George Carlin’s wife died early in 2008 and George followed her, dying in July 2008. It is ironic George Carlin – comedian of the 70’s and 80’s – could write something so very eloquent and so very appropriate. An observation by George Carlin:
George Carlin
The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.
We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.
We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.
We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life. We’ve added years to life not life to years. We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We’ve done larger things, but not better things.
We’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We’ve conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We’ve learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.
These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete.
Remember to spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.
Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.
Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn’t cost a cent.
Remember, to say, ‘I love you’ to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.
Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.
Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.
And always remember, life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by those moments that take our breath away.
Algae Lamp Absorbs 200x More CO2 Than Trees, Doesn’t Require Electricity
Green Salvation
French biochemist Pierre Calleja has invented an innovative algae lamp, and it’s claimed to absorb 200-times more CO2 than trees, at the rate of 1-ton annually, or what a tree absorbs over its entire lifetime. Continue reading for a video and more information.
Pierre has basically developed a lighting system that requires no electricity for power. Instead, it draws carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and uses it to produce light as well as oxygen as a byproduct. The key ingredient? Algae. There are certain types of algae that can feed off of organic carbon as well as sunlight, and in the process produce carbohydrate energy for themselves as well as oxygen as a waste product.
According to Geek.com, “Cajella’s lamps consist of algae-filled water along with a light and battery system. During the day the algae produce energy from sunlight that is then stored in the batteries. Then at night the energy is used to power the light. However, as the algae can also produce energy from carbon, sunlight isn’t required for the process to work. That means such lights can be placed where there is no natural light and the air will effectively be cleaned on a daily basis.”
Our atmosphere is filling up with CO2 and we seem to be the major cause of that. The generally accepted solution seems to be cutting back on emissions as quickly as possible, but implementing such cuts is problematic because everyone has to agree to do more, which essentially ends up costing a lot of time and money.
There is an alternative to such measures, though. Instead of relying entirely on cutting emissions, why don’t we start taking CO2 out of the atmosphere? That’s exactly what biochemist Pierre Calleja is trying to do, and his solution almost sounds too good to be true.
Calleja has developed a lighting system that requires no electricity for power. Instead it draws CO2 from the atmosphere and uses it to produce light as well as oxygen as a byproduct. The key ingredient to this eco-friendly light? Algae.
Certain types of algae can feed off of organic carbon as well as sunlight, and in the process produce carbohydrate energy for themselves as well as oxygen as a waste product.
Cajella’s lamps consist of algae-filled water along with a light and battery system. During the day the algae produce energy from sunlight that is then stored in the batteries. Then at night the energy is used to power the light. However, as the algae can also produce energy from carbon, sunlight isn’t required for the process to work. That means such lights can be placed where there is no natural light and the air will effectively be cleaned on a daily basis.
What isn’t discussed in the video is how much maintenance such a light needs. However, the good news is algae can also act as a biofuel once separated from the water, so even if the lights need a water change out every so often, the waste algae just forms another type of fuel where as the water can be recycled.
Leaders of 26 Kayapo indigenous communities met from March 4-5 to discuss a multi-million dollar offer by government energy giant Eletrobras. This was their response:
“Your word means nothing. Our conversation is over. We Kayapo do not want another cent of your dirty money. We don’t accept Belo Monte or any other dam on the Xingu River. Our river is priceless; the fish we eat have no price, the happiness of our grandchildren has no price. We won’t stop fighting; in Altamira, in Brasilia, and in the Supreme court. The Xingu is our home and you are not welcome”
The Pope, wearing a fabulous vintage chiffon-lined Dior gold lame gown over a silk Vera Wang empire waist tulle cocktail dress, accessorized with a three-foot House of Whoville hat and the ruby slippers Judy Garland wore in the Wizard of Oz, on his way to tell us it’s Wrong to be Gay.
Police and Media Resort to Victim-Blaming in Shooting Death of Chicago Infant
Rania Khalek
by Rania Khalek on March 15, 2013
Jonylah Watkins, just 6-months-old, was shot on Monday, March 11, on Chicago’s South Side as her dad changed her diaper in the front passenger’s seat of their minivan.
She was rushed to the hospital where she underwent several surgeries, blood transfusions and resuscitations.
Jonylah’s tiny body was pierced with bullet wounds that tore through her lung, liver, leg, shoulder and bowel. Doctors and nurses struggled for 17 hours to save her life but her body couldn’t take it. She died Tuesday morning.
Jonylah’s father, 28-year-old Jonathan Watkins, was also shot and rushed to the hospital where he was in serious-to-critical condition. He was released in stable condition on Thursday and headed straight to the police station to cooperate with authorities in finding his daughter’s killer. Yet in the eyes of the police and the media, Jonylah’s murder is her father’s fault.
Jonathan Watkins w/his baby girl, Jonylah
In the immediate aftermath of the Jonylah’s death, the media obsessed over her father’s past criminal history and his ties to the the Gangster Disciples, a Chicago street gang, leading to speculation that he was the target of a rival gang. CBS Chicago even referred to him, not by name, but as “the reputed gang member“.
“When these events happen, we have to look at the circumstances and the backgrounds of the individuals that are involved,” said Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy at a press conference on Tuesday. “Although there’s a lot of angles that we’re pursuing, there are very strong gang overtones to this particular event.” He insisted that the shooting wasn’t random and that “whoever was doing this was firing at the father and exclusively at the father.”
Meanwhile, the family’s spokesperson, Pastor Corey Brooks, has repeatedly informed the media that Watkins is not a gang member and his criminal past is far behind him.
“Brooks said that Watkins is not affiliated with any of Chicago’s four major street gangs, and has not had any trouble with the law since 2007,” reports ABC Radio News. Nevertheless, “Chicago police said they are not retracting any of McCarthy’s statements on Watkins or the shooting.”
That hasn’t stopped mainstream news outlets like NBC Chicago from laying out Watkins’s criminal history as told by the police:
Records show Jonathan Watkins has been arrested 39 times and has ties to the Gangster Disciples. Numerous weapons violations and an attempt to steal his car back from police after it was impounded are among the charges.
Watkins, 28, also doesn’t hold a valid Illinois driver’s license and shouldn’t have been driving when he pulled over to change his daughter’s diaper at about 12:45 Monday afternoon.
The unconfirmed claim about his alleged gang association was accompanied by a mugshot, just in case readers had any doubt that this black father is a bad man.
NBC Chicago added that “Authorities said Watkins has so far been uncooperative in providing information as to who shot him.”
Instead of contacting Watkin’s—who was in the hospital in critical condition at the time of the report—to confirm this, NBC painted him as a “gang-banger” unwilling to help police find the person who murdered his daughter.
According to court records, Watkins was arrested in 2007 for illegal possession of a handgun he told police he needed for protection, which landed him in prison for three years. All other media accusations against Watkins appear to be based solely on unconfirmed police claims.
Watkins was further vilified in the Chicago Sun-Times, which cited an unnamed “top police source” who says, “Watkins is giving the police just enough to seem to be cooperating,” but in reality he’s “unwilling to cooperate” because he refused to give police his cell phone.
Again, there doesn’t appear to have been an attempt to contact the family for comment, which is journalistic malpractice at best, especially since the person making these allegations is doing so behind a veil of unjustified anonymity.
In the aftermath of this horrific tragedy, perhaps it’s easier to blame Jonathan Watkins for his baby girl’s murder because such a conclusion allows people to dismiss Jonylah’s death as a tragedy that only happens to the children of criminal parents. In other words, there’s no need for non-gang member white parents to worry because this would never happen to them or their children.
But in reality, Jonathan Watkins and his wife, Judy, are victims of gun violence—just like the parents of 7-year-old Heaven Sutton, 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton and the 20 children massacred at Sandy Hook Elementary school in December—regardless of his past. Otherizing Jonylah’s parents, as we often do to parents of color, isn’t going to change that.
On a side note, Lupe Fiasco released a new song, titled “Jonylah Forever”, dedicated to the memory of Jonylah Watkins and what her life could have been.
Share ideas, dreams, and visions for May Day in Olympia. There will also be music, a really free market, and free food.
Whose Streets?
Ancient Tradition
May Day (on May 1st) is an ancient Northern Hemisphere spring festival, often a public holiday.
May Day is related to the Celtic festival of Beltane and the Germanic festival of Walpurgis Night. May Day falls exactly half a year from November 1, another cross-quarter day which is also associated with various northern European pagan and the year in the Northern hemisphere, and it has traditionally been an occasion for popular and often raucous celebrations.
As Europe became Christianized, the pagan holidays lost their religious character and either changed into popular secular celebrations, as with May Day, or were merged with or replaced by new Christian holidays as with Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and All Saint’s Day. In the twentieth and continuing into the twenty-first century, many neopagans began reconstructing the old traditions and celebrating May Day as a pagan religious festival again.
May Day was also celebrated by some early European settlers of the American continent. In some parts of the United States, May Baskets are made. These are small baskets usually filled with flowers or treats and left at someone’s doorstep. The giver rings the bell and runs away. The person receiving the basket tries to catch the fleeing giver. If they catch the person, a kiss is exchanged.
Modern May Day ceremonies in the U.S. vary greatly from region to region and many unite both the holiday’s “Green Root” (pagan) and “Red Root” (labor) traditions.
May 1st is also recognized in the U.S. as Law Day.
International Workers Day
International Workers’ Day (also known as May Day) is a celebration of the international labor movement. May 1 is a national holiday in more than 80 countries and celebrated unofficially in many other countries.
International Workers’ Day commemorates the 1886 Haymarket affair in Chicago. The police there were trying to disperse a public assembly during a general strike for the eight-hour workday, when, according to some accounts, an unidentified person threw a bomb at them. The police reacted by shooting unarmed workers, killing dozens of demonstrators and several of their own officers. Reliable witnesses testified all the pistol flashes came from the center of the street where the police were standing, and none from the crowd. Moreover, initial newspaper reports made no mention of firing by civilians. A telegraph pole at the scene was filled with bullet holes, all coming from the direction of the police.
In 1889, the first congress of the Second International, meeting in Paris for the centennial of the French Revolution and the Exposition Universelle, following a proposal by Raymond Lavigne, called for international demonstrations on the 1890 anniversary of the Chicago protests. May Day was formally recognized as an annual event at the International’s second congress in 1891.
Subsequently, the May Day Riots of 1894 occurred. In 1904, the International Socialist Conference meeting in Amsterdam called on “all Social Democratic Party organizations and trade unions of all countries to demonstrate energetically on May First for the legal establishment of the 8-hour day, for the class demands of the proletariat, and for universal peace.” The congress made it “mandatory upon the proletarian organizations of all countries to stop work on May 1, wherever it is possible without injury to the workers.”
In many countries, the working classes sought to make May Day an official holiday, and their efforts largely succeeded. May Day has long been a focal point for demonstrations by various socialist, communist and anarchist groups. In some circles, bonfires are lit in commemoration of the Haymarket martyrs, usually at dawn. May Day has been an important official holiday in countries such as the People’s Republic of China, North Korea, Cuba and the former Soviet Union. May Day celebrations typically feature elaborate popular and military parades in these countries.
In the United States and Canada, however, the official holiday for workers is Labor Day in September. This day was promoted by the Central Labor Union and the Knights of Labor, who organized the first parade in New York City. After the Haymarket Massacre, US President Grover Cleveland feared that commemorating Labor Day on May 1 could become an opportunity to commemorate the affair. Thus he moved in 1887 to support the Labor Day that the Knights supported.
In 1955, the Catholic Church dedicated May 1 to “Saint Joseph The Worker”. The Catholic Church considers Saint Joseph the patron saint of (among others) workers and craftsmen.
Far-right governments have traditionally sought to repress the message behind International Workers’ Day, with fascist governments in Portugal, Italy, Germany and Spain abolishing the workers’ holiday. The 1st of May, in the US, is celebrated as Loyalty Day.
By Amicus Curia, investigatory photojournalist for the Mason County Blog (amicuscuria.com/wordpress) and sometimes Works In Progress (WIP), an Olympia based monthly alternative newspaper. (cc) 3-11-13
Kicking the Dog
Shelter from the Storm
[WIP is granted permission to reprint this article provided full attribution accompanies it.]
Hobophobia?
Rumor Confirmed
A Christian faith based organization, the Union Gospel Mission (UGM) adjacent to the Thurston County Food Bank, dedicated to providing charity, medical care, showers, meals, and other essentials to the poor, has clarified its policy of turning away those homeless who participated/slept in the emergency temporary homeless shelter erected by community activists protesting Olympia’s newest anti-‘camping’ ordinance targeting those sleeping on the City’s mean streets. The rumor was confirmed by Pastor Langan when he was contacted the next day for comment/verification.
Union Gospel Mission Calls the Cops
No Apathy!
City’s ONLY 24/7 public toilet
Abandoned Bldg. vs Occupied Homeless Shelter
Crack in the Wall
Insurrection
The story’s genesis began on 1-8-13 when Olympia’s Mayor and City Council heard public comment at its weekly Tuesday evening session while considering an ordinance which criminalized ‘sleeping’ on public property within the city limits pursuant to its anti-‘camping’ ordinance making it illegal to sit, lie, sleep, or carry/possess camping ‘paraphernalia’ such as blankets, tents, tarps, sleeping bags, pillows, etc. The Council chambers was packed to capacity to accommodate the boatload of citizens wishing to speak out against the ordinance during their allotted 3-minutes. Those remarks varied in their rationale and analysis, but all were passionately opposed. Having heard unanimous verbal opposition from the constituents present who spoke out, the City Council proudly demonstrated its independence from those taxpayers by voting unanimously for the ordinance.
People Power
Sentinels
Faces In Courage
On 2-8-13, the City’s newest poverty law took effect. A protest in the form of a ‘sleep-in’ on the steps of City Hall was organized. Staged at the Artesian well, the group of homeless and their advocates marched down 4th Ave. to City Hall where they remained for the rest of the night. (http://amicuscuria.com/wordpress/?p=8764)
Cease & Desist
Condemned Truth Teller
Dana Walker
Standing Firm
Diplomatic Initiative
Sitting By The Dock Of the Bay
Having failed to register their point with a Mayor who openly boasted of managing by crisis on the issue in order to create ‘momentum’ in his remarks leading to the passage of the law criminalizing an entire class of the City’s most vulnerable and least able to defend itself, street activists conceived of a plan to furnish vital services (including food, dry clothing & bedding, shelter against the elements, and a 24/7 mobile toilet) which the City would not in the face of local NGO’s closing their doors to the homeless with springtime imminent despite temperatures still low enough to induce hypothermia in the wet.
Aparatchiks
Mary w/Homeless Advocates
Unsung Champion of the Homeless
Word of the Takedown Spreads
Double, Bubble, Toil & Trouble
Warm & Dry
Dividing the Pie
Gordian Knot
Mass Exodus
Logically enough, the Artesian well–a longtime public gathering point for all of the town’s residents–was selected as the locale where those with no other options could survive the rainy nights and relieve themselves despite the municipal restrooms being locked at night to discourage their use. A temporary emergency homeless shelter was erected by a coalition of the community, amenities to all who needed them were provided, and the newly constructed facility received 24-hour monitoring from responsible citizens.
Hell No, We Won’t Go!
Tony On the Spot
The Ice Man Cometh
Upon learning of this turn of events, Steve Hall, the City’s Manager, arrived on the scene and threatened those present with arrest if they did not remove themselves and the tent structure from the Artesian well site, a property recently purchased by the City in order to ‘preserve’ it, as noted by the brass plaque in place.
Whose Streets?
Tony Zooms In
Wet & Cold
Caveat
On Sunday (3-3-13), organizers discussed their lack of a force equal to the brute police power of the state threatened by Mr. Hall. Opting for diplomacy and compassion over making a political point…even a just one…they elected to move the structure to the abandoned WA. Fish & Wildlife building site at Washington & B Ave. rather than allow the shelter to be destroyed by the Olympia PD and in order to continue to offer services to the homeless (which by then had reached 22 overnight guests) without costing the City a nickel. They disassembled the structure and reassembled it on the abandoned State property with the realization the State had not enacted an anti-‘camping’ law targeting the homeless similar to Olympia’s.
Last Testament
Tony Overman near Homeless Teen
State Patrol Rousts the Homeless
They All Hate Us Anyhow…
Fish & Wildlife Officer Watches
To Serve & Protect
Police Academy Flashback
UGM Eats Its Children
But activists had not counted on a 5th column: UGM had a firm policy denying services to outlaws and scofflaws according to Pastor Tim Langan. This included those homeless who might be now sleeping on the streets in violation of Olympia’s newest anti-poverty ordinance, but especially those seen to be participating/sleeping in the controversial temporary emergency homeless shelter as Pastor Denny Bobbert or UGM staffer ‘Jerome Jaeger’ [which is in dispute] announced to the unfortunates he discovered there. The tent structure was only a block over from the UGM. It wasn’t difficult for Pastor Denny or ‘Jerome Jaeger’ to keep tabs on which homeless took up with their advocates. Some of their peers dropped by to express support and fear they would be refused food if they became so bold as to lie in their comrades’ company there.
Union Gospel Mission in the Background
Citizen Journalist Protects Her Identity
State Patrol Drag Homeless From Their Shelter
One homeless man familiar with the UGM spoke of a routine religious indoctrination session of 15 minutes preceding each meal doled out to the homeless. For this reason, he said, he made it a point to arrive late. Another man of 26 with rotten teeth and a ghastly appearance of poor health, reportedly was banned for life from the UGM for remonstrating articulately with the Pastor once too often. The details of that conversation aren’t known. Perhaps it sprang from the ‘tough love’ approach routinely visited on UGM’s clients lecturing them on their dereliction of duty, self loathing, failure to take responsibility for themselves, and refusal to blame the victim (themselves) for their misfortune.
Officer Mugs for the Camera
A Hard Day’s Night
To Protect & To Serve
Civil Disobedience
Pastor Denny demonstrated his ‘loyalty’ to the homeless by calling the Olympia PD out of ‘concern’ over the possibly illegal temporary shelter. (See the photo, ibid, of Pastor Denny conferring with Olympia’s PD Commander Nelson on the day in question.) The Olympia PD, being better schooled in the law’s parameters, called the State Police to notify them of the situation, urging them to remedy it…this despite Mayor Buxbaum’s disingenuous assertion his passing the anti-camping ordinance wasn’t designed to discriminate against the homeless, but to produce a crisis which would create ‘momentum’ toward a negotiation with other government agencies to shoulder their fair share of the financial responsibility to address the growing problem of homelessness. In fact, what was witnessed was cooperation, but not to aid the homeless. The cooperation visibly seen was intended to drive the homeless away from an evolving gated city with a system of municipal apartheid.
Audrey Daye’s Children watch as their Father, Alex, is Arrested w/the Homeless
LEO Asks What Family Property He Can Retrieve
The Daye Family
Standing Tall
Swallowed
Professor Pete Bohmer Enters the Lion’s Den
The Senior Peter Bohmer is Taken Into Custody
Shortly after 5:30pm on 3-5-13, the public was seated in a staff oriented work session involving City Employees and their County contemporaries. The public was invited to be seen, but not heard. Perhaps 20 minutes later, a young homeless advocate burst through the door to announce the State Police were arriving at the temporary emergency homeless shelter to remove it and arrest anyone present @ 6:00pm. A group exodus of concerned citizens followed him to the site to witness a large number of State Police, one WA. Fish & Wildlife officer, assorted State vehicles, and the service of yet another Cease & Desist Notice alerting any present their continued recalcitrance would be treated as criminal trespass.
Officer Glowers at the Camera
A Woman’s Touch
A Night to Remember
Among the 7 arrested for criminal trespass were Professor Peter Bohmer, Shane Dillingham (19), Alex Daye, Nathan, Tim (18), Rod Tharp, and ‘Tahoe’. 4 of the 7 arrestees were homeless, 2 were foster children aged out of the system, and 2 were military veterans. All were released from Thurston County Jail the next morning without being fed following their ~6:00pm arrest that evening. Some homeless who did not wish to be arrested stood on the sidewalk watching their friends being taken into custody. One teen admitted he did not know where he was going to spend the night. He had all his possessions in a plastic sack sitting beside him on the sidewalk and on his back as he faced a makeshift police line glowering at community members hazing the cops for their indifference and perverse exercise in ‘protecting the community’. One officer responded to the question of why were they doing this by admitting they were ordered to do so. Another admitted the Olympia PD had contacted them and complained about the shelter.
Officer Friendly
Jennifer Tobias later called and spoke with a UGM staffer named ‘Skip’. What she got from him was UGM didn’t call the Fish and Wildlife Department to report the encampment. They did, however, call the City Police to ask if they knew what was going on because they were “concerned”. The City Police Department then called them back to ask if they knew who owned the building /lot the temporary shelter was on because they didn’t know if it was still owned by Fish and Wildlife or the Port of Olympia.
Jennifer recounted Skip saying the UGM was telling homeless folks if they were associated with the encampment UGM would withhold any help/services since such participation was an illegal act right there in front of UGM…and UGM “couldn’t support such an act.” Services would only be withheld temporarily until the individual was no longer breaking the law, the rep continued. Ms. Tobias asked how he felt about someone breaking the law out of necessity because the law itself was a “unuust”. Skip characterized civil disobedience as something they [UGM] could not support because what folks were doing was not legal and not “constructive” in his view. He repeated UGM could/would not ‘support such activities’.
Jennifer asked if the UGM was screening all homeless/houseless folks who were coming in for services to make sure none of them were breaking the no sit/no lie and no camping ordinances since they too were breaking the law? Skip conceded her point but argued the UGM did not have the ability to screen folks in such a way nor would they “intrude” into peoples lives this way–their restriction were applied only to those ‘blatantly breaking the law’ right in front of UGM’s noses. Skip ended by opining, “God didn’t make me the public police of Olympia.”
Demolishing the Temporary Emergency Homeless Shelter
Skip then authorized Jennifer Tobias to quote him online, and Jennifer did the same for this reporter.
What Ms. Tobias heard was fairly consistent w/the interview this reporter had w/pastor Langan, who was (giving the Devil his due) quite candid. What she heard (‘concern’) was also somewhat disingenuous. Pastor Langan’s tone spoke volumes as to his view of the ‘temporary emergency homeless shelter’ 1st erected at the Artesian, then transported to the abandoned State F&W property. His tone was transparently hostile to the tent shelter, and the phrase used to describe it (‘temporary emergency homeless shelter’) was pointedly disparaged by pastor Langan who argued it was an artifice concocted by the Occupy Olympia folks who were using it as a device to advance their political agenda at the expense of the homeless, who he claimed were being used as pawns.
Langan expressed ‘concern’ that the structure and the homeless engaged in supporting it or sleeping in it would be associated in the public’s mind with the UGM, which would, in turn, experience opprobrium from that public or the City itself. While the characterization of the tent shelter being ‘right in front of the UGM’ may have been an exaggeration, the pastor’s argument about unintended consequences isn’t as far fetched given the history of the City in vexing Bread & Roses some years back as it tried to provide hot meals to the poor/homeless in Olympia. Today, that program no longer exists, largely because the City deliberately made it too difficult (through administrative fiat) for B&R to continue the hot meals program. Similar animosity has been met by the soup kitchen in Shelton.
Whether a ‘Christian’ organization who admits it might have turned Rosa Parks away if she’d been homeless and sought their help is one deserving of public support is an issue which must be tried in the court of public opinion. While lucid, the pastor’s argument is weak and evades his all too apparent hostility toward his fellow travelers who don’t subscribe to his brand of charity. He also, like to many others, remains indifferent to the 5,000 # elephant in the room: Charity displacing/substituting for Civil Rights creating a system of apartheid targeting the poor in the bargain.
Finally, the fact some homeless approached the ones sleeping there to express solidarity and fear of not being fed by the UGM at the same time says something. Credit the pastor with being genuine (mostly) instead of weaseling out of moral responsibility for civil rights violations like the Mayor and City Council or its Manager which simultaneously damns him with faint praise.
The white haired Peter Bohmer (who has had at least one hip replacement and a heart attack) marched toward his arrest in support of the dispossessed like a Greek god! Jail is a very dangerous place to be for one with his medical disabilities. He had to post $1,500 bail to be released. Simply watching the tension between idealism and the banality of evil played out in the mean streets of Olympia is…stunning…exhilarating–inspiring! One is left with the feeloing of having been given the opportunity to peek in on 21st century freedom marchers/sleepers. And while watching Pete was like watching your grandmother wrestle an alligator–and WIN!, it is the youthful activists and the unprecedented numbers of young homeless who have the vitality, the physical strength to see this one through. Geezers may have wisdom, but they need too many naps and bathroom breaks.
Anyone…yes ANYONE who has a civic virtuous bone in their body or a soul not yet dead from a lethal diet of TV simply must support these dissidents engaged in civil disobedience against an egregiously unjust law. To do any less is to consign ourselves to the dust bin of history where evil succeeded because good people stood by and did NOTHING! The banality of evil provides no comfort. You could not have picked out most Nazis in a crowd of good Germans in the 3rd Reich. Today, through the miracle of technology, we can reach out, transcending time & distance, to grasp each other’s hand to bridge the gap of ennui and form an impenetrable shield behind which the homeless can enjoy their most precious inalienable right: to be left alone!
Residents Rebuke Oly Mayor, Council 3-5-13 1/3
Amicus Curia, et ux, calls out Olympia’s Mayor and City Council for violation of civil right when passing an ordinance targeting the City’s homeless, virtually criminalizing this entire underclass of people. Part of a public outcry and unanimous condemnation of the City’s poverty laws in their 3-minute limited remarks from the podium, speakers roundly lambasted their elected officials for ignoring community sentiment, for victimizing the most vulnerable and least able to defend themselves, virtually abrogating the fiduciary duties for which they were elected.
Residents Rebuke Oly Mayor, Council 3-5-13 2/3
Residents Rebuke Oly Mayor, Council 3-5-13 3/3
Young Homeless Woman Describes Ordeal in Olympia 3-5-13
A young ‘homeless’ street woman (‘Monica’) objects to the term, preferring ‘houseless’ as she describes the stigma and how too often her peers are treated like ‘rats’ instead of human beings. She pleads for a better life while candidly describing some of the difficulties she has faced.
A generation has suckled, grown old, and become grandparents since the Israeli-Palestinian conflict began to inundate the news. But for a nation which practically deifies the 1st Amendment, we remain curiously ill informed. Why?
Our mainstream media has become the prisoner of special interests as consolidation has limited diversity and newsrooms have become virtual entertainment centers in the service of corporate profits. Having been the 1st nation to diplomatically recognize the state of Israel, Americans are naturally inclined to be sympathetic with the perceived underdog in films like Exodus. Moshe Dyan, the one-eyed general and patron saint of modern Israel, literally owing its existence to his brilliant military mind in the wake of the 1967 war with Egypt, seems like a mythical figure from the heights of Mt. Olympus to us. But there is a darker side, an insidious devolution into the depravity of overwhelming military power inflamed by bitter hatred unheralded by our news sources, unaided by the democratization of modern news gathering technology–the consumer video camera–until now. Today, WE ARE THE MEDIA!
Palestinians Emad and Guy Davidi, dirt poor farmers from the tiny West Bank village of Bil’in, document the bittersweet tragic story of their family’s years long struggle against Israeli encroachment and destruction of the lands on which they were born, depend upon for survival, die to defend. The brutality against their families, their neighbors, their children is graphically…shockingly captured by the most powerful weapon ever acquired by a Palestinian–the most inexpensive modern consumer grade video camera. The soldiers fear its immeasurable penetration into the truth of their brutal occupation and theft of this land from those whose very lives depend on it. No amount of PR or military press releases can explain away the footage of an unarmed Palestinian demonstrator in the tight grip of the rough hands of 3 burly Israeli soldiers while a 4th aims his rifle at the prisoner’s leg and deliberately shoots to maim him.
Emad raises his baby son deliberately, allowing him to see the cycle of life and death to prepare him for the suffering he will have to endure. His 4 year old son, after witnessing the death of men he’s come to love from the village, repeatedly asks his father why he doesn’t stab the soldiers with a knife. “Because they would shoot me,” answers his dad. “Why do you want to hurt them?” he prods. “Because they hurt my friend,” the boy confides.
A quality view of 5 Broken Cameras can be seen on Netflix, but for those without a subscription, please take the time to watch a gritty, in the trenches, emotionally charged, compelling documentary by a peasant producer every bit as important as the one by Steven Spielberg about Oscar Schindler’s acts of selfless heroism, or Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee. Like the book, this is a story finally told from the victim’s perspective. The truth it holds asks a terrifying question about human nature: What was the point of beating the Nazis only to become just like them?
Warning: Some of the scenes are so graphically violent, parental discretion is advised.
The Olympian flagged/censored the following observations made in their comment section following the referenced article they ran in their publication on 3-8-13. Fortunately, they cannot censor it here. WE ARE NOW THE MEDIA!
Democracy Wall
The Olympian newspaper had a disturbing article about the City’s proposed ‘expansion’ of the Artesian well site on its front page today. It included a diagram/blueprint with a raised stage, movie screen, ping pong table, tiled emulated waterway art walk, steel arch entrance emblazoned with Artesian Court, and an awning designed to keep all dry except the homeless (the awning will be retracted and locked at night, presumably along with any public restroom facilities) promising to buoy up the City’s aspirations by ‘managed positive behavior’ (apartheid?)–a hallmark of Olympia’s public policy track record.
Jesus Calling Card
Homeless Youth
Go Ask Alice
Yet another brick in the wall of Olympia’s march to becoming a gated city/community is afoot. The gentrification of the Artesian will complement the apartheid ordinances targeting the homeless, the poor, the dispossessed as personas non grata. Consider what Dave Okerlund’s vision of an ‘Artesian Court’ [pun intended?] arcade-like environment where “a combination of active & passive uses designed and managed to promote POSITIVE BEHAVIOR” means in a town which, until recently, restricted free speech to ‘busking zones’, and where its community center (Olympia Center) has ‘no loitering’ signs posted on its walls. The plethora of obnoxious signs in its transit center are similarly hostile, announcing bikes left in its racks have been vandalized, yet promising they will be seized if left over 24 hours. The transit authorities are unwilling to accept any responsibility for protecting the bicycles of its patrons, but they’re more than willing to steal them. Downtown Olympia has empty streets and a sterile atmosphere after dark.
A Pledge In Infamy
“Managed Positive Behavior”
Dogs, Yes–Homeless, No!
Hobophobia?
If the City’s track record of managing by crisis and discrimination (busking ‘zones’, cruising ordinances, anti-‘camping’ ordinances, persecuting the homeless, locking people with no home but the streets out of public bathrooms, etc.) is a measure of its corruption/incompetence, citizens would be well served to avoid more of the same in its proposed gentrification of the Artesian well site. The white middle class arrogant ignorance of characterizing the site as currently “under-used” is deafening. The Artesian is, by far, the most popular City natural resource 24/7 and always has been. Its friends are legion. Besides water, it has been observed food donations are often left there. Street activists often use it as a meeting place to organize/stage events/protests. Art works have been created on site and a sense of ancient community watering holes permeates the place. All who come share the universal need for water to sustain life. Like death itself, water can serve as a great leveler in the quest for life…or it can become yet another commodity in the furtherance of greed and middle class ennui. This is what Mr. Okerlund’s proposal represents–an ode to capitalism and a cathedral to ‘managed positive behavior’ as one walks beneath the steel arch entrance to the ‘Artesian Court’. Perhaps a sign with more genuine language may be posted there: No Homeless Allowed–Homeless, keep off the grass!
Landed Gentry Welcome
Now You See It
“Under Used”?
Predictably, the resentment toward this furtherance of gentrification and apartheid within the City limits will become pronounced. This invited resentment will inevitably be expressed in the form of tagging and vandalism. The City’s newest gilded thumb in the eye of the poor, the homeless, the downtrodden, will become a target, a perverse ‘democracy well’ with the words of its prophets written on the walls. Dave Okerlund’s proposed gentrification of the Artesian is akin to dressing your 10 year old daughter up in hot pants and directing her to hang out on the street corner at night. It is not a responsible proposal. It should be firmly rejected as based on a vision conceived by one with middle class blinders ignorant of the Artesian’s current unique value and use by ALL of the community, not merely the ones favored by the City and its minions.
Failure to recognize oppression/victims requires only their sufferance of the same offense long enough.
“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!”
–Samuel Adams–
“More Weight!” -Giles Corey-
Katherine ‘KteeO’ Olejnik
Matt Duran
Kerry Cunneen
Olympia’s Grand Jury Resisters Matt Duran and Katherine Olejnik were released on 2-28-13 pursuant to a court order signed by federal judge Richard Jones. Maddy Pfeiffer remains incarcerated since having been taken into custody the day after Christmas, 2012. Portland’s Grand Jury Reisister, Kerry Cunneen, remains at large, having refused to appear to respond to a subpoena to testify before the same federal grand jury reasoning it would be a step in the direction of assisting the state in incarcerating yet another (A)narchist (herself) for little more than sharing a political philosophy w/friends & acquaintances while refusing to identify them.
Judge Jones based his ruling on the failure of the federal prosecutor to rebut the Resisters’ motion-affidavit contending their resolve to refuse to give up names of fellow philosophical travelers was unshaken and would remain so. The judge was considerably less impressed by the detainees’ argument characterizing the federal grand jury’s investigation, future course, or collateral prosecution of suspects than their personal statements about their confinement (solitary), their principles, and the reasons they will never provide testimony.
Besides the 5 months of their incarceration, much of which had been in solitary confinement, the court took note of the resulting injury to their physical & mental health, loss of employment, housing, relationships–all while being cut off from the world (even other inmates/staff) except for one 15 minute phone call per month. No explanation for their placement in solitary confinement (a disturbingly brutal environment) was ever forthcoming from the prison administration where they were held (Sea Tac federal detention center). The internal scars they bear merit respect and protest from their peers.
2:00pm
