The Museum of Flight is presenting An Evening with Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger on Monday, March 8th from 7pm to 9pm in its William M. Allen Theater.

As many Readers may recall, “Sully” Sulenberger is the heroic airline pilot who safely landed US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River in January, 2009. He has over 40 years of flying experience in both commercial and military aviation.

Cost is $10 for non-members and $5 for members.

Here are the details:

WHAT: An evening with “Sully” Sullenberger

WHEN: Monday, Mar 8, 2010: 7:00pm-9:00pm

WHERE: Museum of Flight’s William M. Allen Theater, located at 9404 East Marginal Way S. in Seattle; Phone: 206.764.5720. Located north of Burien and south of downtown Seattle, at the south end of Boeing Field / King County Airport; Exit 158 off Interstate 5. Free Parking adjacent to the museum and Airpark.

INFO: From the museum’s website:

Now a legendary pilot for the dramatic events and emergency landing on the Hudson River of US Airways Flight 1549 in January 2009, Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger, III is a captain for US Airways, an author, and a lecturer. He has over 40 years of flying experience in both commercial and military aviation. A former U.S. Air Force fighter pilot, Sullenberger served as an instructor and Air Line Pilots Association safety chairman, accident investigator and national technical committee member. He has participated in several USAF and National Transportation Board accident investigations. He has a decades-long history of technical and academic contributions to the field of aviation safety.

Here’s a pretty cool video animation that utilizes the audio recording to re-construct the historic crash landing:

Seattleite Julia Bolz will be presenting a photo essay of her work educating boys and girls in Afghanistan at St. Francis’ Parish Hall on Friday, Jan 22nd.

Last May, Julia spoke at St. Francis about “Alternative Strategies to War” (see our previous coverage here), and according to the Ayni Education website:

If you had met Julia in 1998, she was a partner in a downtown Seattle law firm.  Her story of going from a lawyer to a social justice advocate is a story in itself; but, she was greatly affected by the illness of one of her sister’s who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Her illness really affected Julia, who found herself saying, “If I only had 6 months to live, do I like what I’m doing?  Do I like the legacy I’m leaving behind?”  After a great deal of soul searching, Julia decided to take a two-year sabbatical and moved to Africa.  She decided to do something that tugged at her heart-strings – human rights and social justice issues affecting women and children.

Here are the details:

WHAT: “The Peaceful Surge” – Julia Bolz’ photos about her journey building Afghan schools

WHEN: Friday, January 22, from 7-9 pm

WHERE: St. Francis Church, Parish Hall 15226 21st Ave, Burien 98166; enter parking lot from 20th Ave.

INFO: Refreshments will be served and there will also be a bake sale. Please bring ball-point pens to send to the students. Learn more about Julia’s work and how you can help: (donations are tax-deductible) www.aynieducation.org

CONTACT: For more information, contact Annie Phillips at 206-275-1393; St. Francis of Assisi Parish Social Justice contact: Frances Davis • 206-242-4575 ext. 29

From a press release:

Seattleite Mounts Peaceful Surge

Is military escalation the path to peace? What would victory in Afghanistan, look like?

Come find out why one brave woman is stepping up her work educating Afghan boys and girls. Find out what she thinks of the troop surge.

Julia Bolz will update us and show slides of the schools she’s built, the charming kids who attend them, and the village elders who work with her in rural Afghanistan. Friday evening at 7, January 22, at Saint Francis Parish Hall, on 152nd Street and 21st Avenue in Burien. Enter parking lot from 20th Ave.

Refreshments will be served, and there’ll be a bake sale. More items for bake sale are welcome! (come early)…and bring ball-point pens, which are hard to get in Afghanistan, for us to mail to students there.

Learn more about Julia’s work and how you can get involved: www.aynieducation.org Donations are tax-deductible.

Contact: Annie Phillips, 206-275-1393

Sponsored by Southend Neighbors for Peace, and St Francis of Assisi Parish Social Justice.

Scott Kimerer, Chief of Burien Police, will speak to the Burien Lions Club at Noon on Wednesday, Dec. 2nd at Angelo’s Cafe.

Lunch is $13, and the public is invited.

According to Bill Wippel:

He was scheduled to speak on how the County budgets cuts will affect his department.

But this was before the 4 police officers were murdered Sunday morning in Parkland.

I am sure he would appreciate any public support and attendance.

Angelo’s is located at 601 S.W. 153rd Street in Burien; Phone: (206) 244-3555.

Upcoming Lions Club meetings include:

• Dec 9: Its that time again… for the annual Christmas get-together, including a visit from Santa. 6:30pm at Angelos.
• Jan 6: Mike Fosberg, principal of Highline High School, “How 4 classes per day versus 5 is working”.

The B-Town Blog welcomes its latest Advertiser – Burien’s 10th Church of Christ, Scientist’s upcoming guest lecture “Cut Through the Glare – See What’s Real,” featuring Kevin G. Graunke on Saturday, Nov. 7th.

Graunke is a national speaker who will discuss Biblical basis of prayer as a practical way to discover what’s spiritually real.

Here are the details:

WHAT: Christian Science Church lecture “Cut Through the Glare – See What’s Real” featuring Kevin G. Graunke

WHEN: Saturday, Nov. 7th at 2pm

WHERE: Burien Library, 4th St and SW 152nd Street

INFO: For more information, call (206) 439-8069; here’s their press release:

Living life spiritually—and finding deeper meaning

National speaker to discuss Biblical basis of prayer as a practical way to discover what’s spiritually real.

American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, “It is not length of life, but depth of life.” A national speaker coming to this area will discuss how spiritual perception—gained through prayer—can shift our view away from surface appearances toward a more deeply satisfying way of life.

Kevin G. Graunke, a full-time prayer-based healer using the Christian Science system of healing, will present a talk titled “Cut Through the Glare—See What’s Real” at 2:00 p.m. Saturday, November 7, 2009 at the Burien Library, 4th St and SW 152nd Street.

Graunke said, “Everyone has the ability to pray—and even the simplest prayer can take us beneath the surface of everyday life. It takes us to the very center of who we are and how we live. It’s a spiritual approach that moves our thinking and living out of the shallows and limitations of a strictly mortal view and into deeply divine inspiration and spiritual conclusions.”

He continued, “Then we start to see that there’s a divine, all-powerful source of good at work in the lives of everyone—of you and me—right here and now. And that this source of good applies to every aspect of our lives.”

During his talk, Graunke will draw on ideas from the Bible and from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, a book that describes how to find health and healing through practical, spiritual means. He’ll also draw from his own experiences to explain that when we embrace the law of God, of Truth and Love, here and now, we’ve actually engaged the full law and the power of God for ourselves.

As an experienced practitioner and authorized teacher of Christian Science healing, Graunke—who lives in Wisconsin—has helped many people find renewed health and lasting answers to problems of all kinds through the Scriptures as well as in the practical system of healing presented in Science and Health.

In addition to serving as a national speaker for the Christian Science Board of Lectureship, Graunke serves the public through his healing practice and teaching; writing for The Christian Science Journal and Christian Science Sentinel, and audio contributions to the Sentinel’s radio edition.

He added, “Moving our lives out of the shallows of mortal limits brings us clearer, deeper views of who we are as God’s children. As this spiritual perception gets clearer and sharper, we’ll stop measuring life by what’s just on the surface. We’ll cut through the glare. We’ll see what’s real.”

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We doubt that an alleged snow storm will stop a rugged Alaskan crab fisherman from showing up, but keep that in mind for this scheduled event – “Deadliest Catch” star Mike Fourtner will appear at Highline Community College’s Marine Science & Technology Center Saturday, Dec. 13th for two engagements: 11am and 1pm.

There is no charge.

Mike Fourtner, part-time captain and engineer of the Time Bandit on The Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch,” will discuss what it’s like and what it takes to be an Alaskan crab fisherman.

“People always ask me what a typical day consists of and I will definitely dismiss this myth and make it known that on a crab boat, there is no such thing as a typical day,” Fourtner said.

To get a taste of what Fourtner is like, here’s a clip of him going postal after ripping his rain pants:

(let’s hope he doesn’t show up with a gun)

Highline’s MaST Center is located midway between Seattle and Tacoma at 28203 Redondo Beach Drive S.,  in Des Moines (map below).

View Larger Map

“When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, militarism and economic exploitation are incapable of being conquered.”

– Dr. Martin Luther King,
from a speech delivered in 1967

by Mark Neuman

Contemplating the Giant Triplets
I am embarrassed to admit that, at age nine, I knew more about Forrest Tucker and Larry Storch and a TV situation comedy called “F Troop” than I did about the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I know this because I was watching a syndicated repeat of that silly show on the afternoon of April 4, 1968, when a news bulletin cut into regular programming to announce that Dr. King had been shot and killed earlier that day.

I did not know who he was.

I quickly got to know, in part, on the strength of my third and fourth grade teachers at Holy Rosary Elementary School in West Seattle, and then I never forgot.

Our recent handful of years
With an over half-trillion dollar burden set firmly on the backs of Americans not yet born, the powers-that-be recently bailed out the powerful who failed us.

And some number of millions of everyday Americans participated as well, in the pursuit of a piece of the glittering illusion: unbelievably rapidly appreciating equity.

Any number of common desk working brokers and agents just “did what the boss told us” to earn fast, fat commissions.

Regulators, overseers are somewhat difficult to blame. They, too, like the profits, were largely imaginary, nonexistent. Those who existed sat by, quite silent.

Today, a Senator from Illinois engenders, through no fault of his own, racist sentiments from various pockets all about our country.

And this is seven score and three years after the end of the Civil War.

And meanwhile another chunk of trillion has been thrown at a conflagration, a quagmire, in the Middle East that, inarguably, Dr. King would have opposed.

A great speech
And so I bring to you today words earnestly delivered by Dr. King, less than a year before he died. Officially it is titled: “Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam.”

It could quite well be subtitled: “The Giant Triplets Speech.”

It could also be called: “Please Don’t Make Our Country Look Like This in the First Decade of the 21st Century.”

If only all we Americans had recited or read, daily, his powerful words, spoken forty-one years ago:

“When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, militarism and economic exploitation are incapable of being conquered.”

In our modest blog offices it was suggested: Should we post and highlight this speech two days before Election Day?

We “Woodwarded and Bernsteined and Bradleed” this about. Would some be offended? Might some misunderstand?

Perhaps some will.

Some always do.

Any complaints? Send them to me.

Any credit or compliments? They go to Dr. King.

Here is a recording of, in my opinion, a stunning and timeless speech from the greatest and most courageous leader of my lifetime.

When you hear Dr. King’s words, spoken less than a year before he passed, does your heart beat fast?

I should expect and hope it would.

Perhaps your eyes water at certain points.

You’re in good company if they do, I assure.

Never heard this speech before? You are not to blame. We live in a “forget the past” society. Additionally, Dr. King’s other stunning and courageous works, including “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” happen to overshadow his own genius, literary and oratory greatness and prescience displayed at other times in his life.

Does the speech seem familiar? Please give it a listen again, in the relative stillness of this, the day most often set aside for meaningful thought, then send a note to that Social Studies teacher from grade six, your History professor from college, your Speech Coach and thank her or him for the initial introduction.

Send the links to your nephew in the Navy, your sisters from the old sorority, your Aunt in Auburn or Alabama, your boss in Bellevue, your kid in college.

Move it along the internet line to your favorite State Rep or least favorite Congressman, the most ethical attorney you know, or maybe even the least trustworthy scumbag Wall Street suit you are glad you never met, or, perhaps, are sorry you ever did.

Print out Dr. King’s words (we’ll get that link to you soon), fold it up and send them along with warmth in your Holiday greetings later this Autumn.

And so, on this Contemplative Sunday
No matter for whom you wish to loft into office with the fuel of your ballot this Tuesday, I am sure we can all agree, today, on this Contemplative Sunday, the following goal: Let us all, now and in these crucial near years, stare down those Giant and Ugly Triplets and knock them off their high perch for good.

Thanks.

–Mark Neuman
mark@b-townblog.com