JANUARY 16, 2006

17 people arrested honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at Trident submarine base at Bangor, WA

85 people were present at the demonstration commemorating the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks at the gates of Naval Submarine Base Bangor on January 15th. 16 demonstrators blocked the highway entrance into the base. One demonstrator was arrested on federal property.

At 1 PM on Sunday, demonstrators walked from the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action to the entrance of Naval Submarine Base Bangor. 10 demonstrators then took a replica of a bus in honor of Rosa Parks onto the highway, which stated, Dare to Create a Nonviolent World. After the 10 were arrested, 6 more demonstrators blocked the highway with a long banner with statements by Dr. King, including one stating, When scientific power outruns moral power, we end up with guided missiles and misguided men. During this time, one demonstrator attempted to deliver a message to the base commander and was arrested on federal property. Incoming traffic was blocked for approximately 30 minutes.

Exerpts from "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence."

Over the past two years, as I have moved to break the betrayal of my own silences and to speak from the burnings of my own heart, as I have called for radical departures from the destruction of Vietnam, many persons have questioned me about the wisdom of my path. At the heart of their concerns this query has often loomed large and loud: Why are you speaking about war, Dr. King? Why are you joining the voices of dissent? Peace and civil rights don't mix, they say. Aren't you hurting the cause of your people, they ask? And when I hear them, though I often understand the source of their concern, I am nevertheless greatly saddened, for such questions mean that the inquirers have not really known me, my commitment or my calling. Indeed, their questions suggest that they do not know the world in which they live.

[snip]

For those who ask the question, "Aren't you a civil rights leader?" and thereby mean to exclude me from the movement for peace, I have this further answer. In 1957 when a group of us formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, we chose as our motto: "To save the soul of America." We were convinced that we could not limit our vision to certain rights for black people, but instead affirmed the conviction that America would never be free or saved from itself unless the descendants of its slaves were loosed completely from the shackles they still wear. In a way we were agreeing with Langston Hughes, that black bard of Harlem, who had written earlier:

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!

Now, it should be incandescently clear that no one who has any concern for the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war. If America's soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read Vietnam. It can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over. So it is that those of us who are yet determined that America will be are led down the path of protest and dissent, working for the health of our land.

We sure could use Dr. King now.

Puget Sound Behavioral Health, a psychiatric hospital in Tacoma, has been been shut down. This affects the entire region, people from Thurston County were also patients there.

The conditions described are appalling and unfortunately not that surprising.

Olympian story
Washington State Department of Health News Release

Winter Reading Series

January 23rd, Communication Bldg. 107, 7PM

Kristen Prevallet

Kristin Prevallet is the author of three books of poetry, most recently Scratch Sides: Poetry, Documentation, and Image-text Projects. Her essays on poetry and contemporary culture have appeared in a variety of magazines and anthologies, including Fence, The Chicago Review, Conjunctions, and Poets & Writers. She is a teacher of writing at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY and a workshop leader for Bard College’s Institute for Writing and Thinking. She is currently working on editing the online journal Material Word: A Journal of Word&Image Studies, as well as an anthology of contemporary French poetry for Talisman House Publishers. She is a recipient of the 2004 PEN Translation Award for her translation of Congolese writer Sony Labou Tansi's uncollected poems and writings. Her work in the area of Investigative Poetics has engendered wide discussion.

Local organizing to nonviolently resist the Iraq war and occupation will take another step forward with the next “Bringing It Home

[via email from emmettoconnell]

The Thurston County Democratic Party is holding a series of issue forums both online and in-person. The purpose of the forums is to jump start the conversation on what the party's platform should include.

The in-person forums will be held in the two weeks leading up to the precinct caucuses on Saturday March 4. Topics include the economy, education, and the environment. The topic of one in-person forum (to be held in Olympia) has yet to be determined, and will hopefully be decided online. Another open topic forum is being held in Bucoda.

But, you don't have to wait until late February to start talking about the party platform. Online forums have been set up here.

More information

In Olympia, with the exception of two areas downtown, the storm drain water does not go to the wastewater treatment plant. Instead, everything that goes into the storm drains ends up in a stormwater pond, a stream, and/or Puget Sound.

AP Poll: Blacks Likelier to Celebrate MLK AP - 37 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Blacks are more likely than whites to commemorate Martin Luther King's birthday, an AP-Ipsos poll found. They're also more inclined to harbor doubts about progress toward his dream of racial equality. Three-fourths of the people in this country say there has been significant progress toward equality, but only 66 percent of blacks felt that way.

Lill Huff: This is a load of crap. What the heck are “blacks

My friend Maitri and I are sitting here and thinking about what we could do to bring attention to the issue of homelessness in Olympia. She has what I think is a really good idea, and I'd like to know if anyone has ideas or comments they would like to contribute, or if anyone would like to participate (hint: Rob Richards...). Here goes:

Maitri is a photographer, and she was inspired by the movie "Born in Brothels," especially by the concept of putting cameras into the hands of people who have a different perspective than our own.

So, what if we made disposable cameras available to folks living on the street in Olympia (maybe through B&R). Folks could pick them up, shoot as many pictures as they want, and return the cameras. We would then pick the cameras up, develop and digitize the film, and return prints to the exhange point so the person who took the pictures could have them. The exchange could be anonymous (e.g., the cameras could be numbered), if that were a concern. The photos could also be accompanied by other things like writing, poems, or stories.

The photos and/or other creations would be displayed in an exhibit, as well as posted on the blog.

The Olympian has a decent editorial Gays merit equal rights in support of HB 1515, the anti-discrimination bill.

Neither is this an issue of special rights. This is about equal treatment under the law.

It’s not about quotas or affirmative action. It’s about fair treatment of gays and lesbians in housing and employment. No one should be fired or denied employment or housing because of his or her sexual orientation. Discrimination is never benign, but it happens all the time.