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Works in Progress

Development Myths

Development.  What does this word even mean? We see it thrown around a lot these days in a variety of different contexts and topics. Fetuses develop. Parents follow their child’s sequential achievements to check its “normal” development. Film develops. Constructing new buildings is also considered development. Yet, the original definition…

The Hidden Costs of Development and the Future of Olympia

I live in North East Olympia, where we were recently informed of a development project called Springwood Gardens that would destroy a beloved parcel of forest and farmland and replace it with 39 McMansions and three new roads. The project is called Springwood Gardens. Neighbors received a vague letter detailing…

Your Input Is Needed to Improve Draft Comprehensive Plans

Right now jurisdictions in Thurston County are updating their Comprehensive Plans. Each jurisdiction’s Comprehensive Plan will guide policy and projects for the next ten to twenty years. The updates are a once in a decade project designed to reflect changing community expectations and changes as required by the Washington Growth…

Family Caregiving – A Work of the Heart

Life is full of joy and woe and when this we rightly know Safely through the world we’ll go (from William Blake) Every Wednesday for 6 weeks a small group of strangers unburdened their hearts and shared their personal lives on Zoom bound by a common experience. They were all…

Forging an Evergreen Future for Washington’s Imperiled Forests

As Washington prepares to officially adopt “The Evergreen State” as its nickname, it’s impossible to ignore the irony of this commonly used description for our corner of the Pacific Northwest while gazing out over mile after mile of muddy brown clearcut wasteland. While the timber industry will claim “it will…

Then This Happened – Updates on Clearcut Legacy Forest in Olympia

In the September 2022 issue of WIP, we wrote about the 25 acres of legacy forest adjoining the the Cooper Crest green space on Olympia’s Westside that were clearcut despite considerable community opposition. The land, previously slated for development, was sold to Silvimantle LLC, investors who anxious to take advantage…

Then This Happened – Where Things Stand with the Everett Watershed Rights Lawsuit

As many of you know, Standing for Nature (the 501c3 organization affiliated with Standing for Washington) has intervened in a lawsuit filed earlier this year by development and business interests—including the Master Builders Association—seeking to overturn Everett Initiative 24-03, the voter-approved ordinance recognizing the rights of the Snohomish River Watershed…

Community Sustaining Fund of Thurston County Spring 2025 grant applications

Announcement Calling all Changemakers! The Community Sustaining Fund of Thurston County (CSF) is accepting Spring 2025 grant applications beginning March 17 through April 28 for creative and impactful applications that meet our grant criteria. Funding criteria and applications available at: https://thurstoncsf.org/oly-food-co-op-connection/ How to Support Established in 1987, CSF has regularly…

Fighting For(ward)

The cynics of the world say there are no wins in fighting “for”: elections are swayed by “against,” by pitting patriots with snarling teeth against the so-called aliens, by splitting towns, by blaming sick and poor by ripping hearts free of the weeds they used to know as “kindness.” But…

What Nonviolent Tactics to Use in This Moment: Part I

We on the left are having a hard time knowing what to do in this particular and hugely significant moment. Emotionally we perch somewhere between still being in shock, the bargaining stage of grief that does not want to believe that this is really what is happening – to being incapacitated by…

What Nonviolent Tactics to Use in This Moment: Part II

Part I is available here. On April 1, Cory Booker very movingly said in his marathon speech before the Senate, “The Constitution is only a piece of paper unless we live it and protect it.”  We are all the way fully into Constitutional crisis in the past week as the…

Everything That Doesn’t Matter

Originally Published by PeaceVoice I need some help here. The Trump presidency and the “America only” future he’s hawking to the public like the world’s most arrogant snake-oil salesman feels beyond my ability to address right now, even though I consider doing so my life’s work. But sometimes the news…

Springtime for Donald and Elon

Originally Published by PeaceVoice Once we depose Trump and deport Musk we can laugh about their greedy corrupt behavior even as we tend to the disastrous damage they did. They will fail, if Americans rise up in massive nonviolent noncooperation. That is a big IF. But the women of Liberia,…

Freedom of Speech: Keeping Sanity Alive

Originally Published by PeaceVoice Freedom of speech is kind of like eggs nowadays – too expensive! For Columbia University, the cost imposed on it by the Trump administration was suddenly $400 million in rescinded federal funding, at least if the speech was pro-Palestinian and critical of Israel. What choice did…

Are We Fine with Empty Seats?

Originally Published by PeaceVoice Not long after the Trump administration took office, my son noticed several empty seats in his sixth-grade classroom. At first, he didn’t understand why his Hispanic classmates were missing. Later, when my wife and I took him to a protest in solidarity with our immigrant community,…

Democracy’s breaking point

Originally Published by PeaceVoice How we lost our rights in the kingdom of Musk-Trump As a person who consumes large amounts of information about peace and conflict in the world, I spend a considerable amount of time talking with people about how the governance of their communities is working. I…