Sllllllllllsssssssssssssssssssssss someone sliced the shady trees down next to my pad so I had to advance to another location sllllllsssssssssssssss.

Here I am in the "Fetid Lake of Doom" according to last night's dinner sllllllllssssssssssssssssssssssssss.

I call it "The Lake of Oppurtunity" slllllllllllsssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssithers.

^@^

So, I finally watched it.  A movie apparently so important that even my Republican father insisted that I see it.

Matewan is a great movie.  Good cast, powerful story.

Quality aside, the movie struck a tense cord for me.  Though I still carry my red card (IWW membership card), I feel very ambivalent about "Red" movements such as the communist party and the wobblies.

The message of these movements are summarized well by a comment that one of the movie characters, Joe Kenehan, makes, "They got you fightin' white against colored, native against foreign...when you know there ain't but two sides in the world - them that work and them that don't.  That's all you got to know about the enemy."  The preamble to the constitution of the IWW, or wobblies, states, "The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of the working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life."  The Communist Manifesto states: "Our epoch, the epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses, however, this distinct feature: it has simplified class antagonisms. Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other -- bourgeoisie and proletariat."

These statements are fundamental to "Red" movements, though their strategies may differ.  Where the communists see the need for a centralized, revolutionary party for working people to lead the fight, wobblies envision "One Big Union" through which workers can organize a great General Strike and bring capitalism to its knees.  Both movements, however, rely on the simple separation of people into one of two opposing classes, worker and employer.

...are all you people doing INSIDE on such a beautiful day? Go outside and PLAY!

I'm thinkin' OlyBlog is due for some organized games soon, how about a water war in Sylvester Park? We could bring water balloons and various water squirt toys.

Got other game ideas?

A very moving moment. Worth revisiting. He looks so young! I think we were all younger then.

Click picture for slideshow.

Thanks steve_h!

It only costs a dollar and you and you can mail that in, but you can run for office and become an elected official. From Thurston County Blue:

For those who aren't aware of what a PCO is and what their role in the Party is, PCO's are the building blocks of our Thurston County Democratic Party. Being a PCO provides an opportunity to put a face on  the Party and make it more personable to voters in your neighborhood, for the voters to share their concerns with you, and for you to answer questions on issues, direct them to the appropriate elected official, register new voters, encourage others to get involved and help keep the voter files updated.

If you think you'd be interested in serving, here is the website link to check by precinct to see if a PCO is currently serving: http://www.thurstondemocrats.org/pages/PCOlist.htm

The  "Declaration of Candidacy" form,which is available here, along with the one dollar filing
fee, may be mailed to the Thurston County Auditor's office at 2000 Lakeridge Dr. SW, Olympia, WA 98502.

Or, you may deliver the form in person between Monday July 24th and Friday July 28th. Office hours are M-F 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

As PCO of Belmore 061 in Tumwater, I hope you'll join me in filing for candidacy as a PCO in your precinct.