A long-overdue Bent Alaska update — October 2013

Words do matter….

by Caleb Pritt

I wrote an article yesterday about a Hate Crime committed against Chrissy Lee Polis. In writing the article, because I didn’t know the names of the attackers, I classified and described them as “two African-American women.” That is a fact. I also said it was sad that they had not learned the lessons Dr. King taught us.

Some people read this with racial overtones. That’s not what was meant or what was intended. I apologize to anyone who read race into my comments because there is not any racial bias. Had they been Hispanic, Polynesian, Anglo-Saxon, Jewish, etc., I would have written that as a descriptive comment of who they were.

We are very quick in society to seize upon something. One of the comments made in my grassroots group I started to protest how Chrissy was treated reminded me, we have become an instant society. We expect change to happen immediately. We also are very conscious and aware and often times do not wish to offend. We can sometimes make the leap that if they are described by race and the comments are by people of a particular race, than race is the overriding theme. That is not what was meant in this case.

Look the long and short of it was I was attempting to inspire and write that this attack was wrong. In the long run, I ended up flubbing it and sticking my foot in my mouth unintentionally. I did not mean to do that and for that, I apologize.

I hope you the readers can accept my apology and realize what I wrote was not written in a vein of racism but rather a plea to aspire to a higher ideal in how we treat one another.

Can you stomach this?

Caleb Pritt writes opinion pieces for Bent Alaska. His opinions are his own.

This post concerns an attack on a transgender woman in a Baltimore McDonalds, the attack video that went viral over the weekend, Caleb’s response to the incident, and suggestions for taking action.

Update: Please see Caleb’s post “Words do matter….” for a follow-up on issues about race brought up in comments to this post.

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I want you to watch this video before continuing with the article. [warning for violence]

Chrissy Lee Polis is just like you and I. She has a brain, a heart, and she is an American who expects the benefits of a nation that promises LIFE, LIBERTY, & THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. But in the words of one of this nation’s modern fathers, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., from his famous “I Have a Dream” address at the Lincoln Memorial, we now echo for the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, TRANSGENDER, Ally community, the following:

“When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens are concerned….a bad check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.”

Chrissy Lee Polis was spit upon, attacked, beaten, and dehumanized by sadly two African-American women who forgot Dr. King. Forgot about the sacrifices and the lives that allowed these two women to walk into a McDonalds and order their food. Even more insulting, McDonalds, which is a symbol of America as much as Sunday football or the American flag, had employees that looked on and watched this display of hatred and did nothing to intervene.

The question has to be asked, when do we say enough is enough? I say today is the day we say enough is enough. When the day has come, which is now, that ANYONE cannot enter a McDonalds and be served, but rather savagely treated like a dehumanized choice to be viciously assaulted with no regard, enough is enough.

Shall we as a society continue to fund a corporation that allows this hatred and violence to happen? If it doesn’t stop now….WHEN WILL IT?!

McDonalds needs to institute policies for ALL of its employees teaching them sadly how to be humans. This means no violence, no sacrificing of liberties, and no allowing the idea of some or any violence or disrespect is allowed.

As Dr. King also said, “An injustice somewhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

What happened in Baltimore can tomorrow be in Anchorage, in Honolulu, in Salt Lake City, in Boston, in Fayetteville, N.C., or yes even in Washington, D.C.

We need to remember the words of Dr. King and re-echo them today. We need to stand up and tell McDonalds, THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE.

Here are 3 ways to do it:

Starting Monday at 4:00 p.m. for twenty-four hours, I ask you to make your Facebook profile pic a picture of a simple candlelight. The candle is for Chrissy Lee Polis and to let her know, while we are not at the vigil in Baltimore, a candle of hope burns bright all across this nation and she is loved.

Secondly,  the phone number for McDonald’s Corporate is 1-800-244-6227, open 7 days a week from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. CST. Let them know you are horrified and that you demand nationwide training in transgender issues for ALL McDonald’s franchise owners and employees.

Thirdly, and finally, if you want to sound off, join Aunty Anita and I in two places. Join on Facebook, the group named BOYCOTT McCRUELTY. And also join us on the radio at Aunty Anita on Tuesday, April 26 at 7p.m. Alaska Time/ 8pm Pacific. The studio hotline is toll free (619) 393-6513. Please call in or listen on demand.

In the words of Reverend Jesse Jackson, who I hope will join us in this fight for civil rights, “Red, Yellow, Black, and White….WE ALL are precious in His light.”

Yes, Anchorage, there WILL be an Election Central this year!

You know I have been lucky to live and work in many states in the political process. But Alaska is unique in the fact that when elections occur, Alaskans of all political persuasions gather with the candidates themselves, supporters, the media, and everyone watches the votes come in. It’s a chance to witness democracy at its finest. This is the gathering known as Election Central.

So I was disturbed when I heard that Mayor Dan “The one we should Ban” Sullivan had not approved funding for the traditional Election Central.

Maybe he wants everyone to adjourn to a certain pub he is part-owner of downtown, so he can make a profit during the evening?

Maybe because he has personally attempted to defeat three members of the Anchorage Assembly with his own candidates, he may have jitters and doesn’t want to face the press as well as three emboldened and perturbed re-elected members of the Assembly, if the votes pile up against his choices.

Maybe he really is a fiscal conservative and feels any displays of democracy are too frivolous?

Who knows… but that’s why I sprang into action. I contacted a local member of our community, Douglas Locke — the owner of Kodiak Bar & Grill, who graciously donated the use of the A Street Event Hall and refreshments. The facility was a Centergy Office, Congregationalist Church, and most recently the Steinway Piano Studio.

It is located between 6th and 7th streets at 637 A Street. See map.

There’s plenty of parking, the facility is ADA-certified, and you can’t miss it with the orange awnings. There will be press, candidates, and a wonderful example of how democracy still works in this nation.

I have no idea at the writing of this post who will win on Tuesday. I don’t care if you are liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican, Coffee or Tea… just go vote. And after the polls close, come join your fellow Alaskans at the party.

To make a pun on Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, let me close by saying, Yes Anchorage, there will be an Election Central this year!!!

See the Facebook event page for more information.

The Geraldine Ferraro I got to know

A. Caleb Pritt remembers meeting Geraldine Ferraro at the 1996 Democratic National Convention. Ferraro died on March 26, 2011 of complications of multiple myeloma.

When a saint backslides….

When former Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer announced he might run for President in 2012, Caleb was encouraged and intrigued. But that didn’t last long — especially after reading what Roemer had to say about marriage equality and DOMA.

We answer to a higher calling….

A. Caleb Pritt writes on the relationship between Christian faith and the GLBT community.

After the election is not the time….

by Caleb Pritt

Tuesday in Chicago, a good man, Gery Chico conceded his bid for Mayor of Chicago to Rahm Emanuel. I applaud Mr. Emanuel on his victory, but as far as policy goes….Gery Chico had the right vision, plan, and experience to really turn Chicago around and make it a first class city again. The loss of the Summer Olympic Games, the rising unemployment and crime rate in Chicago only go to show you that Chicago is not the mighty metropolis it once was….but it can be. I give credit to Ed Koch and later Mike Bloomberg for the way they have turned New York City around, when they were Mayor. But in Chicago, today, a little over 50% of the eligible voters have voted.

In Wisconsin, Indiana, and Ohio, reactionary Republican Governors and their legislative leadership have sought to break….literally bury the organized union effort. There are protests in their second week in Madison, Wisconsin while the Democratic Party members of the State Legislature in those three states have fled across state lines to prevent quorum. In those states, in Wisconsin 51.7%, in Indiana 37.8%, and in Ohio 44.3% of the eligible voters voted in key elections across those states’ elections. Potential Governors (Tom Barrett in Wisconsin, Jill Long Thompson in Indiana, and Ted Strickland) who all had pro-union records were left on the sidelines.

At home here in Alaska, there is growing frustration with the way Sean Parnell as Governor has refused Federal money for the Health Care Consortium and the fact that he favors giving more business tax breaks, while thousands of Alaskans struggle with mounting energy prices because there is still no movement on building the Natural Gas pipeline. There’s also considerable frustration with some of the other policies of Governor Parnell. Mind you, Democrats Ethan Berkowitz (the eventual Democratic nominee for Governor), as well as Hollis French & Bob Poe had wonderful policy plans for energy, the economy, and many Alaska issue. 43.2% of eligible Alaska voters cast ballots in the 2010 General Election. Alaska could have had a forward thinking Governor who would prepare Alaska for the next phase of it’s statehood. There are many problems facing my state I chose as home and cutting budgets, pampering the big businesses, and sticking the proverbial head in the sand will not solve those problems. Alaska needs another Egan, Hickel, or Hammond as Governor. Instead they are getting a Governor whose focus is on supporting the business interests who supported his campaign, rather than the people who he was elected to govern. But as the late and great Molly Ivins said, “You dance with the ones who brung you.” And the big business interests “brung” Sean Parnell to the big dance as Governor!

On average 41.6% of the eligible voters in the United States bothered to turn out and vote.

As a political operative, I know that those who host a coffee party to meet a candidate, go to a campaign headquarters and do data entry, knock on doors passing out literature on a candidate, and actually take voters to the polls or take absentee ballots to those unable to go is a far less percentage.

My cousin, Charlotte Pritt, was the first woman ever nominated for Governor of West Virginia. She was a State Senator and former member of the House of Delegates. She entered politics because as a school teacher she saw too many children who came to school hungry and she asked prophetically, “What do you do when the kids are too hungry to want to learn?” Her campaign for Governor was more than a mere exercise in breaking barriers for women. She supported collective bargaining rights, opposed a grocery and gasoline tax, and was an advocate for responsible conservation that works with business while opposing mountain top removal in mining. 46.6% of eligible West Virginia voters turned out to vote in 1996. She faced a former Governor who was assisted by a conservative State Senator who supported a smear campaign against her. The UMW got a holiday declared but many miners took a personal day rather than voting for the daughter of a coal miner, thinking in Democratic West Virginia she had it won. She narrowly lost and that conservative State Senator went onto later become Governor himself and now a U.S. Senator. As a result West Virginia has seen mountain top removal rise and social programs for those less fortunate decrease. We have seen greedy politicians lusting for power attempt to usurp the authority of the State Constitution and the aforementioned State Senator who went on, stopped at nothing to crush my cousin and later her brother, who also ran for statewide office, as well as anyone who opposed him. As Governor, his daughter received an illegal degree, a great U.S. Congressman was assaulted and turned out for reelection on false charges of misconduct, and it took a near revolt in the State Legislature to stop the Huey Long-like power grab of this individual. And yes Big Business thrives and the people suffer.

Protests, energy, email campaigns are all well and good but they are misplaced energy AFTER THE ELECTION. After the election is not the time to get involved. After the ballots are counted and the election is certified is not the time to get involved. Facebook statuses, letters to the editor, the occasional protest, all that is wasted if you do not do the homework beforehand.

As a political operative, I am on the frontlines. Do you realize many of us who work on campaigns get paid very little, but work long hours. We have little of a social life because we devote our lives (if we are good and worth our salt) to the politician and their campaign. We sacrifice sleep, good nutrition, health, and wealth to make the clanky gears of democracy turn. We endure losses of relationships, non-understanding family and friends, and miss concerts, movies, and various other social events. We struggle to convince people to come in to assist us. We endure the insults of the uninformed and the mind numbing, soul-wrenching pomposity of the ignorant. We become literal slaves to make freedom work. We are the reason….the front line shock troops that are the first on the field of battle as it were, and when the election is over….very few remember us or the sacrifices we made.

And I have been a candidate and for them, the sacrifice is greater. You sacrifice not just your social relations and your family and absence of being with loved ones, but you sacrifice your privacy and your dignity. You find yourself cramped in a room calling contributor after contributor because you are forced to do so to find enough donations (fuel) to keep your campaign going. You add to that the need to do endless news interviews, travel time to various events, listen to person after person, study the issues, try not to slip up in what you say while having to cope. You have little sleep and you wake up in a panic mode asking, “Is it worth it?” or more frightfully, “How will I raise enough money? What if I lose?” And you think of not just your family & friends, but your extended family, your campaign staff, and worry about disappointing them. You do so many things in so little time and suffer a harsh press, encouraged sometimes by harsher bloggers, who take rumors and half-truths and build them to a crescendo game of “gotcha”, not to mention the contributors or supporters who feel scorned if you don’t give them enough attention. You don’t thrive often, but rather survive, and often the one with the best plans doesn’t win because society and elections has become more predicated on who raises enough money vs. who raises the most valid solutions to the problems facing government.

Often I hear politics and politicians are corrupt. Well government and politics are indicative of the people they govern. If we have an abusive relationship with our elected officials, it’s because we are allowing them to abuse us. We as citizens possess a power than men & women in Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, all across Africa and Asia and all around the world give their lives for….the power to vote.

In Iraq, our men and women in uniform are sacrificing their body and blood to give people the right to vote. In Afghanistan it’s the same as well.

We in America have no excuse. We have had the right to vote since 1789 if you are a white man, 1865 (or 1963 depending on your definition of the right) if you are an African-American, 1921 if you are female. No matter your skin tone, your orientation, your religion, your beliefs….you have an inherent right and a power to speak and be a part of the process. By taking a quick moment we can with the power of a pen render the powers of mighty armies useless. We can control our budgetary demands if we vote. We can end and decide what we want truly, if we but vote. We don’t need Tea Parties or Coffee Parties.

Somewhere tonight there are people like Kevin & Daniel and other friends of mine who have drowned their sorrow in a beer or two. The next few weeks will be hard as they help to disassemble a once thriving campaign office, then pack up, try to decide what they will do for their lives, and then the silence. The silence and sense of loss that comes at the end of a campaign. The sense that while their cause was right and their aim was true, they fell short of the goal, and they will as I have often and other friends before me have beforehand ask, was it worth it?

After the election is not the time. Griping never solves problems and neither does misplaced energy. There’s one solution and that’s the register to vote and utilize in municipal (citywide), county, state, and national elections. Then and only then do we fulfill the right to call ourselves citizens. Otherwise to abdicate that right is really your way of saying I don’t want to be an American citizen.

Our nation and our state(s) are at a crossroads. We can choose a destiny that we choose or we can sit idly by and gripe and complain as our precious freedoms erode away. The choice is ours, each of us, and I pray to God it’s not too late!

All photos except that of Sean Parnell and Charlotte Pritt by Melissa S. (Mel) Green. Sean Parnell photo is public domain through Wikimedia Commons.  Click through on photos for further information.

Young is getting old for Alaska!

– by Caleb Pritt

Don Young is a good person to meet and to visit with. I would love the opportunity to go fishing with him sometime if he ever offered, though I doubt he would. But Young is getting Old for Alaska.

Now before you think this is an attempt by a young man to use Don Young’s thirty-eight years in Congress against him, it’s not. It’s the fact that his votes are so out of line with Alaska and Alaska’s best interest, something he likes to say he represents. Don Young has reverted more and more to voting the Republican Party line, rather than voting for Alaska’s line, for the future.

Today, Don Young joined a band of reactionary Republicans in voting to repeal the Healthcare Reform that ALREADY passed the House before. This was a moment where a senior “indpendent-minded” Republican could have said, “We need to focus on the issues before us, not what is behind us.” Instead, Don Young chose the party politics of Washington, D.C. over Alaska’s best interest. He says the bill was unconstitutional, yet why didn’t he do anything when it was decided the first time? Theres plenty of parlimentary tricks he could have employed. Even at that, he could have split the provisions of the bill and voted against the Individual Mandates and yet still voted for providing health care to those with preexisting conditions. He could have added a rider to provide more funding for rural and for native health care efforts. Instead, Don Young disappointed Alaska and turned his back on Alaska by playing the Washington, D.C. game.

Awhile back, there was a move to alleviate the American taxpayer of the tax-dollar draining provision known as Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, a provision that has wasted hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars. Don Young claims he’s a friend and advocate for taxpayers but rather than using that as justification to remove DADT, he voted against repeal. In fact, Lisa Murkowski could look past her partisan label and partisan leanings to do the right thing, but Don Young who talks Alaska when running for re-election every two years, par for the course votes Washington, D.C. politics once safely back in office.

Don Young has built up a mystique of invincibility to some of the political prognisticators and the press. But my question as a constitutent of the Congressman is who do you represent: Alaska or the Republican Party? This past November, a plurality of Alaska voters said no to partisan politics and yes to those who place Alaska first in the U.S. Senate. In fact, 2/3rd’s did this if you combine Murkowski & McAdam’s votes over the very partisan Miller. So the question must be asked, is Alaska not getting too old to deal with Young?

Congressman, you can’t go forward by going back. Alaska has always moved forward. I suggest it’s time to start doing that again or come home and let another Alaskan go forward with Alaska, not back with party politics!

Please let us take time… this time

by Caleb Pritt

It’s been 8 years and a month since a plane went down in driving snow in Minnesota snuffing out the life of one of the greater progressive pioneers to ever serve this nation. In the ensuing days as we, collectively as a community, coped with the loss of this man, his wife, his daughter, and others on the plane, the Memorial Service which began so majestically and melodically ended in a blaze of partisan political rhetoric. Eight days later, a popular former Vice President of the United States was defeated in a bid to replace this man in the U.S. Senate by a political manipulator. I of course am talking about the death of U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone, his wife & daughter, and the quixotic Senate campaign between Walter F. Mondale & Norm Coleman. But what was lost, what has been forgotten in those days is the memory of a former coach, of a man who fought hard but fought with dignity & honor, and a man who dedicated his life to public service. What was lost were the other people on the plane who also had the light of their lives snuffed out. The partisan rhetoric grew to such a crescendo because of the memorial service turning political that there are plausible theories out now, how George W. Bush supposedly ordered the assasination of Paul Wellstone. The irony in the story is that Wellstone was on his way to the funeral of another man who had served Minnestoa admirably in the State Senate, when the accident happened.

Two and a half years ago, an hour or so after I had left the headquarters of the Arkansas Democratic Party in downtown Little Rock, an obsessed and mentally disturbed individual charged into the office, barged into the Chairman’s office, and brutally shot & killed a man I had gotten to know, respected, and whom I respectfully called, “My Chairman.” Then the killer went on a crazy high speed chase that ended up in his life ending in a hail of bullets. I, like so many people, numbly sat in the pew at Pulaski Heights Methodist Church in Little Rock, Arkansas days later as we listened to stories, remembered, and then buried Bill Gwatney. Chairman Gwatney was a good man, truly. A man who had compassion for seeing that those who were not considered part of the “in crowd” still got to have a seat at the table and take part in the proceedings. Chairman Gwatney was fair and he was a man of integrity. Yet it disturbed me how the talk in the media turned towards the politics of the moment.

Now, a day and a half after the events in Tuscon, Arizona, I have to say this is not about Sarah Palin, this is not about the Tea Party or Liberals, this is not about gun control, this is not about a new currency, this is not about security for Members of Congress. This is about eighteen people who have had their lives unalterably changed forever. This is about a nine year old girl, elected to her school’s student council, who was taken from us and never given the chance to fulfill her life. This is about an older man, who apparently gave his life shielding his wife. This is about a guy who was engaged to be married and spent his life helping those who were not part of the “in crowd.” This is about a man who had just come from Mass and taught us that just because he was a Federal Judge didn’t mean he couldn’t work with a member of another branch of government, his Congresswoman, to alleviate the overcrowding and backlogging of cases in the Federal Courts. This is about two women who while retired still gave back to their community to the extent one was featured in a local newspaper article just a month ago about how she was taking a lifetime of knowledge and mentoring others.

I am troubled by how we have dived immediately into the politics of this event. THIS IS NOT THE TIME FOR POLITICS. There is a time and place for everything and now is not, nor should it even be considered, appropriate or allowable by the media to talk about liberal v. conservative, tea v. coffee parties, or Sarah Palin v. whomever. This is a time for the victims, the survivors, and the heroes. This is a time for the people of this moment.

This time first, in my opinion, is for Christina Green, Dorwin Stoddard, Phyllis Schneck, Dorothy Murray, John Stoll, and Gabe Zimmerman. This is a time to honor them and thank their families and thank God for the joy, the life experiences, the essence that each of them brought to this earth and then to life. Then this is the time to encourage and do all we can to pray for the speedy and safe recoveries of twelve other people that include U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Pray for the doctors and the nurses and the medical personnel as well as their families for the coming days, weeks, months, and yes years of recovery from this moment. Let us honor the heroes who took down and sudued this madman. Let’s spend a week or two commending them for going into the fire… the line of fire to prevent further death and injury.

Once we have exhausted those areas, and I mean fully done justice for those people, then if we have the energy or the stamina left, then we can argue about the influence of Sarah Palin, the Tea Party, and Ideological Fights.

And the assassin… I say no attention should be given to this attention-seeking drug user. I am a compassionate person. I believe we all make mistakes… but there’s a line we all cross from troubled to enabling a madman. Do not focus on his drug use, his antics in class, or his inability to enter the U.S. Army. In fact, do not focus on him at all.

Let us take time… take time to reflect, be thankful for those around us, and take time to honor those no longer among us. Politics can come later. But this is not the time for politics.

Don’t forget the legislature, the key to Alaska’s future

— another great guest post by Caleb Pritt

You’ve heard about Ethan and Sean, Diane and Mead, Harry and Don. Joe and Lisa and Scott too. But do you recall… the most important election in Alaska of all. Sorry, having some fun with the nearing of Christmas. But the clever use of the old Rudoph the Red Nose Reindeer song is meant to remind you that besides the U.S. Senate, U.S. House, and Governor, there is one other VERY important race for many of you in Alaska… the State Legislature.