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Five Reasons You’ll Be at Town Hall Next Week

Remember this little guy with the great big voice who left us all weepy after he stood up against racist bullying? Earlier this year, he sang the national anthem at the NBA finals game 2—beautifully—only to find the Twitterverse darken with hateful, racist slurs about him afterward. So what did he do? He sang again at game 4, introduced by none other than his city’s mayor, Julián Castro, who congratulated him on his performance via his Facebook page:

JC Fbk Post

Mayor Castro’s positive and forward-looking perspective is a bright spot in our national political super-squabble. In the midst of an infuriating budget and debt ceiling crisis, I think we could all use a pick-me-up, and I have a pretty good feeling that some Julián Castro is just what the doctor ordered.

But for those of you not yet convinced, I’ve whittled down the long list of reasons to come out next week to see him to the following five. Read ’em, and see if you can help yourself from buying a ticket (just $5!):

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Mayor Julián Castro: Big Plans, Big Progress

San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro makes no small plans. The enthusiastic young mayor of America’s seventh largest city quickly positioned his city as a leader in the New Energy Economy, expanded the educational resources of area children from pre-K through college, and restored his city’s AAA bond rating. He has been called the new face of the Democratic party and was the first Latino keynote speaker of the party’s 2012 National Convention, where he affirmed the possibilities that grow through education and a forward-looking economy:

The American dream is not a sprint, or even a marathon, but a relay. Our families don’t always cross the finish line in the span of one generation. But each generation passes on to the next the fruits of their labor. My grandmother never owned a house. She cleaned other people’s houses so she could afford to rent her own. But she saw her daughter become the first in her family to graduate from college. And my mother fought hard for civil rights so that instead of a mop, I could hold this microphone.

Sightline is thrilled to host Mayor Castro as the last guest in our 20th Anniversary Speaker Series. He will discuss the work of building sustainable cities and the leadership it takes to achieve them.

  • Date: Wednesday, October 23, 2013
  • Time: 7:30 p.m. (Doors open at 6:30 p.m.)
  • Location: Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Avenue, Seattle 98101 (map)
  • Tickets: $5 — No longer available—event has concluded.

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“When the rule of law doesn’t apply to everybody…”

Matt Taibbi famously called investment firm Goldman Sachs “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity.” Zoologists accused him of insulting vampire squids.

As contributing editor for Rolling Stone magazine, Taibbi fast emerged as one of the foremost investigative journalists on the American financial crisis and the recession that followed. He has taken to task—with wit, humor, and sting—the banks and other financial institutions, along with the political systems and actors, that played a major role in these events. “When the rule of law doesn’t apply to everybody,” he explained, discussing the near impunity enjoyed by major bank executives, “then you don’t really have the rule of law anymore.”

Matt Taibbi will join us as the next guest in our Sightline@20 Anniversary Speaker Series. We are thrilled to bring to Seattle one of the leading writers on the way money influences governance, one of Sightline’s favorite topics. And here’s a little proof that he can still make you laugh even when talking about one of the grimmest economic chapters in our country’s history:

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Matt Taibbi and Mayor Julián Castro

What do Matt Taibbi and San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro have in common? Sightline’s 20th Anniversary Speaker Series! They’ll be closing out our year-long celebration with talks that we expect will sell out Town Hall, so be sure to purchase your tickets in advance.

Matt Taibbi

Rolling Stone contributing editor Matt Taibbi is known for his entertainingly quotable, scathing, and illuminating histories of the current economic crisis. In his 2010 book, Griftopia, he wrote, “In a society governed passively by free markets and free elections, organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy.” On October 2nd, he will join Sightline audience members to discuss the influence of money on governance and politics—the system underpinning how our leaders make decisions on everything from banking to energy. Check out some of his latest writing here.

  • Date: Wednesday, October 2, 2013
  • Time: 7:30 p.m. (Doors open at 6:30 p.m.)
  • Location: Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Avenue, Seattle 98101 (map)
  • Tickets: $5    No longer available—event has concluded.

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Chris Jordan’s Journey

Chris Jordan is a renowned photographer, filmmaker, and storyteller who is best known for his large-scale works depicting mass consumption and waste, particularly garbage. He has been called “the ‘it’ artist of the green movement,” and his work has been featured in shows worldwide, from Madrid to Beijing, from Paris to his hometown: Seattle.

Sightline is honored to host him as the first in this year’s 20th anniversary speaker series. Jordan will show and discuss photographs from his most recent project, “Midway,” for which he spent three years visiting the remote Midway Atoll in the heart of the Pacific Ocean (map). There, he documented the native Laysan albatross, many of which are dying from ingesting the plastic waste we have dumped in the ocean.

Over the course of this project, he underwent a transformative emotional journey—a journey he shares with the rest of us through photography. In a recent interview with the Center for Ecoliteracy‘s Lisa Bennett, Chris explained some of his impetus for the project, as well as a particular experience that profoundly affected him. The full interview is well worth reading.

LB: More recently, your work has taken you to Midway Island—2,500 miles from any other body of land—to study and photograph the albatross. Why that place and those birds?

CJ: I was always a little dissatisfied with my “Running the Numbers” work because what I really want to do is help people like your son understand that these global issues are personal to each one of us. I wanted to create a bridge between the global and the personal. My “Running the Numbers” work is inherently abstract, conceptual art. It points in the right direction, but what I’m really interested in is feeling. That’s the power of art. It reminds you how you feel about something.

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EVENT: Chris Jordan, Journey to Midway Island

Photo by Chris Jordan, used with permission.
Photo by Chris Jordan, used with permission.

In the first event of Sightline’s 20th anniversary speaker series, Seattle photographer Chris Jordan will take audience members through a moving exploration of fabled Midway Island. For three years, he immersed himself in the stunning environmental tragedy unfolding in the heart of the Pacific Ocean. His photos and film project recount his harrowing and redemptive journey into horror, beauty, grief, love, and ultimately, healing.

Chris Jordan
Chris Jordan
  • Date: Wednesday, June 19
  • Time: 7:30-9:00 p.m. (Doors open at 6:30 p.m.)
  • Location: Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Avenue, Seattle 98101 (map)
  • Tickets: $5

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Living Sustainably, 1993-Style

Go Green rain barrel

Before “green” was everywhere you looked, before “local” was a foodie bragging point, and definitely before most of us knew anything of Sightline (then Northwest Environment Watch), we were still walking the talk of living sustainably. We bet you were, too.

Check out our staff’s 1993-vintage green living practices, and share your own in the comments section.

Migee 2012Migee, senior director of development

I grew up in southern California (don’t throw things! I’ve been in the Northwest for over twenty years now) and when I was growing up water was a premium item—we were constantly aware of the drought conditions we were living in. My mother encouraged us all to take “Navy showers” whereby we would get in, get wet, and then turn the water off to soap up, and turn it back on to rinse off and maybe indulge for a minute. The habit stuck. While I will admit that I no longer take “Navy showers,” they do hover around the 5 minute mark, I am very aware of how much water I use and take care to conserve it.

Nicole 2012Nicole, senior development associate

I was 11 in 1993, and so had limited control over my carbon footprint. But here’s a fun fact: In 1990’s SoCal, in addition to D.A.R.E., we had school instruction on water conservation where we were told “Don’t be a water hog.”  A couple years later, angsty teenage rebellion against my less-than-conservationist parents took hold as an obsession with convincing them to compost (didn’t work… at first), vegetarianism, watching Bill Nye the Science Guy, and only buying clothes secondhand.

Alan 2012Alan, executive director

A lot of my 1993 practices filled the pages of Sightline’s first flagship product: This Place on Earth: Home and the Practice of Permanence. (Sasquatch, 1996. Now out of print but you can download it for free.) That was the year I came home to the Northwest. It’s also the year I stopped collecting books, deciding to rely on libraries instead. That was also the year of cloth diapers that we washed ourselves and fastened with safety pins, the old fashioned way. (By 1994, when we had two babies in diapers, we weren’t so virtuous.)

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Faces of Sightline, Then and Now

In the spirit of reflection that comes along with any special anniversary, Sightline staff have taken a moment (a very humbling moment) to dig up photos of ourselves from twenty years ago. You might compare them with our current staff photos to appreciate yet another facet of the organization’s improvement over the course of our two decades’ time.

Who’s up first? Our fearless leader, Alan, who joked that, in fact, one might not notice much difference in his then-and-now comparison. He is pictured with the original staff.

L to R: John Ryan, research director; Donna Morton, communications director; Alan Durning; Agi Kim, office manager.
L to R: John Ryan, research director; Donna Morton, communications director; Alan Durning; Agi Kim, office manager.

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We’re Turning 20, and We Want to Celebrate with You

Sen. Jeff Merkley
Sen. Jeff Merkley

We usually keep our heads down in the (policy) books here at Sightline, but we’re turning 20 this year and, what the heck, it’s time to celebrate!

We’re kicking off the year-long celebration on April 5th with a very special shindig in Portland. For all of you in Oregon and Southwest Washington, we hope you’ll join us.

You can buy your tickets today via Brown Paper Tickets.

We’re excited to announce that Senator Jeff Merkley will be our special guest for the evening. Alan Durning, Anna Fahey, Eric de Place, and Clark Williams-Derry will be there too, so you’ll get the chance to chat with your favorite researcher in person, rather than in the comments section.

The progress we’ve made since 1993 wouldn’t have been possible without the support of our community. Thank you for sharing, using, and contributing to our work over the past 20 years. Pat yourself on the back, and celebrate with us!

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