WSBA World Peace through Law Section Newsletter April 2013

WSBA World Peace through Law Section  April 2013 April 26, 2013: Sunshine Over The Energy Wars: Home Solar In Washington State Join us in this free webcast! Join us for the second brown bag and webinar in our monthly series:"Sunshine Over the Energy Wars: Practical and Legal Aspects of Home Solar in Washington State." Some say the wars of this century will be sparked by resource and energy shortages. What can we and our clients do in a practical way to reduce this risk? What are the legal aspects?    A panel led by Kevin Moen of Solterra Systems will discuss the practical side of home solar (net energy production, how easy/hard to install) and the legal side (taxes, permits, restrictive covenants, what's going on in Olympia this year). When:  Friday, April 26, 2013 Noon - 1 p.m. Where: In-person: WSBA offices 1325 4th Ave., Ste. 600 Seattle In-person attendees may bring their lunch to the discussion. Webinar: Instructions to follow upon RSVP. RSVP:  sections@wsba.org by April 22. Please indicate if you are attending in-person or via webinar.  Feel free to invite colleagues to view this program with you; they don't have to be Section members although if they like what they see, we hope they join the Section!  The handouts and other materials will be posted on the Event Materials page on the World Peace Through Law Section website. Future Programs - Save The Date! WPTL plans to webcast on the final friday of each month, noon to 1 p.m. Webinars allow Section members who may live anywhere in our state or beyond to participate. We are actively recruiting panels for more subjects and welcome your suggestions. For more information about the sections and its activities, visit The Section Web Page. We hope to see you there!   Pro Bono Opportunities with Immigrants and Refugees:Yes You Can! Jordan Wasserman If you missed last month's webcast, "Pro Bono Opportunities with Immigrants and Refugees: Yes You Can!", don't worry! A recording and the handouts are now available on the Section's Course Materials page. Watch Jordan S. Wasserman, pro bono coordinating attorney atNorthwest Immigrant Rights Project, and other attorneys describe how you can make an immediate contribution to the cause of peace by providing pro bono services to refugees and immigrants. Join them - you'll be glad you did! June 22, 2013: Litigating the Right to Peace Luis Roberto Zamora Bolaños Preparations continue on our program "Litigating the Right to Peace," featuring AttorneyLuis Roberto Zamora Bolaños, on Saturday, June 22, 2013 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Seattle University School of Law. You can pre-register now through this web link.   In this program, attorney Luis Roberto Zamora Bolaños discusses the legal basis of a right to peace and its successful use in litigation. Main topics include his successful litigation against governmental practices violating Costa Rica's "Peace Constitution," describe use of an international forum, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, to protect and institutionalize the right to peace, and cooperation with Japanese lawyers and peace organizations to safeguard Article 9 ("Peace Article") of Japan's Constitution.Learn more here.    Please join us for a social immediately following the program. This program is open to the public but pre-registration is important to help with the head-count.   This Section is cooperating with numerous other groups, including the local chapter of the National Lawyers Guild and the Arizona State Bar Association World Peace Through Law Section; to help keep this event free and open to the public, Section members will be needed to volunteer to help out; please contact Event Chair Martha Schmidt.   Credit: Approved for 2 live general CLE credits.   Makers: Women Who Made America Women are the majority of humanity; women's rights are human rights and women's history is human history.    Fifty years after Betty Friedan'sThe Feminine Mystique first publicized "the problem that had no name" -- the widespread unhappiness of many women limited by traditional female roles and few options for meaningful work outside the family -- full equality for women has yet to be attained.    Learning the history can be helpful. Longtime Section member and author Robin Lindley has interviewed Professor Betsy West, executive producer Makers: Women Who Made America, the first major documentary on the history of the women's movement and how it has transformed our nation.  You can read the interview at Making the Historical Documentary "Makers"; then see the documentary here.  From the Chair:  The Black Watch Every day, we meet or pass by survivors and victims of our failure to achieve peace through law. While the targets of our bombs and shells are a focus of our attention, We The People of These United States bear special responsibility to our service members, veterans and their families, who went at our order to do what they did.    That most readers of these words opposed those orders frees us from responsibility not at all. Yet today's professional military is separate from most civilians, in some ways a caste of untouchables whose experiences we cannot understand although we try to sympathesize and help.    In this context, let me recommend the award-winning play Black Watch, which runs in Seattle April 25 - May 5th. Based on interviews with the men of one of the oldest and proudest infantry divisions in the world, sent to Iraq at the height of the insurgency, it provides insight into the military subculture. Understanding is necessary to effective service for peace! Post-show programs feature conversations with cast and service members; the May 5th post-show features Congressman and Navy veteran Jim McDermott, winner of this Section's Ralph Bunche Award for his opposition to the invasion and other work for peace through law. I hope to see you there! --- REW   This is a publication of a section of the Washington State Bar Association. All opinions and comments represent the views of the authors and are not necessarily endorsed by WSBA, its officers or agents.  IN THIS ISSUE * Sunshine Over The Energy Wars * Follow-up To March 29 Program * June 22 CLE: Litigating the Right to Peace * Makers: Women Who Made America * The Black Watch "The non-violent approach does not immediately change the hearts of the oppressor.   It first does something to the hearts and souls of those committed to it.   It gives them a new self-respect; it calls up resources of strength and courage that they did not know they had.   Finally, it reaches the opponent and so stirs his conscience that reconciliation becomes a reality."    - Rev. Martin Luther King "Stride towards Freedom" Section Leadership Chair Randy Winn Chair-Elect Nandini Rao Immediate Past Chair Patricia Paul Secretary-Treasurer Jana Heyd Executive Committee Chalia Stallings-Ala'ilima Lisa von Trotha Newsletter  Randy Winn Board of Governors Liaison   Dan Ford Contact Us! http://www.wsba.org/Legal-Community/Sections/World-Peace-Through-Law-Section - or -  WSBA Service Center 800-945-WSBA (9722) 206-443-WSBA (9722) Images (c) Constant Contact, Wikimedia, WSBA. Used with permission.

Rainwise Rebate for Raingarden and Cisterns

 My cistern and rain garden, which keep the runoff from my roof from going into our mixed stormdrain/sewer pipes, was paid for in part by the "Rainwise" program. It is intended to reduce the cost of wastewater treatment by, essentially, recruiting homeowners to treat the water off our own roof and send it directly into the soil, as it went before my roof was built, instead of flowing into the utility's system. They tell me that it controls enough water to pay for itself in 5 years and after that, it's pure profit (or cost avoided) to the utility, while homeowners like myself get the benefit of the gardens and cisterns. It's a great example of a reasonable public/private partnership.

My system controls over 1,000 (one thousand) square feet of roof so it looks like I got about $3 per square foot.

Chard And Strawberries Snuggling In Our Yard

Chard and Strawberries
Seem to play together nicely!

Today I saw that the white strawberry I planted last fall is flourishing under the chard I started from seed around the same time (give or take a few months.) Both survived our mild winter quite well and are leaping into spring, but at different heights. They seem to take the sunlight at different heights and seem to be playing together nicely. 

I take a leaf from each chard plant about once a week, sometimes cooking it in soup, sometimes eating it raw in salad. The strawberries feed us on a different schedule; I'm looking forward to making a salad with both ingredients.

The economics work out well; the chard came from a packet of seeds, and I could have grown the strawberry from an inexpensive packet of bare roots. In this case, I was impatient and bought a small plant for a few dollars; I don't regret this because we got yummy strawberries within a very short time!

In addition to the food, these plants are nice to look at and a much less work than mowing grass!

Hair Donation Time!

Saturday I went to our local barbership to have my ponytail cut off.
I grow it out so that every couple of years, I can cut it off and send it to a charity that makes wigs for kids undergoing chemo. It's an easy thing to do, but it means that I don't see the barber very often.
Last time I did this, my niece Taryn was in hair school, and did the cut as a training project. She did a great job!
This year, she's busy working and I didn't want to take her time away from her business; also I want to check out a local barber in our neighborhood. It's Platinum Cuts & Styles at 9434 Delridge Way S.W., right next to the Triangle Tavern that I visit every couple of weeks, but I'd never been in the barbershop.
I'm no expert on the barbering profession, but I'm very happy with the results.I got a very good haircut, complete with a couple applications of hot towels and a lot of snipping and detail work. The "after" photo unfortunately caught the barber with a blank expression, but he was really quite bright an animated throughout the process. I would recommend the place without hesitation, and fully intend to get my next haircut there. However, that might not be for the next year or so!