[via omjp]

Simona Sharoni and Nadia Niva will share highlights from a recent trip to Israel and Palestine

Members of the Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project (ORSCP) will outline their upcoming trip to Rafah, Palestine

You will have an opportunity to learn about and get involved in community projects designed to support justice and peace in Palestine and Israel

WHEN: TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2005, 7PM

WHERE: TRADITIONS CAFÉ, 300 5th Avenue, Olympia, Tel: 360-705-2819

FREE ADMISSION. DONATIONS TO ORSCP WELCOME.

Read Simona and Nadia’s trip blog at: http://simonatravel.blogspot.com

For more information about ORSCP see: http://orscp.org/

[via omjp]

Could folks help out?

Monica

Welfare Rights Organizing Coalition
701 Franklin Street SE
Olympia, WA 98501
360-352-9716

We are compiling lists of free and cheap things to do in our areas. I've got a bunch of Seattle and Eastside fun things, but we wanted this to be a list for all our membership. Could you please take a few minutes and write down the cheap or free things to do in your area? That would be fabulous! The compiled list will then be handed out at our annual Membership Day on October 15th. Another little way to thank our members.

Thanks,

Jessica Lawson,
Membership Coordinator/Organizer,
Welfare Rights Organizing Coalition (WROC),
(206) 324 - 3063,
getactive@wroc.org,
1820 E Pine St, Suite 324,
Seattle, WA 98122

[via tesccrier]

Greetings--

last night I saw about an hour of the first part of a 4 hour documentary on Bob Dylan on Ch. 9. The second part runs tonight and the entire 4 hour program reruns on Ch. 9 Sat Oct 1 from 10 pm - 2 am. in case you want to time shift it. The film has Dylan talking about the influences on his music and it's crammed with archival footage of the early folk music scene of the 50s & 60s which documentation of The Clancy Bros and Tommy Makem, Joan Baez, Maria Muldaur, The New Lost City Ramblers, Pete Seeger, and lots of others.

Tom

Olympia CISPES (Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador) and the Political Economy and Social Change program at TESC are showing:

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MARIA'S STORY
Thursday, 9/29/05
6PM, Lecture Hall 5, TESC
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We will discuss the history of the struggle in El salvador, the current struggle and the 25 year history of CISPES and what we can do about the present situation.

Produced by Pamela Cohen and Catherine M. Ryan Directed by Manona Wali and Pamela Cohen (52 minutes, 1990).

• "... documentary at its most illumi-nating and succinct... confronts us with our country's responsibility in the ongoing ordeal of Maria and her people while taking us way beyond political rhetoric." - Los Angeles Times
• "Through an extraordinary combi-nation of historical film, on-location footage and narrative, 'Maria's Story'...lets us understand why untold numbers of ordinary Salvadoreans, like Maria, have chosen to fight for a better life, if not for themselves, then for their children." - Tommie Sue Montgomery, Prof., Latin American Studies

Maria's Story is an intimate portrait of a thirty-nine-year old mother of three who is a leader in the guerrilla movement in El Salvador. Short and stocky, with ready wit and common sense, Maria Serrano is a down-to-earth woman whose passion for social justice dominates her life. Born into extreme rural poverty, she struggled for an education and, at fifteen, married her husband, Jose, who now shares her commitment to the disenfranchized. Maria represents a growing number of Latin American women on the forefront of social change.

The filmmakers spent seven weeks in Maria's temporary camp, under mortar fire and helicopter surveillance, to capture the story of the human side of this war.

It has been brought to my attention that OlyBlog is not being interpreted very well by Internet Explorer. How many folks are experiencing this problem? In any case, I'll work on sorting it out. One thing you could do is to download Firefox (something you should do anyway). There are three reasons: 1) the software is distributed under an open source license, 2) it is much less vulnerable to viruses, and 3) it is not a microsoft product (it actually is the same core software that was developed for Netscape).

Thurston County Democrat Discussion Group will take on the issues brought up by I-912, which seeks to revoke the recent 9.5 cent gas tax. We will also discuss progressively framing the broader issue of taxation. Tuesday, October 11, 7-9 p.m. Olympia Center 222 Columbia St NW Olympia, WA Room 102 (first floor) The Discussion Group is a meeting for Democrats in Thurston County who want a "low impact" informative meeting to discuss topics of the day and to get more involved in the Democratic Party. For more information on groups fighting I-912, go to: http://washingtondefense.org/ http://keepwashingtonrolling.org/ For more information on the Democrat Discussion Group, go to: http://thurstondemocrats.org/meetup

The Olympian says that the city council has scheduled a meeting to take input from the public on the idea of a downtown "parking and business improvement district":

The Olympia City Council scheduled the Oct. 18 public hearing after it started the process of forming a so-called "parking and business improvement area" Tuesday.

The decision doesn't form the district, but starts the process to create one.

"By starting the process, we will commit to a public hearing and then get into the decision-making after that," Mayor Mark Foutch explained.

The Olympia Downtown Association submitted a petition last month containing the signatures of supportive business owners who represent nearly 58 percent of the assessed value in the proposed district.

State law allows a city to initiate the process if property owners representing 60 percent of the proposed district's assessed value sign on or a city council passes a resolution.

The mission of the district has been somewhat unclear. Originally called the "business improvement district," it appeared to have many functions (discussed previously here). Beautification was to be one element, but then there was the parking issue. With the name change to "parking and business improvement area," it is becoming clear that an important function is to get downtown businesses to finance the research necessary to build a parking garage. Is it properly the responsibility of the businesses to finance city planning?