Meet Dorli Rainey Dorli, an 84 year old grandmother, is a former school teacher who has been active in local politics since the 1960s. She was the face of the Occupy movement for a moment last year (November) when Seattle PD pepper sprayed her in the face Local photojournalist, Josh Trujillo @joshtrujillo, caught the moment beautifully as she was held up by her colleagues. The 1 year anniversary of OWS in Seattle was celebrated by a Silent Flash Mob March #S17. Cool shooting with @adamsvisuals @mattmillsphoto yesterday More photos coming #occupyseattle #OWS #occupywallstreet #OWS1year #99percent #wearejuxt #igers_seattle #theminimals #mobilephotography #mobilography #photography #ic_thestreets #cnnireport @cnnireport #king5 #komo
On Thursday 16 May 2013, Dorli Rainey participated in a foreclosure blockade organized by an offshoot of the Occupy movement in an effort to save the home of a man, Jeremy Griffin, who has found work and is now able to pay his mortgage.
Kelly O
JEREMY GRIFFIN Outside of his house with his dog Daisy.
Shortly before midnight last night, 86-year-old activist Dorli Rainey—yes, the Dorli Rainey whose Maalox-covered pepper-sprayed face became an icon of the Occupy movement—got a text message that sheriff deputies were about to evict ironworker Jeremy Griffin from his foreclosed South Park home. So she immediately jumped in a cab and headed down to Griffin’s house to put her body on the line.
Of course she did.
Twelve hours later, the sheriffs had yet to arrive, but a couple dozen fellow activists did, transforming the lawn and sidewalk in front of Griffin’s home into a kinda Occupy Seattle reunion. This is the first “eviction blockade” to be staged by SAFE (Standing Against Eviction & Foreclosure), an activist organization that grew out of Occupy Seattle, focused on helping homeowners fight back against the banks through pragmatic public protests. [read more at: thestranger.com]
Outside a foreclosure blockade in Seattle’s South Park neighborhood, 85-year-old activist Dorli Rainey applauds spontaneous chanting from supportive Concord Elementary schoolchildren.
http://safeinseattle.org/ has gathered several videos documenting one man’s plight to save his home. Jeremy Griffin, after losing his job got behind on his mortgage. But, as the TheSouthParkNews.com reports:
Then in 2012, the construction industry began to revive, and Jeremy got a job again as an ironworker on a bridge near his South Park home.
He told his bank, Wells Fargo, he could now pay his mortgage, but they weren’t interested. He even delivered to Wells Fargo’s Seattle headquarters $1200 rent checks.
On his first rent delivery, Wells Fargo threatened to call the police. On his second delivery, they opted to close the entire 47-story headquarters for the afternoon, rather than accept his money.
Dorli Rainey, long-time Seattle activist, at Eviction Blockade preparation on May 5, 2013 in South Park at Jeremy Griffin’s home. Reflecting on the unabated power of the banks and our government’s unwillingness to make banks live up to their promises to work with people who are facing foreclosure, she notes that it is this inaction that forces people to take drastic action, such as the Eviction Blockade that SAFE and others are planning, in order to keep people in their homes. ~ SafeSeattle.org
Dorli Rainey speaking at a SAFE rally about why she fights the banks.
Transcript:
I’m a firm believer that we need to evict the banks, not their customers. They have been having their own way for so long. All the laws are in favor of the banks, and nobody really cares what happens when they go and evict people from their homes if they have been there a long time. Obama decided he was going to forgive the banks of a lot of sins under certain conditions, but the banks did not live up to the refinancing, the forgiving of credit and other things. So we have to take drastic measures to keep people in their homes and to let the banks know that we really are very serious about stopping their evictions and foreclosures.
Here is a YouTube video of Dorli Rainey speaking at a No Drones rally in Seattle, Washington USA on 17 April 2013.
Renowned activist Dorli Rainey Speaks at Say NO to Drones! Rally & March, 4/17/13. What are drones and what next in the name of security? Why are the Seattle Police holding drones the City banned? “‘I don’t feel like trusting…surveillance that is worse than what I experienced growing-up in Nazi Germany”
People keep asking me what they can do to help flooded Nickelsville. The best thing people can do (besides providing funds at the website http://www.sharewheel.org/ and click Donate ) is to send an e mail to the Mayor, Sally Clark, Council Chair, and City Council asking them to permit Nickelsville access to water, sewer, storm drains and electricity.
Nickelsville spends a lot of money on bringing in water, batteries, and Porta Potties. this money would go a long way towards paying utility bills. Access to the storm drain, which already exists, would have prevented the disaster the rain brought.
Dorli has long been a proponent of green technology and renewable resources. Here, she offers to volunteer for the Jill Stein for president campaign.
The Green New Deal
The Green New Deal is an emergency four part program of specific solutions for moving America quickly out of crisis into the secure green future. We call these solutions a Green “New Deal” because they are inspired by the New Deal programs that helped us out of the Great Depression of the 1930s. And these solutions are “Green” because they create an economy that makes our communities sustainable and healthy.
It’s time to end unemployment and debt in America. It’s time to transition to a new green economy. It’s time for a Green New Deal.
Jill Stein’s Green New Deal was released on the night of January 25, 2012, with a video address entitled “A People’s State of the Union: A Green New Deal for America.” The Green New Deal is the central platform of the Stein/Honkala ticket. You can learn more about it by reading or viewing the various documents and videos below.
FULL TEXT (CLICK HERE) – The full text of Jill Stein’s People’s State of Union Address: A Green New Deal for America.
SUMMARY (CLICK HERE) - A four-part summary of the Green New Deal, point by point.
PDF FOR PRINTOUT (CLICK HERE) - An 8.5 by 11″ PDF file of the full text and the summary that you can print out for easy reading.
VIDEO (CLICK HERE) - See the full 45 minute video of Jill Stein’s People’s State of the Union Address, issued on January 25, 2011.
Ground Zero offers the opportunity to explore the meaning and practice of nonviolence from a perspective of deep spiritual reflection. Providing a means for witnessing to and resisting all nuclear weapons.
We resist Trident, and work for the abolition of all nuclear weapons. Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action is located at: 16159 Clear Creek Road NW Poulsbo, WA 98370
Seattle Mayor Mike McGuinn issued a statement of apology the next day [after the pepper spray incident November 2011], but Dorli then and now hasn’t been impressed.
“We spoke very briefly, and I told him that he is not in charge of what is going on, that our politicians really have lost control, and this sort of brutality is now endemic all over the United States and is being controlled by Homeland Security, by the FBI, and by the military against the war on terrorism,” she said. “It has nothing to do any longer with what individual mayors may want or not want to do.”
Celebrating thirty-five years of nonviolent resistance to the Trident nuclear weapons system, Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action will honor two of its co-founders, Jim and Shelley Douglass, who will speak at its annual August event at the Ground Zero Center in Kitsap County, Washington.
The theme for the August 4th – 6th event, “NUCLEAR WEAPONS: The Most Inconvenient Truth”, will focus participants on the history, current status, cost, and future plans for more nuclear new subs and missiles.
Rainey, at 84, pepper sprayed in the face at Seattle Occupy, became a “poster child” for the Occupy movement through national media attention to her picture and story. Rainey has been a peace activist for five decades, and has a strong commitment to nonviolence in foreign affairs.
All or any part of the weekend gathering at Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, at 16159 Clear Creek Road NW, Poulsbo, WA is open to anyone interested in the nature and practices of nonviolent action and working toward a nuclear weapons-free world. More information and schedule at http://psnukefree.blogspot.com/p/events.html.
The following report in the Capital Hill Times shows the difference in how the Seattle police are now dealing with protests and protesters. One activist believes it is because of how the police were shamed by what happened to Dorli Rainey last November.
Is the Seattle Police Department learning? A pair of recent protests on the Hill shows two very different strategies from the police
On Friday, June 29, about 100 protesters took to the streets of Capitol Hill in objection to the Seattle Police Department’s handling of a Pride march the weekend before. The protests went off without a hitch, unlike the one that inspired it…
Ian Finkenbinder, a local activist and main organizer for both of the protests, said the main difference between the two protests, and their outcomes, had to do with how they handled them.
The first protest was scheduled, but not heavily advertised other than some e-mails sent to members of the press, and was meant to be more of a flash mob event in which people dance in the streets. The second protest was much more heavily promoted, giving police more time to plan.
Finkenbinder said he thinks one of the main reasons the SPD did not use force Friday was, in part, because of the undeniable presence of the local media, which were largely not present during the first protest. He said it reminded him of the Occupy protests that happened in November when 84-year-old activist Dorli Rainey was pepper sprayed by the SPD.
“The day after Dorli Rainey’s pepper-spraying there was a massive action which shut down the University Bridge and caused incredible traffic snarling in the U district and in Eastlake,” Finkenbinder said. “The cops did nothing. I surmised at the time that it was because there were many many more of us, and they had been pretty severely shamed in the press. I think those elements, to include heavy media presence, definitely discouraged police violence at our latest meeting.”
Kelly O
