 by Tom Scott February 17, 2005
In regards to the capitol move, and the letter written by Charlie Huggins,( rep. from Wasilla), I have to ask, does anyone else besides Dave and Rick get an odd feeling from this letter. I'm going to be informal with this so "Rep. Huggins" will be referred to as "Charlie". Charlie states in his letter that we would save a load of money by moving the capital north. Right into his neck of the woods so that he, and his many constituents could forgo the hassles involved with moving down to Juneau for 120 days a year! Plus they wouldn't have to pay the exorbitantly high cost of the "LIOs" around the Anchorage area! Dave Kiffer and Rick McDonald both wrote letters of protest and if you haven't read them, you should, before you read the rest of this. Now I want to throw my opinion out there! One thing, before I do , I would like to say this... this isn't an attack on Charlie personally, I don't know him, I'm sure he's a great guy. This is simply my opinion! First off, his letter struck me wrong because he wants to move the capitol into his own backyard because his friend, Don Loeshe, said that's where it should be! HUmmm...That doesn't sit well with me. It really surprises me that Charlie even included that in his letter. I don't know Don! Is he an expert? This isn't an attack on Don either, but why would I believe Don more than Burbert Humperdink, who lives in Biddleville,up next to the Unuk river, who thinks we should move the capitol to Wrangell. Second he use's money as a defense (travel costs, LIOs, the cost of computer wear and tear, driving down to the marine highway system, etc etc.) I would have to laugh that one off. I don't want to hear some song and dance about excess spending on the behalf of the governing body of this state. Especially when you are trying to use it as a rouge to clear a path for a debate on a capitol move. That's a can of worms that you probably wouldn't want to turn over! Third... and I agree with Dave on this very much. You live in Alaska. Alaska is very big. No matter where you want to go. It's probably going to take some time to get there! That's a little part of what makes being in Alaska so great and unique! It might be a pain in the butt, but hey,thats what makes us who we are! Fourth, and you would have to read Charlie's letter to understand this, I bristle up at his mention that "the average Alaskan would want the capitol moved". Now does that mean that we, down here in southeast, don't count as Alaskans? Or are we just so unique that we don't count as average? Or, do we just not count at all? I'm confuse about this! I've never met an average Alaskan anyway and I've traveled all over this state. Seems like we're all crazy in our own little way, nothing average about it. Has anyone else met an "average Alaskan"? I would like to know what one looks like so I could steer clear. They might be nuts or something! One thing I would like to say, and say it directly to Charlie should he ever happen to read this... we in southeast Alaska are proud of our capitol in Juneau. In some small way I believe it's the only thing that keeps us locked onto the rest of Alaska. If not we might just fade away in the minds of legislators such as Charlie. It might be easy for them to forget that we are here. Plus I wouldn't really use Sitnews as a forum for your argument, The support base might be kinda low! Oh, one more thing. If we do move the capitol somewhere, then my votes on Nome! That would really level the playing field, wouldn't it! It's great there in July! Tom Scott
and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Sitnews.
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