May 14, 2018, Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor: It’s fine for Mr. Reeder of Cruise Line Agencies of Alaska to advocate for another cruise ship dock. That is why he gets the big bucks. But calling our Assembly “a problem” as he did is a cheap shot. Sure, it’s fun to criticize, but the problem is a financial one that was created by past assemblies, and our Assembly is clearly working very hard to solve it.

Past Assemblies could rely on the state to fund maintenance and repair of our roads, utilities, harbors and other infrastructure. We enjoyed very low tax and utility rates because the state paid the bills. Past Assemblies never planned for the day when the oil stopped funding state government. It’s a shocking fact that state support for Sitka’s budget has dropped by $3.45 million per year since 2015. And we the people have given our Assembly very few tools to respond to that shortfall. We voted down a proposed 2 mil increase in property tax a couple of years ago. That increase would have been a tremendous help. So that leaves the Assembly to agonize over where to cut services, and how to raise revenue in the least damaging way. It saddens me to hear the hostility they are subjected to, often from people who demonstrate little understanding of the issue, or of the lengthy process that the Assembly has followed to reach its decision.

Whether you agree with them or not, every one of our Assembly members puts in the time to understand the topic at hand, listens respectfully to the public and each other, and takes their task of coming to the best decision very seriously. It’s a difficult job. Whether or not we agree with their decisions, we owe them our respect and gratitude.

 

Dear Editor: The Mt. Edgecumbe High School class of 2018 celebrated commencement ceremonies at the Sitka Performing Arts Center on May 10. 

Thank you to the expert staff at the Performing Arts Center for making it a successful celebration. Jeanne Stolberg, Grey Conderman and Savannah Richmond worked to assure that the details of lights, sound, seating and electronics were perfect. The PAC is a beautiful facility and MEHS is grateful to hold our graduation there.

We would also like to thank Bev’s Flowers, whose floral expertise beautifies our graduation ceremony every year. Thanks is also in order to the Daily Sitka Sentinel for providing thoughtful attention to this event. Families from around Alaska arrive in Sitka and anxiously await your fine coverage of graduation. 

MEHS students and staff greatly appreciate the many community organizations that award scholarships to MEHS seniors. These awards highlight the dynamic relationship Mt. Edgecumbe High School students share with the Sitka community. We, at MEHS, thank you for honoring the hard work and accomplishments of our students. 

Finally, we are all heartened to see community members, MEHS alumni and family help us celebrate the Class of 2018. Thank you all.

 

Dear Editor: This ordinance, and others like it, is yet another travesty for Sitka and America, it is not a win. It is the continuation of government overreach. It must be easy to push laws and taxations that don’t apply to you. This is the forcing of one’s lifestyle choices onto other adults and as far as I am concerned is a violation of one’s civil liberties.

Because someone doesn’t like other adults’ lifestyle choices doesn’t mean they get to forcibly enact laws and taxes so they coincide with their own lifestyle choices. What happened to LIFE, LIBERTIES and PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS? This is slowly being eroded and will no longer exist in America. It’s more like you have to live like I do and do what I do because I know what’s best for everyone and if you don’t listen we’ll push laws and taxations on you so you have to.

It is truly appalling to me. People need to mind their own business and stop prying into other’s personal lives and personal choices. We are on this earth for a very short time, why do people concern themselves with the way others lead their lives and what they do to their own bodies? When? When are people going to leave other people alone to live their own lives freely, let them make their own choices and live the way they choose to, not the way others think they should? When there are issues like domestic violence, poverty, children with no parents or a home, homelessness, mental illness, veteran affairs, etc., etc., why aren’t these people spending this time and energy to address these issues instead of passing laws, regulations and taxations that don’t apply to them and that are only directed towards other adults’ personal choices that do not align with their own?

That way of thinking that brings people to make ordinances like Tobacco 21 and others is a sickness that is spreading across this country and if it continues will absolutely destroy what used to be a great nation.

 

 

 

Dear Editor: I have just two points to make: Alaskans are going to have to pay higher taxes and this is not the fault of the Assembly. 

The Assembly, made up of elected citizens, must make up for the loss of the easy largess of oil revenue. This is not likely to get better. We still need first rate schools, harbors, roads, medical care, and, for my money, a vibrant arts community.

To do this we are going to have to pay more from local sources of income. Sitkans rejected an increase in the property tax rate. The Assembly now must make ends meet through the means at hand. I think that these citizens deserve a great deal of respect for taking on these difficult decisions.

 

 

Dear Editor: I did not vote for Mr. Trump because he said (and believes) that ‘‘only I can!’’ We are now struggling to find out whether, in our new Twitter age, any ‘‘balance of powers’’ remains.

Here is what I consider to be a similar sentiment I received on May 8, 2018, from one of our Assembly members – in response to the issue of whether or not ‘‘we the people’’ should have a say in decisions involving our community:

‘‘We vote for people to make decisions. If we do not like those decisions, we vote them out. For the people to usurp the power of the Assembly when they think it is ‘important enough’ is a slap at all of the other issues that we are charged with making and all of the challenges we face in having to make them.’’

I have been taught that we elect people to represent us, not to decide for us! I have been ignored by politicians, and received messages from them that have nothing to do with the issue I’ve opened to them, but I have never before been told to leave well enough alone – that my involvement in civic matters would be an unwelcome ‘‘slap.’’ I am not prepared yet to become a civic cipher and exercise my civic rights ONLY to elect someone who will, then, always decide for me.

Democracy, including checks and balances, AND PUBLIC VOICES, is never ‘‘tidy.’’ Often it takes more effort and is less ‘‘business friendly’’ than a more totalitarian government. But it is what our country has fought for, and tries to be!