SUBSCRIBE TO THE FREE NEWSLETTER
Students walk out in support of gun control across Cascadia
As part of a nation-wide protest in response to the Parkland, Florida school shooting one month ago, high school students across Oregon and Washington left classrooms and observed 17 minutes of silence for the 17 who died. Walkouts weren’t limited to western, urban schools, with protests happening in Spokane, Boise, and Hermiston, Oregon. One student at a protest at Idaho state capitol, who lost a friend to gun violence in Oregon, said, “I can’t stand to lose another friend. I would love for guns to not be more valuable than (kids).”
Amazon grows at a terrifying rate, pays no taxes
The web magazine Longform explores the astronomical rise of Seattle-based Amazon and CEO Jeff Bezos, and points out that even though it’s on pace to become the first trillion-dollar company, it paid no US income taxes, and received plenty of passes at the local level too. Obsessed with providing ease to fulfilling customers’ desires, the company is less concerned with its employees’ well-being: “You should wake up worried, terrified every morning” Bezos once advised his staff during a pep talk.
Who’s being left out of BC proportional representation debate?
Megan Dias, writing for the Tyee, notes that the discussion over British Columbia’s upcoming vote on proportional representation has failed to include women, people of color, and Indigenous communities. “A poll conducted during the consultation period found that only one in five Canadians even knew the process was going on. And those who were paying attention were “older, more educated, more affluent, men.””
Regrowing the Olympic peninsula’s forests
Ravaged by clearcuts, there are almost no old-growth forest on private lands in the watersheds of Willapa Bay on Washington’s Olympic peninsula. Writing for Crosscut, Daniel Jack Chasan takes a detailed look at a Nature Conservancy program trying to restore old-growth by buying land, selectively logging some of it, and restoring other parcels.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival: not so old, dead, or white
Oregon ArtsWatch reports from Ashland on the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which despite its name, is focusing on producing new plays with diverse casts exploring contemporary issues. Among the plays reviewed include José Luis Valenzuela’s Destiny of Desire, a big production exploring issues of class and cross-border immigration.
“Heteronormativity is the ultimate karaoke”
Chelsea Johnson, author of the novel Stray City, set in Portland in the 1990s, talks with author Leni Zumas (also from Portland) at the Tin House blog about how her book flips the script on what’s “normal.” In the queer paradise of Portland, her protagonist finds herself suddenly pregnant and entering the very foreign world of motherhood. You can also read an interview with Leni Zumas about her new novel, Red Clocks, at Cascadia Magazine.
That’s all for today from Cascadia Daily world headquarters in lovely Seattle, Washington.
–Andrew Engelson Photo credits: Garfield HS students signing a note to the WA legislature by Isabel Yueh