We’re just one election away from the gloves coming off for good

Real Change
My first time writing longer than a tweet on my cell phone. A disjointed world on a little screen

by Dr. Wes Browning | August 12th, 2020

I rarely read novels and I think it shows in the way I write. I appreciate the concept of novels and I’m glad there are people out there taking the effort to churn them out, but why should I have to be one of the ones wading through them? Why can’t other people carry out that duty? From each according to their blah, blah, to each according to their other blah, blah.
Read more in the Aug. 12-18, 2020 issue.
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Real Change
How can Democratic lawmakers meet the urgent needs of this time?

by Takele Gobena | August 12th, 2020

As we close out the second month of sustained protest against anti-Black racism and police brutality, organizers are working to turn the protests’ energy into legislative action. From demands to defund the police and invest in communities to calls to cancel rent and provide direct cash assistance to struggling working families, the overarching rallying cry is clear: Stop propping up the failed systems that hurt Black and brown communities and start prioritizing the things that allow us all to live safely, joyously and free.
Read more in the Aug. 12-18, 2020 issue.
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Real Change
To the Seattle Police Department, every day is the 4th of July

by Dr. Wes Browning | August 5th, 2020

I never go to police riots anymore. There was a time when if I heard there was a police riot goin’ on, I simply had to be there to see it with my own eyes. It was like going birding. “There’s a scarlet tanager where? I can be there in ten minutes! To the bat cave!” Now I’m just too old to grab the binoculars and run across town to see stuff I could just as easily enjoy from home on YouTube.
Read more in the Aug. 5-11, 2020 issue.
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Real Change
When you live outside, everyone is in your house

by Hanna Brooks Olsen | August 5th, 2020

The wind tickled my cheek as I took a sip of a locally-crafted ale in a compostable cup. I was marveling at what a tiny joy it was to have a pint on a patio on a warm July evening — socially distanced, mask ready to go — when a fleet of at least a dozen motorbikes loudly careened down the street, belching black puffs of smoke from their lawn-mower engines.
Read more in the Aug. 5-11, 2020 issue.
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Real Change
The homeless outreach that the Navigation Team once provided has degenerated into an empty optics of force

by Timothy Harris | August 5th, 2020

There was a time — back when the Navigation Team was focused on relationship building and run by the seasoned homeless outreach workers at REACH — when it seemed like Seattle’s approach to unsheltered encampments might be on the right track.

But that time has long since passed.

In November of 2015, Mayor Ed Murray declared a state of emergency on homelessness, saying all residents should have access to shelter. That, obviously, has not happened. While the state of emergency persists, whatever sense of urgency that edict once offered has since faded.
Read more in the Aug. 5-11, 2020 issue.
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Real Change
Homegrown Costco should cut ties with Cargill to end environmental destruction

by Elise Jacobsen | August 5th, 2020

Coronavirus can bring to light many of the major changes our society needs. Let’s not let it distract us from ongoing issues that demand our attention — like the destruction of planet Earth. Right now, corporations like Costco are leading the rest of society in social distancing practices and helping to protect us from the coronavirus pandemic. However, Costco should also be a leader on environmental practices. During this crisis, it’s clearer than ever that the company has the power to affect climate change.
Read more in the Aug. 5-11, 2020 issue.
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Real Change
Law of Occam’s razor says Homeland Security’s Wolf is lying

by Dr. Wes Browning | July 29th, 2020

President Trump wants to send federal officers to more cities besides Portland, now that he’s found out how much it stirs them up. He named Chicago, Kansas City and Albuquerque a couple of days ago. That got me to thinking about Seattle’s first name, New York Alki (New York Bye and Bye).

How sick were the Denny Party, to look around themselves at Alki Point and think, “You know what this place needs? A metropolis. Right here on this beach.”
Read more in the July 29 - Aug. 4, 2020 issue.
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Real Change
Reflections on pandemics and mental health

by Oscar Rosales Castaneda | July 22nd, 2020

Here we are, four months since writing my first column on the intersection of race and the pandemic through a local lens. I reread my first two columns and my heart sank upon realizing how little things have changed. In fact, I’d argue that conditions have worsened, especially for Washington state’s Latinx community.
Read more in the July 22-28, 2020 issue.
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Real Change
Occupants are kicked to the floor as fear walks in and takes the best seat

by Dr. Wes Browning | July 22nd, 2020

It’s nice to be able to share my fears with friends like you. It would be horrible if I had to just bottle up my fear, for example, of being in a mega-earthquake, trapped under a fallen beam and waiting in vain for help to come, with nothing to eat but the bugs and spiders that crawl in my mouth and nothing to drink but water trickling on my face from a nearby broken water line.

Then help doesn’t come until a rescue crew with dogs comes by, and the dogs bark, but someone in the crew says, “there couldn’t be anyone alive down there — the dogs must be smelling a squirrel.”
Read more in the July 22-28, 2020 issue.
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Real Change
We’re just one election away from the gloves coming off for good

by Timothy Harris | July 22nd, 2020

Since Department of Homeland Security (DHS) troops showed up uninvited to target leftists in Portland, the other f-word has been widely invoked and rightly so. When the military starts abducting protesters off the street in unmarked vans, we’ve left Kansas and are on the road to Chilé circa 1973.

While no one is being thrown out of helicopters, yet, we’re just one election away from the gloves coming off for good. When DHS press releases interchangeably refer to peaceful protesters as “anarchists” and “domestic terrorists,” authoritarianism is already here.
Read more in the July 22-28, 2020 issue.
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