“The idea that what you can’t name has power over you is a common theme with roots in various beliefs and folklore. The core concept is that naming something allows for understanding, control, and even ownership over it.” AI Suicide has vexed society and the medical community since forever. But a 37 percent increase in suicide rates between 2000 and 2018 –…
The federal government – which at one time helped fund our police and fire departments – is now looking to eliminate Headstart, a 50-year-old program that provides our most vulnerable young people with a few meals and instruction on being good people. The State of Alaska has $80 billion in the bank but can’t manage to fund schools, parks, ferries…
A band of self-appointed experts recently attacked the borough’s public works department for failing to maintain local roads. They were right about the condition of our roads, but they didn’t look very deeply at the reasons for all those potholes. Instead, they insisted on seeing the time cards of hard-working, underpaid borough employees. That was a shame. In October 2023,…
There’s more trash around town than meets the eye. You find out when you spend an hour pitching in on the Community Cleanup. On the north side of Lutak Road between Young Road and Picture Point, I filled a large yellow litter bag with chunks of Styrofoam, broken windshield wipers, a ball cap, bottles and cans, plastic bags, candy wrappers,…
There’s a general dissatisfaction among residents that the Haines Borough doesn’t get enough done. There’s some validity to that, but there’s also a legitimate explanation of how our two local governments – the Haines Borough and the City of Haines – were able to achieve so much in the 20 years before the millennium and why we’ve accomplished considerably less…
I was stunned at a recent borough assembly meeting when a self-described “fiscal conservative” characterized public funding of the nonprofit Haines Chamber of Commerce as unnecessary. For most of its history, the Chamber received support from our municipality, and for many of the same reasons that funding other nonprofits makes sense: The chamber does necessary jobs for cheap. First, the…
There will be no more ravens, at least in terms of street names, at least for now, and we mean it this time. That’s about all borough officials can muster after stepping into the quicksand of what we call streets and roads around here. Some efficiency-minded public employee questioned why our town has a Raven Drive, Raven Road and Raven…
“At around noon on 14 April, 2025, America ceased to have a law-abiding government.” — Edward Luce, Financial Times (London), April 16, 2025 Mom was working on a jigsaw puzzle of the U.S. Capitol and turned to me: “Tom, do you know what makes our country great?” I was about 10 years old and under the education of nuns, so…
Many bright, well-meaning people are trying to figure out Donald Trump’s plan. They’re debating the efficacy of tariffs and deportations and saber-rattling and giant cuts to funding and agencies, such as the National Weather Service. They’re wondering if the tariff statements were just an elaborate stock-market scheme. They’re looking into Trump’s philosophy and method and the logic of it all,…
Don Turner Jr. has another petition going. He wants to know, in detail, what our borough’s public works crew is doing every day. Turner can’t believe our roads aren’t in better shape and he wants to do something about it. I suggest he put in for public works director next time that job opens and find out. I can’t testify…