Let’s start with the basics: In our political system, where individuals are asked to serve as representatives of many other people, choosing those individuals by appointment is a lousy way to go. People should be able to elect the people who lord over them. That was the point of the American Revolution and every other democratic revolution in history. But…
A friend remarked that the $57,000 the Haines Borough on cutting brush to eliminate “bear hiding places” is as much money as he spent building his house. When a government action becomes a joke, it’s a mistake, and jokes about the government undermine support for government. Until we come up with a better way to make decisions, we need a…
“Small-town hatreds…verging on civil war, have happened everywhere in this country: over a man shooting a neighbor’s dog; over one kid’s slapping another; over a dead relative’s will; over which farmer was first in line at the grain elevator; over hiring a new preacher. It’s small and disgusting, but it’s America. And I reckon we might as well get used…
It’s not an early spring. Few are. So few are that a person can almost name the years they happened. There were a few in the early 1990s so warm and dry that our forester put up signs warning of wildfire danger. You can mark these years by what you were doing at the time, things like Easter egg-hunting in…
Note to readers: This column was written one day prior to the Haines Love Parade on Saturday, April 8 where I wore a teal dress and pink wig. I regret I didn’t have time to find a nice pair of heels. I have dressed as a woman in public three times during my 37 years in Haines. Mostly, these were…
Rebecca Hylton’s first job as our new tourism director should be putting the finishing touches on Winterfest weekend in Haines. Former tourism director Leslie Ross provided the vision of combining several winter events, including the state fair’s winter games, the Miles Klehini Ski Classic and the Koot to Kat Mountain Adventure race on the same weekend at the end of…
The Haines Borough plans on speaking with the state’s Division of Parks about its plans to close Portage Cove campground. Don’t expect much. Borough manager Annette Kreitzer already has said the borough doesn’t have the money to operate a campground, even one as puny as Portage Cove. The state already has abandoned its campground at Mosquito Lake and can’t seem…
My favorite flavor of concerned citizen is the government worker, often a retired one, who stands up at a public meeting and says we have to get government off our backs. Astonishing how many of these guys forget to offer up their pensions as a place to start. A good number of these people – including retired policemen – were…
“Recently (the borough planning commission) has become the object of scorn, derision and angry letters to the paper and a movement to abolish the appointed board and replace it with an elected one. What has happened here? I think this has happened because the planning commission has not followed borough code.” — Former planning commission chairman Rob Goldberg, who was…
Saturday night was “Board Game Night” at Mosquito Lake Community Center. A sign on the front of the building said, “You Belong Here.” A bulletin board at the entrance was covered with postings about the center and what was going on there, and other notices of interest to folks who live up the highway. Inside the center were jigsaw puzzles…