In This Issue
Opportunity to Advise Thurston County on Land Use Planning Docket
DEI & J and Olympia for All
Election Worker Protection | |
We’re Registering Voters for the Presidential Primary
Join members of the LWVTC and Thurston community at YWCA’s Let’s Talk series
Let’s Talk about Race Book Group
Education Fund Luncheon and Silent Auction
2024 Silent Auction Contributions Needed
Change the Dynamics: What's Power Got to do With It
Help Wanted - Nominating Committee
Yes, it’s Black History AND it’s OUR American History
Goal Reached for the Gladys Burns “Hope and Opportunity” Memorial Endowed Scholarship
Thank You!
In Memoriam - Tony Wilson
| | | | Help Wanted: two enthusiastic volunteers to work together as co-presidents for the LWVTC. Contact Julie Frick or Annie Cubberly for details.
Opportunities to Advise Thurston County on Land Use Planning Docket. See article by Loretta Seppanen.
Request your ballot for the Thurston Conservation District Election. Deadline to vote is Mar. 19.
Campaign for Poor People’s Rally, Mar. 2 at 10:30 am. Meet us at Sylvester Park or rally on the Capitol steps at noon..
Governor’s Mansion Women’s History Month Tours: Mar. 6 and 13. The tours honor the service of Washington’s first ladies and women governors who have lived in the mansion. The tours are free and open to the public. For reservations, complete an online mansion tour request form. Reservations must be made at least 24 hours in advance and are offered on a first-come, first-served basis.
Let’s Talk about Race Book Group, Mar. 12 at 2:00 pm on zoom. The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History, by Ned Blackhawk. Contact Annie Cubberly for more information.
Next YWCA Let’s Talk Workshop: Culture of White Supremacy, Mar. 12 at 6:00 pm (on-line).
| | Celebrate: Thursday, Mar. 14 from 5:30-7:30 pm at the Lacey Community Center. We will celebrate Sue Lean’s many contributions to our League along with accomplishments of other LWVTC members this past year.
Support our partner, TC Media, by attending a performance of the Olympia Mountain Boys, Mar. 15, 6:30 pm at TC Media Studios.
5th Annual Race Dialogue-Change the Dynamics: What’s Power Got to do With It. Sat. Mar. 16 at 10:00 am. Register by Mar. 14.
LWVTC Annual Meeting: May 2 from 5:30-7:30 pm at the Lacey Community Center.
Save the Date for the Spring Education Fund Luncheon: May 11 at Indian Summer in Lacey. Our guest speaker will be Mary Yu, Washington State Supreme Court Justice. Contact Karen Tvedt or Teresa Stahl-Colley to contribute items for the silent auction.
Save the Date for Spring State Council-May 31-June 2 at South Puget Sound Community College in Lacey. Council this year will be co-sponsored by the Thurston and Mason Leagues. Volunteers are needed to help staff this event.
Coffee and Breakfast with the League: Tuesday mornings at 10:00 a.m. at River’s Edge Restaurant, Tumwater.
| | | Opportunity to Advise Thurston County on Land Use Planning Docket
By Loretta Seppanen
Every other year in early winter, residents can directly advise the Thurston County Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) regarding which potential land use decisions merit staff, Planning Commission, and BoCC time in the coming year and a half. The process is called “docketing.” The opportunity is a 20-day written comment period that, this year, lasts until March 14. | | | Even items that have been on the docket in past years, such as the Ag Policies & Programs Review – LTA Zoning Update started in 2022, are up for reconsideration if the work is not complete.
It is time to support continuing the work on the ongoing land use docket items designed to use zoning as one tool to stem the continued loss of farmland in the county. To do so, go to 2024-2-25 Dockets Update webpage and scroll down to the “Public Participation Opportunity” section. Click the topics of interest to you and state your support or opposition for each project selected. You can review the comments others have submitted before you share your input. Those comments are displayed in the “Interactive Public Comment Dashboard” at the bottom of the page.
A key docket item is the Thurston 2045 Comprehensive Plan Update and Code Amendments. I plan to add my comments giving my highest priority to this work that refines the vision for our county’s long-term future. I also will support the overdue update to the Nisqually Subarea Plan. As important as the other projects are to individual land owners, I will focus my support on policy and program projects that benefit all of us. The Dockets Update page includes a link to two pages of descriptions on each docket item. | DEI & J and Olympia for All
By Carolyn Byerly
The LWVTC’s commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice is expressed in the programs and activities we undertake, and in the local issues we endorse and help advance.
A good example of the last of these is in the Olympia for All (O4A) campaign that our board voted to endorse in fall 2023 to provide various kinds of support to tenants who face rent increases beyond their means, including those who must move when their rents rise above their ability to pay..
O4A is specifically concerned with those who are low-income, particularly single mothers and others who occupy the lower rungs of the economy – often people of color, people with disabilities, and those with mental illness.
More than 50% of Olympia renters struggle with housing instability due to rent costs, a leading cause of homelessness. Rents in Olympia are higher than the national average. A single mother of two children makes $18/hour in Olympia. A two-bedroom apartment here costs $1,800/month, meaning she must pay 60% of her salary to provide shelter.
The O4A initiative will officially launch in March with wide publicity and a signature drive to obtain 10,000 signatures from city residents. Local League members interested in helping with the signature gathering, please contact Carolyn Byerly, the League’s representative to the O4A Steering Committee, at cbyerly@earthlink.net, or 240-821-2859. | Election Worker Protection
By Darlene Hein
As members of the League of Women Voters, we work to ensure everyone has the right to vote, that elections are fair and now, more than ever, to ensure a safe environment for election workers. These workers make sure that we are able to vote and that every vote is counted. Their work is under intense scrutiny and threatening behavior toward them has been steadily increasing.
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Last November’s election saw six Washington county elections offices, including Thurston County, receive envelopes with powder and a message that said, “End elections now.” Three of the envelopes received tested positive for fentanyl. The one sent to Thurston County contained baking powder.
The Washington State legislature, both the House and Senate, took a significant step in safeguarding our election workers this session by passing a bill that makes harassing an election worker a felony. The purpose of the bill is to add extra protections for election workers. The bill increases the possible penalty for harassing an election worker in person or by mail from up to one year in jail to up to five years in prison. It would also give targeted workers the opportunity to join a program run by the Secretary of State's office designed to keep their address confidential. This legislation comes two years after the state made online harassment of an election worker a felony.
Election workers are vital to our right to vote. They ensure our elections are conducted smoothly and accurately. They facilitate the voting process, verify voter identities, and process all the ballots. Now more than ever they need our support and protection.
| We’re Registering Voters for the Presidential Primary
By Susan Fiksdal
We’re registering voters and informing them about the Presidential Primary at three new venues this winter. Thanks to Barbara Buchan, Brenda Paull, Susie Galpern, and Sue Dubuisson for tabling at the Olympia Food Bank. Thanks to Karen Verrill, Eleanor Walters, and Brenda Paull for tabling at Nisqually Tribe’s Pulling for Success. Thanks to Vallie Needham for talking to residents at Quixote Village with me. | | | A thank you in advance to Vallie Needham, James Allen, Eleanor Walters, Kate Walsh, and Darlene Hein for tabling and interacting with the crowd at the March 2 Campaign for Poor People’s Rally.
If you read this in time, you can meet at 10:30am on March 2 in Sylvester Park, then march to the Capitol steps, where you’ll see our canopy. Here is a video about the rally that will inspire you to attend. All of these new voters will receive a ballot in the mail.
If you are confused about how to fill out your ballot, go to lwvthurston.org, then under the Be a Voter tab, click Voter Info. You can also see how to register and vote in the Thurston Conservation District Board Position #1 election. | Join members of the LWVTC and Thurston community at YWCA’s Let’s Talk series
In-person and on-line opportunities available
It’s not too late to register for upcoming March and April workshops: White Supremacy and Race & Class. The discussions are set in a safe learning environment with skilled facilitators presenting well researched educational concepts and materials. Small group sharing allows for discussion and processing of our past and current experiences. They allow us to consider how we can join with others to unlearn past misperceptions and change course on racial injustice and inequities. Hope to see you on-line or in-person!
From the YWCA of Olympia: Let’s Talk Workshops are designed to introduce and engage you with important social justice issues in our community! We offer in-person and on-line workshops once a month with skilled facilitators discussing topics such as race, gender, class and more. Workshops include self-guided online material, lectures, discussion, caucuses. In Let’s Talk, we craft a safer space for people to ask questions, learn new things and build tools to navigate doing deeper work into these topics.
Let’s Talk workshops have been made to be as accessible as possible with easily understood language, closed captioning, tools, and resources that can be accessed at any time. You’ll also be part of a community of people who also are in a space of wanting to learn and be a better advocate for themselves and the people around them.
Register and see future topics and meeting dates here.
WORKSHOP TOPICS & DATES
| | Let’s Talk Culture of White Supremacy
On-Line
Tues. March 12 6-8:00pm | | Let’s Talk Race & Class
On-Line
Tues. April 9 6-8:00 pm | | | | Let’s Talk Culture of White Supremacy
In-Person
Thurs. March 28 6-8:00 pm | | Let’s Talk Race & Class
In-Person
Thurs. April 25 6-8:00 pm | | | |
Let’s Talk about Race Book Group
The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History
by Ned Blackhawk
March 12, 2 to 3:30 pm
By Annie Cubberly
This meeting will be different than most. Because this book is a scholarly work spanning over 300 years, we have divided up the chapters and will try to synthesis the big issues in chosen chapters. We will present a summary of each chapter’s central theme(s) along with a list of key tribes, event dates, and areas of North America featured in the chapter.
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American Genesis – Indians and Spanish Borderlands (Peggy Smith)
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British North America/New France/Native Inland Sea/Settler Uprising Before the Revolutionary War (Sandra Herndon and Loretta Seppanen)
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Revolutionary War to Early U.S. (Susan Fiksdal)
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Collapse and Total War: The Indigenous West and the U. S. Civil War
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Taking Children and Treaty Lands (Annie Cubberly)
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Indigenous Twilight at the Dawn of the Century
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From Termination to Self-Determination (up to 2000) (Kathy Baros Friedt)
If you have not read the book but are interested, we encourage you to attend to hear the summaries and engage in the discussion.
March 12, 2 to 3:30 pm on zoom at this link. | Education Fund Luncheon and Silent Auction
May 11, 11:30 am
After five years, the LWVTC Education Fund Luncheon and Silent Auction will return. It will take place on May 11 at 11:30 am at the Indian Summer Golf and Country Club. For this event we are excited to have Washington Supreme Court Justice Mary Yu as the keynote speaker.
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Justice Yu was appointed to the WA State Supreme Court by Governor Jay Inslee in 2014 after serving as judge on the King County Superior Court for 14 years. She was subsequently elected in 2016 and 2022.
Justice Yu is the first Asian, the first Latina, and the first member of the LGBTQ community to serve on the Washington State Supreme Court. Another first: She performed the first same-sex marriage in the state when Washington legalized same-sex marriage in December of 2012. She also threw out one of the best first pitches for the Seattle Mariners in 2021! Watch it on You Tube.
Justice Yu has an extensive record of service both on and off the bench, mentoring young attorneys, law clerks, and students. She co-chaired the Court’s Minority and Justice Commission and chaired the Board for Judicial Administration’s Public Trust and Confidence Committee. She has taught at Seattle University School of Law and served as Jurist in Residence. Justice Yu served on the board of FareStart from 2009-2018, and the advisory board for the University of Washington School of Law’s Gates Public Service Program 2014-2018. She was personally devoted to the Seattle Girls’ School Mock Trials, serving as their judge for 17 years. In 2021, Seattle University School of Law established the Justice Mary I. Yu Endowed Scholarship Fund.
Please join us as we hear from this distinguished member of our state Supreme Court on Saturday, May 11 at 11:30 am. Besides League members, we hope many of our elected officials will join us to understand and help sustain the work we do for our community.
| 2024 Silent Auction Contributions Needed
There will be a silent auction to benefit the Thurston League during the Education Fund Luncheon on May 11 at Indian Summer. Please consider donating a special item or items for the sale.
Donations that have brought multiple bids in the past include: jewelry, kayaking (and breakfast), a wine basket, tour of Lacey, a blown glass vase, a Japanese kimono, and a stained glass kaleidoscope.
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Change the Dynamics: What's Power Got to do With It
Join us in this free dialogue to examine and discuss what actions are being taken and could be taken to dismantle or impact systems of unequal power to achieve justice in our community. Anyone interested in making meaningful social change and cultivating anti-racist community is invited.
Saturday, March 16 at 10-12 pm (a free lunch will be provided at 12-1 pm); please register before March 14.
In person at the Lacey Community Meeting Room or via Zoom
Please register here before March 14. | | | THOUGHTS ON LEAGUE ISSUES
| Help Wanted - Nominating Committee
Waned: two enthusiastic volunteers to work together as co-presidents for the LWVTC. Benefits include not much money, but the chance to lead a dynamic organization with a strong Board of Directors.
| | | | Contact Julie Frick at svsurprize@aol.com or Annie Cubberly at anniecubberly@gmail.com for more details. Take this opportunity to help weave the ideas and visions of the Thurston League into a resilient force that makes a difference in our community. | Yes, it’s Black History AND it’s OUR American History
By the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice Steering Committee
| | | Our gratitude to Dr. Thelma Jackson, Pastor Reverend David Reaves, and New Life Baptist Church for inviting League members to NLBC’s “pop-up” Black History Museum in celebration of Black History Month. We also honor Museum Curator, JoeAnne Taylor. We thank JoeAnne, and all of the contributors and volunteers who produced this powerfully consummate exhibit.
Please read more from Dr. Jackson in her eloquent editorial in The Olympian regarding the importance of Black history.
Many LWVTC members attended. Below are some of some of their comments. Too numerous to include all, this is a sampling of some of their quotes:
- One immediate reaction--the overall accumulation and range of people, books, recordings, offices held, leadership exerted, etc., demonstrates the significance of Black Americans' influence in our overall life. Black people are an integral part of the US. It (the Museum) presents in readily understandable form the great highs and the great lows of the history of people in the United States who are of African ancestry--- from those who were the very first to arrive in North America to present times. It captures the emotional strength and commitment to human dignity of so many incredibly effective leaders whose struggles, vision, courage, and determination made profound and lasting improvements which are now embedded in American society and law. Link to see more comments.
- Loved the Black Author’s corner spotlighting their books!
- I was struck by the broad scope of the materials included. The museum is simple to navigate and welcoming to all.
- This event is an educational experience and one that is important to our community.
- The exhibit was illuminating. It reminds us that our society has benefited enormously, but it's depressing to think what additional benefits our society might have gained had attitudes not been so negative, so prejudiced. And worse, still are. Education, education, education is the key.
- One comes away inspired, renewed, and further committed to civil rights and human rights.
- Thank you to the many who prepared this exhibit and who are making it possible for the public to benefit.
- I saw US history from a Black perspective and Black history from a US perspective. Music, sports, education, business, public service, family life, and much, much more is presented so the visitor can experience an overview, or delve into the details. I found it easy to be drawn in.
- I'm looking forward to going back next year to see "what's new" in New Life Baptist's amazing work to spread the word of Black History.
| Goal Reached for the Gladys Burns “Hope and Opportunity” Memorial Endowed Scholarship
By Karen Tvedt
We recently learned from South Puget Sound Community College (SPSCC) Foundation that “we have not only met but exceeded our initial fundraising goal of $28,000 for the Gladys Burns 'Hope and Opportunity' Memorial Endowed Scholarship.” Gladys Burns was a long-time member of the League. With her commitment to social and economic justice and community empowerment, she touched many of us in enduring ways.
Starting with a donation of $3,000 from the League of Women Voters of Thurston County (the funds remaining in a bequest Gladys made to the League), more than $33,000 has been raised. According to SPSCC, “once the endowment matures, the SPSCC Foundation will be able to offer an annual scholarship to students in perpetuity, supporting and inspiring future generations of community leaders who embody Gladys's spirit of service. In the meantime, the excess funds will be distributed to students by way of annual scholarships.”
A special thanks to each of you who contributed, including Karen Fraser who hosted a major fundraiser at her amazing home. Gratitude also to the planning group (the Brainstormers). This group, including Emily Ray, Karen Verrill, Pat Dickason, Carol McKinley, and me, met many Monday afternoons over tea to coordinate with SPSCC and organize fundraising efforts.
| Thank You!
Many thanks, with gratitude, to the many people who contributed to making the Untold Story Project event a success. This includes Annie Cubberly (Chair), Angela Jefferson, Michelle Gipson, Janice Holloway, Thelma Jackson, Devi Ogden, Lisa Sandall, Charles Holloway, Nicole Miller, Loretta Seppanen, Carolyn Smith, Kyrian MacMichael, Tanya Smith-Brice, Brenda Paull, Sholonda Aikins, and Dawn Young. | | | Special thanks go to Deborah Vinsel and Thurston Community Media staff and volunteers for hosting the event (and producing the video that will make this program available to a broader audience).
Consider supporting TC Media (and having a fun evening) by attending a performance of The Olympia Mountain Boys on March 15, 6:30 pm, at TC Media Studios. Register for the event here. | In Memoriam - Tony Wilson
We recently heard from Cheryl Wilson, Tony Wilson’s wife, that Tony passed away the morning of Feb. 17. Tony was an active member of the LWVTC, serving on our board for several years, assisting with candidate forums, and providing active leadership on implementation of our Club Express website.
Tony had a passion for justice and the environment and advocated for the Conservation District and outreach to rural areas including South County. A phone call with Tony was an energizing blend of League work, philosophizing, and hearing about the latest Heather Cox Richardson article. Board members noted Tony’s energy and enthusiasm, his determination, and that he was a consistently pleasant and thoughtful person to interact with.
He made significant contributions to our League, and we will miss him greatly. Our sincere condolences and loving thoughts go to Tony’s family on their loss.
| EMPOWERING VOTERS. DEFENDING DEMOCRACY.
The League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan political organization, encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy.
Copyright © 2022, League of Women Voters of Thurston County, Washington
Our mailing address is:
P.O. Box 2203
Olympia, WA 98507
http://www.lwvthurston.org/ | |