Gaza
Dear Editor: Israeli government officials have openly declared their intent to wreak devastation on Gaza, with no regard for the life of civilians, including Israeli hostages. Just over a month into Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, over 11,100 Palestinians have been killed, among them over 4,600 children.
There is no moral or legal justification for the targeting of civilians or the holding of civilian hostages. That was true when Hamas brutally attacked Israeli civilians. The same standard applies to the Israeli military, as it subjects a captive population in Gaza to a massive aerial bombardment: targeting hospitals, using white phosphorus, and forcing 1.1 million people to flee south, while bombing both the designated evacuation routes and the southern Gaza strip.
And now President Biden has called for an additional $14.3 billion to be sent to the Israeli military.
The Israeli government claims to be acting in the name of the Jewish people, and legitimate criticism of Israel is often silenced by false accusations of antisemitism. In light of this, it is significant that many Jews – young people and elders like myself, secular and religious, rabbis, descendants of Holocaust survivors, and elected officials – oppose the brutal actions of the Israeli government.
Everyone has the right to criticize any government, and the actions of the Israeli government can and should be subject to critical debate. Antisemitism represents a real danger, but criticism of Israel does not in itself constitute antisemitism. Indeed, and ironically, many white supremacist antisemites are also strong supporters of Israel.
We urgently need a political solution to this crisis that includes the return of Israeli hostages and the protection of Palestinian civilians. Please urge President Biden and Congress to call for a ceasefire, not fuel violence by sending the Israeli military more weapons.
For a discussion of the long tradition of Jewish dissent against Israeli nationalism, see “Jewish Alternatives to Zionism: A Partial History” by Ben Lorber on the website of Jewish Voice for Peace, a grassroots organization of American Jews guided by a vision of freedom, justice, equality, and dignity for all people.
https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/2019/01/12/a-partial-history-of-jewish-alternatives/ (https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/2019/01/12/a-partial-history-of-jewish-alternatives/)
Cindy Litman, Sitka
Dia De Los Muertos
Dear Editor: The third annual dia de los muertos (All Souls Day or Day of the Dead) celebration on Nov. 2, both at the library as well as the Sheet’ka Kwaán Naa Kahidi, was an extraordinary and momentous occasion for the community.
Thank you to all who joined in a traditional day of honoring, remembering, celebrating, and being present in spirit with our fieles difuntos (faithfully departed) loved ones.
It would not have been the same experience without the collaborative effort between the Friends of the Sitka Public Library, Sitka AmeriCorps, Sitka Public Library, Sitka Parks and Recreation, UAS, and Sitka Sound Science Center. Thank you to these organizations as well as the enigmatic musical performers whose song selections perfectly complemented the moment: Los Castaways, Sitka Ukulele Group, Anel y los Vatos (Anel and the Homies), Casey Orona, and Familia Figueroa.
Finally, a special thank you to Anel Figueroa, Juliana Figueroa, Adriana Achee, Maite Lorente, Kari Sagel, Alan Doulphus, Barb Morse, Rochelle Smallwood, Payton Diggins, Matthew Messick, and Nova Galanin, and the many other volunteers who dedicated their time and energy to help with the food, planning, funding, decorations, facilitation, materials, and with the irradiating ofrenda (altar).
We look forward to celebrating again next year,
Audrey Beam
for Dia de Muertos Committee
Ferry Service
Dear Editor: This is an open letter to Gov. Mike Dunleavy and his staff.
To Gov. Dunleavy and staff: A new budget year is coming soon. I hope that you remember me and my costly experience this past summer with the Columbia and its emergent repairs that canceled one of my ferry trips in June. I had to put my car on a barge and fly from Juneau to Ketchikan to complete my Alaska trip. It was very expensive.
I have not forgotten that the Alaska Marine Highway System and the people of Alaska deserve consistent reliable service up and down the Inside Passage including Juneau to Yakutat to Whittier.
It is not feasible for everyone to just fly from one location to another when cars and trucks need to go too- they can not fly on Alaska Airlines.
More money and new ships are needed to provide proper service to all Alaska residents as well as tourists on the AMHS. There should be TWO mainline ferries available at all times. Once a week is hardly enough service. Especially in summer.
In case you haven’t picked up on this, I have a very low tolerance for governmental inefficiency when the effects are so detrimental to the public as is the case with insufficient funding for the Alaska Marine Highway System.
I will be returning to Alaska this spring to continue visiting your beautiful state. I hope I am not again inconvenienced if and when I may decide to use the ferry in 2024.
Respectfully submitted,
Regina Discenza,
Forked River, New Jersey
Tourism Gathering
Dear Editor: I went to the Monday evening tourism gathering. It was sure well attended. I gave my two minutes of my view there.
I confess, in the last 20 or so years I make most of my living from the visitor industry. I enjoy those opportunities, and giving the visitors a genuine and quality experience of a beautiful Alaskan town and way of life. My thinking is that half million people are far too many. I think 300,000 is a decent goal.
When I had my first Sitka tour business from 1999 to 2008 all the downtown shops were open year-round. We had at most 200,000 visitors give or take. There were no empty stores downtown in the winter. I have had the opportunities to go to Juneau, Ketchikan and Skagway in the tour season and the off seasons. All of them are ghost towns in the winter.
I believe the numbers will keep growing unless we limit them to a sustainable number – 300,000. If not, the jewelry shops will come in, and chase the local owners out and Sitka will be a winter ghost town and a crowded, smoggy, bus-fumed, overcrowded tourist trap in the summer.
It will not be the Sitka we love to live in. It will not be a unique, genuine, lovely real town where a visitor can have a moment with a real local person. It will be just another overcrowded summer amusement park, with not much concern for quality of life for residents or quality of experience for visitors.
And, finally, too many people coming in big mobs affect the whole atmosphere, crowding the locals, and each other, causing everyone to lose appreciation for each other, and long lines everywhere. Sitka used to have such a different atmosphere than the other towns. It no longer does. My two bits. Thank you.
Jeff Budd, Sitka
