Letter-to-the-Editor of the Month
September
Look Around
EDITOR, Daily News:
Mike McNally
As I write this, there's a big fall storm brewing out in the gulf (as there often is this time of year). As Alaskans, we are very familiar with the power of such weather, and we do our best to adapt to forces that can literally reshape the world in which we live, over time or in an instant.
But unlike the elemental power of wind and rain that shape the physical world around us, the forces that are rapidly eroding our democratic government, its civil institutions, and the freedom and stability we have fought to secure throughout our history, are neither inevitable nor beyond our ability to resist.
Just in the past week, the president has described media critical of him as “probably illegal,” has caused the FCC chairman to threaten a network that dispelled him, has shut down an investigation that taped one of his high-ranking advisors accepting a bag filled with $50,000 in cash, continued to quash efforts to get to the bottom of his relationship with a notorious child trafficker, and has instructed the US attorney general to begin preparing retaliatory criminal prosecutions of his perceived enemies, including law-enforcement professionals whose duties required them to investigate his past misconduct.
As they repeatedly engage in activity destructive to the rule of law and act with contempt for fundamental civil liberties, such as freedom of speech and the press, the president and his enablers would like you to accept that the power he wields is, like the elements, too vast and powerful to be resisted. It is only if we allow it to be.
The more destruction of our institutions we permit, the longer and harder will be the process of rebuilding what we are rapidly losing.
August
Upended
Wayne Kinunen
EDITOR, Daily News:
Our world has been tragically upended since our most recent presidential election.
We are a nation of immigrants (except for Native Americans) who have contributed to what makes America great. Now, thousands of innocent people and families have been banished to third-world contras because of their language or color of their skin.
Important government agencies have been severely reduced or eliminated, and thousands have arbitrarily and unjustly lost their jobs.
Healthcare for those in need will be severely reduced or priced out of their ability to afford it. With the passage of this bill, nearly a trillion dollars will be cut from Medicaid and at least 12 million people will lose benefits and many rural hospitals might be forced to close in the next 10 years.
The Big Beautiful Bill allows massive tax breaks for the wealthy, not so for the majority of us.
The list goes on.
Lawrence Ferlinghetti said it best in his poem “Pity the Nation.”
“ … Pity the nation that raises not its voice
Except to praise conquerors
And acclaim the bully as hero
And aims to rule the world
By force and by torture
Pity the nation that knows
No other language but its own
And no other culture but its own
Pity the nation whose breath is money
And sleeps the sleep of the too well fed ...”
June
It will Take Courage
Eric Muench
EDITOR, Daily News:
We Americans enjoy our freedoms to travel, to live where and as we wish, to elect our leaders, to worship as we believe and speak our minds without fear, and to think of ourselves as permanently blessed by nature itself in the musically celebrated “land of the free.”
But some of us do not value these freedoms as clearly or as regretfully as did Germans after they allowed the 1930s conversion of their constitutional republic into a Nazi dictatorship. We too will have those people’s regrets if we are not smart enough to defend the rule of law.
What has enabled creation and growth over 200 years of America’s widely admired freedom and strength has been the democratic structure of governance that is set out in the United States Constitution.
This basic law of the land drives democratic government and also protects individual freedoms by demanding “habeas corpus” and “due process.” Ideas such as “innocent until proven guilty,” “rule of law” and trial by jury rather than by autocrats are guarded by the federal courts. The Constitution is the legal standard to which every state entering the union agreed and to which all other federal, state and local laws and regulations must conform, and to which every federal employee and office holder swears allegiance.
President Trump did, too, but rejects the limit on his power and would govern instead by executive order. Strong congressional oversight powers in the Constitution have been deliberately unused by the Republican majority unwilling to face up to the dangers of dictatorship in order to remain in Trumps’s favor. It has been left to the federal judges in our land to defend against executive dictatorship, but the courts have no enforcement army, while the president commands many police units as well as the armed forces, and he is using them with fearful force.
We are left with a stark choice: The rule of law (the Constitution), or the rule of a man (Trump) who will have achieved dictatorship if Congress lets hie and if the courts are swept aside by lack of enforcement powers and if we the people do not back up the courts and convince Congress or change its makeup.
It will take courage. But we must complete the musical refrain: “Land of the free AND the home of the brave.”
July
How about You
Steve Kinney
EDITOR, Daily News:
As I stood out on Ketchikan streets with others last month holding a “NO KINGS!” sign, I thought, “What am I doing here! I’m an 84-year-old retiree who ought to be sitting at home smelling the roses and not standing on the side of the road protesting.”
But, alas, the Trump (DJT) administration is taking our country in a disastrous direction, and I cannot sit by and do nothing.
He might make his goals sound great for America, but when you look at his means of achieving them and what they really do for/to our country, it’s frightening.
DJT Goals:
Make America Great Again, ie: Return our society to the 1950s-’60s, when bigotry and racism was a fact of-life in many states.
Voters were mostly white.
Good-old-boys pretty much ran things.
Where “different” people (ie: by race, disability, culture, sex, sexual orientation) were kept in their place.
Businesses ran unchecked over the environment in search of big bucks.
Put America first, ie: Don’t spend money that does not directly go to the people.
Give the people a tax cut (at least for the rich.)
Cut governement waste (an amiable goal but no thought or planning.)
DJT Means:
Invent alternative facts (lies): Say whatever you think would be good for you — true or untrue. Never admit to untruths, just repeat them often and more emphatically. Keep the population questioning the truth, then they won’t believe the other argument.
Create problems to solve ie: Immigration: Call immigration an invasion (Immigration was tentatively solved by Congress until DJT told supporters, don’t agree.) Now our borders are controlled by fear and overkill. Call political rallies an insurrection so the government can send troops into opposition states to demonstrate power.
Remove non-white, undocumented immigrants (or documented immigrants). This will reduce the potential non-white vote. Unless, of course, the immigrants are white. White South African immigrants were granted entry immediately.
Utilize retribution as a mechanism to create fear: Lawyers in D.C. must bow to DJT to be eligible for government contracts. Universities not bowing to DJT have funding cut. DOJ workers are fired for doing their job.
Stop scientific research: Any scientific conclusion that might question administration goals is questioned (note attack on institutions of higher learning, and ban on words such as global warming.)
Blame Game: Start every report by blaming opponent for the problem, but be sure to take credit for any positive change in the country.
Act with full bluster and loud pronouncements: Life feels more like a reality show (”You’re Fired!”) than a result of thoughtful, reasoned planning.
Any way you look at this list of goals and means, it’s certainly not the way to create and maintain the country that our Constitution describes. It’s a guide to becoming king, and I’m fed up!
How about you?