Remembering Chris Carson

Above: Tom Nogler, left, and Audrey Henley remember the life of Olympia activist Chris Carson at the Capitol Theater Monday night in downtown Olympia. Carson passed away of cancer on January 6. 

By Janine Gates

Little Hollywood

https://janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com

The life of Chris Carson was remembered by friends and family at the Capitol Theater in downtown Olympia Monday night.

Carson passed away of cancer on January 6 at St. Peter Hospital.

The celebration was quickly organized by friends in a way that was very Olympia: with a potluck, live music by Dusty Rhodes and friends, and storytelling.

Carson was involved with social, economic, and environmental justice issues in Olympia for decades. 

Due to vision issues, Carson did not drive and relied on friends to drive her home.

When someone asked for a show of hands of how many in the audience had ever given Carson a ride home, about 100 hands went up.

Carson was an eyewitness to the shooting of unarmed students by members of the Ohio National Guard at Kent State University in 1970. 

There is no doubt the experience dramatically shaped Carson’s life and work with peace and justice issues.

Calling Facebook a “toxic swamp,” in a recent chat with Little Hollywood, Carson eschewed social media platforms, and made relationships the old-fashioned way by sharing her thoughts and truly listening to others.

Many friends shared their stories about Carson.

Audrey Henley, executive director of the Olympia Film Society, said the Capitol Theater was Carson’s second home. She volunteered there for at least 18 years and helped to sustain the Olympia Film Society in a variety of capacities.

“She was a huge course of change in the community,” said Henley.

In written remarks, former mayor of Olympia Mark Foutch said he sometimes gave Carson rides home from the theater.

Appreciating her faith and confidence in Olympia, Foutch said Carson left him with two wise thoughts that expressed her opinion of the Olympia community, and also why she loved it: 

“Olympia should have signs at the city limits saying, ‘Welcome to Olympia - Leave your baggage HERE,’ (Of course, she meant to free yourself of the past; this is your place for a new start) and “Olympia is a place where you not only can pursue your dream, it will help you get there.”

A Go Fund Me fund in Carson’s name has been established at https://www.gofundme.com for cremation services and a tree planting memorial burial, and hospital and home related fees. 

Any additional funds will be donated in her name to the nonprofits she loved.

Above: Chris Carson, beloved sister and friend.

Asked to give a eulogy for Carson on Monday evening, I offered these words:

Going Home: Chris Carson

Last night, I was asked to say a few words about Chris Carson.

Luckily, I’ve been writing about her ever since Rick (Fellows) texted me the day she passed away. 

I’ve lived in Olympia for 35 years and I don’t remember a time without her, but it was only recently that I found out that we’re originally from the same part of Ohio.

My last conversation with Chris was on November 1. It lasted three hours, sitting in my car after I had taken her home after a city meeting.

This was not the first time we had done this. I always enjoyed hearing Chris speak. It was a cold, windy night, but I was warmed by her sweet voice.

As we were leaving city hall that evening, she had tripped on a curb - badly. Her vision was compromised by a rare eye disease, chronic cyclitis, and she had been part of a research case about it for several years in California.

She said that early on, doctors had given her a prognosis that was bad in the long term. She said she was heading toward blindness but felt positive about the future because she had good color perception and was smart and healthy.

Because of her vision issues, she had given up driving.

An avid bus rider, the Intercity Transit bus used to run past her house until 10:30 p.m. until the budget got slashed due to I-695. Fourteen bus routes were eliminated and never restored.

Buses in her neighborhood stopped running at 6:00 p.m. and weekend service was cut, so, basically, she felt like she was living under a total curfew.

All this could have limited her ability or desire to participate in community activities and evening meetings, but she relied on us, her friends, to drive her home.

She got involved with the Alliance for Public Transportation and attended Intercity Transit community meetings and asked them to bring back routes. She said she knew people who had to move and lost their jobs because they couldn’t get to work.

She said she had a friend who hosted EF students and, in order to host them, the home must be on a bus route. The friend lost the opportunity to host the students.

She was an advocate for us all.

Of course, Chris was perhaps best known as the voice of the Pet Parade for many years for Thurston Community Television (TCTV).

She was at Mt. Rainier one year when someone spotted her and yelled out to her, “Hey, Pet Parade lady!” She loved that.

Recently, she was active with the Strengthening Sanctuary movement and there was a meeting in September at the Temple of 14 or 15 participating congregations. She encouraged the Fellowship of Reconciliation to join the coalition. 

A couple hundred people were there, and someone came up to her and recognized her as the Pet Parade lady. They wanted a picture of her with them and of course, she obliged.

She managed Music in the Park for about six years in the late 1980s. She loved one of the phrases mentioned in the city’s downtown revitalization “Main Street” study. It said that “Sylvester Park is Olympia’s living room - a place where everyone is welcome and can sit down and relax.”

About that, Chris told me:

“That’s what I always wanted Music in the Park to be - to attract people of all types, ages and backgrounds and cultural groups and that they would come, enjoy some food, music, and be there comfortably together, and perhaps the next time they saw each other again, they wouldn’t have that fear of ‘the other’ so much, because they had had that positive experience. That’s the way I always looked at it.”

We talked about the seeds of our social and community service organizations, nonprofits, and unsung heroes. She was involved with Bulldog News and the Liberation Café and the nonprofits that shared the space upstairs like Books to Prisoners.

We talked about Carol Burns creating TCTV, Long-haired David creating EGYHOP, Gita Moulton starting SPEECH, Glen Anderson creating the Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation and her involvement with Media Island.

She remembered how Herb Legg would see leaves as works of art, attach them onto cards and give them out to people. She talked about Scott Yoos and what a great Scrabble player he is.

We talked a lot about the delicacy of life and how one person can make such a difference.

Chris loved the poem by Rachel Corrie called “The Blind Eyed Salmon.” When Rachel used to live in the Cleopatra Apartments, Chris said she used to run into her along State Avenue. Rachel knew Moxlie and Indian Creek and knew the salmon were still trying to get home, she said.

Chris was involved with the Abolish Nuclear Weapons movement.

She enjoyed Jazz Jams at Traditions on the first Sunday of the month.

She was looking forward to the Women’s March on January 19.

She was keenly interested and knowledgeable about historic preservation.

She was an advocate for libraries and expressed concern about current Timberland Library funding issues. She was thinking about how to fairly fund libraries and intended to ask Representative Beth Doglio to find secure funding.

Chris used the library a lot and used their printer. I offered her a printer, but she declined, saying she enjoyed running into people there.

She used to work for the Washington State Library. She worked in Acquisitions, and eventually oversaw the mending of books.

For several years, she took care of the territorial collection and the State Constitution. At one time, the Library loaned her to the Timberland Library system, and she was caring for the collections of 32 libraries in Washington.

She taught classes at Bates College in Tacoma. She said she once got a standing ovation and was amazed that she had made book mending the most fascinating thing they had ever heard in their lives. She laughed about that.

I asked her how she repaired a book. She said that there is no one answer, but that she would start by inspecting a book, so she knew how to begin.

She said: “It’s like being a doctor looking at a patient, one on one, looking at how it is bound, seeing what you could do that wouldn’t damage the materials, and seeing what damage is reversible.”

And that’s Chris. She cared for us as individuals, all of us just a little damaged. We’re the pieces of our community and she was the glue that brought us together while making everything sound so fascinating.

It’s amazing how much you can learn about someone in so little time if you really listen.

Maybe some of you didn’t realize just how much she needed us. Now we are realizing how much we needed her.

It will take some time before I realize she doesn’t need a ride from community events and meetings.

She’s already home.

Above: The Capitol Theater marque reads, “Rest in Power Chris Carson - We love you!”

Post-Election Reconciliation: Signs of the Times

Above: In the spirit of peace, Glen Anderson, left, and Bob Zeigler each hold handmade signs at the northwest corner of Sylvester Park at Legion Way and Capitol Way on Wednesday afternoon in downtown Olympia.

By Janine Gates

www.janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com

Glen Anderson of Lacey, a retired state employee and local community organizer with the Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation, has dedicated himself to stand or sit every Wednesday during the noon hour at the corner of Sylvester Park in downtown Olympia with hand-made signs since March 5, 1980 – that’s 36 ½  years. 

If ever there was a presidential post-election thought expressing Glen Anderson's feelings on what continued for many to be a gut-wrenching, emotionally wild day, his message, “Be gentle with one another,” summed it up. 

Those powerful, few words, written on a handmade sign, offered passersby an ever-so-brief suggestion of how to treat each other, while adding a calming, implied reminder, perhaps, to breathe.

Between waving to pedestrians and drivers, some who honk in apparent appreciation or agreement, Anderson said he specifically chose this sign to hold, one day after the election of president-elect Donald J. Trump.

“The political system and political culture is full of blame, full of shame, and trauma. This year, it has lifted up stuff that was already there so vigorously – anti-gay, anti-Muslim and racist sentiments – that it caught people by surprise,” said Anderson.

Anderson said both major party presidential campaigns were based on fear.

“Both parties are quite broken. The remedy for blame, shame, and trauma is not through the electoral option. If you want change, you have to work at the grassroots. That means sitting on street corners and talking to people. It means connecting….”

At that point, Bob Zeigler, another retired state employee and local community activist who is concerned about the climate crisis and the activities of the Port of Olympia, arrived to hold a sign. 

The sign he chose amongst an inventory of pre-prepared signs: “Act from love, not fear.”

Anderson also hosts and produces a monthly show related to peace, social justice, economics, the environment, and nonviolence on Thurston Community Media (formerly Thurston Community Television).

Anderson said his December program, which will be taped next week, will feature four community guests who will speak about the theme of healing from political blame, shame and trauma.

His guests will be Liv Monroe, a certified communications specialist in nonviolence and compassion, Robert Lovitt, a local Buddhist, Keylee Martineau, a mental health counselor who works with at-risk young adults at Community Youth Services, and the Reverend John Van Eeewyk, a local priest and clinical psychologist.

The Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation is also co-sponsoring the Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation’s 2016 Fall Retreat on Saturday, November 12, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the Gwinwood Conference Center in Lacey. 

The theme will be “Interracial and Intergenerational Movement Building: Weaving Activism into Our Lives.”

The Fellowship of Reconciliation is a 100 year old pacifist organization founded at the beginning of World War I. 

For more information about the Fellowship of Reconciliation show, times, and how to access it through your computer, go to www.olympiafor.org/tv_programs.htm. For informtion about the 2016 Fall Retreat, or the organization's many activities, go to www.olympiafor.org or www.wwfor.org or contact Glen Anderson at (360) 491-9093 or glen@olympiafor.org. 

Above: Glen Anderson sits with his sign, “Create peaceful foreign policy,” at Percival Landing in downtown Olympia by The Kiss statue in October. Wind, rain, sleet, or snow, every Friday from 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., Anderson is there with many others, including the Artesian Rumble Arkestra street band. Anderson has many signs to choose from, and encourages individuals to participate. “Just dress for the weather and show up!” laughed Anderson.  

P.O.W.E.R. Art Fundraiser Continues Sunday

Above: Callie and Ben entertain a steady stream of folks coming to check out the P.O.W.E.R. fundraiser today at 309 5th Avenue SE, in downtown Olympia next to Rainy Day Records. The event continues on Sunday from 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.

 

P.O.W.E.R. Art Fundraiser Continues Sunday 

by Janine Unsoeld
www.janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com

Despite the rain, a steady stream of bazaar and arts supporters were out in force today, knowing that the best place to shop is indoor, supporting local crafters, school parent-teacher organizations, businesses, and organizations doing good work.

One of those organizations is Parents Organizing for Welfare and Economic Rights (P.O.W.E.R.) in downtown Olympia. Their mission statement says that "P.O.W.E.R. advocates for and with low-income parents for a strong safety net while working toward a world where children and care giving are truly valued, and the devastation of poverty has been eradicated."

Their cozy office, at 309 5th Avenue SE, next to Rainy Day Records, was the scene of live music and art offered by local artists as a fundraiser for their efforts. Participating artists had the choice to donate 50% or 100% of their proceeds to the organization and were encouraged to write biographies to place near their art.

One young artist, Sarah Bredeson, wrote this: "I am 12 years old. My mom and I have helped with P.O.W.E.R. off and on for the last few years. I enjoy craft projects, painting, acrylics, sewing, making self-care items like scented bath salts, and beading. I am supporting P.O.W.E.R. because I like the work they do in making people aware of others living in poverty. I enjoy art because it is a stress relief and FUN."

Today, art by Jennifer Khuns (mosiacs), Marla Beth Elliott (knitting), Lynn Grotsky (beading), and other lesser known artists filled the walls and office space, which includes a separate child care room, and kitchen filled with treats and warm drinks for sale.

The event continues tomorrow from 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. with live music by other musicians throughout the day.

P.O.W.E.R. sponsors several activities, including a Women's Economic Collective. For more information about the work of P.O.W.E.R., go to www.mamapower.org or call (360) 352-9716.

Full Disclosure: Little Hollywood Photography is a participating business at this worthy event. I was raised by a wonderful, hardworking single mom, and I was a single mom for most of my children's lives. By cobbling together a variety of self-employment, artistic, and entrepreneurial activities, I've never missed a mortgage payment. I'm one of the lucky ones.

Above: Necklaces offered by local mosiac artist Jennifer Khuns. Khuns is most recently known for being the artist of the artesian well work in downtown Olympia.