One Person, No Vote by Carol Anderson Bloomsbury Books (2018) “The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.” – Joltin’ Joe Stalin Voter suppression, that is, preventing citizens from registering, preventing registered voters from voting, and preventing the accurate counting of cast…
Posts published by “Jeff Angus”
On December 1st, thousands of people took to the streets of Mexico City to celebrate the inauguration of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador as the new president of the Mexican Republic. This took place after one of the longest transitions in recent history. For 6 months after the June 1 election,…
The first International Conference against US/NATO Military Bases was held on November 16-18, 2018 at Liberty Hall in Dublin, Ireland. The conference was attended by close to 300 participants from over thirty-five countries. Speakers represented countries from all continents, including Cuba, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, United States, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Greece,…
January marks the beginning of a new year for Works in Progress, our volunteers and our readers. We continue to look for new members of the team that each month pulls together stories and photos that make up another issue of this local, print news journal....
When rumors circulated that Olympia would install an ice rink on the isthmus once county buildings were demolished, no one could fathom it. But on November 16, a rink opened across from Bayview grocery. It turns out that it’s a temporary, seasonal rink built, installed, equipped and operated by a…
You can’t say ‘hereafter’ without saying ‘here’. The role of faith in our nation’s politics and governance has long been contested, even though the separation between church and state is a founding principle. In practice, the two, religion and governance, have always been intertwined. We might want to explore what that means by asking what we would be doing if we were a “Christian nation.” And then to contrast that with the direction that religion has prescribed for us....
Gentrification, homelessness and the battle for public space -- On August 24, 2018, Olympia Parks, Recreation and Arts Director Paul Simmons made the dramatic and apparently unilateral decision to shutter the Artesian Commons Park. The park is a small, asphalt-covered area featuring tables and a basketball hoop and devoid of green space. It also contains Olympia’s Artesian Well, a natural spring, which remains open....
The Parliament of the World’s Religions is the oldest, largest, most diverse and inclusive global interfaith event. The Parliament was created to cultivate harmony among the world’s religious and spiritual communities and to foster their engagement with the world and its guiding institutions to achieve a just, peaceful, and sustainable…
Here in the US, the Oregon-based nonprofit, Our Children’s Trust is suing to force states and the federal government to take action on climate change. In that lawsuit, 21 activists aged 9 to 20 argue that the federal government’s actions violate their constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property, and the government has violated its obligation to hold certain natural resources in trust for future generations. In Washington State, petitioners aged 12 to 16 years old asked a judge to require the state Department of Ecology to come up with science-based numeric emissions reductions. That case awaits a ruling by King County Superior Court Judge Hollis Hill....
Darlingtonia, Alba Roja Left Bank Books, 2017 Darlingtonia is a mystery reimagined for the 21st Century. There’s a classic opening with a dead body and a person who doesn’t figure in the story. The main character, Dylan, is a graphic artist in the advertising department of OingoBoingo, a company with…
The national discussion about reforming our health care system is all about ending Obamacare (or not), adopting a “single payer”approach, or leaving things to the “marketplace.” No part of that discussion addresses the reality that we hardly have a healthcare “system” at all. Instead, we have big insurance companies, private…
No more executions by the state of Washington:
In the February 2018 WIP, Glen Anderson argued that the death penalty makes problems worse, and called for its abolition. On October 11 our Supreme Court ruled the state death penalty statute unconstitutional on the grounds of racial bias...
The Thurston County Public Defense Office and the Thurston County Jail are collaborating on a project to replace the depleted accumulation of worn and torn books now stored in the jail library. A jail without a library is like a bookshelf without books! From now through December 10, 2018 you…
Storytellers, movie makers, panels and workshops, oh my! The Olympia Film Society presents its 35th Annual Film Festival November 9-17, 2018. The theme this year revolves around “Inclusion, Independence, Discovery.” OFS has curated over 50 features and shorts created by a diverse range of filmmakers and artists, with fresh new…
Sing, Unburied, Sing (Charles Scribner & Sons, 2018), by Jessamyn Ward. Jesmyn Ward pens an account of the living and the dead in her latest novel, Sing, Unburied, Sing, set in the heart of what was once home to slavery, Jim Crow and sharecropping. The story takes place in the…
It was 1988 and I was working out of the Carpenters’ Hall in Olympia after clearing my book into Olympia Local 1148 from Tacoma Local 470. I was proud to be working out of the Olympia Carpenters’ Hall not only because it was my hometown, but also because I understood…
This month’s TV program and blog post for “Glen’s Parallax Perspectives” contrasts the worldview (greed, corruption, cruelty, oppression, etc.) that currently dominates the U.S.’s public policies with the opposite worldview that would be humane, compassionate, fair to everyone, peaceful, honest, supportive of democracy, and environmentally sustainable. Most Americans want this…
“Abolish ICE” has become a rallying cry for people who have watched in horror as thousands of migrant families have been separated and detained at our southern border in recent weeks. It has been characterized as “bold” and “radical” by some, but I argue that it doesn’t go far enough.…
“Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life,” they say. That has proven to be a challenging rule of thumb to implement, in my opinion. Since the time I was young, I’ve wanted to be a singer/songwriter. As I aged, I pursued the craft in…
A reflection on collective action needed to solve a problem that affects us in common I see the effects of climate change first hand. My people, who’ve lived next to the mouth of the Quinault River for many generations, are now having to relocate the entire lower village to higher…
There are currently bipartisan bills in both Houses of Congress to cut off US participation in the war Each day since Oct. 2, new evidence has emerged that the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a resident of Virginia, was a premeditated murder. At the same time, it is…
Want to get your name in the paper? There’s an easy way: contribute to Works in Progress! There are lots of ways, big or small, we need them all. (Even poetry is welcome, you see.) Since Works in Progress (WIP) is a free, all-volunteer community newspaper with a mission to…