The Madrona Institute, a San Juan Island-based think tank on democracy and policy innovation, will host a free public symposium on the inner politics of the Gulf oil calamity, Thursday, Sept. 30, 7 p.m., in the Roche Harbor Pavilion.
The symposium is titled “Holes in the World.” The panelists are:
— Dennis Willows, director of the U.W. Friday Harbor Labs from 1972-2005 and professor of biology at the University of Washington. His research focuses on how the brain acts upon sensory signals from the environment.
— Fred Felleman, a marine biologist. Educated at the University of Washington, he has worked for three decades to conserve the Northwest’s marine environment.
— Jeffrey St. Clair, co-editor of the investigative journal and website CounterPunch. His critically acclaimed books include “Whiteout: the CIA, Drugs and the Press,” “Been Brown So Long It Looked Like Green to Me: the Politics of Nature,” and “A Pocket Guide to Environmental Bad Guys.”
— Mike Whitney, who has covered the economy as an investigative journalist since 2004, predicting the housing crash and financial system meltdown more than a year before they took place. He blogs at mikewhitneysgraspingatstrawsblogspot.com. A Project Censored winner, he is editing his writing for a book to be published in 2011.
— Roger Morris, who served on the National Security Council senior staff under Presidents Johnson and Nixon. He is an award-winning historian and investigative journalist. His work includes biographies of Presidents Nixon and Clinton and the forthcoming “Between the Graves,” on U.S. covert policy in South Asia and the Middle East.
“We know more than ever that special interests compromise our democracy. More groups than ever chart the crisis,” Morris said in an e-mail.
“Madrona is a think tank with a difference. Beyond talk, we do something. Non-partisan, we are about requisite freedom. We work for the freedom of Americans right, left or center to debate the issues and elect governments free of moneyed control and manipulation.”
Madrona Institute programs include the Center for Renewed Democracy, and the Forum for Policy Innovation.
For more information, visit www.Madrona.org or e-mail dosomething@madrona.org.
