Hello. This entry, placed on June 4th, is the “Introduction to our Proposal. A short Summary” If you are looking for the full lenth proposal please scrool down to the proposal beneath this one. Thanks.
I am very happy share with you a joyous announcement that I just received from a member of RAN about a recent win for Grassy Narrows. The press release is here: http://ran.org/media_center/news_article/?uid=4764
, and the link to the blog post is here: http://understory.ran.org/2008/06/03/grassy-narrows-wins-for-real/.
Nevetherless, I ask that everyone please keep Olympia , as well as other Indigenous communities in your hearts and minds because our resistance against Weyerhaeuser is still ongoing. Weyerhaeuser has sent out many press releases telling people that they are withdrawing from logging, but they only say this to appease the public and radical activists. On the front page, headline area of the Olympian Newspaper, the largest circulated newspaper in Olympia, was the article titled: “Log export from Olympia could begin in summer.” The article detailed how Weyerhaeuser “has taken control of a 24.5-acre operations site on [an Olympia] port property and made its first rental payment to the port this month” in order to “begin log-export operations from Olympia to Japan on July 1.”
Does that sound like they are ending logging or starting/increasing logging? More importantly, if they are willing, able and starting to do it here, in one of the world’s most famous cities for Environmental protection and Port Civil Disobedience, than they will clearly and unmistakably do it anywhere especially in third-word Indigenous communities that don’t have media attention on such issues.
You can read the full news article at the bottom of the below link. On this Link -
http://realgrassroots.livejournal.com - you will also find the proposal titled “Proposal for Real, Local, Grassroots Community Organizing in Olympia” that Chriset and I submitted to the Rainforest Action Network on May 27th, 2008 to consider the funding of a branch of RAN in Olympia. It is our very well supported belief that by having a RAN Olympia branch office, RAN will:
- exponentially reduce the way off-the-chart Carbon footprint on RAN actions that involve multiple and annual plane flights from San Fran to Olympia and Seattle, car rentals from Seattle and much more.
- Live true to the Ran anti-oppression mission statement of “Examining the resources and privileges we [RAN] have and utilizing them thoughtfully, respectfully, honestly and transparently.”
- Live true to the “PRINCIPLES OF ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE” which state ““Environmental justice demands the right to participate as equal partners at every level of decision-making including needs assessment, planning, implementation, enforcement and evaluation.” These principles were made at the multinational People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, which RAN has incorporated and linked to their Anti-oppression statement webpage. Having a funded branch of RAN in Olympia would enable the people of color, which includes me, and many others, to be an equal partner in decision making, planning and implementation which was not at all the case in the Weyerhaeuser action because the planning meeting took place the night before it happened in Olympia. Extremely crucial portions of advance notice legal advice were not passed on to the people of Olympia. (like the option of carrying/having petitions or leaflets to educate people which very possibly would have had our court case dismissed as RAN’s lawyer repeatedly and very strongly advised two RAN members from outside of Olympia to do before the action.)
- and have a more organized ability for Olympia members to Evaluate the actions of San Francisco based RAN within the city of Olympia and the state of Washington and offer constructive criticism and decide whether we want San Francisco based members of RAN to keep taking plane flights, rental cars and other all expense paid, environmentally toxic travel methods to participate in local actions that could be more effectively done by members of an Olympia branch of RAN.
- and have a stronger community presence in the headquarters state of Weyerhaeuser if RAN helps fund a local branch of RAN in Olympia. We still have not received written or verbal response from RAN in regards to our proposal submitted on May 27th, 2008, one week ago today. One member of RAN said to me “I received your email, T” and that was the end of it. No mention of the proposal within it at all.
Thank you all for your awesome work everyone and thank you for keeping Olympia and Indigeus communities in your hearts and minds. Together we will stay on the road to a better world without being sidetracked by the deceptively easy road which only leads to yet another trail of tears for Indigenous communities worldwide.
Love for the people,
-T
“We stand now where two roads diverge. But unlike the roads in Robert Frost’s familiar poem, they are not equally fair. The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster. The other fork of the road / the one less traveled by / offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of the earth.”
-Rachel Carson
“I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined, and
that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road.”
- Stephen Hawking quotes (English Physicist, b.1942)
“Unreasonable haste is the direct road to error.”
-Santiz Moliere quotes (French Actor, Playwright and Writer of French
comedy, 1622-1673)
“The idealists and visionaries, foolish enough to throw caution to the
winds and express their ardor and faith in some supreme deed, have
advanced mankind and have enriched the world”
-Emma Goldman