Replacing just 20% of global beef consumption with a meat substitute within the next 30 years could halve deforestation and the carbon emissions associated with it, finds a modelling study.
The findings, published in Nature on 4 May1, come one month after the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that humanity is nowhere near on track to limit global warming to 1.5 ºC above pre-industrial levels.
Beef farming is a top driver of deforestation worldwide, and cattle raised for beef are a major source of methane, a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Replacing beef with meat alternatives could reduce some of the food production’s environmental footprint, but it won’t solve the climate crisis, says study lead author Florian Humpenöder, a sustainability scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. “It should not be seen as a silver bullet,” he says.Meet the food pioneer whose meat replacements are rocking the gravy boat
Previous research has shown that replacing beef with a meatless alternative called mycoprotein can have beneficial effects on the environment. Produced in steel tanks by fermenting a soil-dwelling fungus with glucose and other nutrients as a food source, mycoprotein is a meat substitute that made its debut in the United Kingdom in the 1980s under the brand name Quorn and is now readily available in many countries.
Humpenöder and his colleagues are the first to estimate the environmental effects of partially replacing beef with mycoprotein over time, says Franziska Gaupp, who studies food systems at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. Previous analyses didn’t take into account changes in population growth, food demand and other socio-economic factors.
The team used a mathematical model that considered increases in population growth, income and livestock demand between 2020 and 2050. Under a business-as-usual scenario, the global increase in beef consumption would require the expansion of pasture areas for grazing and of cropland for feed production, which would double the annual rate of deforestation globally. Methane emissions and agricultural water use would also increase.
Source: Ref. 1
Replacing 20% of the world’s per-capita beef consumption with mycoprotein by 2050 would reduce methane emissions by 11% and halve the annual deforestation and associated emissions, compared with the business-as-usual scenario (see ‘Meat substitution’). The mitigating effects on deforestation are so great because, under this scenario, global demand for beef does not increase, so there is no need to expand pasture areas or cropland for feeding cattle, Humpenöder says.
The beneficial effects on deforestation eventually plateau out. Swapping 50% of the beef consumed per person for mycoprotein would result in a more than 80% reduction in deforestation and carbon emissions, and replacing 80% of beef with mycoprotein would eliminate about 90% of forest loss.Will cell-based meat ever be a dinner staple?
All levels of substitution would result in relatively minor changes in agricultural water use, the researchers found. That’s because the water required to grow crops for feeding cattle would go towards growing other types of crop, including those for human consumption, Humpenöder says.
Global assessments such as the one carried out by Humpenöder’s team could help to highlight more-sustainable ways to produce food, says Hanna Tuomisto, who studies sustainable food systems at the University of Helsinki. Tuomisto notes that producing mycoprotein can require more electricity than producing beef, so researchers should consider the environmental impacts of producing extra power. She also points out that replacing beef with mycoprotein means that some by-products of cattle farming, such as leather and milk, might then be made in alternative ways that have environmental impacts.
“This study is a great start,” Gaupp says. Future research, she adds, should look at the environmental effects of replacing beef with other types of meat alternative, such as laboratory-grown meat or plant-based alternatives.
Posted inUncategorized|Comments Off on Eating one-fifth less beef could halve deforestation
Remarkably, this the graceful Ballerina was born in 1945 – she is 75 years young. Not only is her performance a spectacular feat, but she is partnered with her grandson. (Ed note – I’ve been unable to verify this.)
Posted inDance|Comments Off on the Shanghai Ballerina
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Senator Susan Collins, who had been assured by Brett Kavanaugh in 2018 that he considered Roe v. Wade “settled law,” said today that she was “shocked” that the Supreme Court Justice “would ever lie to a woman.”
“When I met with Justice Kavanaugh before his confirmation hearings, he looked me in the eye and said that he considered Roe v. Wade the law of the land,” she said. “Nothing in his confirmation hearings suggested that he would ever be less than trustworthy with a woman.”
“As I watched his Senate testimony, I felt even more confident that he had told me the truth,” she added. “His utter respect for a woman’s right to make decisions for herself came shining through.”
In the aftermath of the leaked Supreme Court draft ruling and reports that Kavanaugh voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, however, Collins is reassessing her ability to tell whether someone is lying to her. “My conduct in this matter has left me troubled and concerned,” she said.
Posted inLaw|Comments Off on Susan Collins Shocked That Brett Kavanaugh Would Ever Lie to a Woman
Heri Purwanto, a highly respected teacher, performer, and master musician of Javanese gamelan, comes from a family of musicians in Wonogiri, Central Java. After graduating from the college level academy (now Institut Seni Indonesia) in Surakarta, Central Java, at the top of his class in 2000, he taught gamelan at the University of California-Berkeley, from 2001 to 2004 and directed the Berkeley based ensemble Gamelan Sari Raras. Since returning to Java in 2004, Heri has continued his work as an artist, building and running an arts studio in his community as well as performing as a musician throughout Indonesia, as well as in Singapore, Thailand, China, and across the United States. He has been a Visiting Artist in the Ethnomusicology Program at the University of Washington in 2011 and 2014, and has performed with the Seattle-based ensemble Gamelan Pacifica. From 2014 to 2016 he taught gamelan at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, where he was in residence on a Fulbright award during the 2014-2015 year.
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Right-thinking vs left? There are reasons for why the right is underrepresented at our high-end retirement community, simply judging from our occupational groupings, usually determined in young adulthood and often biased by inherited traits, as twin studies have shown.
Perhaps ten years ago, I looked up the academic literature on faculty opinions at ten major research universities, subdivided by department. They may not map onto Skyline’s residents, but they do indicate how young adult mindsets lead them to specialized educations.
Right did not achieve a majority in any departmental category. The closest was 44%.
For Left, the highest was 80% for the social science professors, maybe 70% for the natural sciences and a bit less for such professional schools as law, medicine, engineering.
So, which subjects attracted more right-thinkers? That 44% figure came from those teaching business accounting and the runner-up was civil engineering, both likely to be suspicious of innovation, where their teaching stresses that there is a right way to do things and that alternatives lead to disaster. But be careful about pigeonholing: both departments still had a left-thinking majority when averaged over all ten institutions. And major research universities are not likely to be representative of the many small colleges where the emphasis is on teaching full-time.
Now some speculation. One of the major insights from the last 40 years of behavioral economics is that many subjects will work harder to retain the $100 they have recently earned than they will to earn another $100. Tax experts figured that out long ago, judging from withholding taxes, so that most taxpayers are not having to write big checks from what’s already in the bank. (That result is mostly from college-age subjects, not those about to retire.)
I had long puzzled over why conservatives were called conservative–after all, they were not predisposed to conserve environmental resources or to protect minority rights. I now tend to think of conservatives as a group to be more determined with holding on to what they already possess, not sharing as readily or as concerned with other peoples’ problems.
There are, of course, many other routes than occupational attractions to being pushed left or right along the way: family politics, religion, getting mugged, etc. But I cannot think of any that might apply to the people who self-select for Skyline–except for St. James Cathedral across the street (and I’m not sure which direction that tilts Skyline, even though bishops as a group, like other property managers, tilt to the right).
Posted inUncategorized|TaggedPolitics|Comments Off on The Skyline Mix of Left or Right
Please plan to join Washington State Democratic Party Chair, Tina Podlodowski on Monday, May 16th at 11:00 a.m. for a discussion of Political Parties, and what the State Democratic Party hopes to achieve in 2022.
The event will be held in the Mount Baker room, and available on Zoom and Channel 370.
Many of you may remember that Chair Podlodowski visited with us in January of 2019 to discuss what works in election politics, and what doesn’t. She has agreed to join us for a discussion of the upcoming 2022 Primary and General Elections.
If you have any questions or topics you would like Tina to address, please send them to Jim Sanders at jimsanders1947@gmail.com by Friday, May 6th. The list will be sent to our speaker on Saturday, May 7th.
Our Speaker:
Tina Podlodowski has served as the Chair of the Washington State Democratic Party since her election to that post in 2017. She also serves as the Chair of the DNC Western States Caucus, and as a member of the Executive Committee of the Association of State Democratic Party Chairs.
Tina has held leadership roles with Washington Citizens for Fairness, the Pride Foundation, The Human Rights Campaign, The Victory Fund, The Task Force and LPAC. She is a former lecturer and member of the Visiting Committee at the Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington. She was the first LGBTQ member of the DNC Platform Committee in 2000, adding “planks” on civil rights and social justice.
In addition to serving as the State Chair, Tina has also served one term on the Seattle City Council. Prior to her election to the City Council she was a senior manager at Microsoft.
She is the daughter of two naturalized U.S. citizens who fled post-WWII Europe as refugees. As a first generation American, “union kid”, and lifelong Democrat, Tina has spent her life fighting for equity and equality and gained prominence as a visible leader in both the Democratic party nationally, and the LGBTQ community nationally and internationally.
She was awarded the “Spirit Award” from the Urban League for her accomplishments in engaging diverse communities. And her political and philanthropic work has been profiled in The New York Times, The Washington Post, People, and Vanity Fair, as well as on German Public Radio and CanelPlus in France.
Tina, her wife and three children live in Seattle, with a lovable sheepdog named Hank.
Our Subject Matter:
Some of the issues we have asked Chair Podlodowski to address include:
1. What is the role of political parties in today’s body politic?
2. What are the core issues of the Democratic Party?
3. How does your party differ from the other major party?
4. What are the prospects in 2022 for a change in control of the United States and State House and Senate?
5. What issues do you believe will be the focus of the election, both at the federal and state level?
6. Which Congressional and State House and Senate seats to you believe may be competitive?
7. Will this be an election tied to national or local issues?
8. Will your party endorse or otherwise support a candidate in a race (primary or general election) if multiple candidates from your party are on the ballot?
9. If the Republicans take control of the United States House of Representatives who will be the Speaker of the House, and will the Republican Caucus be governable by the Speaker?
10. If the Democrats retain control of the United States House of Representatives, do you expect Speaker Pelosi to continue as Speaker? If not, who is likely to replace her?
Posted inCivic Engagement Group, Government, Politics|Comments Off on CEG Notice – Political Parties, What They Are and What They Do, with Tina Podlodowski, Washington State Democratic Party Chair
The White House Correspondents Dinner is returning after a two-year absence. It will be broadcast on CNN and C-SPAN. Coverage by CNN will begin at 4:00 p.m. Pacific Time with commentary and a “red carpet” prelude. It will be broadcast on C-SPAN beginning at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time. It will also be available on C-SPAN.org and the C-SPAN Now app.
C-SPAN can be found on Comcast Television at 24, or 645 in HD CNN can be found on Comcast Television at 44 or 657 in HD
If you have a different cable or streaming service please contact them for the correct # for these channels.
Please send any questions or comments about this event to Jim Sanders at jimsanders1947@gmail.com.
The “Ghost of Kyiv,” an ace pilot who heartened the Ukrainian resistance by shooting down a number of Russian aircraft on the first day of Russia’s invasion, was real after all. According to The Times of London, he was Major Stepan Tarabalka, 29 years old, and was killed in action on March 13. That extraordinary Ukrainian resistance, reinforced as we now know it was by U.S. intelligence and the unified support of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and other allies and partners, thwarted Russian president Vladimir Putin’s plans for a quick annexation of Ukrainian land. Continuing pressure, combined with Putin’s refusal to stop his attack, means that Russia has thrown away decades of economic development and its global standing.
Today, Russia avoided defaulting on its debt by making a last-minute payment in dollars from reserves outside Russia, a move forced on it by economic sanctions. This will speed the draining of the country’s financial resources. The country has been able to continue to function and to fund its military in part because of about $800 million a day in revenue it pulls in from selling oil and gas to Europe. It appears this is about to change. On Wednesday, Germany dropped its opposition to a European Union ban on oil and gas imports, enabling the 27 nations in the European Union to hammer out an agreement that adopts a phased end to shipments of Russian oil and gas. E.U. ambassadors expect to sign the agreement next week. “More important than the oil embargo is the signal that Europe is united and taking back the initiative,” Mujtaba Rahman, managing director for Europe at Eurasia Group, told New York Times reporters Matina Stevis-Gridneff and Thomas Gibbons-Neff. Meanwhile, the House passed legislation to update the March 1941 Lend-Lease Act, passed to enable the U.S. to loan or lease military supplies to any country whose defense the president believed was vital to the defense of the United States. The original law enabled the U.S. to send supplies to Britain’s defense without joining the war directly. Yesterday’s update allows the government to skip some rules and move weapons more quickly. It will increase pressure on Putin by demonstrating that the U.S. is going to continue supporting Ukraine. The Senate passed the measure by a voice vote, and there was overwhelming bipartisan support for it in the House, with only 10 Representatives, all Republicans, voting against it. Those ten included Representatives Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Dan Bishop (R-NC), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Ralph Norman (R-SC), and others who also voted against last week’s House resolution “expressing support for Moldova’s democracy, independence, and territorial integrity” in the face of Russian threats.
Today, Ukrainian defense reporter Illia Ponomarenko tweeted: “What America is doing now in terms of sending weapons to Ukraine is a masterpiece of logistics. In all regards, starting from bureaucratic hurdles.” President Joe Biden yesterday asked Congress for $33 billion for Ukraine—on top of the $13.6 billion authorized so far—to last until September 30, the end of the fiscal year. In his letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) requesting the funds, Biden noted that the administration expects NATO allies and E.U. partners jointly to be sending even greater sums to the support of Ukraine but said Russian aggression would “require a substantial additional investment on our part.” Biden added, “What I want to make clear to the Congress and the American people is this: the cost of failing to stand up to violent aggression in Europe has always been higher than the cost of standing firm against such attacks. That is as it always has been, and as it always will be.”
He was referring to the misguided attempt to appease Adolf Hitler by accepting Germany’s 1938 annexation of the Sudetenland rather than resisting. Appeasing dictators never stops them; it simply emboldens them to increase their demands. And by the time the European war broke out in 1939, Hitler had significantly strengthened Germany’s forces. Other countries are also continuing their support for Ukraine. About 8000 troops from the British army are deploying to eastern Europe over the summer to join in exercises with NATO troops and those from the Joint Expeditionary Force, which includes Finland and Sweden. Those two countries are currently not members of NATO but are considering joining because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Finland and Russia share a border of more than 800 miles. Yesterday, NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said that, should they ask to join, they “will be warmly welcomed and I expect the process to go quickly.”
Spain this week shipped to Ukraine hundreds of tons of heavy transport vehicles and ammunition. An unconfirmed report says that Ukrainian soldiers opening the shipment found Spanish sausages among the grenade launchers with a card from the queen that read: “I wish you victory! With love, Leti[z]ia.” Countries supporting Ukraine have begun to talk not just of defending Ukraine, but seeing Ukraine “win,” and weakening Russia’s ability to meddle in the affairs of other countries.
Posted inWar|Comments Off on Update from Heather Cox Richardson
Tomorrow is the start of the Tacoma-Seattle City Nature Challenge 2022! This event goes from Friday, April 29th-Monday, May 2nd. During that time, folks all over our metropolitan region will be photographing and documenting plants, animals, algae, and fungi- essentially any living thing found out in the wild (no pet photos 😝). This helps create a record of the biodiversity of our region.
Here is how you can participate:
1. Create an iNaturalist account!
With an iNaturalist account, you can upload observations and photos through the iNaturalist mobile app or on your computer through the iNaturalist.org.
2. Observe nature!
Take photos of any living thing you find. This could be a plant, animal, fungi, or any other living thing!
3. Share!
Once you have photos, it’s time to upload your observations to iNaturalist. Follow the in-app or web-based instructions to upload and share your observations. Any observations logged during the event will automatically be included in the City Nature Challenge.
4. Help identify!
This step is optional but is just as important as observing wildlife. Use the app or log on to iNaturalist.org to help others identify the nature that was observed during the challenge.
Andre Feriante and Gus Denhard Mothers’ Day Concert
Gus Denhard (lutes) and Andre Feriante (guitars) perform a Mothers’ Day Concert on Sunday, May 8th at 3 pm in the Parish Hall at Trinity Parish Church. The duo will perform on many guitar and lute family instruments from around the world and will be joined by percussionist Jo Baim. The concert includes a musical meditation of healing for the people of Ukraine.
Trinity Parish Church Parish Hall May 8th, 3 pm 609 8th Ave (8th and James) Free secure parking in the Skyline underground garage. Tickets $20 cash or check at the door.
Andre Feriante and Gus Denhard Mothers’ Day Concert
Gus Denhard (lutes) and Andre Feriante (guitars) perform a Mothers’ Day Concert on Sunday, May 8th at 3 pm in the Parish Hall at Trinity Parish Church. The duo will perform on many guitar and lute family instruments from around the world and will be joined by percussionist Jo Baim. The concert includes a musical meditation of healing for the people of Ukraine.
Trinity Parish Church Parish Hall May 8th, 3 pm 609 8th Ave (8th and James) Free secure parking in the Skyline underground garage. Tickets $20 cash or check at the door.
It seems our age group was less vulnerable to the delta variant last summer but is 2x more vulnerable to winter’s omicron variant. Variants will keep coming, as long as so many people resist vaccination and keep socially mixing. The successful variants are increasingly infectious.
I do worry about Skyline’s masks optional in elevators, where eight people may pack into a very small room without the high ceiling dilution we have on the fourth floor. The elevator often includes people not living at Skyline, many of whom depend on public transit. I make a practice of wearing glasses as well as a mask on the elevators (unless I forget).
Thanks to Joan C. from the Skyline Legacy Cookbook
From Lidia Filonowich’s mother Stephania Kryshtal
Ingredients:
1 to 1 1/4cup honey (preferably buckwheat honey)
1/4cup strong coffee
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. cloves
1/2tsp. nutmeg
1 cup dark raisins
1/2cup currants
1/2cup chopped dates
1 cup walnuts (or almonds or pecans), chopped
1 cup cake flour (divided)
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2tsp. baking powder
1/4tsp. salt
1 stick softened unsalted butter
1 cup brown sugar
4 large eggs (room temperature), separated
Method:
Heat oven to 350°and lightly coat 2 4 x 8 loaf pans, or one 8 x 8, buttered and floured.
1. In a small saucepan, mix together honey, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, and bring to a boil,stirring frequently. Remove from heat and cool to lukewarm. Add coffee.
2. In a medium bowl, combine raisins, currants, dates, nuts, and 2 Tbsp flour. Mix well.
3. In a separate medium bowl, mix together remaining flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
4. In a large bowl or stand mixer, cream together butter and brown sugar.
5. Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
6. Mix in the honey and spices mixture.
7. Add flour mixture in small amounts until well mixed.
8. Stir in fruit-nut mixture.
9. Beat the egg white until stiff and fold these into the batter.
10. Bake about 1 1/2hours or until toothpick tests clean.
11. Allow to stand at room temperature, covered, a few days before serving.
When Lidia was a young bride, her father mailed to her this important recipe, typed on his cherished typewriter with keys in the Cyrillic script. As immigrant families strive to retain significant traditions, so was this recipe to be done correctly and with appreciation for its esteemed place in their culture as something more than mere food.
Posted inUncategorized|Comments Off on Ukrainian Christmas Honey Cake (Medivnyk)
Thanks to Joan C. – from the Skyline Legacy Cookbook
From an old recipe of a Canadian-Ukrainian family as modified by Lidia Filonowich and Orleen Baugh
Ingredients
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 Tbsp of oil, or more if needed
4 cups cooked beets cut into thin strips or slices*
1/2 lb. mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
3 cloves of crushed garlic
1 Tbsp sugar
2 or more Tbsp vinegar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. white pepper
Method
1.Sauté the onion in oil until golden but not brown.
2.Add the sliced mushrooms, and stir to coat and combine.
3.Cover the pan to steam the mushrooms until soft.
4.Add all ingredients into the pan where the onion and mushroom were cooked and stir to mix all contents thoroughly.
5.Chill overnight before serving or keep refrigerated for several days.
6.Recipe easily can be doubled in quantity
*Hint: Use roasted beets that have been wrapped individually in foil and baked at high heat until soft, then peeled and sliced.
This recipe also was taste-tested by Skyline friends during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, and a helpful web search was carried out by Basil Filonowich for ease of preparation and simplicity! For true Ukrainians, this relish should be garnished with very finely chopped fresh dill. Otherwise, parsley or scallions will do.
Posted inFood|Comments Off on A second Ukrainian recipe – Beet and Mushroom Relish
Ed note: The plaque in Volunteer Park has been removed as a result of rethinking the Spanish American war. It indeed was a bloody brutal war in which the Philippines fought for independence from the American occupiers. Ironically, the independence day the Filipinos now celebrate is the one they declared against the United States. Teddy Roosevelt’s foray into colonialism was a bloody story not widely told or remembered.
By Christoph Giebel For Northwest Asian Weekly
Recemtly removed plaque in Volunteer Park. A community event will be held on Saturday, May 7 from 3:00 pm – 4:30pm with a discussion about the memorial plaque removal in response to community concerns about its accuracy at The Seattle Asian Art Museum. Tickets can be reserved at Eventbrite.
After George Floyd’s gruesome killing triggered a national reckoning about anti-Black violence, toxic legacies of slavery, and systemic racism, the recent massacre in Asian-operated businesses in Atlanta has broadened the debate to include endemic anti-Asian violence and hate in America. The alarming increase in anti-Asian violence over the past year, however, is far from an aberration. Like violence against Black and Indigenous people, anti-Asian violence has deep historical roots and manifests itself in our institutions and dominant culture. The moment to address the habitual public white-washing of Indigenous genocide, U.S. colonialism, and racism is long overdue. Seattle, built on Coastal Salish lands, faces its own moment of reckoning. Our introspection about anti-Asian violence must include a stone marker next to Volunteer Park’s water tower telling the city’s most barefaced public lie.
There, a plaque on a stone slab explains the name of its pastoral surroundings. “Volunteer Park,” it reads, “Renamed 1901 in tribute to the volunteer services of Spanish-American war veterans who liberated the oppressed peoples of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippine Islands, April 1898-July 1902.”
The marker’s words grotesquely falsify a gruesome past, for the Spanish-American War marked the moment when the United States chose to become an empire lording over “little brown brothers.” In reference to the Philippines—others can speak to colonized Cuba and Puerto Rico—to call America’s violent conquest of Asia’s first constitutional republic a “liberation of oppressed peoples” constitutes an “alternative fact” so shameless as to render the plaque’s continued display scandalous.
What had happened? In the 1890s Philippines, a nationalist movement rose against Spanish colonial rule. Largely successful by early 1898, its forces besieged Spain’s last toe-hold, Manila, and a Provisional Republican Government declared Philippine independence. Meanwhile—the U.S. had declared war on Spain—a U.S. flotilla sailed into Manila Bay. Now besieged from land and sea, the Spanish surrendered in August 1898, but only to the U.S. as fellow whites to “save face.” U.S. troops, having earlier aided the nationalist revolution, occupied Manila, but now refused to recognize Philippine sovereignty. While Filipino and U.S. forces faced each other at Manila, two telling developments happened: in January 1899, a constitutional assembly formally established the Philippine Republic. Yet, half a world away, ignoring Philippine independence and sovereignty and rendering Filipinos invisible, the US-Spanish Treaty of Paris had Spain “sell” the Philippines (and Cuba and Puerto Rico) to America.
In February 1899, fighting between Filipino and U.S. troops broke out at Manila, likely US-provoked, and the U.S. Senate ratified the Paris Treaty by one vote. U.S. forces began the conquest of the Philippines. Given vast US technological superiority, forces of the Philippine Republic were no match and soon resorted to guerrilla-style resistance. The ensuing years of U.S. conquest were a ruthless, bloody affair. Foreshadowing military tactics in Vietnam some 60 years later, the population in resistance areas was frequently brutalized, villages razed, entire regions forcibly depopulated, fenced-in relocation camps run under inhumane conditions.
Conquest was abetted in the U.S. by an unrelenting racist, pro-imperialist propaganda. It portrayed America as the benevolent white civilizer, but caricatured Filipinos as scheming savages incapable of reason or self-governance, called “insurrectionists” rather than rightful defenders of their Philippine Republic. In the unquestioned white supremacist tenor of the times, U.S. forces denigrated Filipinos as “goo-goos,” “gooks,” or the N-word, justifying their remorseless killings. For massacres, when exposed, U.S. commanders faced laughable, if any, accountability. Estimates of Filipino casualties are pegged around 300,000, maybe higher, with many more traumatized. America would be the Philippines’ colonial ruler until 1946.
Let this sink in: Between 1899 and 1902, U.S. forces killed 300,000 Filipinos in a brutal war of colonial conquest with racist overtones. Yet, a public marker in Seattle daily mocks these victims of anti-Asian violence as “oppressed peoples” who were “liberated” by American soldiers honored in the naming of Volunteer Park.
This blatant public lie has persisted far too long. Horrified by the murders in Atlanta and multiple other instances of anti-Asian violence, we are in a renewed national soul-searching over an unbearable past and present injustices. Yet, how can we be serious about all of this while our own public memorials still glorify instances when white supremacist violence became official policy? The little marker on Capitol Hill cruelly denying anti-Asian violence and re-writing it into its polar opposite belongs squarely into that conversation and call to action.
Christoph Giebel teaches Southeast Asian History at the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington, Seattle.
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