Click picture to enlarge.

At the link http://www.copwatch.zinelibrary.info/DOGO.JPG (and a little later, here) you will find a graphic of downtown Olympia.

There, in the graphic, are little white and red intersections. Red means trains, and Federal involvement. White means City of Olympia and local police involvement (if one is blocking these intersections).
It's your choice how you will treat pieces which land in either kind of intersection when the police surround them.

The hardest part of the game are the rules:
YOU write the rules. (It's harder than you think)
I only ask that you be realistic about how pieces move, where pieces "land" and how fast they can really move from place to place. If you actually use the rules of "go" you can just place the pieces down, never moving any of them, and every few turns see if a "Train" or "Convoy" of military vehicles can get into, or out of, the Port of Olympia (at the top) to one of six exits, marked in red along the bottom and sides.

Or, if you want to you can assume they are coming inbound from the exits, toward the Port.

Most important rule: HAVE FUN AND PLAY!

Direct Action can be a powerful act. It can provoke though, shift dynamics, empower and incite. It can also erode alliances, damage communities and bring harsh consequences. Direct Action is a powerful tool and it's use will always have a powerful response, be it positive or negative.

It is my opinion that there are two useful "yard sticks" with which to measure the effectiveness of any direct action, that is to say, there are two primary questions to ask yourself as you plan and engage in any action. Those would be "Is this action confronting an issue at its source, thereby making it 'direct'?" and "Does this action empower others to themselves take action?"

Using these questions as guides we can compare two recent actions from here in Olympia. First, the port actions of last November. For specificities sake, I'm talking about the road blockades, both human and physical. Held up to the first question, "Is this action confronting an issue at its source, thereby making it 'direct'?" I think the answer would be a pretty clear Yes. Blockading the path of military equipment is about as direct as you can get when it comes to confronting the war effort.

Read more...

Father Ray Bourgeios graced Olympia Washington with several appearances, including one at Traditions Fair Trade Café, during a visit on April 10th, 2008.

Father Bourgeois delivered a wonderful presentation. He spoke for over an hour about his work with the School of Americas Watch movement.

The School of Americas is located on Fort Benning, in Georgia. The School has been renamed and is now called WHINESEC (Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation). The school's mission and objectives have not changed, however.

The school is actively involved in providing special training to the military forces of Latin American nations. Some of the military personnel that have studied at the School of Americas are known to have committed atrocities.

From the SOA Website: On November 16, 1989, six Jesuit priests, their co-worker and her teenage daughter were massacred in El Salvador. A U.S. Congressional Task Force reported that those responsible were trained at the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA) at Ft. Benning, Georgia.

Please see www.soaw.org for more information.

The SOAW movement has grown from a tiny group of individuals into a national and international call to shut down the School of Americas.

photos on the flipside

I thought some of you might have an interest in the next Ground Zero Nonviolent Direct Action, a commemoration of the life of MLK jr. For more information see: www.gzcenter.org

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Share the Dream of
A World Without War

Join the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action for a traditional vigil and direct action at the gates of Naval Base Kitsap, Bangor, on Saturday, January 19. Honor the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as together we resist nuclear weapons, the occupation of Iraq, and the bombing of Iran.