Darren Wilson, the former Ferguson, Mo. police officer who fatally shot unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in August 2014, is unlikely to face federal hate-crime charges.
A U.S. official reportedly told CNN that there is insufficient evidence to charge Wilson with civil rights violations. Regardless of the outcome of the Ferguson case, we must recognize the well-publicized police killings of the last six months as symptoms of a much larger disease. The socially constructed, self-perpetuating systems of oppression against minorities in America are becoming increasingly apparent and harder to ignore.
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Lino Tagliapietra is currently visiting the Tacoma Museum of Glass for two weeks. We had a rare opportunity to see how this master glass artist from Murano, Italy, works. We sat for one and a half hours, while Lino created beautiful art out of glass. Assisting him was a team of eight experienced glass artists and a commentator. The commentator himself worked with Lino for 16 years. His explanations were critical to the understanding of what was happening.
The huge complex of ovens melting glass at more than 2000 degrees Fahrenheit and the tall cone carrying that heat to the sky by themselves are enough to draw visitors to Tacoma’s Glass Museum. But watching Lino orchestrate the complex process of forming molten glass into a colored vase or a novel shape transforms the viewer. Read more
BOOK REVIEW
Michael Roscoe writes clearly and accessibly in "Why Things Are Going to Get Worse.." about the impending demise of the current capitalist economic system. He proposes a simple model of wealth based on natural resources and the labor and ideas that convert them to usable goods. He contrasts it with the false wealth derived from speculation in financial markets. He uses this model to give a detailed critique of current economic practices and propose a solution. He backs his critique up with 130 accessible charts well matched to the points he is making. His arguments are persuasive and have clarity that provokes the reader into considering counter arguments – something that fosters informed debate! Read more
What is required to create a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem in Pierce County? This is the question at the heart of a series of small business start-up seminars being co-sponsored by Clover Park Technical College and the William M. Factory Small Business Incubator. The seminar series is scheduled to run throughout February and early March at the Incubator.
The seminars were developed with the early-stage or "nascent" entrepreneur in mind. This may be someone who is just beginning to explore the entrepreneurial path or someone who has been working on an idea for some time and wants to take the idea to the next level. The primary purpose of the seminars is to connect early-stage entrepreneurs with other entrepreneurs who have more experience working in the same business sector or on related problems. Read more
[Editor’s note: The editor of The Mountain News has graciously given us permission to re-post this intimate and moving story about being homeless in Graham. The author provides an extensive update to an earlier story published in The Mountain News last year and uses his experience in working with homeless in Graham to develop a proposal for how to solve the problem of homelessness efficiently.]
As I turned into the Graham Post Office parking lot, I waved to Teresa, a middle-aged woman, and her daughter, Holly. After depositing the letter, I walked over to them. I'd met them earlier when a few "homeless" people came to a meeting of the Graham-Kapowsin Community Council in early 2014. Those at the meeting learned about the local "homeless problem" from the homeless themselves. Read more
The Charlie Hebdo cartoons often disturb me. Now I am torn between which is more disgusting: political expression in cartoons or photography that is manipulated. The Israeli newspaper The Announcer (HaMevaser) featured a picture of Sunday’s Unity Rally in Paris. The march featured world leaders displaying their support for the 17 victims of the earlier terrorist shootings in Paris. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and EU foreign affairs and security chief Frederica Mogherini. Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt are conspicuous in the front row in the Before photo below by the Associated Press photographer Philippe Wojazer. When the edited version appeared in the Israeli newspaper all of the women were gone! Read more
FILM REVIEW
"Above and Beyond" is a documentary currently playing the film festivals, which helps us understand the historical context of the Zionist movement through the personal views of pilots, principally Jewish American pilots, who, returning from World War II, volunteered to rescue the fledgling state of Israel. The director, Nancy Spielberg, lets the pilots tell their own stories. They vary in how religious they are, but all repeat a united purpose – to save the newly formed state of Israel from certain destruction by far superior Arab armies and air power. Israel had no air force. Read more
