I am in the Atlanta 2007 class at Evergreen State College. We are learning about the US Social Forum and working to send representatives from local social movements there. My group is working with Camp Quixote.

We are hosting a fundraiser this Friday, May 25 from 7-9:30 PM at Artisans Cafe downtown. (On Capital Blvd, next to the Brotherhood)

The events of the night will be music by local band Lurching Matilda, a presentation from 1 or 2 camp quixote residents, an open mic/open expression time and during that time we also will be having an open raffle.

We're trying to pull this together pretty fast so if anyone would like to donate to our raffle or knows of anyone that would want to, that would be awesome.

For more info about our program and project, you can visit the class website at http://academic.evergreen.edu/curricular/atlanta07/

Kelly

Please sign the Below Petition Online Or In Person at our next meting.

You can sign it online by clicking below: http://www.PetitionOnline.com/kindnet/petition.html

You can sign it in person by coming to the meeting (details at bottom of article).

To: Everyone Everywhere We the undersigned would like to see a radical, co-op (member-owned), opensource, free speech, social networking website which would be better than Myspace, Youtube, Livejournal, Match.com, Dontstayin.com, Withoutabox.com and Indymedia... Combined. We would like it to be a part of a non-profit, 501(c)3 organization so that people are treated with kindness. Most corporate social networking websites raise fees constantly, treat people like potential consumers, treat people like targets for more and more advertisements and do not listen to their website users because the users are not co-op co-owners. This Petition for Networking Kindness is very useful because anyone anywhere in the world can show it to website developers, co-op groups, non-profit groups and humanitarian organizations to encourage them to create a non-profit, alternative to corporate social networking websites.

Sincerely,

The Petition for Internet Networking Kindness

http://www.petitionforkindness.org

Date: Friday, May 25th, 2007
Time: 5:00pm-5:30pm.
Location: Olympia Freeschool Building, 610 Columbia Street SW, Olympia, WA 98501
Fees: There are no fees to sign the petition. The entire event is free and refreshments will be served.

After some recent discussion about secular hostility towards Christians, as well as discussions about the Iraq War and how to address Middle Eastern hostility towards the West, I've been thinking quite a bit about the appropriate Christian response to conflict. I think St Francis gave us a shining example, as described on Tent of Abraham:

The context for Francis' life was the political turmoil of the 13th Century "Holy Roman Empire," locked in a culture of war, fought both within the empire as city fought city and without, as the empire united in a series of Crusades against Moslems, Jews and "heretics." It was during the fifth crusade, in 1219, that Francis began an amazing journey that directly opposed this culture of war and enmity. Christians in his time viewed The Crusades as holy; participation was thought to be a Christian act-a complete reversal of the first 300 years of Christianity when disciples of Jesus would not participate in any killing. The slogan of the church in the Crusades was, "God wills it."

 

In response, the Sultan of Egypt had decreed that anyone who brought him the head of a Christian should be rewarded with a Byzantine gold piece.

Francis began his prophetic resistance to the violence of the Crusades by meeting first with his own religious leaders, begging Cardinal Pelagius, the Christian commander, to stop the fighting. Pelagius refused.

Francis then took a companion, Illuminatus and set out, unarmed and filled with love for his "enemy" brother, to visit the Sultan of Egypt, Malik-al-Kamil. The men of the Sultan's army captured Francis and Illuminatus and dragged them, beaten and exhausted, before the Sultan - just as Francis had wished.

I can't imagine why I was chosen to be hunted down and tracked like a dog. Gangstalkers would engage in street theatre with me basically embarassing me and destroying my self esteem. They were pretty successful in completly isolating me,working my nerves. I was so sleep deprived. Some of my experiences are still to this day too hard to talk about. This harrassment impaired my memory. After I was hit by the SUV I just sort of started to unravel. I had no quiet sanctuary. My apartment was the very worst place to be. I do remember one day in the city. It was raining cats and dogs.

I decided I had a lot to accomplish that day. I walked all over the city in some pretty seedy areas too. I wanted to see if I could lose them and if I could wreck their day the way they wrecked mine everyday. I never lost them of course but it did humor me to put them through following me around on foot for hours in the rain a few of them complained about that day of course there is so many of them.

I have a hard time trusting people now. I don't know if I will ever be the same. But I'm determined to have a life and to do my best to help stop this nonsense. 

I'm needing a bicyle for commuting to work (about 1 1/2 miles) and for doing street outreach (I'm working in Homeless Outreach for the Family Support Center now).

I'm also pretty broke.  I have $50 now, and could probably afford to pay $100 altogether.  Found some good deals on Craigslist, but they were taken by the time I called.

Can anyone help?

In other news, Meta, Selena, and I are doing well.  Enjoying our new place on the edge of Watershed park.  The quietness here, and some of the freedoms -like having a beer in my living room- are still incredibly strange after 4 years at B&R.  For the moment it's pretty nice though. 

Here is the map for Westside ARTSwalk 4 saturday May 26th 4-12 You can find the Schedule Here @ (the Den)

I made my way through the historic Bush/Union/Pioneer Calvary Cemetery in Tumwater (5700 Littlerock Rd., look for parking lot near signs) last Saturday. I eventually found what I was searching for: the final resting place of the pioneer George W. Bush (1790? - 1863) and some of his family.

The tall grass was wet and my not really waterproof shoes were already damp, but my friend and I wandered further. Beautiful old trees all around us and it wasn't actually raining yet. Way back away from the road something at my feet caught my attention.

Someone, probably in the last week or so, had apparently gathered up some scattered tombstone pieces, placed them on top of another stone, and then used items they had brought with them for a ritual and/or prayer. I usually leave such matters alone but this time I felt it was okay to investigate. I found partially burned lavender and paper plus a few other small things.

My guess is that this was not a living relative of the folks buried beneath, the tombstones there are illegible. My concern is that the person did not clean up after themselves (in some traditions disposal of ritual items is very important). Plus the lavender bunch was bound with a hair band, the elastic with small metal piece type, burning this on stone probably wasn't good for the stone at all. And the cemeteries are posted with the relevant Tumwater Municipal Code.