DOWNTOWNERS a locally produced documentary about youth homelessness in Olympia will be showing during Synergy on Saturday, March 4th from 12:45pm to 1:45pm in Seminar II B1105.

Jessica Eskelson and Nichole Ketcherside, students at Evergreen, directed and produced this 47 minute documentary to raise awareness about the issues that homeless youth face, which include sexual violence, stigmatization, a lack of available resources, misunderstandings with police officers, and a lack of support in creating solutions. Downtowners introduces street life from the perspectives of the young people who live it, inspiring a connection and an understanding seldom experienced by those who lack direct experience with the streets.

Downtowners premiered at the Capitol Theater this January as part of a community forum hosted by Partners in Prevention Education (PiPE), a local coalition working on sexual violence prevention among homeless youth. Over 500 people attended the event, which featured an open forum with local community leaders including the Olympia Police Department, City Council, Community Youth Services, and PiPE.

To learn more about Downtowners visit the website at www.olydowntowners.com

Evergreen athletics have a bad (enough) reputation that was starting to turn around because of the consistent success of the soccer teams. Now, one of the teams' coaches is leaving. We'll miss you Boatright (from email):

After four-plus seasons of strong contributions to Evergreen, our head men's soccer coach, Tom Boatright, has resigned because of conflicts with his full-time career away from the college.

Tom is a Geoduck grad who coached Evergreen to its most successful run nationally -- a finish in the final eight of the 2004 NAIA National Championships that included an overtime victory over the defending champions from Rio Grande University in Ohio, a team that had won a record 66 games in a row before falling to Evergreen.

We wish Tom a great deal of success in his future endeavors. A search for his replacement will begin shortly.

I don't think it was much of a coincidence that one of the first really successful coaches at Evergreen was also a grad. It takes an understanding of the culture at Evergreen to really pull off an athletic program. 

The PBIA was created just a few months ago, and now all of the money is gone. "Where did it go?", you might ask. The answer: nobody knows. Thus far, Jeff Trinin and the ODA have not been able to produce any documentation showing exactly where the money was spent, regardless of the budget committees' requests.

The PBIA recently had an election for their board. The result? A bunch of members of the ODA were elected. In fact, not a single person that hasn't been a member of the ODA was elected. This is not proving to be an entity that represents the community.

The ODA has voluntary membership, the PBIA is mandatory. When the bills went out for the PBIA there was a check box that you check if you DO NOT want to be a member of the ODA. I assume that many business owners decided they might as well be members, after all, the ODA has no dues, and will be deciding how the PBIA works. I can imagine that the ODA's membership numbers have grown significantly since the start of the PBIA. Well now, because of possible mismanagment of funds, they are reinstating their membership dues. So all those PBIA members are going to be charged another $180.

One of the city's goals for this year was increased transparancy in government. Given that, I believe it is the city's responsibility to audit the ODA and PBIA to find out exactly where the money went. They also need to audit the PBIA board election, rumors of colusion have been swirling. Laura Ware even raised the question of the ODA "harvesting" nominations at one of the budget meetings I attended, drawing a long winded "no comment" from Jeff Trinin.

The thing that irks me the most is that the city is not asking us what we want. They are taking the "I'm an elected official, I know what's best for you" approach. I really don't believe that Olympians want to live in a city that caters to cars. All of the trends that I've seen since moving here indicate that people's minds are thinking of a walkable Olympia with an amazing transit system. Olympia is quite as walker friendly as it could be, but, for a city of our size we have an amazing public transportation system.

I'll start off with a complaint about people who litter. I wish they would stop. Please get the beer bottle and the french fry bag to the trash, I know you can do it.

From TheNewsTribune.com:

A collection of groups opposed to the war in Iraq will host a forum tonight for military families, veterans and others to talk about their experiences.

The 7 p.m. meeting will be held at the Tacoma Unitarian Church, 1115 S. 56th St. The event is free and child care will be provided, organizers said.

Opening the meeting will be a panel of speakers from Military Families Speak Out, Gold Star Families Speak Out, Veterans for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War and the Olympia Movement for Justice and Peace.

They’ll be followed by an open forum where audience members will be invited to share their experiences.

“The aim of the forum is to engage with other military families in Washington in discussion of the war, the mission and support for the deployed troops,” Leitta Ruger, state chapter coordinator for Military Families Speak Out, said in a news release.

From Political Affairs Magazine:

Washington – Holding a banner that read, “GOD FORGIVE AMERICA,” seven peace activists were arrested yesterday in front of the White House, in a civil disobedience protest against the war in Iraq.

Arrested by U.S. Park Police were Brian Terrell, Ed Bloomer, and Elton Davis, all from Catholic Worker communities in the Des Moines, Iowa area, David Goodner, University of Iowa student, Eileen Hansen, a Catholic Worker from the Winona, Minnesota, Jeff Leys, co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence (VCNV), and Bernie Meyer, a retired social services worker from Olympia, Washington.

The seven were charged with the federal misdemeanor of demonstrating without a permit, fined seventy-five dollars, and released yesterday evening. The action was part of VCNV’s “Winter of our Discontent” demonstratons in the month leading up to the third anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq on March 20.

Terrell organized the group of 15 from Iowa that included students from Loras College, a hospital worker, and a farmer from Missouri who drove 140 miles to Des Moines to join them.

“If not now, when?” Terrell replied when asked why they drove 20 hours overnight to get arrested in the nation’s capital. “Some people consider civil disobedience an extreme measure for extreme times. If these aren’t extreme times I don’t know what are.”

Nazis are absolutely no fun at all but bad jokes about them sometimes are:

Q: Why is a racist like a drunk?
A: Cos whatever they say ends in a slur.

Q: What's the difference between a racist's house and a porcupine?
A: With the porcupine, the pricks are on the outside.

Q: Why didn't the racist cross the road?
A: He was afraid of the other side.