Posts published in “Uncategorized”

April is an auspicious month for those of us who have marched in the wars against Capital. I proudly recall the spring showers that carpenters brought to St. Louis building sites in the spring of 1880. During that era, the nation’s job sites filled with piece-workers, green hands, and untrained…

“The war in Korea has already almost destroyed that nation of 20,000,000 people. I have never seen such devastation. I have seen, I guess, as much blood and disaster as any living man, and it just curdled my stomach the last time I was there. After I looked at the…

Since October 2017, the #MeToo movement has revealed patterns of endemic sexual harassment and misconduct by powerful men in government, the entertainment industry and the media. The firings of Harvey Weinstein, Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose, Garrison Keillor and many others were widely celebrated as victories for survivors of workplace abuse.…

[Continued from the article of the same title in the March issue] Solar Radiation Management (SRM) affects the planet unequally. Positive affects could occur in one geographic area and negative affects in another. In 2008, Alan Robock, a prominent critic of solar geoengineering and his colleagues published a study in…

The April 2018 interview on “Glen’s Parallax Perspectives” explores an important aspect of the climate crisis that has been largely neglected.  If people pay attention to this aspect, we can protect the climate and also save ourselves from serious financial losses. The climate crisis has forced the world to start…

The Nashville Parthenon, a startlingly exact replica of the original in Athens, is often regarded both by Nashvillians and our visitors as just another quirky roadside attraction somewhere in middle America . The Nashville Parthenon comes as a bit of a surprise to the country music tourists for which Nashville is…

History is never as enlightening as when it is told by the women and men who made it. This is certainly the case with the memoir by Jo Ann Gibson Robinson entitled The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It. This book tells of the extraordinary Montgomery, Ala.…

Dan Deering, President             Olympia Master Builders/ Affordable Housing Council 1211 State Avenue NE Olympia, Washington 98506 Re: Advocacy: “Getting Down and Dirty”   Dear President Deering, I am writing for two reasons. First, I wish to know who is responsible for a mailer sent from the “Affordable Housing Council of…

Working Washington has heard a lot of complaints (and received a lot of reports) about businesses which have recently added small 1%—5% “minimum wage” surcharges to their bills in what seems to be an attempt to send a political message about their opposition to raising the wage. A list of…

[Editor’s note:  In the spring of 1979, a group of organizers came together to form The Citizens Party, with the intention of creating a new national political party that would enter candidates in the 1980 elections. They issued this call in August 1979. That December they declared themselves The Citizens…

The pursuit of happiness was our theme for this issue. We were guided in our thinking on that topic by Martin Luther King Jr., who said ““[If] a man doesn’t have a job or an income, he has neither life nor liberty nor the possibility for the pursuit of happiness.…

Valve turner Michael Foster was sentenced in Cavalier, ND on February 6, 2018, to three years in prison, with two years suspended. He was taken into custody immediately after the sentencing hearing. Sam Jessup, who was providing support for Foster during the action, was sentenced two years with both years…

Throughout the month of January, while millions of children’s health care under the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) teetered on the brink and millions more undocumented immigrants (Dreamers) awaited threatened deportation, Congress dithered, shut down the government for three days and still remained split on government spending for 2018. Republicans…

Olympia Urban Waters League (OUWL) is dedicated to restoring the creeks and streams that are presently polluted pipe-bound drains. Daylight is necessary to cleanse surface water. Our goal: clean water for Olympia—The Venice of the Northwest. Olympia historically was a major Puget Sound mudflat and as such, was a contributor…

Community Police Forum Saturday, March 3, 10 AM to 1 PM, at Olympia High School, 1302 North St. SE, Performing Arts Center. On implementing the new police programs that were voted in last November: increasing the Walking Patrol Team; creating a Neighborhood Police Team; and creating a Mental Health Response…

YWCA Olympia is deeply saddened and disturbed by the death of Vaneesa L. Hopson after being “chemically restrained” by Olympia paramedics in the early morning of February 7, 2018. Vaneesa’s tragic death highlights the intersections of gendered violence, class, policing, and the use of excessive force against individuals with substance…

On March 12, 2018 from noon to 12:40 pm, a rally will be held in Seattle in support of Olympia local Zahid Chaudry, who faces deportation. We will gather at 1000 2nd Ave, Seattle, WA in front of Immigration executive ‘court’ building. Zahid’s hearing will begin promptly at 1:00 pm,…

Finding enlightenment and environmental leadership inside prison walls   In my professional life, my most satisfying experiences have been inside prisons. As part of a team of 10-12 staff of The Evergreen State College, I work with incarcerated individuals and corrections staff members in dozens of ecological conservation and environmental…

The paramilitary organization known as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE or La Migra, which terrorizes immigrant families, is aggressively targeting undocumented people nationwide for deportation. ICE must be further exposed as the destructive force that is has always been since its inception in 2003. No undocumented immigrant is safe from…

Stephanie Johnson, Arts & Events manager, City of Olympia The City of Olympia Parks, Arts & Recreation’s Poet Laureate Program and Intercity Transit are launching a new collaborative project, “Poetry Rides the Bus.” Through this project, transit riders have the opportunity to discover 22 different poems, written by local community…

An election whose outcome that will determine the direction of an important but usually unnoticed local agency   The Thurston County Conservation District (TCCD) is one of those organizations that can go along for years doing their work with little notice by anyone other than those directly affected.  But at…

The Olympia Planning Commission’s Missing Middle plan has been met with unnecessary controversy. By allowing alternative dwelling units (ADUs), tiny houses, and duplexes in new neighborhoods, Olympia is able to deal with two critical issues at once. The first is driving down the costs of housing by alleviating the city’s…

The first year of the Trump presidency witnessed a promotion of White nationalism within dominant governing circles and an acceleration in policies to further dispossess the poor and middle classes (the 99%) of resources to benefit bloated arms contractors and the already extravagantly rich (the 1%). Revealed in open view…

I wasn’t planning on writing a eulogy this winter. But life and death wait for no writer, least of all me. Ursula LeGuin was someone who I never had the pleasure to meet but consider a mentor with an inestimably profound influence on my life and growth from a very…

The State House took a big step forward on equal pay this year with a strong vote to pass the Equal Pay Opportunity Act. Then a Senate committee quickly voted to move the bill forward too. But since then, no further action has been taken. There’s broad-based support for the equal…

From the annals of folk wisdom One day, a buyer came to a town looking for raccoons! He announced that he would buy raccoons for $100 each. The people of the town thought, this guy is crazy. Why would somebody buy wild raccoons at $100 each? Still, some of the…