What does a 100 mph police chase in a Ferrari through downtown Olympia with a terrified passenger begging to be let out of the vehicle, hitting a house and two parked cars, and a seventh DUI with a blood alcohol level twice the legal limit get you? If you’re Shaun…
Posts published in “Uncategorized”
We no longer have democracy in our country because big money owns the political process. We need to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that a corporation is a person and money is speech (Citizens United v. FEC). To do that, we need 34 states to support an amendment to…
My mom, a thoughtful educator and environmentalist, looked at me on Mother’s Day and sighed. “Can we do it? Do you think there’s any way we can get out of this mess?” We’d spent most of the weekend watching an owl fledge out of a nest box under the watchful…
In early May the Washington State Liquor Control Board announced the winners of the retail pot lottery winners. Tumwater resident David Moore of MooreHempCo was one of the lucky few. “We’re excited about it. Our main goal is to get our doors open and be one of the county’s premier…
Architecture and memory The White House is a building with a nefarious reputation within the South American left. Since the Monroe Doctrine in the early 1800’s, its walls and chambers have been mute witnesses of numerous decisions meant to convert the region in “our back yard”—meant to guaranty endless Latin-American…
Arquitectura y Memoria La casa Blanca es un edificio con infame reputación dentro de la izquierda Latino-Americana. A partir de la Doctrina Monroe en los inicios de los 1800’s sus paredes y recamaras han sido testigos mudos de numerosas decisiones encaminadas a convertir a la región en “nuestro patio trasero”,…
[Editorial note: Operation Uphold Democracy, lasting from September 1994 to March 1995, was a military mission to Haiti authorized by the United Nations Security Council to return elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power. Aristide had been overthrown by a military coup in 1991.] As we settled in, the time came…
Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action Silverdale, WA, May 10: Activists from Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, in Poulsbo, staged a tea party at the main gate of Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, the West Coast home port of the nuclear ballistic missile submarine fleet. Protesters walked onto the roadway in…
Dear President Obama, Congressional Representatives, Supreme Court Justices, and heads of selected U.S. agencies including IRS, EPA, FDA: I write this message from a place of peace and love within myself. I am simply asking a question. I would like your response within 30 days. I am finding myself, a living…
The spirit will not descend without song. –Blues People: Negro Music in White America (1963) Amiri Baraka (born Everett LeRoi Jones) was one of the greatest poets in American history. A two-time recipient of the American Book Award, he was a founder of the Black Arts Movement, a multimedia explosion…
To many, Gabriel Garcia Marquez is the most important writer in Spanish literature, more important than Cervantes. His main work, One Hundred Years of Solitude, has become canonical not only in western literature but in the universal republic of letters. The history of the Buendia family transcended time and place…
The American public has a complicated view of global warming – most believe it is happening, but most do not think it will seriously affect their way of life and many do not attribute severe or unusual weather events to this phenomenon. While a majority view the reported seriousness as…
Para muchos Gabriel García Márquez es el escritor mas importante de la literatura en español, mas importante que Cervantes. Su obra mas importante Cien Años de Soledad, se ha convertido en canónica no solo de la literatura occidental pero de la republica universal de las letras. La historia de la…
On April 24th, the City of Hoquiam and the Department of Ecology held a “scoping” hearing in Hoquiam High School on two of the three proposed oil terminals for storing and shipping North Dakota Bakken oil. About 100 people attended. Forty people gave two minute talks. No one spoke for…
When the Harpers Magazine arrives, it is a family tradition for one member to read off the Index and have the other members guess at the possible answer. I thought it would be fun to have a Bakken Index. The North Dakota Bakken oil field combines hydraulic fracturing and horizontal…
Olympia’s planning department keeps a constant eye on bringing in tax revenue Do you look around Olympia’s Westside and wonder why, after 20+ years of “comprehensive planning” it’s still all about cars? How is it that developers have been able to crowd the freeway exits with “destination retail”; line the…
Evergreen’s faculty union, the United Faculty of Evergreen (UFE), has begun bargaining with the administration for its next contract. The purpose of this letter is to describe one thing I hope the UFE will bargain for and one I hope it won’t. I’ll address the one I hope it won’t…
“Do we understand the path we are taking here, by defining two classes of water, for two different groups of population?” Dr Raul Gupta, head of the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department, West Virginia —Evan Osnos, “Chemical Valley,” The New Yorker, April 7, 2014 The chemical spill in West Virginia, in which…
Excerpts from a talk March 5th, 2014 at Forum on Venezuela and the Ukraine at the Evergreen State College. Olympia, Washington. One year ago today on March 5th, 2013, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez died of cancer. It is wrong to attribute all of the changes in Venezuela since 1998 to…
To progressives who have been celebrating the revolution in Ukraine: Be careful what you wish for. Ukraine now has the first European government in decades in which outright fascist parties have gained a significant role in the executive branch. In other European countries, far-right parties have won seats in the…
Sink hole. The toothed smile of privilege – gleaning and glaring glances through restaurant windows. Glasses of clear liquid – at their table. Hot tub myths. Vacation gluttony. Over another sea. The beneficiaries carry mallets, axes, mauls tattooed at the back of the eye. Sink hole.
[Editorial note: Operation Uphold Democracy, lasting from September 1994 to March 1995, was a military mission authorized by the United Nations Security Council to return elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power. Aristide had been overthrown by a military coup in 1991.] Operation Uphold Democracy (part 2) It had been three…
An interview with Kimberly Davis and Jen Marlowe In 2011, the ACLU stood in solidarity with millions of people across the country in demanding clemency for Troy Davis. But despite our appeal, on September 21, 2011, Troy was executed. Two years later, our collective efforts to challenge the death penalty…
That’s right, friends, like all of our troubles, gravity comes in waves. For us earthlings they are so subtle that we don’t feel them and so on Earth gravity seems comfortably stable. Far out in space though, black holes and neutron stars spiraling out of control produce waves in the…
“Awareness is two steps ahead. Paranoia is two steps behind.” —Kim Marks, forest activist; Beyond Bullets: The Suppression of Dissent in the United States by Jules Boykoff (2007) In 2011, after years of activism led to a fabricated assault charge at a police brutality protest and relentless harassment, I filed…
Maybe next year… It’s hard not to feel discouraged. In December 2013, Washington State’s Climate Legislative and Executive Workgroup (CLEW), created by the 2013 Washington State Legislature to develop “a state program of actions and policies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions,” presented their opposing sets of recommendations—and now that…
The power of symbols A society without toilet paper is a society in trouble, we all agree with that. Not having access to such a basic commodity of modern life suggests an uncomfortable place where scarcity reigns, futile long lines at supermarkets with empty shelves, wide spread poverty, unhappiness on…