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Peaceful protest, violent response – that says it all.

Human politics – from global to local – remain mixed with hatred, dominance and . . . well, dehumanization. We’ve organized ourselves across the planet around one primary principle: the existence of an enemy. The division between “us” and “them” can be based on anything: a difference in race, language, culture – or simply a difference of opinion, which is beginning to happen on campuses across the country, as peaceful, intensely determined protesters, demanding their institutions divest from the Israeli war machine, face violent resistance from police and/or counter-protesters.

Yes, the peaceful protesters are interrupting the status quo – setting up encampments, even occupying university buildings. For instance, at Columbia University, students actually renamed the occupied Hamilton Hall, declaring its new name to be Hind’s Hall, after Hind Rajab, a 6-year-old Palestinian girl killed by Israeli armed forces, along with the rest of her family (and several aid workers), as they were fleeing their home in Gaza. The point of the protests is, indeed, to change the world: to stop U.S., including university, support of the devastating “war” (i.e., carnage). They’re not trying to eliminate an enemy but, rather, illuminate the situation – putting themselves on the line to do so.

Some of the responses to the protests are definitely illuminating. A statement from UCLA’s Palestine Solidarity Encampment, for instance, noted:

“The life-threatening assault we face tonight is nothing less than a horrifying, despicable act of terror. For over seven hours, Zionist aggressors hurled gas canisters, sprayed pepper spray, & threw fireworks and bricks into our encampment. They broke our barriers repeatedly, clearly in an attempt to kill us.”

Furthermore, the account went on:

“Campus safety left within minutes, external security the university hired for ‘backup’ watched, filmed, and laughed on the side as the immediate danger inflicted upon us escalated. Law enforcement simply stood at the edge of the lawn and refused to budge as we screamed for their help. … The university would rather see us dead than divest.”

In other words, those damn students are the enemy. Even when the response to the protests isn’t outright violence, it’s often rhetorically violent, such as GOP Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee calling the protesters terrorists and declaring, “Any student who has promoted terrorism or engaged in terrorist acts on behalf of Hamas should be immediately added to the terrorist watch list and placed on the (Transportation Security Administration) No-Fly List.”

This is utterly linear, minimalist thinking. Critics aren’t engaging in a debate on the nature (and necessity) of war, plunging, with the protesters, into a complex discussion of global politics, military industrialism, and the morality of killing. That’s too much trouble! They’re simply calling the outraged protesters “the enemy” – just a bunch of terrorists, same as Hamas. And yeah, no doubt part of that good old axis of evil.

This is the thinking the protesters are trying to disrupt! Alas, it’s also solidly part of the infrastructure of the status quo. Militarism is baked into the American core. When we’re not waging our own wars, we’re enabling various allies to do so.

As Heidi Peltier, writing at Brown University’s Costs of War Project, points out, regarding this country’s annual budget of nearly $2 trillion:

“Almost half of the U.S. federal discretionary budget is allocated to the Department of Defense and more than half of the discretionary budget goes to ‘defense’ overall, which includes not only the DoD but also nuclear weapons programs within the Department of Energy and additional defense spending in other departments. … As a result, other elements and capacities of the U.S. government and civilian economy have been weakened, and military industries have gained political power. Decades of high levels of military spending have changed U.S. government and society – strengthening its ability to fight wars, while weakening its capacities to perform other core functions. Investments in infrastructure, healthcare, education, and emergency preparedness, for instance, have all suffered as military spending and industry have crowded them out.”

The campus protests around the country, at which, so far, more than 2,000 students have been arrested, primarily address the twisted irony of money. Universities have multi-billion-dollar endowments – donation money – which they then invest in the stock market, in various companies, including . . . well, yeah, weapons manufacturers, like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, and many more. Oh, the mysterious, ironic flow of money!

At New York University, a spokesman there informed protesting students that the university is not divesting from such companies because it needs to maximize its investment returns in order to “help the university fulfill its research and educational mission.” You know, to bring truth and knowledge into the world – for the sake, among others, of the protesters themselves.

American college students are facing this irony head on – at a personal cost. But the cost, as they say, is minimal, compared to the one being paid by Palestinians, and by victims of war all around the world.

Robert Koehler (koehlercw@gmail.com), syndicated by PeaceVoice, is a Chicago award-winning journalist and editor. He is the author of “Courage Grows Strong at the Wound,” and his newly released album of recorded poetry and art work, “Soul Fragments.”

Two Rivers Heritage Museum’s newest exhibit portrays some of the most important and interesting moments and people in East Clark County history and highlights the museum’s authentic artifacts in a way they’ve never been highlighted before.

The museum will hold a public dedication ceremony for the “Pieces of History: An Artifacts Timeline” outdoor timeline exhibit, created by museum volunteers with the assistance of the Vancouver-based Clark County Historical Museum (CCHM), at 5 p.m. Friday, May 31, at Two Rivers Heritage Museum, 1 Durgan St., in Washougal.

“I grew up here in Camas-Washougal, so it’s fun for me to be able to see the county museum and Two Rivers be able to work together to pull this off,” said CCHM Executive director Brad Richardson. “Timelines are nice because they’re little entry points into interest. They hopefully engage people to want to know more about the story. I think it’s just really fun and pretty cool.”

CCHM’s public historian, Katie Bush, and Two Rivers Heritage Museum display committee members Karen and Richard Johnson and Gayle and Ivar Godtlibsen researched and selected the information for the exhibit, then identified objects from the Washougal museum’s archives to represent the timeline’s captions.

“The idea that was spawned by Brad, with his brilliance, was that you have an inventory, and people get to see some of that inventory, but they don’t pay attention to all of it, because it’s too much, and some of it is in the basement,” Richard Johnson said. “So what if you used the objects on a timeline? We went through (the inventory) over and over and over again, trying to make sure we had timeframes and objects that had interesting stories. Then we had to locate them, and that took months and months.”

“It was fun,” Karen Johnson added. “We found out things that we didn’t know, and looked in a lot of boxes and found a lot of stuff we didn’t know we had.”

The timeline was then brought to life by Masako Brachmann (graphic design), Kevin and Curtis Barber of Core Powersports, Missy Fant (photography), J2 Blueprinting (panel printing), Pepper Kim (editor/proofreader), John Kimbrough (timeline stand designer/fabricator), and Tommy Miller (installation), in addition to the Johnsons, the Godlibtsens, Richardson and Bush.

“It’s a lot different than ‘World War I, World War II, Korean (War),’ that kind of thing,” Richard Johnson said. “When people talk about timelines, usually that’s what they’re looking for, these moments of gigantic importance over decades or hundreds of years or whatever. But this is a little different. This is a story about these little objects and when they took place. It’s a continuum of progress as you go along.”

“We’re a heritage museum. We show how people lived,” Karen Johnson added. “It doesn’t have to have really a historical reference as much as a heritage reference. This is such a unique idea. It’s ours, and so personal to us, because (displays) artifacts, and the history is connected to them. It’s ‘pieces of history.’ That pretty much describes it. It’s not a total ‘everything that ever happened’ display.”

Richardson said the project “amplified and accentuated what both organizations bring to the table.”

“We do a lot of exhibits in our own gallery. This timeline is actually modeled after a timeline that we have in our gallery at the museum,” he said. “Our big focus, and the place where we’ve had a lot of opportunity to grow as an organization, is facilitating stakeholder relationships. Our methodology is that we want communities, organizations, and people from all across Clark County to be able to tell their own story, in their own words, on their own terms. We brought the logistical understanding (of how to put a timeline together), and Two Rivers brought the heart and soul of the actual story in history.”

Two Rivers Heritage Museum volunteers began talking about the possibility of implementing a timeline several years ago, according to Richard Johnson.

“(Volunteer) Walt Eby kept telling me to do one inside (the museum),” he said. “We were going to do it on the ramp — Lewis and Clark on one side of the timeline on the other. I thought that was a good idea, but we never got to it. We just didn’t flush it out or think it was as important as the next thing.”

But the idea was revitalized after Richardson and Bush visited Two Rivers Heritage Museum in January 2022 to discuss a “master plan” to fill the outside area at the back of the museum. Two Rivers Heritage Museum volunteers and Richarson wrote a project proposal, which was approved by the Two Rivers Heritage Museum board of directors in March 2022.

“We had come to the realization that we were not equipped to do a timeline,” Karen Johnson added. “We couldn’t do it. But Brad got involved, and had this unique idea about what we could do, inspired by our artifacts, and he said, ‘We can help you with that.’ They had the expertise for a timeline and we had the (local) knowledge. The two had to be melded (to make this happen).”

The timeline was funded by several donations, including $10,000 from the Bernice Pluchos Memorial Fund, which was established after the 2021 passing of former Washougal resident Bernice Pluchos, an early Two Rivers Heritage Museum supporter.

“By (the time the project was approved by the board), we had some grant funds come through,” Richard Johnson said. “We knew we could afford the timeline. (Pre-pandemic), we were open three days a week and were doing OK; we had methods of filling the gap. Then we shut down for COVID, and as we climbed our way back out of it, there were a lot of pent-up nonprofit donations waiting, and they just started flowing again. Some were expanded quite a bit, and (Pluchos) was one of them.”

The timeline display represents the latest collaboration between the two museums, which have partnered during the past several years on a variety of projects, including historical arts and crafts displays at the Camas Library, tours of the Washougal Memorial Cemetery, and the digitization of thousands of Two Rivers Heritage Museum photographs, which were incorporated into Washington State University-Vancuver’s digital photo library.

“I think (our relationship with CCHM has) gotten a lot better,” Richard Johnson said. “We have a better understanding of their mission, our mission, and how to be interconnected. (Thanks to) Brad’s view of CCHM as an umbrella over the top of all of this, it’s undeniable that we will all be stronger if we follow that kind of lead.”

Richardson said that CCHM “100 percent wants to continue to support the work that Two Rivers is doing.”

“I think it’s really important for county museums to support municipal museums, defer to municipal museums, and, when we have an opportunity, provide resources and with the blessings that we have,” he said. “We think there’s a lot of really great future opportunities to keep telling stories out here. At the county museum, we’re 40,000 feet as much as possible, telling broad stories, but Two Rivers is able to tell granular, personal stories and connect with people in the Camas-Washougal area. It’s this really great collaborative partnership to be able to do that together.”

Two Rivers Heritage Museum is open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Saturday through the end of October. For more information, visit 2rhm.com.

Michelle Wright understands firsthand the value of the city of Washougal’s East County Family Resource Center.

That’s why Wright, who recently managed the Center’s remodel, did not view her role as just a job, but rather a way to ensure Washougal residents continue to receive the type of life-altering treatment Wright’s family had to depend on recently.

Wright said “everything changed” when the father of Wright’s son’s girlfriend died in a car accident. The father was the family’s sole supporter, so the young woman dating Wright’s son not only had to learn to live without her dad, but also how to figure out how to secure health insurance, food and money to live on.

“I brought her to the East County social service (building) so we could figure out how to start putting back together the pieces of her life,” Wright said. “(The staff members were) so kind and helped provide the tools to help her find the resources and the support she needed. We are so lucky to have a place like this that can help you when you need it.”

The city of Washougal and Akin, a Seattle-based family service organization, held a ribbon-cutting and open house event May 9, at the East County Family Resource Center in Washougal to celebrate the building renovations and provide community members with information about the programs the social services building houses.

In 2021, the City of Washougal received a $226,500 Community Development Block Grant to fund a project that provided the building with exterior repairs, new roofing, a new HVAC system, interior lighting, new windows, interior and exterior paint, flooring and an exterior Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) public restroom, according to Wright.

After some delays, the project was completed earlier this year.

“The social service building has become the primary facility for low-income and elderly activities for Washougal, Camas and portions of Vancouver, Clark County and Skamania County,” Wright said. “The facility is over 75 years old, and (needed) many repairs to fix many structural deficiencies. These needed repairs and maintenance items will ensure its continued viability.”

The facility has “benefitted the community to a great extent,” according to Washougal City Councilmember Ernie Suggs.

“I think we are the only small city in Clark County that provides a facility so that services like this can be provided to the community,” Washougal City Manager David Scott added. “It’s a super high priority for our council to be able to have this facility to continue to provide the services that we provide here.”

Akin, the building’s primary tenant, provides children and family counseling, treatment for child victims of sexual abuse, family support services — including parent education, parenting classes and family advocate services — and emergency food supplies for individuals and families in need.

Akin was formed earlier this year when two of Washington state’s family services organizations — Childhaven and Children’s Home Society of Washington — combined forces.

“This merger allows us to grow and evolve as one organization, not for the sake of size but for the scope of direct impact in how Akin can partner with parents, caregivers, children and communities, together, to strengthen families,” Akin Chief Executive Officer Dave Newell stated in a news release. “Our connection to families is foundational, yet the existing child well-being system ultimately leads to often unnecessary and harmful family separation through crisis intervention. Instead, we aim to understand the unique stressors and needs of each family to provide more concrete support and ideally prevent that crisis from occurring in the first place.”

The building also houses a branch of the Washington State Department of Health’s Women, Infants and Children program, which supports healthy nutrition for all pregnant and breastfeeding women and children through the age of five, providing services such as health screening, nutrition and health education and breastfeeding support.

The demand for the building’s services has increased over the past few years, according to Akin employee Beverly Skoda.

“This center is really well-supported by the community,” Skoda said. “There would be a lot of people in real dire need that wouldn’t get their needs met if we weren’t here.”

Skoda said the center provides vital services to people living in east Clark County, and noted that finding transportation to Vancouver to receive services can be “a nightmare” for many people.

“Just being out here (to provide services to east Clark County residents) is a huge plus,” Skoda said.

The candidate filing period for the Aug. 6, 2024 Primary and Special Election came to a close May 10, and the final list includes several Camas-Washougal residents hoping to be elected to federal, state and county seats.

The primary race for Washington’s 3rd District congressional seat — now held by Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez — will include Republican challengers Joe Kent, of Vancouver, who lost the seat to Gluesenkamp Perez in November 2022, and Camas City Councilwoman Leslie Lewallen. Camas resident John Saulie-Rohman also has thrown their hat in the ring for the 3rd District seat and will be running as an independent candidate.

The primary race for the District 17, Position 2 state House seat now held by Republican Rep. Paul Harris will include Democratic candidate Terri Niles, of Vancouver, and two Republican candidates — Washougal Mayor David Stuebe, who has said he would like to retain his mayoral seat if elected to the state legislature; and Hannah Joy, of Carson, Washington.

Harris has filed to run as a Republican candidate for Sen. Lynda Wilson’s 17th District state Senate seat. Wilson announced in March that she plans to retire following a 10-year run in the state Legislature. Harris will run against Democratic candidate Marla Keethler, of White Salmon, for the 17th District state Senate seat.

Meanwhile, incumbent state Rep. Kevin Waters, a Republican from Stevenson, will run unopposed for the state Legislature seat he won in November 2022.

At the county level, there are three Camas residents vying for the Clark County Council’s District No. 4 position — including former Camas City Councilwoman Shannon Roberts, who quit her Council position unexpectedly in July 2022, a little more than halfway through her four-year term.

Other candidates competing for the County Council District 4 seat, which represents Camas and Washougal residents, include Peter Cutile, of Camas; Matt Little, of Camas; Dorothy Gasque, of Brush Prairie; and Joe Zimmerman, of Vancouver.

Clark County Elections will mail ballots for the Aug. 6 election no later than July 19, and voters should expect their ballots to arrive by July 25.

The election also includes three propositions important to Camas and Washougal voters:

• Proposition No. 4, a $26 million bond to build a new fire station/headquarters in downtown Camas;

• Proposition 12, a $15.7 million bond to replace the Washougal fire station; and

• Proposition 5, which would authorize a single-year levy lid lift to help fund the East County Fire and Rescue District north of Camas-Washougal.

The deadlines to register or update voter registration are July 29 (online) and Aug. 6 (in-person).

For more information, visit clark.wa.gov/elections/august-6-2024-primary-special-election-0

Silver Star Search and Rescue (SSSR) is settling into its new home north of Camas-Washougal.

The search and rescue group moved into East County Fire and Rescue’s Station 92, located near the intersection of Northeast 292nd Avenue and Northeast Ireland Road north of Camas-Washougal, in October 2023, after the group’s lease with the city of Washougal for a building near the Washougal Police Department expired, forcing the organization to find a new home close to the Washougal area.

“We’re highly relieved that we have a place to keep our equipment,” said SSSR Rescue Coordinator Rick Blevins. “It’s a decent facility for us. It’s fairly secure, and we can still maintain our (machinery). And we can make improvements around here. I just have to talk to the fire chief, and most of the time, he’s pretty good about saying, ‘Yeah, go for it.’”

Formed by a group of CB radio operators in the early 1960s to assist the local sheriff’s department, SSSR had been operating out of its former Washougal headquarters, located at 1220 “A” St., next to the Washougal Police Department, since 1983, when its leaders struck an agreement with the city of Washougal to build a site on city-owned property and to lease that property for the next 35 years.

In 2019, however, the City informed SSSR leaders that their lease, which was set to expire in October 2023, would not be renewed. The City is planning to use the building as a temporary fire station during its fire-police station remodel project, which it hopes to kick off next year if voters OK the construction bond in the Aug. 6 election.

“The problem was that we knew that it was coming, and then COVID hit, and all of our efforts to try and reach out to folks were hindered by the fact that we were simply unable to communicate our dilemma,” said SSSR medical officer Jeff Berner. “We couldn’t meet face to face with folks for a while, which just compounded the issue. Fortunately, the folks (at ECFR) came through for us, and we’re super appreciative.”

Blevins credited the efforts of SSSR board president Wade Oxford, who negotiated a renewable two-year agreement with ECFR, which allowed SSSR to use the station for free.

“They were just using this building for storage (because it’s) not up to standards for the fire department,” Blevins said. “They tried to make it into sleeping quarters, but it doesn’t meet the criteria. There’s no water. There’s no septic tank or anything like that. There’s nothing. This is just a building that can house equipment, that’s all. The equipment that was in here, the chief told me it hadn’t been used for years because it was just stored there. It all got towed out.”

SSSR volunteers respond to wilderness and urban emergencies and perform search-and rescue-missions in Southwest Washington. They cover miles of wilderness while looking for missing hikers, climbers, hunters, or mushroom- and berry-pickers who have been reported overdue and are potentially lost or injured.

“We have close to 30 members, and I would say at least 16 that are really active,” Blevins said. “Our numbers have actually been increasing. I wish we had a bigger facility to hold all of them.”

SSSR volunteers also help city police officers and county sheriff’s deputies search for lost children, people with cognitive difficulties and other at-risk individuals.

“The day we got the letter that confirmed that (the City wasn’t) going to renew the lease, the stress level just went tenfold because we have a lot to deal with,” Blevins said. “Trying to find a place … was very stressful because time was just moving at jet speed all the way. It was like, ‘We’re going to run out of time to do this.’”

SSSR leaders conducted a “moving sale” in September 2023 to unload some of its equipment that it wouldn’t be able to fit in its new facility. They were able to keep some of their furniture, however, relocating it to The Outpost in Washougal.

“(The move) was rough on the team, for sure, because we’ve been in that building for a very long time,” said Jacie Bogar, vice president of the SSSR board of directors. “We had to sell a lot of our stuff because we just don’t have anywhere to put it now, and I know The Outpost has a lot of our tables and furniture and stuff like that. We had been in that building forever, so it’s bittersweet. We have a place now, so we’re very thankful and grateful for that.”

Station 92 is just big enough to house SSSR’s rescue truck — a Ford Super Duty F250, affectionately called “Sasquatch” by the volunteers — snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles and other equipment.

“Parking is tight, but … we do a lot of stuff out towards Skamania, and a lot of the calls are out in the Gorge, so it’s nice to be closer to the highway,” Bogar said. “And we’re very excited to be working with ECFR. We’re looking at setting up some joint training sessions and working together in the future, so that’s exciting. That’s a positive outcome.”

Station 92 doesn’t have any meeting space, however, forcing SSSR board members and volunteers to gather at The Outpost and the Armed Forces Reserve Center in Orchards, where they also sometimes hold training sessions.

“I know eventually, we’d love to have our own building all together again, but I don’t think we’re looking,” Bogar said. “I don’t think we have the means (to do so), or that’s even in discussion at this point. It was really nice to be able to do our training in the same building where we have all of our equipment. But I think right now, we’re just happy to have a place to have all of our equipment and have a new home.”