holyoutlaw

Jan Walker for Real Change. Article here.

Caption: Gig Harbor teacher Jan Walker spent nearly two decades teaching parenting classes at the state's McNeil Island Correctional Center.

Two new pictures to the Real Change gallery: Laura Wells and Bill Haglund. (These are actually from the August 3-9 issue, the last one I've had pictures in.)

Via truthout, two analyses of the recent split between the Change To Win Coalition and AFL-CIO: Molly Ivins (original) and Katrina vanden Heuvel (original).

Whether the split is a good thing or not, I'm in favor of the actions that SEIU has taken recently in organizing janitors and other service workers.

Some people think (as I used to) that jobs that couldn't be exported were secure. But in many cases, the labor can be imported. This is what happened when the meat packing unions were broken, and it's what has been happening with service employees and janitors for years now.

Today it took a long time to get out of bed. I don't know why, I didn't feel particularly depressed. I just didn't feel like getting up. Other possible examples of depression are how incredibly messy my bedroom and office are. Oh well.

At 3:30 I had a meeting with Tamara M. and Melody, who are the adminstrator and community projet developer, respectively, for the Frye Apartments, housing run by Catholic Social Services. They want to have a project where I take pictures of residents and their pets, which I find very intriguing. I did meet one woman, who has two cats. I think this could lead to some very interesting pictures, and intereseting stories to hear.

As I was packing up to leave, the Real Change editor called to say that something had come up: Another photographer had made an arrangement to get a picture for an article, but couldn't make the rendezvous. It was someone being interviewed for an article about job loss and exportation, but who didn't want to be photographed at his current job. Hah! So the arrangement was to meet him in the parking lot of the McDonalds at 5th and Broad. This felt very spy to me. I made it in time, took a few pictures, listened to his stories about being unemployed and getting his current job (which is better than his previous job, it sounds like).

In other Real Change news, the editor sent me an email saying he wanted me to reshoot the cruise ship arrival. Actually, I'm a little flattered that he asked that. It's certainly better than getting an email saying it sucked so badly he's sending someone else.

After getting home, I took a nap, talked with juliebata a good long while, had something to eat, read another photo book, wrote this entry, and now I'm going to go play with the rats a bit with Jane. Okay!