Contributed by Bruce Walden
If you do the same thing over and over and expect a different result, you will always be disappointed. Sadly, here in the Mat-Su, we always do just that.
Since our founding, we have been a second-class borough and we complain when things don’t change. It’s time for us to be serious. If we are going to move forward, we’re going to have to change the way we do business here in the Mat-Su.
We are told that we cannot afford to move the election to November, but it is never explained how adding a ballot on a single day costs more than having a whole other election day and rolling out the entire apparatus.
We are told that we cannot afford to have a sheriff’s department. We’re told that it costs $190G to $250G to train a policeman (It actually costs around $10,000). They do not tell you about the scores of young men and women who have already put themselves through an academy using the GI Bill and stand ready to work. I know some of them. In fact, I know folks who are academy-trained and praying for a sheriff’s department. I also know plenty of state troopers who are hoping for us to have such a department, so they can get some relief. Isn’t it odd how that 47 of the states have sheriffs, but it is impossible for us? Wyoming and Vermont have fewer people than we do, but they can afford sheriffs. Enough lies already.
I find it odd how we can’t afford to have a sheriff’s department, but we can build bicycle trails, other foot paths, parks and all of that to the tune of millions per year. We can find the money to reroof a school, but we couldn’t afford to do it right in the first place. I knew a person, (name and description withheld) who was executed on his/her knees right in front of his/her grandparents’ home. Gray matter was splattered all over the rocks as the person was executed mafia style. I wonder, if it was your grandkid, could we afford a sheriff then?
If we are not enforcing the law, there is no law. If there is no punishment for breaking the law, there is no law enforcement. Are you still okay with this, or are you ready for a change?
As you’ve read in my recent articles, you are lied to constantly and given inflated prices for necessary things, and this is done so you’ll shut up like the good little serf they presume you to be and let them have their cushy government jobs. I say, “Enough is enough.”
We are told that the Matanuska River is out of control and there’s no way of fixing it - but nobody is willing to take ownership of the problem. And if they do, they build another finger dyke, bill you for it and then the river simply moves on down the way and continues to destroy farmland. Bring in a cutter-head dredge, tell that river where you want it to lie and sell the gravel. There are farms that are mostly gone now because nobody would do anything about the erosion. They’ll come out and talk about flooding, but not erosion, and I was talking about it twelve years ago. Are you still okay with that? I’m not.
You want jobs so you don’t have to commute to Anchorage as I do every day? Then you are going to have to replace some folks in government with some who are not only business-friendly, but have the fire in their eyes to get this borough and this state moving. We have people all across this borough with ideas for businesses and industries, but we’re dead in the water as the Mat-Su is basically anti-business. We can do better than that.
If we want to get our borough on track after lo these 54 years, we’re going to have to start thinking outside the box. I’m an old Green Beret, and we were taught to think and fight unconventionally. Conventional wisdom tells you that we just have to be okay with what we’ve got. I definitely am not. I’m not surprised that we’ve had government folk who are okay with Alaska not moving forward, as so many retire and leave the state. It’s time for those of us with a stake in the game - who intend to ride this bull to the bell to move forward.
You have political dynasties here that cannot stand for anyone with a new idea to come along because it upsets their phony little status quo. It’s time for real change. It’s time to set a new agenda and move in a different direction. Are you with me, and am I making sense?