Book Review: ‘Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America’

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Opinion

Real Change vendor attends statewide homelessness conference

By Lisa Sawyer | May 30, 2018

My name is Lisa Sawyer. I have been a Real Change vendor for more than four and a half years now. I have been a homeless advocate going on five years. I am also a member of the Resident Action Project’s Statewide Steering Committee Member at the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance.

The Alliance hosted the 2018 Conference on Ending Homelessness in Yakima in May, and I attended. These are a few observations I made while there. ...

Your support puts belief into action

By Tim Harris | May 30, 2018

Adrian Aytch doesn’t like talking about his past. Before he found Real Change, there wasn’t a lot of love.

At eighteen, he aged out of foster care and became homeless. After a decade on the street, Adrian finally came indoors in 2007.

That’s when he found subsidized housing in a rehabilitated Single Room Occupancy hotel. Disability and medical benefits helped, but the healing was just beginning.

It took Real Change to get him out of his head and into community. ...

The Middle Ground by Sam Day 5/30/18

By Sam Day | May 30, 2018

...

There are better ways to repurpose both chicken feathers and Republicans

By Dr. Wes Browning | May 30, 2018

Real Change columnist

A Seattle Times headline last week informed us that “Semi filled with 40,000 pounds of chicken feathers overturns on I-5 in Federal Way.” My first thought was to ask why was there a semi carrying 40,000 pounds of chicken feathers on I-5 in Federal Way?

I came up with an answer within seconds. Of course, they’ve got to go somewhere. I mean, look at all that fried chicken Americans eat. That’s a lot of bird, and that has to mean a lot of feathers. ...

Arts

Cartoonist Vishavjit Singh throws a mighty shield at hate as a Sikh Captain America

By Lisa Edge | May 30, 2018

On the first floor of Wing Luke Museum in the International District, several cartoons of people wearing turbans accompanied by succinct statements are on display. They’re the creations of Vishavjit Singh, a Sikh man who is sharing his story through colorful, witty and sometimes sarcastic cartoons. ...

First Thursday Guide for June 7, 2018

By Lisa Edge | May 30, 2018

Seattle’s oldest neighborhood is home to dozens of art galleries. The First Thursday art walk in Pioneer Square began in the early 1960s and is still going strong today.

On First Thursday, galleries often showcase new exhibits from 6 to 8 p.m. ...

Changemaking

Vendor Profile: Larry Felder

By Mike Wold | May 30, 2018

Larry Felder grew up in Chicago in “a typical ghetto neighborhood, with your prostitutes and your pimps and hustlers.”

There’s not much left to tie him to that city. “My parents deceased years ago.”

Larry decided to move here after he saw “Sleepless in Seattle.” “That movie was an inspiration to me. I came to Seattle on Dec. 4, 1994. I saw how beautiful it was, but very troubled, same thing as all the other cities: crime, corruption. I was homeless then, homeless now.” ...

Seattle

Beheading the hours tax

By Ashley Archibald | May 30, 2018

Employee Hours Tax faces opposition shortly after it passes

On May 14, the Seattle City Council passed a tax on 3 percent of the businesses in the city to fund affordable housing and services for people experiencing homelessness.

It was a controversial move. Tensions on the second floor ran high as council members and staff scrambled to put together a proposal they could pass that would make it past Mayor Jenny Durkan. She signaled just days before the vote that she would not support a previous, more expensive iteration that looked probable to pass the council by a vote of 5–4, one short of a veto-proof majority. ...

Won’t be Best

By Ashley Archibald | May 30, 2018

Mayor Jenny Durkan announced three finalists for the position of Chief of Police on Friday. Current interim chief, Carmen Best, was not among them.

Best has led the department since Jan. 1, when she assumed command from former Chief Kathleen O’Toole. Best was the first Black woman to head the department.

Instead, the city has put forward three male candidates to vie for the position: Eddie Frizell, an inspector at the Minneapolis Police Department; Cameron McLay, the former chief of police in Pittsburgh; and Ely Reyes, the assistant chief in Austin. ...

Guns down

By Ashley Archibald | May 30, 2018

Mayor Jenny Durkan launched new legislation last week that takes aim at gun violence in Seattle.

The proposal would require that firearms be locked up when not in the possession of the owner, and would increase civil penalties on people who do not report firearms lost, stolen or improperly used by an unauthorized person.

“The level of gun violence in our communities is not normal, and we can never think it is inevitable. We — and especially our children — should not have to live like this,” Durkan said in a release.

...

Child slavery lingers in Latin America

By Fabiana Frayssinet | May 30, 2018

Child labor has been substantially reduced in Latin America, but 5.7 million children below the legal minimum age are still working, and a large proportion of them work in precarious, high-risk conditions or are unpaid, which constitute new forms of slave labor.

For the International Labor Organisation (ILO), child labor includes children working before they reach the minimum legal age or carrying out work that should be prohibited, according to Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labor, in force since 2000. ...

Poetry

(Untitled)

By Shadow Bluetteron Manywhales | May 30, 2018

Poetry

My friend waited
a few feet away
while I hand someone
a folded-up $5 bill
that I always keep
in a brown prosperity pouch
when I’m out + about
and I always say to the person
this is from the Cherokee Nation. ...

Book review

Book Review: ‘Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America’

By Topaz | May 30, 2018

Author Nancy MacLean digs into the roots of the radical right

Is there a conspiracy to keep cash from the common folk? Or does it just seem like it? In her book, “Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America,” author Nancy MacLean describes the division of dollars between the haves and have-nots to the detriment of democracy. She was recently at the Greenwood Senior Center as part of the Town Hall lecture series, and there was an interesting age range of people present for the hourlong talk. ...

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