Keep races on the up-and-up

My friend received a late tax notice from the Mat-Su Borough recently. Even though she paid her taxes on time like she has always done, three months after the fact she was told she owed $65 because they received her payment one day late. She tried to get the robot-o-motons to work with her, but they were stuck in their “rules are rules” mode.

We wondered, “Who runs the borough?” And then I saw an article in the newspaper about people who were signing up to run for the mayor position. I decided to pick up the paperwork to run for mayor, just to get a feel for it. I went to the borough offices, the same building where I went to my first eight grades of public schooling here in Palmer. I saw my old shorthand teacher Mrs. Cope’s picture on the wall. What would she have thought about this whole school being turned into government offices?

At the clerk’s station I was given a packet of papers, enough for a small book. “How many trees were wasted?” I wondered. The lady explained what all had to be filled out and turned in to her and the Alaska Public Offices Commission in Anchorage by Friday.

I brought it home and slogged through, filling out information here and there. I decided the only important part to me was the statement that would accompany those other forms, and I figured I could just write that in a letter to the editor and not have to pay $25 to the borough. It had to be short, so this is what I came up with:

“I hope to bring honor to my Ahtna ancestors, who traveled this area since time immemorial. Their main duty was to take care of the land, animals and each other. We have gotten so far out of balance since people like my alcoholic grandfather arrived from Little Rock that I feel sorrow as my Ahtna great-grandparents look at what we have done. If we can begin to make positive changes toward renewable energy and start cleaning up our messes, we might be able to reduce the carbon emissions before it is too late. Let’s consider how our actions affect our grandchildren to the seventh generation.”

That would have been my platform to run for borough mayor.

Later, while talking to my friend about how boring and lengthy the process was, we verbalized that people internally know what is right or wrong. It’s when we start looking outside of ourselves for excuses and reasons that things start to get complicated. And that is why we need so many laws and boring papers. If we would all just take responsibility for our actions, life could be so much simpler.

So to all my three supporters out there, thanks, but I would never expect you to donate your hard-earned money or stand on a street corner waving a sign. That just seems so immature and smacks of running for prom queen in high school.

Good luck to all you would-be politicians. I hope you don’t throw too much mud in each others’ faces. Where is the integrity in that, for Mrs. Cope’s sake?

Patricia Wade lives in Palmer and edits the Chickaloon News.