I grew up right here in Grays Harbor County, Washington. I am a proud member of the working-class. I come from working-class timber workers. My dad was a log-truck driver and my step-dad a millwright and a saw filer. My grandfather was also a saw filer. I’m a nurse. Our…
Posts published in “Issue: July 2020”
Not all unintended consequences are alike It’s no surprise that we live in a world of unintended consequences. Yet we rarely stop to think that our very existence as humans is nothing but the result of a long chain of events in the material world which, combined with the laws…
Workers who struck for better protection in the Yakima apple sheds have died from COVID 19... WIPs story about rent reform was confirmed when the Fed painted a grim view for the economy... Thurston's public safety officers jailed blacks at 5.9 times the rate of the white population in 2019... Transmountain pipeline spilled 50 gallons of oil just across the Canadian border.
Police department budgets in Thurston County’s main cities have been increased year to year. at least for the past few years. Funding for police departments in Olympia, Lacey and Tumwater are now approaching a quarter of the general fund. In some cases, the department received additional roles and responsibilities. Tumwater,…
Dear Editor, I am a faithful reader but could not find a definition of “social housing,” which occurred in a number of articles. If you or one of your staff could offer a definition, I’d be much obliged. As a retired fishery biologist, I write to those in power about…
In the spring and fall each year the Community Sustaining Fund (CSF) accepts applications for grants up to $1000 for projects meeting certain criteria intended to fulfill its mission. Usually, around 6-10 individuals or groups apply for grant funding for their projects each cycle, held twice a year. The Spring…
Hundreds of people contacted their mayor to demand removal of Olympia police officers who thanked a group of armed men organized to “defend” a gun store and cited state laws against allowing gun-wielding individuals to intimidate citizens. Many messages described situations where police intervention made situations worse, listed desired reforms, and called for shifting funds from police to social services.
An open letter to Cheryl Selby, Mayor of Olympia: Mayor Selby, your description of the incident wherein protesters spray-painted “BLM” on your house as “like domestic terrorism” is a boot in the face to actual victims of domestic terrorism. I mean really and truly, Mayor Selby? Having your house spray-painted is like the Boston Marathon bombing?
The use of chemical weapons for crowd control no longer will be an option, at least for now, for the Olympia Police Department and for the Washington State Patrol officers who work in the state Capitol.
The key ingredient of tear gas is actually a solid powder. To use the gas, you need a dispersal agent, such as the solvent methylene chloride, to carry the particles through the air. A typical tear gas grenade contains a variety of additional chemicals for heat dispersal of the irritant.…
It is estimated by the US Bureau of National Affairs that “…the dollar cost of corporate crime is over twenty times greater than the combined larcenies, thefts, robberies, and burglaries committed by individuals.”
It is time to make Juneteenth a national legal holiday to celebrate the abolition of slavery in the United States. June 19, 1865 was the day General Gordon Granger rode into Galveston, Texas, and announced that enslaved people were now free. He read General Order #3 which states “The people…
You died under the knee Of white revenge warlords enforcing imaginary utopian hopes and dreams with The reality of racial capitalism. Carrot on a stick, the White capitalists lure. Conscripting black And white working masses. Selling the false narrative, Commodifying black and brown Dreams in endless spirals. Promising utopias unleashed…
April 16, 1862: Congress outlawed slavery in the District of Columbia and the Western Territories, paying money to people who considered themselves slaveowners for the loss of their “property.” President Lincoln recommended that newly freed people emigrate to Haiti or Liberia, since he believed that both “races” suffered when they…
It turns out that reform hasn’t worked: more training; lethal holds; new guidelines for use-of-force, new leadership; more training. These reforms assume that the police are neutrally enforcing a set of laws that are beneficial to everyone. Instead of questioning the validity of using police to wage an inherently racist…
A reader reports Anabolic steroid use by law enforcement officers has been identified by numerous organizations and researchers as a factor in the increasing aggression and violence of police. Derived from the hormone testosterone, steroids have been a controlled substance since 1990, ostensibly available only by prescription. Sought for their…
As millions of people take to the streets to protest racism and police violence, voices of the Right—both its fascist and corporate incarnations—cry out to blame a favorite bogeyman, the “outside agitator.”
The image of far-right groups as just hooded Klansmen or goose stepping Nazis is seriously outdated, and dangerously minimizes the real threat of fascism.
An exchange between Angela Davis and Amy Goodman
The era of dam building is over for a reason. Take the Wynoochee River, a tributary of the Chehalis River. The US Army Corps of Engineers dammed it in 1970. The government promised that the dam would “improve river conditions” for salmon during hot summers. Instead, runs of wild salmon…
A comparison table of the three police departments, plus links to download the city agreements with the police officers' guilds
In addition to the vigils, marches and protests taking place daily in the streets and parks of Olympia after the death of George Floyd, groups and organizations throughout our area found ways to make clear that they want the Black Lives Matter movement to continue; to grow and succeed. Here…
Orca Books Solidarity Co-op ♦ BlackoutDay ♦ Students Stay Woke ♦ Olympia Coalition to Abolish Nuclear Weapons ♦ Primary candidate forums ♦ Rachel Corrie Foundation ♦ more....