My Friend Boyd
Dear Editor: My friend, the Tlingit Warrior, Boyd Didrickson died recently. Last Sunday I attended a memorial for him at the ANB Hall. As is customary at such functions friends and relatives told stories about Boyd. I have one small story about Boyd that I didn’t tell because I felt that it wasn’t my place. I’ll tell it here.
One time, not too long ago, leaving Murray Pacific I saw Boyd get into his old van and drive up Katlian toward downtown. A hundred or more ravens took to the air and flew just above the van. It was startling. All those ravens, all those black wings, filling the air above the street, above the van. When I saw Boyd and told him about seeing this, all he said was, “They know. They know.”
Rest in peace, Boyd.
Matt Donohoe, Sitka
Electoral College
Dear Editor: I am feeling really dumb. Stunned. Depressed. Worried. Appalled. And today, scared. But also dumb, uneducated, illiterate, and just plain puzzled.
What is this weird “Electoral College”? I’ve never understood it. How many total individual American votes did Hillary Clinton really get? How many more than the Trumpette? What percentage of the total votes?
Why are “popular votes” including mine, overridden by what seems like a terribly archaic system? There may have been a time – many moons ago –when it was appropriate and fair. But now? In this modern day? With all its modern technology.
I feel disenfranchised.
Might Sitka with all its amazing creativity and respect for the beauty of human diversity come up with something better? Now!
N.Y. Davis, Ph.D., Sitka
Confederate Flag
Dear Editor: I was a bit surprised and nonplussed when I drove by the roundabout last week and saw a confederate flag with the words, ‘‘Heritage Not Hate.’’
I took the time to Google this and found most people disagree. The confederate flag is in fact a symbol of just that – hate. It stands for slavery, segregation, and unspeakable treatment of people of color. The words ‘Heritage Not Hate’ do not absolve the symbol. Whose heritage is it celebrating? People can say what they will, but if the confederate flag represents racism to most Americans including people of color, then it represents racism, period.
A flag representing equality and the value of standing together as a community may, I hope, better reflect what those people were trying to express. I am not sure of their motivations, but the confederate flag is not a symbol of anything positive to my way of thinking. We are a small town with a diverse population and for our own good and the good of others, we need to find ways to work together and not be divisive.
Jeff Budd, Sitka
