Arts organization now has long-sought-after Marysville center
Sean Ryan / The Herald Scott Randall, a board member for the Red Curtain Foundation for the Arts says a former lumber store has the space the foundation needs for its programs in Marysville.
By Gale Fiege, The Herald
MARYSVILLE — Where lumber once was stacked, the Red Curtain Foundation for the Arts hopes someday to store its theater sets.
The nonprofit foundation has a lease-purchase agreement with the owners of Dunn Lumber Co. for the company’s 10,000-square-foot commercial building at 1410 Grove St.
The Marysville-based arts education organization plans to transform the $1 million space into a hub for the performing arts, as well as provide room for fine art shows, classrooms, meetings and community gatherings.
Red Curtain, founded in 2009, hasn’t had a place to run its programs in Marysville. For example, most if its plays and the Hometown Hootenanny music series have been staged at the Historic Everett Theatre in downtown Everett.
“It’s always been our goal to serve the greater Marysville community and north Snohomish County,” said Scott Randall, a Red Curtain board member. “This is a project we will do in phases as we raise the money, but we already plan to present a Christmas play in the new space in December.”
The old lumber sales building has a lot going for it, Randall said. It has plenty of room for a box office, a lobby, a script lending library, a stage that can be re-configured within the space and a large backstage “green room.” The former loading dock could be transformed into a covered deck for outdoor concerts, and outdoor theater is possible in back of the building, Randall said.
Marysville is coming into its own with a cultural shift that includes on emphasis on the arts, he said.
“We’re not just about the Strawberry Festival anymore,” Randall said. “The Marysville Arts Coalition, the school district, the YMCA, the library and the Tulalip Tribes have made big strides.”
Jodi Hiatt, vice president of the Arts Coalition agrees.
“We are hearing a great response to the plans that Red Curtain has for the Dunn Lumber building,” she said. “People who appreciate the arts have always been here, but there haven’t always been many opportunities. The Arts Coalition looks forward to teaming up with Red Curtain, beginning with our November art show. Red Curtain will close the show with a free stage play.”
Next up for the Red Curtain board is the start of a fundraising and promotional campaign, Randall said.
“There is much work to be done and community support will be vital in this undertaking,” he said. “The best way to get something done is to just do it.”
Volunteers sought
For more information and to volunteer to help, go to www.redcurtainfoundation.org or contact Randall at randallrcf@gmail.com or 425-501-7604.
According to documents obtained by Earth Island Journal, investigators from the Bryan County Sherriff’s Department had been spying on a Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance training camp that took place from March 18 to March 22 and which brought together local landowners, Indigenous communities, and environmental groups opposed to the pipeline. Photo: Photos by Laura Borealis/Tar Sand Blockade
After a week of careful planning, environmentalists attending a tar sands resistance action camp in Oklahoma thought they had the element of surprise — but they would soon learn that their moves were being closely watched by law enforcement officials and TransCanada, the very company they were targeting.
On the morning of March 22 activists had planned to block the gates at the company’s strategic oil reserves in Cushing, Oklahoma as part of the larger protest movement against TransCanada’s tar sands pipeline. But when they showed up in the early morning hours and began unloading equipment from their vehicles they were confronted by police officers. Stefan Warner, an organizer with Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance, says some of the vehicles en route to the protest site were pulled over even before they had reached Cushing. He estimates that roughly 50 people would have participated— either risking arrest or providing support. The act of nonviolent civil disobedience, weeks in the planning, was called off.
“For a small sleepy Oklahoma town to be saturated with police officers on a pre-dawn weekday leaves only one reasonable conclusion,” says Ron Seifert, an organizer with an affiliated group called Tar Sands Blockade. “They were there on purpose, expecting something to happen.”
Seifert is exactly right. According to documents obtained by Earth Island Journal, investigators from the Bryan County Sherriff’s Department had been spying on a Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance training camp that took place from March 18 to March 22 and which brought together local landowners, Indigenous communities, and environmental groups opposed to the pipeline.
An excerpt from an official report on the “Undercover Investigation into the GPTSR Training Camp” indicates that at least two law
enforcement officers from the Bryan County Sherriff’s Department infiltrated the training camp and drafted a detailed report about
the upcoming protest, internal strategy, and the character of the protesters themselves.
At least two law enforcement officers infiltrated the training camp and drafted a detailed report about the upcoming protest, internal strategy, and the character of the protesters themselves. The undercover investigator who wrote the report put the tar sands opponents into five different groups: eco-activists (who “truly wanted to live off the grid”); Occupy members; Native American activists (“who blamed all forms of government for the poor state of being that most American Indians are living in”); Anarchists (“many wore upside down American flags”); and locals from Oklahoma (who “had concerns about the pipeline harming the community”).
The undercover agent’s report was obtained by Douglas Parr, an Oklahoma attorney who represented three activists (all lifelong Oklahomans) who were arrested in mid April for blockading a tar sands pipeline construction site. “During the discovery in the Bryan county cases we received material indicating that there had been infiltration of the Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance camp by police agents,” Parr says. At least one of the undercover investigators attended an “action planning” meeting during which everyone was asked to put their cell phones or other electronic devices into a green bucket for security reasons. The investigator goes on to explain that he was able to obtain sensitive information regarding the location of the upcoming Cushing protest, which would mark the culmination of the week of training. “This investigator was able to obtain an approximate location based off a question that he asked to the person in charge of media,” he wrote. He then wryly notes that, “It did not appear…that our phones had been tampered with.”
(The memo also states that organizers at the meeting went to great lengths not to give police any cause to disrupt the gathering. The investigator writes: “We were repeatedly told this was a substance free camp. No drug or alcohol use would be permitted on the premises and always ask permission before touching anyone. Investigators were told that we did not need to give the police any reason to enter the camp.” They were also given a pamphlet that instructed any agent of TransCanada, the FBI, or other law enforcement agency to immediately notify the event organizers.)
The infiltration of the Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance action camp and pre-emption of the Cushing protest is part of a larger pattern of government surveillance of tar sands protesters. According to other documents obtained by Earth Island Journal under an Open Records Act request, Department of Homeland Security staff has been keeping close tabs on pipeline opponents — and routinely sharing that information with TransCanada, and vice versa.
In March TransCanada gave a briefing on corporate security to a Criminal Intelligence Analyst with the Oklahoma Information Fusion Center, the state level branch of Homeland Security. The conversation took place just as the action camp was getting underway. The following day, Diane Hogue, the Center’s Intelligence Analyst, asked TransCanada to review and comment on the agency’s classified situational awareness bulletin. Michael Nagina, Corporate Security Advisor for TransCanada, made two small suggestions and wrote, “With the above changes I am comfortable with the content.”
Then, in an email to TransCanada on March 19 (the second day of the action camp) Hogue seems to refer to the undercover investigation taking place. “Our folks in the area say there are between 120-150 participants,” Hogue wrote in an email to Nagina. (The Oklahoma Information Fusion Center declined to comment for this story.)
It is unclear if the information gathered at the training camp was shared directly with TransCanada. However, the company was given access to the Fusion Center’s situational awareness bulletin just a few days before the Cushing action was scheduled to take place.
In an emailed statement, TransCanada spokesperson Shawn Howard did not directly address the Tar Sands Resistance training camp. Howard described law enforcement as being interested in what the company has done to prepare for activities designed to “slow approval or construction” of the pipeline project. “When we are asked to share what we have learned or are prepared for, we are there to share our experience – not direct law enforcement,” he wrote.
The evidence of heightened cooperation between TransCanada and law enforcement agencies in Oklahoma and Texas comes just over a month after it was revealed that the company had given a PowerPoint presentation on corporate security to the FBI and law enforcement officials in Nebraska. TransCanada also held an “interactive session” with law enforcement in Oklahoma City about the company’s security strategy in early 2012. In their PowerPoint presentation, TransCanada employees suggested that district attorneys should explore “state or federal anti-terrorism laws” in prosecuting activists. They also included profiles of key organizers and a list of activists previously arrested for acts of nonviolent civil disobedience in Texas and Oklahoma. In addition to TransCanada’s presentation, a representative of Nebraska’s Homeland Security Fusion Center briefed attendees on an “intelligence sharing role/plan relevant to the pipeline project.” This is likely related to the Homeland Security Information Sharing Network, which provides public and private sector partners as well as law enforcement access to sensitive information.
The earlier cache of documents, first released to the press by Bold Nebraska, an environmental organization opposed to the pipeline, shows that TransCanada has established close ties with state and federal law enforcement agencies along the proposed pipeline route. For example, in an exchange with FBI agents in South Dakota, TransCanada’s Corporate Security Advisor, Michael Nagina, jokes that, “I can be the cure for insomnia so sure hope you can still attend!” Although they were unable to make the Nebraska meeting, one of the agents responded, “Assuming approval of the pipeline, we would like to get together to discuss a timeline for installation through our territory.”
The new documents also provide an interesting glimpse into the revolving door between state law enforcement agencies and the private sector, especially in areas where fracking and pipeline construction have become big business. One of the individuals providing information to the Texas Department of Homeland Security’s Intelligence and Counterterrorism Division is currently the Security Manager at Anadarko Petroleum, one of the world’s largest independent oil and natural gas exploration and production companies. In 2011, at a natural gas industry stakeholder relations conference, a spokesperson for Anadarko compared the anti-drilling movement to an “insurgency” and suggested that attendees download the US Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Manual.
LC Wilson, the Anadarko Security Manager shown by the documents to be providing information to the Texas Fusion Center, is more than just a friend of law enforcement. From 2009 to 2011 he served as Regional Commander of the Texas Department of Public Safety, which oversees law enforcement statewide. Wilson began his career with the Department of Public Safety in 1979 and was named a Texas Ranger — an elite law enforcement unit — in 1988, eventually working his way up to Assistant Chief. Such connections would be of great value to a corporation like Anadarko, which has invested heavily in security operations.
In an email to Litto Paul Bacas, a Critical Infrastructure Planner (and former intelligence analyst) with Texas Homeland Security, Wilson, using his Anadarko address, writes, “we find no intel specific for Texas. There is active recruitment for directed action to take place in Oklahoma as per article. I will forward any intel we come across on our end, especially if it concerns Texas.” The article he was referring to was written by a member of Occupy Denver calling on all “occupiers and occupy networks” to attend the Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance training camp.
Wilson is not the only former law enforcement official on Anadarko’s security team; Jeffrey Sweetin, the company’s Regional Security Manager, was a special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration for more than 20 years heading up its Rocky Mountain division. At Anadarko, according to Sweetin’s profile on Linkedin, his responsibilities include “security program development” and “law enforcement liaison.”
Other large oil and gas companies have recruited local law enforcement to fill high-level security positions. In 2010, long-time Bradford County Sheriff Steve Evans resigned to take a position as senior security officer for Chesapeake Energy in Pennsylvania. Evans was one of a handful of gas industry security directors to receive intelligence bulletins compiled by a private security firm and distributed by the Pennsylvania Department of Homeland Security. Bradford County happens to be ground zero for natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale, with more active wells than any other county in the state. In addition to Evans, several deputies of the Bradford County Sheriff’s office have worked for Chesapeake — through a private contractor, TriCorps Security — as “off-duty” security personnel. TransCanada has also come to rely on off duty police officers to patrol construction sites and protest camps, raising questions about whose interests the sworn officers are serving.
Of course for corporations like TransCanada and Anadarko having law enforcement on their side (or in their pocket) is more than just a good business move. It gives them access to classified information and valuable intelligence — essential weapons in any counterinsurgency campaign.
Last week there was a wave (albeit a small one) of renowned publications to declare they will henceforth no longer run the pejorative ‘Redskins’ whenever they cover anything related to the Washington team – though Mother Jones did state they reserve the right to resurrect the racist epithet if it’s in a quote. Indian Country Today Media Network will provide updates as other publications join the no-more-Redskins chorus.
Photo courtesy Slate.com
Editor David Plotz wrote in an editorial August 8 that Slate will no longer run ‘Redskins’ in prose and decried the name as “dated.” Plotz wrote: “So while the name Redskins is only a bit offensive, it’s extremely tacky and dated—like an old aunt who still talks about ‘colored people’ or limps her wrist to suggest someone’s gay.”
Photo courtesy Motherjones.com
One day after Slate’s announcement to henceforth purge the Redskins name from their magazine, Mother Jones followed suit and declared the name “an absolute embarrassment.” Though Mother Jones journalist Ian Gordon did state that should they cover Redskins owner Dan Snyder, they may have to resurrect the name again: “There is a chance, however, that the term will end up back on our pages,” he wrote. “We certainly won’t strike it from a quote. And if we end up writing a post or two about how Snyder still hasn’t changed the name, despite increasing scrutiny, we reserve the right to use it again—if only to highlight how incredibly out-of-touch and backward the Washington football team’s owner truly is.”
Photo courtesy Newrepublic.com
These days it’s not uncommon for announcements to come via tweet. Editor of The New Republic Franklin Foer, in admiration of Slate Editor David Plotz’s position against using the Redskins name, tweeted August 8 that The New Republic, likewise, will cease all uses of the name and that they will make it official by changing their publication’s stylebook.
Photo courtesy Washingtoncitypaper.com
In early October 2012, the Washington City Paper provided their readers an opportunity to rename the Washington Redskins so as to avoid using the “racist nickname.” Their readers finally voted on a new name: “the Washington Pigskins.”
Photo courtesy Kansascity.com
In response to a reader who declared it a trivial policy for the Kansas City Star not to run ‘Redskins’ in their paper, Public Editor Derek Donovan reiterated the Star’s long-held policy with a blistering public response: “… I see no compelling reason for any publisher to reprint an egregiously offensive term as a casual matter of course.”
Tulalip artists tap into the world of skateboard art
Skate decks and trucker hats, by Tulalip tribal member Ty Juvinel. Photo/Kim Kalliber
By Kim Kalliber, Tulalip News
Growing up on the Tulalip Reservation in the 70s, skateboarding wasn’t a thing. Of course there wasn’t a lot of cement around the rez in those days either. But that time is changing and Native Americans are taking the skateboarding world by storm, with sleek designs and styles that reflect their Native culture.
As a kid, my mother, Tulalip tribal member Sherrill Guydelkon (Williams), made a daily trek in her old VW bug to Bellingham, where she attended college. My brother and I would happily tag along when we could to skate the campus, making use of any small inclines and stairwells that got in our path.
Exhibit photo of Tracy Nelson, La Jolla Band of Luiseno Indians. Founder of Full Blood Skates, 2008. Photo/Kim Kalliber
As a teen in the 80s I moved to the city and discovered the world of skateboarders. It was the punk scene, and man was it cool. We wore leather jackets, had colored hair, we listened to bands like Circle Jerks and Bad Brains and skateboards were the mode of transportation. Skaters kept to empty lots and were continuously kicked off city streets. I remember a slew of ‘No Skateboarding Allowed’ signs posted around businesses and sidewalks – followed by a storm of ‘Skateboarding Is Not A Crime’ stickers. Remember those?
I am now in my 40s and my boyfriend and I still have a decent collection of skateboards. One of my best friends has an entire wall in his very “grown-up” house dedicated to skateboards. Skateboarding’s not just a fad, it’s a way of life, something you never outgrow. No longer strictly associated with rebellious youth and kept to empty swimming pools and vacant lots, it’s a mainstream sport, with skate parks sprouting up across the nation.
When you think of skateboarding, it’s not just a board with wheels; it embraces a wide style of art, design, fashion and music. And skaters should be taken seriously. You don’t just pick up a board one day and begin gliding jumps and riding rails. It takes a lot of practice and a lot of devotion. Skateboarding is an art form, a lifestyle and a sport.
Most people are aware that in the 60s skateboarding became huge in California, where boards were used as something to keep surfers moving during down times and flat waters, but what they don’t know is that skateboarding has a history with Indigenous peoples as well. Early skating can be traced to Native Hawaiian surfers, and to this day, Native Americans turn to skateboarding, not only to keep youth engaged in sports and stay fit, but as a means to convey their cultural identity.
The Tulalip Hibulb Cultural Center is celebrating this identity with a temporary exhibit. Ramp It Up: Skateboard Culture in Native America, organized by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, highlights the exciting world of Native American skateboarding.
The exhibit, on display through October 13th 2013, features vintage and contemporary skate decks, art and photos. You can also view rare video footage of skaters, including James & Richard Tavarez of the famed Zephyr surf team, which led to the Dogtown Z-Boys skate team, and the 4 Wheel Warpony team at the All Nations Skate Competition.
Exhibit photo of a man on a pap holua, Hawaii, 1937. Hawaiians also “surfed” on land using long, narrow papa holua, or sled, made from two wooden runners held together by woven matting or crossbars. Photo/Kim Kalliber
But it’s the stories that accompany these classic images that really get the blood pumping – you can practically hear the grinding of wheels. From early Hawaiians that “surfed” the land on longboards, to kids in the 80s, skating in their basements and backyard ramps on reservations across the U.S., to modern day concrete warriors, skating and filming in national competitions and operating their own design companies.
Local artist Louie Gong, a Nooksack tribal member, known for his bold designs on shoes and skateboards was in attendance at the exhibit’s opening reception on August 9th, showing his 2010 handmade Dog Deck. Louie uses a utilitarian style, utilizing resources found in the environment to create things that are useful in everyday life, as an art form and educational tool.
“Every design has a story behind it and represents values and personal style. And with every piece, I think, how am I going to use this as a teaching tool?” explained Gong. Keeping this in consideration, Gong created the Dog Deck, which is a rez dog design. “I started thinking about what it means to grow up in a tribal community, and I remembered the rez dogs. These dogs roam around in packs and usually don’t have one particular owner, yet they survive. Generally we think of them in a negative light, but when I really reflected on the rez dogs in my community, after I was an adult, the characteristics they exhibited are actually positive. I try to show kids that rez dogs are cool; they’re resilient. And if it wasn’t for the fact that some of our ancestors displayed that same positive resilience, we wouldn’t have the opportunity to stand here in this room and talk about these things and express our self-determination.”
Tulalip tribal member James Madison, one of eight tribal member artists who contributed to the exhibit, explained what it means for these traditional Coast Salish artists to step outside of their routine and join the ranks of graffiti artists. When Mytyl Hernandez, Marketing, and Tessa Campbell, Curator, from Hibulb, approached the Tulalip team of artists and asked them to design skateboards, James recalls his initial reaction was, “Skateboards?! We’re busy carving totem poles.” But recognizing the value in this work, not just as a means to reach out to native youth, but to show that Tulalip artists continue to evolve and move forward
Artists James Madison, Tulalip, (left) and Louie Gong, Nooksack. Photo/Kim Kalliber
in their craft, they dove right in, creating 10 decks, a handful of trucker hats and a mammoth graffiti wall.
“The artwork that we do, we put our stories in them and we teach our kids, and show who we are as people,” said Madison. “We can go anywhere and people know who Tulalip is; they know because of our art and they know because of our culture.”
Tulalip artists involved in the exhibit are Steve Madison, James Madison, Joe Gobin, Mike Gobin, Mitch Matta, Trudy Particio, Doug Seneca and Ty Juvinel. And who would have thought that these traditional Native artists would be rattle canning stencils and tagging skulls on graffiti walls? Skating really does bring out the cool kid in everyone.
For more information on the Tulalip Hibulb Cultural Center, visit www.hibulbculturalcenter.org.
Native boards on display at the exhibit. Left to right: Spirit Feather, by Traci Rabbit, Cherokee Nation, for Native Skates, 2008. Apache Mountain Spirit Dancer, by Joe Yazzie, Navajo, for Native Skates, 2008. Legacy, by Bunky Echo-Hawk, Yakama/Pawnee for Native Skates 2007. Photo/Kim Kalliber
Graffiti wall created by Tulalip tribal artists. Photo/Kim Kalliber
Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Add warm water in small amounts and knead dough until soft but not sticky. Adjust flour or water as needed. Cover bowl and let stand about 15 minutes.
Pull off large egg-sized balls of dough and roll out into fairly thin rounds. Fry rounds in hot oil until bubbles appear on the dough, turn over and fry on the other side until golden.
Serve hot. Try brushing on honey, or making into an Indian Taco.
Buttermilk Fry Bread
Substitute buttermilk for water. Follow the same recipe.
Collusion between the U.S. Government and Wall Street to deprive Native Americans of their treaty-guaranteed property goes back to the beginning of the country. Over two and a half centuries, that collusion has comprised both brutal coercion and devious subterfuge, ethnic cleansing coinciding with kidnapping and religious persecution.
While alienating indigenous property in the past entails many broken promises and treaties between the United States and American Indian tribes, the failure to prosecute corporate criminality on Indian reservations in the present is a symptom of the demise of the rule of law in the US that undermines the U.S. Constitution and protections that guard against corporate corruption of governance at all levels. As indigenous governments in the United States assert jurisdiction over their resources under national and international law, the corrupting influence of Wall Street threatens not only Indians and their sacred grounds, but democracy itself.
As Jewell Praying Wolf James writes in his August 2013 special supplement to Whatcom Watch, The Search for Integrity in the Conflict Over Cherry Point as a Coal Export Terminal, the Lummi Indian Tribe ancient village and burial ground at Cherry Point is in the way of progress. As such, Pacific International Terminals, its financial backer Goldman Sachs, and Edelman — the world’s biggest public relations firm — have their work cut out for them.
Having recently settled a $1.6 million lawsuit for illegally and intentionally bulldozing the ancient Cherry Point Lummi village of Xwe’chi’eXen — the first archaeological site placed on the Washington State Register of Historic Places — Pacific International Terminals is actively seeking to corrupt local and tribal elections, as well as influence members of Congress. While PIT — one of the largest marine operators in the world — was able to avoid criminal prosecution for desecrating sacred Lummi grounds, it isn’t leaving anything to chance when it comes to securing approval for its project on Lummi Reservation lands previously stolen by U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs agents on behalf of illegal white settlers.
History, as they say, has a way of repeating itself.
Forty years after the United States stopped spraying herbicides in the jungles of Southeast Asia in the hopes of denying cover to Vietcong fighters and North Vietnamese troops, an air base here is one of about two dozen former American sites that remain polluted with an especially toxic strain of dioxin, the chemical contaminant in Agent Orange that has been linked to cancers, birth defects and other diseases.
On Thursday, after years of rebuffing Vietnamese requests for assistance in a cleanup, the United States inaugurated its first major effort to address the environmental effects of the long war.
“This morning we celebrate a milestone in our bilateral relationship,” David B. Shear, the American ambassador to Vietnam, said at a ceremony attended by senior officers of the Vietnamese military. “We’re cleaning up this mess.”
The program, which is expected to cost $43 million and take four years, was officially welcomed with smiles and handshakes at the ceremony. But bitterness remains here. Agent Orange is mentioned often in the news media, and victims are commemorated annually on Aug. 10, the day in 1961 when American forces first tested spraying it in Vietnam. The government objected to Olympics sponsorship this year by Dow Chemical, a leading producer of Agent Orange during the war. Many here have not hesitated to call the American program too little — it addresses only the one site — and very late.
“It’s a big step,” said Ngo Quang Xuan, a former Vietnamese ambassador to the United Nations. “But in the eyes of those who suffered the consequences, it’s not enough.”
Over a decade of war, the United States sprayed about 20 million gallons of Agent Orange and other herbicides in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, halting only after scientists commissioned by the Agriculture Department issued a report expressing concerns that dioxin showed “a significant potential to increase birth defects.” By the time the spraying stopped, Agent Orange and other herbicides had destroyed 2 million hectares, or 5.5 million acres, of forest and cropland, an area roughly the size of New Jersey.
Nguyen Van Rinh, a retired lieutenant general who is now the chairman of the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin, has vivid memories of hearing American aircraft above the jungles of southern Vietnam and seeing Agent Orange raining down in sheets on him and his troops. Plants and animals exposed to the defoliant were dead within days. Many of his troops later suffered illnesses that he suspects were linked to the repeated exposure to Agent Orange, used in concentrations 20 to 55 times that of normal agricultural use.
“I would like to have one message sent to the American people,” Mr. Rinh said in his office, where a large bust of Ho Chi Minh, the wartime leader and icon, stared down from a shelf behind his desk. “The plight of Agent Orange victims continues. I think the relationship would rise up to new heights if the American government took responsibility and helped their victims and address the consequences.”
Those who have worked on the issue say the American government has been slow to address the issue in part because of concerns about liability. It took years for American soldiers who sprayed the chemicals to secure settlements from the chemical companies that produced them. The United States government, which also lagged in acknowledging the problem, has spent billions of dollars on disability payments and health care for American soldiers who came into contact with Agent Orange.
Mr. Shear, the American ambassador, sidestepped a reporter’s question after the ceremony about whether the United States would take responsibility for the environmental and health effects of Agent Orange.
“There is a disconnect between what America has done for its soldiers and what America has done for Vietnam,” said Charles Bailey, the director of the Agent Orange in Vietnam Program, an effort by the Aspen Institute, a nongovernmental organization based in Washington, to reach common ground between the United States and Vietnam on the issue. “I’m sometimes glad I’m not a U.S. diplomat in trying to square that circle.”
A class-action case against chemical companies filed in the United States on behalf of millions of Vietnamese was dismissed in 2005 on the grounds that supplying the defoliant did not amount to a war crime and that the Vietnamese plaintiffs had not established a clear causal effect between exposure to Agent Orange and their health problems. The United States government is rolling out a modest $11.4 million program to help people with disabilities in Vietnam, but it is not explicitly linked to Agent Orange. The oft-repeated American formulation is “assistance regardless of cause.”
When environmental factors are linked to disease, proof positive is sometimes hard to determine. American military studies have outlined connections between Agent Orange and myriad ailments, while Dow Chemical maintains that the “very substantial body of human evidence on Agent Orange establishes that veterans’ illnesses are not caused by Agent Orange.”
In Vietnam, there are many cases in which links to Agent Orange appear striking.
Nguyen Van Dung, 42, moved to Da Nang in 1996 with his wife and newborn daughter and worked at the former American base, wading through the knee-deep mud of drainage ditches and dredging them with a shovel. During the first 10 years, he, like other employees, harvested fish and eels from the large ponds and canals on the air base grounds, taking them home almost daily. Studies later showed high concentrations of dioxin in the fat tissue and organs of the fish.
The couple’s first daughter is now at the top of her class, but their second child, also a girl, was born in 2000 with a rare blood disease. She died at 7.
Their son Tu was born in 2008, and he was quickly found to have the same blood condition. With regular transfusions, he has defied his doctor’s prediction that he would not live past 3, but he is nearly blind, with bulging eyes that roll wildly, and he speaks in high-pitched tones that only his parents can understand. His chest cavity is so weak that he cannot breathe if he lies on his stomach.
What caused the birth defects, and who is to blame? Detailed medical tests are out of the question for Tu’s parents, whose combined monthly income is the equivalent of $350, much of which goes to medical care.
But Luu Thi Thu, the boy’s mother, does not hesitate to assign blame.
“If there hadn’t been a war and Americans hadn’t sprayed dioxin and chemicals into this area, we wouldn’t be suffering these consequences,” she said.
“What happened to my son is already done, and nothing can change that,” she said. “The American and Vietnamese governments need to clean up the Da Nang airport so that the next generation will not be affected.”
Le Ke Son, a doctor and the most senior Vietnamese official responsible for the government’s programs related to Agent Orange and other chemicals used during the war, said the debates should take a back seat to aid. “We spend a lot of time arguing about the reason why people are disabled,” he said. “One way or another they are victims and suffered from the legacy of the war. We should do something for them.”
Most of my gardening tips have been about planting, harvesting and preserving (or cooking) fruits and vegetables. This week I’d like to dedicated this column space to something a little more beautiful and delicate, something with a touch more impermanence: bouquets.
Arranging a bouquet can be as simple as gathering a bunch of flowers and sticking them in a vase or a mason jar. And guys? Stepping out into the garden and returning with a thoughtfully plucked bundle of flowers is much more romantic then coming home with a half-wilted, plastic-covered handful of flowers with a grocery store price tag. And gals? Guys like to get flowers from their sweethearts too . . . they just may not know it yet.
Beautiful, low-maintenance flowers that make awesome bouquets include hydrangeas, zinnias, dahlias, sunflowers and feverfew. There are also the classic bouquet makers: roses, daffodils, daisies and lilies. Really you can put anything into a bouquet but these flowers are great choices with a hardy vase life. Hydrangeas, roses, zinnias, feverfew and certain kinds of daisies also make great dried flower arrangements for a more permanent arrangement.
If you want to up your game and create something that really stuns, or perhaps you want to make your own bouquets for a special event like a wedding, there are a few simple tips to remember.
First, you can make beautiful bouquets with just one type of flower. Gather a bunch of zinnias or peonies, for example. Gather a lot more than you think you’ll need because you are going to really want to pack them together. Strip off all of the leaves and cut the stems so that they are lush with the jar or vase that you are going to place them in, you’ll want the outside flowers to be resting on the lip of the vase. Viola! This is also a great option for a simple, elegant and contemporary bridal bouquet. Cut the stems to your desired length and then secure them together with florist tape or several large rubber bands. Conceal the rubber bands with a wide, beautiful bow.
If mixing and matching several types of flowers it may help to do a little planning before you start cutting. Bigger flowers can be accented with smaller flowers, for example. Also think about the colors you’ll be using. Light pink zinnias would pair well with dark pink gerbera daisies. Red dahlias would pair well with other red or orange flowers. Yellow daffodils and yellow roses may not look so great together—that’s a lot of yellow and their shapes are so different that it would be hard to create any cohesiveness for the eye to follow.
Cut all of the stems for your arrangement at the same time and slightly longer than you’ll think you need them, making room for error. Cutting the stems at an angle helps the flower suck up water. The flowers at the back of your arrangement should have longer stems than the plants towards the front. And don’t forget that you can use things other than flowers in your arrangements! Ferns, leaves, a curly thin twig, and ornamental grasses all make great additions to a bouquet and help fill in space while creating visual interest.
And don’t forget your greatest resource: the Internet. A quick images search will earn you thousands of pictures for inspiration. With a little practice you may even find yourself with a new hobby or a new job as a florist!
Darla Antoine is an enrolled member of the Okanagan Indian Band in British Columbia and grew up in Eastern Washington State. For three years, she worked as a newspaper reporter in the Midwest, reporting on issues relevant to the Native and Hispanic communities, and most recently served as a producer for Native America Calling. In 2011, she moved to Costa Rica, where she currently lives with her husband and their infant son. She lives on an organic and sustainable farm in the “cloud forest”—the highlands of Costa Rica, 9,000 feet above sea level. Due to the high elevation, the conditions for farming and gardening are similar to that of the Pacific Northwest—cold and rainy for most of the year with a short growing season. Antoine has an herb garden, green house, a bee hive, cows, a goat, and two trout ponds stocked with hundreds of rainbow trout.
Darla Antoine on a recent visit to Washington State (Courtesy Darla Antoine)
Lateesha “Teesha” Mae Jack, 21, passed away August 5, 2013.
She was born April 12, 1992 in Everett, WA to Rainey Jack Sr. and Roseanne Iukes. She graduated from Tulalip Heritage High School. She loved playing Call of Duty, and basketball.
She is survived by her parents, Rainey Jack Sr., Roseanne Iukes; siblings, Veronica Iukes, Jennifer Flores, Jesse Wolf-John, Loreal Jack, Rainey Jack Jr., Terrell Jack; her daughter, Maliya Henry; grandparents, Mary Jack, Geraldine and Hank Williams, Nelson and Jennifer Iukes; numerous, aunties, uncles, nephews, nieces, cousins, and friends.
She was preceded in death by brother, James Titus Jack; grandfather, Windy Jack; uncles, Harvey Jack, Harold Enick and Gerald Enick.
A prayer services will be held Sunday, August 11, 2013 at 1 p.m. at Schaefer-Shipman Funeral Home with an Interfaith Service following at the Tulalip Gym at 6 p.m.. Funeral Services will be held Monday, August 12, 2013 at 10 a.m. at the Tulalip Gym with burial following at Mission Beach Cemetery.
Arrangements entrusted to Schaefer-Shipman. Marysville.
Jeffery Ernest Jack, 51, of Tulalip, WA passed away August 4, 2013 in Everett.
He was born December 7, 1961 in Everett to Sandy and Henrietta Jack.
Jeff is survived by his sisters, Roxanne Miramontes, Shirley Jack and her husband, Terry McGovern and Sandra Senner; nieces, Rocio Hatch, Jasmine Ancheta, Jacque Nye; nephews, Roberto Jack, Kody Johnson, Richard Johnson, Joshua Senner; aunt, Beverly Grant; uncle, Mike Cladoosby; and numerous cousins; and his special Wayne Peters.
He was preceded in death by his father, mother, grandparents, Ernest and Lena Cladoosby; brother, William Jack; and sister, Brenda Jack.
Jeff loved making people laugh. He was uncle dad and he will be missed by all.
A Service will be held Thursday, August 8, 2013 at 1 p.m. at Schaefer-Shipman Funeral Home with an InterFaith Service following at 6 p.m. at the Tulalip Gym. Funeral Services will be held Friday at 10 a.m. at the Tulalip Tribal Gym with burial following at Mission Beach Cemetery.
Arrangements entrusted to Schaefer-Shipman Funeral Home.
