I'm not sure why we flipped over to a second page again at 50 comments -- I set the # of comments/page to the max (90). Let's see how many this one can handle.

The clocktower on campus is an Evergreen landmark. Whenever I see it, three immediate memories spring to mind. First, there was a guy in 1974 who tried to jump from the clocktower to the library building roof (or vice versa) and didn't make it. He fell all the way to the first floor level and lived. And, amazingly, continued to further his studies after the accident, although he was pretty banged up. Whenever I saw him afterward, I had to admire his tenacity.

Secondly, the clocktower was a magnet for mountain climber types. Rappelling down the tower was sort of an Evergreen badge of honor. Gov. Evans and faculty member Willi Unsoeld (famous for making the first ascent from the west ridge of Mount Everest in 1963) were two high-profile clocktower adventurers. Willi was a great guy, by the way. He was one of those rare people who exuded a kind of energy that made you feel good just being around him. A charisma, I guess. Evergreen knew how to use his talents in the early years in recruitment efforts and also whenever they got in trouble with legislators. Hey, this guy was no wimpy and pale aesthete. He climbed Everest, by God. Legislators liked that. And so did we, actually.

But the third thing I think about whenever I see that clocktower is really the main thing. I don't know what it is like today, but for years the clocks on that tower never worked in harmony. Seminars, lectures, movies, never started when they were supposed to. We were on Evergreen Time. Our very own time zone, totally separate from Pacific Standard Time. And it was OK. Relax. Don't get uptight about it, man. Time is relative.

Unfortunately, the real world didn't work that way. I had classes in grad school at the UW where they locked the door after class started. If you were late-- too bad. And I wasn't prepared for grades. Or tests. Or the Socratic method. Or feeling like I was back in high school. Or doing a lot of work and not really learning anything except the art of data regurgitation.

During the most serious closure threat (1977), several alternate uses for the TESC facilities were discussed, including converting the campus to State offices or a police academy. Sen. Hubert Donohue (D-Dayton) and Sen. "Slim" Rasmussen (D-Tacoma) co-sponsored a bill to make the campus an extension of the University of Washington. The Evans-McCann transfer of power was the spark that set the idea in motion. Of Rasmussen, the Seattle Times said, his "blood pressure rises at just the mention of Evans' name." Two other big name sponsors included Sen. August Mardesich (D-Everett) and Sen. Sam Guess (R-Spokane).

Several topics came up during the debate over Evergreen. TESC was more expensive to run than the other schools, costing more per student. Enrollment was declining. The incredibly low rate of in-state students as compared to other schools was brought up, since Evergreen's original mission was two-fold: to offer an alternative type education, and, here's the sticky part, to serve Southwest Washington.

Here's my personal observation. I graduated from an enormous near-the-peak-of-the-Baby-Boom class in Olympia High School (there was no Capital High School in those days). When I went to Evergreen, I think my high school might have had more students than the College. Out of several hundred OHS grads, only about 10 of us, at most, went to TESC. Out of that small group, only two of us that I am aware of were true products of the Olympia School system, the others were children of Evergreen staff-- meaning they were new to town at that time. The other guy who was a fellow native put in one year then transferred to the UW. So the school got a lot of mileage out me. Many locals who later attended the College told me recruiters used my name (as if I was some sort of somebody, which I wasn't) as proof they were indeed serving SW Washington.

Obviously, the College survived this closure attempt. But the political events of the 1976-77 school year created a crisis that made the new Evans administration begin the process to tighten the reins on some of the charmingly eccentric qualities of Evergroove and make the school more palatable to the powers that be. And, no matter what you might think of this, you have to admit he succeeded with flying colors.

I'm tempted to try some bad puns concerning this story, bones and museums make for.....well anyway, the puns would be bad.

But this story is good. The Burke Museum in Seattle is being aired out. Concerns about serious problems with the collection, including possible illegal doings, are being addressed.

I know many of us Americans are stressed. Jobs are being outsourced, the economy sucks, tensions rise. We can't have a sit down with Mr. Bush and tell him what's what, besides, we often believe we should never ever question our president. At work, we are yelled at. At home, we try to do some yelling ourselves.

And when the computer breaks, when we have to discuss an insurance claim, when we have to deal with yet another unpleasant phone call, what do we do? We yell.

We don't just raise the volume of our voice. We really get into it, racist insults, intentional cruelty directed at the person on the other end of the line. A person who is just doing their job, a job that shouldn't have to include dealing with Ugly Americans.

I appreciate this essay in today's Olympian: Heroes are not afraid to speak up in support of others , by Eileen Yoshina. The entire essay is well worth reading.

The truth is this: It is the ordinary among us - the European American, middle-class, straight, Christian people who see themselves as just regular folks - who have the greatest power in our society to end discrimination.

It is a power so great, in fact, it is as though they have a super-hero costume on under their clothes emblazoned with the word ALLY! in gold letters. And once they decide to duck into the nearest phone booth, rip off their ordinary guy/gal disguise and dare to align themselves with someone unlike them they are unstoppable.

During a candlelit vigil for the dead of this war recently, I had a great conversation with an older white man who had helped register black voters during Freedom Summer . He worked hard against intolerance and still does in whatever capacity he can.

He told me that he doesn't feel like he has done enough, ever, not back then, and not now. That gave me pause. I thanked him for his work in the past but I don't know that the thanks sunk in. It was already time to talk about the next vigil, the next protest.

From TheNewsTribune.com:

South Puget Sound Community College in Olympia opened its new $22 million Center for the Arts with a production of Del Shore's "Southern Baptist Sissies" -- a roller coaster of a play that takes audiences from heights of hilarity through outraged anger and into caves of depression and out again.

I should warn you that you will leave the theater emotionally depleted.

"Southern Baptist Sissies" is the story of four gay men in a Southern Baptist church in Texas and the various ways they cope when they discover urges within themselves that go against the teachings of their church.

Sounds like fun.