February 19, 2005
Saturday

In my opinion the ultimate discussion of where the state capitol should be housed from here on out to appease the masses should be that it pass the ultimate "smell test" of accountability and appropriate representation - and not only touted as a "monetary" consideration. Otherwise as we all can imagine, this issue will go on and on.

As a former state worker in Juneau I know full well the sense of entitlement THAT city and its citizens hold in regard to the occupants of all those buildings in their community. But it should not be a sense of "entitlement" or regional disdain, one region for another, that keeps the issue of where the state capitol should truly be housed from being discussed fully, completely and fairly before the entire population of this state as regards all its needs, lobbyist, fishermen, homemakers, school children, the elderly, etc.

Give me "monied" statistics and I, from my personal experience of 7 years in State Employment full remember those years when travel and per diem costs back and forth from Anchorage were truly atrocious to my more youthful eyes, and I was only employed in a "support" capacity. And I do imagine the dollar amounts in today's monetary terms, from not only the State coffers as well as from private citizens who must expend their own dollars to access their state capitol, as well as I did back then - when I knew full well from my years of growing up in Oregon where the state capitol in Salem was a short drive from Portland, that something was terribly amiss with the masses in this state being so grossly disenfranchised logistically from their state capitol.

So, in regard to where the State Capitol should be housed from here on into eternity perhaps we all should employ more of our sense of "smell" and hope that in the end we all want what is best for the ENTIRE state - I surely do.

Lynne Miller
Ketchikan, AK - USA

 

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