Columns 2015

It’s a heartbreaking story full of tragedy, sadness and pain. It’s the story of alcohol in Alaska, and specifically the attempts of people in small Alaskan villages to mitigate the damage by controlling the flow. Unfortunately, decades after the passage of Alaska’s local option laws, liquor in one form or another is available throughout Bush Alaska. And the pictures on the front page of this paper of people in Bethel speaking out against a liquor store just brought to mind once again how difficult a situation it is.

The reality is that people who want to drink will find something

Let the panic about leaving my animals with a new sitter begin now!

Despite getting every immunization known to man and recommended for people of a certain age, I came down with a nasty bug and spent most of last week rewriting my will and deciding that life was not worth living if it included feeling so awful. Then I woke up one day and decided that maybe I did want to live. That morning the world seemed sunny and bright. That feeling of euphoria lasted right up until I saw the paper and read that the Republican Senate had released its proposed federal budget. Part of the spending package they proposed included

As the budget process unfolds in Juneau, all my expectations are being met. Every cut proposed produces an interest group that opposes the cut. Meanwhile, the legislature, in its infinite wisdom, felt it was so important that it could only cut less than 2% from its own budget while subjecting other departments to much deeper cuts. So pretty much business as usual.

One legislator tried to gut public broadcasting. That’s such an annual routine at this point I would almost miss it if it didn’t happen. And as usual, the cries heard from all over the state resulted in at

I was watching the Nightly Show when the topic of discussion was the recent Justice Department’s report on the systemic problems of racism within the Ferguson police force.  The panel had both black and white participants. One white participant was noted for the fact that he walked over the Selma bridge thirty years ago with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He received a large round of applause when this was announced. That applause died away to a dribble when another panelist, an African-American, looked at the man and said, “Yeah, but when you got to the other side of that

Don’t forget to get your tickets for the Bird TLC auction on April 11. And if you don’t want to have to get dressed and put on makeup and drive somewhere, you can always just go to birdtlc.net and give us money. Remember, we’re the organization that puts the “non” into non-profit.

A report from an Alaskan village last week detailed a violent incident that included a man shooting four bullets into the wall next to where his sister was standing. She has two children who he also threatened. Here’s the relevant paragraph, “Jennings then held a .40-caliber handgun to the man’s head and threatened to kill him, troopers said. Jennings turned the gun on another occupant of the house, his sister, and told her he’d kill her and her two children if she called law enforcement, troopers said. Before he, Kelly and Jimmy fled, Jennings fired four rounds. The bullets struck

I was more than a little surprised at the reaction to last week’s column citing the survey showing Alaska to be the most violent state in the union. The most amazing reaction came from the person who claimed it was a liberal survey meant to pave the way for taking our guns. Considering guns were not even mentioned in the piece, I’m not sure where that came from. Also, the survey was done by the FBI, not a group known for being a bastion of liberal thought.

Then there were the people who claimed that no survey probably ever existed

Did you see the survey that was in the paper a few weeks ago?  It showed that Alaska was the most violent of the 50 states. Once again, we’re number one. It’s rather sad that we manage to come in second for annual Spam consumption but first for violence.

This survey made headlines in the paper immediately after its release. And almost as immediately, the news and discussion you’d think it would produce was muted into non-existence. Maybe Alaskans are just too tired of the discussion. Maybe the Super Bowl was more important. Maybe we’ve just come to accept violence

The photos on the front page of the paper last week were simply heartbreaking. Two mothers holding each other as they looked at pictures of daughters they will never again hold in their arms. A dad wiping tears from his eyes as he watched a slide show of the young lady who will always be his little girl but who is no longer around to grow into the amazing woman she held out promise to be. And a man in a prison jumpsuit with tears streaming down his face as he viewed the pictures of the two girls whose lives