So said Dwight Pelz, Washington State Democrats Chair, in a short speech this afternoon at the Heritage Park fountain, which followed a pretty successful (as far as success can be measured for these symbolic events) rally against the war along 4th Avenue today. Of course, his use of the word insane was based on the folk definition of insanity, which is doing the same thing repeatedly while expecting different results. Not a real diagnosis, nor even much of a rhetorical step above cliché, but it does make a good lead.

I went to the rally not because I it might bring about a change in policy (I’m not insane, by any definition), but because I thought it was time, once again, to stand out in public with others who think the same as I do as witnesses to our belief that the war is wrong, has always been wrong, and should be ended. Now. 

There were more people out than a year ago and the responses from those driving over the bridge, going about their daily business, were more weighted to the positive side. Whether this was because of a change in thinking, which subsequently led to the recent election results, or because of those results themselves, I’m not sure. It’s probably both. I wouldn’t be surprised to start to hear whining about how hard it has become to support the war.

Cross-posted at Peregrinate.

My daughter and I attended an anti-war demonstration today sponsored by Veterans For Peace, the Democratic party and the Green party.  Our understanding was that it was going to take place on the 4th Avenue bridge, but as it turns out, the bridge wasn't big enough to hold all the people who turned out.  We arrive about 10 minutes early (VERY unusual for us), only to find a crowd was already gathering, stretching from Heritage Park to the bridge.  As we stood on the bridge, both sides of the avenue were thronged with people, from the top of the bridge to Water Street.  The weather was sunny, and people seemed to be in good spirits.  I was encouraged by the great turnout.

I had an interesting conversation with a woman who stood next to me for a while.   Her brother is in the Air Force, and is on his third tour of duty in Iraq.  Given her concern for her brother, she is definitely one of those people who both supports the troops, and wants very much for the war to end.  She was passing out signs printed on orange 8 x 11-1/2 paper that said things like "Bring Them Home" and "Peace" to people who didn't show up with signs.  My favorite moment of the day was when a couple of kayakers paddled up under the bridge and started flashing peace signs (the kind you make with your fingers) at the demonstrators.  Someone grabbed a couple of the signs the woman standing next to me had been passing out, folded them up, and tossed them to the kayakers.  The kayakers got the signs, unfolded them, put them on their kayaks, and joined the protest from the water! 

Estimates are that over 1000 people were present.  I talked to one of the rally organizers, and he told me he had received a phone call saying that the rally in Washington, D.C. was HUGE -- tens of thousands of people, apparently.  It will be interesting to see how these protests are reported in the media.  I hope our legislators take note of how many people are joining the peace movement, and stop voting to fund this illegal war!

There's only one week left until the Illuminated Ball, Olympia's fabulous mid-winter celebration/fund raiser for The Procession of the Species. PLEASE HELP US SPREAD THE WORD BY FORWARDING THIS INVITATION TO YOUR FRIENDS!

The Illuminated Ball: A Celestial Journey
Saturday, February 3, 2007
Eagle's Ballroom, 4th Ave. and Plum St, Olympia
8:00PM-1:00AM

Tickets: $40 per person/ $45 at the door
Available at Traditions Fair Trade, 5th and Water St. downtown Olympia.

The Illuminated Ball is an amazing evening of glowing, artful brilliance. It is the main fundraiser for the April 28th, 2007 Procession of the Species. This soiree will include dancing, drinks and hors d'oeuvres, dancing, a silent art auction, a Jazz Lounge, an extraodinary Lantern art / Brazilian dance performance, plus, did we mention, lots of dancing!

The evening will begin with the East Indian music of RagDharma and be followed by the Illuminated Pageant of music and dance. The theme this year is about our inspired journey to reach for the stars! Afterward, we will dance the night away with Bump Kitchen, http://www.bumpkitchen.com/ , a New Orleans-style funk/soul band that is sure to have everyone groovin' a little shimmy shaking. Also featured for the evening is the Photic Jazz Lounge where some of Olympia best jazz musicians will be playing in our upstairs getaway. Come dressed to Illuminate in your finest!

THIS IS THE YEAR TO REALLY HAVE FUN AND PUSH THE EDGE ON WHAT YOU WEAR!
-- SO GO CRAZY-- A LOT!

It’s an all-thumbs mix of shun and sun when I take my girls out in public. Depending on my mood alone the stares of strangers alternately fill me with pride and make me want to hide in a dark hole. And they do stare, let me tell you. The only times they don’t is when I am with a woman, then they just stare at my gorgeous kids.

Last August Lyli and Scarleht and I went on a road trip with my friends Brendan and Eamon. Three mid-twenties young men driving around the San Juan Islands with two little toe-headed twin two year olds? A sight unseen by most eyes, judging by the variety of reactions we received, especially at ferry landings where the nuclear gape of families in air-conditioned SUVs permeated us with its fallout of fascination. I must admit, at times I find it entertaining when someone looks at my girls, then at me, then around their field of vision for someone approximating a mother.

It’s especially strange when I’m out with my girls with a lady friend and everyone thinks that she’s their ma. Usually they pick up on this phenomenon and mention something about how “awkward” or “interesting” it feels. Sometimes this makes me smile and look away. Sometimes it makes me sink into my shell. Rarely it makes me hold eye contact and blush and sweat.

On Olympia’s streets even, some of the most diverse I’ve wandered in my sheltered Pacific Northwest existence, my little rag-tag group of thrift-clad toddlers and hairy hippy papa me garners gazes from all ages, genders, classes, ethnicities, etcetera. Personally I find it unnerving to be the needle in the haystack but, as my roommate Eamon wisely put it: “better than a needle in a box of needles.”

No surprise then I seek solace and solitude instead with my girls in the woods around our farmhouse outside the city of Olympia. Most of my social tendencies are counterfeit anyway, set in place to compensate for the quietudes of my youth, having grown up detached from general society in the foothills of the blue mountains amidst ponderosa pines and stacks of books instead of televisions and those scrapers of the sky. Plus I enjoy the time I get utterly alone with my children in a

Today I saw things that made me want to cry. I wanted to cry for Bread and Roses, the guests I work with, and all who come through out doors. How can the problems of homelessness and substance abuse ever be helped when the outside world just makes fun of the odors, behaviors, and speech?

When I was on the bus today, A couple that come into BRAC regularly boarded. She sat down next to me and told me about this cool bag of clothes she got at the senior center goodwill for only a dollar. (she's not a senior) Then she went on to show me her new slippers and tell me that she was getting read to go to treatment up in Bremerton. Then we got onto talking about counselors/psychiatrists. She was telling me how ticked off she gets when they just listen to her. She was saying how she wanted them to take what she was saying and tell her how to fix things, at least give her ideas.

Anyway, it just made me sad when these two deboarded the bus and the bus driver and another passenger said something about the stench in that way, you know what they're thinking about those two dirty homeless people that just got off the bus that smelled like stink and alcohol. These people have issues because of people like the bus driver and the passenger thinking their better than them. These people need help and listening ears. They know (most of them) that they have problems. Have you ever stopped to ask a person that you know gets drunk frequently or has mental issues, what caused them? Why are you having such a hard time?

I just wished people saw more than a stinky body taking up space.These are real people with real needs. When these needs are met these people can be really productive and use their talents.

I know i don't know the whole story, but i do know that these people suffer through hell on a daily, even hourly basis. They get treated like crap, like they don't exist, they get pushed aside. They get told that there is atleast a 1 year wait list minimum to get into housing and off the streets. For a section 8 voucher, the waitlist is about 3 years. Even that doesn't always help. Several apartments are illegally refusing to take section 8 vouchers or have such long wait lists that by the time a person can even get into a place their voucher has expired. For cooked meals they can mostly go to the Union Gospel Mission, which, they have to listen to a prayer service before they can eat. These are the people that go into churches and get turned away because they stink or whatever their problem is. Then their's Salvation Army, or Sally's as the familiar call it. They are the most common option because you don't have to do anything to get food. However, I've heard that a meal there has consisted of a roll with gravy and some carrot sticks or something similar. It's not good. I've heard that there arefeces in the showers and that it's so dirty there. I've heard that there are people that go about their drugs and alcohol abuse while there. i've heard that the kitchen isn't cleaned all that regularly. i've heard that they turn people away that only have a tribal ID, families with young children had to sleep outside in a car when it was below freezing outside. Apart from meals, sally's opens for women at 5 and 9 for men. I'm working with a young man who just got out of prison a couple days ago. He couldn't even stand Sally's. You'd think prison would be worse than a shelter right?