Vote smart in 2020 elections

I am a person who appreciates government services like maintained roads, public schools, hospitals, the harbor, access to beaches and state park campgrounds. The city provides me with clean water and deals with the sewage from my home. I believe we establish governments to make our lives better through infrastructure, education, health care, and public safety. Governments also impose regulations to keep our water clean, manage our fisheries, allow for development and much more. No doubt about it, we live with a complex set of rules and regulations and none of us like them all, but they are what our elected officials collectively believed were best to meet the public’s needs.

Elections are our opportunity to make some changes to who represents us and to use our voting power to make policy changes. In this election year, I hope everyone will learn a bit about the candidates and the propositions on the ballot. We need to elect smart, thinking people who understand that budgets consist of revenue as well as expenditures, and that a lawmaker’s capacity for compromise is a strength, not a weakness. We need people who will work with every other elected person to find the best solutions to issues at every level of government. It is how we achieve balance.

Our elected officials deal with many aspects of our lives. We need independent thinkers who have us, the general public, not their party, big donors or re-election in mind when they cast their votes. I hope everyone will think about why we have government and the services that impact your family. Each vote matters.

Information about voting, candidates and ballot measures will be available at the Alaska Division of Elections and Vote411.org.

Lynn Takeoka Spence

‘Pandemic’ causing us to be enemies

I was helping a lady load her groceries into her car at Save-U-More. I said I felt a sneeze coming on. She ran from the car.

Know these new bio-mandates for what they are. We are being instructed to see one another as threats. This demonizing of social interaction is antithetical to our community. There is no pandemic, by the CDC’s own definition. The mortality rate due to COVID-19 is well below endemic. Yet the media constantly pounds-pounds-hammers into our heads how we must fear the dreaded virus.

We have become enemies of each other. Grave consequences have yet to be realized in years to come.

Tod Tenhoff

Grateful for Fish and Wildlife scholarship

As college rolls around the corner, students all around the state are either starting or continuing their degree. Me being one of them, I am becoming a part-time student while working a full-time job. I did worry about how I would afford my classes this year until I worked hard on applying towards scholarships last year. Homer Foundation was a scholarship committee I would like to thank for their help because they have encouraged me to continue pursuing college this year.

I would also like to thank the Fish and Wildlife Homer Foundation Scholarship committee for helping me make my dreams come true. With their generosity for funding this scholarship, I am now able to obtain my prerequisites here in Alaska without worrying about financial issues. Fish and Wildlife helped me focus solely on preparing for college and moving without the added stress of needing to take loans out to pay for my classes. They have assisted me to further my education to become a marine biologist in the future.

As a thank you, I plan to be an active volunteer and give back to my community. I am grateful for being this year’s scholarship recipient and am determined to work hard to maintain a good GPA. I look forward to being able to give back to the community once I begin my career. I thank you for your confidence and willingness to help me achieve my goals. Sincerely,

Autumn Carlson

Grateful for Kachemak Bay Medical Clinic scholarship

As being a college student, I often worry about how I will be able to fund my classes, whether that be scholarships, grants, or loans. I did worry about how I would afford my classes this year until I worked hard on applying towards scholarships last year. Homer Foundation was a scholarship committee that helped encourage me to continue pursuing college this year. With their help, I was able to get proper funding for this year’s classes by winning two of their scholarships, one of them being the Kachemak Bay Medical Clinic Homer Foundation Scholarship. With their help, I am now able to make my dreams come true. With their generosity for funding this scholarship, I am now able to obtain my prerequisites here in Alaska without worrying about financial issues.

Kachemak Bay Medical Clinic helped me focus solely on preparing for college and moving without the added stress of needing to take loans out to pay for my classes. They have assisted me to further my education to become a marine biologist in the future.

As a thank you, I plan to be an active volunteer and give back to my community. I am grateful for being this year’s scholarship recipient and am determined to work hard to maintain a good GPA. I look forward to being able to give back to the community once I begin my career. I thank you for your confidence and willingness to help me achieve my goals.

Sincerely,

Autumn Carlson