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The Retiree Advocate Trump Escalates War Against Cuba Cindy Domingo On March 21, convoys of US citizens traveled to Cuba to meet an international flotilla at Havana’s Malecon, in protest of the Trump-Rubio policy of stopping all oil shipments to Cuba. This policy, announced on January 29, has resulted in a devastating oil shortage, impacting every facet of the Cuban peoples’ lives. Days before, the New York Times revealed that the US and Cuba were engaged in discussions. Cuba’s Deputy Prime Minister, Oscar Perez-Oliva Fraga, stated that Cuba is open to foreign investment: “Cuba is open to having a fluid commercial relationship with US companies, also with Cubans residing in the United States and their descendants.” The Trump administration has been successful in implementing a policy that has cut Cuba’s sources of oil and hard currency income. The kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores, and the US takeover of Venezuelan oil, were the first volleys in upping the ante to try to topple Cuba’s government. Since Cuba only produces a little over 30 percent of what the island needs, Cuba has relied heavily on Venezuelan oil, stemming back to the presidency of Hugo Chávez. Mexico is the second biggest provider of oil to Cuba and, although Mexico’s President, Claudia Sheinbaum, has stated that Mexico, as a sovereign nation, can send humanitarian aid to any country, including oil, it has not sent any oil shipments to Cuba since January. The waters surrounding Cuba are also being actively patrolled by US ships to ensure that no oil tankers, small or large, enter into Cuba’s harbors. Without the availability of oil, tourism, the number one source of income for Cuba, has declined significantly, by up to 75 percent. Airlines have cancelled flights into Cuba because arriving jets would have no way to refuel. Tourists have been scared off by long electricity black-outs and electrical grid breakdowns, even though many larger hotels have their own generators. And the ability to travel within the island has been greatly restricted due to lack of gasoline. Cuba’s second source of income that the US has actively sabotaged is the contracts Cuba has with countries where Cuban healthcare teams serve. The US propaganda war, waged against Cuba’s healthcare teams, started during the first Trump administration. The US charges that Cuba’s use of these healthcare teams is akin to human trafficking because host countries pay the Cuban government for these medical teams and their services. Cuba has responded that the healthcare professionals are paid a salary, and that additional monies the government receives from contract payments go to fund Cuba’s educational system, including medical schools, to produce more doctors and other services for the Cuban people. Over the past year, US pressure has resulted in healthcare contracts ending in Paraguay, the Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda, Guatemala, and Guyana. Honduras, alone, severed a contract that paid for more than 150 doctors. In response to pressure by the US to end the employment of 500 Cuban doctors in Calabria, Italy, the governor of the region said, “Cuban doctors, who are allowing us to keep hospitals and emergency rooms open, are still a necessity for our region.” During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Calabria received Cuban healthcare professionals to manage the devastating epidemic that hit the region. Overall, the US war against Cuba has resulted in the deprivation of medical care to poor and working class people in many regions of the world. The oil crisis has only exacerbated the economic crisis Cuba has been facing under the 65-year-old US blockade of Cuba. In 2025, the sanctions cost Cuba $7.5 billion, or an average of $20 million per day. That money could guarantee the supply of basic necessities for the entire population for six years. Since the blockade's imposition in 1960, sanctions have cost Cuba a total of $170 billion. In reality, Cuba is in crisis because of US policy towards Cuba. Today, Cubans face blackouts of sometimes up to 30 hours. Food cannot be brought into the cities because there is no gasoline for delivery trucks. Many cannot go to work because buses and taxis cannot get fuel. Fumigation to rid neighbor-hoods of infectious mosquitoes carrying dengue and the more serious chikungunya disease cannot take place, because the machines need gas and the chemicals cannot be imported. People who need to go to hospitals or clinics have no way to get there, and life-saving surgeries often cannot take place because there is no electricity or because the medicines or equipment, needed to save lives or treat patients, cannot be obtained. In mid-March, Trump announced at a press conference that, “I do believe I’ll be having the honor of taking Cuba. That’d be a good honor. It’s a big honor….Taking Cuba. I mean, whether I free it, take it – I think I could do anything I want with it, if you want to know the truth.” Trump’s statement says it all. This administration believes that any country that Trump wants is up for the taking, even if it means starving the Cuban people and making their lives miserable until they bow down. But the Cuban people, whether they have criticisms of their government or not, believe, overall, in their right to self-determination. Today, now more than ever, Cuba needs our international solidarity. Thousands of people around the world are donating money, food, and equipment to send to Cuba to aid the people in their fight to survive. For more information on how you can help, please contact womenandcuba@gmail.com or go to www.us-cubanormalization.org . Cindy Domingo is a veteran activist with LELO (Legacy of Equality, Leader-ship & Organizing) and APALA (Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance). She is PSARA's Co-VP for Outreach. Cindy Domingo is a veteran activist with LELO (Legacy of Equality, Leader-ship & Organizing) and APALA (Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance). She is PSARA's Co-VP for Outreach. Back to the Advocate Table of Contents

PSARA Oral Histories Project: Lou Truskoff Return to Oral Histories Main Page Lou Truskoff Interview PSARA Advocate Archives April 2022 Page 3 Interview With Lou Truskoff By Angie Bartels Lou Truskoff cannot remember a time in his life when he wasn’t singing. Some people believe that babies in their mothers’ wombs can hear their mothers singing, and thus the learning and love of music begins from the very start of life. Lou’s mother loved the popular music of the 40’s and sang throughout theday while she was pregnant. And music is most definitely in Lou’s blood. When he was a toddler, his mother played the radio constantly and Lou continued to absorb popular music. One of his earliest songs was I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire, by the Ink Spots, as his mother related to him in later years. “I couldn’t remember myself singing it, but the fact that I was singing it gives some indication that it was cool, at least to me.” Lou was born and raised in Clifton, New Jersey, only 15 miles away from New York City. His family lived in an apartment just a few blocks from his grandfather’s tailor shop. Everyone in the extended family was leftist. That’s in his blood too. When Lou’s mother, Anne, was 12 years old, she joined the Young Communist League with her best friend Ruth. Anne told Ruth that someday she would marry Ruth’s brother, Lou, and indeed she did. As Lou the second grew into a teenager and young adult, Aunt Ruth loved to spend time with him. .During visits to their home, she would discuss politics and made sure that “I knew this or I knew that, and so forth.” His Uncle Bill, from the time of early teenage years, would pull Lou aside and say, “This is a really good book," or “Here’s a really good magazine.” “Uncle Bill was a little different because he followed a different line of the various strains of the leftist parties. He believed that China had the real solution, and the rest of my family believed it was the Soviet Union.” Lou’s grandfather, the tailor, loved to fish, although “he didn’t catch many.” He would go out on the lake by himself while the rest of the family picnicked in a nearby state park. He would return to the family sunburnt and happy. “On the way home, grandfather would start up a song (they were from Czechoslovakia, it was in Czech). My mother knew it because she grew up speaking Czech, and my grandmother knew it, and pretty soon we were all singing songs that my parents knew from their Paul Robeson records. I would join in where I could. I always enjoyed that family camaraderie around singing.” Lou attended public schools within walking distance of the apartment. He fondly remembers those years even though “from 4th grade on, geography and things they taught us turned out to be so wrong.” But he did enjoy the exposure to a world that he had not been aware of. “I was reserved and shy and not willing to speak out with classmates or other kids in the neighborhood. I just didn’t think they would understand my family’s politics or might think that I was not patriotic.” Although it was public school, “Every morning we had the reading of a psalm, then bowed our heads and recited the Lord’s Prayer, which I finally learned. (At first I would mumble because I didn’t want the other kids to know that I didn’t know it!) And then we would stand up, face the flag, and recite the pledge of allegiance. Then we would sing, My Country ‘tis of Thee. When we got to the singing part, that was all fine, because I was willing to sing just about anything, even then.” Lou particularly loved the weekly school assemblies where teachers played the piano and led the singing. He said it didn’t matter what they were singing, whether hymns, patriotic songs, or pop and folk tunes. He loved it all. In his school, “The eighth graders got the privilege of strolling through the halls as a group and singing Christmas carols. "From an early grade, I looked forward to the day when I could be in that eighth grade group singing through the halls. And guess what? The teacher didn’t choose me. She was the best teacher I had, grades K-8, but for some reason, she didn’t choose me. I felt so bad. But I had this good friend, Bernie, who was Jewish. He sang Christmas carols too, and he was chosen to sing. He knew how badly I felt. So, he went to the teacher and said ‘Louis feels really bad about not being chosen to sing with us.’ And the teacher didn’t miss a beat. She immediately said, of course Louis can sing with us. So due to my friend’s good deed, I got to sing in the halls.” Lou studied piano for only 2 1/2 years, and that was the extent of his formal music training. He taught himself to play guitar in his last year of college at Antioch n Yellow Springs, Ohio. (He also met his wife Joan there). “My parents knew that I liked to sing folk music, so they got me a very nice nylon string guitar.” By then, at college, Lou was associating with people who “really knew their stuff,” one of whom played banjo and guitar very well. They formed a trio and performed at a couple of campus gigs. “We even made tape recordings of ourselves because we thought we were so great.” Lou would watch guitar players and learn new techniques by observation. “I have a very good ear. That helps a lot. I would listen to recordings and gradually I got pretty good at accompanying myself. I started singing harmonies, and now I can sing harmony to just about any song.” In the late 1970’s in Seattle, Lou thought that there should be music and singing on the United Farm Worker (UFW) picket lines and demonstrations that he and Joan participated in. He started playing and singing songs that were relevant to why people were standing outside of grocery stores handing out leaflets for the boycotts. He soon met Peter Costantini and Mark Aalfs, who also became involved with the UFW’s activities. It was natural for the three of them to play and sing for a cause they deeply believed in. They were soon joined by Mara, a blind woman who busked on the Ave. She became interested in the UFW, so she started learning all of the farmworker songs. “Sometimes we would make up lyrics on the spot: Sunsweet Raisins, Sunsweet Raisins, Sunsweet prunes, Sunsweet prunes, Boycott Sunsweet Raisins, Boycott Sunsweet Raisins, Elections soon, elections soon.” In the late 1990’s, Lou was one of the founding members of the Seattle Labor Chorus. But that is a whole other story for the telling. Although Lou loves the song I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire, the fact is, he has done just that. With his music and song, Lou has helped to keep the flame of hope alive as we continue in our fight for peace and justice. It’s a mighty long road, but a good song lightens the burden and brightens the day. I cannot imagine a life and a movement without the likes of Lou Truskoff. Luckily, we don’t have to. Angie Bartels is PSARA's Membership VP. This interview is part of a continuing oral history project.

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents October 2025 Trump Tariffs and Stagflation: Why TACO is the Least Bad Option Robert Pollin (reprinted from Left Hook Economics) The first obvious step right now for fighting stagflation is for Trump to dump his tariff policies. Is stagflation—the toxic blend of high unemployment and high inflation—taking hold now in the U.S. economy? The most recent evidence mostly signals “yes.” If stagflation is on the way, we can mainly thank President Donald Trump’s imposition of unprecedented tariffs—that is, taxes on the products we import from more than 90 countries. The latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that only 106,000 jobs had been added to the U.S. labor market between May and July. This represents a nearly 80% drop in job growth relative to the 474,000 jobs created over the same three-month period last year. Meanwhile, wholesale prices spiked by 0.9% in July, the largest monthly wholesale inflation increase since May 2022. It was in response to the dismal May-July job report that Trump fired BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, after claiming, without evidence, that she had “rigged” the numbers to make him look bad. How could Trump’s tariff polices produce stagflation? According to the Yale Budget Lab, as of July 30, U.S. consumers are facing an average import tax/tariff rate of 17.5%, the highest since 1934. At the same time, imports account for 14% of overall purchases in the U.S. economy. Therefore, if the average 17.5% tariff rate were simply passed on, dollar for dollar, to U.S. consumers, this alone would raise average prices in the United States by 2.5% (that’s 17.5% x 0.14 = 2.5%). But price increases resulting from the tariffs don’t need to be confined to imported products only. This is because higher prices for imports create cover for businesses to raise prices on domestically produced goods and services as well, enabling them to boost their profit margins. Of course, nobody forces businesses that sell imported products to raise their prices. The alternative is for them to pay the tariffs to the U.S. Treasury and then just eat their average 17.5% cost increases by cutting their profits. Obviously, businesses would much rather raise prices before letting their profit margins shrivel. Why should employment conditions also get worse in this situation? This is because businesses worry that the tariffs will cut into their profits. They therefore hold off on plans to expand their operations and hire new people. To date, the Trump program to combat stagflation has two prongs. First, cook the government data to make reality disappear. Second, lambaste Jerome Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve (which is the US central bank, and commonly referred to as “the Fed”), into cutting interest rates. Trump regularly ridicules Powell as a “stiff,”“numbskull,” or “moron” for not having cut interest rates so far. Most recently, Trump also began attacking and demanding the resignation of Lisa Cook, the first Black woman to serve as a member of the Fed Board of Governors and a Biden appointee. Trump and company claim that Cook committed mortgage fraud in 2021, before she joined the Fed. Cook vehemently denies the charges and insists that she will not resign. Trump’s real purpose here is to replace independent voices at the Fed with loyalists who will toe his policy line, whatever that line happens to be. In fact, by maintaining relatively high interest rates to fight inflation, Powell, Cook, and the other Fed policymakers are only following the standard Fed playbook. The aim with high interest rates is to slow the economy and increase unemployment. The higher unemployment rate then weakens workers’ bargaining power, which lowers labor costs for businesses, enabling businesses to maintain their profit margins without raising prices. Thus, it is baked into the standard Fed inflation control program that working people are the designated sacrificial lambs, even if their wage increases have not caused the inflation in the first place. Trump’s tantrums aside, there are indeed major problems with this standard Fed approach. To begin with, workers gaining excessive bargaining power has never been the driver of stagflation in the United States. In the 1970s and early 1980s, stagflation resulted because global crude oil prices rose roughly tenfold between 1973 and 1980, from $3.56 to $39.50 a barrel. The only other bout of stagflation was after the COVID lockdown was lifted. In this case, stagflation resulted because the production of major items, like new cars, had been cut during the lockdown conditions. Demand for cars then returned quickly when lockdown conditions lifted, but with new cars in short supply, used car prices rose by 40%. From a longer-term perspective, we also have to remember how the U.S. working class has fared, on average, under the 50 years of neoliberalism that preceded Trump. The most central facts are that average wages for nonsupervisory workers are basically where they were 50 years ago, at roughly $50,000 per year (in 2024 dollars), even while average worker productivity has increased by 150%. Meanwhile, over this same 50-year period, average CEO compensation has risen nearly tenfold, from $1.5 million to almost $15 million. In fact, in a major August 22 speech, Powell signaled that, at its next official meeting in September, the Fed is likely to modestly reduce the main interest rate that it controls (the federal funds rate), due to mounting evidence of worsening employment conditions. As Powell knows well, this will accomplish nothing to reduce the inflationary pressures created by Trump’s tariffs. In other words, through deploying the Fed’s main policy tool of manipulating interest rates, you can either reduce inflation through raising unemployment or reduce unemployment at the cost of higher inflation. What you can’t do is combat both sides of stagflation—inflation and unemployment—at the same time. The first obvious step right now for fighting stagflation is for Trump to dump his tariff policies. We shouldn’t rule that option out. Trump didn’t earn the nickname TACO—“Trump Always Chickens Out”—for nothing. But even if Trump does chicken out on the tariffs, we will still be stuck at square one in terms of advancing inflation control policies that also enable U.S. workers to get the long-overdue raises they deserve. Robert Pollin is Distinguished University Professor of Economics and Co-Director of the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. < Back to Table of Contents

In the Advocate July 2025: Anne Shields Are You Considering Residential Solar? Resources and Tools to Help You Get Started Anne Shields Are There Still Financial Incentives for Installing Solar? Yes! State sales tax exemption: Washington provides a sales tax exemption for solar energy systems, including rooftop solar panels,other materials and their installation. The exemption is available through 2029 and is usually provided through your contractor. You can request a refund if you are charged sales tax on eligible materials. Residential renewable energy tax credit: The federal government first enacted a solar investment tax credit in 2006, which allows people who install solar panels on their homes or businesses to claim a reduction in the income taxes that they would normally pay to the IRS. The amount of this reduction is capped at 30% of the amount invested in the solar array. WA’s Community Solar Program Might Save You Money Olympia Community Solar’s non-profit group purchasing model might reduce your costs and help simplify the installation process. The Solarize program is currently open to enrollment by residents of Island, Mason, Lewis, East King, Skagit, Thurstonand Whatcom counties and the cities of Bellevue, Issaquah, Mercer Island, Redmond, Sammamish, Kirkland, and Kenmore. What about the Tariffs on Solar Panels? The Trump administration tariffs on solar imports are unlikely to slow the rollout of solar power in the US. Even if it becomes a little more expensive, solar remains one of the cheapest clean energy sources. The good news is that Washington State’s solar panel manufacturing industry is growing rapidly and now supplies many local installers. Where Can I Learn More? The Dept. of Energy online Homeowner’s Guide to Going Solar is a great resource for learning the basics of residential solar installation. Olympia Community Solar’s 11-minute video, Five Steps to Going Solar, might also be a useful starting point. These resources and tools will help you get started, but make sure to work with solar installers for custom estimates of how much power your own system would be likely togenerate. Getting Bids and Choosing a Contractor The non-profit Solar Washington recommends getting at least three bids and checking references on all contractors that you decide to consider. Solar WA also recommends finding vetted local installers through the Washington Solar Energy Industries Association (WASEIA). You will be able to find a wide range of reputable, local solar installers through the WASEIA online tool foridentifying installers in your region. Comparing Installation Bids Solar WA offers a detailed list of Questions for Solar Shoppers and advice on comparing bids that you may find useful. Many factors go into an installer’s bid and cost structure, including labor required, the equipment used, the amount of power generated, warranties, and financing options. Overhead costs: Some solar equipment suppliers have high overhead costs, resulting in higher bid amounts. However, homeowners should be wary of bids significantly lower than other bids, as this may signal that an installer is cutting corners. Equipment costs: The number, type and quality of panels installed can be a significant factor in the estimates you receive. Different types of solar panels produce varying amounts of electricity, and some panels last longer than others. Warranties and production guarantees: Many installers provide warranties, but what those warranties include and do not include will vary. Generally, higher solar bids may include better warranties that could save you money in the long run. Some companies provide additional guarantees, such as production guarantees and coverage for any potential damage to your roof. When reviewing your bids, you should always read through warranty information carefully and check if the information you receive is clear about its coverage, process, and coverage amounts. Permits and policies: Your bids should include state or local permit costs for solar panel installation or usage. Be sure to review and compare these costs across all your bids. Anne Shields is a member of PSARA's Climate and Environmental Justice Committee and Third Act Washington. BACK TO THE ADVOCATE

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents December 2025 Jane Goodall Anne Watanabe ’ve never lived in a world that didn’t have Jane Goodall in it. But she passed away on October 1, at age 91, while on a worldwide tour to promote environmental protection and to urge all of us to fight climate change and protect the planet. So now we must carry on without her, it seems. As I write this, Trump declares he will open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a crown jewel of US wildlife habitat, to oil and gas drilling, and Alaska native villages are being decimated by climate-fueled storms and flooding. I wish Jane were here. Jane Goodall and Friend Most of us know the early story of Jane Goodall, the young Englishwoman from a working-class family who was hired by famous anthropologist Louis Leakey to assist in his primate studies in Gombe, Tanzania. She had no college degree (the doctorate would come later). Leakey thought – rightly – that she was free of academic prejudices that could interfere with her observational studies. Jane went to Gombe in 1960, and her studies proved to be groundbreaking. National Geographic sent photographer Hugo Van Lawick to Gombe to capture the daily lives of Jane and the Gombe troop. Those photos captivated the world. Jane discovered that chimpanzees used tools, a behavior that until then was thought to be exclusive to Homo sapiens . She closely observed the chimpanzee family interactions and social structures. She realized that individual chimpanzees had different personalities. Of course, evidence that chimpanzees aren’t so different from the scientists who studied them was uncomfortable for some. Critics attempted to discredit her because she was a woman who lacked academic pedigrees, and they dismissed her observations as anthropomorphic. (In the early years of animal behavior science, this was a catch-all criticism of any study that challenged conventional wisdom about nonhuman animals.) Jane continued to study primates in the field, returning frequently to Gombe. She led a new generation of scientists whose work revealed complexities of thought and behavior in nonhuman animals, expanding our previous understanding of them. She was a scientist and more than anything she loved being in the field, studying the natural world. But Jane felt a deeper obligation to protect that world and its inhabitants. Starting in 1986, she traveled worldwide to raise awareness about human created harms and to urge that we act to protect the planet. She founded Roots and Shoots in 1991, a global humanitarian and environmental program that engages young people throughout the world to bring about positive changes. With her deep commitment to nonhuman rights, Jane was an early board member of the Nonhuman Rights Project, and provided important supporting material for NhRP’s litigation, including a recent hearing in September on behalf of captive chimpanzees. She was a UN Humanitarian Messenger, and right up until her death, she was on the road 300 days a year, raising awareness – and hope. So here we are today. In The Book of Hope , she wrote that “Hope is often misunderstood. People tend to think that it is simply passive wishful thinking…This is indeed the opposite of real hope, which requires action and engagement. Many people understand the dire state of the planet – but do nothing about it because they feel helpless and hopeless.” In September, during her last tour, she offered this: “Every single day we live, we make some sort of impact on the world…I tell people, find something you can do in your community. Do it. Get your friends to support you. See that you can make a difference. Know that all around the world, other people like you are making a difference.” Thank you, Jane. As we confront so many threats to our planet and all life on earth, she is still here, giving me hope. Anne Watanabe is Chair of PSARA's Race and Gender Equity (RaGE) Committee. < Back to Table of Contents

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The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents January 2025 20 Lessons from the 20th Century on How to Survive in Trump’s America Timothy Snyder Editor's Note: We distributed this article at PSARA's Winter Membership Meeting in 2016 to help our members prepare for the first Donald Trump administration. The suggestions are still good. Thanks to Bobby Righi for rediscovering it. Americans are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience. Now is a good time to do so. Here are 20 lessons from across the fearful 20th century, adapted to the circumstances of today. Do not obey in advance . Much of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then start to do it without being asked. You've already done this, haven't you? Stop. Anticipatory obedience teaches authorities what is possible and accelerates unfreedom. Defend an institution . Follow the courts or the media, or a court or a newspaper. Do not speak of “our institutions” unless you are making them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions don't protect themselves. They go down like dominoes unless each is defended from the beginning. Recall professional ethics . When the leaders of state set a negative example, professional commitments to just practice become much more important. It is hard to break a rule-of-law state without lawyers, and it is hard to have show trials without judges. When listening to politicians, distinguish certain words. Look out for the expansive use of “terrorism” and “extremism.” Be alive to the fatal notions of “exception” and “emergency.” Be angry about the treacherous use of patriotic vocabulary. Be calm when the unthinkable arrives . When the terrorist attack comes, remember that all authoritarians at all times either await or plan such events in order to consolidate power. Think of the Reichstag fire. The sudden disaster that requires the end of the balance of power, the end of opposition par- ties, and so on, is the oldest trick in the Hitlerian book. Don't fall for it. Be kind to our language . Avoid pronouncing the phrases everyone else does. Think up your own way of speaking, even if only to convey that thing you think everyone is saying. (Don't use the Internet before bed. Charge your gadgets away from your bedroom, and read.) What to read? Perhaps The Power of the Powerless by Václav Havel, 1984 by George Orwell, The Captive Mind by Czesław Milosz, The Rebel by Albert Camus, The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt, or Nothing is True and Everything is Possible by Peter Pomerantsev. Stand out. Someone has to . It is easy, in words and deeds, to follow along. It can feel strange to do or say something different. But without that unease, there is no freedom. And the moment you set an example, the spell of the status quo is broken, and others will follow. Believe in truth. To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights. Investigate. Figure things out for yourself. Spend more time with long articles. Subsidize investigative journalism by subscribing to print media. Realize that some of what is on your screen is there to harm you. Bookmark PropOrNot and other sites that investigate foreign propaganda pushes. Practice corporeal politics. Power wants your body softening in your chair and your emotions dissipating on the screen. Get outside. Put your body in unfamiliar places with unfamiliar people. Make new friends and march with them. Make eye contact and small talk. This is not just polite. It is a way to stay in touch with your surroundings, break down unnecessary social barriers, and come to understand whom you should and should not trust. If we enter a culture of denunciation, you will want to know the psychological landscape of your daily life. Take responsibility for the face of the world. Notice the swastikas and the other signs of hate. Do not look away and do not get used to them. Remove them yourself and set an example for others to do so. Hinder the one-party state. The parties that took over states were once something else. They exploited a historical moment to make political life impossible for their rivals. Vote in local and state elections while you can Give regularly to good causes, if you can. Pick a charity and set up autopay. Then you will know that you have made a free choice that is supporting civil society helping others doing something good. Establish a private life. Nastier rulers will use what they know about you to push you around. Scrub your computer of malware. Remember that email is skywriting. Consider using alternative forms of the Internet, or simply using it less. Have personal exchanges in person. For the same reason, resolve any legal trouble. Authoritarianism works as a blackmail state, looking for the hook on which to hang you. Try not to have too many hooks. Learn from others in other countries. Keep up your friendships abroad, or make new friends abroad. The present difficulties here are an element of a general trend. And no country is going to find a solution by itself. Make sure you and your family have passports. Watch out for the paramilitaries . When the men with guns who have al- ways claimed to be against the system start wearing uniforms and marching around with torches and pictures of a Leader, the end is nigh. When the pro-Leader paramilitary and the official police and military intermingle, the game is over. Be reflective if you must be armed. If you carry a weapon in public service, God bless you and keep you. But know that evils of the past involved policemen and soldiers finding them- selves, one day, doing irregular things. Be ready to say no. (If you do not know what this means, contact the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and ask about training in professional ethics.) Be as courageous as you can. If none of us is prepared to die for free- dom, then all of us will die in unfree- dom. Be a patriot. The incoming president is not. Set a good example of what America means for the generations to come. They will need it. A history professor looks to the past to remind us to do what we can in the face of the unthinkable. (This article first appeared as a post on the author’s Facebook page) < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents August 2025 PSARA Signs an Open Letter Rejecting the House Homeland Security Committee’s Unfounded Inquiries into 200+ Nonprofit Organizations PSARA Board We, the undersigned more than [...] nonprofit and nonpartisan organizations and community leaders, stand united inopposition to the House Homeland Security Committee’s and Senator Josh Hawley’s unfounded demands for information from hundreds of nonprofit organizations. These charities and organizations have done nothing but carry out their work, including what is outlined in the federal grants some of them were awarded, and include religious organizations and groups working on advocacy and services for immigrants, workers, youth, and a vast array of other organizations serving their communities. These letters of inquiry target civic organizations that have provided services under valid federal contracts that were authorized and appropriated by Congress, filling a need the government cannot perform itself. No allegations of wrongdoing, or evidence is provided for these extraordinary and burdensome inquiries. This effort appears to be an attempt to weaponize Congressional power and create the appearance of wrongdoing against those who the signers believe disagree with their political agenda. The process these lawmakers intend to drag these law abiding, community serving organizations through is the punishment. As nonprofit and nonpartisan organizations and community leaders, we work in communities across the country to feed the hungry; house those without shelter; protect our air and water, our rights to vote, worship, and organize; we fight for consumers, workers, and our children; we advocate for civil and human rights at home and abroad; we have made it safer to drive on our roads, easier to start a business, and healthier to live in our cities. We span the full ideological spectrum. And today, we stand together for our democracy and in solidarity with those nonprofit organizations unjustly targeted by these Congressional letters. Let us be clear – this investigation is Congress weaponizing its powers to target and intimidate nonprofit organizations that are fulfilling the guidelines of federal grants, simply because they disagree with the policy those grants advance. This unfounded inquiry is not about protecting Americans, rooting out waste and fraud, or defending the public interest. It is about using un- checked power to chill constitutionally protected activity, community activism, and voices those sending the letters may disagree with. That is un-American and flies in the face of the Constitution. This specific attack on nonprofits is not happening in a vacuum. Rather, this attack exists in the context of a wholesale offensive against organizations and individuals the administration and its allies find objectionable. We are standing in solidarity with the organizations targeted in this unfounded investigation because nonprofits of all types, members of the clergy and religious groups, advocates, and community serving organizations should not be punished for their work – even if those in power find it threatening to their policy agenda. Our government is meant to serve the people, not those in office. Efforts by members of Congress to attack nonprofit groups they disagree with are reprehensible, dangerous, and a violation offundamental American freedoms. Speaking out for the voice- less is, and has always been, our collective mission. As such,we stand with those organizations wrongly targeted, and with one another. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents May 2025 It’s A Stew: Part 2 the Almost Final 2025 Legislative Report Pam Crone Long sessions are just that… long. As of this writing, 10 days remain in the 2025 legislative session. Cut-offs have come and gone, and we are now in the final stretch. So, what’s not left to do, rather than what is? The Elephant in the Room In short, Washington faces a daunting revenue deficit of $15–$16 billion over the next four years. Legislators have one constitutional duty during odd numbered years: to pass a budget for the state’s operations over the two-year cycle. Everything else is “fluff,” so to speak. That’s not to say policy doesn’t matter – it does. But without the revenue to run government operations, there will be no new programs. And in this cycle, we could see significant cuts to essential services. Revenue bills were not subject to the April 16 cut-off because they are considered NTIB – “necessary to implement the budget.” Over the next 10 days, both chambers will hear and vote on a package of bills aimed at easing the budget shortfall. The final mix of cuts and new revenue that both the House and Senate can agree on – and that Governor Ferguson will sign – is still uncertain. Governor Ferguson first ruled out a wealth tax, and with business lobbying hard against a payroll tax, House and Senate budget leaders went back to the drawing board and cobbled together a new set of taxes. As of this writing, the governor finds that plan “too risky.” He didn’t rule out all progressive revenue options, but finding enough revenue to offset the deepest cuts remains a daunting task. As of April 18, a resolution has yet to emerge, so ending on time April 27 is not a slam-dunk. The 2025 Washington State legislative session has unfolded in a bleak national context. The federal landscape is in disarray, and we are only four months into this administration. I won’t rehash the endless stream of “terribles.” We are all acutely aware of the federal government’s ongoing assaults on people, the environment, and the rule of law. Our state leaders don’t have a crystal ball. Whatever budget they finalize in these closing days won’t fully capture the effects of the broader federal economic and social turmoil – on-again, off-again tariffs; mass layoffs; and more. And then there are the looming Medicaid cuts. In Washington State, 1.8 million residents rely on Medicaid for health care– ourselves, our families, our neighbors. In fiscal year 2023, the state received $12.5 billion in federal Medicaid funding. If that funding disappears, the state cannot close the gap. The suffering will be immense. This is not a rosy picture. We are organizing now to advocate with our federal congressional delegation to stop these cuts. If they go through, the state legislature may have to reconvene in a special session to address the budget crisis. Some Wins Despite the tough climate, we’ve made good progress on our legislative priorities. Our April midway report outlined the bills still alive – and a few that didn’t make it. A high priority was SJM 8002, Protecting Medicare by Leveling the Playing Field. It did not make It out of the second house by cut-off April 16, but will be reintroduced, hopefully, in 2026. It goes back to the Senate where it must be passed again. The following PSARA priority bills passed both houses and are big wins: SJM 8004 – Supporting efforts to advance Universal Healthcare SB 5291 – Strengthening and protecting WA Cares HB 1491 – Creating affordable housing near transit HB 1213 – Extending job protection in the Family & Medical Leave program SB 5041 – Extending unemployment benefits to striking workers SB 5284 – Reducing plastic waste through better solid waste management SJM 8004 bypasses the Governor’s Office and is transmitted directly to Congress, the President, and the Secre- taries of Labor and Health and Human Services. The other bills are headed to Governor Ferguson. He can sign them, veto them, or let them pass into law without a signature. Depending on when the bills land on his desk, he has either 5 or 20 days to act. Note: He has section veto power on these bills, un- like the line-item veto he holds for the budget. HB 1217, the rent stabilization bill, is still in limbo as of this writing. Originally a House bill, it was significantly weakened in the Senate. The House is expected to reject those amendments, sending the bill to a conference committee. The conference committee, made up of Senators and Representatives, will hash out a compromise for an up or down vote by the two chambers. We are hoping for a strong bill that keeps renters housed by stabilizing rent increases. 2026 Revival Bills that didn’t make it this year can be reintroduced during the 2026 short session (60 days). They’ll retain the same bill numbers and hopefully see better results. As always, stay tuned. Pam Crone is a retired lobbyist and Chair of PSARA's Government Relations Committee (GRC). < Back to Table of Contents

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 Lobby Day Training Thank you for participating in PSARA’s Lobby Day! To assist you in preparing for your day at the Washington State Legislature, we have put together the following training materials for you below. Bill status is ever changing and we will have the most up to date information on Lobby Day: Training Video: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (see below) Legislator Meeting Prep w/District Lead and To Dos (see below) 10 Advocacy Tips for Meeting w/your legislator (see below) PSARA’s 2025 Legislative Agenda and Bill Status Washington State Capitol Campus Map (click here for the map) Priority Talking Points (click here for talking points) 2025 Lobby Day Agenda (see below) Lobbying: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Legislator Meeting Prep w/District Lead and To Dos Your district lead will contact you with a zoom link, date and time to prep for the legislator meetings. Please attend that zoom pre-meeting. Please be flexible as legislators’ schedules change. Be on time. Please bring a boxed lunch including water. Follow the lead of your district lead during the legislator meetings. ·Stay on topic and PSARA legislative priorities. Meeting schedules will be tight. When you get to the Labor Council Office the morning of March 18, please find you District lead and stay with your group as much as possible. We will have coffee and a light breakfast/snack. 10 Advocacy Tips for Meeting w/your legislator Identify yourself – State your name and identify yourself as a constituent, if you are one. Be specific – Include the name and number of the relevant bill. Clearly describe the issue/problem and why the bill is necessary. Make it personal – Speak in your own words about why the issue is important to you, your family, friends, etc. Tell a personal story. Do your homework – Review your “talking points.” Learn something about your legislator. See below for legislative website links. Be confident – Your legislator’s job is to represent you. You may also know more about the issue than your legislator. Offer yourself as a source of information. Keep the door open for future conversations – Be passionate, but not rude. Be brief – Get to the point quickly and be specific about why you are contacting them. Limit your written documents to one page. Be factual – Make sure the information you provide is accurate. If you don’t know the answer to a question, say so and follow up later. Make “the ask” – Ask the legislator to support your position on the issue. If the legislator will not make that commitment, ask them to read your issue paper, meet with you again, keep an open mind, if opposed. Show appreciation – Thank them for their time and follow up with a written thank you and send any materials you have promised. Helpful websites www.leg.wa.gov , https://leg.wa.gov/legislature/Pages/MemberInformation.aspx https://app.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/ PSARA Lobby Day Agenda 9:00 a.m. Meet at the WSLC for Lobby Day Overview Coffee/tea, breakfast rolls and fruit 906 Columbia St SW #330, Olympia 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. All Day Legislator Meetings 11:00-11:30 a.m. OIC Commissioner Patty Kuderer meeting at the OIC Building (Room TBD) 12:00-12:15 p.m. Speaker Jinkins meeting at the Legislative Building (Room TBD) Lunch on your own 1:00 p.m. Legislator Meetings Continued 2:30 p.m. Debrief at the WSLC 3:00 p.m. Head home Pam’s Cell for Support 206-650-0020

PSARA Oral Histories Project: Thursten Muskelly Return to Oral Histories Main Page Thurston Muskelly Interview PSARA Advocate Archives November 2022 Page 9 Part I December 2022 Page 9 Part II “My Greatest Thing is Helping People” An Interview with Thurston Muskelly By Angie Bartels If you ask Thurston Muskelly what he likes to do most in the world, he’ll tell you it’s reaching out and helping others. He’s been doing this ever since childhood when he worked on the family farm. Thurston was born in Union, SC, in 1933, and grew up in Salisbury, NC. His mother, Eloise Robinson Muskelly, was an English teacher and taught middle school through college. She was full Cherokee, 6’6” tall and weighed 250 pounds. His father, Edward, was Native American, African American, Italian, and Caucasian, and 6’1” tall. He was an engineer for Southern Railway and ran Engine No. 34. He would be gone working a few days at a time so the Muskelly kids learned to take responsibility. At the age of 7, Thurston cared for the family’s 13 dairy cows and calves, feeding, milking, watering, and laying fresh straw for their beds. All the Muskelly children had chores to do “because my father pressed us into thinking that we help the family by doing these chores. And it was easy, but it was great responsibility.” When a cow or pig was slaughtered, Edward made sure that everyone in the community was given a share of the meat. “He believed in sharing, he just couldn't get around it. My mother would say, carry this piece of meat down to so-and-so. Everybody got a piece of joy.” Edward took Thurston to the railroad yard from the time he was quite young, where Thurston learned mechanics and how to fix the engines and other railroad equipment. Learning engineering came naturally to Thurston. Edward wept the day Thurston left for the US Navy in 1950. After boot camp, he was assigned to an aircraft carrier, the USS Albany. While serving in Pensacola, FL, Thurston met the love of his life, Joyce Williams. Joyce was working as a car hop at a BBQ joint, and he gently flirted with her. She talked with him, and soon Thurston was making frequent trips to the BBQ place to get his sandwiches and begin his courtship with Joyce. She was the eldest of five children and had the responsibility of raising her younger siblings. After a short while, they were married in 1954 in Lucedale, Mississippi, and made their home in Salisbury, NC, with his parents while Thurston served out his time in the Navy. Thurston had an accident on the ship where his arm was caught up in a winch. He received months of treatment but was permanently partially disabled. Upon discharge, he worked at the VA Hospital in Salisbury, NC. He and Joyce relocated to Youngstown, OH, upon the invitation of his uncle, who got him a job as a crane operator in a steel mill. “I was a part of the Steel Workers Union, and I worked off of the blast furnace. That's where you poured the ore into a furnace and the overrun went into a water well. The crane ran over the water well, and I would get that overrun ore that went into the water, lift it out, and put it in railroad cars. There were frequent national strikes, and one lasted six months.” In the meantime, Joyce visited her brother in Seattle, fell in love with the area, and told Thurston they should move there. Thurston was laid off at the time, so they came to Seattle in 1958. “After we got here, the family said they wanted me to work for Boeing, and I said no, I'm not going to work for Boeing because Boeing lays off too much. And I just come off a big layoff. So my brother-in-law took me to the US Public Health Service Hospital. And they only had one job available, which was a janitor's job. And I had to be a disabled veteran to get it. I was both. When I took the job, everybody laughed. With my resume and experience, I was overqualified. But I took the job because I had a wife and a young baby. I started off at $1.73 an hour. “ “There was an old German guy by the name of Mr. Monks. Monks came to me and said, ‘Thurston, if you stay here eight months, I’ll have an opening in engineering for you.' So I stayed there eight months and sure enough, I got a job in engineering with much higher pay. The job was repairman for blood pressure equipment, operating equipment, boiler room, all of this fell under engineering. They kept me in mechanics and I worked in that position for 25 years.” Thurston was instrumental in the formation of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1170 at the USPHSH in 1970. “The employees at the hospital felt that the union was not representing what the needs of the employees were to the hospital administration. A lot of folks encouraged me to run for president, but a friend told me, ‘Thurston you could be jeopardizing your job.’ So, I went home and talked to the wife, and she said, ‘Well, you can always find another job’. So, I ran for president, and I won." It was during this time that Thurston’s natural ability to win people’s trust, to represent them fairly, and to bring them together in solidarity fully bloomed. “My father taught me leadership and responsibility, and that’s why the workers at USPHSH wanted me to be the president. It was my first time being the chief spokesman for employees in the union. We had an exciting executive board! I had people who worked together really hard. There was no animosity or division in the union. We were very together on issues that concerned employees and employees’ education, safety on the job, promotions, etc. We worked with the administration and Dr. Willard Johnson, the outstanding new director of the hospital. “Willard was out of Texas, and he was a very humble and good man who understood human needs. Dr. Johnson understood the problems that the employees faced, and he took it to heart. The employees were not treated fairly at the hospital until they elected the AFGE as the union spokesman for the group. We represented professionals and non-professionals alike. In fact, one of the doctors that we represented was Jim McDermott. He went on to be a State Senator” Dr. Johnson also began to understand the needs of the community at large. “He called me into his office one day and said, ‘Thurston, I know that you’re in charge of the union here at the hospital and I want to ask you for your help.’ He discussed that he had been in a meeting with the free clinics, and he had 5% of his hospital budget that he could donate to health care for people who didn’t have health care and couldn’t afford it. He wanted to use the US Public Health Service Hospital as a back-up for X-rays, lab work and treating people who didn’t have money. I told him that I would help him. Dr. Johnson put me in touch with David Loud, Tommy Byers, and a whole lot more people. My job with Dr. Johnson and the group was to keep all of the people and groups informed, keep them up to date what was going on and how they could help to sustain this fight.” The fight was against the federal policy to get out of the business of directly providing health care. Twenty USPHS hospitals had been closed under Republican and Democratic administrations, and the Nixon administration wanted to close the 8 remaining USPHS hospitals. However, the question of how to provide the health care of the legislated beneficiaries of the system - merchant mariners, commercial fishers, Native Americans, Alaska Natives, military retirees and dependents – had not been resolved. Dr. Johnson, who opposed closure, interpreted an obscure regulation in the Public Health Service Act which allowed 5% of the hospital's budget to be used for care of special cases of rare diseases for medical education purposes. He used this 5% of his budget to provide care to uninsured free clinic patients, care that the clinics were unable to offer (i.e., lab, radiology, specialities, acute inpatient care, surgery) and declared them to be special study patients. Thus, the free clinics' patients became beneficiaries of the USPHS, giving the community at large a stake in the preservation of the USPHS Hospital. This led to the formation of the Public Health Care Coalition, the group that would lead the fight against closure. Thurston got to know numerous elected officials throughout his time working at USPHSH with the union and the health care coalition. “Senator Warren G. Magnuson, Maggie, is the greatest in my time, the greatest senator of all times. He had feeling, charisma, patience, and he could work with anyone. He was also head of the Senate Appropriations Committee. He figured that the employees at the hospital would go the extra mile for people who couldn’t afford health care. He set up a program called Upward Mobility which was funded by the federal government. Hospital employees would apply and the executive board would select individuals blindly, without knowing their names. Everyone was assigned a letter such as A, B, C, etc. These individuals would attend college or technical school to advance their education and career. Many started as LPN or RN and got higher degrees including PhD. A lot of them went from nursing assistants to LPNs. The federal government, Maggie, set up the program so that the employees would work their jobs during the day and go to school at night. I also lobbied in Congress to save the USPHSH and although we didn’t save it, we were able to have the building transferred in 1981 from the USPHS, to the Pacific Hospital Preservation and Development Authority, created by the City of Seattle. That was the year I retired.” Although Thurston retired from his job at USPHSH, he did not retreat from work in the community. “For 10 years I was president of the Leschi Community Council. The city gave us 2.4 million dollars to rehab parks, so I did Powell Barnett Park, Flo Ware Park, and Peppi’s Playground. I was also president of the Central Area Senior Center for 10 years where I worked with Will Parry. Will was one of my executive board members at Central Area Senior Center. He was a very outstanding man and did a remarkable job. He would tell you right quick that he didn’t have a lot of money to spend, but he was willing to give his time and efforts to a cause. He and his son raised over $5,000 for the Senior Center. He was very persistent and went after things that people needed. I was grateful to work with him on issues concerning seniors. “I also brought in the Seattle Girls School to Jackson and MLK. I convinced the Leschi Community Council that this is what we need. We wanted the young ladies to be competitive with the young men. In other words, if a man got a degree in mechanical engineering so could a young lady. She could stand as tall as he.” “I was also president of the Central Area Development Association, which helped seniors maintain their homes by painting, doing repair work, and yard maintenance. People on Social Security can’t afford to keep up their homes, so CADA helped with that.” Thurston held these three positions simultaneously. Thurston lost Joyce, his wife of 64 years, to cancer in 2019. “Joyce was an outstanding person and a wonderful wife. She was a lady that loved responsibility. She worked for Frederick and Nelson, in handbags, for 26 years. She didn't like to see children that couldn’t read and didn't know how to do math so she volunteered down at the school. She also volunteered at the Central Area Senior Center working in the kitchen and serving food to other seniors. She could get along with anyone. She could make you feel welcome when you thought that you were all alone. She always had a smile, and she was a real people's person. My greatest thing is helping people, seeing that they enjoy life as well as anybody. I really get disturbed when people in power can do something for others and don't do it. I don't like individuals that prey on others and feel that others are less than they are. I think everyone is entitled to justice and care. If people can’t afford to pay forward, they shouldn’t be mistreated, and they should receive good care. My greatest hope is that people will look upon others with love and peace, not hate, and that everyone will reach out and help someone. Angie Bartels is PSARA's membership VP. This is one in a series of interviews she's conducting with members of PSARA. Dr. Johnson also began to understand the needs of the community at large. “He called me into his office one day and said, ‘Thurston, I know that you’re in charge of the union here at the hospital and I want to ask you for your help.’ He discussed that he had been in a meeting with the free clinics, and he had 5% of his hospital budget that he could donate to health care for people who didn’t have health care and couldn’t afford it. He wanted to use the US Public Health Service Hospital as a back-up for X-rays, lab work and treating people who didn’t have money. I told him that I would help him. Dr. Johnson put me in touch with David Loud, Tommy Byers, and a whole lot more people. My job with Dr. Johnson and the group was to keep all of the people and groups informed, keep them up to date what was going on and how they could help to sustain this fight.” The fight was against the federal policy to get out of the business of directly providing health care. Twenty USPHS hospitals had been closed under Republican and Democratic administrations, and the Nixon administration wanted to close the 8 remaining USPHS hospitals. However, the question of how to provide the health care of the legislated beneficiaries of the system - merchant mariners, commercial fishers, Native Americans, Alaska Natives, military retirees and dependents – had not been resolved. Dr. Johnson, who opposed closure, interpreted an obscure regulation in the Public Health Service Act which allowed 5% of the hospital's budget to be used for care of special cases of rare diseases for medical education purposes. He used this 5% of his budget to provide care to uninsured free clinic patients, care that the clinics were unable to offer (i.e., lab, radiology, specialities, acute inpatient care, surgery) and declared them to be special study patients. Thus, the free clinics' patients became beneficiaries of the USPHS, giving the community at large a stake in the preservation of the USPHS Hospital. This led to the formation of the Public Health Care Coalition, the group that would lead the fight against closure. Thurston got to know numerous elected officials throughout his time working at USPHSH with the union and the health care coalition. “Senator Warren G. Magnuson, Maggie, is the greatest in my time, the greatest senator of all times. He had feeling, charisma, patience, and he could work with anyone. He was also head of the Senate Appropriations Committee. He figured that the employees at the hospital would go the extra mile for people who couldn’t afford health care. He set up a program called Upward Mobility which was funded by the federal government. Hospital employees would apply and the executive board would select individuals blindly, without knowing their names. Everyone was assigned a letter such as A, B, C, etc. These individuals would attend college or technical school to advance their education and career. Many started as LPN or RN and got higher degrees including PhD. A lot of them went from nursing assistants to LPNs. The federal government, Maggie, set up the program so that the employees would work their jobs during the day and go to school at night. I also lobbied in Congress to save the USPHSH and although we didn’t save it, we were able to have the building transferred in 1981 from the USPHS, to the Pacific Hospital Preservation and Development Authority, created by the City of Seattle. That was the year I retired.” Although Thurston retired from his job at USPHSH, he did not retreat from work in the community. “For 10 years I was president of the Leschi Community Council. The city gave us 2.4 million dollars to rehab parks, so I did Powell Barnett Park, Flo Ware Park, and Peppi’s Playground. I was also president of the Central Area Senior Center for 10 years where I worked with Will Parry. Will was one of my executive board members at Central Area Senior Center. He was a very outstanding man and did a remarkable job. He would tell you right quick that he didn’t have a lot of money to spend, but he was willing to give his time and efforts to a cause. He and his son raised over $5,000 for the Senior Center. He was very persistent and went after things that people needed. I was grateful to work with him on issues concerning seniors. “I also brought in the Seattle Girls School to Jackson and MLK. I convinced the Leschi Community Council that this is what we need. We wanted the young ladies to be competitive with the young men. In other words, if a man got a degree in mechanical engineering so could a young lady. She could stand as tall as he.” “I was also president of the Central Area Development Association, which helped seniors maintain their homes by painting, doing repair work, and yard maintenance. People on Social Security can’t afford to keep up their homes, so CADA helped with that.” Thurston held these three positions simultaneously. Thurston lost Joyce, his wife of 64 years, to cancer in 2019. “Joyce was an outstanding person and a wonderful wife. She was a lady that loved responsibility. She worked for Frederick and Nelson, in handbags, for 26 years. She didn't like to see children that couldn’t read and didn't know how to do math so she volunteered down at the school. She also volunteered at the Central Area Senior Center working in the kitchen and serving food to other seniors. She could get along with anyone. She could make you feel welcome when you thought that you were all alone. She always had a smile, and she was a real people's person. My greatest thing is helping people, seeing that they enjoy life as well as anybody. I really get disturbed when people in power can do something for others and don't do it. I don't like individuals that prey on others and feel that others are less than they are. I think everyone is entitled to justice and care. If people can’t afford to pay forward, they shouldn’t be mistreated, and they should receive good care. My greatest hope is that people will look upon others with love and peace, not hate, and that everyone will reach out and help someone. Angie Bartels is PSARA's membership VP. This is one in a series of interviews she's conducting with members of PSARA.