ALASKANS NEED A COMMON SENSE PARTY

I have waited a bit to chime in on a few subjects at once to save
space and my time.

First, I would like to become a member of the Common Sense party, if
it ever gets started. This party would look over what has been
happening in our political system and decide that no matter what, it
will take the most common-sense approach to decisions that affect
Alaska's citizens, regardless of the backlash.

For our first example, let's look at a recent bill that was introduced
that said the state needed to tap into the PFD monies, only by a
little, of course, to give our towns the money that was cut from their
budgets a few years ago.

Here's the common-sense part - this was introduced after our state
officials found an unexpected windfall in higher oil prices and
decided to spend it on some new programs. Is it me, or does this not
make sense?

Secondly, our legislators are battling over marijuana, something that
is taking precious time, money and effort away from our leaders, while
I just heard in a weekly council meeting that the one drug task force
officer that Palmer has been allotted is losing its funding as of July
1 this year.

Now in case you haven't heard, there is a huge problem with meth labs
in the Valley (jumping from 10 to 40 labs found in one year), and
there is more than enough evidence to show that methamphetamine users
are a serious danger both to themselves and to the communities in
which they reside. Now, is it me, or does this make sense?

Wal-Mart in Palmer? Isn't that where the fair is every year? Isn't
that a quaint little town, with a real downtown, that has the most
photographed water tower in the state? Don't they have

a Wal-Mart less than 10

miles away?

It seems rather ridiculous to let this supposed 180,000-square-foot
supercenter come to Palmer, especially after so much evidence is
easily attainable showing that Wal-Mart has nothing in its sites but
money. Never has, never will.

Don't think for a minute they have Palmer's interests in mind at all,
they don't. Two hundred forty-eight other small towns have raised
their voices enough to disallow a Wal-Mart to destroy them, so why
can't Palmer's elected officials do the same thing with a moratorium?
Wouldn't take much, just a motion, a second and a few more "ayes" than
"nays."

When you drive into Palmer from the tourists' direction, the mayor
wants the welcome signs up this year with the slogan contained,
"Welcome to Palmer - Alaska at its Best," and then those poor tourists
have to look at the back side of Fred Meyer. Is this "Alaska at its
Best?"

Too bad the town council missed out on stopping this store last year.
But they quickly reacted to adopt some guidelines for the next
attempt, which are futile and won't stop another from happening, such
as Wal-Mart.

Is this the way we are destined to allow our governing officials to
"lead" us, by reactions, be they of the knee-jerk type or from a
supposed "possible" problem? It is a human tendency to be reactive
rather than proactive, but when I do that in my barn, it affects me,
and more importantly, my animals, but when our officials act in this
manner, it affects all of us. Is it too much to ask for some
leadership with vision, some proactive leadership, some leadership
with common sense?

I hope not.

* Rick Shields is a Palmer resident and a future Common Sense Party
member.