 By Thomas Ferry September 26, 2006
Every time I drive past the native only hospital clinic on Tongass Avenue I must admit I get a little jealous that here is free medical care for a privileged race of people (are you listening Don Hoff?) I have my tax money taken out of my paycheck and it pays for native housing, daycare, rent subsidies,job training etc, etc, etc. I have no say in it what so ever. To let you, Charles Edwardson know how much you get free from the taxpayer let me tell you my wife and I cannot afford health care like you get for free. I check into prices every couple years and to get your level of care it would cost my wife and I $2,000.00 a month. That is $24,000.00 a year. Over 30 years that is $720,000.00. Throw in two, three, four kids and it skyrockets. I have a friend that just got back from 8 months of cancer treatments. Her bill is a whopping $980,000.00 !! You and your family are covered from the womb to the tomb so you will not have to go broke from medical catastrophes like this. I just want you to think about how lucky you are when you quibble about some fairly anemic tax raise when you save hundreds of thousands of dollars from taxpayer funded free medical care for you. Couldn't you see it in your heart to give a little back to the community? White Cliff school is worth saving like many other historical structures here. The alternative is, let's just start tearing down all historical structures and replace them with the hideous hardy plank boxes with slider windows and stick decks that people are cobbling together. I don't like tax increases either, but the rewards of this project are worth it. For the people that refer to others as the arts people. Well look around you, everything you use was designed by an artist, from the car you drive to the clothes you wear to the toothbrush you use. We all must nurture the artist in everyone or this will be a bleak world. Hey, I do not use the library but I do support it. I do not have any children but I support the schools. I do not use the ball fields but I pay taxes and support that too. Maybe I will someday be wheeling around the halls of White Cliff in my wheel chair remembering all the great times I had in my six years there. And finally, to the "no" people that think they know what is going on with the project from their arm chairs, please contact the people that have spent thousands of hours with consultants, engineers,contractors and architects and really know what is going on with the project. I know they could answer your questions and maybe change some minds. I am going to vote yes. Thomas Ferry About: "Fourth generation
Alaskan, was born here and will die here."
On the Web:
and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Sitnews.
|