of global migrants who are traveling from one developing nation to another : 2/5
Number of Japanese with dementia who went missing in 2016 : 15,432 Number of residents of Matsudo, Japan, trained to find lost seniors suffering from dementia : 3,000 Portion of US greenhouse-gas emissions that results from energy produced on federal lands : 1/5
Number of US facilities handling toxic chemicals that lie in areas with a high risk of flooding : 1,400 There are 18 million bikes in the Netherlands, which is more than one per head of the population of 17 million. ---Harper’s Index
NOTES OF 21ST STREET: “Enjoy the little things, one day you’ll look back and realize they were big things.” The truth of this quote was brought home to me this week. I was told a neighbor, Therese, had died. She lived at Mapendo House, next door to us, and I was so sad to hear the news. Therese lived with other women who have mental challenges. She usually sat on the porch. She always spoke to me as I entered or exited our home. She would sometimes share a short story or comment on the weather or what I was wearing. I had been praying for her because I heard she was sick and was not sitting in her usual place on the porch. Upon hearing about her death it struck me how I will miss her cheerful, inquisitive presence. In our hustle and bustle society we hold people in highest esteem who are busy working for peace and justice or helping others in some way. It is good to honor such efforts, but I believe we miss something when we fail to notice or honor the people who are dealing with serious challenges, but still smile, greet and are interested in the people around them. It shows courage and character. I am humbled and honored to have known Therese. “Enjoy the little things, one day you’ll look back and realize they are big things.” Peace, Roberta
Each Friday at 9 a.m. there is a Jericho Walk at ICE, Knapp & Broadway, to demand no more separations of families and detaining of migrants. Contact Voces de la Frontera
Fri., Dec. 6 --- Free The Fuels. Milwaukee Climate Strike at 10:30 a.m. at Zeidler Park. Let us stop banks like Wells Fargo and Chase from continuing to invest in fossil fields, and start funding renewable energy 350milwaukee.weebly.com
Thurs., Dec. 12 ----Anti-ROTC Vigil at Marquette U. on 14th & Wisconsin Ave. starting at Noon. We ask M.U. to teach nonviolence, as all Christian institutions are commanded by Christ to do.
Thurs., Dec. 19 -----Anti-Gun Vigil at Brew City Shooters Shop, 43rd & Lincoln at Noon. To own a gun is to imagine using it. If you have a gun you are saying it is right to use violence to get your way. This is a “no-no” for Christians.
May we spread the Peace sent to us in the form of a baby.
Happy Birthday, Jesus!