Stitching Things Together

April 10, 2020

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

For those who celebrate: Happy Easter and Passover! It's a weird year for holidays—just when we most want to gather with friends and loved ones, a virus has us physically apart. Our family still had a lovely Seder on Wednesday, complete with calls to kinfolk far away.

And we had some fun, too. Since our table is now a telework office, we grabbed every cushion in the house and reclined on the floor. (Also, the Seder service involves a couple different hand washings, so that’s perfect.)

Whether you're celebrating Easter, Passover, or a secular spring this weekend, I hope you'll take some time to connect and reflect. It helps.

Our living-room-floor Passover Seder.

(Photo courtesy of my younger daughter.)

Budget Bruises

The side effect of stopping Alaskans' movement to stop this virus is a near-halt of the economy. When the peril passes and we can move freely again, we'll have to work harder than ever to rebuild our economy and support local workers and businesses.

So it's really perplexing that the governor again poured a river of red ink on the budget, deleting most of the money we added for the Alaska Marine Highway System. Coastal Alaska needs ferries to keep communities connected and economies running. This past winter the governor's vetoes left a schedule with less-than-adequate connections. Then a single point of failure effectively took out the system for months. Having zero connections did all-too-predictable harm to businesses and families.

So this year the legislature added money to fix broken vessels and run them all winter. On Tuesday the governor deleted most of what we added for both ships and service. It's a vision for coastal Alaska's economy in the future to look like the whole state's economy today: nothing moving. I'll keep working to make sure that vision doesn't come true.

The governor took aim at other ways Alaskans stay connected, too. He again vetoed all the public radio money. He cut 100% of the funding for public TV. Stations across the state have burned their meager reserves to survive this year. And without a TV station for the City of Juneau to hang Gavel to Gavel on to, next year looks bleak for keeping Alaskans connected to the Capitol.

Those vetoes were in form for this governor, I guess. What surprised me most on Tuesday was when he deleted many of his own proposals, saying he'd replace them with federal funding meant to respond to the corona virus pandemic. If the federal government even allows that sort of replacement, it will leave less to deal with the disaster. If they don't, those services are hosed.

Still, that was his rationale for nixing treatment and recovery grants that reduce crime, homelessness assistance that saves money in the long run, recidivism reduction, special needs housing for the most vulnerable, and Medicaid. The governor took special aim at kids and communities, deleting funding for K-12 schools, the University of Alaska, and Pre-K. And he again broke the state's promise to help pay for our constitutional obligation to provide education by deleting even the partial funding he'd proposed for school bonds—a move likely to force local governments into raising property taxes. (If that doesn't, his veto of Community Revenue Sharing just might!)

The governor also stopped the legislature from protecting the Permanent Fund. The budget moved more than $1 billion into the constitutionally-protected principal before his red pen job left it available to spend. That's the sort of short-term thinking that leaves the fund's value for our children and grandchildren in real danger.

Juneau's legislators held a capital city town hall during session, but Rep. Hannan and I planned to travel to Haines, Klukwan, Skagway, & Gustavus after we adjourned. Since that's not an option right now, we're doing community tele-town halls instead!

Abuse of Authority

I wrote to the state's Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Zink this week about the decision to go opposite expert medical advice and put pregnancy termination on the list of restricted “elective” procedures. No matter where you stand on the specific procedure, the issue here is undemocratic abuse of power.

In this pandemic emergency, we Alaskans gave the executive branch unprecedented powers to give orders—to close businesses, limit movement—the sort of things Americans would never stand for in ordinary times. When entrusted with extra powers there’s a heightened duty to use them only where necessary. It’s truly a public trust. Inserting a political move into an otherwise medical order violates that trust, and shoots a hole in Alaskans’ willingness to have faith in the public health response (which up until now has been excellent.)

Why do I say it was a political move? The new rules about what medical procedures must be postponed follow the medical advice of the American College of Surgeons, with one—and only one—exception. This one. (And the surgeons are not alone. There's a broad medical consensus on the issue.)

A medical order that goes against medical advice to halt a procedure the governor disapproves of is a political move. Whether we like that procedure or not is irrelevant. The governor’s extraordinary emergency powers orders are not allowed to extend to politics.

Alaska's response to this virus absolutely depends on citizens trusting the government enough to stay home, stop work, and take the other steps that will control this thing so we can re-open society. When the executive branch plays politics, trust erodes and we're all less safe.

A kind friend sewed me a face mask in my favorite color! (You probably never guessed I like yellow, did you?)

Sewing, Screening, & More

When tough times tax our towns, boy have folks here in Southeast stepped up. We’ve got groups sprouting up to volunteer in all sorts of ways—including making personal protective equipment for front line health workers. People are volunteering time and resources to help our neighbors who are most at risk.

If you can spare some hours, please help one of these great groups! You can make PPE, sew masks, help screen travelers, volunteer at the quarantine shelter, and more. Here are links to get involved through the CBJ volunteer form, Southeast PPE, Southeast Alaska Mask Makers, and Gustavus Mask Sewers.

All my best,

Did someone forward you this newsletter?

Did you fall into it through the series of tubes? Want more?

More things to do while social distancing

Make a Lava Lamp

Let the kids make their very own lava lamps using stuff from the grocery store! (Not that you need kids. Science is fun for everyone.) Here are the lava lamp instructions. And there are more fun experiments here.

Family Movie Night

Here's a family favorite. My parents watched it with me. My wife and I watch it with our kids. Just keep track of which cup is which. (You'll have to watch it to get that reference.)

Stay Healthy

If you’re looking for some extra-creative exercise strategies, check out this list. (Just don't actually try them at home. We're trying to preserve hospital capacity.)

Candy Making

My daughter makes Chocolate Caramel Matzah Brittle for Passover every year, and it’s amazing.

She won't hand over her recipe, but here's one that looks close.

Library Resources

There are tons of resources from our libraries. Juneau gives access to online courses, the Skagway library has free films to stream, and the Haines library has free language learning programs—plus so much more! And Gustavus implemented a “Take Out” library, so you can pick up books and DVDs curbside.

Complete the Census

Okay, I know I did this one in an earlier newsletter. But seriously—fill out the census!