“Climate” refers to the average weather conditions in an area over a long period of time, usually 30-years. Our weather and climate have been warming over time. As our region’s climate warms, more precipitation will fall as rain than snow. This means watersheds that were snow-dominated are likely to become…
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“What are you going to do? You should know or at least figure it out. What are you going to do now to protect future generations?” Aji Piper, 17, Seattle, asked the audience. A landmark lawsuit As the keynote speaker at the day-long South Sound Climate Action Convention held in…
Gandhi once said “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” That quote is very meaningful to me, because nothing happens when you sit around, hoping, that change will come. If you want something to change, you need to take that into your own hands. You…
Is this a moment? Or is this a movement? 1865. The 13th amendment, abolishing slavery in our country forever was passed. This was a movement. 1870. The 15th amendment, giving all male citizens the right to vote regardless of race, in our country, was passed. This was a movement. 1920.…
Their rights, our lives He roared right past me with an AR-15 flag on the back of his motorcycle. Then he turned off Capitol Way into the State Capitol grounds. I decided to follow him. There were about 2000 mainly white guys with rifles on their backs or draped down…
This year, we commemorate the fifty-year anniversary of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination, but 2018 also marks fifty years since Dr. King and many others launched the Poor People’s Movement in 1968. The Poor People’s Movement strove to connect issues of poverty and inequality to issues of systemic…
From news releases This Mother’s Day the National Bail Fund Network is again bailing out mamas in cities around the country to give incarcerated mothers an opportunity to spend Mother’s Day with their families. National Mama’s Bail Out Day is a coordinated effort by more than a dozen organizations to…
A May Day message from Mother Jones Really, I am just an old Irish working-class woman, born in Cork, Ireland sometime around 1830. Later, I launched into Labors’ cause. I declared my birthday as May 1, because of its relevance to the labor demonstration of May 1886 at Haymarket Square in Chicago. That event…
[Note: This is the conclusion from a “context statement” on single-family residential development in Olympia, up to 1975. It was prepared by Peter Meijer, Architects and submitted to the City of Olympia in August 2015. As stated in the conclusion, “This document may help prompt the appreciation and preservation of…
On a cool, clear Saturday morning I was chopping wood. Chips and splinters sprayed when a neighbor peered over my fence in greeting. I welcomed him with dirt speckled face—an axe thrust over my shoulder. He looked around; seeing the pile of split timber and my sweaty brow he congratulated…
Our long-loved local company, Boeing, is a world leader in producing commercial airplanes. Less well known to Washingtonians is its extensive role in producing military hardware, especially nuclear weapons (perhaps because most of this work goes on in Utah and Ohio). Bigger and better for the 21st century Since 1958,…
“Israel is carrying out a murderous assault against protesting Palestinians, with its armed forces killing and maiming demonstrators who pose no imminent threat to them,” Amnesty International said on Friday as thousands of Palestinians taking part in Great March of Return rallies in Gaza faced Israeli bullets for the fifth…
From MSF news release, 19 April 2018. [From April 1 through April 19] MSF teams in Gaza, Palestine, provided post-operative care to more than 500 people injured by gunshots during the March of Return demonstrations. The number of patients treated in our clinics over the last three weeks is more than…
An interview with Peter Bohmer, conducted in late March, 2018 Matt: What are your thoughts about Trump’s selection of Mike Pompeo, John R. Bolton, and Gina Haspel for his cabinet? Peter: Going back to January 2017, I’ve been concerned about the Trump administration going to war with Iran and/or North…
The theme for this issue is “collective memory.” We’ve tried to include a variety of stories that touch on memory – a memory that lives through an activist community today (Rachel Corrie); how there are echoes of memory in the present (Carpenters); how we forget things and need to be reminded…
Victory Celebration Thursday, April 5, 6 to 9 PM. Gaiser Hall, Clark College. 1933 Fort Vancouver Way, Vancouver, WA. Celebrate the defeat of an oil and coal terminal, Music theater by Holcombe Waller exploring the 2016 Mosier train derailment. Heat Shimmer Erina Cedar Sap: A Safeplace Benefit Show Friday, April…
Zahid Chaudhry can stay home. On March 12, Judge Paul DeFonzo restored Zahid Chaudhry to the legal resident status he had been granted in 2001. Thus ends a 17-year saga of mistreatment and frustration during which Ann and Zahid Chaudhry and a large group of faithful supporters persevered in their…
It was standing room only at a March 19 hearing on a set of Community Planning & Development (CP&D) changes to Olympia’s residential zoning code. Well over 200 people squeezed into the City Hall council chambers, then crowded into the foyer outside. 140 of them signed up to tell Planning…
The Thurston-Santo Tomás Sister County Association is pleased to announce the upcoming visit of Marily Aguilar, Yessenia Solís, Elvis Aguilar, and Cruz Murillo as the 12th community delegation since 1990, in the spirit of hermanamiento. Our sister relationship dates back to the late 80s when members of the Olympia Construction…
Here in the South Sound, we are surrounded by beautiful forests and clear running streams. Wildlife abounds on land and water. We have clean air and bountiful food. So what could be wrong? If you look beneath the surface all is not well. If you ask people who have lived…
If food waste were a country, it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, after Russia and the US. At the same time, one of every six Americans is hungry. Forty percent of the food grown in the United States is wasted. This just doesn’t add up. Lowering…
[Ed. Note: The following comment was submitted as a letter; it responds to the March opinion piece by Marco Rossi, “Olympia’s Missing Middle.” Rossi’s piece elicited more comments on the online WIP than any other in recent memory. Please visit olywip.org to read all the comments.] Dear WIP, I am…
A Missing Middle neighborhood is Olympia’s Eastside. Most of our blocks don’t have curbs, only a few streets have sidewalks, mail is not delivered to our front porches, we have a shortage of park space. The neighborhood has plenty of apartments, duplexes, ADUs, townhouses, cottages—reminders of various zoning experiments the…
February 15, 2018 marked the fifteenth anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq. As we enter another year in which permanent war seems to run as a faint background noise, it may help to be reminded of some very dark realities. The cost of our wars since 2001 totals at…
March 9th, 2018, State Capitol – The March for Science is a global organization that advocates for evidence-based science policies that serve all communities. On April 14, we will continue to use the momentum of last year’s march to hold our political leaders accountable for passing equitable, evidence-based policies that…
On March 8th, Olympia Urban Waters League appealed the City of Olympia’s decision to issue a determination of non-significance (DNS) for the Westman Mill development. Nothing about this SEPA DNS addresses the impacts on the impaired waters of the East Bay estuary or Indian and Moxlie Creeks, despite a preponderance…
The Third Annual South Sound Climate Action Convention returns in 2018 for another energized, educational and thoughtful program to share with community members interested in taking action on climate. The Convention will be held Saturday, April 14th from 9:30 am to 5 pm at the South Puget Sound Community College.…