May 18th, 19th at 7:30pm and May 20th at 2pm the Olympia Choral Society along with members of the Olympia Symphony will be presenting the powerful Mozart Requiem.  All concerts are FREE!  So come on down to the North Thurston Performing Arts Center (located right next to North Thurston High School) and see your very own Olyblogger, Operagirl, as the soprano soloist!  =) 

Hello everyone,

GRuB and the Center for Community Based Learning and Action is holding an Action Day Wednesday the 25th. We will meet from 10:00 to 4:00 at Sunrise Park which is off Division, adjacent to the Evergreen Village. We are breaking ground for the new community garden that will serve low-income and homeless people in Olympia. See you there!

Oh, and wear your work clothes cuz your gonna get dirty!

According to The Olympian of the 83 people signed up to testify, 55 were in support of the proposal and 28 were opposed. The council also received approximately 400 emails in regard to the proposal.

The proposal was organized by the Olympia Rafah Sister City Project.

Video of the Tuesday April 17th, 2007 public hearing is available via the city website, linked here.

Advocates of the proposal were met with harsh, divisive, and derisive opposition from local Republicans and supporters of Israel.

Many who opposed the proposal said that Rafah is full of terrorists and terrorism. Some even went so far as to say that all people in Rafah are terrorists.

There are 43 official sister city relationships between cities in the USA and Israel. There are 3 such relationships between US cities and Palestinian cities/towns.

The council decided to vote against adopting an official sister city status.

read more

Dear Council Members,

Like many, I went away from tonight's meeting deeply saddened by your vote against an official sister relationship with Rafah.  I've been mulling it over and I'm trying to image if the scenario had been slightly different.  What if the group asking for your blessing was seeking an official sister city relationship with a Jewish city within Israel proper?  What if they had begun their project over 4 years ago and achieved everything ORSCP has accomplished in terms of community support, events, delegations, fair trade projects, community education and fundraising?  A project in every way comparable to the Rafah sister city group?

I seriously doubt that there would be any open opposition to such a request.  But just for the sake of argument, let's say there was.  Let's say that a bunch of people wrote letters to you all and showed up to the council meeting expressing opposition with the same combination of disinformation, irrationality and overt racism displayed by the group who came to oppose the Rafah project.  Would you have acquiesced to such objections in that case?  Would you have allowed a campaign of ignorance and bigotry to block a widely supported project of genuine cross cultural bridge-building as you did tonight?

Join the Saturday April 21 Earth Day Market Ride and show your support for alternative transportation! Get a head start on your miles as well! The miles you ride this day can count as your first commute trip on your mileage log. The Earth Day Market Ride is also a great opportunity to gain confidence riding with traffic and to meet other riders in your neighborhood.

Most neighborhood rides begin at 10:15 am. After meeting up at your designated spot, groups will ride to Heritage Park (5th and Water Street). At 11:15 am, we will continue together on Columbia to the Farmers Market to join in the Earth Day celebrations. Get a free Cat Eye tail light for registering today! While supplies last! Check out the map to find and contact your neighborhood ride leader.
...get more information...

"When it became obvious what a dumb and cruel and spiritually and financially and militarily ruinous mistake our war in Vietnam was, every artist worth a damn in this country, every serious writer, painter, stand-up comedian, musician, actor and actress, you name it, came out against the thing. We formed what might be described as a laser beam of protest, with everybody aimed in the same direction, focused and intense. This weapon proved to have the power of a banana-cream pie three feet in diameter when dropped from a stepladder five-feet high.

And so it is with anti-war protests in the present day. Then as now, TV did not like anti-war protesters, nor any other sort of protesters, unless they rioted. Now, as then, on account of TV, the right of citizens to peaceably assemble, and petition their government for a redress of grievances, 'ain't worth a pitcher of warm spit,' as the saying goes."