We finished our tour strong with stops in Olympia, Seattle and Everett, WA on March 1st and March 2nd. Thanks to all of the excellent videographers in WA we have a bunch of great video from the events to share (see the Olympia stop here, and Jim Page's performance in Everett here). The highlight of the three stops was a very well attended event at University Temple United Methodist Church in Seattle where Pastor Rich Lang opened up his Church’s Common Good Café for an unforgettable evening.
At all three Washington tour stops we were joined by participants
in the Shelter Half, a GI Coffeehouse located in Tacoma from 1968-1974. The Shelter Half was a center for the
powerful GI and veteran resistance movement to the US war in Vietnam. We got to hear stories from Lyle Quasim, Lois
Thetford, Allan Poobus and especially Philip Kaplan who spoke at all three
stops. All four “Shelterhalfies” joined
us in Seattle and shared some stories about their work at the Shelter Half, and
what it still means to all of them forty years later.
After that we had staff from the Clearing Barrel and Under
The Hood give their presentations, and ended the Seattle and Everett events
with a powerful testimonial from Coffee Strong GI Rights counselor Sandra
Sampson. Sandra is a veteran of the US
Army, and talked about her own experiences while in the Army and how if she had
known about Coffee Strong what a difference that would have made for her.
Our Everett stop also had some excellent musical accompaniment
with Seattle’s own Jim Page making an appearance. Thank you to everyone who helped with the
Washington tour stops, including Western WA Fellowship or Reconciliation,
Veterans for Peace Chapter 92, Kaeley-Pruitt
Hamm (Seattle stop MC and musician), Linda Newton (Everett stop organizer) and
Maria Trevizo (Olympia stop MC).
