Work 9 to 5, catch bull at four What do I deserve? I’m just the working poor Do I deserve to vote for someone I cannot respect? Or is there an alternative, a third box to check? It’s not a Republican or Democrat And I hate to slander Bernie But…
Posts published in “Uncategorized”
Ready to vote? General election ballots will start arriving in a few weeks. Be sure to complete your whole ballot and vote YES on Proposition 1, Opportunity for Olympia, by November 8. Higher education has become increasingly out of reach for too many of Olympia’s college-bound kids as public college…
Make your vote count in Washington State I was inspired by Ralph Nader’s Green Party bid in 2000. He talked openly about the two-party “duopoly” and how corporations controlled the policies of both major parties from the top down and, not infrequently, from the bottom up. When I read the…
That vintage illusion called Vari-Vue where you tilt the printed object slightly one way to reveal an image and tilt again to reveal another, that’s how this election season feels to me. The dominant media’s portrayal of a black-and-white binary is far more nuanced; from my vantage point Republican Donald…
Olympia is home to an amazing alternative scene, as Teresa Eckstein pointed out in a February 2016 article for this paper, including over 20 alternative public and private schools, preschool through college. Alternative schools provide students with approaches to learning—project-based, arts-based, individualized, and/or community-oriented—that differ from traditional classroom approaches. Offering…
Freedom of choice. The supermarket shelves are lined with twenty-five different flavors of cereal, some for the health conscious and some for the sweet-lovers, for the gluten obsessed and for the GMO aware, even for the annoyingly picky kid who will eat only the lucky charms and leave the rest.…
On August 31st, 2016 Olympia Port Militarization Resistance (PMR) released the following statement. “As long as the US military is engaged in racist wars, including so-called targeted strikes, we will actively resist military use of the Port of Olympia. We refuse to profit from, or be complicit in, illegal, immoral…
The following emails detail some of our public disclosure findings presented in a September 15 Port Militarization Resistance (PMR) communication. Emails obtained through public disclosure requests made by Robert Gorrill, working with Olympia PMR, confirm the port has been actively seeking military shipments and coordinating with local city and county…
OPD Officer Ryan Donald disciplined previously for going in without backup Candace Mercer Through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, WIP has examined Officer Ryan Donald’s complete Olympia Police Department [OPD] disciplinary records. WIP found Donald was involved in an earlier incident where he did not follow proper procedure…
The responsibility of higher education to work toward alleviating wealth inequality Setting the stage We live in a time of unprecedented economic inequality in this country—unprecedented in severity, not in its existence. Policy changes, like increasing the minimum wage, revising tax codes to make them more equitable, making health care…
The present political reality and the choices for Bernicrats in November and beyond Currently, we arguably live in an oligarchy. It is described by Wikipedia as “a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with a small number of people. These people might be distinguished by royalty, wealth,…
“We need a new paradigm. We need guaranteed jobs. We need a guaranteed income to ensure that the benefits of 60 years of U.S. prosperity go to all Americans.” — Paul Buchheit Americans are feeling the impoverishing effects of the shift from middle-income to low-income jobs. The disappearance—or, more accurately,…
In the August issue of Works in Progress, the editorial collective was gracious. Instead of haranguing me about missing a deadline, they published my poem “Occupy Sonnet” that they had tucked away in their reserves, perhaps in anticipation of my precise indiscretion. With all of the violence in the world…
The reasoning behind PMR’s opposition For two weeks in November 2007, anti-war activists organizing as Port Militarization Resistance (PMR) literally laid their bodies in the street, on the ground, and against the gate in opposition to continued U.S. war and occupation when local government attempted to militarize their port and…
Westside police shooting victims On May 21, 2015, Bryson (21) and André Chaplin-Thompson (23) were shot by an Olympia police officer after a failed attempt to steal beer from a Safeway grocery store on the Westside of Olympia, Washington. The young Black men are brothers, were unarmed, and while the…
Tuesday, July 12– “I do believe that this issue is not an either-or…you can be a complete advocate and supporter of law enforcement as I am, and you can also be an advocate for community safety. I think the common ground we all share is to have a safe community.…
The US government has no comprehensive record of the number of people killed by law enforcement. The Counted is a project by The Guardian, counting the number of people killed by police and other law enforcement agencies in the United States throughout 2015 and 2016, to monitor their demographics and to tell…
Editorial note: This article is a collaborative statement from Southern Movement Assembly leaders. While it is dated because of printing deadlines and addresses a Southern audience, we felt that its contents are useful beyond Orlando and all the other acts of violence of the past month. WIP recommends this article…
Every generation needs a new revolution. —Thomas Jefferson Dissent is the highest form of patriotism. —Howard Zinn There are 244 million Americans of voting age. Some 81 percent of us, about 198 million, are women, millennials, or persons of color. Of the remaining 46 million of us who are white…
In the weeks since the shooting in Orlando we have felt anger, sadness, and heartbreak for the victims whose lives were violently ended and for the families who were forever changed. With Orlando, the epidemic of gun violence in the United States seems to have reached new heights. Each mass…
Dealt with a rough hand by the way society is structured Because you are black you are at a disadvantage Is what they told me I mean I am black in White America, but hardly paid the color green I have a problem with a lot of what you…
In her book, A Woman in the Crossfire: Diaries of the Syrian Revolution, Samar Yazbek describes how in Syria the mosque became an instrument and embodiment of the power needed by opponents of the Assad Regime — somewhat similar to the role played by the church in our Civil Rights…
It has been brought to the attention of the residents of Olympia and other locations that the Port of Olympia is planning to allow the use of the Port again for military shipments. As you will recall, the last time this occurred in 2007, there were many protests and disruptions…
To: Port of Olympia Commissioners Olympia City Council Thurston County Commissioners From: Lawrence Mosqueda, Ph.D. Date: March 25, 2010 Re: Possible Renewed Use of Port of Olympia for Military Shipments It has come to my attention that the Port of Olympia Commissioners are again considering using the Port of Olympia…
A day to strengthen opposition to ecocidal project On July 8, the Quinault Indian Nation organized a canoe and kayak flotilla that landed at the Hoquiam River above where it empties into Grays Harbor Bay. The day’s activities served to strengthen and mobilize opposition to the proposed expansion of an…
I have been a commercial fisher for 45 years. I am the Vice President of the Washington Dungeness Crab Fishermen’s Association. I’m also speaking on behalf of the Washington Trollers’ Association, the Westport Charter Boat Association, and the Coastal Coalition of Fishers—a fifteen-member coalition of commercial fishing organizations, coastal charter…
July 6, 2016 — In this week commemorating the tragedy of July 6, 2013, we, militants of Lac Megantic, affirm our solidarity with the militants of the West Coast and its first nations, who, like us, are challenging the transportation of oil over obsolete rail lines. In this third year…