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PSARA 2024 Legislative Agenda In preparation for the WA State Legislative Session the PSARA Board has established a set of legislative goals. Read

In the Advocate May 2025: We Remember Iris Rosechild Editor's Note: The Advocate mourns the passing of our friend and colleague Iris Rosechild. Iris volunteered as a proofreader for the Advocate for many years, and her way with words made the Advocate a better publication. She always kept us laughing and was a pleasure to work with. We'd like to share a remembrance of Iris by her friend Carla. Iris Rosechild, born Iris Chaya Golub in Brooklyn, New York, Oct. 27, 1943, died at the age of 81 in Seattle in the hospital, nine days after a fall in her apartment. Her father, Barry Golub, came from Russia when he was 11 to join his father here in America. He was an interior house painter, and his father was a tailor. Her mother, Rose Golub, was a housewife and the first generation from Austria. Rose and Barry spoke Yiddish to each other and were Socialists. Iris was the youngest of six daughters. Her Jewish identity was very important to her. Iris left home at 17 to be a bohemian with her boyfriend in Greenwich Village. Her favorite place was the Caricatura coffee house. She moved to the Haight Ashbury in San Francisco in the 60’s, became a flower child, and protested the Vietnam War. Eventually she moved to Seattle to attend the University of Washington and graduated with a BA in Women’s Studies. She was the first coordinator of the Feminist Therapy Referral Service, which was started by her partner, Cameron Justam, in 1976. Before that she was a counselor at the YWCA. Iris had a small business selling fashionable hats called Mad about Hats in the Bon Marché in downtown Seattle. She also sold socks in a business called Café Socks in Pike Place Market and in the former Broadway Market on Capitol Hill. She returned to New York to take care of her father and her sister who were dying. She earned a Master’s in Grief Counseling at Pace University. She got a job as a counselor in New York helping the homeless find permanent housing. She loved her job but quit to return to Seattle and Cameron. She did proofreading since 2018 for the Retiree Advocate, where her keen sense of the rhythm of words was appreciated. This was just one of her many volunteer commitments. She volunteered for the Seattle International Film Festival, the Seattle Jewish Film Festival, as well as Seattle Town Hall. She and Cameron have been in a lesbian film group for five years. She had an inimitable sense of style in everything she did. She had a signature sense of humor. She made great chicken soup. She was a reader and big library user. She was warm and caring for other human beings. She was a big animal lover. Her most recent pet, Cozmo, was a three-legged orange female cat who Iris doted on. Iris is survived by two sisters, Dorian and Ruth, four nieces, one nephew, and her partner of 49 years, Cameron. BACK TO THE ADVOCATE

I Can't Look Backward, I Can't Look Forward, Part 3 Dina Burstein and Mohamed Ibrahim discuss his immigrant experience. Read

In the Advocate May 2025: Michael Righi Chaos Monkey Goes After the Federal Reserve Michael Righi Trump wants lower interest rates. Probably so he and his family can borrow cheap money to pump up the value of their crypto coins, then dump them and leave ordinary investors with the losses. Maybe he needs money to build a golf course in Dubai. Or wait, maybe that’s going to be a “gift.” So call me cynical. He is also worried that his tariff chaos is going to slow production and the economy. Lower interest rates might encourage more spending and support the economy he is effectively tanking. Trump the autocrat wants the same power over interest rates that he has over tariffs. So he is threatening the Federal Reserve and its chair, Jerome Powell. Firing Powell would be illegal; his term is not up, but this is Trump, right? And the Federal Reserve system was created to function independently of the president and Congress, on purpose, supposedly to insulate the Fed from political pressure. The Fed was initially created in 1913 to stop the financial crises private banks kept causing. Bankers would make riskier and riskier loans to pump up profit, some loans would go bad, banks would collapse and production and jobs would disappear. The Fed, once created, then lent money to bail the banks (and depositors) out, and prevent depressions. How to Make Money That is a crucial understanding – the Federal Reserve Bank creates money, out of thin air. You write a check, you draw down your account. The Fed writes a check by changing some numbers on a computer – only based on their authority as the country’s central bank. The Fed works through the private banking system. The Fed buys financial assets, Treasury bonds, or lately even mortgage-backed securities. That money winds up in the banking system, enabling banks to make loans. That’s more money in the economy. So the Fed enables banks to create our money supply. The Humphrey-Hawkins law passed by Congress mandates that the Fed keep both inflation and unemployment low. The Fed does this by controlling short-term interest rates. Those are often conflicting goals. Low interest rates (“easy money”) encourage borrowing and spending and so more jobs. But that also allows businesses to raise prices. High interest rates (“tight money”) have the opposite effect, slowing the economy. This all sounds technical and value- neutral. That’s what the Fed and Wall Street and financial elites want us to think, that Fed policy is apolitical and technocratic. Tell that to homeowners who lost their homes in the 2008 financial crisis while the Fed bailed out big insurance and bank corporations. Or to cardholders and small businesses now as the Powell Fed allows Capital One and Dis- cover to merge and raise their charges. The Fed Is Not Independent The Fed is run by bankers and Wall Street financiers, and influenced by what the corporate elite wants. High interest rates protect the assets of the financial elite from inflation, reducing their value. High rates also keep the economy from creating jobs, because then workers’ wages and willingness to organize might interfere with corporate profit. But financial crisis might call for extended periods of low interest rates, to keep Wall Street afloat, as after 2008. As wages have stagnated or fallen for decades, low rates also encouraged families to run up debt to maintain living standards. Whatever the capitalists in power need, the Fed tries to provide. Its power is relatively easy to access for the wealthy, easier than going through the somewhat more democratic legislative process. With Trump going after him, it is tempting to defend Powell and the Fed. That just puts us back into the space of bad choices. Neither represents what the working class needs. The Fed itself is soon likely to face both inflation and unemployment, a result of Trumpian chaos and uncertainty. If leaving it to the Fed is not the answer, then what is? That also should be up for discussion. There are ideas out there. Regional and local public banks could loan money for public infrastructure, such as transit and clean energy. Postal banking would enable those shut out of banks to borrow and make transactions. Put representatives of labor and communities on the decision-making bodies of the Fed. Use the Fed’s power to support states and cities and localities, to prevent the austerity budgets we are being battered with. It is important for us all to debate, popularly, monetary policy, and not leave it to so-called experts. Money and interest rates are political; they are determined by government policies. We don’t need to be defending Powell from Trump’s attacks. That’s a choice between autocracy and the status quo. Michael Righi is a retired economics professor and a member of the Retiree Advocate Editorial Board. BACK TO THE ADVOCATE

Donate to Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action mission: Working across generations for Social Justice, economic security, dignity and a healthy planet for all of us. Donate to the PSARA Education Fund A donation to the PSARA Education Fund, a tax deductible 501c(3), of $20 or more entitles you to a year’s subscription to the Retiree Advocate. You can also donate to PSARA by becoming a member. Click here for more information.

Lobby Day Training Page The Labor Council is 7 Blocks from the Labor Council at 906 Columbia Street SW Parking is tight around the State Capitol, options include: On street parking throughout Olympia, WA State Capital building Parking @ 1139 Washington St SE Olympia, WA. 4-5 blocks from the Labor Council. The South Diagonal and North Diagonal on the Capitol Campus has on street parking that fills up early in the morning.

Seattle’s 42nd Annual MLK Celebration: We Rise Against Project 2025 Seattle’s MLK Jr. Organizing Coalition invites PSARA members to Seattle’s 42nd Annual MLK Day Celebration. The election underscores the need to mobilize against broad and sustained assaults on human and civil rights under the incoming administration, as outlined in Project 2025. We expect a robust turnout for the Career and Opportunity Fair, Community Workshop Series, rally, and march on January 20, and the community discussions taking place in the preceding week. The day begins with the MLK Career and Opportunity Fair, where job seekers take steps toward exciting career opportunities and meaningful connections. Over 50 vendors include companies ready to hire, apprenticeship programs, and organizations focused on career exploration. Attendees can polish their resumes with coaching, attend career workshops, or simply explore opportunities. We’re creating an inclusive, welcoming space with multilingual support and accommodations for all attendees, plus snacks and hospitality. The Fair kicks off at 8 a.m. on January 20 at Garfield High School. We’ll build pathways to success while honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ’ s legacy of equity and economic justice. This year’s MLK Community Workshop Series builds bridges between movements and communities to build solidarity and resist threats to democracy and justice. We’ll offer 15 workshops on the morning of MLK Day (January 20 from 9:15 - 10:40 a.m.) at Garfield High School. We’ll also host standalone workshops on Thursday, January 16 and Saturday, January 18 to support deeper presentations and community discussions on critical topics. Workshop information will be posted on the MLK Coalition website. Please look for detailed information on the site starting in early January, and be sure to check back for any changes and additions. A printed workshop brochure will be available on site at Garfield. Our Monday workshops will focus on strategies and resources for effective movement building. Among the offerings are: Choosing Your Cause Well-Being for Activists Support for Immigrant Justice While the Movement Is Under Threat Keeping Us Safe in Seattle’s Surveillance City Creating Community-Centered Housing and Economic Systems Climate Justice Panel: People of Color on the Frontlines Strategies for Countering Right-Wing Movements Building Solidarity in Opposition to Project 2025 Healing Together: A Community Event for Violence Prevention Cultural Reconnection: Return to the African Homeland Building Support for African American Reparations Reclaiming Education: BIPOC Youth Leading the Way to Transformation For the past two years, we’ve piloted more extended community discussions on urgent community issues in the week preceding MLK Day. This year, we’ll hold two. JR to 25 : We Cannot Turn Back centers on the state’s troubling juvenile rehabilitation plan, including new facility construction, which doesn’t address the paucity of therapeutic services and staff’s inability to control violence at its facilities. Sponsored by Team Child and Kids Are Kids, the event begins at 5:30 with a community meal followed by discussion from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. The event takes place at Washington Hall on Thursday, January 16. A community discussion on youth gun violence will be held on Saturday, January 18 from 1 - 3 p.m. at the Northwest African American Museum. Please join community leaders, activists, and families as we learn about causes and dynamics of youth gun violence, who perpetrates it, how we are affected by it, and strategies to mobilize against it. The event will be followed by a community meal at 3 p.m. and a program organized by the MLK Coalition’s Young Leaders program at 4 p.m. Following the Monday morning workshops, the rally will begin at 11 a.m. in the Garfield gym. Our focus this year will be on Project 2025 and youth gun violence. We will honor the legacy of the late Dr. Maxine Mimms, the visionary founder of the Evergreen State College’s Tacoma campus. The Reverend Dr. Kelle Brown will be among our speakers. The march will leave Garfield High School at 12:30 p.m. Please dress warmly and come with your signs, banners, bullhorns, and whatever else you need to make your presence visible and powerful. Please check the MLK Coalition website for final details on transportation, food, and other details. This is the time to stand in solidarity for our rights! Let’s flex our political muscle. Please join us, and bring 10 of your friends and allies.

PSARA Oral Histories Project PSARA members have a wealth of experience in their respective professions and communities including their roles in labor, social justice, racial justice and environmental movements. Angela Bartels has been collecting the oral histories of PSARA members and documenting those interviews in PSARA’s monthly publication the Retiree Advocate. Those interviews are now recapped in the Oral Histories section of our website. The written summaries of the interviews are provided here and in some cases video of the interview are included. Bob Barnes Swimming Against the Current: making hard choices during the Vietnam War. Bob Barns talks about facing life changing challenges during the Vietnam war. View Story Frankie Manning "Before we integrated hospitals, the majority of Black people who died in the hospital died because the Black hospitals and wards were not well equipped..." View Story Lou Truskoff Lou Truskoff talks about his early years, his love of Music and integrating music into the labor movement. View Story Larry Gossett A Story of the Great Migration North, Housing discrimination in Seattle and how Black Power Captured Larry Gossett’s Soul While in VISTA . View Story Frieda Takamura Frieda Takamura has been and activist on a range of issues most importantly fighting for social Justice Listen to Frieda's Story Frank Irrigon Mud on their hands: Frank Irigon talks about his time in the military and working with Seattle's Asian Student Coalition protesting the construction of the King Dome. View Story Thursten Muskelly Thursten Muskelly discusses his work in the labor movement and particularly with the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1170 organizing in Seattle. View Story Tony Lee Friends of Tony Lee, Peter Costantini and Tom Berry, recount their work creating the Team Tony Lee during the 2022 election helping to flip the third WA State Congressional District View Story Gary Owens Gary Owens recounts his time with the labor movemet and the Black Panthers. View Story

PSARA Letter to the Washington State Congressional Delegation RE: The US National Climate Assessment Report Hold Hearings to shine a light on the Trump Administration's attempt to block the report. In the Advocate August 2025: PSARA Letter to the Washington State Congressional Delegation July 12, 2025 TO: Washington US Representatives and Washington Senators in the US Congress RE: The US National Climate Assessment Report The National Climate Assessment (NCA) is the US government’s preeminent report on climate change in the United States. It was set into law by the US Congress in 1990 and there have been five reports since then, released every four years. Although the National Climate Assessment is required by Congress, in April, the Trump administration announced it was canceling funding for the US Global Change Research Program, which coordinates the report. All the authors working on the upcoming Sixth National Climate Assessment, set for release in 2028, were also dismissed. The US Global Change Research Program's website was taken offline, along with all five editions of the National Climate Assessment and a wide range of information detailing how human- amplified climate change is impacting the United States. The most recent assessment, NCA5, was released in 2023. The report lays out the basic science of climate change, examines how climate change will affect 17 national-level topics, and includes 10 regional chapters covering the entire United States. The national reports are not only peer reviewed by other scientists, but examined for accuracy by the National Academy of Sciences, federal agencies, the staff and the public. The NCA gives close attention to current and future risks, how those risks can be reduced, and implications for society under different future scenarios. The most recent report, issued in 2023, included an interactive atlas that zoomed down to the county level. This lets Americans explore the impacts of climate change in their own back yards. Counties, cities, and states find it useful in planning future needs and in devel- oping budgets. Local officials say the report has helped them decide about upcoming needs - whether to raise roads, build seawalls and even move hospital generators from basements to roofs. Climate change is affecting people’s security, health and livelihoods in every corner of the country in different ways, with minority and Native American communities often disproportionately at risk. All of these reports have been taken offline by the Trump administration as of July 1. This is part of the cutback and cancellation of any work on climate change. The effect of this foolish ac- tion was brutally clear when over 100 people were swept away in the flash flood on Guadalupe River in Central Texas on July 4. Climate change will continue to make storms stronger and fires larger and faster moving. Thousands more will die from these catastrophic events. We need more resources focused on prevention and mitigation and we need them now! What specific actions are you taking to protect people and infra- structure from extreme weather events caused by climate change? We want to see public meetings and congressional hearings on this subject. It impacts the entire country. The hearings should include scientists and experts who provided the analysis for past NCA reports and those who used this critical data for planning and public health and safety at the state level. We are calling on you, our Washington State Representatives and Senators to the US Congress, to restore the National Climate Assessment as directed by congress in 1990. BACK TO THE ADVOCATE

Play Video Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tumblr Copy Link Link Copied Return to Oral Histories Main Page An Interview With Frankie Manning (From the April Retiree Advocate) "Before we integrated hospitals, the majority of Black people who died in the hospital died because the Black hospitals and wards were not well equipped..." By Angie Bartels From the time she was a child, a question gnawed at Frankie Manning’s mind. She was too young to express it, and besides, those things weren’t talked about at that time, but nonetheless, she wondered why “you would have people cook your food, but they couldn't sit at the table and eat with you.” Her grand-father was the last member of his family born into slavery, and what she did un-derstand from him and her parents was that all people had value, not because of the color of their skin, but because they are human beings. Ms. Frankie was born in Caldwell, Texas, a small town near College Station, which is home to Texas A&M. She was one of 10 children and grew up in the 1940s and 50s in this largely rural area when much of the United States was segregated. “And of course, all of health care was segre-gated. My family had lots of animals, and we grew all our food during those times. One of the things I learned is to take care of animals. And I was surprised as a teen-ager when I went to a hospital where one of my teachers was having her first child. I saw the conditions, and I thought it was fascinating that people treated humans less than we did our animals. It was one of the things that influenced my decision to become a nurse. The rest of my life is history, because I spent the last 60 years working as a nurse and nurse manager.” Ms. Frankie attended St. John School of Nursing in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and gradu-ated in 1960. She quickly realized that all Black people were segregated into one part of the hospital called the Black wards – one for men and another for women. All of the Black patients were mixed in together regardless of diagnosis, whereas on the white wards, patients were divided into areas such as Med-Surg, Labor and Delivery, Infectious Disease, Mental Health, and so on. On the Black wards, there was absolutely no privacy. When the ward filled up, patients were discharged. “I noticed on my very first night at work that everything about the Black wards equipment, while the Black wards had old rusty things. Even the linen was sub-standard, and there was never enough of it on the Black wards. The supply closet was very limited, and you had to borrow. The white wards had separate clean and soiled utility rooms, while these rooms were combined into one on the Black wards, creating a high risk for infection and contamination. The big one was that a patient right out of surgery could be placed in a room with somebody who had an infection. That did not happen on the white wards – we always separated them out. You had to work twice as hard on the Black wards because of lack of resources. “I've known great nurses, no matter what color they are, great doctors, no matter what color they are. And much of this has nothing to do with color as much as it has to do with how human beings are valued. And I can tell you, before we integrated hospitals, the majority of Black people who died in the hospital died be-cause the Black hospitals and wards were not well equipped. They certainly weren't staffed well at all. You would have acute care wards in Black hospitals run by nursing assistants or LPNs, because there weren't enough nurses who would work on the Black wards, there weren’t enough nurses period.” Ms. Frankie chose to work on the Black wards because she knew she was a good nurse, and she wanted to give Black people the same quality care that the whites received. She said that Black people in the community often received little or no medical care at all. There were few Black doctors and nurses, and many people who did go to the hospital died. So there was little incentive or trust in the system. Those who survived their hospital stay often came home with secondary problems, such as infections that were contracted in the hospital. “When I went to Dover, Delaware, in 1962, I was the first RN who worked on the Black ward. All the rest were LPNs. So the standards for providing care to Black people were very poor. We had a staph outbreak, and it was primarily with our babies. We were taking the newborns out of the nursery to be with their mothers in the ward. The mothers were in the same ward as people with all kinds of infec-tions. The babies were coming back into the nursery with staph. We even had a baby who died. So that motivated us to change. I was in charge of the newborn nursery at the time. I said to the admin-istration 'We are not going to take the babies out to the ward,' because once I learned what we were doing, that there was an infant who died because of this, it made no sense to me. The chief of pedi-atrics agreed with me, and that caused a big stir in the hospital. But we moved the Black mothers over onto the white mater-nity ward, and after a couple of months, people stopped talking about it, and the babies got to be with their mothers." Ms. Frankie loved working with veter-ans. By 1965, when the Medicare Act was passed by Congress, she was working in a US military hospital in Japan where patients were not segregated by race. The Medicare Act required hospitals to desegregate in order to receive Medi-care reimbursement. Over a period of just a few months, hundreds of hospitals throughout the United States closed their Black wards and integrated their Black patients into the general hospital population. Ms. Frankie went on to have a very prolific career in nursing and nursing leadership. “We cannot eliminate Medicare or Medicaid. We have to make health care accessible to everyone, regardless of the sickness or ability to pay. My vision for an improved health care system would be one that is not so fragmented. When you’re in the hospital you see one doctor, the hospitalist; when you’re discharged, you have to go to many specialists. It’s crazy and so expensive! And we have to figure out how we can provide mental health care just like we provide care when someone cuts their leg, for instance. It’s unfortunate that we don’t treat many people beyond the emergency room. We have the knowledge and the resources to help our brothers and sisters. We can fix this, but unfortunately, it’s a matter of economics.” Ms. Frankie Manning, RN, BSN, MNA, worked over 60 years as a nurse, nurse manager, and adjunct professor at the University of Washington, Seattle Pacific University, and Seattle University Schools of Nursing. She is currently retired and a longtime member of PSARA. Angie Bartels is PSARA's Membership VP. This is one of a series of interviews she's doing with PSARA members.

PSARA Oral Histories Project: Tony Lee Return to Oral Histories Main Page Tony Lee Interview PSARA Advocate January 2023 Page 4 Holding the 8th, Flipping the 3rd By Angie Bartels In autumn of 2020, the days were growing short while our democracy was hanging by a thread, as was the life of my latehusband Tony Lee. Tony was in the final throes of ALS. The White House was occupied by Donald Trump and his cronies.While many activists across the nation were on the move, local activists Peter Costantini and Tom Berry created Team TonyLee. Peter: I hadn't been that involved in electoral stuff for a long time. I volunteer with immigrant rights groups and have donesome canvassing with them. But in 2016, when Trump was the candidate, it gave me a kick in the butt. I thought, we've suddenlygot a movement that is white nationalist, fascist in many ways, and international. I started to get scared and got to thinking, we really need to do electoral work, as it’s the most immediate way to slow it down and reverse it. Tom: We had all spent time with Tony over the years, including during those last few years when he was not able to be politicallyactive. When the 2020 election rolled around and we felt we needed to get organized, our thoughts certainly went to Tony. Wehad many political discussions with him, so we had a sense of which side Tony would be on and which candidates he was mostenthusiastic about. It seemed logical when we organized ourselves to memorialize Tony in that way. They invited numerous friends to sign up, myself included. We worked with various grassroots organizing groups and pennedthousands of letters and texts. We called voters in English and Spanish in states across the nation. We met on Zoom andtalked about our experiences and compared notes. It was the height of the COVID lockdown, and everything was done remotely. Early in the morning, five days after election day 2020, a friend called and told me the final presidential election results. I rushedover to Tony and said, “Wake up, Tony! It’s confirmed! Biden won!” No longer able to speak, he blinked acknowledgement. Five days later, Tony passed away. As we approached the election of 2022, the preservation of democracy was still at stake. InWashington State, Kim Schrier was threatened in the 8th CD, and a new candidate, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, had a decentshot to flip the 3rd CD. Once again, Peter and Tom reignited Team Tony Lee. Tom became our point person for the 8th and Peterfor the 3rd. They contacted staff from the campaigns and found volunteer activities for Team Tony Lee. They kept the Teaminformed through articles, position papers, and policies of the candidates. They organized carpools for canvassing. Peter: I realized that once Marie and Kim won their primaries, there were two races in Washington that could have an effect onthe balance in the House. And their districts both have large rural areas. I haven't had much experience with rural Washington,but that motivated me, because I think it's good for us city people to get more of a sense of what's going on there. Tom: It was eye opening in terms of getting to know different parts of the 8th CD. I guess I have an image of the 8th CD asconservative and suburban. We canvassed in parts of Issaquah that were much more working class and even low-income. We alsowent to parts of King County where there was a fair amount of ethnic and racial diversity. It was interesting to see the scope of the 8th CD and what Schrier was dealing with in terms of fashioning her particular kind of politics. I don’t believe anyone canvassedeast of the mountains, so we have little insight on that. Peter: In the 3rd CD, Marie's campaign focused heavily on rural America. One of her TV ads has her walking down a gravel roadcarrying a chainsaw. She’s talking about how she lives in rural Skamania County, how she and her husband built their home. Shethen starts the chainsaw and cuts down a tree. Marie sets herself apart from “Seattle Democrats,” and apparently there’s aweakness in the Democratic Party across the country -- people who can speak to rural concerns. Tom: I agree, it’s a national issue. But I think it’s important, the fact that Kim and Marie were behind in the rural counties butwon big enough in King (for Kim) and Clark and Pacific (for Marie) to carry them to victory. So all of these votes count. But it is important to reduce that dynamic of the cities and the ruralareas being in conflict with each other. It’s positive that both of them were trying to focus on that. Peter: I think that was one of the things that really drew me to the Marie Perez campaign – a desire to get out and meet the folks in Longview and Kelso, Centralia, and Chehalis. That's where I spent most of my time canvassing. Angie: Yes, me too. I wanted to see where people live, how they live, what their concerns are, and how open they are to speaking with you. I loved canvassing in Kelso, because in many ways it felt like the town where I was raised – poverty, dilapidated houses, and multi-generational homes where people lived together, not by choice but by necessity. There were Joe Kent signs everywhere, but the majority of people I spoke with were kind and appreciated the information. A few people told me to “take my flyers and get the hell out of here,” which I did willingly. But most people were friendly. Peter: Yes, the poverty. I really didn't realize how much of an industrial and union town Longview, especially, is. Someone told me that the ILWU in Longview had gone Republican. At least some of the officers’ support and leadership supported Trump, which was surprising and depressing. But there are other labor unions, and it was encouraging to see them turn out for Marie. Angie: Before one canvass in Longview, Marie spoke and gave an orientation on where she was taking the campaign. She said right up front, we are not Seattle; what we need in our area are good, decent-paying jobs and training for people to get back into the trades where they can make a living wage. She also supports the Second Amendment. But she made reproductive rights a part of the forefront of her campaign, as well as the jobs and living wage issues. Peter: Yeah, when I talked to people, I tended to emphasize jobs in the trades, and the fact that they hire apprentices and are supportive of community colleges. I thought that was good policy. For the tiny sample of people I talked to, I think it was well received. I mean, it's playing very much against the national Republican stereotype of rich, elite Democrats on the coasts. The three of us and other team members agreed that canvassing made us feel good. Even if you don't know how that person will vote after you walk away from their door, at least you've made contact and have made a connection. Doorbelling is an intrusion, but it’s heartening when someone answers the door and has a reasonable conversation with you. Peter: Towards the end, there was an editorial from the Colombian, a Vancouver newspaper, in support of Marie. We gave that to people who wanted more information. I think it helped because it’s different from campaign literature and more valuable. The article made comparisons between the two candidates, which was exactly the information we wanted to give. Kim Schrier’s victory over Matt Larkin was a huge relief. Marie’s upset over Kent was amazing, one of the few in the country that defied predictions and flipped the seat from red to blue. Marie was declared the victor on Saturday, November 12, the second anniversary of Tony’s death. I had spent the day quietly at home, and in the late afternoon, I received a text informing me that Marie had won. Reverently, like the good Catholic girl that I used to be, with folded hands and teary eyes raised to the sky, I said, “Tony my love, this one’s for you.” Angie Bartels is PSARA's membership VP. This article is one in a series of interviews she's conducting with PSARAmembers.

Join Us for Our Summer BBQ Tuesday August 19th, 12:30– 3:00 pm Seward Park, Shelter #3 5900 Lake Washington Blvd S, Seattle All PSARA members, families and friends are invited to our August potluck barbeque in Seward Park along the shores of LakeWashington. Come and relax in the presence of old growth trees and visit with friends and make new ones. PSARA will provide some veggie, beef and chicken burgers, sausages and drinks. Members should bring a pot- luck dish to share. If you would like to drink something other than carbonated and plain water please bring it along. But note that alcoholic beverages are not permitted. Also not permitted is amplified sound but you can bring along your acoustic guitars and other musical instruments if you would like to play and sing. Tim Wheeler is bringing copies of his new book No Power Greater, the Life and Times of George A. Meyers (see Mike Andrew’s book review in the May Advocate.) He may also bring his autoharp and lead us in a few songs. Robby Stern has offered to lead a walk through trails in Seward Park’s forest which contains some old growth trees. So, bring walking shoes and binoculars. Seward Park is filled with a variety of birds. Perhaps we can encourage some of PSARA’s birders to go along for the walk and identify some for us. We’re looking forward to seeing everyone in person for a relaxing, fun- filled afternoon in the park. Directions for finding Shelter #3 are below: BACK TO THE ADVOCATE