Avichay Shalom and Noam Chayut, founding members of Breaking the Silence, the Israeli organization that assembled the Tel Aviv exhibit of photographs and testimonies of Israeli soldiers on patrol in Hebron, will speak at Evergreen on October 27th.

"Breaking the Silence," has assembled what the Washington Post calls "one of the most graphic examples yet of concerns being expressed by influential Israeli soldiers and officers over the tactics and techniques of the armed forces' occupation."

Former Israel Defense Force (IDF) combat soldiers Avichay Sharon and Noam Chayut, both of whom are from Zionist families, will discuss the impact of the Israeli occupation on those charged with enforcing it in a presentation that will showcase many of the images from the widely acclaimed photo exhibit last year taken by Israeli soldiers during their patrols in the West Bank city of Hebron, which the two men helped to put together.

The exhibit includes over 80 photographs taken by soldiers in Hebron--where 450 Jewish settlers live amidst over 100,000 Palestinians--and video interviews of 70 reserve soldiers chronicling the stark and often brutal daily reality of the occupation. The exhibit has been covered extensively in both the American and Israeli media, including stories by the New York Times, CNN, CBS, Haaretz and Maariv.

Beyond the exhibit, Breaking the Silence has gone on to document the testimonials of over 300 reserve soldiers about their experiences serving in the territories during the second Intifada which began five years ago September. To date, these reports have triggered 17 official IDF investigations and one internal disciplinary process.

Please join us for this FREE event. Sponsored by Seattle AFSC and Political Economy and Social Change. For more information call 867-6513.

Evergreen's dedication ceremony took place in April 1972 and provided one of the earliest flashpoints in the town/gown war that would rage for the rest of the decade. Here is my eyewitness account. The ceremony afforded many Olympians their first glimpse of the school. And you have to remember that the 1960s never really happened here. We knew about it from TV, but basically life in this town in the 1960s was really an extension of the 1950s. Evergreen was like an alien ship that landed in our midst, and, as President McCann liked to say, the school, "dragged Olympia kicking and screaming into the 20th century."

On dedication day we arrived at the circle and the first thing we saw was the flag at half mast. The same flag that had been presented to the College a few days earlier by the local VFW. Why was it at half mast? By coincidence, this day was also a national protest against Nixon's Cambodian bombing. This half mast flag alone was worth, and I'm not kidding, a year's worth of angry letters to the editor in the Daily Olympian. Then we walked across Red Square where flamboyantly garbed students handed out flowers and wished us peace. The ceremony took place inside the lobby of the Library Building, with the landing on the stairs acting as a stage. President McCann, as part of the national protest, was wearing a black armband. This was also worth many angry letters from Olympians. Somehow, the fact that Dan Evans, our Republican(!) Governor was also wearing a black armband, was mostly overlooked. Gov. Evans spoke about the dwindling natural resources and our runaway consumerism and how he hoped TESC would be part of the answer in saving the planet. It was a good speech.

At some point in the presentation, students seized the microphone, denounced the War, and then hung an effigy of Nixon off the balcony. It was the first time I heard the words "Right on!" used in public (as I said, Olympia was a bit behind in those days). The city fathers and Olympia pillars of the community who were sitting in the front rows were having cardiac arrests.

From Dreams of Horses:

Ex-Beat Happening & Dub Narcotic System member Calvin Johnson has been integral to the Olympia, WA independent music scene since the early '80s. His new solo album Before the Dream Faded... is being released on K Records this Tuesday.

The site also has a link to an mp3 of one tune off the album.

Update: Another write up of Calvin's new release here.

Christian Coalition compares views of Ira Knight, Jeff Kingsbury

From the Olympian:

In a voter guide put out by a Christian group, City Council candidate Ira Knight is listed as opposed to the city giving benefits to same-sex partners and requiring the same of its contractors.

The statement calls into question whether Knight, running for seat 5, would try to repeal a 10-year-old city ordinance that gives benefits to same-sex partners of city employees and a second ordinance passed last year requiring that contractors provide benefits to domestic partners if they give them to married spouses.

Here's one of those little TESC ironies. I can remember visiting the campus when the only building in use was the modified meat packing plant that had previously belonged to the Probst Custom Meat Service, which was off of Overhulse just SE of the current Steam Plant, I think. The College staff used the meathooks to hang their coats and hats. A school that would be known for having a high percentage of vegetarians would have an early start in a converted butcher shop.

At OlyBlog, we never stop trying to find ways to make your blogging experience more fulfilling. For example, following the suggestion of emmettoconnell, I've added a new function to the site: you can now subscribe to a specific post or to a personal blog. This means that you will receive an email each time there is a new post (if you subscribe to a personal blog), or a new comment (if you subscribe to an individual post).

Thanks, Emmett!