The Pierce Progressive focuses on Pierce County, Washington. Our mission is to explore issues that are important to our county and present progressive ideas as constructive alternatives for making it a better place to live. We provide background, ongoing reports, and opinion pieces for topics of political importance to our cities and our rural communities.

Leading News

Over 60? Take University Classes for Free (Almost)

Michael Kagan

Have you ever wanted to study accounting? Brush up your algebra? Learn Spanish or Chinese? One of the best-kept secrets in Pierce County is the Access Program at the University of Washington, Tacoma. Through this program, citizens over 60 years of age can enroll in any course offered for a mere $5.00! There is, however, an additional 'technology fee', depending upon the course taken. For most, it appears to be $20. You've paid property taxes and sales taxes for years in Washington State, and here is a way Olympia has found to give something back.

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Participatory Citizenship Through Caucus Attendance aka Occupy the Democratic Caucus

Pat Roberts-Dempsey
FORUM ON POLITICAL PROCESSES AND PARTIES

Are you interested in ways to bring progressive issues into the political process along the lines of Progressive Democrats of America?  Are you interested in the process that leads to a party platform and delegate selection? Do you want to “Occupy Democrats?" Do you want to practice democracy with a lower case “d” and put your issue into the hopper?  If so, the information provided below will help you spread the word to the state level, and perhaps beyond.  Anyone who lives within a particular legislative district, declares as a Democrat, and is a registered voter or will be eligible to vote (age 18 by November 4, 2014) may run for a delegate or alternate position to the state convention. Read more

Human Sex Trafficking: Right Here Right Now

Richard Smaby

On Feb. 19 the City Club of Tacoma hosted a panel on human trafficking. While there are various purposes for human trafficking, e.g., cheap labor, this panel focused on sex trafficking involving teenagers. Sex trafficking is a multibillion dollar a year industry. The audience heard presentations from national and local leaders and personal testimonials from a victim and the mother of a girl who went missing after getting involved in sex trafficking. No one could have walked out of the room without a profound sadness at the abuse the victims of sex trafficking are experiencing. The panel also provided information on how to learn more and take action against this terrible practice. Read more

Local Equal Rights Activist Charges that Women in Sports are Treated as Second Class Citizens

Richard Smaby

“It is a national disgrace that Women are Second Class Citizens and the Obama administration refuses to act to end that discrimination.” Herb Dempsey, a Graham civil rights activist, commented on receiving a copy of the letter from the Seattle Office of the Office for Civil Rights within the United States Department of Education. Dempsey was commenting on an Obama Administration acknowledgement sent in response to a letter of complaint of Title IX violations received on Jan. 13. In the letter, the complainant had alleged, several local colleges and universities were discriminating against female students by failing to provide equal access to competitive athletics as required by law. Read more

'The Square'

Richard Smaby

FILM REVIEW

'The Square' portrays the revolution in Tahrir Square in Cairo through the eyes of the participants in real time. This compressed and intimate portait provides an impact more dramatic than the hit or miss media reporting over the two year period in which the events occurred. And it moves the viewer to become a virtual participant in this Egyptian revolution. It is a documentary assembled from footage shot during the events. It educates and inspires. It portrays passion, doubt and despair among the revolutionaries, but ultimately hope for the future.

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Reign of Error by Diane Ravitch

Richard Smaby

BOOK REVIEW

Diane Ravitch addresses what she calls “the hoax of privatization” on the American educational system. She details the players in the privatization process, how they have mounted an extensive media campaign to gain a foothold into the educational system and how they have misused the facts to convince the American people that there is a crisis in the educational system. Contrary to their media campaign rhetoric, test scores in reading and mathematics have been increasing steadily and significantly over the past 40 years when measured by a uniform test. Ravitch analyzes the arguments for privatizing education, finds them lacking and goes on to explain how privatization accompanied by testing is destructive of democratic society. The reader will want to pay close attention to what is unfolding in Pierce County and Washington State as a result of Initiative 1240.

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