Compass

Summer is upon us with warm sunny weather, and the waters of the Olympic shore beckon boaters of every stripe to come play. So this week on the Compass we reprise a show produced previously by KPTZ DJ Chris Bricker on the subject of kayak safety. This program was originally motivated by the tragic deaths of two kayakers off the Dungeness Spit when the weather suddenly turned bad in April of 2015, and now from recent incidents over past months, such as the rowing tragedy with the Iowa State Crew Club on March 29, and the most recent Coast Guard rescue Southeast of the Dungeness spit on March 28th. Mermaid Keri introduces.

We talk with talented local actors who performed some extraordinary, live, one-person shows … and we tell you how you can watch each of these performances over a four-week span … at a ridiculously low price.

It’s been a little more than a year now since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down entire sectors of the economy and threw millions of lives into crisis around the world. With the creation in March of 2020 of its COVID Response and Recovery Fund, which was promptly backed by a broad show of community support, the Jefferson Community Foundation stepped into the breach locally. This week on the Compass, we talk with the Foundation’s Nonprofit Relationships Manager Jen Kingfisher about that fund in an effort to find out the level and areas of ongoing need.

We take a walk down memory lane with Janette Force, Executive Director of the Port Townsend Film Festival, who will be retiring from that job later this year. She talks about rain, the movie stars and other things.

As Jefferson County leads the state of Washington in the rush to get vaccinated against COVID-19, it is clear that there is a widespread urge to get back to the kind of normal where we can all once again mingle freely, perhaps imbibe some brew, and maybe even talk about old times. In honor of that sentiment, this week on the Compass we bring back a show first aired on April 15, 2013, about a gathering organized at that time to reminisce about Port Townsend’s legendary Town Tavern of the 1970s.

The Ground Zero Center for Non-Violent Action borders the Navy’s Trident submarine base at Bangor. In August of 2019, KPTZ attended the Buddhist ground purification ceremony for a soon-to-be-built Peace Pagoda at the Center. And it was there that we encountered two of the many extraordinary individuals in attendance.

• Jim Douglas, former Theology professor, who along with his wife, Shelley, was part of a group of non-violent activists in the Northwest that formed the Pacific Life Community in 1975. Later, he and Shelley became co-founders of the Ground Zero Center in Poulsbo.
• Gilberto Perez grew up in the streets of Spanish Harlem. His personal journey took him along open paths of discovery across this country as our nation rocked from the turbulent but enlightening times of the ‘60’s and ‘70s. Eventually Gilberto became a Monk of the Nipponzan Myohoji Dojo on Bainbridge Island.

These are their stories…

We give you yet another 100 percent virus-free program, as we talk with a local philosopher – yes, there ARE such animals – and explore a multi-media program he presented at the Jefferson County Library in Port Hadlock. It was called “Seriously Funny: Humor, Film and Philosophy.” This is a reprise of a previously aired program, but good philosophy is a fruit that never goes bad.

On the tenth anniversary of the commencement of the world’s worst nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi, Japan, this week we talk with Arnie and Maggie Gundersen, perhaps the world’s pre-eminent experts on nuclear safety, about a disaster that continues to unfold and for which an end is not yet in sight.

In a narrow 5-4 ruling, the Washington State Supreme Court recently declared the state’s felony drug possession law unconstitutional because it did not require proof that the accused knowingly or intentionally possessed the drugs. This week on the Compass, we talk with Jefferson County Prosecutor James Kennedy and then with Public Defender Richard Davies about the effects of the ruling, and for their opinions on how replacement legislation should differ from the rejected law, or if there should even be a replacement.

Everyone needs a safe, decent, stable place to live. For some of the most vulnerable people in America — for the homeless — living on the street is not so much a choice as much as it is part of a crisis. This week on the Compass, we bring you a special program called Homeless Voices. Voices from the shelter, a Voice from a wooden tent, a Voice from the woods.  These are the voices of your neighbors…

We’re wondering if you’re just as sick and tired of hearing depressing news as we are. If so, we give you a 100 percent virus-free program today, as we focus on happy science in three short, reprised interviews with the experts. First, we learn about the surprising powers of your heart to bring you peace, love, truth and joy. Then we talk with a neuroscientist about how music can have almost magical healing effects on the brain. And we finish with a geologist who finds clues to the past by looking at stone buildings in Seattle and Port Townsend.

In mid-November of last year, our district’s Democratic U.S. Congressman Derek Kilmer was given the inaugural Convergence Award for Extraordinary Leadership in Bridge-Building for heading up multiple bipartisan initiatives during a time of historically deep divisions between the parties. This week on the Compass we talk with Representative Kilmer about working in Washington in the toxic atmosphere surrounding the January 6 insurrection and the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump, along with other issues from the climate change crisis to the new pandemic stimulus bill.

In early August of 2019, KPTZ reporter Chris Bricker had the opportunity to speak with author and activist Mary Wynn Ashford M.D., who has been a leader in the international peace and disarmament movement for several decades. The conversation has significance for our community now, because of ongoing efforts of local activist and anti-nuclear advocate, Doug Milholland in a proclamation announced recently by the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners, as had the Port Townsend City Council and the Jefferson County Board of Health done before them, in support of the the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

The Treaty was adopted on July 7, 2017, opened for signature on September 20, 2017, and entered into force on January 22, 2021. It has now been signed by 50 nations. The Board’s Proclamation encourages the United States to participate. January 22, 2021 was declared by the Board of Commissioners a day of celebration and support of this historic milestone. KPTZ is pleased to reprise our timely conversation with Mary Wynn Ashford.

This week on the Compass we once again talk with Jefferson County Public Health Officer Dr. Tom Locke as he tries to recruit volunteers to help with a mass vaccination campaign against COVID-19 – when and if the plentiful supply of vaccine required for such a campaign becomes available. We also talk with him about a proposal to completely overhaul Washington’s public health system now before the state legislature that, if passed, would relegate county health officers like him to the dustbin of history.

With the rapid climb to the top of New York Times bestseller list in 2018 of his book How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence, author and journalist Michael Pollan managed to crack open a door that had been slammed shut on psychedelic drugs in the 1970s as part of the culture wars that were raging in the nation at that time.

In the two years since the book’s publication, several municipalities have taken steps to decriminalize the class of drugs that in multiple studies have been show not only to be safe, but beneficial in treating a wide range of conditions, from addiction to reducing the anxiety of facing mortality.

After the recent first arrest in Jefferson County for possession of psychedelic mushrooms in more than twenty years, a local group calling itself the Port Townsend Psychedelic Society is calling for the city and county to join the decriminalization movement by adopting a resolution defunding the pursuit or prosecution of such cases. Today on the Compass, we talk with one of the co-founders of the group, Erin Reading.

Everyone has their own methods of coping with stress during this pandemic, but here’s one you probably haven’t tried yet … tracking wild animals. That’s what works for Sarah Spaeth, director of conservation and strategic partnerships for Jefferson Land Trust. This week on the Compass, we speak with Sarah about how she does it, why she does it, and how the wild animals react when she finally tracks them down.

How can you have fun while helping to save the planet? This week on the Compass we talk with retired glaciologist and erstwhile gamemaster Bob Bindschadler about sustainability organization Local 20/20’s decision to sponsor another bracing round of the Taming Bigfoot Contest, a friendly competition among teams of like-minded individuals to measure and then reduce their personal carbon footprints that originally took place in Eastern Jefferson County in early 2016.

Everyone needs a safe, decent, and stable place to live. For some of the most vulnerable people in America – people suffering from mental illness, chronic health conditions, trauma, addiction, or just the plain bad luck of circumstance – a simple transitional space to live gives them a chance to breath and regroup. As a special Christmas Day broadcast, KPTZ Compass host Chris Bricker spoke with seven key players from the Community Build Project. They’re part of a dedicated group of volunteers who have targeted twelve 8×12 foot wooden structures called “wooden tents” (or Tiny Houses) for Christmas Day as completion date. Chris and the panel discuss the Project’s evolution and the reasons behind this valuable community resource. All the buildings are now at the new site, which is property owned by Community United Methodist Church in Port Hadlock. The village is called Peter’s Place, named after the local catalyst for the project, Peter Bonyun.

Everyone needs a safe, decent, and stable place to live. For some of the most vulnerable people in America – people suffering from mental illness, chronic health conditions, trauma, addiction, or just the plain bad luck of circumstance – a simple transitional space to live gives them a chance to breath and regroup.  

As a special Christmas Day broadcast, KPTZ Compass host Chris Bricker spoke with seven key players from the Community Build Project. They’re part of a dedicated group of volunteers who have targeted twelve 8×12 foot wooden structures called “wooden tents” (or Tiny Houses) for Christmas Day as completion date. Chris and the panel discuss the Project’s evolution and the reasons behind this valuable community resource.

All the buildings are now at the new site, which is property owned by Community United Methodist Church in Port Hadlock. The village is called Peter’s Place,  named after the local catalyst for the project, Peter Bonyun.

Last week two vaccines developed in record-smashing time were rolled out nationwide to address the COVID-19 pandemic just as infections, hospitalizations, and deaths from the disease also hit new records worldwide. At the same time, there has been a different kind of viral spread of questionable information about the disease, its treatment, and the new vaccines.

This week on the Compass we talk once again with Jefferson County Public Health Officer Dr. Tom Locke, who addresses a couple of the videos that have gone viral online, and then we talk about the local roll-out of the vaccine.

‘Tis the season to be jolly, but not every child will have a present to open this Christmas morning. The people and businesses of Jefferson County are doing their best to help. You may have noticed a bus filled to the top with toys recently in the Safeway store parking lot. This week on the Compass, we talk with Don Olsen, coordinator of the Jefferson County Toys for Tots program.

What with all of the commotion around the Presidential race and the ongoing battle for control of the U.S. Senate, you can’t be blamed if you somehow missed what may turn out to be the most historic ballot measure passed in the 2020 General Election. That would, of course, be Oregon’s Measure 110, which dealt a death blow to the War on Drugs in that state by decriminalizing the possession of all drugs, while dedicating tax revenues from the sale of cannabis products to drug addiction rehabilitation services, thus moving substance abuse problems firmly into the realm of public health and out of the criminal justice system.

This week on the Compass we get the thoughts on the Oregon ballot measure of two local experts – Public Defender Richard Davies and Jefferson County Health Officer Dr. Tom Locke – on how society addresses drug abuse issues.

As the Olympic Peninsula, in lock-step with most of the nation, enters a new period of elevated risk for COVID-19, with the threat of an overwhelmed health-care system being forced to ration care, this week on the Compass we bring back Jefferson County Public Health Officer Dr. Tom Locke to talk about the safest path forward.

On this week’s Compass we have a conversation with KPTZ News Director Steve Evans, who’s wearing another hat this time – as Vice-Chair of COAST, the Community Outreach Association Shelter Team, to talk about the history and the odyssey of Port Townsend’s shelter for the homeless. In partership with Olympic Community Action Programs (OLYCAP), together they offer services and support to community members and to those who can’t fend for themselves. And it’s all done with respect and kindness.

Later we have a frank and inspiring conversation with Kathy Morgan, Housing and Community Development Director at OlyCAP, and she gives us an honest prognosis for the homeless and disadvantaged in our community, and how we can be solutions for shelter and advocacy in each of or own ways.

This week on the Compass, we ask the question: Are Murder Hornets coming to Port Townsend? Could they already be here? Hundreds of possible encounters with the world’s largest and most aggressive hornet have been reported throughout the Puget Sound area. To get the facts, we join a press conference with the Washington State Department of Agriculture.

This week on the Compass, exhausted and heartsick over the pandemic, a faltering economy, and particularly from the bitter divide that has ended with a sitting president for the first time in American history refusing to concede his loss in a closely-monitored election, we look to the peace church known as the Society of Friends, but better known as the Quakers, for some ideas about what we can celebrate as we approach Thanksgiving Day, and about the path to reconciliation in a divided land.