Columns 2014

Let’s discuss the reality of family planning reducing the number of abortions that might be sought in any given year. What, you say in shock, you mean avoiding conception unless it is planned is a good way to cut abortion numbers? Yes it is. And apparently everyone who is anyone seems to understand that fact except perhaps for some members of Alaska’s enlightened state legislature.

Senator Fred Dyson (R-Eagle River) seems to feel that if sex is fun, then the participating players should bear all responsibility for any costs associated with it. I assume he also thinks that anyone who

If I correctly understand what’s being asked of Alaskans regarding the proposed constitutional amendment to allow public funding of private schools, the legislators proposing this amendment freely admit they have not a clue as to how much it will cost, what it will take from public school financing, how they will ensure that standards are being met or whether teachers will need to be state qualified to work in those schools. In essence, they are saying, “Trust us. We’re from the government and we’re here to help you.” Isn’t that the punch line of almost every conservative political joke about

Anyone who’s worked in the field of child or adult protection in this state is all too familiar with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) and its even more devastating relative, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS). Kids who otherwise might have had a chance for a good future if removed from an abusive and/or dysfunctional family have no chance of ever really escaping because of the damage done before they were born. No matter how hard they try, the crossed lines in their brain cannot be uncrossed. With a lot of work and effort, these kids sometimes are able to overcome the

Politicians are the unquestionable champions of the statement that makes your head twirl around while emitting the sound, “HUH?” You find yourself rereading what you just read or rewinding your DVR to make sure you hear it correctly. You shake your head as you come to the inevitable conclusion that you did, indeed, hear what you thought you heard coming out of the mouth of an elected official.

Remember Reagan’s Welfare Queen from Chicago’s South Side?.  The story had some basis in fact since a Chicago woman was found guilty of collecting multiple benefits under numerous different aliases. Most people

I mentioned in my column last week that I went to Catholic school. In fact, I never went to a public school up to and including college. I attended St. Michael’s Elementary, Holy Spirit High and Chestnut Hill College. All were Catholic institutions taught almost exclusively by nuns, with the occasional priest thrown in for good measure. My brother and sister followed the same path. None of us attended the public schools for which our parents paid taxes.

While all that Catholicism did not, as my mother so dearly wished, produce three good Catholic adults who observe any religious rituals,

A recent series of health challenges have once again reminded me just how tenuous our hold is on life.  One little thing goes out of whack and suddenly we’re in waters too deep to keep afloat without the help of friends and family. I consider myself one of the lucky ones. Not only do I have an amazingly supportive community around me, but I also have health insurance. The two combined gave me the chance to get back on my feet.

When the medical problems first occurred, I didn’t think twice about calling the specialist who treated me for similar

I asked my sister recently what was on her mind that she’d like to see in print. She immediately answered that she’d love to see someone write about the possibility that Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney might appear on Late Night with David Letterman on the 50th anniversary of the first Beatles’ appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, Feb. 9 1964. (Letterman’s show originates in the old Ed Sullivan theatre.)

I thought that was a pretty silly suggestion when there is so much going on in our world, our country and our state that is eminently more important. Then I

I realize that the younger generation has never known a world without the Internet. They’ve never known a world in which they were not connected at all times to all people. To them, this is as natural as breathing. Yet every once in a while, I read something that causes me to think all these advances might in someway actually be causing future generations to miss out on some of life’s greatest adventures. The very thing that was supposed to open the world up to us is, in fact, closing it down around us.

These thoughts occurred when I read

As a Jersey girl by origin, I simply can’t let the fiasco of blatantly idiotic political retribution currently happening in my old home state go by without at least a cursory node to the brilliance that is Jersey politics. I have always felt a debt of gratitude to my childhood state for preparing me for whatever Alaska politics threw at me. After New Jersey, it’s hard to be impressed by others

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The simple truth is that when all else fails, New Jersey politicians manage to keep the state in the headlines. For those who wonder how the characters on

It’s hard to read the news about street people found dead in Anchorage. Anyone with the slightest bit of humanity is bound to feel bad when another human being suffers such a sad fate. Inevitably you find yourself wondering if there is simply not much more we can do for a certain segment of the homeless population. For them, the pull of addiction is greater than the pull of a warm room, a square meal or a death with dignity.

It is not mere coincidence that the majority of people found dead outside have intoxication as a contributing factor. Successfully