Freight alternative
Mayor Ken Castner and the Homer City Council were right to support funding for the Port of Anchorage at a recent meeting. The port is crucial to our economy, but it’s good to remember there used to be an alternative and could be again.
For a spell in the 1980s, three barge services were hauling containerized freight direct from Seattle to the dock in Homer. A friend in local business at the time pointed out that this was great because the cost of trucking a container of freight from Anchorage to Homer was greater than the cost of getting the same container from Seattle to Anchorage.
Then there was an economic downturn in the late 1980s and all three barge companies quit serving us the same month. I’ve always wondered whether there might have been enough freight to support one of them.
Either from a desire to save money, or for survival in time of possible disaster, we need to keep the option of freight direct to Homer in mind.
Neil McArthur
The stars above
With the returning darkness, the greatest joy for me is the star-spangled sky. As Homer’s population grows and housing and subdivisions flourish, the light pollution is being greatly magnified. Already, over the last several years, the “glow of Homer” has increased markedly.
With all the new development, it’ll continue to intensify. I understand the need for outdoor lighting, and I am a fan of winter lights (aka Christmas lights) to brighten the darkness, but please use motion sensors or turn these off or put them on timers so that they don’t blaze away through the night. The darker the sky, the brighter the stars.
Jennifer Edwards
Vax mandates are still tyranny
Dear Editor,
Some readers apparently didn’t understand the point being made comparing mandatory vaccinations to tyranny. Here is another way to look at it. If the government has the right to force you to accept a vaccine for employment, then they have the right to force you to accept any medical procedure for any reason they wish. It is the same basic issue.
The fundamental question is, do you have the right to control what medical procedures are done to you, or not? It is that simple. This argument is not about whether COVID-19 vaccines are effective, or whether people should take one. This argument is about whether it is OK to force others to take a vaccine against their will.
President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate is tyrannical. It sets a precedent that must not stand. Gov. Mike Dunleavy must join the fight and use every legal tool the state has available to fight these mandates. Those in favor of forcing vaccinations on others are a much bigger threat to our country than the COVID-19 disease.
Respectfully,
Greg Sarber
Blessed are
There are those who follow without reservation and those who weigh risks and follow. There are those who weigh risks and won’t follow. These individuals may not understand completely the “why” of their deeply held reservations, but they have an unshakeable conviction that decides.
They’re condemned as guilty by those who can’t understand the basis for their condemnation in and of their own expertise.
Yet the condemned go on in life without resentment. They try to offer truth, fairness, even love to those who unfairly condemn them, the same as they’d offer to all.
Many are highly informed. Some are front-line workers and are encouraged by those who followed, yet have the same concerns. They’ve seen the inconsistencies, stifled discussions and vague information. They won’t take the path of least resistance. Many will make their decisions at great personal cost. Some already have.
Yet they go on trying to offer only good.
“Blessed are the humble, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5.5)
Leonard Miller
Share the Spirit
Dear Editor and Community members;
Greetings from your friends at Share the Spirit. The year 2021 is here and we are attempting a return to normal this holiday season, but we need the community’s participation to make this work.
At this point, our greatest need is a volunteer to gather the help, including cooks for a version of our infamous Spaghetti Feed. We are currently planning it to be a “to go” affair on Tuesday, Nov. 14, but that date is flexible, and the whole thing depends on a brave soul stepping up to organize the event.
In answer to the other questions that may be popping into your mind:
Yes, your donations to this program will be used to provide food and gift baskets for those in need in our local communities. Donations should be mailed to P.O. Box 3218, Homer AK 99603.
Yes, we will breathe new life into the Adopt-A-Family Program, so talk to your co-workers, club members, family and friends to see who wants to get involved as an adopter this year.
Yes, we will do food and gift baskets, and the applications will still only be available through local human service agencies and churches where you have an established relationship.
Yes, the baskets will be given away the week of Christmas — we think on Dec. 22.
Yes, we will keep you updated as more information becomes available, and as always, we ask that you please, always remember to … Share the Spirit,
Kelly Glidden and Shari Daugherty, co-chairs, Basket Program; Jayne Locklar, president, and Jonathan Adams, vice-president, Share the Spirit; Emmy Olsen-Drye, volunteer by birth, Share the Spirit
Don’t print lies about Arizona election
The Thursday, Sept. 30, 2021 Homer News had a letter to the editor that you printed that contained more lies about the Arizona election recount results. The claims were lies, false and undocumented. The author claimed that there were about 57,000 improper votes and that Trump would have won.
Trump spent four years in office telling us over 30,000 documented and confirmed lies, and now we have the Homer paper spreading another 57,000 lies about the recount in Arizona. You need to print a correction now that you know these claims are BS. You need to verify lunatic claims and lies before printing and not after printing them.
Get to it or change the signs on the Sterling Highway entrance to Homer to claim Homer is the “Trump Liars Capital of the Earth.”
W. Stroess, Sterling
