To: Congressman Brian Baird, Washington State, 3rd District

From: Curt Pavola

Brian,

This is my moment as an American, as a voter, to shape the future of our world. I’m amazed and saddened that you’ve chosen a pro-conflict role in world history. You’ve made a fundamental shift in alliances, and humanity, perhaps for generations, will now be suffering directly by your hand. You’re playing the inside game of the rich and powerful. The people on all sides in Iraq become chess pieces; the important people are the politicos and business executives who conquer, nation-build and create wealth.

by Janet Blanding

The continued right to reproductive freedom is looking bleaker and bleaker for women in the United States. Buoyed by recent victories both locally and nationally, the anti-choice movement is turning up the heat, with organized, well-funded efforts to suppress not only a woman’s right to abortion, but to prevent everyone’s access to birth control.

by Chris Beug

The Manium, a collectively run, all-ages venue that has been in operation for the last four years at 421 Fourth Avenue in downtown Olympia, has been closed by the city of Olympia for doing an unpermitted remodel that allegedly makes the building unsafe. There are many small details that need to be addressed, but the main contention point is the need for the installation of an automatic sprinkler system. Whether or not this is actually necessary depends on how you interpret and apply the International Building Code (IBC). There are many factors dictating in which cases it is . . .

[Long-time Olympia resident, Rick Fellows, was one of the primary founders of Media Island (816 Adams St.), a 21-year old activist center “dedicated to provide access to alternative media and first-hand sources of information regionally, nationally, and internationally.” The center is also “committed to collecting, processing, and distributing crucial information addressing the social justice, economic democracy, ecological sustainability and peace issues that we all collectively face.” Along with an active presence at the center, Fellows also annually participates in international aid . . .

by Adam Broomfield for a collective of concerned OFS members

Where do we stand?

The Olympia Film Society (OFS) board of directors has acted improperly in firing Technical Director Jeffrey Bartone. The flawed procedure for this vote has not been supported or reasonably justified. We are faced with a board that has acted contrary to the bylaws of OFS, yet maintains a lack of concern amid the outcry of its membership. In firing the Technical Director with no plan for his replacement, they have left the Capitol Theater without an overseer of maintenance and vulnerable to equipment failure. Two of . . .

by Monica Peabody

What has your local welfare rights group in Olympia been doing since you heard from us in the June Works in Progress (“What’s Up With WROC?”) We have been continuing the daily work of giving information to low income people about their rights at the welfare office, providing witnesses to people for their welfare appointments, doing weekly outreach at the welfare office with coffee and pastries, providing volunteer, intern and work study opportunities for office and community organizing work, insisting the voice of low-income parents be present at legislative and policy . . .

by Brendan Maslauskas Dunn

I think back to the time I spent with George and I keep on telling myself, “it was just a dream; it was just a dream.” It wasn’t.

I met George Sossenko, 88, at an anarchist workshop at the United States Social Forum in Atlanta this past June. I found his phone number and was able to track him down to talk to him before I left town. He and his wife Birdie picked me up for lunch and I spent the next few hours talking with him about the Spanish Civil War, anarchism and revolution.

by Frances Hogan, M.D.

On Sept. 12, I was fortunate to be a part of a Green Party delegation to Senator Patty Murray’s office. We met with Ardis Dumont, Senator Murray’s Director of Special Projects, to talk about the impending US military action against Iran.

We were from Iran, Pakistan, India, as well as the Puget Sound area, and counted Muslims, Jews, and Christians among us. Individuals represented various groups: American Muslims of Puget Sound (AMPS), Ground Zero, Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), One Earth, StandUp! Seattle, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Raging . . .

by Daisy Ouye

October marks 62 years since the closing of Topaz Internment Camp. The site was recognized this year as a National Historic Landmark thanks to the diligence of the Topaz Museum Board and other supporters. They believe it is important that we remember the strength of the people interned, as well as injustices of former actions of the US federal government.

Olympia Co-op offers coupon for donations to Ground Zero Center

2007 marks the twin 30th Anniversaries of two hope-filled local efforts, the Olympia Food Co-op and the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action. In celebration of this spooky coincidence, the Tovarish D. Wagster Fund has arranged a way for Co-op shoppers to feel doubly good about their purchases! Few South Sounders are conscious that the Trident submarine base at Bangor (a mere 20 miles west of Seattle) now houses the nation’s largest single stockpile of nuclear warheads. The property of the G.Z. Center directly abuts the Bangor . . .