SPECTRUM: Eastman was correct; Wilson’s bill an unnecessary distraction

The passage of Senator David Wilson’s bill designating a day in honor of the black American’s who served in the construction battalions that built the ALCAN Highway during WWII was a bill that was unnecessary.

The troops so honored were paid, clothed, fed, and given medical care by the United States Army. All qualified for G.I. Bill benefits enacted at the end of WWII.

Yes, the segregated military was wrong, but that wrong was remedied by Executive Order 9981 signed on July 26, 1948 by President Harry Truman.

Why in this time of overwhelming challenges did the Legislature decide to give particular note to only the black troops whose service was previously recognized in books and by public monuments commemorating the ALCAN project in Alaska and Canada? Their story was not unknown. A Google search reveals 3 books and a PBS video on the building of the ALCAN.

How did this bill come to overshadow the need for the Legislature to stay focused on the promises made, including those made by Senator Wilson, to resolve the state’s fiscal and other challenges?

The state government doubled in size since 2006, highlighting the need for a rational, sustainable budget solution. Alaska’s economy is in recession. There is no gas pipeline in Alaska’s future, oil prices are still low and will be for the foreseeable future. A sustainable budget policy was promised.

Heroin use is up to the point where the state is handing out overdose kits for free.

Crime is up, because drug use is up and the recession is stifling opportunity.

Outside gangs are now a fact of life throughout Alaska. Gang recruitment is up. To be initiated into a gang, a recruit must commit a felony. Under SB91, there is no jail time for a class C felony making initiation a breeze.

Our prison population, crimes, and our criminal element are growing more violent.

The governor and Legislature are threatening an income tax, a 16 cent increase in the gasoline tax to 24 cents a gallon, increasing taxes on resource development across the board, the use of the Permanent Fund to keep growing government at the cost of the economy, and taking the rest of our PFD. Services are being reduced.

Our Army National Guard (ARNG) was reduced in force by President Obama almost out of existence. Approximately 140 soldiers remain out of 1,800 who comprised the manpower for the former three battalions. The state no longer has a military disaster response capability.

The governor wants to replace the vanished ARNG presence in the Bush, but over 99% of those between the age of 17 and 35 are ineligible for enlistment in the federal military, because of educational and criminal record disqualifications. Meaning, there is a generational crisis in the Bush regarding failures in education and a lack of respect for law and order that need to be addressed.

In 2006, the Alaska State Defense Force (ASDF) was called to state active duty for three disasters; and the state’s budget for the ASDF was $26,000. The NAACP Band was given a $33,000 grant by the Legislature that year for new band instruments. How that grant by the Legislature was in the best interest of all Alaskans at that time, like Senator Wilson’s legislation at this time, made no sense to someone who had by then hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars invested to serve a state that recognized that service by dishonoring and diminishing the sacrifice of the ASDF member in 2008 when the ASDF was stood down as a disaster response asset and its members no longer allowed to carry arms for self-defense. Policies still in effect today under the Walker Administration. The ASDF served all Alaskans.

Don’t misunderstand, I fully appreciate the military service of black Americans. I just don’t get the need or the priority for this bill at this time and place in Alaska’s history, given the past public recognition.

Rep. David Eastman is correct. This was an unnecessary bill that took time away from the Legislature’s pressing business.