The recall attempt of Haines Borough Assembly members Heather Lende, Tresham Gregg and Tom Morphet is a classic example of, “No good deed goes unpunished.” These residents have devoted decades of service to this community, and most recently added assembly duties to that legacy. Week after week Tom and the Chilkat Valley News staff, including Heather, have sacrificed inordinate amounts of their own personal time and energies to cover and document Haines happenings for us all.
From endless evening meetings to special events to the round of our ordinary lives, they have been present. Alcan and bike races, elementary school concerts, fundraisers and holiday bazaars, graduations and promotions, births and marriages, cross country coaching and basketball games, community theater, construction projects, July 4th activities, the SE Alaska State Fair, a new library, Hospice, … — they give up their own participation in order to share the experiences with us. And especially, Heather and Tom over and over have stopped and stepped out of their own lives with infinite kindness to enter into our moments of deepest loss and grief, somehow in all-too-brief eulogies to make sense of and convey to this Haines village the meaning of a life.
In return, recall supporters have attacked Heather, Tom and Tresham officially with two fraudulent accusations. The petitioners may as well have stood at the door to the Chilkat Center last October to refuse us entry to vote. So, we’re having to vote again. My ballot will say “No” three times.
Anne Boyce