Bigelow Night Scene

Interesting about this photograph: my shadow is visible on the house in the lower right
center portion of the frame.
view larger
and larger again [7+ MB file]

Detention Center

The following is a comment (edited for clarity) that I left on an article about a protest against the Northwest ICE Immigration Detention Center. The facility is located in Tacoma Washington, and I cross-posted the same article here on Peace is Possible. And also here again is a slideshow of the day's events.


by berdww
on 2/15/2010 @ 9:26am

I think that the ICE Detention Center is a symptom of the deeply diseased nature of our society.

When some people are willing to put others down for the purpose of economic self-interest then there is a problem. People are willing to exploit each other - and there is a fundamental violence that exists at the roots, and in the heart, of our socio-economic political system.

The Detention Center is an outward manifestation of what is a culture of cruelness, meanness, hurtfulness, exclusion, fear, and exploitation (etc.). It's a culture that permeates to the roots and heart of this society.

American Disillusion

I grew up with the idea that the USA was the greatest nation on Earth. That this is a land of equal opportunity, a land of altruism. It's easy to see why that story could get confusing in light of the historical realities of the enslavement of Africans and the virtual genocide of Native Peoples. It's hard to know what to believe, I suppose. But the reality on the ground is that America is a very violent place. Ranging from domestic violence to state violence against civilians. Ranging from harmful economic activities to colonialism and outright wars of aggression.

When Obama was elected, and inaugurated, it would have been hard not to feel hopeful. The rhetoric, if not completely correct, was in a pretty good place. But in what's now over a year since the Obama Administration assumed power, there has been a degeneration in the rhetoric, and certainly a widespread feeling of disappointment with the real politic. An example of degeneration of rhetoric is the difference between talking about opportunity and prosperity for all, to the more recent focus on propping up the "middle class." The degeneration has been gradual, like the flim-flam approach to Universal Health Care, and the Obama plan to increase military spending; and yet it has also been spiked with notable events, like the use of the Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance speech to advocate America's supposed need for war, and the dreadful showing at the Copenhagen Climate Conference.

The disillusion is driving home some simple and chilling truths. The socio-economic political system of the United States is broken. It is corrupt. I have been saying this for over 10 years. And articles like the following only make it more and more clear. So what to do...

The fact is that human activities - industrial activities - over the past 200+ years have done tremendous damage to the living systems of this planet Earth. Earth is our home. We would be wise to take care of it. After all it either belongs to all of us, or to none of us at all. The policies coming out of Washington D.C. and other locusts of political power in the USA (as well as other places in the world) make little to no sense. A drastic change in focus is needed. A change toward the direction of taking care of the planet, and taking care of each other. The adversarial, profit-oriented model of destructive competition endangers the future of humanity and most of the life on this planet. Change is due.

First, there needs to be a disruption of the two-party duopoly that represents the amoral corporate profit motive.

Then there is the need to remake the system anew - to make a system that is altruistic and grounded in the intention to serve life.

Yep. So, check out this article for more reason to challenge and oppose the unmanageable and amoral status quo:

February 9, 2010

Obama's "Change" Drops Its Mask

The Democrats are Coming After Social Security

By SHAMUS COOKE

It’s official: the Democrats are coming after Social Security and Medicare. All the backroom scheming and political conspiring is finally out in the open.

In an unusually long, 1,800 word editorial, entitled The Truth about the Deficit, published February 7, The New York Times -- cheerleader for neoliberalism -- gives its solution to the country’s debt problems. The main idea is summed up thus:

“To truly tame deficits will require serious health care reform [Obama’s plan slashes Medicare], the sooner the better. Other aspects of the long-term fiscal problem — raising taxes and retooling [reducing] Social Security — must take place in earnest as the economy recovers.”

read more: http://www.counterpunch.org/cooke02092010.html

Percival Landing Friday February 5 2010 b

Percival Landing Friday, February 5, 2010

full size (3.85 mb file): Percival Landing 3 Image Composite Friday February 5 2010

Puget Sound

This is Budd Inlet, as seen from Percival Landing, Downtown Olympia, Washington.

International Relations in a Culture of Conquest

This is from a book called "2/15". It's a documentary about protest in the run up to the war for and against Iraq.

"There is a power which can serve as a check against abuses by a government or by government officials and that power is the power of the informed citizen — one who has read enough, who understands enough, who has developed a base of knowledge against which to judge truth or falsehood.

"Participation in the great debates of our time must not be relegated to the power elites in Washington. An informed citizenry has to participate, ask questions, and demand answers and accountability to make a country like ours work."

— Robert Byrd, Senator from West Virginia

Olympia Washington May Day 2008 (photography and video)

Please see: May Day Editorial Comment [OlyBlog.net]

I have some photos and videos from the day too. Mine are quite different from the adversarial and controversial scenes and sounds that you will find in The Olympian and on their website.

So here they are, first the flickr slide show (in case the embedded slideshow doesn't work for you, here's a direct link to the photoset: www.flickr.com/photos/rwhitlock/sets/72157604848281827/


I also took some videos, here are a few that I selected to post (In case the viewer embed doesn't work, here's a link):

Hello from Olympia

Hello from Olympia on a misty and drizzly day. Congratulations to Lt. Ehren Watada on having his appeal recognized in a civilian federal court. I hope that you're all doing well and that you have, or are working towards having, true peace in your life. Here's a couple of Oly images to share:

Olympia at Night

Tomorrow is the big day at Ft. Lewis for Ehren Watada. I am planning on attending some of the rallies and vigils, so it is straight to be and sleep for me!

Foggy Weather

A zone of high pressure has parked itself over the Puget Sound over the past couple weeks, and there have been a lot of cold nights, which have given way to dense fog, which usually burns off by late morning or early afternoon and leaves the sky open and clear, and the cycle repeats itself. I love the fog personally. But the freezing fog is unpleasant on the lungs.

The air mass has become stagnant at the same time, due to thermal inversion and a lack of mixing. So there is a lot of pollution - smoke and particulates - in the air as well. My lungs could use some fresh air.