The Testaments picks up fifteen years after Offred leaves readers in the Handmaid’s Tale, and just as Atwood waited and quietly planned to revisit one of her most favored works, Aunt Lydia has been waiting patiently to strike Gilead.
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Wading softly through the mud of Bush Creek, I netted lampreys, crayfish, snails, beetles, worms, and clams. Every so often, someone in our little group of volunteers cheered after netting a Coho salmon fry. We were helping to rescue small aquatic animals in a temporarily dewatered stream. A new culvert…
The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border is a fair and empathetic reflection that illustrates the complexities surrounding the issues on both sides of the US-Mexican border. Francisco Cantu studied International Relations and is familiar with the history and current policies of immigration and border security, but it…
Some people who ride off-road bikes take to the trails in ways that respect the environment and other users. But larger factors are at play in modern mountain biking. A growing industry and its supporters glorify high-risk, environmentally impactful riding practices in order to sell bikes.
Over 2,000 Olympians, students, and other local Washingtonians gathered on the steps of the State Capitol last month to stand united facing the threat of climate change...
Many people don’t realize that the Port of Olympia serves all of Thurston County, that the Port levies property taxes on every property owner, and that everyone in the County can vote for Port Commissioners. Ballots for the 2019 Port election are coming in October. I would like to explain…
Helen Wheatley, Olympia Port Commissioner, District 1 Helen has served on the Hanford Advisory Board, as a team leader in a U.S. Dept of Energy review process regarding cleanup along the Columbia River, and was Vice Chair of the Columbia River and Plateau Committee. Her priorities are to provide fact-based…
We must reject the assumption that our built environment must become one big computer. We should erect barriers against the spread of “smartness” into all of the spaces of our lives. This proposal will no doubt be met with charges of Luddism. Good: Luddism is a label to embrace. The…
The October 2019 interview on “Glen’s Parallax Perspectives” takes a fresh look at some public policy issues that have been pushed hard from conservative Christian viewpoints, showing that those are not the only voices of Christianity. Glen interviews three retired Christian ministers—Paul Wee, Melody Young, and Paul Lundborg—who share faith-based…
This essay appeared as part of an exhibit of photographs presented by the Rachel Corrie Foundation at the Olympia Film Society last year. Luke Somers took the photographs while he lived in Yemen from 2011 to 2014.
October is Conflict Resolution Month. The Dispute Resolution Center of Thurston County is actively seeking volunteers to help resolve conflict, promote civility and create peace in our community. The DRC is a community-based, volunteer–powered non-profit organization dedicated to conflict resolution and prevention in the South Sound. Volunteers can become trained…
“This was an Iranian attack. It’s not the case that you can subcontract out the devastation of 5% of the world’s global energy supply and think you can absolve yourself of responsibilities,” said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on his way to talk with Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.…
It was probably 14 meters long and weighed 15 tons, and towing it to land would be a challenge, but Sau and the other fishermen decided to do it anyway. It took them nearly seven hours to bring it to Mui Ne in Phan Thiet town on the south-central coast.…
A diez meses efectivos del nuevo gobierno la austeridad presupuestal, la violencia, la militarización, las concesiones a Donald Trump, el asambleismo y la religiosidad como cultura de gobierno, son auténticas piedras en el zapato, que pueden trabar avances de la 4aT (Cuarta Transformación) a lo largo de los próximos años.…
Do you believe Mexico is mainly a country of cartels and violence, corrupt cops and federales? A place of desperate poverty where people yearn to escape to the United States? Dusty villages with men dozing under huge sombreros against cactus trees? Or perhaps you see beautiful resorts with gleaming beaches…
Ten months ago Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) was elected for a six-year term as Mexico’s president. Since then, budget austerity, violence, militarization, concessions to Donald Trump, and religiosity as a culture of government are stones in the shoes that could hinder advances in Mexico’s Fourth Transformation (4aT)—the label given…
As fires rage across the Amazon in South America, a result of exploitation by agro-capitalists, Cuba has increased the percentage of its country covered by forest in the past year. Around the world, 7.3 million hectares of land is deforested each year. Brazil is among the worst actors. From only…
It helps to know people. In April, WIP featured a story on the Green Cove Park Project, a housing development proposed in West Olympia on the site of an illegal hazardous waste dump. Neighbors and environmental advocates urged the city to test the site for buried waste, including wood treatment…
The Women theater.. IWW Organizer training... Labor wars of the Northwest... Nutritional Pest Control.... Freedom Socialist Party National Convention... Olympia Food Coop Elections & Annual Meeting... Olympia Coalition to Abolish Nuclear Weapons... Celebrate 10 Years of DERT... What is Socialism... Olympia Tenants Assembly... Thurston LWV Educatin Fund Luncheon... Womxn of Achievement Celebration...
The future is the past in disguise, but it is also constructed from our hopes, wishes, and actions in the present. In other words, as this month’s WIP theme suggests, the future is something we create....
“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…
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…
Trying for another bite of the apple. Last month, WIP reported that the lawyer for the City of Olympia was asking the Growth Management Board to “reconsider” its rejection of the new “Missing Middle” ordinance. The GMHB denied the request, chiding the lawyer for trying to get “a second bite…
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…