January 26 - February 2, 2021
Vol. 118 NO. 3
MLK
MARCH Photos by Casey Rothgeb/The Observer
Chants for justice were heard across campus when students marched on Monday, Jan. 18 in recognition of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Marchers remembered George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others who have lost their life, and recognized there is still a fight going on every single day for equal justice in America.
In This Issue News
1-3
Scene
4-5
Sports
6-7
Opinion
8-9
Sports Engagement
10-11 12
Page 2 COVID-19 IRL
Page 4 Replacing a four-way stop
Ellensburg City Council is in the works of combating local racism and discrimination Star Diavolikis Senior Reporter
The Ellensburg City Council is currently working on creating a commission dedicated to inclusion, diversity and equity, but it may not be established until late spring. Beginning in July 2020, a subcommittee consisting of Ellensburg Mayor Bruce Tabb and city council members Nancy Goodloe and Nancy Lillquist went on a hybrid virtual and in-person “listening tour.” This tour was for the committee to listen to discriminatory or racist experiences Ellensburg community members have faced, and kickstarted the city council’s efforts to combat local racism and discrimination. “I think when we started, we weren’t sure what kind of responses we were gonna get,” Goodloe said. “As it turned out, we got some very positive ones but we also heard some stories that were disturbing; there were some that were hard to hear just for the fact of what happened to folks. Almost every night after we finished, after we [had] done a listening tour, none of us slept very well.” Tabb said these racist experiences are very different from how white community members may be treated in their daily lives, which is why these listening tours were hosted so they could plan a course of action. He said one experience he heard was that a student of color was nervous during a traffic stop due to the cop’s behavior towards them. “It was overwhelming … When I get in my car, I don’t have to go out with the thought of fear. One of the experiences people had was [something] I don’t experience as a white person in this community,” Tabb said. Goodloe said the subcommittee provided a recommendation to the city council to form a city commission on diversity, equity and inclusion. This recommendation was approved, so currently the council is going through the city’s mandated process to get the commission in place. This requires an ordinance. This initiative is called Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity. On the Ellensburg City Council website, there is a description of this initiative and their founding pillars. These founding pillars are listed as “Ellensburg cares,” “There are long-standing concerns about the treatment of people based on how they look, speak, or act, not by whom they are as a person” and “We can do better.”
See Ellensburg council, Page 3 Page 11 New opportunities for athletes