On bathrooms, again

Real Change
Stuck in a particular rut? Write about it.

by Dr. Wes Browning | March 24th, 2021

What is about to happen in this space: I will illustrate the technique of “writing while stupid.” I’ve done this before. The basic idea is to harness your stupidity. Make it work for you instead of against you.
Read more in the Mar. 24-30, 2021 issue.
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Real Change
Housing and Homeless Advocacy Day and Real Change

by Paige Owens, Real Change Advocacy Intern and Vendor | March 24th, 2021

It was my first time ever doing Zoom meetings, and I was nervous. You know the jittery feeling you get when meeting new people? Well, I definitely had that going on. This would be the first Housing and Homeless Advocacy Day (HHAD) meeting I had ever been to. I was really excited to join, since I had been homeless for 12 years myself and, had I not won the Section 8 lottery, would still be living in a shelter, and the bills we would be advocating for were to help more people stay in their homes.
Read more in the Mar. 24-30, 2021 issue.
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Real Change
Trans rights are women’s rights, and we all deserve more access to athletics

by Jill Mullins | March 17th, 2021

The 450 words I have to write this column are nowhere near enough to capture the depth of my outrage of using female athletic participation as a weapon in a fight against trans folks, nor to capture my absolute disgust at the wave of anti-trans legislation that has flooded the states. If this legislation only impacted trans people, it would be worthy of vigorous opposition. The reality is anti-trans legislation and sex stereotyping harms all women — cisgender and transgender — and intersex and nonbinary people.
Read more in the Mar. 17-23, 2021 issue.
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Real Change
Pepé Le Pew, struggling actor, took the roles he could get. Royals and racists take everything

by Dr. Wes Browning | March 17th, 2021

I’ve been trying to figure out what all is going on in the world of cancel culture.

The latest news concerns Pepé Le Pew. Le Pew was dropped from a Space Jam sequel because he and his cartoons contributed to rape culture.

Before going on, I want to say that Le Pew was a comic genius who was only portraying a role in a fictional series of films. He himself was no more a rapist than Anthony Hopkins was a psychopathic cannibalistic serial killer, so far as we know.
Read more in the Mar. 17-23, 2021 issue.
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Real Change
Again spending trillions to reinforce, instead of rebuild, our racist nation

by Jim Lauinger | March 17th, 2021

“A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you are talking real money.” Supposedly said in the mid-60s by Illinois Sen. Everett Dirksen, it underscored the astonishing growth of federal spending … then.

Now? Trillion-dollar programs seek to heal an ailing American economy and populace with the hurt being felt severely by communities of color, people nearing the prospect of being homeless and people attempting to survive loss of jobs, education and health care.
Read more in the Mar. 17-23, 2021 issue.
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Real Change
Moving toward a just reopening of our public schools

by Rabbi David Basior | March 10th, 2021

I come to you today both moderately hopeful and doubly determined as both a rabbi and a Seattle Public School (SPS) parent. I am grateful for the recent decision to correct the first day of kindergarten in 2021 from Rosh HaShanah — the Jewsh New Year (a decision that other districts still need to emulate). And yet, the unfortunate actions of SPS leadership in their ongoing negotiations with the educator's union, the Seattle Education Association (SEA), have left me no choice but to act in the name of safety, health, equity and educational justice.
Read more in the Mar. 10-16, 2021 issue.
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Real Change
Biden compares Neanderthals to Republicans. The Biden honeymoon is over as far as I’m concerned. How dare he insult Neanderthals

by Dr. Wes Browning | March 10th, 2021

I have my first criticism of the new president. He said the Republican governors of Mississippi and Texas showed “Neanderthal thinking” when they dropped mask mandates in their states. Immediately Republicans attacked Biden for declaring Republicans Neanderthals, and Biden’s spokespeople had to come to his defense, saying, no, the governors were not being said to be Neanderthals, Biden was only saying they were behaving Neanderthalish.
Read more in the Mar. 10-16, 2021 issue.
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Real Change
Rebuttal to Seattle Times interview with Jason Johnson

by Daniel McCraw, Joe Kirk and Anitra Freeman of SHARE with Alex Finch and Scott Morrow of Nickelsville | March 10th, 2021

Why is it so hard, in a democratic republic such as America and in an inclusive city such as Seattle, for the recent Interim/Acting, but never permanent, Seattle Human Services Director Jason Johnson to see the value of engaging with grassroots, self-managed communities who exercise their right to be heard? This is the SHARE (Seattle Housing and Resource Effort) and Nickelsville response to Johnson’s recent slur in The Seattle Times, Feb.
Read more in the Mar. 10-16, 2021 issue.
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Real Change
The artist as a young duck-licker.

by Dr. Wes Browning | March 3rd, 2021

The Real Change issue of September 1997 was the one in which I confessed to a duck-licking addiction. I really just wanted to get on the “all homeless people must be addicts” bandwagon and looked around for a distinctive addiction that might set me apart from the others even as I would be coming into the addiction fold, as it were.

So I wrote about hitting rock bottom, having been found face-down in a pile of duck feathers in a ditch alongside a road in Tukwila after a serious duck-licking binge. It was not my proudest moment. The column, I mean. The duck-licking was made up.
Read more in the Mar. 3-9, 2021 issue.
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Real Change
On bathrooms, again

by Hanna Brooks Olsen | March 3rd, 2021

Late last year, I realized a dream I’d held since I was 17: I moved back to Oregon. Several friends have asked me how Portland compares to Seattle and there are really two key metrics: First, Portland has an unbelievable array of vegetarian food; Seattle, despite many traits that might make a person think otherwise, has gone full-on Meat Hipster in the last decade.

And second: publicly-available restrooms. Plural. Which are not locked at unusual times and are serviced regularly.
Read more in the Mar. 3-9, 2021 issue.
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