House Election
Dear Editor: Almost a month and a half ago, I sat at a fold-up table in North Pacific Hall and watched the waves roll by in the Sitka Sound. Nearly 20 people brought seafood I had never imagined – black cod tips, salmon with five different names, halibut cheeks. Back home in Knoxville, Tennessee, salmon came in two kinds: canned or fresh.
The seafood bounty symbolized the community that welcomed me and the 11 other Sitka Service Fellows now living at the Fine Arts Camp. Our employers – who include the Sitka Community Hospital, the Fine Arts Camp, the Hames Center, the Sitka Tribe of Alaska, and many others – threw the potluck to acquaint us with the place we would soon call home.
I work for the Sitka Tribe of Alaska as a preschool teacher’s aide at Woo.cheen, a GED tutor at the Southeast Alaska Career Center, and a co-teacher for a job skills course at Pacific High School. I am here because of Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins.
I met Jonathan four years ago as a freshman at Yale University when I joined the outdoor club for a night bike ride to swim in Lake Wintergreen. Someone’s bike tire went flat and Jonathan switched bikes with the student. JKT picked up the bike and ran the four miles back to campus. As the bike story suggests, Jonathan is one of the few people I know who both genuinely wants to and can help others.
When looking for jobs during the spring of my senior year, I contacted Jonathan because I had heard about the Sitka Service Fellows program that he had coordinated. Unlike many service programs, the Sitka Service Fellows would be administered by locals and would operate under the notion that fellows would give as much as we would receive. Service would inhere an educational mission instead of the savior complex found in too many post-graduate experiences.
This program has provided pre-schoolers who inspire me everyday, a place with mountains and sea, and a grocery store manager who would offer to drive me home after I had filled a suitcase with potatoes. Jonathan made it all happen and I can’t say enough to thank him.
In a time when too many politicians just bicker and ignore our communities’ problems, Jonathan manages to turn sound ideas into realities. I look forward to casting my ballot for JKT.
Will Kronick, Sitka
Voting for JKT
Dear Editor: I’ve been a seasonal Sitkan since 1984, when my parents sold their Wasilla veterinary practice to cross the Gulf on a boat built in the backyard, landing in Sitka to embrace a new life as salmon trollers. It was an audacious dream, one requiring risk, daring, and tenacity. Qualities characteristic of many Alaskans, and none more so than Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins.
Jonathan’s 2012 run for office proved he knows goals aren’t achieved on enthusiasm alone. Rather, Jonathan earned his seat through herculean work, perseverance, and dedication to all Alaskans, regardless of party affiliation. In serving on the Fisheries, Transportation, and Government Oversight committees, Jonathan spent his first term demonstrating his conviction that bipartisan support is key to successful legislation. While some politicians gain notoriety for ill-mannered, unyielding conduct, Jonathan practices unflagging courtesy. He is receptive, open to others while holding true to his values. His positivity and “can-do” attitude make him a powerful advocate.
As a lifelong commercial fisherman, I’m grateful for Jonathan’s staunch advocacy for fisheries. As a writer who knows the value of words, I’m moved by his dedication to the Alaska Native Languages bill. And as a seasonal Sitkan, I’m impressed with Jonathan’s willingness to lend his time to anyone who loves Alaska – even those of us who can’t reward him with our vote.
Thank you for your dedicated service, Jonathan, and thank you, Sitkans, for using your vote to secure another JKT term.
Tele Aadsen,
Sitka and Bellingham, Wash.
Politics and Fishing
Dear Editor: I listened to the Chamber of Commerce legislative candidate forum. I care about fishing issues so I feel compelled to share Mr. Samuelson’s word-for-word answers on fishing questions from the forum. They speak for themselves.
When asked about increasing developing Southeast’s resources: “These are the things that I understand. When it comes to resources, it’s not that I know every intricate detail about what we can do. Especially when you’re looking at fishing. That is the largest, the biggest employer that we have in Alaska as a whole, I think, that we can move forward with that. I think we can do more with that.”
He continues: “So when we’re in the Legislature and as a person again when you look at this resume and you look at the work history and the longevity that I’ve had here these are the things that I understand and can move forward. And not tell you that I know everything about all these details, but I do know very strongly what I know as far as my strengths and my weaknesses. And that’s where you start bringing in staff and you start making sure that you’re listening and asking the right questions and permitting and, and it’s such an animal, I mean it’s crazy the amount of information that a person has to understand when you start talking about natural resources.”
When asked about reducing trawl bycatch: “Let’s figure out how to make it better so that they’re more efficient so they can get out there and make sure that they’re working with everybody and try to negotiate work together make sure that they don’t lose their jobs, yet be more efficient. And see what we can do with the rules, working federally and at a state level.”
When asked about keeping fishing jobs local: “And what are we going to do to make that happen so we can keep Alaska local and Alaskans working and keep our economies vibrant? All throughout Southeast and Alaska, those are things that are important. Now I can’t tell you all the specifics of exactly how I’d go about it, but I can’t tell you enough that I have been in these industries all my life. It’s not just about the fishing boats it’s not just about the permits. It has to do with the cannery, it has to do with the processors, it has to do with the people that are coming up here continuously as transient fisherman, as people that are coming up here yearly.”
Although I have not been fishing my whole life, I have been paying attention to fishing issues the last few years. My livelihood depends on commercial fishing so I will be voting for JKT.
Jeff Farvour, Sitka
AFS Students
Dear Editor: Over the Alaska Day weekend Sitka welcomed six AFS exchange students from Juneau, Petersburg and Ketchikan to join four students currently hosted locally for an orientation.
What a wonderful weekend to showcase Sitka to these yearlong visitors to our state! The AFS students were from Bangladesh, Chile, Moldova, Norway, Germany, Albania, France and Russia.
AFS Sitka would like to thank the United Methodist Church for housing these students, Sitka National Historical Park Ranger Ryan Carpenter and volunteer Bethany Bayer-Rechlin for helping them make connections between their intercultural exchange experience and the intercultural changes that have transpired in Sitka over time, and Sitka High School and Pacific High School for hosting visits. Our local students are already making plans to spend time at Mt. Edgecumbe High School, as well.
If you are interested in learning more about hosting a student, or if your child is interested in going on an exchange, please contact Connie Kreiss at 747-5387 or Rebecca Himschoot at 747-6744.
AFS Volunteers
Connie Kreiss, Julia Smith,
Rebecca Himschoot, Krisanne Rice
Get Out and Vote
Dear Editor: I am writing to encourage you to vote this election. Early voting has begun and I have already voted at the city offices. It was a pleasant and relaxed experience.
I know many of you are discouraged by all the negative advertising and phone calls. They are fueled by a bitterly divided Supreme Court (Citizens United) decision in 2010 overruling two important precedents that restricted campaign spending by corporations and unions. The majority ruled 5-4 that the US government may not ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections. If you are disgusted with this barrage then don’t vote for those aligned with these interests. Please don’t let them keep you from voting.
On a refreshing note, I commend both Steven Samuelson and JKT for positive campaigns focused on the issues. It is a joy to have two candidates born in our district who are familiar with our problems and riches.
Eric Jordan, F/V I Gotta, Sitka
