But For Her

   "Mama always said..." was intended to be the title of this blog, however, those words were already taken in the sphere of blog titles. Therefore, I was forced to change the name to something that would just as appropriately reflect my intentions, which were to honor the memory of my mother. The posed question of "Who's your mother?" certainly represents her and the times she lived in. She had no fear of the 'on the spot correction' of children or adults. Indeed, she recognized that many adults still needed the lessons. The advice she handed on was often commonsense, unless you had not heard it before. Most who know me have heard me quote her more than once.
   In a time much simpler than we live in today, my mother was a teacher of children who loved her. The children she taught never doubted that she cared for them and wanted only the best for them. She would never knowingly allow harm come to one if she could do anything about it. I credit my mother in my life with many things, from my sense of empathy and compassion to my attitudes of justice and knowledge.
   This most recent Mother's Day I was very pleased to host my brother and his wife for their Alaskan vacation. We were thrilled over and over again by the glory of God that was expressed in the views we had, not only of wildlife but mountains, rivers and glaciers, views that are themselves subject to God's reign of the weather. But for our mother, I considered, we may not have been together at all, much less at the right time and place to see all that we had been shown.

Empty Spaces

   As you read the growing list of empty spaces that our legislature draws up as possible replacement housing for the Anchorage Legislative Information Office, it does cause one to wonder how in the world we Alaskan's got stuck with that albatross, elegant as it is, in the first place. The fact that there is all that empty space available seems to reflect badly on many realtors who missed their golden opportunity to provide more government space, as if they were asleep at their own wheel when the deal was being made. Or, was it that some of our trusted legislature very cunningly worked behind the backs of those at large who are the realtors of Anchorage, in addition to the good people of the state who voted them into office? Somewhere in the back of my mind I can't help but think that much of the deal concerning the LIO was alcohol related. I mean no pun by that, but literally, for to me it always had the same smell as that of the Alcohol Beverage Control moving to the port area of Anchorage after the successful lobbying to move ABC from the Department of Public Safety and place it under the Department of Commerce. Added to that is the aroma of an historical yet distressed piece of property, that was not selling in the market as the licensed liquor establishment it was known as, that was brought into the contract to remodel the pre-existing LIO building.
   If you consider it was some of the same legislators involved with both the departmental move of the ABC and the contract deal that has become our nightmare LIO, then it begins to make a corrupt kind of sense. At least the ABC did get moved into available empty space at the Atwood Building, so we can hope.