On Tuesday people gathered downtown to oppose the use of the Port of Olympia by the Military. The crowd of roughly 150 walk up Fourth, down State and to the Port Plaza. At the end of the march a number of people stood up and spoke. Below is a link to the audio available compliments of MediaWarrior and Radio4All.net.

Click Here to Check it out!

Speakers include:

MC Anna-Marie.

Josh Vincent, an Iraq War Veteran
Seth Manzel, an Iraq War Veteran
Phan Nguyen, Olympia Activist
Anna-Marie Murano, Olympia Activist

And

Peter Bohmer, College Professor

Plus bonus interviews with Ben Groves and Sherryl Chris.

Thanks all for listening!

!Raccoon Radio! has just launched its new website (okay, so it is really a blog site) from which issues of the Northwest Audio Zine can be downloaded. The audio zine has covered a wide array of topics, some of the issues include:

Right-wing Movements and Immigration

Homelessness and Poverty in Olympia

Youth Activism

International Women's Day

And has featured speakers including:

Angela Y. Davis

Loretta Ross of SisterSong

Malik Rahim of Common Ground Relief

plus much more!

Check it out -- mediawarrior.wordpress.com

!Raccoon Radio! is an independent media project in association with the Raccoon Arts Collective of Olympia.

This morning Rob Richards received word from the press that the police are mobilizing 40 armed bullies to come down and end Camp Quixote.  The city has refused to negotiate with the houseless individuals that make up the camp and is not offering alternatives to the camp.  As many of us know there are countless people in the woods surrounding Olympia, spread out and isolated from one another.  For the folks downtown Camp Quixote has become a safer alternative to the dangers of camping in alone or with few others in the woods.

Last night at the city counsel meeting the city acknowledged the failure of the county and regional programs to help poor people find homes and jobs, as well as the failure of housing vouchers that are supposed to help people rent but are not accepted anywhere.  Folks on the counsel (with the exception of TJ) stated that since they had not heard about the tent city, that because no one had approached them about it, and because it was clearly in violation of the law, Camp Quixote would be put to an end. 

But where are the greater violations happening?  Why do people not have a place to stay in the first place?  Why does the United States not view housing as a human right?  And why would the city counsel sooner wash its hands of responsibility than support actions to create safer and healthier places for people in need of a bed to stay?