Name Recognition

   I understand some people are spending a lot of money to make sure their favorite candidate names are recognized in the upcoming mayoral election in Anchorage. I say names because, for some people, that's all they are. We, especially in the Mat-Su Valley really don't know you personally. For those of you who don't travel in the circles it would take to know these people, let me give you some free advice.

   The one they call Dan Coffey has made his name in alcohol litigation, typically on the corporate side of things. What that translates to, by definition, is that he has most often stood against the good people of this state in courtrooms for decades. If he had wanted to make a better impact on society and the status of crime that Anchorage experiences now, he has not shown that in his works of the past. He was even the attorney of record back when Rumrunner's was found to be building another bar downstairs without securing a permit first. That event alone, which was prior to the famous assault on premise that eventually led to the closing of Rumrunner's, seemed like a no-go for Alcohol 101. Seeing as how they haven't quite given corporations a vote in Anchorage yet, it is still up to the voters to help themselves and their neighbors by doing the right thing when casting their ballots. 

   Speaking of your neighbors, for those who wonder about the newfound support in the valley for rival Amy Demboski, I myself was foolish enough to think I was the only one in the valley getting the prank campaign calls being made in her name. I thought perhaps I should contact her campaign team to alert them, but I didn't. I wonder if APOC knows.

Opening Acts

   From the outside looking inward to Anchorage, many rural people get a good laugh out of what goes on within that municipality. For many years now I have heard the adulterated slang Anchuragua used to describe it, especially out in the Mat-Su Valley. It seemed to me at the time that most of it was payback for being called valley trash. However, I would then caution people not to laugh, my experience has been that whatever happened in Anchorage, unlike Vegas, soon enough spreads throughout this entire state. Now, most of the folks in this valley live rural because they like it that way, but you can be sure that living rural presents different challenges that residents in a first class city like Anchorage could not imagine. I also know that many valley residents shy away from the public processes that go on around them. We must stop looking at everything as politics and look at it as you are stepping up for your friends that can't do so for themselves. It is up to us, as a borough, to fight for ourselves to bring our rural perspectives to the forefront of the discussions that will eventually affect all Alaskans.

   I might add, that if you think you know state politics because you closely keep up with the Legislative sessions, you know not. It was not in Juneau that I learned that the building they gutted for the new Legislative Information Office in Anchorage had been available for sale only two years earlier for a million and change. If you truly care for this state, keep an close eye on Anchorage. There lie the opening acts of whatever politics are to come for the rest of us, scattered throughout this great state as we are.

 

The Price of Free Drinks

   Why is it that what society recognizes so readily in one industry it refuses to see in another? Many good people are aware that the street drug dealers often give away product to entice new or reluctant clients to those habits. We see this for what it is and consider it to be one of the ills of their trade. It's a form of preying on the the addicted in our neighborhoods, especially when they are vulnerable and often trying hard to stay clean. For this reason, if we were to assess a sin tax to drugs it would be wiser to tax the product at wholesale rather than at retail, for that is where most of the actual sin is taking place. The drug dealer is not ill, as is the addict. The dealer is greedy and makes his money taking advantage of the ill.

   By the same token, it seems that a sin tax on alcohol would work better at the wholesale level rather than the retail. Alaska is reported at some of the highest tax rates on alcohol in the country, yet we see little evidence of the money helping the peoples situation. Many alcoholics work in the industry for their access to alcohol, just as a drug addict may work for the dealer. If licensees were taxed at wholesale instead of at retail, in my opinion, it would eliminate a lot of loose or free alcohol in between. However we have been taxing has not helped the people of this state, only the wholesalers.

Best and Worse of Years in One

   It's been decades since I've seen my country in this much social turmoil.
   Like a lot of others, I had those high hopes for change several years ago, but those hopes have long since been dashed. This man of such Nobel peace that I thought he had the potential of bringing all our nation together abandoned the ideology of forward thinking that, in my opinion, brought him to office. He let valuable time pass without addressing himself to the upcoming youth of our country. Had he been as aggressive in that area as I had hoped at the time, I like to imagine he may well have inspired many of todays young men in such a timely fashion that a particular child of yesterday did not grow to the age he did, only to be shot down in the streets of Ferguson, MO in the manner he did this past year.
   Despite that, my own state appears to have made some great strides towards the respect we would think all peoples garnered. My once choice for Governor is instead the Lt. Governor, with a position to make a difference in all our lives. Our new Governor has made some key appointments in departments that have an enormous effect on the quality of life of so many Alaskans, like Health and Social Services and Corrections. Last year also saw a new Director appointed to the Alcohol Beverage Control agency that seems not to be a mere figurehead. She apparently understands that documentation is not enforcement. Documentation does not save lives, enforcement does. Between that agency and the aforementioned two departments alone, what an impact these appointments have on our society. For starters, perhaps we can stop treating "those people" worse than we treat "those animals" in our society.

Thanks to Grandmothers everywhere.

   Choose respect are simple words that reflect simple thoughts. If I respect you and you respect me, why should there ever be violence in the domestic relationships? Because people don't respect themselves. More importantly, they reflect their lack of self-respect to others that they encounter on a daily basis, leaving themselves wide open to disrespect. If you respect self and others, you cannot turn away from this subject, but must address it on the spot, every day, until it is no more.

   Whenever the news reports about some very important public person, who controls the purse strings of other important public persons, changed their mind drastically in an extremely short amount of time regarding very public subjects, I like to imagine a private dressing down of that someone by someone else whom they respect, perhaps their own grandmother.

A watched pot never boils.

   I hear that currently 42% of my fellow Alaskan's were born in this mighty state. Most of those that I know fall into two categories, those that travel outside on occasion and those who don't. It seems to me that those who don't, have a much different outlook on their surroundings. Because they don't, they have no way to know how the rest of the world is moving, how progressive minds are changing the world around them. They think what they see around them is it.

   It reminds me of the old saying, a watched pot never boils. May I suggest that you take your eyes off the pot you know so well, focus on something different and learn what you can about it. It opens your mind up to so many things simmering right in front of you that you had not recognized before.

As man plans, God laughs!

   Whenever I hear the phrase 'the devil is in the details', I think, sometimes out loud, that God is in the timing. It seems to me that the more details that mankind tries to manipulate for it's own interest, the more God makes His will known above ours by interfering with those plans, as only He can. 

   One of the strongest pieces of evidence we often see is when He puts just the right person in just the right spot in our lives, at just the right time to save us from distress. Timing of this nature is out of the realm of the devil, much less that of mankind. Often times, we may refer to this person as our guardian angel, for lack of a better description. Some of us have experienced this many times in our lives, and have been ever so thankful for them. Some of us wouldn't give it the thought.

   If you have experienced this and never gave it a thought, thinking instead that it was yourself that made something happen, then you have missed the opportunity to observe God's works in action in your own life and those surrounding you. Only God brings us together for good works.