No one wears masks or hoods or black.

The police are welcomed and families feel safe and welcome.

People chant about building things rather than tearing them down.

Protestors are always courteous to their neighbors.

Participants sing appropriate songs but don't yell or scream.

Everybody smiles.

Members self police and guide those who are straying from the rules.

No one destroys property or harms others.

Someone hires a PIO to put a good face on the protest. (Peace needs good PR)

Those that choose civil disobedience should peacefully allow themselves to be arrested and removed.

The police should arrest those who practice civil disobedience instead of escalating things with pepper spray etc.

...you may say I'm a dreamer but I'm not the only one.

Anyone else care to imagine? 

I was asked to endorse Jamie Moore for Thurston County District Judge and I met her and her family after a Creative Theatre Experience play at Baskin Robbins and she seems nice and all.

However, in all fairness, I need to see what the other ELEVEN candidates are about. So, here are some links with bits of info that I could find about the race - I'll keep adding links as I find them.

This race goes right to the General Election in November - no judge race in the primary!! (the Primary ballot just came to my house).

Olympian Article by Brad Shannon (could this be more worthless?)

Thurston County Auditor Candidate Filing

Voting For Judges.Org info page

Candidates on the ballot for county district judge seat, Olympian by Brad Shannon (more substantial than Shannon article above)

God bless college ranking polls and the Princeton Review..

In addition to the high ranking among "Birkenstock-Wearing, Tree-Hugging, Clove-Smoking Vegetarian"institutions in the recent Princeton Review Best 368 College Rankings, Evergreen also performed well (16th overall) among the best schools for producing Dodgeball Targets.

The first category was based upon "a combination of survey questions concerning political persuasion, the use of marijuana and hallucinogens, the prevalence of religion, the popularity of student government, and the students' level of acceptance of the gay community on campus."

The second: "a combination of survey questions concerning intercollegiate and intramural sports and the popularity of the Greek system."

Does this tell us anything we didn't know?

Here's a link to the photo set: Port of Tacoma War Protest August 4th and 5th

bert

We posted the "minutes" from last weeks Friday at noon meeting for downtown stakeholders here: http://everydayolympia.com/news/2008/08/05/minutes/

cheers,

mathias

einmaleins 

Nearly a half-century ago, activist Jane Jacobs wrote The Death and Life of Great American Cities, a book often described as the most influential ever written on the subject of Urban Planning.

Jacob’s book was an “attack” on modern orthodox urban planning, and in particular, on Le Corbusier’s Radiant City model, which called for monolithic residential skyscrapers studded across the natural landscape and interconnected by elevated high-speed transportation corridors – an ultra-modern utopia promising spiritually-enriching open space and views for the masses!

Le Corbusier’s model heavily influenced HUD’s Urban Renewal movement in the 1950s and 1960s. However, its pitfalls became immediately evident, ultimately inciting Jacob’s 1961 salvo: Too much open space amidst the urban landscape inhibits society’s ability to self-govern – or – limits the number of “eyes upon the street”. Today most of the towers and parks built in the Radiant City tradition have been either razed, or remain as habitat for some of America’s worst infestations of crime, poverty, disease and drug use.

Many in favor of turning the isthmus into a park seek the same populist benefits promised by Le Corbusier. But, like Le Corbusier, they overlook the inevitable outcome of such land use. On the other hand, cradling Heritage Park and Percival Landing within residential, retail and commercial activities – which is to say the everyday activities of citizens – would sew these two great public spaces deeper into the fabric of our downtown, nurturing a sense of safety, function, vibrancy and civic virtue in and around them.