In support of Palestine and farmworkers On May 31, 2016, students at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington voted overwhelmingly to endorse resolutions expressing support for freedom and equality for Palestinians and labor justice for migrant workers at Sakuma Bros farm in northern Washington State. The three resolutions asked…
Posts published in “Year: 2016”
(for those departed and surviving in Orlando and everywhere) I am struggling now to comprehend how I still have one after all the opportunities I’ve had to die with my hands at the wheel after too many drinks in bars while I waited to become my uncloseted self.…
I might add a few words to Wes Prang’s “What we love…” [published in the June 2016 issue]. Not only is it for love of money that we must forbear, it is the addiction to power that serves its purpose. I speak not of the power of Government, although tattered…
Annual effort honors South Sound women and a business making positive impact in the community (OLYMPIA) – They have changed policy. They have increased access to education. They have stood in the face of adversity. They have empowered women. They are Women & Businesses of Achievement. YWCA Olympia is…
I want to provide some validity to the possible legal arguments of claims for Roger Calhoon and also Steven Wayne Tafoya, who is also waiting trial in our Thurston County Jail for driving without a license. I first became intrigued by Roger’s plight due to the possible denial of a…
For twenty-four years in a side yard in bucolic Ashfield, MA, my friend Jan Freeman has held a sacred ritual on the 4th of July outside her home, which also serves as the headquarters for Paris Press, a homegrown publishing mecca she founded for the sole purpose of putting and…
Evergreen Faculty Commencement Address — Spring 2016 Good afternoon, I would like to begin by sharing a poem. While I am not the author of this poem, the poem resonates with me in a particular way, I offer it today as a lens for understanding the content of what I…
Call from a tree One of the reasons I supported Bernie Sanders’ bid to be president was the clarity with which he said we have to address climate change. In late June, a federal district judge in Wyoming, Judge Scott W. Skavdahl, overturned the Department of the Interior’s ban…
Recently (June 6), one of the Downtown Strategy Meetings that the City Council and Mayor do, was disrupted by us. We wrote this up as a way to explain why we did this as well as expand the narrative outside of the article that The Olympian put out. The city of…
Stopping the refugees One of the main factors cited for the June 24 vote by UK citizens to leave the European Union (EU) was the feeling that neither the EU nor the UK could manage the flow of immigrants into the EU. Given the EU’s incompetent, ad hoc, and often…
“Why are we using the word Palestinian? There’s no such thing as a Palestinian person,” Brooke Goldstein declared to enthusiastic applause at a meeting of key Israel lobby operatives in New York in June. [A video of her statement can found on The Eletronic Intifada website.] Goldstein is the director…
How to prevent fossil fuel train derailments The following is a prepared statement to the Port of Vancouver Commissioners on June 14, 2016. I’m here to address three people as you approach a decision. I do so as the current local incident commander on what for my community is still…
Business-backed lawsuit filed to halt Tacoma ballot initiatives Two local business organizations, together with the Port of Tacoma, have joined in a lawsuit to halt the ballot efforts of Save Tacoma Water, a citizen conservation group. In addition, the plaintiffs ask that Save Tacoma Water be ordered to pay the…
Those killed–28 males,10 females and two unidentified persons–were generally young. Male victims had an average age of 29 and females had an average age of 31. Twenty-five of the males were 25 years old or younger. Five of the ten females were 25 years old or younger. Three were 60…
Olympians arrested in Anacortes opposing climate change and fossil fuels: Twenty-one Olympia area climate activists with Olympia Confronts the Climate Crisis went to protest fossil fuel expansion at Tesoro Refinery...
Comments on presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s malodorous feminism Learning from others is anti-American, even if it could benefit women Occasionally Hillary Clinton is inclined to tell the truth. One of those sparse occasions took place in the early 90’s when she reassured Larry King that “there is no Left in…
This year, Olympia can seize the rare opportunity to address income inequality, increase revenue, and fund higher education for our community. The initiative, Opportunity for Olympia, would provide at least one year of community college tuition, or the equivalent towards public, in-state university tuition for all high school graduates or…
After all the lessons history has taught us, people unthinkingly continue to trample the rights of their neighbors. Doing the right thing requires effort to learn what the right thing is. The struggle of any working people is a concern for all working people. On May first, while all the…
Ten years ago this month, a boycott against Ralph’s and Bayview began after numerous Olympia women had prescriptions for Plan B refused at Ralph’s Pharmacy. Despite more than 20 complaints filed with the Board of Pharmacy, dozens of protests outside the store, the promulgation of state pharmacy regulations guaranteeing patient…
Is the system working? Editorial note: The following is approved as a statement from the local Green Party. Bernie Sanders has proposed the most progressive program we have heard in many years, including more taxes for the rich, taxes on Wall Street transactions, reducing the size of banks, free college…
“In time of crisis, we summon up our strength.” So begins the introduction to poet, activist, and journalist Muriel Rukeyser’s 1949 manifesta The Life of Poetry....
Social Justice: We oppose systemic global injustice and poverty. We seek universal health care, fair payment for work, equitable drug laws and corrections to many other wrongs that exist today. Grassroots Democracy: The influence of big business and big government combined is undermining genuine democracy. To help overcome this, we…
There was a march and rally of 150 to 200 people in the rain, May 21, 2016 from Woodruff Park to Olympia City Hall and back. We took the streets. This is the text of my talk in front of City Hall....
Tacoma – Imagine that you had to flee from your own country to a completely new place to find a new job. Once you got settled into the country, you ran a red light or made an illegal left turn. For most Americans, and especially for most white Americans, this…
Bingen, WA – Insitu is a local Washington subsidiary of Boeing, whose main purpose is to produce ScanEagle drones, which provide intelligence to the U.S. Army in countries like Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan—specifically the province of Waziristan. Schools, hospitals, and neighborhoods have been attacked by the larger Boeing X-45,…