“You can’t be an environmentalist and consume animal products, period. Kid yourself if you want. If you want to feed your addiction, so be it, but don’t call yourself an environmentalist.” I was born in 1957, and I grew up on the Standard American Diet (SAD). My diet was characterized…
Works in Progress
Olympia is fortunate to have long-time institutions that have for many years served the progressive needs of this community. Three of these are The Evergreen State College (TESC), Traditions Cafe and World Folk Art, and the Olympia Food Co-op (OFC). TESC continues to give us graduates who infuse creative liveliness…
Green Cove Watershed could be the most cherished stream in South Puget Sound. Olympia offers art shows to promote “the importance of salmon to our community.” The Evergreen State College cultivates “creative, critical thinkers … for environmental work and leadership.” However, if I want to understand stewardship, I listen to…
It’s been 42 years since my husband and I fell in love while starting the first recycling center in the small town of Colville. People liked to do their part and brought us their stuff — from native born “rednecks” or the back to the land “hippies” who recently moved…
The political reality in which we reside is government of, for and by special interests. Today, the essence of government is that of a support system for a corporate welfare capitalism. At the federal level in Washington DC, we see that corporate lobbyists have become the regulators of their client…
In Thurston County we are experiencing what happens when market forces drive up the price of housing, leaving most people of ordinary means, as well as those one might think impoverished in the dust. We see people living on the street. We see grown–up children who can’t afford to buy…