I participated in “The Stones Cry Out Solidarity Delegation from Palestine to Washington, D.C.” in March 2024. The delegation included twenty-three American Christians from twelve different denominations across the United States. Although most were pastors, I am a layperson. The first act of love is to listen, so in Palestine…
Works in Progress
I was recently working in a 6th grade classroom when a student told me that they tried to end their life the night before. I was the first adult they shared that with that day. Not because we had any rapport, but because the counseling office had sent them back…
A State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) was open for public comment for the removal of contaminated sediments at the former Dunlap Towing Company on 2003 West Bay Drive NW. The Dunlap remediation site is north of the proposed West Bay Yards project just past Tugboat Annie’s and West Bay Marina.…
Imagine how you would feel if your child was shot in the back by a city employee. Imagine the fear, anger, and disillusionment of learning that a police officer, whose job is to protect people, has shot and disabled two of your children. How would you expect your community to…
“The first thing you need to know. People hold the fate of Adams garden in their hands”, so said our tour guide. A drive through rural Thurston County took us past wet meadows, grazed fields, some ‘overgrown swamps’. At several stops, a verdant green landscape of grass and wetlands stretched…
In the September 2018 edition of Works in Progress, longtime Olympia resident, sailor, and ecological activist Harry Branch lamented recent decisions by the Olympia Hearing Examiner on appeals by the Olympia Urban Waters League (OUWL). OUWL was fighting a large development in the heart of the historic Moxlie Creek Estuary,…
(Click on images to view full-size) Originally published by the War Resisters League. For more information on War Tax Resistance, visit https://www.warresisters.org/
Charles Mitchell and the Puget Sound Underground Railroad. Olympia Center—April 20. 1 pm. When 13 years old, Mitchell escaped enslavement in Olympia in 1860 by traveling by steamer from Olympia to Victoria, B. C. via the Puget Sound Underground Railroad. Author Dr. Lorraine McConaghy will offer an illustrated program followed…
Whatcom Million Trees Project is leading an effort to prohibit the sale of ivy in Washington State. Their petition to the Washington State Department of Agriculture can be found at https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/stop-selling-english-ivy-in-washington If thousands sign the petition, the WSDA board may add ivy to the WSDA Prohibited Plants and Seeds List…
In the March 2024 issue of WIP, Betsy Norton and Sue Danver published an article asking readers to comment on four proposed Thurston County items for the 2024-2025 Comprehensive Plan Docket. In all four cases the landowners were requesting a rezone from Rural Residential/Resource (RRR) to Rural Resource Industrial (RRI)…
Environmental groups like Black Hills Audubon Society, Restoring Earth Connections and Whatcom Million Trees were overjoyed when on March 15, 2024, Governor Inslee signed into law ESB 6120, “concerning wildland urban interface”. The new law requires property owners to use ignition-resistant materials and methods for new and existing residences if…