My strange experience meeting the Alt-Right in Seattle

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Real Change Vendor

Carl Nakajima is a vendor for Real Change and previously was an intern for the Advocacy Department. His badge number for Venmo payments is 12468.

Articles by Carl Nakajima

Photograph of people standing in a row holding signs calling for freedom for Julian Assange

FREE ASSANGE: Revealing corruption should result in celebration, not jail time

By Carl Nakajima | May 24, 2023

On April 16, John Shipton and Gabriel Shipton, the father and half-brother of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, traveled to Tacoma to show the movie “Ithaka,” a 2021 film about Assange’s incarceration told through the eyes of his family.

Assange is currently confined in a prison in the United Kingdom. If he is extradited to the United States, Assange could face a 175-year sentence for allegedly publishing classified documents given to WikiLeaks by former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. ...

Photograph of park with bench in foreground, city buildings in background, seen close-up through chain-link fence

We deserve to keep our public land public

By Carl Nakajima | August 31, 2022

I think it’s better for the city to own City Hall Park than for the county to do so. My biggest concern about public land is that it can fall into private hands. All the resources owned by the city or King County are owned by every generation of city or King County residents, and land is a valuable resource. It’s something we should never let go of. ...

Middle-aged Asian man in cap, scarf, and barn jacket holds sign that says "No U.S. War."

No justice for Charleena Lyles

By Carl Nakajima | July 13, 2022

I am upset about Charleena Lyles’ inquest, and I have a lot of questions about our country’s policing. I was born in Chicago, but I also lived in Japan and Hong Kong. I was able to grow up in a different culture, and I was able to know a little about other police systems.

In July 8’s episode of “Democracy Now,” host Amy Goodman said, “In 2021, there were 10 shooting incidents in Japan and just one gun death. By comparison, the U.S. typically records 45,000 gun fatalities each year.” ...

Government-owned and -rented housing could solve the housing crisis, if lawmakers would listen

By Carl Nakajima | February 2, 2022

My name is Carl and I’m from Real Change Advocacy. A lot of Real Change vendors are struggling because the cost of living in Seattle is very high, especially the apartment rents. I think all lawmakers in our country are responsible for creating this very unequal society, because they are the rule-makers of this game. ...

We need action at Hanford site to stop this ticking timebomb

By Carl Nakajima | February 28, 2018

Opinion

In 2008, the Washington Department of Energy reported that 200 square miles of contaminated groundwater beneath the Hanford site could reach the Columbia River within 50 years without timely cleanup. Since then, the project has always been delayed and over budget. According to the Department of Energy report, the heavily contaminated, toxic groundwater could reach the Columbia River anytime within the next 40 years. But the Trump administration is proposing to cut $230 million from the 2019 cleanup budget. ...

My strange experience meeting the Alt-Right in Seattle

By Carl Nakajima | November 1, 2017

After the Virginia conflict, I heard a far-right group was coming to Seattle, so I went. I can’t call them Nazis. I don’t know how to describe them. They are so weird. The more I find out, the more I get confused. I never talked to them personally, but I overheard a lot of conversation at three rallies. Maybe because of my poor English hearing, I find it very hard to make any sense of their mutual connections and political stands. They look strange, too. ...