Letters to the Editor

To the Editor:

To the people of S.E. Alaska that are served by SEAPA organization, seems that the $400,000.00 dollars they have saved from not hiring workers, is now slated to be spent on propaganda. And an as of yet unnamed PR company will be quite glad to come get these dollars (you paid them in your electric bill) to come up here and put a spin on what they are attempting to do for your own good.

It is just another smack in the face by what is known in the South as a Carpetbagger. Look it up, the term was used after the civil war when it was illegal for Southerners to hold offices of authority. People from the North came south to take over their offices of administration and authority often sneaking out of town just ahead of lynch mobs, after bleeding dry all the area’s money, stuffing ill-gotten gains into a popular style of suitcase that looked like it was made from a carpet, thus the term carpetbaggers. So let me ask you this, are you smart enough to learn from history? Or are you willing for some expert to come tell you what is good for you?

After all you paid for this spin, whether you wanted it or not, another aspect of how desperate SEAPA is to control your power supply. Another aspect of just how far they will go to keep their $200,00 a year jobs. After all their kids need to go to that fancy eastern college soon.

In a final thought, why do they not spend this money to buy transformers, ground fault surge arresters, and other parts to ensure reliable continued operation? It is a nationwide known fact that the power grid is vulnerable to EMP/Solar flares. Answer is they (SEAPA) doesn’t care about you.

Kipha Valvoda

To the Editor:

Today a Special Christmas Wish to all Wrangell especially Hospice and Christmas Tree Lane participants. This year I came home for Christmas. As has been said, “Home is where the heart is.” My journey home-to-heart is what I write to share.

I came home with a tree this year and two deer of peace from our Christmas Tree Lane and was delighted. Then, when I realized the power of hospice – whether grief for our loved ones passed on wings of doves, or a ceremony endearing and as full of joy and celebration as each one recounts—it all hit me. What hospice means to me hit home.

I was four years old when I knew Santa Claus came in a Sears truck – when he was not flying the night skies, of course – because one was parked in our driveway and in came Saint Nick with elf dressed helpers and handmade matching dolls for me and my sister. My brother was still just a baby – but oh mommy look. This year I remembered.

My oldest sister had died of cancer – terminal with brain tumor, on November 11. I had turned four on November 2. So Hospice had been a very significant part of our home life caring for my sister and had been there for us as a family in many caring, helpful and meaningful ways.

This year my mother birthed Christ home one mas time – as we all celebrated in our Wrangell community finding a new dawn of The Morning Star again at home, placed in the humblest of hearts.

I love you, Mother. I could never find words, only Living-Word: thank You for loving me. Now, I make a wish on the morning star: may the joy and love of Christ the King of Kings one time mas in every heart this year be….home for Christmas, in Wrangell.

Ms. Jennifer Lee Dozier-Turner

To the Editor:

Another slaughter of innocent kids and adults has happened in our country. We will all be subject to various opinions about gun control, police response, gunman motivation, and mental illness. In addition, we will see interviews with grief-stricken parents, relatives and friends of the deceased, and hear words of comfort and solace from pastors, priests, and rabbis. The pattern is always the same.

The one subject that is most neglected is concrete, practical ideas on how to prevent some psycho individual from butchering helpless kids and adults like sheep in a pen. The victims are defenseless. In this last shooting spree, the police responded in ten minutes, which is outstanding – but way too late. A gunman can kill hundreds in that amount of time. In all schools we need people with weapons that can respond in seconds – not minutes – to the first shot fired. It doesn’t take Wyatt Earp to shoot a maniac at close range. A secretary at New Town had time to pick up the phone and say a shooting was going on. What if the phone had been a revolver? She at least would have had some chance. The phone gave her none.

I am not advocating every secretary have a gun in her desk, but I am saying one person in that office should have had a weapon. Every school should have at least two person, in different locations that carry, or have ready access to a weapon. They should have police training in procedures and marksmanship. Of course there is risk involved with guns in school and the people delegated such responsibility are putting themselves in harm’s way. Personally, in such a situation, I’d rather have a gun in my hand than a ballpoint pen. There are ex-military people who would need no training that could be hired for such duty. That would probably strain the school’s budget, but how much are the lives of twenty kids and six adults worth?

There may be nut cases in every town, including ours. Let’s give some of the defenseless sheep some teeth.

Ron Merritt