City Hall Art
Dear Editor: I had to write a letter regarding the recent brouhaha over the art gallery at city hall.
I have been to many art galleries over the years. I have seen pieces that were beautiful, moving, funny and informative. Other works I found unattractive, unappealing and downright ugly. Still others were confusing, boring, baffling and left me wondering, why. But I have never thought of asking or demanding that a piece be removed.
Art is the product of someone’s mind or heart, sometimes a murky place to dwell. The only way to understand the piece is to, I guess, ask the artist what his or her intention was. Perhaps it might have been a more constructive tact to initiate a conversation with the artist about what he was thinking or wanting to communicate, rather than just reacting, and reacting in an oppressive manner.
History teaches that a society that limits speech, expression and thought is on the path to extinction. Beware.
Charles Morgan, Sitka
Administrator and Art
Dear Editor: Last week I received an email from a city employee with a picture from the recent art display in the William Stortz Gallery at City Hall. My immediate thought was “damned if you do and damned if you don’t.” I felt empathy for city Administrator Keith Brady. To paraphrase the wisdom that Gary Paxton imparted on me during my tenure as administrator, “It is hard enough figuring out the right thing to do, but sometimes it’s harder to do it.”
It was on my watch that Norm Campbell presented the concept of creating an art gallery for our citizens on the second floor of City Hall. I thought it a wonderful idea, and I still do. The many times that I saw our friends and neighbors looking at the works of our local artists with smiles on their faces was affirmation that this was value adding to ones experience in City Hall.
Art can offend. I can think of a number of different displays that would bring various interest groups to the administrator’s office demanding their removal. I believe the public art space at City Hall should strive for balance that celebrates the enormous artistic talents of Sitka. The next step in this dialogue is how do we get there in a respectful and inclusive way.
The job of city administrator is tough. Each time you make a hard call, more grains of sand in the hour glass of your tenure drop to the bottom. When the administrator makes a decision that falls short of your expectations or values, put yourself in his seat and imagine the various forces at play. You may still disagree with the decision, but perhaps you will have a little more sympathy for the person.
Mark Gorman,
Recovering Administrator,
Laos Peoples Democratic Republic
Herring Fishery
Dear Editor: The Sitka Woman’s Club respectfully implores the City and Borough of Sitka Assembly to take a stand on the local herring fishery by requesting of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to place a minimum of a five-year moratorium on this privatized fishery.
There are a total of 48 permit holders who under a ‘‘gentleman’s agreement’’ no longer even need to be onboard a vessel due to their cooperative arrangement. It has changed into a ‘‘noncompetitive’’ fishery, certainly for the permit holders, and also the whales, salmon, sea lion, bottom fish, and all other sea creatures that depend on the food chain for survival. They cannot compete with aerial surveys that target the biomass, nor the fast boats who hunt for herring samples to tell these fishermen where to find them. This fishery has been protested for so long!
This year the herring fishery was a total bust. Did their science fail them? Have the bigger, older herring been overfished, and wiped out? Last year, 62.3 nautical miles of spawn were recorded, and this year only 12.3 were seen. With a total of 11,128 tons allocated, only 2,800 tons were found for the 125 gram with 11 percent roe market standard, a 6-year-old fish. They can live up to 14 years! When the samplers could only find ‘‘small ones,’’ which evidently have no market value yet, these seiners, who have other fish to catch, slowly steamed out of Sitka to richer grounds.
In the Daily Sitka Sentinel of April 2, it was stated, ‘‘unless the remaining processors are willing to lower their standards...’’ (the fishery will close.) Since when do processors set the standard? It is certain that a market, a ‘‘new niche,’’ will be found for the smaller younger herring before the next herring fishery rolls around in March 2019 to destroy the remnant. It is the nature of capitalism.
The Assembly needs to voice a strong, clear recommendation to ADFG on behalf of the community of Sitka to protect our herring, and save our ecosystem with a moratorium. The repercussions are dire: no whales, no tourists; no salmon, no fishermen; no hermit crabs, no children playing in the tide pools, etc. Oceans can become deserts.
Whether science failed them, or the herring were overfished, it is time for the city to stand up, and speak for the herring, and all other living sea creatures that depend on herring, the first link in food chain. It is time to put a moratorium on the Sitka Sound herring fishery, and possibly to end it altogether, so the herring can recuperate, and increase, for the benefit of all concerned, including, most importantly, our sea life.
Karen Lucas, member
Pat Alexander, member
Robin McNeilley, president
Sitka Woman’s Club
