PUBLISHER’S NOTEBOOK: Politics and produce don’t mix

Recently my wife and I went to the Wasilla farmers’ market at Iditarod Park. It was her first time to the market and we were excited to see the offerings. As soon as we began to enter the market a young man dressed in Planned Parenthood paraphernalia pushed a clipboard and a pen toward me. My eyes were fixed beyond him trying to get a sneak peek at the vendor offerings. All I heard from him was “petition” and “Planned Parenthood.” “No thanks,” I politely told him. His response was a roll of the eyes and a slight stomp of the foot. I moved on and we went on to purchase a couple bags of produce and some sugar free blueberry syrup. Very tasty I might add.

This is coming off the heels of an anti-abortion group participating in the Fourth of July parade in Wasilla. I watched the first part of the parade but had committed to working the mayor’s picnic so I missed them. I’ve had several people report they were handing out printed propaganda for their cause. The degree of how graphic these pieces were depends on who you ask. From what I am told they didn’t just hand them out to the adults. I am all for freedom of speech and the right to assemble but I just think discretion from these groups would be nice. I don’t think anyone is going to a farmer’s market to sign a political petition. I’m sure conversations aren’t “Hey wife, let’s get to the farmer’s market so we can see what petition we can sign,” or “Hey kids hurry up, we don’t want to be late to the parade! We might miss the anti-abortion float!” or the pro-abortion float for that matter.

Politics knows no boundaries anymore. I just don’t want to mix them in with my salad greens. By the way, we are enjoying these markets that are all over the valley.

Happy Anniversary!

Mark and Chris Lee of Lee Reality and fellow Wasilla Sunrise Rotarians recently celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary. I will always appreciate them for reaching out and getting me involved in community.

Miners update

The Alaska Baseball League season is winding down and our Mat-Su Miners have a healthy lead in the standings. The Anchorage Bucs are three games behind in second place. Quin Cotton, who plays college ball for Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, and hails from my home state of Colorado and my sister-in-law’s hometown of Parker, is hitting a scorching .369 to lead the ABL in batting average. The kid can blaze around the base paths.

Miners’ pitcher Calvin LeBrun in second in the ERA stat at 2.52 with 35.2 innings pitched. Calvin pitches for the Gonzaga University.

A pitcher for the Peninsula Oilers, Raymond Kerr is practically unhittable, posting a 0.86 ERA. Kerr leads the talent-filled league in innings pitched at 42, and strikeouts at 37.

The Oilers and the Miners are scheduled for a doubleheader on July 25 at 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. at the state fairgrounds. Hopefully Kerr is scheduled to pitch. It would be fun to see he and Cotton go head-to-head.

Shameless plug alert!

Our family of newspapers have the ABL covered. Check out the Frontiersman for complete Miners coverage and The Eagle in Eagle River for Chinooks coverage and we cover the league in the Anchorage Press. Baseball has been very, very good to us.

Thank you for reading the Frontiersman.