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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Highline Community College’s Marine Science and Technology Center (MaST), located on Redondo Beach in Des Moines (map below), is holding a “Science on the Sound” speaker series beginning Saturday, Feb. 7th.

“Science on the Sound” is a semi-monthly seminar that features experts discussing issues pertinent to the Puget Sound and the region.

Upcoming speakers for Science on the Sound include:

Feb. 7: Sea Otter Recovery
: Caroline Hempstead, who specializes in marine mammals at the Seattle Aquarium, discusses efforts to establish a permanent population of sea otters on the Washington coast.

Feb. 21: Oceans and Human Health
: Usha Varanasi, director of Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, discusses the importance of healthy oceans to our personal health and the health of our societies.

March 7: Puget Sound Octopus
: Learn the basics of octopus anatomy and behavior from Seattle Aquarium naturalist Giovannina Souers. She will also share stories about octopuses at the Seattle Aquarium.

March 21: Working the Sea, Writing the Sea: 
Writer and sailor Holly Hughes will share her experiences of living and working on the sea, as well as her writing and poetry.

Sponsored by: HCC’s Marine Science and Technology Center (MaST)

Here are the details:

WHAT: Science on the Sound speaker series

WHEN: Feb. 7 and 21; March 7 and 21, Noon to 1 p.m.

COST: FREE

WHERE: Highline’s MaST Center is located on Redondo Beach in Des Moines; address: 28203 Redondo Beach Drive S., Des Moines, WA 98198.

INFO: www.highline.edu/mast/

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by Josh Hart

Well 2009 is almost here and many are wondering what will be in store for the upcoming year.

• What will change from this year?
• What needs to change?
• What do we want to change?
• With everything that is going on in the area what will be the most significant?

In the following article I am going to attempt to answer all these questions for you.

The only difference – I’m doing it as if I were your Mayor.

Now, imagine me standing behind a podium, in the middle of town on a crisp winter day, giving you my annual “State of the City” address (oh, and pretend there’s reverb on my voice as you read this):

2008 was a good year for all.

First Avenue and surrounding streets had a lot of construction, but the result so far was a good one.

Southcenter was remodeled and now it is a huge mall.  With Christmas season here, that is going to help traffic in the mall. I still worry about the parking though, not to mention the recent gang-related shooting. But I have faith that mall security will keep all shoppers safe.

The Sonics are gone now and that means that Seattle Center will have 12,000 less people three nights a week.

The first phase of the Burien Town Square is nearing completion and that should be a great thing for all who live in Burien.

Also, the light rail is coming to Tukwila towards the end of 2009 and that will help commuters get from home to work and back more efficiently. The bus systems have been approved to change, terminate, and install routes. The biggest change in the buses is probably the buses that run along Pacific Highway. They are planning on taking out many of the buses that run on Pac Highway for the new RapidRide A-Line.

The RapidRide will come every 10-15 minutes and run along Pac Highway. They are planning to change this by the end of 2009.

With all these changes in 2008 what can we do in 2009 to make our community a better place for all of us?

Some of the changes I would make are to change the bus routes. I don’t think that we need to modify the Pacific Highway buses, but I think that we need to make more buses go through Des Moines as well as from Sea-Tac Airport to Highline Community College. This would affect Burien, Sea-Tac, and Des Moines. It would help people get around and would reduce traffic. I have always wanted a bus or shuttle through Des Moines to get around on. At the moment they only have a few buses that go through Des Moines and they come every hour. Even if they changed it to every half an hour that would be beneficial also. I would also lower the fares on the bus. They originally raised them to compensate for gas prices.

But now that gas prices have lowered, bus fares need to be lowered again. It now costs over two dollars to go from Seattle to Burien. This can add up to over eleven dollars a week. This can be worse than gas prices for the transit commuters.

Another thing I would change is to put something along Pac Highway, perhaps a plaza or a nice park to clean up the area. If we do this it will bring more people to the Highway, which, in turn will help clean up the area. We need to this because the area is not the safest and it is also a bad first impression for tourists from the Sea-Tac Airport. Do we really want to have tourists come and the first street they drive on is the current Pacific Highway? If we clean this up we will also get more tourists. Tourists benefit the community massively: they buy from local small businesses, which in turn benefits the entire community.

Things can change, starting with you – each and every person has an opportunity to propose ideas to their mayor. You can do this by sending a letter to their mayor.

So if you want to see change or have ideas for change just send a letter to your mayor (or wait to talk with me right after my speech…):

BURIEN:

Mayor Joan McGilton
Phone: (206) 248-5515
Email: joanm@burienwa.gov

NORMANDY PARK:

Mayor Pro Tem George Hadley
Phone: (206) 248-7603
Email: george.hadley@ci.normandy-park.wa.us

SEA-TAC:

Mayor Ralph Shape
Phone: (206) 973-4800
Email: rshape@ci.seatac.wa.us

TUKWILA:

Mayor Jim Haggerton
Phone: (206) 433-1800
Email: tukmayor@ci.tukwila.wa.us

DES MOINES:

Mayor Bob Sheckler
Phone: (206) 878-4595
Email: citycouncil@desmoineswa.gov

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Josh Hart is the B-Town Blog's first Intern! He's also a 15-year old student at Highline's “Big Picture High School” in SeaTac. He recently wrote on the economy, about JFK beating Highline 61-0 in football, an opinion piece on the VP debate, a story on Mt. Rainier High's Drill Team playing at the Seahawks' Halftime, a story on a Fight at the Tyee vs Rention Football Game and much more...]

“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

Avast ye mateys…Friday, Sept. 19th be National International “Talk Like A Pirate Day,” and here be a (pieces of) 8 list o’what ye should be doin’ ta’ celebrate it in the general B-Town ‘hood:

1. First, get yer booty up ta’ Party City an’ get yerself a pirate costume (just don’t ferget ye ol’ plastic parrot for ye shoulder)
2. Strut ’round Olde Burien in full pirate regalia, sayin’ things a pirate would to th’ local merchants (pirate lexicon & tips available here)
3. Go buy some new food fer yer hungry plastic shoulder parrot at Wild Birds Unlimited next ta’ Trader Joe’s
4. Rush into Trader Joe’s in full costume and ridicule the whole “where’s the monkey hiding” kid’s game really loudly in pirate speak (yet makin’ sure ta’ videotape it an’ sendin’ us yer YouTube link fer postin’!)
5. Go cheer on ye ol’ local high school football team, the Highline Pirates (“Arrgh Team!”) as they take on Mt. Rainier at 7pm at Highline Stadium
6. Go see one o’ the final performances of the Hi-Liners’ Peter Pan (showtime be 7:30pm; buy yer tix here ya scurvy dog!)
7. Drive slowly around SW 152nd near Lake Burien in hopes of findin’ ye Seafair Pirates’ “Moby Duck” amphibious mascot vehicle that be known ta’ hang ’round these here parts; if ye find it, be sure’n take pix of yeself wit’ it ta’ send us
8. Watch this video to learn how ye too can be talkin’ like a pirate in no time:

From BTB Advertiser Philip Kelley comes this joke:

Arrrgh! I loves Pirates. So in honor of Talk like a Prate Day, I thought I’d share one o’my favorite Pirate jokes with you worthless landlubbers:

Two Pirates are talking over their tankards of dark rum, one sez to the other “Ayyy, those are mighty nice earrings you’ve got there Pegleg Pete.”

“Oh, thanks. I bought these off’a one-eyed Spaniard in New Orleans; paid two dollars for ‘em.”

“Arrrgh, that’s a pretty good deal for a buccaneer.”

Avast, that’s funny.

PK

Dr. Mehmet Oz, a regular on The Oprah Winfrey Show and one of the world’s most influential people according to Time magazine, will be the featured speaker at Highline Medical Center’s Women’s Wellness Event called “Live Healthy. Stay Young.”

The event takes place Saturday, October 4 from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Hilton Seattle Airport & Conference Center in SeaTac.

“We wanted to create an event that would give the women of our community an opportunity to learn strategies for staying healthy,” said Mara Burke, director of community relations for Highline Medical Center. “Our goal is for every woman who attends this event to come away with valuable information that is meaningful in her life. We couldn’t think of a better way to do that than to bring Dr. Oz to Seattle and pair him with a dozen other medical experts.”

Event guests will enjoy their choice thought-provoking health workshops, the keynote by Dr. Oz, continental breakfast and lunch, and their own copy of Dr. Oz’s latest book YOU: Staying Young for an all-inclusive $90 registration fee. Workshops cover a wide and relevant range of topics for women at every age and life stage. From the power of positive nutrition to strategies for restful sleep to coping with menopause gracefully, this event promises to answer women’s pressing health and aging questions in candid, compelling, and useful ways.

Visit www.LiveHealthyStayYoung.com to download a brochure with class descriptions. Seats for this event are limited. Advance purchase is required. Call 206-695-5544 to claim your place at your workshops of choice and register.

Burke said that this event is part of the 50th anniversary activities in motion to honor Highline’s half-century of growth and commitment to healthy living and compassionate care. Highline opened its doors as Burien Community Hospital 50 years ago and has since grown into an award-winning, comprehensive medical center. The presenting sponsor for the event is KeyBank. Other sponsors include Puget Sound Health Partners, BECU, Burien Toyota/Burien Chevrolet, Albertsons/Supervalu, Powell Brothers and Alaska Airlines.

About Highline Medical Center
Highline Medical Center includes two healthcare campuses and more than 20 clinics across Southwest King County. From orthopedic surgery to obstetrics, from heart care to home health, you’ll find it at Highline. We offer access to leading medical experts supported by sophisticated technology. And through our progressive Planetree model of care, we are committed to caring for each patient and his or her family with genuine respect, understanding and compassion. Learn more at www.highlinemedicalcenter.org

Just received word from the Highline School District that an actual Astronaut will be visiting Aviation High School in Des Moines tomorrow (Wed. Sept. 17th).

Hank Hartsfield is a former Air Force pilot, Shuttle pilot, and spacecraft commander, logging over 6,000 hours in jet aircraft and almost 500 hours in space over three space flights.

He joined the ranks of NASA in 1969 and, in addition to his work as pilot and commander, has served in a variety of capacities including:

• Astronaut support crew (Apollo 16 and Skylab 2, 3, and 4 missions)
• Backup pilot
• Deputy Director for Flight Crew Operations
• Director of the Technical Integration and Analysis Division
• Deputy Manager for the Space Station Projects Office
• Manager, International Space Station Independent Assessment

Hartsfield will be visiting Aviation High School, which is located at 615 South 200th Street, Des Moines (map below) on Wed. Sept. 17th, from 9:15am to 10:15am.

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Do you get anxious in social situations?

Are you emotionally drained by big crowds?

Then you may be shy, like the young man actor Dick York (the original Darrin Stevens in “Bewitched“) portrayed in this classic 1950s-era film:

According to speaker and shyness expert Frank Selden, the good news is that shy people have some fantastic qualities they can access to transform to more social people.

Selden will share his secrets for shedding shyness during his “From Super Shy to Genuinely Gregarious” presentation at the special Thursday evening, May 29th, Des Moines Soundwaves Toastmasters 7pm meeting.

This free presentation is open to the public at the Wesley Homes Administration Building-Board Room, 21631 11th Avenue South, which is located across from City Hall in Des Moines, WA.

Selden knows from experience what it’s like to be shy. “Before Toastmasters I was scared to talk to people. I wanted to get to know people and wanted people to know me, but couldn’t do it. Now you can’t get me to be quiet!” he stated.

His “From Super Shy to Genuinely Gregarious,” presentation offers four steps for feeling more comfortable and adventurous in social situations.

An estate and tax-planning attorney based in Bellevue, WA, Selden has achieved the status of Advanced Toastmaster Gold through his membership in Toastmasters International. Selden is also the author of “Finding Faith in the Fury,” a non-fiction account of his experience as a Jag officer with the Washington National Guard while stationed in Iraq.

Toastmasters International, headquartered in Mission Viejo, CA, is a non-profit organization comprised of a worldwide network of clubs dedicated to fostering self-confidence and personal growth through public speaking and leadership opportunities.

Contact Lorylee Lejon at 253-839-9982 for more information.

WHAT: “From Super Shy to Genuinely Gregarious” presentation by Frank Selden

WHEN: Thursday, May 29th at 7pm

WHERE: Des Moines Toastmasters, at Wesley Homes Administration Building-Board Room, 21631 11th Avenue South

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