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!”

Olympia High School Property Vandalized with Racially Biased Graffiti

Above: Colorful rocks at Olympia High School are usually spray painted with positive messages, like above, but on Saturday night, were defaced with racially biased messages. 

By Janine Gates

www.janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com

The frequently spray painted, brightly colored rocks by the bus loading zone off Carlyon Street at Olympia High School is a place for positive messages, but on Saturday night, someone defaced one of the rocks with profanity and racially biased messages of hate.

Little Hollywood is choosing not to publish pictures of those words.

Olympia High School principal Matt Grant said that when he heard about the situation on Saturday night, he made sure the graffiti was removed and replaced with supportive messages for students of color. Mr. Grant called the police and asked them to keep an eye on the rocks. 

“Olympia High School does not tolerate hate. The words that defaced the rock are not, and will never be, reflective of our ideals as a community,” said Grant on Monday.

“The fact that people in this community felt that this language was acceptable tells us that we at Olympia High School have work to do in helping every single one of us understand why statements like those made last weekend are not tolerable in our community.

“But our words today are not enough. We will have to show...that we mean what we say through our actions, through more learning opportunities, and through the conversations we will have over the next few weeks, months, and even years to come,” Grant said in his message to the school community.

The school will share information with staff and students about a community forum on March 2 at Capital High School from 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. in the Commons at Capital High School. The event is open to the public and sponsored by the Black Alliance of Thurston County, in cooperation with the Olympia Police Department.

Grant also said that the school will have a student-led forum about race on March 4, develop a committee to make sure school curriculum represents people and ideas from all cultures, and plan for additional professional development opportunities and diversity training so faculty are better equipped to address concerns and issues that emerge about race.

“Every one of us in this community is going to have to dig as deeply as we can to commit to the difficult work ahead of repairing the pain and hurt that racism has caused in this community,” said Grant. 

Olympia Youth Speak Up at Ad Hoc Police Forum

Above: Sign at Olympia High School, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” - Martin Luther King, Jr.

By Janine Gates

www.janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com

The Ad Hoc Committee on Police and Community Relations held its fourth community forum at Olympia High School on Thursday afternoon.

The forum focused primarily on the experiences and ideas of youth and was open to all community members to also share their thoughts about how the Olympia police department can best serve the public.

Several students and staff of Olympia High School were in attendance, including principal Matt Grant. Several uniformed police officers were also in attendance, which prompted one adult to say that their armed presence was difficult for him. 

Several students shared stories of their interactions with local police. 

One young man, who is African American, said he was with a group of friends and one of them had a BB gun. Someone called it into police, and one officer arrived, who ordered them to the ground. They complied. One responding officer soon turned into three others because a neighbor started arguing with the officer.

“I was scared. I didn’t want to become a statistic,” he said. Asked to elaborate on his feelings about the incident, he said, “Well, the officer didn’t pull his gun out and I didn’t get shot, so the situation turned out A+….”

Another African American student said he felt the Olympia police are better than most.

“They’ve shown me respect,” he said. He said he came from Tennessee, and said that “things are really bad down there….”Asked what he would like to see by the Olympia Police Department, he said more forums and more dialog.

Maddie Hendrickson, 18, shared that she was in a car accident about a year ago in which a school bus rear-ended her car. She was uninjured, but said she didn’t feel like she was being heard by the officer, and he seemed rushed. 

“It was a stressful situation and the police could be calmer,” said Hendrickson. She offered many suggestions for how the police could approach teens with more compassion.

A mother described how her son has been victimized at Washington Middle School and Olympia High School due to his African American race.

“There hasn’t been a single year that he hasn’t had a racial incident here in Olympia,” said Karen Arnold. The Arnold’s have lived in Olympia for 15 years and came from Tacoma. In the most recent incident last year at Olympia High School, he was jumped on by another student on the basketball court and called the “n” word. She says the student was given a half day suspension.

“….That is not enough,” said Karen Arnold. “….It gives the message that the behavior is ok….”

Her son, Kardel Arnold, 15, was present and freely shared his stories and thoughts. Arnold said that when he was in the sixth and seventh grade, he was harassed all the time. He described a situation in which he was sitting on the bus and was punched by another student. There was no disciplinary action to the bully.

“I could be wrong, but I’m 99 percent sure that if it had been me who had done the punching, I would have been suspended or expelled,” he said. His mother called the police to see about what could be done, but they said nothing could be done because the other student did not threaten Arnold. Conversely, the school said that they couldn’t do anything because as soon as the police are called, it becomes a police issue, and not a school issue.

In general, Kardel Arnold says he has nothing against police officers, but he makes sure he doesn’t move too quickly or make any wrong moves when he sees police around.

Hired last spring, Olympia High School paraeducator Antonio McClinon, who is African American, said that he would like to see more people of color on the police force. He also said that there are only three African American males who work at the school.

McClinon said he spoke with the school district superintendent a couple of years ago about diversity and what he thought would be a ten minute conversation turned into an hour. He was pleased about that, but in terms of recruiting for teaching positions, the process is difficult, plus, African American teachers who live in the South Sound area tend to take jobs in Tacoma or Seattle, an environment where they feel more comfortable.

“….I could easily get a job there, but I want to be here…. I’m a role model here. It starts with one or two….I am not afraid, I am concerned….There's so much politics and roadblocks….” he said. The African American students surrounding McClinon agreed that he was someone that they felt they could go to if they needed to.

Mr. Grant said that race is frequently an issue at Olympia High School and acknowledged that it is a challenge for students of color to come to the school.

“If I could have a request, it would be that we be constantly in training, for the police and administrators, on how to interact with students of color, learn the issues there, and strategies for creating dialog. I think we learn a lot from each other and I can’t say enough about how much we want to engage in dialog, and we can do a lot more. We have a core group of students willing to engage in dialog but setting those things up are really difficult….”

He said that in his experience, the school has had several positive experiences with the police. Grant said they used to have lunchtime sessions with students of color, but not this year.

“We can always do more,” he said.

The Olympia City Council tasked a group of citizens last year with engaging the community on how the Olympia police can better serve the public, especially people who do not often have the chance to be heard. The group has held several forums. For more information about the group and future meeting dates, go to www.olympiawa.gov.

Editor’s Note: All individuals in this article consented to being identified. 

Little Hollywood has written many articles about the Ad Hoc group, police issues, racial justice, the Olympia Police Department, and excessive use of force by law enforcement at Little Hollywood, www.janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com. Use the search engine to type in key words.

Above: “Throw kindness around like Confetti”sign at Olympia High School.