As I continue to follow the debate over the gay rights’ ordinance in front of the Anchorage Assembly, I find it hard to imagine how I’d feel if the citizens of this city were engaged in a debate over my right to live equally with other Americans and have my rights equally protected. I always thought that part of being an American meant that people didn’t get to vote on whether or not any group of people had the right to their rights. I guess I was wrong.
My definition of courage…
Going to Wasilla for a book signing the day my column comes out in the paper and has a not very flattering take on the Palins.
There’s Alaska women and then there’s Palin
I spent this past week with a couple of my heroes. Both are Alaskan women who make it clear that being an Alaskan woman means being independent, strong, inquisitive and intellectually restless until the day you die.
Charlotte, my friend in Homer, is closing in on 90 years old. She and I nursed together in Barrow. Then she moved to a cabin in Homer where she had to ski to her mailbox long after the age at which I can barely walk to mine. As her body aged and betrayed her with its limitations, it looked as though she might
It somehow just seems wrong
I went to see The Hangover and laughed myself silly and that just seems wrong. At my age I should not find that kind of juvenile, boy-based humor funny. And yet it cracked me up. I guess my mother was right. I’ll never develop taste.
Taliban…idiots?
Seems to me the Taliban could use some good PR people to advise them that it is NOT a good idea to keep blowing things up and making people mad at you as a way to win their hearts. Going negative… as our Republican Party should be finding out about now… is not a long term winning strategy. It’s as though both groups are bound and determined to destroy any chance they have of ever winning anything again.
Get out of jail free card
Kohring may be out of jail, but I still can’t get the picture out of my mind of him with his hand out to Bill Allen for cash. I’m sick of his whining self-pity. Grow up and get a pair of gonads, for god’s sake man!
There is nothing like being missed
I went away for an overnight this week. My dogs reacted to my return after a little more than 24 hours as though I’d been gone for the better part of their lifetime AND had left them with a really cruel and mean person.
Dogs… will there ever be anyone or anything that can make you feel so damned special?
Homer, Alaska
Where the sixties went to die… only they’ve managed to hang on to life support for lo these many years now. Anyone who wants to see the country where God herself wants to go when she retires needs to take the drive down the Kenai peninsula. It’s just amazing.
News from Comedy Central
Am I the only one who thinks that this country’s mainstream and cable news media have a serious problem happening when I have to tune in to The Colbert Report on Comedy Central to get the best reporting on a war that the mainstream media has seemingly forgotten even is happening. His interviews were straightforward and actually asked the hard questions. And his show with the debate over the “Don’t Ask – Don’t Tell” policy was amazing.
Surviving the horror
Once upon a time many years ago, when I was occasionally motivated to socialize with other human beings after 6 PM, I found myself at a party with a mixed group of Alaska Natives and non-Natives. Some of the Natives were of mixed ancestry. As the evening wore on and more and more liquor was imbibed, voices started to be raised about past abuses to the Native community. Somehow this devolved into a discussion of people’s ancestors. And at some point, one of the full blooded Natives made a comment about the grandmother of one of the people of mixed