I have lived in the Chilkat Valley for 17 years. For most of that time I was a construction contractor, and it often appeared that some people and entities needed proper permits, others did not. Some paid penalties for not following borough laws, and others never seemed required to do so. So, my opinion of the Haines Borough government was that it did not treat everyone in this community equally. One regularly heard our elected officials say things like, “The real people,” and “Those people up the highway.” And sometimes worse things. The community was, according to our Borough leaders, divided into two classes, and only the “real” ones mattered.
Unfortunately, this sort of institutional prejudice is not that unusual, and so for many years I just accepted it. But last October we elected a lot of new people to our government, and these new folks do not view our community as divided into two unequal classes. They know that we are one community, with a diversity of opinions, but with the same basic interests and needs from our local government. So please, let’s not go back to the old days of “us and them.” Let’s keep moving forward into a brighter and more equitable future, where all people and organizations are treated fairly by our local government. And all, including the Haines Borough itself, are expected to abide by the law. Let’s elect Natalie Dawson and Nora Zimmerly to Assembly; Eben Sargent and Joe Parnell to the Planning Commission.
Derek Poinsette, Mosquito Lake