Island Institute Auction
Dear Editor: Heartfelt thanks to all who made the Island Institute’s recent auction a rousing success.
We first want to acknowledge the close to 100 businesses and individuals who contributed items and services to be auctioned off. We are amazed again and again at the generosity of our community. Next, our thanks goes to all the people who came and cast their bids. They made the event a hugely successful fundraiser for the Island Institute. The Balkan Conspirators – Jeanne Stolberg, Mike Litman, and Ritch Phillips – offered wonderfully spirited music to bid by during the silent auction, and auctioneer extraordinaire Ken Fate kept the live auction bidding entertaining and fun. Harrigan Centennial Hall staff went overboard to cooperate with all our requests and needs. Thank you, all.
We couldn’t have done it without the help of lots of volunteers. Heartfelt gratitude to Sherry Barnes, Mark White, Paul Norwood, Hahlen Barkhau, Rio Barkhau, Ashia Lane, and Nancy Behnken, along with Institute Board members Brooke Schafer, Willow Moore, Brenda Campen, Eric Matthes and Linda Behnken. Thanks also to Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association for their donation of fish for the tasty fare prepared by the Larkspur Cafe, to Raven Radio and the Sitka Sentinel for publicity, to many businesses for posting flyers, and to Old Harbor Books for selling tickets.
The ideals of a resilient community are at the heart of the Island Institute’s programs, and we are deeply grateful for the reciprocal gift of Sitka’s generous support. We invite you to learn more about our work at www.islandinstitutealaska.org and join us for upcoming events.
Carolyn Servid, Dorik Mechau
and Peter Bradley
for The Island Institute
Legalize Marijuana
Dear Editor: Hello, my name is Brian Bickar. I would like to give a shout-out for election time to encourage voters to vote to end prohibition on marijuana.
As we know the drug marijuana is a lot more safe than several of the drugs that we have made legal. This, of course, does not mean that marijuana is safe or any drug that affects a person is safe. This leads to the double-edged sword of which I speak. We can continue to turn a blind eye to the Sitka that consumes marijuana and are punished for using that substance. The war against marijuana has continued to separate our community and cost the city millions of dollars in law enforcement. There should be, of course, laws on the use and the distribution of this drug, but to treat it as we do now is stretching our law enforcement officials to the breaking point.
Our law enforcement officials cannot do their job in helping us with serious crimes and violent people if they are handcuffed filling our jails with people that have decided to use marijuana within the confines of their own homes.
Please do the correct thing and vote to end prohibition of marijuana. Our police department needs the ability to fight crime and not run around telling adults what they can or can not do. If anything this is a job for the insurance people to do, as you know when you get insurance for health they ask you if you smoke. This does not pertain to any one item that people smoke and as you know they bear the brunt of taking drugs, be it tobacco, marijuana, clove or seaweed.
Brian Bickar, Sitka
The Power of Education
Dear Editor: “One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world” – Malala Yousafzai
Since members of the Taliban boarded her school bus and shot 15-year-old Malala Yousafzai in the head, the Pakistani teen activist has proved unstoppable in her campaign for the simple right to go to school. But her work is far from finished: quality education is still a distant dream for millions of children.
As children in Sitka count down the days until summer break, roughly 57 million primary school-age girls and boys around the world are not attending school at all. According to just-released UN data, a staggering total of 250 million girls and boys – nearly 40 percent of the world’s children of primary school age – still cannot read.
The Global Partnership for Education the only international organization dedicated to quality education for all has already helped support quality education for 22 million children in many of the world’s poorest countries. This spring, the Global Partnership aims to raise $3.5 billion to support education for 29 million more of the poorest and most vulnerable children worldwide.
A $250 million U.S. contribution over the next two years would help put the Global Partnership on track to support quality education for 29 million of the world’s poorest children. That’s an investment we could all be proud of.
For more information on the GPE and how you can easily communicate with your members of Congress, visit www.results.org
Sitka RESULTS
Shanti Friedman, Bitsy Mosher,
Donna Donohoe,
Scott and Patty Harris,
Nancy Knapp, Libby Stortz,
Elizabeth Will, Michele Friedman
