Eagleexit Issues: Part 2
Contributed by Clinton Holloway
A recent commentary on the Eagleexit movement published in this paper, authored by Forrest A. Nabors, PhD., advanced some my thinking on this matter. A UAA professor of Political Science, Mr. Nabors strove to connect the “regeneration of liberty” he sees in Eagleexit’s detachment movement with a fine tradition of “American republicanism” as embodied in the Mayflower Pilgrim’s system of government. OK, great.
So, we can expect only male freemen to have a say in government, a government with the sort of religiosity interwoven in it that will lead to the excesses of the Salem witch trials? One that will permit slavery and decimate local indigenous peoples after relying upon them for survival?
Not the impression I expect the good professor meant to have. But that’s just it: Eagle River’s detachment from Anchorage is a very complex proposition, not one well served by facile comparisons. (Of course, my contrary postulation above is a deliberate over-simplification.) Sure, as Nabors characterizes the Plymouth colony, it was an “embryonic republic,” one not fully developed into maturity. Yet one cannot help but read in his commentary the desire to take us back to these times, when the original inhabitants of the region could be relegated to a “howling” in the “wilderness,” and that one’s “results” are exclusively due “to God.” Thus, my nebulous concerns about Eagleexit being the project of elitists and Christian Nationalists have been boosted a bit.
My inherent wariness towards Eagleexit is something I have tried to counter; I try to be an independent thinker, someone willing to consider and try new things. I’ve perused their website, attended a couple presentations. Certainly, when it comes to governance and the public weal, Anchorage is far from the pinnacle of perfection. Yet, Eagleexit from the onset has seemed to me to be a project for people of the I got mine mindset. This would hardly be an improvement, nor is it particularly Christian (if that is what they want).
Eagleexit is, as its leadership willingly states, a work in progress. There are not many firm plans for how my community (Yes, I live in Eagle River, and have done so for 25 years; Alaska since 1978) would operate essential services, given their desire for low taxes and our not-very-large tax base. Granted, our tax base is robust, being comprised of one of Anchorage’s wealthier populations. Nevertheless, to make this project pencil-out budgetarily, Eagleexit proposes changes to current services that should give my neighbors pause: a transition to an all-volunteer fire department; a significant reduction in police funding; a transformation of our already successful schools to an all-charter school model. As to the new borough’s new health department? Building and development department? Finance? Water and waste? TBD.
There is in Eagleexit an overly idealistic trust in volunteerism and below market rate public- and civil-service workers. Maybe too much of the I did this on my own mindset, one dismissive of the sort of professional and institutional support helpful to a larger, more complex and dynamic community’s success. Eagleexit relishes complaining about the cost of administration, yet they expect standing-up its own full-fledged borough administration will be less expensive than the cost-sharing model afforded by being part of Anchorage?
In short, Eagleexit’s municipal model is a pollyannaish approach to a very complex and critical process. As such, it is rather similar to Mr. Nabor’s heartening to a Plymouth Pilgrim heritage. Providing for essential public and civil services is a far more difficult and complicated undertaking than complaining about how matters are currently managed. And judging by the success of our community, Eagle River hardly qualifies as downtrodden. Simplistic exhortations and idealistic solutions are more utopian than utilitarian. For the time being, I don’t feel the pressing need to create a “city on a hill,” as the Puritans with all their exclusivity strove to; I’m largely content with my vibrant town in its beautiful valley.