October 18, 2008
Saturday

I am more concerned than ever about our two governing bodies actions or in actions, I will be watching for responses on two issues in particular , on the city council side many calls to action have been requested on the city mayor's now infamous CNN interview and not one councilman but councilman Coose had the guts to say anything. As I said in my campaign for city council, the incumbents now newly elected by you the citizens of Ketchikan "are quiet" they will remain quiet and neutral as long as they can and as long as you allow them to, Politically this is the best place to put yourself and that is on the sidelines. Watching the game that way you do not get hurt in the game.

On the borough assembly side it is not so politically correct to assail any criticism on Tongass School of the Arts ,but their performance measures and outcomes have been suspect for some time now and as Ms Moran inquired what will the assembly will do about it, I suspect they will also "be quiet " about this issue as long as they are allowed by "us" to do so.

Political correctness and not wanting to assert yourself in an aggressive responsible manner on both our city council and borough assembly sides seems to have evolved into a culture and mentality that Ketchikan seems comfortable with, and we continue to support the ones that fall into this culture. And we continue to complain,, but ultimately "WE" send the same people into leadership positions over and over because we feel "comfortable " voting on someone we recognize the name of, or have voted for them as a habit. So here we are again,, so who should we "the people that actually take the time to vote" be complaining to?

Political tolerance I can accept but political "correctness" is a quality that public officials seem to have, and to our detriment much of the time. I will continue to NOT "be quiet" and probably lose the next city council run by seven or eight votes again because it makes people "uncomfortable" to be politically tolerant but not politically "correct". Demand from your elected officials to say something in their microphone other than "Yes". Demand from your now elected officials some research into the subjects they are responsible for.

If any of them continue to say these sort of remarks you can't expect too much. "I don't really understand this issue" , or another one I hear is " this is a little over my head" and the one that really concerns me is when the statement is made by a popular reelected councilman, " I did not understand for the first two years eleven months of my first term what was going on, but my next term should be a little better". What you really can expect Ketchikan is another quiet year.

Charles Edwardson
Ketchikan, AK

Received October 17, 2008 - Published October 18, 2008

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