TV Clicks
Dear Editor: Without even thinking I switch on TV. As the picture clears pops up someone full of himself with a secondhand toupee. ‘‘He started it!’’ Yeah, right. Click. Next station. I comment to Brian, sitting on my right, ‘‘ I am rubber and you are glue. Bounces off me and sticks to you.’’ Channel clears. Some big-ass kid crying and all besides himself because his team lost a game. ‘‘Wahhh,’’ I hear Brian say. Click. Thousands of suit-and-tie-type people cheering as if on cue to every stupid word. ‘‘And this is how we will pay for the wall...’’ Click. ‘‘A wall that should never be built,’’ I say. A long shot goes in. Look outside. It’s raining. Better than sucking water out of a hole 200-feet down.
Back to the tube. Commentator asks, ‘‘Should they punish a woman who has an abortion?’’ Click. Some babe in barely anything advertising Victoria’s Secret. Click. Brian said, ‘‘You think a really fat chick would look good in that? She’d look good in anything.’’ The screen clears: A cop is low-riding down a ghetto street. Kids are sitting on the steps bouncing basketballs. Click. News. Some creep killed someone with scissors. Click. Brian says, ‘‘Isn’t it time we have registration and 93-day waiting period for scissors and knives?’’ ‘‘Baseball bats too,’’ I say. ‘‘Force equals mass times acceleration.’’ Some really creepy stuff on the tube. Click. Brian says, ‘‘ You know, parents leave their kids in front of that and wonder why they grow up weird.’’
Some lizard standing up talking like an Englishman. Click. The big bang theory. ‘‘Penny,’’ Penny,’’ ‘‘Penny.’’ Click. A counter showing our debt rising at 1,000s of dollars, almost 10,000 a second. Click. Brian says, ‘‘China’s already got plans for the national parks, our collateral for those loans.’’
Brono Tomsen, Sitka
Thanks, SEARHC P-T
Dear Editor: In early September 2015, I was walking home, my last few minutes before I walked for an hour I fell. I used to power walk every day for my health and weight problems. All of a sudden, I felt very tired and stopped to rest on a truck that was parked on the side of our road at Harvest Way. Soon I started my walk again. Then I felt myself going forward and walking very fast. Then I fell flat on my face. I heard a truck and thought, ‘‘Oh no, I’m going to get run over.’’ Then I heard a man speak and say, ‘‘Ma’am, ma’am, are you OK?’’ Then I heard another truck stop. I heard my granddaughter say, ‘‘Grandma, grandma, are you ok? I was just coming to check on you.’’ I was still flat on my face when they asked, ‘‘Can you stand up?’’ Which I answered, ‘‘No.’’ They had to take me to SEARHC ER. I was hospitalized for a few days and I had to go through a bunch of tests and was sent to Anchorage ANMC. Then with a couple more falls I had to start physical therapy. My first physical therapy was Christopher Jones, then Gio Villanueva. Then Megan Bays. I was there in PT rehab for over a year. First of all, it was learning ways to walk and use my leg muscles. Then the year of 2016 I had to start really working out. Boy! That Megan is one tough cookie! I had to really work in trying to walk. First with a walker, then a cane. It looks easy, believe me it’s not. When Megan told me I had to do something new, I used to laugh because it was so hard. I was doing really well, then my brother Henry Smith Sr. (Chana) died. I had to stop PT for awhile because when my brother died, I didn’t think it would hit me that hard, but it did. I stopped PT for awhile. Megan, Gio, Suzan Hess and Christopher were all so kind and caring when I went through the loss of my brother. I could talk to Gio and Megan when I needed to. I was grateful for them helping me to get my feet back on the ground again.
Sometimes all of us should step back and think of how can I help this or that person to be helpful to our patients. Boy! These people at SEARHC PT should get some kind of award for a job well done. Good job!
Gio, Christopher, Megan, Suzan, Stephanie Vanderslice and Dustin Evans, you really helped me get back on my feet again.
Virginia Thomas, Sitka
Unstoppable?
Dear Editor: Wednesday’s AP article covering the New York primary which described Hillary Clinton as ‘‘nearly unstoppable’’ omitted some significant details about the election that your readers might find interesting.
A map of New York state’s results by county shows Sanders sweeping Clinton by wide margins in all but densely moneyed urban areas where widespread voting irregularities were reported. Evidently Wall Street and the AP favor Hillary.
Voter turnout was high by New York standards at about 33 percent, but only slightly higher than the 27 percent of registered voters disenfranchised from the state’s closed primary. In order to participate on April 19, an undeclared or independent New York voter would have had to change party affiliation by Oct. 7, 2015, more than 6 months prior to the election. First time voters were required to register at least 25 days before the primary.
The rules governing primaries and caucuses crafted by the Democratic Party suggest that they are uninterested in the votes of the 42 percent of Americans nationally who identify as independents. I suggest we remember that in November.
Jay Brauch, Sitka
Family Fun Day
Dear Editor: This past month, Sitkans Against Family Violence was busy organizing an event and raising awareness for April’s National Child Abuse Prevention month. We would like to thank the many individuals without whom Family Fun Day would not have been possible.
On April 9, SAFV and the Hames Wellness Fund teamed up to put on our Family Fun Day event. Thanks to everyone at the Hames Center, especially Dan Gunn and Caitlin Blaisdell, for helping us organize and advertise the event, as well as to all the staff who worked the rock wall. SAFV would also like to thank the wonderful volunteers from Mt. Edgecumbe High School: Cheyenne Fields, Jasmine Woods, Autumn Austin, Moses Wiseman, Sierra Felts, Danielle Anaruk and Regina Pingayuk-Simon, who ran our face painting stations, the Jesuit Volunteers Caitlin Lavorgna, Molly Johnson and Claire Sanchez for helping to supervise activities and the craft table, and Bridget Hitchcock for giving massages to parents. We could not have put on this event without all of your help and support!
Finally, thank you to everyone in the always generous Sitka community who participated in this event and helped to spread the word on how we all can play a part in eliminating child abuse from our community.
Sarah Curley,
SAFV Children’s Program
