31 January 2012

Some Recent Photos


The scene at Boston Harbor, on Saturday the 28th of January.


Gazebo with gull at the end of the boardwalk, Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, Sunday 29 January

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View from the Gazebo, in the distance is the Tacoma Narrows, and the Narrows Bridge can be seen.

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Percival Landing, during the weekly peace vigil, Friday 27 January—the vigil is sponsored by the Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation

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Scene from the "snowpocalypse"—a week of snow, including one very significant event, descended upon the Puget Sound Lowlands. The first snows fell on Saturday the 14th. Then the big snow happened Tuesday night the 17th. Atmospheric conditions warmed so that rain fell. It was not warm enough to melt the snow, some of which is still around in piles today, Tuesday the 31st of January. Many tree branches snapped under the weight of the heavy snow, and many electrical lines were damaged. Hundreds of thousands of people were without electrical service for days.

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Thursday 26 January 2012, View of the "Isthmus", former Department of Corrections building (aka "Mistake on the Lake,) and the former site of Occupy Olympia, an encampment in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street—against the harmful socio-economic-cultural status quo that trickles down.

Crescent Moon and Venus
Thursday the 26th, Crescent Moon and Venus above Washington State Legislative Building dome—not pictured is the planet Jupiter, which has also of late been joined by the Moon and Venus in the evening sky.

snow scene
Snow scene, Heritage Park, former site of Occupy Olympia, on Wednesday the 18th of January. This was a major snow day. Many if not most schools were closed, and many businesses were also shuttered. Annie Appel, Evergreen graduate and LA area photographer, visited Olympia, and conducted a series of portraits to help tell the story of the Occupy Movement. Please learn more about Annie and her portrait project here:
www.annieappelphotography.blogspot.com
and short YouTube documentaries here:
www.youtube.com/user/DocumentingWorlds

15 January 2012

End Aggression, Find Common Security in Beloved Community

Following are three live ustream videos from yesterday, during nuclear weapons protest with the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action (www.gzcenter.org). After the videos is a photo from the day published by GZ Center, then more written description of the protest, by me. After that, will be some thoughts of prominent thinkers/writers about aggression and humanity. First the Ustream videos:

The first video, I thought was about one minute long, although only about 30 seconds show up here, so maybe I was wrong about that. Anyway, it shows the walk from the GZ house to the main gate. The house is about one quarter of a mile from the main-gate:


The second video is about a minute or a minute and a half, it shows the scene around the main-gate prior to protesters entering the roadway to blockade. We had a banner that read, "Enriching a few at everyone expense: occupy trident," on one side. On the other side it said, "Care for sailors and marines. Peaceful jobs for all." This shows a little bit of that.


The third video is from on the grounds at the Ground Zero Center. It includes some information and thoughts about the day, and more information about Ground Zero and the military base, which is called Naval Base Kitsap Bangor.



[Sunday 15 January 2012photo and description from the GZ Center Facebook Page: In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. and in resistance to the first strike Trident nuclear weapons system, Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action closed the Main Gate to Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor (West Coast homeport for Trident) for 26 minutes earlier today. More photos, video, and reports to come.]

While protesting nuclear weapons, I was cited, yesterday, for a pedestrian infraction. Location: main-gate at Naval Base Kitsap Bangor. At Bangor is a nuclear weapons storage facility, as well as port for a class of submarines that carry the Trident weapons system. Trident is an ICBM with a range of 4,000nm. They can be launched, again, from a submarine.

I believe that the Trident submarine ICBM nuclear weapon system is aggression. Carried on Submarines, there is potential to lurk nearby targets, and to strike without warning.

I believe that the best defense is not offense. And further that the best defense is certainly not aggression. Instead, it makes more sense in a humanistic world that the best defense is simply to be a good neighbor, be kind, respectful, build trust, find common security—in deed mutual security for all—in what MLK Jr. talked about as, "Beloved Community."


The following is a collection of various words of wisdom on the topic of Aggression and Humanity, partly inspired by my participation in a weekly peace vigil (hence the photo):

War is Bankrupting the U.S.
Aggression has bankrupted and impoverished humanity...

This is from a weekly peace vigil that I regularly participate in. I try to be there every week. It's from 4:30pm to 6:00pm every Friday at Percival Landing, the corner of 4th Avenue and Water Street, which is in downtown Olympia, Washington.

The vigil is sponsored by the Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation, and anyone is welcome to attend. If you would like, you can bring a sign to hold, or you're also welcome to use of one of the signs provided by the Oly FOR.


President Dwight David Eisenhower:

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron." - April 16, 1953

George Owell:

"The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labour. War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent."

Major General Smedley D. Butler U.S.M.C.:

"War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small 'inside' group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes."

...

"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents."

Albert Einstein:

"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing."

Photo by Dennis's friend from Croatia, Charles Tauber

07 January 2012

Pick Punch on Your Daily Hour With Me


On the show, will air on TCTV next Friday, the 13th.


some plugging for the show earlier in the day

04 January 2012

Photo from Day of Eviction

Thanks to David for capturing this photograph, which includes me talking to a reporter on the day of eviction for Occupy Olympia from Heritage Park:


Friday 16 December 2012, Occupy Olympia Eviction from Heritage Park