GLACIER conference shows we are awakening to change
My wife made a wonderful sorrel soup. I ate some in the back yard as I watched the frantic activity of the bee colonies. I say frantic because there is a turbulence there. Midsummer the bees hugged the sides of the boxes that house their queen and combs. Now they race far afield — even to the neighbor's crab apple tree and flowers.
Do they sense the coming of winter? Indeed, even as the sun bakes my face, the wind has a cold leading edge.
This week we are contemplating our future in the face of human activity and its impact on our planet's ecosystem. The urgency and alarm in President Barack Obama's speech before the International GLACIER conference was not politics-as-usual.
We humans are collectively awakening to a change in our colonizing of Earth.
As we frantically build gross national product we are being forced to become what the Buddhist calls "sentient." Though the president did not call it this, he could have: The Great Awakening.
We are forced to accept our place in the Web of Life.
Do religious institutions have the capacity for spiritual leadership any more or have they become poisoned by secular politics? Do economic institutions have the capacity to adapt to new rules of supply and demand or are they bogged down by the culture of 19th Century capitalism? Do political institutions have the capacity for consensus-building and truth-telling or are they so damaged by fractions that there can be no common denominator of the Public Weal?
If we are like a colony without a Queen, how will we survive?
— Elstun Lauesen
Anchorage
Court system fails Dusenbury in giving killer light sentence
The outcome of the Alexandra Ellis sentencing hearing leaves me with three conclusions. First, the district attorney is unwilling to deliver strong punishments for hit-and-run and DUI violations. Second, a cyclist's life is next to worthless in the eyes of the court system, especially when compared to a privileged, drunk and stoned princess. Finally, it doesn't matter that one was a contributing member of society and the other was a burden to society, because the perpetrator's family had the means to mount a slanderous defense while the victim's family had to rely on an inept prosecutor for justice.
Reading the victim impact statements of Peter Van Tuyn and Madisen Dusenbury, it became quite clear that Jeff could have been me. It could have been my friends and family dealing with this tragedy and helpless to prevent this miscarriage of justice.
Alexandra Ellis is not the victim, but she is being punished far less than anyone else involved. Her outright illegal choices led to the death of a father, husband, friend, and positive force in community. Think long and hard about that when you see her driving down your neighborhood streets in the future. She killed someone. Given the location, on a dead-end, residential street, next to a municipal park, it could have easily been a child or senior citizen. Would the sentence have been different?
Other than the Dusenbury family, the one person who I want to thank for her strength and compassion is Tina Adcox. Her assistance to Jeff in his last moments and her recounting of those painful events in court and elsewhere are appreciated and will not be forgotten. She restored my faith in humanity that Alexandra Ellis and many others have damaged.
— Mike Hancock
Anchorage
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