Pushing for Progress: Some Photos and What Not

22 September 2008

Some Photos and What Not

What's up. Lot's of stuff going on recently. Both locally and globally (and seemingly everything in between.) I have been spending a lot of time thinking and conversing about recent events, mostly as they relate to city government, here in Olympia, Washington. Two major things have attracted the focus of my energy. One is the City Council's vote in approval of a motion to ordain the repeal of the 2005 Nuclear Free Zone Act (an ordinance - i.e. city law.) I oppose the repeal of the ordinance - for a lot of reasons. [video of the September 9th, 2008 Council Meeting including the NFZA repeal and related testimony: Nuclear Free Zone Repeal City Council Meeting]

The NFZA ordinance seeks to prohibit the storage, transport, and production of nuclear weapons within city limits. It also seeks to inform city buying and contracting practices, in order to avoid doing business with companies which are vested in the nuclear weapons industry...

It was a sad day when the vote to repeal went through. What does this repeal motion say about Olympia?

Public officials at the national level use hostile and belligerent rhetoric - even including threats of nuclear attack - in an effort to badger and influence - to intimidate - their adversaries.

These same public officials are supposed to be working toward the goal of disarmament. But they are doing the exact opposite. They are promoting hostility. They are promoting the nuclear weapons establishment...

So this decision to repeal does not reflect the true will of the people. The true will of the people is to take constructive action toward peace.

The other matter of city business that I have been involved in has been the Council's consideration of a spot rezone on the Isthmus of downtown Olympia. I have been posting about that issue some here at In the Course and also at OlyBlog, which seems to be disabled currently (at 2:30pm on Monday, September 22, 2008.)

I have been up to other stuff too. I took 182 photographs yesterday. I posted quite a few of them up to flickr, so go check them out (link is in the side-bar - at the top.)

I'll post a sampling of the photos here. These are all from the City of Olympia Watershed Park: