Get involved in causes
I spent the past couple of weeks tabling outside of Homer businesses, asking shoppers to answer a survey for a class I am taking. The subject of the survey was centered around the issue of plastic bags and their usage. This was an incredibly awkward experience for myself, as I am not usually an outspoken person when it comes to politics. However, the lobbying experience I had this week was an extremely positive experience for me. It helped me to understand the different perspectives of individuals all across the political spectrum.
If you, as a reader, have a particular inclination or strong motivation on a subject, then I challenge you to involve yourself in the cause. Encourage them to vote for your purpose. But most of all, get out from your house. Do not sit on your computer at home and berate individuals that differ from your political beliefs. That is a cop out. You sit behind the security of a screen with a smug feeling of accomplishment for insulting other individuals. Answer me this…will the world remember Greta Thunberg? Or will they remember the numerous anonymous individuals who choose to spend their time criticizing her and her cause?
I wish that you try (really, really try) to understand the position they are coming from. Because we live in a world where the rift between conservative and liberal is separating at an extraordinary rate. We can no longer agree on anything or even have a civil political conversation. It will not be the Liberals or the Conservatives that destroy this country. It will be the inability to compromise between the two sides that does us in.
Jonah Bacon
Quilters grateful to Ulmer’s for fabric
The Kachemak Bay Quilters would like to sincerely thank Ulmer’s Drug and Hardware for their donation of 39 bolts of fabric. We will use the fabric to make service quilts, including quilts for people who lose their homes in a fire, teddy bear quilts for children affected by domestic violence, and raffle quilts to benefit local charities. We appreciate our local quilt shop inside Ulmer’s, and especially recently retired Merry Gregg and new quilt shop manager Deanna Mastre.
Patrice Krant
Derby end is a great change
I wanted to commend the Homer Chamber of Commerce for making the change to their decades-long halibut derby. Making the derby a two-day tournament is a smart and thoughtful adjustment to the financial realities of declining ticket sales, the decline of “barn door” fish due to targeting, continuing reductions to charter fishing by government agencies, the changing attitude towards conservation of the fishery, and the financial practicalities of running the derby.
Rather than “hammering” the fishery all summer long, a two-day event, like the highly successful Winter King Tournament, will benefit the Chamber’s fundraising, and work to preserve the fishery.
I, for one, think it’s a great change.
Jim Lavrakas
Hysteria is misguided on climate change
Sept. 29 was the coldest day on record in Portland, Oregon. Snow is coming early to the Northwest. This hysteria about our planet burning down because of our emissions is misguided. Science? Out the door. Climate is interlocked with sun cycles, and re-glaciation has begun. Let’s anticipate what our cyclic climate history is showing us.
Tod Tenhof
Homer Sweet Homer
Visitors could not have felt more welcomed during our recent Alaska World Arts Festival. 120 artists representing six continents shared their talents and hearts during the 2-week festival. Storytellers, musicians, writers, visual artists, dancers, actors, and comedians ignited wonderment, captured imaginations and fascinated audiences in workshops, on stages, and at special events.
82 volunteers joined in with helping hands and open hearts to deepen the meaning of community. 20 Homer families hosted visitors who left Alaska filled with love and adoration for our place and people. One artist said we not only have been nice to him, but we are also nice to each other! We’ve managed to retain what so many places in the world have lost, and we’re spreading it around the world.
I applaud the people of our unique hamlet by the sea with love and respect. I am eternally grateful for every volunteer who stepped up and played an integral role in the success of our first Alaska World Arts Festival—there are no words.
Sally Oberstein
Would that ‘Ollie in free’ were still true
I always wondered:
Who drew the map lines, colored in the lands?
Who wrote the anthems,
ran up the flags?
Who invented passports,
visas, “real” I.D.s?
I am back in second grade
with cruel playground rules
“Step on a crack, break your mother’s back.”
The sidewalks were crazed with cracks,
but I just stepped anywhere!
On the grass we played “Red Rover” in two warring lines.
We played, “Mother may I? umder an autocratic scold.
There was “Red light, Green light” for stealth.
and every day “Hide and Seek.”
The better we hid, the longer we waited, but in the end it was always “Ollie, ollie in free.”
Would that were true today.
Diana Conway
Halibut Cove
