One of the more insidious forms of media bias--especially important in local media, where we supposedly learn what's happening in our own community--is the reluctance to run political stories or perspectives that we can relate to our own experience. Hence, we get UPS strike stories about inconvenienced business owners, not people struggling to live on one (or more) part-time jobs. We get our daily barrage of puff pieces on Bill Gates or Phil Condit. And we learn, through omission, that individuals like us never make a difference in the political process.

In the last month--while Microsoft bit into Apple, Boeing swallowed McDonnell Douglas, and both stories digested local media whole--two long- running struggles to obtain community projects for communities of color triumphed. And were completely ignored by media. Most of us never heard a word about it.

On July 23, the Seattle School Board voted to sell Colman School to become the future site of the African-American Heritage Museum. A group of activists took over the school site 12 years ago, and occupied it for eight years. The vote represented a culmination of that direct action and the activists' demands. And just last week--on the 25th anniversary of its founding through another community activist occupation--El Centro de la Raza learned that the School Board would sell the old Beacon Hill School to it.

The activists who've struggled for years to get these resources in place deserve congratulations and our thanks. So does the Seattle School Board, for selling the properties to deserving recipients rather than the usual We're A Non-Profit So We Can Apply For Grants To Perpetuate Ourselves crowd. But many in Seattle could have learned, and taken power from, this story of community determination. Maybe that's why our daily papers, TV, and radio all ignored the story.