I had the privilege of being able to help the folks at Camp Quixote move from the United Methodist Church to the First Christian Church on Franklin and 7th. Between loading up fence panels, helping a resident pack up and haul her possessions to the new location, building up the new fence, and bringing dinner and supplies to the residents, I can't think of a better way to finish off 2007.

I thought about bringing a camera to take pictures of the move, but I rushed out in the morning without it. I saw a couple of people there who took some pictures, and hopefully they post.

It's weird to think that just a few months ago, I didn't even know that the camp existed. For years, I'd been so insulated from the poor and the down-trodden in my own backyard, but after praying and searching out opportunities to become a real member of my own community, I stumbled upon information about the camp, both here on olyblog and from a friend who started up a video documentary on the camp. And now I've come to know some folks in the camp who have already accepted me as family...

My wife and I plan to become regular contributors to the camp, both with materials and with our time, as best we're able.

Earlier today, I took my dog to Olympia's Watershed Park for a walk. I parked at the new lot for the Woodland Trail on Eastside and entered the park by the Eastside trailhead. About ten yards down the trail, there was a barrier of yellow caution tape across the trail. Another twenty yards ahead was another yellow tape barrier. This one had been broken through and it included a sign that declared the trail closed due to storm damage.

We walked down into the ravine, around the entire loop and even checked the trail up to the McCormick and Henderson Blvd south trailhead and saw no storm damage, nor did we see another barrier of any kind. We did see another dozen people on the trail, too.

So, why was the Eastside entrance marked that way?

There's been quite a bit of discussion on Olyblog lately about racism and white priviledge.  There are two things I'd like to point out here.

The first is that there has been a lack of concrete evidence describing the reality of insitutional racism in our discussions.  Educational inequality, environmental racism, white flight, etc have only been hinted at.  I'd like to strongly recommend the book Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol to anyone who is interested in the issue, or who doubts that institutional racism is a reality.  The book describes the current state of segregation in the school system (schools are currently more divided along lines of race than they were before Brown v Board of Education), and provides a wealth of data, case studies, and anecdotal information showing that poor black students get a lot less funding for their education than middle class white students.

The story of East St. Louis (I'll abbreviate: "ESL") stands out the strongest in the book.  At the time that Savage Inequalities was written (I don't know if anything has changed or how), ESL was an extraordinarily poor, predominantly black neighborhood separated from the white middle class neighborhoods by a river. 

Was walking down 4th ave yesterday from Ralphs, and came to a cross street with a car waiting to merge into traffic. As I attempted to cross, the car pulled out, I shouted at them, the car continued, and bumped into me. I put my hand on the rearview mirror to steady myself. The driver made no excuses and continued on after I crossed. I cussed her out something fierce! :-)

Thursday I was walking past the yacht club and noted another driver not paying attention to people trying to cross.

Seems like the only time I am noticed walking around anymore is when I am wearing my sidearm...

Anyone else notice that drivers dont' give a damn about pedestrians around here?