Spectrum

It was with amazement and disgust that I read Scott Ogan's most recent attack on people willing to serve in a locally elected seat. It seems that Scott was incensed that Katie Hurley would have the audacity to exercise her constitutionally protected rights to host a fundraiser for individuals who, God forbid, bill themselves as progressives. After all, what are progressives if not democrats urges Ogan. Never mind the reality that none of the candidates mentioned by Mr. Ogan (Mayor Tim Anderson, assemblyman Jim Colver and assembly candidate Betty Vehrs) are registered as Democrats, all are registered nonpartisan. But the facts don't matter to Mr. Ogan and his fellow Alaskan Republican right-wingers.

Neither does the fact that the election of mayor and borough assembly is nonpartisan by state statute! Many years ago, people much wiser than Scott Ogan -- Katie Hurley among them -- decided that local issues should be based on the best interests of local folks, not in the best interest of a national political party. That is why municipal elections are nonpartisan.

But to Scott, it's all about party politics. "You're either wit' us or agin' us." Democrats, progressives and everyone else who does not think like a good conservative (i.e. right wing) Republican are simply billed as tax-and-spend evildoers and as such, according to Mr. Ogan, should be lambasted for even trying to participate in our society because they don't think like "a good Republican."

All annoyance aside, Mr. Ogan's way of thinking is dangerous. Wasn't Saddam Hussein's regime a "one party" system? Isn't the United States of America the strong country that it is because of our diversity and our historical willingness to have civil discourse surrounding shared community concerns? The saying goes "two heads are better than one." Different people coming together to work toward a common goal will always come to a better solution than one person with one set of experiences and one perspective could ever do on his or her own. We need to remember that.

Mr. Ogan should be careful where he swings his broad brush of personal prejudice based on political agenda. Perhaps he should also try to remember his role as a state leader and start acting like the statesman he so aspires to be.

Michelle Church is a Palmer resident.