Due largely to the state and federal governments abandoning their obligations to our town and schools, along with voters’ passage of an ill-considered additional senior property cut last October, the Haines Borough is expected to face a sizable budget shortfall this spring. There will be talk of cutting programs to save money. Here’s an easy reduction the government can make…
A question largely overlooked in the coverage of Donald Trump is why does he dishonor himself? Why does he mock the disabled? Why does he insult our nation’s war heroes? Why, one week before the election, did he use a microphone to pantomime fellatio? Where does dishonorable behavior get him? What does it achieve? Why does he continue with it?…
“Those gooks were fierce and fearless. That’s the price you pay when you invade.” Rocker Lou Reed, from “Christmas in February” Vladimir Putin won’t own Ukraine. Neither will Donald Trump. The Ukrainians will own their own country for as long as they want to, regardless of the outcome of Putin’s ongoing war of invasion. Modern history shows that occupations…
As a child, I was taught, “It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.” That lesson is meant to teach that there is a principle above victory and success that is more important than victory and success – it’s honor. A person’s honor was worth more than anything in the world. It was a person’s…
People like to say that landscape painter Gil Smith was the first Haines hippie, kayaking here from Skagway, a company town, back in 1940. An art school graduate, Smith built a stone-clad house at Zimovia Point and like many hippies thereafter, supported his art with government work – humping a wheelbarrow and surveying for the federal road commission on the…
Old friends say they can’t believe I’m mayor, but it’s human nature to not believe things can happen until they do. Donald Trump was elected president twice, for crying out loud. As Jim Hightower famously said, “If God had wanted us to elect leaders, he’d have given us candidates.” I didn’t expect or want to become the town mayor when…
My wife has been traveling on jets more than 50 years, ever since she was a young child. For the first time yesterday, she became seriously ill on a flight. She felt light-headed and nauseous, and deplaned her flight at a scheduled stop, admitting herself to a hospital. After conducting a battery of tests, doctors determined she was fine. My…
Through an effort I’m pushing as mayor, the Haines Borough, Chilkoot Indian Association and Haines Chamber of Commerce will hold three lunches in February aimed at connecting with residents 40 and under. The “40 and Under Summit” is intended to be a quick and easy polling of our younger generation, who they are, why they’re here, what they need to…
Young Road residents in December made quick work of a proposal to site a cell phone tower in their neighborhood. About 20 of them showed up at a Haines Borough Planning Commission meeting and effectively torpedoed the idea. Developer Roger Schnabel, seeking to build the tower on his own hillside property, withdrew the proposed location, which never made it to…
There’s an old expression about living in Juneau: “When you’re no longer happy skiing in the rain, it’s time to leave town.” I’m hoping we don’t get there, at least not soon. I didn’t sign up for Juneau when I moved here 39 years ago. But my wife woke me up early last Monday so I could get out skiing…