Community makes a difference
This is a long-overdue letter. But now that there is more resolution in my life, I am finally ready to write this. I have so, so much to thank all of you for, and if there are folks that I have missed, please pass it on. In October 2023, my dog and I escaped a propane explosion. After a long hospitalization and rehabilitation, I am back. With the help and prayers of my family and friends, I am in my home again, and so happy. This community of Homer has, as always, been outstanding, as has my Anchorage community for a year and a half as well. With all that is going on in our world today, it makes my heart light to know that there are so many in this world who care to make a difference, and you all have made a huge difference in mine. Again, thank you.
Sincerely and gratefully,
Betts Callahan
Peaceful protest happening Saturday
Homer Women of Action announces a peaceful demonstration on Saturday, July 19 at WKFL Park, Pioneer and Heath Streets, in Homer from noon to 1 p.m. to voice sustained resistance and to honor our rights to demonstrate, with the message of Freedom over Facism.
Homer Women of Action welcomes everyone worried or displeased by recent efforts to cut Congressionally-approved federal funding for Homer’s and the Kenai Peninsula’s public school district; the impacts to families and businesses from the recent passage of the federal budget; frightened by federal immigration agents; or concerned about the potential loss of our U.S. Constitutional rights.
Bring your signs and peacefully stand in solidarity with your friends, family, neighbors and coworkers.
Our voices matter and they make an impact and our combined voices make a difference.
Homer Women of Action
Vance should make good on calls for accountability
I continue to struggle with the hypocrisy of Rep. Sarah Vance.
On the one hand, she recently applauded $7.8 million dollars in taxpayer money for upgrades to Port MacKenzie in Upper Cook Inlet. That port has been a money pit since it was built in 2005; it’s had no regular income, has never had a viable business plan, it suffers astronomical maintenance costs, and they’ve already dumped $184 million into an unfinished rail line that still needs a couple hundred million more dollars just to get to the port. Plus, we already have three tidewater ports on the railbelt in Southcentral Alaska.
While propaganda outlets like Must Read Alaska tout ever-more taxpayer funding for Port Mac, I can say from 30 years looking at large infrastructure projects in Cook Inlet that Port Mac is the biggest boondoggle out there. In short, there’s been no serious accountability.
On the other hand, Rep. Vance repeatedly falls back on the tired trope of “accountability” in her ongoing efforts to stifle public school funding. She of course fails to consider how public schools undergo rigorous performance testing and financial scrutiny when her preferred alternative — homeschooling — sees little to none. In fact, the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District recently received two national awards for its excellent financial management.
If Rep. Vance is honest about wanting accountability, we need her to support public education for our kids, families and communities, not dead-end projects in the Mat-Su Valley that will never break even.
Bob Shavelson
Homer
