Vendor Profile: Michael Dotts

Real Change

Vendor Profile: Nick Maxwell

by Mike Wold | February 15th, 2017

A couple of years ago, Nick Maxwell was a vendor intern at the Real Change office, a position that he thought might lead to a paying position with the organization. But in the end, he didn’t apply for the permanent position. He didn’t feel that he was qualified. He still regrets giving that up; he plans to apply for another position if the opportunity arises.

Things have gotten more difficult for Nick since his internship. Partly because he moved to Olympia.

The move made good sense — housing costs in Seattle are climbing and Olympia is more affordable.
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Real Change

Jewels in South Seattle South

by Mike Wold | February 8th, 2017

Seattle Emerald Editor Marcus Green talks covering news in the south end and a new anthology of prose and poetry

There’s a part of town that half the people in Seattle barely know anything about, and by some measures it’s the most diverse place in the country: South Seattle. It has a lively literary, artistic and activist life and its own news site, the South Seattle Emerald.

Marcus Harrison Green founded the South Seattle Emerald after leaving a job at a Los Angeles-based hedge fund in his 20s. He returned to the community of his youth to tell the stories that traditional media have neglected.
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Real Change

Book Review: "Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In"

by Mike Wold | February 1st, 2017

How Sen. Sanders turned a grassroots campaign into an influence machine

If there was one bright spot in 2016’s slow electoral train wreck, it was the unexpected and inspiring candidacy of Bernie Sanders, who proved that there’s still a place in national politics for unadulterated progressivism — that a belief in a caring, communitarian society can actually motivate millions of people. As one observer put it, Sanders wasn’t just getting people to vote for him, he was influencing the politics of a whole generation. The bulk of his support was among the young, while the boomer generation, to the embarrassment of many, mostly went for Clinton or Trump.
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Real Change

Book Review: "This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto against Ageism"

by Mike Wold | January 11th, 2017

Ageism for the baby boomers is a real thing according to Ashton Applewhite's manifesto, though some might say the chickens have come home to roost for the 'don't trust anyone over 30' generation

The oldest baby boomers turned 71 in 2016. Since boomers have a reputation for being involved with social movements, it’s not at all surprising, as they hit retirement age, that they’ve rediscovered a form of oppression, ageism, that was first named when they were in their 20s. What’s surprising, actually, is that it’s taken this long for the fight to be revived. Perhaps that’s because the quintessential boomer subculture was the youth subculture with its explicit revolt against “olders,” as Ashton Applewhite calls them.
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Real Change

Vendor Profile: Tyrone Kenney

by Mike Wold | December 28th, 2016

It’s not surprising Tyrone Kenney played on his high school football team. He has the build of a linebacker and played the position on his school’s football team.

He grew up in Georgia, but “I’ve been in New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Detroit, Chicago, Florida. I worked for a car detailer. I’ve been a DJ. I got tired of DJing and went to cooking.” He cooked in cafeterias and went to a cooking school in New Orleans.

In Pittsburgh, he had a commercial cleaning business. He’d been married and then a widower and then married again.
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Real Change

Book Review: "Nobody: Casualties of America's War on the Vulnerable, from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond"

by Mike Wold | December 7th, 2016

Looking through the killing and injustice to find a clearer picture of institutional racism

When you hear about one more killing by police, read one more statistic about racial disparities in arrests and mass incarceration, or protest one more Black majority city screwed over by an emergency manager, it’s easy to put it down as just one more example of America’s racism and injustice, without giving real consideration to how these things came to be. Marc Lamont Hill’s “Nobody” is a good corrective to that.
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Real Change

Vendor Profile: Evie Mason

by Mike Wold | October 26th, 2016

Evie Mason moved to Seattle from Atlanta 19 years ago. “I’d lived in Atlanta all my life and it was just time to grow up. My husband and I used to watch the travel channel. They were spotlighting Seattle. About a week later I called him: ‘You want to move?’ That was a Wednesday and we left on Saturday.”
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Real Change

Book Review: "Seveneves"

by Mike Wold | September 28th, 2016

The apocalyptic 'Seveneves' is a race to preserve the human race

“Seveneves” is in the classic “what-if” tradition — in this case, what if humanity had two years notice that the Earth was going to be rendered uninhabitable for 5,000 years? Neal Stephenson comes up with a technological solution, setting the story a decade or so in the future, far enough that there’s enough capacity to launch a few thousand people into space with arguably enough capacity to provide life support until human beings can return to Earth.
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Real Change

Book Review: "The Great Suppression: Voting Rights, Corporate Cash, and the Conservative Assault on Democracy"

by Mike Wold | September 21st, 2016

Author Zachary Roth explores the conservative history of voter suppression

If we learned one thing about democracy in elementary school, it’s that the majority rules. Of course, school itself isn’t democratic, though there may be elections for student leaders. We all understand that’s because we’re children, and adults make the decisions.

Or maybe not. Zachary Roth’s “The Great Suppression” is a good summary of the various right-wing efforts to limit the right to vote in this country. Even if you’re a little aware this, it’s an unsettling read.
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Real Change

Vendor Profile: Michael Dotts

by Mike Wold | September 14th, 2016

There are many pieces to putting a person’s life back together. For Michael Dotts, it started with reaching out to get help.

“As you take advantage of resources, you get opportunities, people get to meet you, see you, but they can’t meet you and see you if you’re on the corner somewhere drinking a beer or something. They might give you a couple of dollars, but I’d rather a person come up and go, ‘Man, I can get you this job; I can get you into this house.’”
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