OPINION: Assembly should mind the city’s business, not weigh in on Israel conflict

Can you even begin to imagine the stir, the bedlam, the unforgiving smack of reality as the “powers that be” in Israel and tunnel-dwelling Hamas terrorists realized last week the Anchorage Assembly wants them to lay down their arms and stop killing each other?

It said so in no uncertain terms; its members even voted 8-4 to adopt an amended resolution to convey that very message, after failing to pass, without debate, a similar resolution put together a week earlier by Assembly members Karen Bronga, Felix Rivera and George Martinez.

Yet, the war continues.

As an example of how unschooled and out-of-touch the Assembly was on the issue, Bronga said she saw the first resolution as uncontroversial and even thought sponsors might end up with a “badge of honor” for conjuring it up. That first effort touched off a storm and required extensive rejiggering for final approval.

“The Anchorage Assembly calls on our federal delegation to support negotiations that lead to an immediate bilateral ceasefire, the release of all hostages, immediate access to life-saving humanitarian aid into Gaza for civilians and hostages, and ultimately long-term peace and security for the people of Israel and Palestine,” the final adopted resolution said.

While the first resolution was tabled — too much of this, not enough of that — the softened measure passed despite some yelling from the peanut gallery and surprising admissions by Assembly members, such as Meg Zaletel, who said she felt “in over her head” on the issue. To her credit, Zaletel also at one point correctly opined an Assembly resolution on the subject was “inappropriate.” Others said they felt out of their lane, “inept,” or not up to snuff on the subject. None of these folks, it turns out, ran for office on his or her foreign policy expertise. Assemblyman Kevin Cross had a more caustic view: The Assembly’s resolution was virtue-signaling, he said. Members Zaletel, Scott Myers, Cross and Randy Sulte were the adults in the room when the final vote was tallied. They voted no.

In his day, H.L. Mencken, an American journalist, essayist, satirist and cultural critic, would have skewered the entire, time-wasting, dog-and-pony show as a shining example of government we deserve as part of his endless war on what he called “Boobus Americanus.” Mencken would have loved our Assembly and its penchant for wasting its resources on such puffery, which shows an almost palpable arrogance. He would have a point. Does the Assembly actually believe it knows best about a conflict when several of its members admit to being uneducated about the issues? Instead of minding its own Ps and Qs, our Assembly opted instead to use its valuable time to tell others what to do, and how to live. What about the next conflict, the next conflagration? What about the next war that breaks out? Will the Assembly have answers for those as well?

Perhaps the most cogent comment to come out of the “debate” over the resolution was Cross’s assertion in opposition: “Our own house is on fire.” He was right on point.

While our august Assembly ponders the imponderable and solves world problems its members admit they do not fully understand, the rest of us can look at a once-robust Downtown a casual observer could believe slowly is dying, or snow that will turn into glaciers before it is plowed, or the prospect of running out of natural gas to heat our homes. Then there is the Eklutna River dam, or crime, or future power and water needs for Anchorage, or an education system that routinely scores among the worst in the nation. Then there are the homeless, who, despite tens of millions of taxpayer dollars being thrown at their problems, only seem to proliferate, or the housing crunch.

The list of stiff challenges for this city is pressing and endless, but the Assembly believes it has the time and wherewithal to end a war half a world away. Wars are horrendous, soul-shattering glimpses of Hades. The collateral damage and human suffering are incalculable and unimaginable by most, and nobody in their right mind who has seen them up close and personal wants to see another. While the human urge is to help, to stop the carnage and slaughter, all the resolutions by all the Assemblies in all the towns in this country will not end a conflict until one side is unable to continue or both sides find an end that serves their own interests.

In the meantime, those elected to handle the people’s business, the unglamorous, grinding, mundane work of government, should tend to what they can do best and can do with some real effect.

To do otherwise, as our Assembly has done, is to avoid the duty to tilt at windmills.

Paul Jenkins is a former Associated Press reporter, managing editor of the Anchorage Times, an editor of the Voice of the Times and former editor of the Anchorage Daily Planet.

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