Before any more lawsuits between neighbors, the Haines Borough needs to identify and acquire access to popular public beaches and waterways. In the past three years, longtime users of Chilkoot River and Viking Cove have faced off in court against property owners and the results have been disastrous. They’ve been disastrous to residents’ pocketbooks, to neighborhood relationships, and to our…
“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” from “A Few Page of Notes” by H.L. Mencken, 1915 “Schools are still like prisons, because we don’t learn how to live Everybody wants to take, nobody wants give…” from “Presidential Rag” by Arlo Guthrie, 1974 Get…
The media watchers are saying that Pyeongchang will be the least-viewed Olympics ever. That’s discouraging, but understandable. With all that’s on TV in our thousand-channel universe, it’s a wonder people still watch at all. Compared to something like a kid riding a bicycle off the roof of a house, even downhill skiing can seem pretty tame. For that I feel…
I think I’ve exceeded my tolerance level for mass shootings. How about you? There’s only so long that a person can witness madness without trying to stop it before acceptance of the madness become its own form of insanity. Imagine living in a city where each day you saw a person hit by an oncoming bus. After two or three…
(There are two federally recognized Indian tribes in the Chilkat Valley, the Chilkat Indian Village and the Chilkoot Indian Association. In much of this essay, I will use the word “tribe” in a more generic sense, to describe a group of people who share common beliefs and common livelihood. In Webster’s New World Dictionary, this is definition number 3 of…
For those of us who only occasionally get out of small-town Alaska, a trip to the Lower 48 is like an infant’s first experience of ice cream. We have no resistance. Sunshine. Restaurants. Live music. Bookstores. Universities. Strangers. What a fascinating world. I’ve long held that the only worthy companions for a trip south are friends from Haines. Only they…
People on the political left, right and center have groused to me about the borough spending $49,500 on an economic development plan. That’s not a big surprise. If there’s one thing Haines agrees on, it’s disagreement. Plus, $49,500 is real money. I have been critical of some previous borough-funded studies, including ones about the police department and borough worker morale…
I’m heartened and humbled by your show of support during the recent recall election. I intend to live up to your expectations of me. That is, to be open and fair-minded and to put in the hours required for thoughtful consideration of local issues. For most of the past year I’ve been fighting with one hand tied behind my back,…
Imagine if the wealthy lady down the street showed up at your doorstep with her child and said, “Here. You raise my kid. I don’t want to any longer.” You would say, “Tough, lady. Live up to your commitments. Raise your own kid.” But you’re not the Haines Borough. In the past 20 years, the borough has taken over ownership…
In case you didn’t notice, you recently lost a little bit of your voice in this town. Public radio station KHNS has decided that you are not so welcome to the public airwaves the station provides access to. Specifically, the station put new limits on radio commentaries open to all citizens. Commentaries now will be limited to two minutes (reduced…