Democracy Fair draws a crowd to Kachemak Bay Campus

Published 4:30 pm Tuesday, April 21, 2026

Saturday was a fine sunny day for a celebration dedicated to the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence at a Democracy Fair held at the Kachemak Bay Campus where over 200 people attended.

Jeff Meyers, the campus’s history professor, provided the first presentation on Constitution 101, speaking about what it means to be civically engaged and the importance of being involved in a participatory government. From volunteering at the food bank, picking up trash or driving a neighbor to an appointment to being on a City commission or a Borough board and finally to running for elected office.

Ginny Espenshade, former attorney and current director of KP Youth Court, then did an interactive education on the three branches of our government. She closed with the Bill of Rights first by demonstrating how it is used for a citizen’s right to justice, then walked around for announcing each of the 10 Bills. Following this was an educational and lively discussion of whether we are a democracy or a republic, or both!

The second presentation was Local Government 101. Homer Mayor Rachel Lord began by saying “I love local government!” She noted that people come to council meetings usually with anger and fear, which she hopes leads to a curiosity of learning how the levels of government impact our daily lives. Heath Smith, a city planning commissioner, spoke to a desire to give back to the community. He explained the commission is there to handle how the city uses and develops land and noted all commissions are advisory except for Planning.

Willy Dunne, our District 9 Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly Member, explained some of what the Borough handles with the help of nine demographically represented assembly members elected by voters. Allocating funds is their primary role but there is also planning and public schools, roads, landfills, emergency services, hospital powers. Paul Seaton, our former District 6 representative, pointed out that Alaska has the “most powerful government.” We don’t have counties so departments like state troopers, ports, marine highway and prisons are run by the state. The state is constitutionally required to pass a budget, and he showed some graph examples of how the budget is proportioned. He noted that Alaska is also unique in that it requires every bill to be single-subject based.

For the lunch hour, five Pier One Theatre performers delighted the audience with a dramatic reading of the Declaration of Independence.

The third presentation was Judicial 101. Doug Baily, former U.S. attorney for Alaska and former Attorney General of Alaska, began by explaining some of our courts operate independently. Warren Matthews, former justice and chief justice of the Alaska Supreme Court, explained how our state judicial system was worked out in 1955 by the founding state delegates who were democratically elected.

Lastly, fair-goers were further engaged in a presentation on Reliable Information. Amber Coray with our local Legislative Information Office guided us through akleg.gov showing how to navigate finding a bill, how to follow it, how to educate yourself on in and how to testify on it. She said Alaska is the only state that allows public testimony which you can do from home or come to the LIO. Dave Berry, Homer Public Library director, presented on “Information Competency” and how to evaluate it. He explained using critical thinking to determine different sources and their incentives to lie. True Iredale, Kachemak Bay Campus student government vice president, guided us through the importance of media literacy with three important points to consider – “it dictates worldview, is a primary tool of control by all powers, and can increase diverse thought.”

An arts and crafts table for children and adults, had all the materials to create a birthday card to the U.S.A. They will be sent to congress after hopefully being available for viewing in some local venues.

To give a sense of citizen ownership in our country, an enlarged Declaration of Independence was hung for people to put their own signature to. Quilled pens were provided. One signer remarked before signing, “I will now declare my independence.”