Gratitude
Dear Editor: I am grateful for school boards across the state of Alaska. School boards help assure that local choice matters, and they help advocate to the state and beyond.
Alaska is a state of much diversity, from Annette Island, to North Slope, to Aleutians regions and all the districts in between, and each board is made up of individuals from their districts chosen in public election.
School boards can maximize local resources while helping assure that curriculum reflects the values of each community.
Paul Rioux, Sitka
Mask Rhetoric
Dear Editor: Anchorage Assembly meetings became national news last month for the offensive rhetoric from some mask mandate opponents and the testifiers wearing handmade yellow stars. Sadly, this shameful behavior is happening in Sitka as well.
At the Nov. 9 Assembly meeting, Brett Wilcox entered comments into the public record stating, “When people enshrine the Holocaust and declare that nothing can be as evil as the Holocaust they lose the ability to see when today’s sociopaths are herding humanity down the same or similar paths. When we allow well meaning people or otherwise to silence our voices then we dishonor Holocaust victims.”
Jonathan A. Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, stated in 2019, “It is simply wrong to compare the plight of Jews during the Holocaust to that of anti-vaxxers. Groups advancing a political or social agenda should be able to assert their ideas without trivializing the memory of the six million Jews slaughtered in the Holocaust.”
When offensive statements are made against Jewish people, it is important to reflect on our own responses. Whether these statements are made at an Assembly meeting, within local groups or among friends and family it is imperative we recognize our silence helps amplify hurtful views and give them power. It should not be the burden of the Jewish community alone to point out how damaging these comparisons to the Holocaust are. We all bear responsibility.
Clarice Johnson, Sitka
