MLK Day

Excerpt from fair.org:

After passage of civil rights acts in 1964 and 1965, King began challenging the nation's fundamental priorities. He maintained that civil rights laws were empty without "human rights" - including economic rights. For people too poor to eat at a restaurant or afford a decent home, King said, anti-discrimination laws were hollow.

Noting that a majority of Americans below the poverty line were white, King developed a class perspective. He decried the huge income gaps between rich and poor, and called for "radical changes in the structure of our society" to redistribute wealth and power.

"True compassion," King declared, "is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring."

By 1967, King had also become the country's most prominent opponent of the Vietnam War, and a staunch critic of overall U.S. foreign policy, which he deemed militaristic. In his "Beyond Vietnam" speech delivered at New York's Riverside Church on April 4, 1967 — a year to the day before he was murdered — King called the United States "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today."

From Vietnam to South Africa to Latin America, King said, the U.S. was "on the wrong side of a world revolution." King questioned "our alliance with the landed gentry of Latin America," and asked why the U.S. was suppressing revolutions "of the shirtless and barefoot people" in the Third World, instead of supporting them.

In foreign policy, King also offered an economic critique, complaining about "capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries."

You haven't heard the "Beyond Vietnam" speech on network news retrospectives, but national media heard it loud and clear back in 1967 — and loudly denounced it. Time magazine called it "demagogic slander that sounded like a script for Radio Hanoi." The Washington Post patronized that "King has diminished his usefulness to his cause, his country, his people."

In his last months, King was organizing the most militant project of his life: the Poor People's Campaign. He crisscrossed the country to assemble "a multiracial army of the poor" that would descend on Washington — engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience at the Capitol, if need be — until Congress enacted a poor people's bill of rights. Reader's Digest warned of an "insurrection."

King's economic bill of rights called for massive government jobs programs to rebuild America's cities. He saw a crying need to confront a Congress that had demonstrated its "hostility to the poor" — appropriating "military funds with alacrity and generosity," but providing "poverty funds with miserliness."

How familiar that sounds today, more than a quarter-century after King's efforts on behalf of the poor people's mobilization were cut short by an assassin's bullet.

Pictures from Lowell

These are some pictures that my friend Lowell, a Harborside Condominiums resident, shared with me.

Bremerton Ferry Tunnel
Bremerton's 335-slip Marina

David Lynch Hates the iPhone

Radiohead - Scotch Mist

Happy New Year!

Twenty Three

23

Looking for payday loans?

On her breasts getting bigger

C: Just wait, one day you will be jealous when I'm able to suck my own boobs.

J: (pants getting tighter at thought of C sucking her own boob)

I Don't Know This Guy

State Sen. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, said the Legislature will have to "play some defense this session" in terms of transportation funding. People are buying and driving more fuel-efficient cars, which means gas tax money revenues are not coming in as high as expected, he said.

omg!

How You See the World

C: "Hey, here comes the City inspector. Get your shit together guys!"

M: "awwww, she's nothing. I know how to sweet talk her--tell her she looks like a movie star."

C: (confused look)

M: "Just don't tell her that she looks like the Penguin from Batman Returns."

The Metric System

"Three countries have not officially adopted the International System of Units as their primary or sole system of measurement: Liberia, Myanmar and the United States."

Thank You For This

Beauty In Motion

Blogger is choking on a fatty right now. Click on the image to see intended animation:

Mother's Day Dinner

Dachsund, Attack!

"Rhylie, look, I got your ball."

(Rhylie at full speed) "Give me the ball."

(Me losing my balance and falling over.)

"Sorry, ball please."

Ithacappella Sings Dig

There are more Ithacapella videos at their website.

Lasse Gjertsen

Harborside Fountain Park

The Harborside Fountain Park is slated to open on May 5 at 10AM. During construction of the park, I got a first-hand tour of the park. When most people think of parks, the immediate thing that comes to mind is grass. You will find little to no grass at this park. Instead you'll find huge boulders, many types of tree and plant species native to the Pacific Northwest, multi-colored granite pathways, and of course the large copper water fountains. Standing in the middle of the park made me feel relaxed and isolated from the hustle and bustle of downtown--why we enjoy our parks in the first place. It's unlike any park I have visited and it will be a park truly unique to Bremerton. For more information about the park, check out the City of Bremerton's website.

30th Floor

Last week I had training in Seattle in the 1111 Third Avenue Building (the Wells Fargo Building). Here are some pictures from the 30th floor facing south towards SoDo and Pioneer Square.

Viaduct Vote

The Stranger has a great article about the upcoming viaduct vote. I am completely against rebuilding the viaduct--the same 1950's thinking that built the original viaduct is what got us into this mess. That same mindset is definitely not going to last us another fifty years. I am not opposed to the tunnel just so long as they can find a creative financing solution that wouldn't result in new taxes to state residents.

View From the Boardwalk

More over here.

Urban Land Magazine

One of my proudest accomplishments at my current job is a waterfront rendering that I helped to create. It was featured in the January 2007 issue of Urban Land Magazine.