Thanks for CACS article
We would like to thank Marilyn Sigman for the kind words about us in her article on the second decade of the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies. The real acknowledgements should go to Jane Middleton, who started the Oceanography Program, and the ideas and support provided by Captain Jack and Fran Montgomery, his crew on the Rainbow Connection and many, many CACS volunteers.
Kathy and Roger Herrnsteen
Corruption is alive and well in capital
Re: Governor’s office contracts ex-aide for statehood defense.
When it comes to the taxpayers money in Alaska it’s the same old story, that being that once you have worked for the head of state you never miss any meals afterwards.
With 57 attorney generals employed by the State of Alaska department of law, why would Gov. Dunleavy find it necessary to line an ex-aide’s pockets with $50,000,00 of taxpayer money, especially when everyone of the above-mentioned lawyers hold a license to practice law in the state of Alaska and any one of which has the ability to hit the law library and glean all necessary constitutional cited authorities that would be required to put a serious cog in the federal government’s overreach, in regard to Alaska’s states rights, or sovereignty relative to those rights, and for the same amount of taxpayer money they are receiving at the present time?
It is clear to me that the “corrupt old bastards club” is alive and well in our state’s capital.
John A. Anderson, Kenai
Comparing playbooks
Have you noticed how the extreme right wing’s playbook closely resembles the German Nazi playbook of the 1930s?
1. Banning books. Is burning next?
2. Opposition to public schools.
3. Opposition to the true history of slavery being taught.
4. Restrictive voting laws in several states. This is especially true where the non-white population is the majority.
5. Blatant lying to serve their purposes.
6. Trump wanted to shoot peaceful protesters.
I’m sure there is more to Republican plans to overturn our democracy, but this hopefully will help you “vote Blue.”
If you doubt any of this, just wait — the extreme right is anxious to prove me right. Germany had the brown shirts. The right wing has the Proud Boys, the Three Percenters and other militias to back their agendas.
D. Stanfield
Christianity should not force beliefs on others
To those who claim to desire a fascist theocracy and believe we’re a “Christian nation” :
The greatest danger to real Christians and/or Christianity as a whole is so-called “Christians” forcing their belief system in a forceful way upon the masses. If they succeed, there will be a rebound effect. (Jesus didn’t force anyone. He enticed with love and acceptance.) Also, if your life example is not convincing others that you have “the answers” to “correct living,” maybe you need to look at yourselves and question why.
God, if you believe the Bible, has given everyone free will. Why would anyone professing to love God put themselves above him and force them to follow him? (They only want to force their own perceived power!) God wants us to choose freely. You cannot force anyone to live according to your beliefs. When you do, you get their focus on your oppressive tactics and they will never “hear” your argument. You want “to win them to Christ?” Then live by example and they will actively question you about your faith/life, because they will see something they desire. (Some won’t desire it, but that’s their free choice, also.) But hypocrisy will turn them away.
The Christian Right wants to dictate to the rest of us what our laws should be (“according to the Bible”), but they don’t want our public school teachers to be able to teach that the Holocaust, slavery, discrimination, etc. is wrong or immoral. Here’s an idea: If you’re not happy with the public school system, either put your children in a private Christian school or home school them, but don’t take away the freedoms from everyone else to have their children educated as they see fit.
Jesus said you’ll know his people by their love, but all I see in this movement is lies, hypocrisy, hate, violence, calls to violence and civil war, corruption, etc. Jesus warned that in the last days there would be great deception, that people would kill thinking they were doing God’s will, so we must all examine ourselves. Are you really doing what God wants you to do? If you’re acting out of hate, then it’s not from God, no matter what you feel, or think, or be told by your leaders. Let’s do unto each other what we want done to ourselves.
L. Lev
On President Biden
We have a joke for a president, and the whole world knows it.
Ray Dawson
Loved & Lost Memorial Bench dedication stories were revelatory
Thank you to Sara and Ed, Christina and many others for the Loved & Lost Memorial Bench dedication.
Sara, you have repeatedly said that Duffy’s abduction made your family aware of how prevalent this problem is, especially among Indigenous populations. I heard you, but I didn’t hear you, until I attended the dedication.
Native families from Nome, Kotzebue and elsewhere came and spoke about their loved and lost family members. Another person spoke about her abduction (at age 11 or 12). She managed to escape but her family never talked about it until she was an adult.
The stories were searing and so from-the-heart. Thank you to each and every one of you for sharing.
Now I hear you, and hold you in my heart.
Nell Gustafson
