I recently visited Ralph's Thriftway.  I am a supporter for the Stormans' stand against the Plan B pill.  I will be doing most of my shopping at the store for the next several weeks.  During my recent visit I wanted to update all of you that are no longer showing up at the store.  The store seems to be doing fine.  The last two times I have been in there the parking lot was packed and the store was extremely busy.  I can't honostly say what their financial status is since the boycott has begun but by my observation nothing has changed except some new faces.  I wanted to congradulate anybody that is reading this that is supporting Ralph's during this period.  By what I see the store will not be hurt financially whatsover and profits may even increase.  Keep up the good work.

“Right then I knew that it's all wrong, and it all has to change, and that change has to begin with me.

[A lull in the action at the BroHo -- everyone's off buying drinks.]

Let's talk about free speech. Today, during the Nazi's hateful and angry rants, they used obscene language twice (the "s" word on both occasions). I'm not raising the issue because of my sensitive ears, but rather because there were no consequences to the use of these words, unlike what seems to have happened yesterday to a group of young musicians at the Unity in the Community rally.

My point is just that, in a completely fair world, the Nazis would have had the plug pulled just as quickly on their garbage as those kids did on their music.

Shawn Stuart of the National Socialist Movement says we were "weak" and that the NSM sound system was loud and "drowned out the commies".

NSM 88 radio

Justin "The Steamroller" Boyer interviewed also, caution advised, these boyz use language.

I've enjoyed watching the blogging medium as an organizer's tool.  In just a short time, users of this blog have rallied together to stand against unacceptable behaviors and attitudes in our community, and have worked to build our community.  Some of the efforts I've noted:

• Rally against NSM recruitment activities
  
• Protest and Boycott against Storman's Thriftway who refuses to carry Plan B
• Violence, Racist and Hatred-promotiong Video gaming
• Caimen awareness
  
• Port Protests
• Litter cleanup
  

Bloggers have also united in combining their community efforts (ie: Better South Sound, OlyArt, OlyNow, and OlyBlog). In my work, I help communities organize against substance abuse and violence, and I know that one of the greatest indicators of an operations failure to succeed is the lack of working together.  Another is a lack of understanding what attempts are already occuring to fight the issue at hand thus creating division and a weaker stance against the issue.  I urge all folks who want to attempt new iniatives to investigate what the current resources and needs are in order to maximize their efforts. 

I really enjoyed Jade's question about what do you hope to get out of it (in response to the NSM visit this week).  We must look at what we want to achieve in order to know if we've made a difference.

It's been beautiful watching changed attitudes and beliefs, which is ultimatley what all stands are about.

Folks in the neighborhood have been doing fireworks throughout the day. And the poor dogs are howling.  For goodness sakes, please put your animals in a safe place.

And if you must do fireworks please remember how exceptionally dry our area has been this season, and how this dryness has created such vulnerability in this community, and how important it is to be reduce harm to yourself, your homes and our community.

 October 22nd is the nationally recognized day of protest against police brutality. Considering the events that have taken place over this past year with the port protests, recent police scandals, and the Nazi rally that took place today, i feel that the general atmosphere and widespread sentiment about police activity in Olympia all but necessitate the need for some kind of action that focuses on not only the many recorded incidents of police brutality and misuse of power that have happened in our town this year, but in the state, country, and world as well.

  Community awareness seems to be growing stronger and stronger here, with participation from many different groups that seem to be consistently working together in many different actions, as was exemplified by today's turn out at the capital. The atmosphere is right for some type of action if people are willing to organize and participate in it.

Therefore, i pose these questions to the community, with the idea in mind that momentum is already building towards organizing this event

*what do we want to see happen at an event like this? what will it look like, what will it be composed of?

*how should we go about organizing an event like this? where, when, and how often should people meet to talk about it? (Importantly: what public meeting spaces are available that would be willing to host these meetings? )

*fundraising tactics?

*how do we publicize this event?

*who do we want to be involved?

*How do we make this event as successful as possible once we define what its intention is?

*What do you think about all of this?

there's also more information about the history of october 22nd available through the wear black coalition which you can check out at  http//:october22-ny.org/national/

Well, that was interesting. Just returned, slightly dehydrated and a little tired, from the counter-demonstration on the Capitol Campus. First, nobody got hurt or arrested, so far as I know, so GOOD JOB EVERBODY!

There was a good turn-out of folks, and everybody more-or-less kept cool about the protest. Being there was enough to show them that they aren't welcome here, and there were a lot of Olympians there.

A grand total of 11 Nazis showed up. Pretty pathetic. They really need to make some new friends and get out more. This "nazi thing" really isn't working out too well.

I'm guessing here, but I's say there were between 150-200 counter-demonstrators present. Way more if you count dogs.

WSP out in force to protect the poor, helpless nazis from the big, bad group of hippies.

I chose to play the fool, as they say, by being a clown. We had some giant flags, and we worked out some chants. I brought some kazoos and the Hogan's Heros theme song so we could practice a bit. (Thank you, Pat (POLDF) for organizing that so well.) I think the clowning helped to lighten things up somewhat, and keep the whole thing in perspective.

For me, the most effective thing that I witnessed was the dancing. I wish that there had been more music and less talking. It is no use talking to the nazis, and no real new information to share with the protestors, so why not spin some tunes and do a little funky clown action. I mean, dancing is the antithesis to hate and anger. REMEMBER FOR NEXT TIME: bring a loud sound system to get people moving.

I'm sure we'll be breaking it down more at the BroHo tonight. See y'all there.

FRO at 98.5 FM or listen via web.

I really hope this is a persistant link, because this really just makes me smile, and I wanted to share their sillyness with you-all :-)


This is a clip at YouTube, " cox and combes excitedly praise the most bad ass of all people who have ever existed."