Protecting critical water habitat Moxlie Creek begins as an artesian spring in Watershed park. It’s joined by Indian Creek which begins in Bigelow Lake and then flows through the center of town in a half mile long culvert. Occasionally chinook and coho salmon and cutthroat trout can be found in…
Posts published in “Uncategorized”
In this issue you’ll get a glimpse of some ways that Olympia neighborhoods promote healthy social and political life and a reminder that we have neighbors beyond the ones next door. We have neighbors who demonstrate against Trump administration practices of taking children from their parents, children demanding that cars…
Electoral democracy at work. Check out candidates’ websites – all are asking for help waving banners.canvassing, phone banking, fundraisers. Volunteer for the candidate you support. Thurston County Fair Wednesday-Sunday, August 1-5, at the fairgrounds: 3054 Carpenter Road, Lacey Tickets $7; Seniors $6; Youth 6-14 $5. More info, call 360-786-5453 Celebration…
Michael Foster is coming home! In our July 2018 issue, we printed a letter from Michael Foster, a valve-turner imprisoned at the Missouri River Correctional Center. He asked for donations of books to restock the MRCC library. We learned that he received over 100 books for the library in a…
In the two months since it passed Resolution M-1942 committing the city to a response to homelessness based on harm-reduction, trauma-informed care and anti-oppression, Council members have faced and addressed challenges to those values. Sometimes the challenge comes from the City’s own actions. A new approach to looking at homelessness…
[J. Glen Evans is a former stockbroker and investment banker, who after 20 years went back to his early childhood dream of being a writer. He became a poet, novelist, historian and political activist. After reading the book, The One Straw Revolution and then writing the novel Wayfarers–Where No One…
If you like camping and want to restore ecosystems, we have a mission for you. We are working to build a volunteer restoration workforce with access to the best campgrounds in South Sound. Stewardship for our common lands Our natural resources are fragile after six generations of development. The State…
This bold simple statement is a culmination, a distillation of a year-long prayerful sabbatical following the dissolution of Bread & Roses of Olympia, a nonprofit I’d been affiliated with for almost eighteen years. During my tenure as a ‘24/7’ advocate/friend of poor and marginalized in our community, I was gifted…
To WIP readers, Your vote counts on August 7! I’m endorsing Irene Bowling for state Senator for the 35th Legislative District, and I ask you, if that is your LD District, to strongly consider giving her your vote in this current primary election. The 35th LD includes the area from…
YWCA Olympia is pleased to announce that nominations for their Annual Womxn and Business of Achievement awards will be accepted from now to August 17, 2018. Established in 1994, the YWCA Olympia Women and Business of Achievement Award is one of the most prestigious honors for womxn and businesses in…
[“Love Our Local” is a street festival created 8 years ago by people who live in the Northeast neighborhood of Olympia. This year’s fest will take place on Saturday, August 18 from 1-10 pm on San Francisco Street at Bethel in NE Olympia. Kelly Miller talked with Daniel Landin, a…
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO or Lopez Obrador), the candidate of the center left, and his party of National Regeneration (MORENA) won the Presidency of Mexico with 53.2% of almost 62 million people voting. His party won a relative majority of federal Deputies and Senators, the government of the City…
Con el 53.2% de un total cercano a 62 millones de votos, en las pasadas elecciones de México ganaron el candidato de centro-izquierda Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) y su partido Movimiento de Regeneración Nacional (MORENA) que integraba una coalición de centro-derecha (“Juntos Haremos Historia”). Lograron mayoría relativa en Diputados…
Global indifference and the need for solidarity Human suffering has become less and less important. While there is no absolute monopoly on suffering or indifference, and these two conditions can be present in any country and in any social context at any given time, currently, suffering and indifference are distributed…
The August 2018 episode of “Glen’s Parallax Perspectives” informs us about an interesting and inspiring community in Guatemala where refugees from the previous dictatorship have settled into a new community. These people are empowering themselves at the grassroots to meet their needs for education, clean water, social justice and democracy.…
In the summer of 2018, the world and many people in the United States are horrified and shocked by the US immigration policy of separating and detaining children as they cross the Southern border with their parents. Some mainstream media coverage, following the Trump narrative, implies that the US had…
[Ed note: This is the continuation of an interview conducted by Wendy Tanowitz in June 2018. You can read the beginning in the July issue of WIP or online at www.olywip.org.] Dawud al-Malik was sentenced to death in 1966 at age 19, and released in 2015 after 50 years in…
This article introduces our community of older “progressive” folks to younger activists who have formed around the legacy of the “Occupy” movement. They have taken the title of The Olympia Assembly and have been quietly organizing to confront local social justice issues in the most straightforward manner. Occupy Wall Street…
This is a review of 9/11 Ten Years Later: When State Crimes Against Democracy Succeed by David Ray Griffin (Olive Branch Press, 2011). The book demonstrates that the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and on the Pentagon were an inside job, a false flag…
This issue’s theme: On the edge —inequality and poverty. Is it possible that most people are beginning to realize that inequality is intrinsic to our celebrated “market system”—and even a goal of government policy? One apologist said, “I believe inequality is an economic good that has received too much bad…
17th Protecting Mother Earth Conference June 28 – July 1, at Frank’s Landing, 11117 Conine Ave SE, Nisqually Territories, Olympia. Hosted by the LSqualli-Absch, the Nisqually People, and co-sponsored by the Indigenous Environmental Network and Indigenous Climate Action. To uplift the critical voices of those on the frontline battles against…
Just Housing is a local grassroots group advocating for and supporting the rights, dignity, and basic human needs of unhoused Olympians. Just Housing consists of both housed and unhoused organizers and our advocacy is centered on the voices and needs of those who are currently houseless in our community. Needed:…
In the May issue we reported on the low wages and tax subsidies tht help Amazon generate a profit of $2.4 billion on North American operations. Well, in June Amazon led a successful strike against the City of Seattle’s decision to collect a $275/employee “tax” from major businesses – the…
Housing that prioritizes sustainability and affordability over profit by Susan Davenport and Dan Rubin Imagine a not–for–profit, non-governmental organization that starts small but becomes a significant force for creating and retaining permanently affordable housing for low–and moderate–income people throughout Thurston County. An organization that supports home ownership but retains ownership…
[Ed note: This is the first installment of an interview with Dawud al-Malik conducted at the end of June. Read the second half in the August issue of WIP.] Dawud al-Malik was sentenced to death in 1966 at age 19 and released on parole in Feb. 2015, after a total…
Eldon Mackintosh has been arrested dozens of times. After two prison sentences and countless trips to jail, he is determined never to go back. How, though, after spending over a third of his life in prison, can he make that a reality? According to the Department of Corrections, over 7,000…
“There are serious issues with the criminal justice system in Thurston County,” local attorney Victor Minjares said in a recent interview with Little Hollywood. Reflective of the national examination on implicit bias, socio-economic and racial injustice and other systemic issues beleaguering the law and justice community, Minjares is running for…