Community Post

Mayor’s “Juneteenth” Town Hall

I was at the meeting that was held on Juneteenth. I found it ironic that the staff of a Black history institution nor the elected Mayor acknowledged the significance to US and world history.

But on to the issues. I did not notice anyone at the meeting promoting anarchism  or “Black Bloc” as they’ve been called. There were a number people that were VERY vocal about issues related to police misconduct and accountability. There were also other issues raised.

The media, and Mayor’s office it appears, is not mentioning the biggest issue raised that led to the arrests were about corruption related to the ownership and occupancy of Colman school.

The meeting started with representatives of the African American Heritage Museum & Cultural Center asserting ownership and the founder presenting the Mayor with legal documents regarding ownership of the Colman school building and demanding an full scale investigation into corruption and fraud resulting in current occupancy by Urban League Village. They challenged the attempted corporate takeover involving prominent white Seattle power brokers including Bill Gates mother in law Mimi Gates. Barbara Thomas, the director of NAAM admitted that their organization did not own the building.

People also expressed:

-a need to stop the “plantation politics” and high level institutional racism and corruption that has effectively destabilized the African American community creating the conditions that foster the negative culture of crime and violence leaving everyone vulnerable as evidenced by tragic death of Tyrone Love and Justin Ferrari in the same block.

-Questioned the wasting of public resources such as the situation with Horace Mann being funded by the city yet kept empty.

– Reiterated ongoing need for a world class cultural center, an institution that effectively inspires and nurtures positive culture, pride and productivity. Too many African American youth who lack a positive cultural identity and framework adopt negative lifestyles trying to imitate European mafia gangster culture (i.e., Al Capone, John Gotti and Al Pacino Scarface). Colman school was fought for to be a center of cultural and economic revitalization for the community but was co-opted into a real estate development with a milquetoast museum-gallery that has not significantly impacted the issues of education/youth development, culture, economic development and public safety. The estimated 30 million dollars that has gone into this building could have made a serious difference if strategically invested.

-Raised questions about $200 million being spent on new juvenile jail development and ineffective incarceration model rather than invested in effective prevention and intervention.

-Raised questions about the administration’s commitment to diversity, equity and “shared prosperity” in light of people being pushed out of Seattle in general and the Central District and how the pending Yesler Terrace redevelopment in specific and mitigate or exacerbate the problem.

-Highlighted institutional inequity where white organizations use black faces on brochures to raise money in the name of “helping” the community but are really serving their own interests, perpetuating the status quo and keeping power among their own while problems in Black community have continued to get worse.

Personally, I would have preferred the meeting continued and feel that the Mayor got a pass to avoid dealing with hard issues and go beyond his talking points.

What I don’t understand is how everyone is going to live together in harmony if all lives and interests are not respected and valued. How can you expect peace without justice? There needs to be some honest dialogue if there is going to be any common ground or resolution. Other than that it will be business as usual, polarization will increase and tensions continue to rise.

Wyking is a third generation Central District community builder who has dedicated countless hours creating successful positive youth programs and community building activities including the Umoja Festival & Parade and the Umoja PEACE Center. He has coached baseball, basketball and football and mentored many youth in the Seattle area.

144 thoughts on “Mayor’s “Juneteenth” Town Hall

  1. This is a very thorough, thoughtful, and important piece for the times. I agree that the mayor really took a pass rather than sticking around to answer the hard issues. We are in a time of cultural change in this country. Every day, more and more, and little by little, people are truly understanding that with the people united together generational poverty, police brutality, prisoner oppression, privatization of (and hence segregation in) education and the like, can all be defeated.

    2012 is a momentous year and it is the likes of those connecting the dots, asking the really hard questions, and challenging those figure heads in power that claim progressive change, that have a vision of true freedom and liberation for all of us.

  2. This was billed as Judkins Park neighborhood town hall meeting – not the “Mayor’s Juneteenth Town Hall” as you want to re-label it. The neighborhood is acutely concerned with the recent shootings – no one but you seems to think that the ownership and occupancy of Colman School is the more urgent topic. The rest of us want to move on to more current topics of concern to ALL who live in our neighborhood.

  3. Colman school was fought for to be a center of cultural and economic revitalization for the community but was co-opted into a real estate development with a milquetoast museum-gallery that has not significantly impacted the issues of education/youth development, culture, economic development and public safety. The estimated 30 million dollars that has gone into this building could have made a serious difference if strategically invested.

    YES!!!! EXACTLY!!!

    $200 million being spent on new juvenile jail development and ineffective incarceration model rather than invested in effective prevention and intervention.

    YES! THANK YOU!!

    How can you expect peace without justice? There needs to be some honest dialogue if there is going to be any common ground or resolution. Other than that it will be business as usual, polarization will increase and tensions continue to rise.

    YES!!! I COULDN’T AGREE MORE

  4. Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. It is celebrated on June 19th. The meeting was held on June 19th. Wyking is not re-labeling the meeting. He is drawing attention to the fact neither the museum staff nor the mayor and his staff acknowledged the significance of that day. I can see by what you are saying that you probably did not connect the dots from the rest of the story. I’m not saying you couldn’t connect the dots, just that you didn’t. So I’m not going to try and go further than the Juneteenth bit. Okay. But must you be so dismissive and patronizing to someone you don’t even know?

  5. I watched the Garfield community center forum on violence the day the European settler / immigrant murdered the 5 people. I also watched video of NATIVE AMERICAN JOHN T. WILLIAMS MURDERED IN COLD BLOOD? i was present at the AFRICAN AMERICAN HERITAGE MUSEUM AND CULTURE CENTER on June 19th 2012 and presented the signed purchase and sale agreement between the AFRICAN AMERICAN HERITAGE MUSEUM AND “CULTURE CENTER” and the SEATTLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. AS REQUIRED BY THE PURCHASE AND SALE AGREEMENT THE AFRICAN AMERICAN HERITAGE MUSEUM AND CULTURE CENTER MADE $50,000 DOWN PAYMENT WITH CASHIER CHECK AND LATTER PRESENTED SEATTLE SCHOOL BOARD WITH $379,000 PRE-APPROVE MORTGAGE LOAN TO PAYOFF BALANCED OWED ON SCHOOL AHEAD OF 3 YEAR PURCHASE AND SALE AGREEMENT TO PAY $100,000 FOR 3 YEARS IN YEARLY INSTALLMENTS? IN SHORT BY WASHINGTON STATE REAL STATE LAW AND THE REPORT BY THE SEATTLE TIMES THAT ACCORDING TO SECRETARY OF STATE’S OFFICE “THE FACTION REPRESENTED BY OMARI TAHIR IS THE LEGITIMATE AFRICAN AMERICAN HERITAGE MUSEUM AND “CULTURE CENTER” AND NOT THEN HUD LAWYER AND NOW SEATTLE HOUSING ATHORITY LAWYER JAMES FEARN THAT WAS NOT EVEN A MEMBER OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN HERITAGE MUSEUM AND “CULTURE CENTER”? POLITICAL CORRUPTION KNOWS NO BOUNDARIES. ASK YOUR LAWYER MAYOR ABOUT THIS? JUSTICE=PEACE OR AS THE TRAYVON MARTIN PROTESTERS SAY “NO JUSTICE NO PEACE”. IN OTHER WORDS THE CYCLE OF VIOLENCE WILL CONTINUE EVEN WITH JOHN T, WILLIAMS KILLING POLICE ON EVERY CORNER? AS EINSTEIN SAID “YOU CAN’T SOLVE A PROBLEM WITH THE SAME ENERGY THAT CREATED THE PROBLEM”. WE NEED A CORE “CURRICULUM OF PEACE IN ALL ELEMENTARY, MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOLS????? Omari ([email protected])

  6. Well said KTC and much agreed. Zebragirl, one cannot just “move on” without knowing the rich cultural history that it took for the NAAM to be occupied, and for the continued struggle ALL communities of color are up STILL up against. I suggest you look here http://www.aahmcc.org/history.html for more info about the NAAM specifically. That this meeting fell on Juneteenth and our white elected mayor did not as much as mention it while holding a meeting of the people in (supposedly) an African American cultural center, speaks so loud as to the ignorance of himself, and the continued struggle of so many folks in the black community here in seattle, washington, this country, and globally.

    when you say ‘the rest of us’ i get very skeptical as to exactly who your community of folks consist of. please educate yourself just a bit more before making such judgmental, oppressive, inflammatory remarks.

  7. Omari, thank you for all you have done, do and will continue to do as we propel into this unknown future. You are a beacon of hope.

  8. @ZebraGirl first of all it was really in jest that I called it that but since you take such offense to call it what I want as Europeans feel entitled places, things (and people for that matter) what they want, let me tell you that JUNETEENTH should be significant to ALL “Americans”. You should not feel excluded because I labeled according to the date (JUNE Nine-TEENTH) rather than according to location.

    No one said anything about you living here but if you want more peace you are going to have to step out of whatever fantasy bubble you appear to be in and into reality.

    Clearly you are not the only one concerned with the shootings. Some of us have been concerned (probably since before you got here) and working hard investing time, money etc. to address the causes of such negative effects that usually impacts our lives much more.

    What do you really know about the violence involving Black youth in this community/society? How many funerals have you been to? How many youth have you talked out of potentially violent confrontation? How many youth have you inspired and/or helped to go from self-destructive to productive lifestyles? What alternatives have you created of your own time and resources? What do you actually support in this community to address the problem?

    Do you have a vision and plan to achieve it?

    From your comment, it appears that you really don’t understand the dynamics of this negative cultural phenomenon and therefore I doubt that you can come to an effective solution. If your proposed solution is bringing bigger, badder more organized threat of violence to combat the current threat of violence then good luck to you. Just know that the communities up north are not safer because they have more police on every corner (they don’t) but they do have some other things that are worth identifying and duplicating in a relevant manner.

    Furthermore, if you are not concerned about the impacts of the resources (land space, money, labor) allocated to address the problems which you state you are concerned with I don’t know what tell you. It’s called ROI and when you have less resources you must get more bang for your buck through strategic allocation.

    If something in your environment is making you sick, you can take all the suppressants you want for temporary relief but the symptoms will keep coming back until you address and eliminate the cause of the illness.

    You can call police to trim leaves all you want but until you address the seeds and roots the issue will persist leaving us all vulnerable.

  9. The Colman School / AAHMCC topics sound like they are more appropriately discussed in courtrooms than at a town hall meeting. The CD is a multi cultural neighborhood and the town hall was for all neighbors.

    I can appreciate the concerns here but still believe this was a loss to the neighborhood as a whole due to the hijacking by folks who simply didn’t want to happen or had such a narrow agenda as to prevent any conversation from starting.

  10. @ZebraGirl “Injustice everywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” -MLK

    So when the young black “subhuman(3/5ths)/thug/gangster/scum” commit a crime you want them penalized more severely for their wrongdoings.

    When our community is victim of a perpetual organized crime/injustice you want us to “move on” with no recourse, amends, recompense, reparation etc? No effort or remedy to “make us whole” in response to the damages suffered.

    Then when we take it upon our selves to address and correct the situation, you take offense, are annoyed, bothered, etc.

    But when you perceive the effects of the above stated criminal activity to impact you and your comfort, you want SWIFT AND IMMEDIATE JUSTICE served but prior and beyond that you don’t care?

    When the police who are paid to enforce the law (and thus should be the models of law abiding behavior), violate the law and/or don’t snitch on each other (BLUE WALL of Silence) it’s ok because “they have a tough job and sometimes it get’s rough”. But when a young black imitates the Blue Wall of Silence i.e. “no snitch” they suddenly are the reason why crime exists? That’s called a double standard and it’s easy to scapegoat the one with the least power/voice in the situation.

    Why don’t the police, elected officials, corporate leaders, etc, model the behavior they want to see in the citizenry and start snitching so that we can get true justice and clean things up? I am almost certain there can be a “trickle down” effect as the old saying goes “as above…so below”.

    You live here too and now you are experiencing a tiny amount of what we’ve been experiencing but you still don’t care about us, you only care about you. If we are in it together (which we are) then let’s work together but if you are only really about your interests then let the chips fall where they may.

  11. I don’t get it. There was an opportunity for a dialog with with the Mayor. It sounds like a few groups were rude to him and solely focused on their own narrow agendas so the mayor did the correct thing and left. He is the Mayor to the whole city not just the CD. The CD completely missed a good opportunity with Mayor McGinn, so now what?

    It isn’t the Mayor’s job to fix all of society’s problems. Why not just focus on what we can do to make the CD a better place via baby steps?

  12. @Z00m

    Funny how there is always another time and another place for our interests. It’s been like that since we’ve been in this country. I guess as much as things change they stay the same!

    When is the time/place for justice so that we can get some peace?

    We all know crime/public safety (code word for young black people) is the hottest topic and this issue is directly related to that.

    The issue of Colman school, Horace Mann, MLK, TT Minor, African American Academy, Garfield, SOIC (SVI), Urban League corruption and other spaces/institutions is about effective/ineffective allocation of resources to make the community better, safer, more vibrant, etc. for ALL!

    Why is it ok for our youth/community to be denied access to the resources, environment and things necessary to grow, develop and be healthy as others are? Why must we wait?

    Are we not as valuable/deserving/worthy? What message does that send to our children? And that is exactly how they act…as if their lives and the lives of those look like them are not worth much.

    People/societies are products of its institutions and the behaviors institutions perpetuate and facilitate.

  13. Thanks, Ian. This was really my point.

    I am aware of what Juneteenth means and did not mean to make that my point. I’m not saying that all the history posted here is not important, it was just not relevant to the discussion at hand. If we keep having to re-hash the same old blues that have brought us so much division, how do we solve our current and future problems?

  14. @Ian

    That’s what we must do. Focus on things that will make a difference, correct whats wrong, and stop wasting so much resources in the process.

    There are a lot of smart people in the community but there is not mutual respect and common ground. If you fail to acknowledge and/or disregard someone’s interests how are you going to avoid conflict? Everyone must be accounted for and get due consideration.

  15. @Zebra – exactly. Let’s say bike racks are my main concern. How rude would it be for me to shout down everyone else because I want bike racks. There is a reason why in a question and answer format everyone gets their turn. The video I saw was clear that someone in the crowd was asking a question or making a statement but rather than letting the mayor respond he was being spoken over. Bad manners and Counterproductive. If anything, behavior like this just belittles whatever point was being made. Your “most important topic” probably isn’t mine and vice versa. Everyone is suposed to get their turn and hopefully something good comes of it.

  16. @Wyking Speaking for myself I don’t know much about the history of the NAAM but if Umoja was the legal buyer make your case in court. A neighborhood forum probably isn’t the best place. If the school board won’t give Umoja the Horace Mann school for your programs then do something within the system. Run for public office or the school board. Maybe “the system” isn’t perfect, maybe it is corrupt, but it is the best in the world and it is what we have and what we must work within for real change.

  17. @zebragirl

    Who set the parameters of the discussion at hand?

    You solve problems by addressing the root of the problem. It seems that you have a very difficult time doing that. You want to ignore and “move on” from the core of the problem and then wonder “how can we solve the problem?

    Do want to be healthy but not want to change your diet/lifestyle? Do you want to get rich without hard work and intelligent management of your resources? You wouldn’t be alone because many people do but it usually doesn’t happen.

    Why does it seem you want to monopolize what you consider the discussion of “current/future problems”.

    You want to divorce your self from OUR problems but then talk about how can WE work together to solve OUR problems.

    PEACE and safety is a common desire from what I can tell.

    Have the “same old blues” been solved? Is there any grounds for the stated blues? What is the relationship between the “same old blues” and the present problems?

    Do you really think it’s feasible to create a police state as a solution?

    You seem closed to discussing how resources can be best allocated for desired effect of peace in the streets?

    Do you really think the mayor and or other elected officials or individuals who are not in the community understand what it takes to change the culture? Do you know?

    What are your proposed solutions?

  18. @sameoldstory

    I know that part of the history. Violence was pathetic and “not jury of my peers” was equally pathetic. We are all equally Americans.

    I meant I don’t know the history that Omari mentioned in one of these posts about his legal Purchase & Sale Agreement to buy Colman. The city might do some shady deals (like MLK school) but I bet they are on the up and up legally, just motivated by politics to do transactions that have questionable motivations.

    If they city is deciding who to let use the Horace Mann school, why would they pick a group that is rude to the mayor at a community meeting? Just saying….

  19. Get over yourselves Omari and Whyking. Nobody is going to let a couple of incompetent loudmouths run anything. You lost Coleman because nobody likes your attitude.

  20. I was all for the occupation back in the day, but when violence, corruption and “your opinion isn’t valid because you’re the wrong color” became the m.o. of the activists, you lost my support. It’s sad, because the occupation was so epic a movie should be made about it. What happened later, not so much.

  21. Mr. Grumbo Zimmerman

    Actually the community lost an opportunity to significantly address the problems that it is still suffering from i.e. education, cultural and economic underdevelopment. This is what many of our youth have been victims to as well as recently Justin Ferrari.

    The people who took over the building had every opportunity to fulfill its potential but did not. Is it an accident that the Black communities cultural institution is nothing in comparison to other communities (Seattle Art Museum, Wing Luke, Asian Counseling Referral Services, El Centro, Daybreak Star, Nordic Heritage, etc.)?

    There was a problem i.e negative residual effects of Black peoples experience in America and residual institutionalized racism.

    Action was taken to counter the problem i.e. build a positive institution to counter mitigate the negative outcomes of the existing institutions.

    There was a reaction to that action by the same people who control the institutions that are producing the negative outcomes.

    They expressed the power of their ability and willingness to use violence by sending SWAT teams trumped our ability/willingness to resist that violence at the given time. Then they allocated their money and political power to create something that they felt served their interests or preferences (Weed&Seed ethnic cleansing).

    The struggle to fulfill the original vision continues as the problem remains (has gotten worse).

    Did the allocation of said resources significantly impact the problems of education, cultural and economic development?

    The vision for the AAHMCC in 1985 was comprehensive in nature like the celebrated Harlem Children’s Zone that came to be more than 20 years later. Somebody was a visionary.

    Is the community suffering from the problems or worse in 2012?

    Did the Urban League (or rather the establishment that used them as a front) produce a viable solution of comparison to the Harlem Children’s Zone?

    Is a comprehensive solution such as the Harlem Children’s Zone still needed?

    Why was this vision for such a dynamic institution thwarted? Was it based on the personality (symbol) or the substance and function?

    If it was the personality then why wasn’t the function duplicated elsewhere with more acceptable personalities? Was it actually the substance/function that was not desired?

    What happened to all of the other positive Black institutions in the CD that advocates of AAHMCC were not intricatedly involved in such as SOIC (SVI), Liberty Bank, CAYA, Central Area Public Development Authority, Randolf Carter Center, Pratt Fine Arts, Urban League, etc?

    Do they still exist? Have they succeeded in bringing progress (education, economic, political) and empowering the Black community? Did they prosper? Are they potent? Are they still under the Black communities control and serving the interests of the grassroots common folk who established them?

    Why are the people who are responsible such failures in our community repeatedly rewarded with opportunities to repeat the failure, given positions within the establishment and celebrated as “respectable leaders.”?

    Justice is not personal and it’s far bigger than any individual.

    And the saga continues…

  22. @WYking
    I feel that the “probably since before you got here” attitude is really discouraging and segregating. Communities are constantly in flux and changing. Everyone who is in a community has ownership of it and defining what it means to be in a community is subjective.
    Fight for what you think is right, but please don’t claim that your personal perspective is more valuable than other community members.

  23. Wyking and Omar are father and son. I can never remember which one is which. The old one assaulted the former mayor with a bullhorn, and failed at his copycat occupation of Coleman School (He was trying to do what the founders of El Centro de la Raza did with their occupation of the old Beacon Elementary school). He’s been bitter about it ever since.

    They have a little group of hangers-on who basically hold the neighborhood back at every opportunity with their little stunts. This is par for the course with them.

  24. @X
    My point was that new residents aren’t the only ones who care about peace, safety and improving the community.

    @lanestreetloner
    You should follow Grumbos comments before you speak.

  25. “Hold the neighborhood back”…that’s a lot of power for two people.

    Now we know who’s responsible for the achievement gap in schools, years of redlining, business underdevelopment, drugs, youth violence

    …And now we know who has been handing the hundreds of millions of dollars that have come in to the Central District to solve problems that haven’t been solved.

  26. …And now we know who has been handing the hundreds of millions of dollars that have come in to the Central District to solve problems that haven’t been solved.

  27. Oh, and I forgot to add: Both father and son love to hear themselves talk, as these comments show.

    Same old stuff: redlining, violence, disenfranchised, institutionalized racism, youth, blah, blah, blah.

  28. Oh right, like el centro. Except for the fact that the occupation of Colman school was the longest occupation of a building in the u.s. , but what evs, no big deal right. Oh and day real star was an occupation and it wasn’t also what liberals would call “non-violent”. People say you have to fight for what’s right and fight for a better future, that’s because it’s not just gonna get handed over to you because you voted for the less evil rich career politician, cuz face it you gotta have money to run for anything in the u.s. Omari and Wyking, thank you for all the hard work you do. It takes real warriors to take action in the community and stand up for a better future for the youths, instead of what people do and just wait around scared until the mayor decides he wants to hear what the public think, and then tell them what action he wants to take.

  29. What do you do in the community that helps make it a better place. And keeping your lawn mowed does not count.Posting on your neighborhood blog doesn’t count either :)

  30. Omari. Aren’t you the guy that whacked Mayor Paul Schell in the face with a megaphone resulting in a broken face bone of some sort? Yet you chastise the police for violence.

  31. My oh my. We have a thing here. And it was so pleasant outside today. This is what I get for sitting down at the internet today.

  32. Wyking has the knowledge and background to make the difference. He knows’ whats’ going on in the ‘community’ and thats’ where it starts’. And thats’ why we all need to support him in his run for Mayor. Support the cause,’we the people’.Watch the link below and be informed on who he is, and what he stands’ for: http://youtu.be/PyRDH71C5GI

  33. AS A FORMER AFRICAN HISTORY TEACHER IN THE SEATTLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND PAID GUEST LECTURER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON, WESTERN WASHINGTON, WASHINGTON STATE AND WAYNE STATE IN MICHIGAN; THE IGNORANCE EXPRESSED BY EUROPEAN SETTLER OCCUPIERS OF NATIVE AMERICAN LANDS COLONIZED THROUGH DOCUMENTED TERRORISM AND THEFT OF AFRICANS FROM THEIR “DARK CONTINENT” AND “CHRISTIAN” TERRORISM ENFORCED ENSLAVEMENT,IT REALLY SEEMS LIKE “THE MORE THINGS CHANGE THE MORE THEY REMAIN THE SAME? EUROPEAN CAVE CULTURE OF SELF-CENTERED GREED AND “GUN VIOLENCE”, ROBBING “INDIANS”, STEALING THEIR LAND, TERRORIZING/ENSLAVING AFRICANS? NO THIS IS NOT A HITLERITE “BIG LIE” THIS EUROPEAN SETTLER COLONIAL HISTORY? REMEMBER THE ORIGINAL”THIRTEEN COLONIES” THAT UNITED INTO A SELF-GOVERNING BRITISH SUPER COLONY WITH “ENGLISH” AS THE COLONIAL LANGUAGE? HAVING LIVED IN THE COLONIZED AMERICAS, ASIA, AFRICA AND EUROPE; ONE/I UNDERSTANDS THE REASON EUROPEAN SETTLER TERRORIST NEED TO “BLAME THE/THEIR VICTIM/S? YES IT IS TRUE GEORGE WASHINGTON, THOMAS JEFFERSON AND OTHER FOUNDERS OF THE AMERICAN SELF-GOVERNING BRITISH SUPER COLONY WERE RAPED BY THEIR FEMALE BLACK SLAVES RESULTING IN ALL OF TODAY’S BLACKS WITH THE SURNAMES WASHINGTON, JEFFERSON, JACKSON ETC. THE UNITED NATIONS INVESTIGATOR RECENTLY VISITED NUMEROUS “NATIVE AMERICAN RESERVATIONS”(OH HOW NICE OF YOU) AND MADE RECOMMENDATION BACK TO THE UN THAT EUROPEAN SETTLERS GIVE THE NATIVE AMERICANS THEIR LAND BACK AND JOIN THE BACK TO EUROPE MOVEMENT AND MENTALLY FREE BLACKS TO VISIT/RETURN TO THE LANDS THEIR DNA WAS STOLEN FROM. PEOPLE THINK AND ACT OUT OF THEIR UNDERSTANDING ESPECIALLY WHEN IT IS ARROGANCE, IGNORANCE AND SHAME. PLEASE READ AND CORRECT YOUR MIS-EDUCATION/IGNORANCE BEFORE SHOWING YOUR EUROPEAN SETTLER “JUDEO-CHRISTIAN” COLONIAL TERRORIST MENTALITY. YES “DRONES” KILL! THE TRUTH HURTS AND THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH HURTS ABSOLUTELY. IS THIS REAL ENOUGH FOR YOU??? YES, JUSTICE=PEACE, Omari ([email protected])

  34. @ian

    If people truly want justice, peace and non-violence in the community why would they ask for more police who have repeatedly demonstrated pathetic (and pathological) violence and disregard for peoples human rights and constitutional rights including the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, etc?

    When increased presence isn’t enough, then what?…NY style Stop & Frisk?
    ( http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/12/opinion/the-scars-of-stop-)?

    Apartheid style ID/PASS laws?
    http://thegrio.com/2010/04/30/ariz-immigration-law-brings-back-apartheid-memories/“> http://thegrio.com/2010/04/30/ariz-immigration-law-brings-ba
    http://overcomingapartheid.msu.edu/multimedia.php?id=3“> http://overcomingapartheid.msu.edu/multimedia.php?id=3

  35. Scab, I just do the normal things that people in regular neighborhoods do: go to work, pay taxes, keep a clean house and yard, etc. (I know that’s not important to you. I don’t care)

    Here’s what I don’t do:
    Disrupt public meetings with drama fits
    Assault peaople
    Excuse bad behavior on the part of self-important nutcases
    Support self-important nutcases for public office
    Try to make a living by promoting divisive attitudes.

    Luckily, my side is winning. There’s more and more normal people like me in this neighborhood everyday, and we’re not going anywhere. (yes, I know that will be twisted into a racist statement reflecting my colonial paternalism or something, since that’s all you got. Have at it)

    Oh, and Omari? Paragraph breaks are your friend. Or, as the kids say, tl;dr

  36. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2018496073_m

    Nothing is certain on blogs, but it seems likely that “Omari Tahir”, commenting above in the Omari Tahir-Garrett mentioned in the article (and that “Wyking”, author of this post, is his son). Details in the Seattle Times article fit with my memory of news reports at the time, and my memories of Mr. Garrett’s statements at assorted neighborhood meetings over the years.

    Longtime residents may recall that while the former Coleman School sat vacant during the many years of the dispute over its redevelopment its roof was decorated with a large painted sign that said (in all CAPS, as Mr. Garrett prefers) “FREE OMARI”

  37. Yes. Omari is the guy that smashed in mayor Schells face causing permanent injury. Why Omari was allowed into a forum precisley like the one in which he previously violently attacked a Seattle Mayor is uncontionalble. Omari can have his free speach, but, he should be kept away from where others are trying to speak. He is a loudmouthed self centerred bigot whos idea of free speach is to constantly here his own jaw flapping with anger. He is a sad sad case.

  38. Yes, obviously keeping the lawn mowed does not count. In fact lawn mowing is a sign of imperialist b.s. gentrifying hatred.

    It is not enough to be a good citizen, follow the law, go to work, raise your kids, try to provide a voice in and commitment to the community, support local businesses. In fact there is now way you can ever make up for the damage these efforts do to the real residents of the CD. Your behavior is slap in the face to the people that don’t really do much at all.

    If you want to be a part of this community that we value you must do more like all the other residents which is…. uh, hmm, uuh? Well I’m not sure what these folks have done really. Doesn’t look like much.

    Omari failed to do anything with Coleman. Best he could do was smash somebody’s face in.

  39. Not ONE of you dummies can refute ANYTHING Wyking has said. Not one! If you can, DO it! Or shut up.

    Further, to not deal with specific the issues that you (via your support of the regime) and your ancestors literally created directly or by your collective silent complicity and material benefit (the typical amerikkkan lifestyle is literally killing the planet)is to invite your own [well deserved] death and destruction.

    The mayor, his staff, and the police live better than most of us whose taxes pay for their extravagant lifestyles. “He who has the gold makes the rules”, so WE are the boss! When he comes into our community will do as he is commanded by the people. Period. Or, he will be punished, as we saw happen last Tuesday (Lol).

    Fact: It was a DEMOCRAT run administration that kicked out community volunteers at the African American Heritage Museum and Cultural Center at GUN POINT, as they were running programs for youth w/o grant money.

    Fact: The city IMPOSED Bob Flowers, the former senior V.P. of Washington Mutual, upon the grassroots dominated executive board.

    Flowers continuously abused his position to the point that TWO separate, independent auditing groups told him and his supporters that what they were doing (like refusing to purchase Colman School with the money raised by the grassroots after being commanded to do so 3 times; also to pay the taxes on the organization, despite the board telling him to do so). Flowers eventually wound up in front of a Senate sub committee on the bank bailouts along side his boss Kerry Killinger.

    Fact: James Kelley (Urban League), one of the folks the city charged with creating the NAAM, not only pulled a gun on Wyking in 2003 at Rainier Beach High School in front of students and parents, but also is implicated in the recent school district rip off involving Silas Potter and other city funded domestic, neo colonial puppets.

    Support for the mayor is support for corruption, graft, police terrorism against non white peoples, economic apartheid against black owned businesses and all around rank opportunism.

    When you continue to support administrations whose police and courts treating black youth like the Israelis treat the Palestinians, this is the result.

    You’re either part of the problem or part of the solution. Choose wisely. Your life, and that of your children, depends on it.

  40. Omari and Wyking- Do you reach out to the Vietnamese community during Tet? Or, to the Jews during passover? I think not. You preach peace, yet your behavior is, at times, violent (assaulting the former Mayor), counter productive and divisive. You are doing more harm than good. I think it may be time for you two to move along and leave us in peace. Also, you may have no respect for the Mayor, but at least respect the Office of the Mayor. He was elected by a majority of voters and deserves, at least to be heard.

  41. “It’s very dramatic when two people come together to work something out. It’s easy to take a gun and annihilate your opposition, but what is really exciting to me is to see people with differing views come together and finally respect each other.”
    ― Fred Rogers, The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember
    “When we treat children’s play as seriously as it deserves, we are helping them feel the joy that’s to be found in the creative spirit. It’s the things we play with and the people who help us play that make a great difference in our lives.”
    ― Fred Rogers

  42. Clearly, this is a very tense dialogue, however, I doubt glorifying the actions of suicide bombers killing innocent people is going to help any discussion.

    Tom, would you consider deleting the above comment because of it’s violent tone?

    We will not be able to hear each other until all sides can dialogue respectfully and peacefully.

  43. @Omari–You really must find a way to locate your caps lock button and turn them off. :)…and once you do, please show Phoenix Jones where it is.

  44. do you do anything but schlup away on the keyboard? nope.

    if you do, enlighten us about how you make this world a better place.

  45. Tom, I hope you have the good sense to not remove comments based on their “tone”. I trust you do based on the good sense you have shown in many other instances. Stephanie, it’s not very respectful to ask someone to remove a comment based on your perception of its tone. If tone was all it took, don’t you think grumbo would have been out of here a long time ago?

  46. We need to get together to make the changes we want. obviously there is no point in going through the powers that be. They don’t listen, won’t listen, and really can’t listen, because the powers of the global elite funnel through these individuals (like the mayor) at the local level. The mayor doesn’t represent the people’s interests, he represents the interests of global/local capitalism.

    He wouldn’t have been able to dole out any answers other than his pat, scripted responses. The only peace he wants is the kind where things stay stable for the rich. The kind of peace where there IS no rich… he’s not interested.

    The Zapatistas in southern Mexico got it right when they decided to work outside of the political system. We should not be asking for anything, but taking it and defending it.

  47. If you wanted bike racks, you should get together with other people and figure out a plan to make and install bike racks. You don’t (or… shouldn’t) need the mayor for that. Where is anyone’s dignity? Why does everyone always go crying to the government for scraps when we’re the ones who run this town anyway? (Oh yeah, because some people actually get listened to, while others addressing the real issues are ignored). This city runs on OUR labor — the mayor, the police, city council, county council, all the other bureaucrats doling out money and making decisions… they’re all just the overseers and wardens and bosses micro-managing the things we could probably do better ourselves. I don’t want permission from anyone but my neighbors to make my community better.

  48. I believe “what’s with” all Wyking’s questions was that they weren’t simply rhetorical. They were actually meant to inspire you to think of how oppression is embedded in the system. We’re supposed to “respect” the mayor’s office and NAAM board when they set the agenda for a meeting — two institutions that are jointly responsible for the gentrifying, blackwashing museum and apartment building we have today. In this system, there is no respect for the interests of the people who have actually fought for a real cultural center, and those who continue to fight and those who support this struggle. And there never can be. Mayors are beholden to growth models and invested monied interests, i.e., the corporate elite of the city, like Bill Gates’s mother-in-law, who sits on the NAAM board).

    Power *does* corrupt absolutely because it makes your interests oppositional to those without that power, to those who do not want such hierarchical power to even exist. Running for office makes you beholden to and means you live and die by the same socioeconomic interests that frame and limit dialogue, tokenize dissent, turn cultural centers into luxury apartments (and simultaneously quash more unsightful dissent), pay police to terrorize neighborhoods like the CD and arrest homeless youth for doing what they need to survive, and perpetuate the exploitation of working people world-over. That’s what “office” DOES.

    More info about NAAM, in case self-education is too much to ask: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f3vQp60LrI&feature=player_em

  49. “Communities are constantly in flux and changing. Everyone who is in a community has ownership of it and defining what it means to be in a community is subjective.”

    Hey, I have an idea. Let’s tear down everything that possibly resembles a cultural center, build a bunch of new apartment buildings that both directly and indirectly inflate rent in the neighborhood and thereby price the poorest people out of the neighborhood, and then say the latest crop of gentrifiers get the same voice (or well, more than, really, on account of their money, but who’s counting) as everyone else! Yeah. *Democracy.*

    Gentrification is a SYSTEM and a PATTERN. Wyking is getting at something when he brings up how long other people have actually lived here.

    -an <5yr Seattle resident who gets this

  50. We monitor comments based on whether they are made in the spirit of productive conversation or not. If the only goal a comment is to disrupt the conversation, we will delete it. We also moderate for overtly racist or violent remarks and some off-topic distractions.

    The suicide bombers reference in this comment certainly is off-topic, but the comment also brings other relevant points to the table. For a glimpse into how I work, this is a borderline comment. On one hand, parts could start an off-topic debate or fight (like this could turn into), but other parts are a welcome perspective on the story (whether you agree or not). So I’m leaving it up, I would love it people could ignore the off-topic aspects and only focus on the parts relevant to the story (but this is the Internet, so I know that’s a lot to ask…)

  51. “Same old stuff: redlining, violence, disenfranchised, institutionalized racism, youth, blah, blah, blah.”

    “I’m same old song. These things I listed don’t exist. Omari and Wyking should stop talking about them and mow their law, like me. Provided they can afford a lawn in the CD, like real money-making Americans like me.”

  52. “If you could only sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to the people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.”
    “Anyone who does anything to help a child in his life is a hero to me.”

    “Love isn’t a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like struggle. To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now.”

    “Forgiveness is a strange thing. It can sometimes be easier to forgive our enemies than our friends. It can be hardest of all to forgive people we love.”

    “You rarely have time for everything you want in this life, so you need to make choices. And hopefully your choices can come from a deep sense of who you are. “

    “Whether we’re a preschooler or a young teen, a graduating college senior or a retired person, we human beings all want to know that we’re acceptable, that our being alive somehow makes a difference in the lives of others.”

    “Discovering the truth about ourselves is a lifetime’s work, but it’s worth the effort.”

    “The world needs a sense of worth, and it will achieve it only by its people feeling that they are worthwhile.”

    “Peace means far more than the opposite of war.”

    Fred Rodgers (Mr. Rodgers)

  53. “It’s a beautiful day in this neighborhood, A beautiful day for a neighbor. Would you be mine? Could you be mine?… It’s a neighborly day in this beauty wood, A neighborly day for a beauty. Would you be mine? Could you be mine?… I’ve always wanted to have a neighbor just like you. I’ve always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you. So, let’s make the most of this beautiful day. Since we’re together we might as well say: Would you be mine? Could you be mine? Won’t you be my neighbor? Won’t you please, Won’t you please? Please won’t you be my neighbor”?
    Fred Rodgers

  54. Exactly. It’s racist to assume because one is white I can’t have lived in the CD for a very long time or even have grown up here.

  55. “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”
    ― Fred Rogers
    “You rarely have time for everything you want in this life, so you need to make choices. And hopefully your choices can come from a deep sense of who you are. ”
    ― Fred Rogers
    “We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It’s easy to say “It’s not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.” Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes.”
    ― Fred Rogers

  56. when s/he ignores every point Wyking makes in the article and instead derails the conversation to stories about Omari.

  57. “You rarely have time for everything you want in this life, so you need to make choices. And hopefully your choices can come from a deep sense of who you are. ”
    ― Fred Rogers

  58. “You rarely have time for everything you want in this life, so you need to make choices. And hopefully your choices can come from a deep sense of who you are. ”
    ― Fred Rogers

  59. Ok, I see how this game is played….. Whenever anyone criticizes the Omari/Garrett/whatever crowd, you need only to pop in and demand to know what the person criticizing has done for “the community”

    Because, after all, Omari et all has accomplished so much…..

    – disrupting meetings
    – assaulting people
    – breaking and entering public property (and staying there for a really long time!!!!)
    – failing at doing anything productive with the property
    – slandering the people and organizations that were successful with the property that they failed at developing.
    – participating in an endless cliche-o-thon and blame-o-rama

    Yup, that’s quite a legacy.

  60. uhhh, i’m pretty sure they “broke and entered public property” to KEEP it public, rather than having it turned into something that wasn’t. the coleman school had been CLOSED (kinda like horace mann now…) when it got occupied.

    and what were the entitled elites at the urban league “successful” at? something the occupiers never intended: gentrifying the neighborhood all in the name of putting a photo of sojourner truth on the wall. disgusting.

  61. “Roberto Maestas they ain’t”
    GOOD.

    The organization and its founder have, at times, been controversial even within the Latino and activist communities, although even their critics have generally acknowledged Maestas’ as a leading voice in the struggle for civil rights for women, workers and minorities. Nonetheless, in 1998, a scandal shook the organization. The National Labor Relations Board found that Roberto Maestas and leading board agency members set out to bust a unionization effort that El Centro employees were attempting to initiate through Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) Local 8. Employees sought to reform the agency due to what they claimed were abusive work conditions, including low pay, long hours, and no benefits. The NLRB found that management had undertaken a campaign of firings, threats and an even an assault against the spouse of a pro-union employee. Court records also emerged indicating that Maestas had been involved in some violent incidents, including a knife assault against a former spouse. Maestas denied all the charges and allegations regarding his ethics,[9] and El Centro weathered the storm, with Maestas remaining its head until his death 12 years later.[2]

  62. The girl you see being punched was required to appologize by her mother. The rest of the vidio shows her repeatedly attacking the officer. The officers actions were judged appropriate by virtually everyone who reviewed all of the evidence, including many of Seattle’s most prominent black leaders.

    Police use force as needed to control situations. That is what we ask them to do. That is why we give them guns. The police are not brutal or out of control. 75% of us want them to be a bit more aggresive.

  63. And why was the officer needing to use his night stick at a party? Did he just show up for some fun, or, was he dispatched there to deal with violent menaces to society. Take a guess.

  64. Comparing the CD to the Zapatista struggle in Chiapas?

    Hyperbole much?

  65. SPD is one of the most professional, polite and reasonable police forces I have ever worked with, they also tend to have a sense of humor that is rare in the profession. SPD is also overworked and under staffed, but that tends to come with the territory. Sadly they must contend with having one of the least thankful populations. If you want to see REAL police brutality go to Chicago, LA, NY, or numerous other small cities. I have had my ass kicked by the police in other cities for such crimes as “walking at night” and “looking like a suspect.” That suspect was 5’5″ and Hispanic I am 6’1″ and Caucasian.

    The anarchist youf brigade likes to taunt police officers and act surprised when said officers talk shit back to their college pantywaist asses.

    You still have the other half of my nightstick. It was $40.
    LMAO
    I owe Ofc. Nate Patterson a beer for that one.

  66. @jb – You are entitled to your opinion, of course. Another way to look at the interaction…I asked Tom to consider deleting the comment, he considered it, declined, and professionally explained his reasoning. One might say that is the very definition of a respectful, mature conversation.

    @ Tom – You are the editor and moderator, you make the rules. While I agree that some salient points were made by the poster, comparing people in this neighborhood to the KKK and saying that Americans, presumably white Americans, deserve to be terrorized and killed, is the very definition (in my candid opinion) of derailing a conversation.

    It seems that every post on this blog dissolves into name calling and a “who was here first” argument. Racism and hatred are everywhere in this blog’s comments. I have grown weary of people’s inability to reasonably discuss issues without resorting to hateful language. And I have grown weary of seemingly absent moderation.

    Again, Tom, you are the editor and have your rights, and I respect that. For what it is worth, you have lost a reader. I hope the blog, and the neighborhood, can find a place of healing. For everyone’s sake.

  67. For every one you loose you gain 5 more that appreciate open dialog where all opinions are expressed. We can find narrow slices of life on KIRO or Seattle Times. This is our home and we want to hear from juju grumbles wyking cder and the rest. Thanks for the open forum Tom

  68. —–So,…in most cases who was it that went deep into Africa’s interior to buy existing slaves or to captured and enslave them, drive them like cattle to the coast to be sold to traders that re-sold these Africans into slavery? –
    —–Seems to me that a lot of this heated debate is centered around one community meeting, called by our Mayor to discuss recent gun fire and shootings in our neighborhood. Somehow this publisized meeting turned into what many of us consider to be an embarasment to the CD community, when an attempt was made to unprofessionally demand the subject be centered on the preceved rights ( of this disruptive group ) to be a part of the “European Colonial Settler….” rights to certain land and buidings. Now it appears that these same angery neighbors want to lump anyone that disagrees with them into this same catagory of “European Colonial Settlers” Hum, …I think I must be missing something, as this sure seems like you want land rights that you describe by an antaganistic and openly provacative term (i.e. “European Colonial Settler…”), thn turn around and seem to apply this same term to anyone that disagrees with your actions in disrupting OUR community meeting with OUR mayor.

  69. So what you are saying is that Roberto Maestas was a more effective bully?

    El Centro is a legacy. Disrupting public meetings, slandering fellow “community members” because you didn’t get your way, and writing angry ALL CAPS screeds on the internet is just sad.

  70. I think most of us are greatful to see a new level of tolerance coming to the CD, as our neighborhood changes with the time and as we become more racially and culturally diverse. Some of the old haters, that seem anti everything, and and that have become use to winning every battle by claiming race as a club, are needing to oen their eyes and hearts to a new reality. Our new mix of cultures and races really has moved past your old agenda, and are changing to a more tolerant and open community, one that is no longer willing to cringe when race is use race as a trump card and basis for authority. Join us, leave your old bigatry behind, and realize, we are here, not impressed with your tired charges of racism, and we are staying as the new face of the CD.

  71. Tell that to Cheif Sealth whitey. Ya just come in and be our buddies while you sweep on more family out the door.

  72. If you want to build a healthy and sustainable community you need to focus on the Youth…..Wyking and Omari work with youth directly from the neighborhood. And not just the little fractions (like Squire Park or Judkins Park) but youth from all over the CITY! The Police harrass/arrest Youth, Hijack community programs and run them into the ground (officer Cookies chess club), Steal money from youth programs. The Mayor supports NAAM and the gang youth preventative b.s., as empty school buildings…..So I ask all of you what have you done for youth lately? What has the SPD done for Youth Lately ? what has Mayor Mikey done for Youth lately? now ask yourself what has Omari and Wyking done for youth lately? (Don’t forget to ReSearch) What has NAAM and Horace Mann done for the youth lately? (or What used to be known as MLK JR. elementary school?) What has the U.P.C. done for the youth lately? When you start to answers these questions you will see a pattern, one the shows Wyking and Omari have done more for the C.D. then any Mayor or SPD agent…..

  73. Polutting the minds of youth with victim mentallityis not helping. Just listen to Wyking rants on KCTS and utube. Omari has filled that kids head full of mindless gobbledegook. Couple of maniacs of the Jimmy Jones type. Keep your kids away from the cool aid.

  74. Regarding the http://www.aahmcc.org/facts.html web page.

    It’s a whole lot of assertions with nothing to back it up: where are the contractural agreements they cite? Newspaper coverage? ANYTHING that would back up the assertions, and lend some credibility to the claims.b

    I can assert that I’m a billionaire who is married to Halle Berry, but guess what? I ain’t.

  75. You highjacked the meeting and would not allow others to talk about the items they wanted to talk about, and then criticize the Mayor for what he did not say, despite the fact that it was your group that did not allow him to say it. You preferred instead to attempt to involve the mayor in what clearly seems to be a civil real estate dispute which would be properly settled in a civil court.

    The mechanisms for justice are in place, the civil courts exist just for such types of disputes. The fact that you are not availing yourself of the remedies offered by civil courts would seem to indicate that you do not have a good case for a civil court. If this is the case it would not be proper for the mayor to somehow usurp the power granted the courts to just give you a building because you want it.

  76. I appreciate a great deal of the comments/commenters on this blog. I think it’s healthy to make clear how differences in the way a community reacts to someone being killed on our streets is hurtful and comes from a history that deserves attention.

    I hope though that the haranguing in all caps doesn’t continue. People are coming here to learn, to express their concerns and ideas and yelling isn’t contributing. It is truly, deeply counterproductive.

    I was hopeful that this blog would be a way for neighbors to come together to react to every shooting in our neighborhood with attention and action. After reading this thread, I am far less hopeful that this will be the case.

  77. Seriously, you can’t drive down 5 blocks of 23rd Ave without a program that is designed to help youth. Starting way down at Wellspring, then you hit the Children’s Garden, then School’s Out Washington, then the tutoring place near Jackson, then Catholic Services, the tutoring going on at the Library. You keep going, and you get CAYA, the Garfield Community Center, then Coyote Central, Casey Foundation and I guess you’d come up to Umoja and finally the YMCA.

    I am glad there a people who like working with youth, and in particular troubled youth. But to say that it is the only way to focus on building a healthy and sustainable community, that is hyperbole. Or the Umoja has the solution for all at-risk youth is crazy talk.

    We also need people who are working on getting more jobs here, and we need people who are working on affordable housing, we need the people who are growing healthy food here, and we need people who are lending the elderly a hand, and who call in burnt-out street lights and know their neighbors. We need people to go to boring community meetings and we need people to work with the city government.

    …and we need people to call the cops when they know who is killing people in our community.

  78. —–I would not know how to go about this, but thinking of our youth ( as “Owl from the Hood” points out ), how would we encourage companies like Boeing to open training schools ( Machinist, Plumber, Electical, etc ), or MicroSoft ( Gaming and programming, program security, or program testers, etc ), or other big employers to locate here? I know there are such training and certification programs and schools, how do we get these opened in our neighborhood, and get the sponsorship to run them?
    ——Rather than fight our political representatives (turf wars ), why not ask them to come talk to CD residents about these or other possible training options, and enlist their support and aid in getting these training programs started here? Such programs are great political ( and tax ) benefits to these big Employers, and could lead to jobs of value for our youth (Thanks “Owl in the Hood”)

  79. Aww come on Pia, you are a phoney. Your a troll trying to get attention, your not black. Your comments reek of troll bait. Get off the blog if you have nothing to contribute.

  80. Nothing quite like the verbal diarrhea and mental vacuity of pseudo black nationalists. Jesus, that record was broken 30 yrs ago.

  81. More I look at the wyking Omari posts that they a propagating Another crime against black youth. Instead of focusing on positive opportunity that does exist, they’d rather drag newer generations into the struggles of the past. Focusing on battles already lost and ignoring opportunities to embrace the open minds these tragedies brought to the cd is the real crime. Trying to create another generation of angry youth is the real crime. Adapt and thrive. This mentality does nothing but hold them and those they influence down.

  82. D, you are a forward looking individual, and as Knox ( another forward looking CD blog poster ) have pointed out, we need to move forward in a positive manor. There are a lot of CD self help programs preporting to target at risk CD youth, but many are little more than baby-sitting sites that support a need, but not the future most of us want, and deserve for our youth. If given the opportunity to work and earn an post high school opportunity for a meaningful entry level job at a company like Boeing, or Microsoft ( Knox pointed out an opportunity for High school students with Microsoft ), I think we would all win. Problem is getting the political support to get these companies to open or support such programs in the CD. When we do get political supporters to come to talk in the CD, they end up being abused with old retoric, and bashed with old hateful charges that they may or may not have HAD (past tense!!) anything to do with. Next opportunity this community gets to talk to OUR Mayor, or other political entities, lets listen to them, give them the courtesy of hearing them and then opening the dialog on getting these ( or similar ) youth training opportunities started in the CD.

  83. These people are allowed around children?

    It’s no wonder African immigrants are doing so well; they don’t let idiots like this poison their minds with hate and victim culture.

  84. WHO IS THIS “IAN” (IAN BIRK JOWHN T. WILLIAMS KILLER?)THAT EXPRESSES SO MUCH IGNORANCE ABOUT WHY AND WHO CREATED THE CONDITIONS OF VIOLENCE AND BLACK YOUTH DISORIENTATION, SOCIAL CULTURAL ECONOMIC STAGNATION AND RESULTING “ETHNIC CLEANSING” OF BLACKS OUT OF SEATTLE?

    IF IT IS NOT THE “INDIAN KILLER” IAN IWOLD BE WILLING TO EDUCATE THEM ON THE HISTORY OF EUROPEAN COLONIAL SETTLER TERRORISM (“MANIFEST DESTINY”)WITH PARTICULAR EMPHASIS ON MY 66 YEAR HISTORY LIVING IN AFRICATOWN /CENTRAL DISTRICTD (“CHINATOWN /INTERNATIONAL DISTRICT”?)

    SPEAKING FROM A POINT OF ADMITTED IGNORANCE IS NOT A SIGN OF INTELLIGENCE OR ANALYTICAL THINKING? IF YOU DON’T KNOW HOW TO ADD AND SUBTRACT PLEASE LISTEN TO SOMEONE WHO GOT AT LEAST A “B” IN CALCULUS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON WHILE IN THE SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE. MY GRAND FATHER (WHO COULD NOT READ OR RIGHT) TAUGHT ME IT IS BETTER TO BE SILENT AND LET PEOPLE GUESS HOW INTELLIGENT YOU ARE THAN TO OPEN YOUR MOUTH AND PROVE YOU HAVE “INFORMATION AND/OR ANALYTICAL DEFICIT DISORDER” TO PUT IT POLITELY? Omari

  85. At least Ian is willing to be civil…. anyone who continually SHOUTS simply gives the impression that their speech does not have enough content to stand on it’s own and therefore volume is used to make up for said lack….

    Your use of all caps is visual shouting. It’s difficult on the eyes and doesn’t give people an inclination to seriously read what you say. You merely appear to be visual noise and are easy to ignore and dismiss.

  86. (PLEASE DISREGARD PRECEDING UNEDITED COMMENT) WHO IS THIS “IAN” (IAN BIRK THE KILLER OF NATIVE AMERICAN JOHN T. WILLIAMS?)THAT EXPRESSES SO MUCH IGNORANCE ABOUT WHY AND WHO CREATED THE CONDITIONS OF VIOLENCE AND BLACK YOUTH DISORIENTATION, SOCIAL CULTURAL ECONOMIC STAGNATION AND RESULTING “ETHNIC CLEANSING” OF BLACKS OUT OF SEATTLE?

    IF IT IS NOT THE “INDIAN KILLER” IAN I WOULD BE WILLING TO EDUCATE “THEM” ON THE HISTORY OF EUROPEAN SETTLER “JUDEO-CHRISTIAN” TERRORISM (“MANIFEST DESTINY”)WITH PARTICULAR EMPHASIS ON MY 66 YEAR HISTORY LIVING IN AFRICATOWN/CENTRAL DISTRICT (CHINATOWN/INTERNATIONAL DISTRICT)?

    SPEAKING FROMM A POINT OF ADMITTED IGNORANCE IS NOT A SIGN OF INTELLIGENCE OR ANALYTICAL THINKING? IF YOU DON’T KNOW HOW TO ADD OR SUBTRACT PLEASE LISTEN TO SOMEONE WHO GOT AT LEAST A “B” IN CALCULUS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON WHILE A STUDENT IN THE SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE. MY GRANDFATHER (WHO COULD NOT READ OR WRITE)TAUGHT ME IT IS BETTER TO BE SILENT AND LET PEOPLE GUESS HOW INTELLIGENT YOU ARE THAN TO OPEN YOUR MOUTH MOUTH AND PROVE YOU HAVE “INFORMATION AND/OR ANALYTIC DEFICIT DISORDER” TO PUT IT POLITELY. BEING A FORMER HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER AND PAID GUEST COLLEGE LECTURER IT IS IMPORTANT TO SPEAK FROM BEING INFORMED THAN A POSITION OF EMOTIONAL “HEAD IN SAND” DESIRED IGNORANCE THAT PERPETUATE CONFUSION AND CHAOS AND NO RESOLUTION OF PROBLEM/S? PLEASE DON’T CONSIDER THIS A PERSONAL ATTACK ON ANYONE, BUT GROUND RULES FOR INTELLIGENT SOLUTION ORIENTED RESOLUTION OF VIOLENCE WHERE EVER WE CHOOSE TO LIVE. AFTER ALL WE ARE ALL ON THE SAME PLANET AND ALL OF THE SAME HUMAN RACE REGARDLESS OF THE LEGACY OF “WHITE KLU KLUX KLAN OR HITLER AYRAN NAZI SUPREMACY. REASONABLE DIALOGUE IS NOT A CRIME? Omari

  87. Relative to some particullarly stalled segments of the population, yes. Many of us envy the drive it takes to open these shops and restaraunts and cab companies. It is no doubt hard work, but, it is classicly robust human energy and what locally we like to call Amerrican Spirit, though you see it in Turkey and many other places where people can act somewhat freely.

  88. City Light has operated an apprenticeship program for years. Not only is it free, you get paid for the hours worked. At the end of the four year program, you are a journeyman electrician.

    Many people have used this program to make it into the middle class over the years.

  89. As I said earlier, nothing more than the hated driven, pseudo-intellectual drivel and victimology that passes for black nationalism studied and taught at many third rate Africa American studies programs. It doesn’t surprise me that every African immigrant family i’ve hung out with wants their kid to have nothing to do with such ‘African-American’ leaders. They are, quite obviously, effing idiots.

  90. “MY GRANDFATHER TAUGHT ME IT IS BETTER TO BE SILENT AND LET PEOPLE GUESS HOW INTELLIGENT YOU ARE THAN TO OPEN YOUR MOUTH MOUTH”

    If only you had heeded his advice; instead you chose to advertise your idiocy in CAPS!

  91. WOW, NOW I SEE WHY THERE ARE NO EUROPEANS CLAIMING TO BE CHINESE AS EUROPEANS CLAIM TO BE “AMERICAN”? NATIVE “AMERICANS”,”FIRST NATION”,”ORIGINAL PEOPLE”, “INDIANS”, “CHICANOS/AS, “MEXICANS”, “HISPANICS”,”ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS”,”UNDOCUMENTED” ETC. PLEASE PEOPLE STUDY HOW CHINA FLIPPED THE SCRIPT AND NOW HAS EUROPEAN COLONIAL SETTLER “JUDEO-CHRISTIAN” TERRORIST USA BORROWING MONEY FROM CHINA AND BUYING ALL OF THEIR “MADE IN CHINA” PRODUCTS AND THEN EXPLAIN IT TO ME? I AM TOO CONFUSED?

    MAYBE I SHOULD ASK SOME OF THE 50,000 RUSSIAN COMMUNIST THAT EVERY WEDNESDAY WE HID UNDER OUR GRADE SCHOOL DESKS WHEN THE AIR RAID SIREN WENT OF THAT NOW LIVE IN THE GREATER SEATTLE AREA? OR MAYBE I SHOULD ASK FOR A FREE “REVERSE DISCRIMINATION” BOAT RIDE BACK TO AFRICA. OH DON’T FORGET MY REPARATIONS (INHERITANCE TO LIVING ANCESTORS)FOR 400 YEARS OF EUROPEAN COLONIAL SETTLER “JUDEO-CHRISTIAN” FORCED “SLAVE LABOR” (TERRORISM). AFRICATOWN AND AFRICA IS ON THE RISE AS IS CHINATOWN AND CHINA? PLEASE GOD HELP US ALL INCLUDING US INFERIOR BLACK FOLKS ALWAYS PLAYING THE “RACE CARD” AND PLAYING “VICTIM”? JAMES BROWN AND MICHAEL CAN YOU STILL DANCE AND SING YOUR LAZY BEHINDS OUT OF THIS “PLANTATION MENTALITY” POVERTY? PLEASE JAMES AND MICHAEL AND YOU TOO MUHAMMAD ALI, TEACH ME HOW TO SING, DANCE OR BOX? MICHAEL JORDAN ARE YOU AROUND? Omari former (found cap unlock) Seattle Public school and Immaculate (private) High School history teacher.

  92. “IT IS BETTER TO BE SILENT AND LET PEOPLE GUESS HOW INTELLIGENT YOU ARE THAN TO OPEN YOUR MOUTH AND PROVE YOU HAVE “INFORMATION AND/OR ANALYTICAL DEFICIT DISORDER” TO PUT IT POLITELY?”

    Perhaps you ought to take your own advice.

    I want you out of this neighborhood, not because of the color of your your skin, but because of the color of your heart.

  93. “JAMES BROWN AND MICHAEL CAN YOU STILL DANCE AND SING YOUR LAZY BEHINDS OUT OF THIS “PLANTATION MENTALITY” POVERTY?”

    No, because they are dead.

    “History teacher”
    *giggle*

  94. Omari, You know me personally. You know I am not Ian Birk. Wyking help your dad out :)

  95. China is super successful right now because it has a vast supply of poor, uneducated people to exploit as a source of cheap labor….

    To also think that all Chinese people are simply “Chinese” is laughable, and doubly so for someone who claims to be a history teacher. China is made up of *many* ethnic and racial groups. While they may all look alike to you…. they have (or at least had) distinct cultures and languages. It was long ago, but there were years and years of brutal wars and fighting between clans/peoples. The warlord that finally subdued and unified the nation is looked upon as both a hero and a brute. To this day there is suppression of certain peoples and cultures within China, not to mention the claiming of whole countries (like Tibet) that earnestly believe that they are not Chinese. I really don’t think they (past and present) are the great shining example of the way to run a nation that you seem to be making out….

  96. It wasn’t all that long ago that Omari Tahir smashed the Mayor’s face in frightenningly similar confrontation. How are we to trust this man who is preaching peace on the one hand and justifying violence on the other. He speaks of MLK, but certainly doesn’t act like him. He speaks of history and is fixated on repeating it for eternity.

  97. ” Really?
    african immigrants are doing so well? okay sure, if you say so”

    Actually SPS says so. African immigrants score higher than African-Americans in math, reading and writing and have higher household incomes according to the 2010 US census. No achievement gap. I guess their parents haven’t properly instill victim/failure culture in them.

  98. “When I say it’s you I like, I’m talking about that part of you that knows that life is far more than anything you can ever see or hear or touch. That deep part of you that allows you to stand for those things without which humankind cannot survive. Love that conquers hate, peace that rises triumphant over war, and justice that proves more powerful than greed.”
    ― Fred Rogers

  99. “In times of stress, the best thing we can do for each other is to listen with our ears and our hearts and to be assured that our questions are just as important as our answers.”
    ― Fred Rogers, The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember

  100. Aackk. You may well succeed in driving me away with postings like that. Gads I wanna barf. There is a whole range of emotions, actions, and reactions that are required to succeed as a human and a human society. Ruling out anger and hatred will get you a one way ticket to extinction.

    All you hapless smile fiends live because of us aholes. So STHU. Go lock yourself in a padded giggle box.

  101. I’d rather have beer with Wyking than listen to that gobbledeegook. Gads. It’s aweful.

  102. “Sometimes people are good, and they do just what they should. But the very same people who are good sometimes are the very same people who are bad sometimes. It’s funny but it’s true. Its the same isn’t it, for me and . . .”
    ― Fred Rogers

  103. OK. Let’s say the CIA, banks, the UN all profit from the drug trade as you say. You don’t have to buy the drugs. I don’t.

    I support WalMart’s right to sell cheap toasters. I don’t use toasers.

    Have a little self restraint man. Take it easy. Try not to blow a gasket and get all violent.

  104. So I did the “research” on your article. Here are my findings:

    “The meeting started with representatives of the African American Heritage Museum & Cultural Center asserting ownership and the founder presenting the Mayor with legal documents regarding ownership of the Colman school building and demanding an full scale investigation into corruption and fraud resulting in current occupancy by Urban League Village. They challenged the attempted corporate takeover involving prominent white Seattle power brokers including Bill Gates mother in law Mimi Gates. Barbara Thomas, the director of NAAM admitted that their organization did not own the building.”

    So a community meeting was co-opted by a group with a boutique cause that belongs In the courts? (Speaking of that, why hasn’t an attorney stepped forward to handle this? Probably because they know it’s a sham)

    People also expressed:
    -a need to stop the “plantation politics” and high level institutional racism and corruption that has effectively destabilized the African American community creating the conditions that foster the negative culture of crime and violence leaving everyone vulnerable as evidenced by tragic death of Tyrone Love and Justin Ferrari in the same block.
    Cliches and blah-blah, exploiting the recent violence.

    -Questioned the wasting of public resources such as the situation with Horace Mann being funded by the city yet kept empty.

    School district property. The mayor can use it his bully pulpit, but SPS is a different entity.

    – Reiterated ongoing need for a world class cultural center, an institution that effectively inspires and nurtures positive culture, pride and productivity. Too many African American youth who lack a positive cultural identity and framework adopt negative lifestyles trying to imitate European mafia gangster culture (i.e., Al Capone, John Gotti and Al Pacino Scarface). Colman school was fought for to be a center of cultural and economic revitalization for the community but was co-opted into a real estate development with a milquetoast museum-gallery that has not significantly impacted the issues of education/youth development, culture, economic development and public safety. The estimated 30 million dollars that has gone into this building could have made a serious difference if strategically invested.

    More blah blah about a boutique cause that was resolved long ago.

    -Raised questions about $200 million being spent on new juvenile jail development and ineffective incarceration model rather than invested in effective prevention and intervention.

    King County. Not City of Seattle.

    -Raised questions about the administration’s commitment to diversity, equity and “shared prosperity” in light of people being pushed out of Seattle in general and the Central District and how the pending Yesler Terrace redevelopment in specific and mitigate or exacerbate the problem.

    More blah blah. Yesler Terrace is a dump. It is literally falling apart. The New Yesler Terrace will have more housing for the very poor.

    -Highlighted institutional inequity where white organizations use black faces on brochures to raise money in the name of “helping” the community but are really serving their own interests, perpetuating the status quo and keeping power among their own while problems in Black community have continued to get worse.

    Yet another boutique cause that the city has very little to do with. Should there be an Office of Graphical Accountability?

    With al, this said, I suppose you have a right to have your concerns addressed. Why don’t you go to a council meeting, or get a meeting with the mayor?

  105. “Part of the problem with the word ‘disabilities’ is that it immediately suggests an inability to see or hear or walk or do other things that many of us take for granted. But what of people who can’t feel? Or talk about their feelings? Or manage their feelings in constructive ways? What of people who aren’t able to form close and strong relationships? And people who cannot find fulfillment in their lives, or those who have lost hope, who live in disappointment and bitterness and find in life no joy, no love? These, it seems to me, are the real disabilities.”
    ― Fred Rogers, The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember

  106. So before you decided to live off the city’s dime by squatting in an abandoned school, you successfully fought for us to NOT have a neighborhood police presence?

    Brilliant. Yeah, you really should be mayor.

  107. “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”
    ― Fred Rogers

  108. FYI PROPOSAL FOR WORLD CLASS AFRICAN MUSEUM AND CULTURE CENTER WILL DO MORE TO REDUCE BLACK YOUTH VIOLENCE THAN 36 GENTRIFICATION CULTURAL PROGRAMMING SPACE KILLING APARTMENTS? SEE ARTICLE BELOW? Omari
    The dream that won’t die
    A A AComments By Geov Parrish Wednesday, Mar 1 2000
    Omari Tahir-Garrett wants an African-American Heritage Museum, wants it badly enough to struggle for it for 15 years.

    James Fearn wants it, too. Problem is, each of them doesn’t want the other involved. And the ugly battle for control of this desperately needed cultural outpost goes on.

    The Museum, slated for the old Colman school at South 25th and Massachusetts over the I-90 lid, has been the focus of a struggle for years now, dating back to the insistence of Norm Rice’s administration that Tahir-Garrett and other rabble-rousers who took over the Colman school in 1985 bring on board “respectable” members of the African-American community in order to get city funding. Ever since, there’s been a division based largely on diverging visions: a simple museum versus an Afrocentric and activist community center.

    As it currently stands, Fearn, an attorney with Seattle’s HUD office who is heading the board of directors that the school board (as owner of the property) is willing to deal with, wants 40 units of apartments in the building and a museum in the basement.

    Tahir-Garrett and his supporters want a community center, a state-of-the-art media center with radio and TV, a restaurant, sports, child care, after-school programs, and much more—and absolutely no apartments. Activists supporting Tahir-Garrett have tried repeatedly to reoccupy the building, but have been rebuffed by police, at times using heavy-handed tactics.

    Enter the WTO activists. The Direct Action Network has taken up the Museum struggle—on Tahir-Garrett’s side—and as a consequence an “opening” picnic and party last month drew over 150 people. Tahir-Garrett says weekly protests will continue at noon Saturdays on the site, with mural painting, talk, drumming, and open mikes in an effort to build momentum to end the stalemate and what Omari calls the “economic and cultural apartheid in the city of Seattle.”

    Unfortunately, Tahir-Garrett’s rhetoric is often overheated like that; even when he’s right, he’s alienating people who’d rather not hear it. It’s a shame, because, as he notes, African Americans are the only ethnic group in town with no community center of their own, and the programs he proposes are far more exciting than a housing development with a museum in the basement. The city (as funder) and school board (as landlord) aren’t very likely to be willing any time soon to deal with the Tahir-Garrett faction. And the stalemate goes on, likely to be broken only by massive community activism—or if the school board gets tired of the circus and throws everyone out.

    The dead of Iraq (cont’d)
    Since

  109. “How great it is when we come to know that times of disappointment can be followed by joy; that guilt over falling short of our ideals can be replaced by pride in doing all that we can; and that anger can be channeled into creative achievements… and into dreams that we can make come true.”
    ― Fred Rogers, The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember

  110. USED-TO-BE’S DON’T COUNT ANYMORE. THEY JUST LAY ON THE FLOOR ‘TIL WE SWEEP THEM AWAY.

  111. “It’s a beautiful day in this neighborhood,
    A beautiful day for a neighbor.
    Would you be mine?
    Could you be mine?…

    It’s a neighborly day in this beauty wood,
    A neighborly day for a beauty.
    Would you be mine?
    Could you be mine?…

    I’ve always wanted to have a neighbor just like you.
    I’ve always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you.

    So, let’s make the most of this beautiful day.
    Since we’re together we might as well say:
    Would you be mine?
    Could you be mine?
    Won’t you be my neighbor?

    Won’t you please,
    Won’t you please?
    Please won’t you be my neighbor?”
    ― Fred Rogers

  112. Blah blah. Jujubees, please start taking your testosterone suppliments. Pansyism is a disease.

    Omar, SHADAP. Though I would rather have my enemies as friends than these losers between us that can’t pick a side. We need to go one way or the other, not be held hostage by the pansies in the center. Nothing is being done. Good luck. Theoretically you can do great things. So go do it and quit pissing and moaning about it.

  113. Why would you assume that jujubees is a male? What do you recommend for females? Fred never addressed sexism.

  114. 99.8% of chronic internet posting lunatics are male. I don’t know what the equivalent derogatory you’re not much of a man slight would be. I imagine testosterone might have the same effect though. What would make a woman more rubust and decisive? I expect men and women to have spines. So – grow a spine.