Columns 2016

A 22-year-old Anchorage woman was recently charged with killing her four-month-old daughter. The mother was found, about three hours after the baby was found, drunk and having consensual sex in a park. According to the bail document, she allegedly stuffed a knit hat into her daughter’s mouth and left it there to stop her from crying. When she removed the sock about five minutes later, the baby was barely breathing and then stopped altogether.

What kind of a woman stuffs a hat into her child’s mouth, kills the baby and then goes out to get drunk and have public sex? Continue reading →

I respect Governor Walker because he seems a man of principle willing to take the heat in order to do what’s right. Let’s compare that to the current Alaska Legislature, which has finally gaveled its way into shameful retreat from its major responsibilities. Not only did they not have the guts to do what was needed to get our fiscal house in order, they didn’t even have the guts to gavel into session and take up the Governor’s cuts to their budget. No, they just tucked their tails between their legs and slunk home, letting the Governor take full responsibility

It’s been a pretty rough summer so far. Nothing seems to indicate it will get any better. I thought that perhaps it would help if we all stepped back, took a deep breath and talked about something that isn’t politics, terrorism or racial divisions. So let’s talk about porches and neighborhoods.

I have pictures of my dad’s mom, my nonna, sitting on a folding chair in front of our grocery store. She watched the world go by, visited with just about every customer that came in the store and enjoyed just being “in the neighborhood”.  I have a similar picture Continue reading →

I came of age in the 1960s. My memories of the early sixties involved sock hops, Ricky Nelson and bubblegum rock. But as the sixties wore on, things changed. By the middle to late sixties, summers became almost a time of dread as America braced itself for another season of race riots. I’m starting to get a strange sense of déjà vu all over again.

Shocking as this may sound to some, electing our first African-American president did not end race problems in America. We are no more in a post racial period than I am a size 10. And, Continue reading →

After seeing some of the pieces written by other columnists in this paper, I hesitated to write another one about Governor Walker and his vetoes. Then I realized that any politician willing to show the level of courage he has in facing reality and dealing with it deserves as much print as he can get.  Gov. Walker’s vetoes last week affected everyone and made people on all ends of the political spectrum angry. I view that as a sure sign that he’s doing something right.

As a supporter of public broadcasting, education and programs for the elderly and young, I Continue reading →

America’s birthday is rapidly approaching and, as it does, we should all spend at least a brief moment between hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill to contemplate that fact. It was not a given that we would survive our rebellion against England. It was not a given that disparate groups from 13 very different colonies would be able to come up with a document that all would sign. What our forefathers did was compromise in order to achieve the greater good of nationhood.

Yes, I said compromise. That tends to be a dirty word in today’s America. We all have Continue reading →