June 14, 2013
Friday AM

Must have been about 1989 or so, I was driving out of Prince Rupert headed south and just started laughing uncontrollably at the reality that what goes on in Ketchikan really means next to nothing.  It’s just a small little town in the middle of nowhere.

I generally appreciate Rodney Dial’s point of view about local taxes and the financial mess that is our local governments, but blaming it all on “liberals” is not only as lame as it gets, but misses the mark of reality by a full 180 degrees.  It is likely true that in two or three decades Ketchikan will be next to nowhere, but aiming in the wrong direction will merely facilitate that process, not correct it.

There is no representative democracy in Ketchikan, and there is no point in any other discussion until that reality is remedied.  The Council-Manager form of government is intentionally designed to eliminate the “ethnic ethos” from political consideration, and with the avid assistance of the extremely right wing Chamber of Commerce has insured that this ethnically diverse community is governed in perpetuity by whites only.  No blacks, no browns, no Filipinos, no Alaska natives.  That is the intended result, and the rare off-color face in one of those leather chairs is either a right wing wannabe, or, more likely, an accident. 

Nor forget that our local governments have yet to run across a crook that they don’t want to crawl into bed with. Never forget our Borough Assembly opted to commit bank fraud on behalf of Gateway Forest Products thugs, and only Glenn Thompson had the integrity to make that public, and to object to it. 

Yet the community repeatedly re-elects these right wing dingbats, and then is surprised at the result.  No, Rodney, it is not “liberals” who have financially screwed this town up.  It is a bunch of extreme right wingers and the ‘Posse Comitatus,’ i.e. an out-and-out fascist awaiting the revolution, who have screwed this town up by repeatedly trying to rig the game to benefit themselves at the cost of everyone else.

There are at least 22 local government employees now being paid well over $100,000 a year plus maximum benefits.  None of these duds produces a damned thing.  Local taxes and user fees pay their salaries.  The people they are fleecing to get these exorbitant salaries, i.e. the citizens of Ketchikan, are earning $20,000 to $70,000.  I doubt you will find a single “liberal” holding any of those $100,000+++ sinecures.

Rodney on Rodney.  A rational presentation is completely destroyed by the idiot obsession of a blind man.  You just made enemies out of prospective friends.

David G. Hanger
Ketchikan, Alaska

Received June 13, 2013 - Published June 14, 2013

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