Fort Lawton, in the northwest section of Seattle, just north of Magnolia Bluff (overlooking Puget Sound), was turned over to the City of Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation some years back. It is now called Discovery Park. Picnic areas, sports fields, wooded areas to hike though, and the Daybreak Star (Native American) Cultural Center is also there. Nice recreation area. Nothing military left, no barbed wire. No armed guards. Lots of people go there, especially in the summer. Hiking trails. Beautiful, scenic area. CLICKY.

The Sand Point Naval Air Station in the northeast section of Seattle (on the shores of Lake Washington) was also decommissioned a few years back and it, too, was turned over to the Department of Parks and Recreation. It's now called Magnuson Park, named after a long-time Washington State Senator, the late Warren G. Magnuson (Dem.). Magnuson Park contains a number of buildings converted from military use, in which there are meeting rooms, classes of various kinds (art's, crafts, lectures, etc.), several converted hangars (the Seattle Public Library's annual "Friends of the Library" book sale is usually held in one of these), athletic areas (baseball field, soccer field, et al.), a sculpture garden, several picnic areas, boat ramps. . . .   No barbed wire anywhere. There's also a movie theater there. I have performed (singing folk songs, reading poetry) at Magnuson Park. They are currently having a Harry Potter festival there for kids, showing all three Harry Potter movies continuously. CLICKY. No armed guards there, either.

Following the WTO demonstration (the "Battle in Seattle") in 1999, some GUEST here on Mudcat started a couple of threads claiming that Magnuson Park was being used as a concentration camp. Ah, HAH! But not so. In what started out as a peaceful demonstration involving some 40,000 people, there were about 200 goons who tried to turn the demonstration into a riot and ran amok downtown, setting fires and smashing store windows. Others got involved, mostly kids being stupid. Since major property damage was being done and some people were being physically assaulted, the Seattle Police Department rounded up about 500 people. The King County jail couldn't hold them all, so they were bused out to Magnuson Park. The former Navy brig (eight cells—no longer there, by the way) was obviously inadequate, so the rioters were kept on the buses, booked, and released. The whole thing took about six hours altogether. Most of the people rounded up were teenagers who were released to their parents.

So much for Magnuson Park being a "concentration camp." It wasn't even adequate to hold 500 knuckle-draggers and teenagers. When I posted the real situation, said GUEST (who knew nothing about me other than that I describe the true situation) called me a liar and shill for the government. I am neither. I live here. He didn't. He had an ax to grind. I didn't. And don't.

Fort Lewis, near Tacoma, WA, south of Seattle, is an active military base. It is also the site of the Madigan Army Medical Center. Also in that area is the McChord Air Force Base, also active. Many flights depart for and return from Iraq, carrying troops and cargo. There is the Whidbey Island Naval Air Station on Whidbey Island, north of Seattle, in Puget Sound. Active. Also the Bangor Trident Submarine Base on Hood Canal, west of Seattle. Oh, yes. And the Bremerton Navy Yard, across Puget Sound from Seattle. Lots of historic naval ships in mothballs. Nothing much in the way of military bases, active or decommissioned, around here that could be used as a concentration camp. And I'm sorry, despite photographs I've seen of supposed concentrations camps, a school playground surrounded by a cyclone fence (no razor wire) obviously in a residential neighborhood just doesn't qualify.

Since governments, by their very nature, are open to corruption and are constantly trying to increase their power, it's up to us as citizens to make sure that nothing like that happens. GUEST seems to think that the storm troopers are already marching down the street to drag us all off, and others here also seem to think it's imminent. And nobody seems to be motivated enough to even try to suggest what anyone should do about it!   There seems to be a certain perverse satisfaction in just sitting there and wailing that "We are all doomed!" and taking pot-shots at those who are not willing to join in their melancholy funk.

Well, I'm not willing to simply lay down and whine till something like that happens (if, indeed, it ever does). That's why I am politically active.

Don Firth