November 05, 2005
Saturday

As a parent who has taken my child to Jackson Street for the past three years to partake in the Halloween fun, I unapologetically state I have enjoyed not only the positive residents of Jackson who greeted my child, who appreciated my child as a member of our greater community, but the mutual appreciation for each other's children that I felt by all the accompanying parents I met on that night.

I also reflect on the fact that most of us here in Ketchikan do have the true privilege of being home "owners" wherever we reside, persons who can choose to turn out our lights this one night a year, turn on their lights, go out to eat, see a movie, shop for groceries - and all because we are so very privileged in this, our community to have so very much. So the children took over the street, the parents smiled and laughed and chaperoned all the communal fun, and yes some residents were denied access to their homes and resented that fact. But let us all not forget that in the greater "city" where we like to demand as property owners or tax payers so many "rights" and "protections" there too reside the homeless, the sick at heart, the downtrodden who spent their Halloween night in less privileged a manner.

Hmmm - I guess I hope that the upcoming THANKSGIVING holiday gives us all more of a reason to reflect on that which we have and that which for a day or a year or for the duration of our lives we are willing to share with others....

Thanks, Jackson, for the past three years - really and truly. I welcome you all to visit my part of Ketchikan next year over in Bear Valley. In my opinion we all gotta get out and visit each other MORE, not less, because maybe that NOT visiting is the real problem.

Lynne Miller
Ketchikan, AK - USA

 

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