Columns 2016

This baby did not need to die

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 →

Columns 2016

Sometimes it’s better with the devll you don’t know

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

Continue reading →
Columns 2016

Porches

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 →

Columns 2016

it feels like the 60s again… and not in a good way

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 →

Columns 2016

A profile in political courage

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 →

Columns 2016

The Constitution was created to allow changes

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 →

Columns 2016

Father’s Day

Today is Father’s Day. Since my dad is gone, I don’t really pay much attention to it. But now I feel guilty (thanks for that, mom) about not even acknowledging some of the great men in my life who have been amazing fathers.
So you know who you are. Pat yourselves on the back for me and I’ll have a drink for you.

Continue reading →
Columns 2016

Another glass ceiling shatters

I grew up at a time when the only glass ceiling I ever heard about was in London’s Crystal Palace during the 1851 Great Exhibition. Women had a very specific place in the world and that place was in the home. Girls got engagement rings as their high school graduation present and no one thought they were too young to marry. When I graduated from college, getting your MRS was almost, if not more, important that getting your BS or BA.

I am well aware that there are people who view Hillary Clinton as the devil’s mistress. But how you feel about her is, at least momentarily, secondary to what she just did.

Columns 2016

Is this what we’ve come to?

So this is what it’s come to. Statesmanship, patriotism, the welfare of our country, not giving the button to nuclear weapons to a reality star… all this goes by the wayside because party unity and hating the Clintons is more important. I have been disappointed in our congressional delegation many times in the past but this time is the worse. They are all uniting behind Donald Trump because they believe defeating Hillary Clinton is more important than electing someone with even a modicum of credentials for the job of United States President.

This is like a patient asking for someone who just got a nurse’s assistant diploma from DeVry University to do their open-heart surgery because they don’t like the highly credentialed surgeon available for the procedure.

Columns 2016

An uncomfortable embrace

Not since Al Gore tried to kiss Tipper onstage at the Democratic National Convention have I seen an embrace as uncomfortable as the one happening between Donald Trump and the Republican Party. It reminds me of dancing with boys for the first time at an 8th grade mixer where neither the boys nor the girls have a clue how to actually dance. Couples clumsily wander across the floor with absolutely no synchronicity. That, in a nutshell, defines the embrace between Republicans and Donald Trump.

It’s actually hard to decide which is more appalling. Is it the Republicans who say they will vote for Trump but won’t actually come out and endorse him? Or is it the Republicans who have come out in support of Trump and then announced their disagreement with just about everything the man they are endorsing proclaims?