JFK and My Grandmother
For as long as I can remember, there was an oil painting hanging at the top of the stairs at my Grandmothers house. It was of John F. Kennedy walking on the beach. We were an Irish Catholic family, my grandmother the matriarch. We weren’t conservative Christians, in fact my grandmother never liked them – she felt uncomfortable when, in her 80’s, our small local church started to take a turn for the evangelical. The change started when our priest, Father Guckert started to fall ill. He would take a Sunday off, and one of the local up-and-coming priests would…
Liberally Loving Alaska
Last week a woman called my radio station. She squealed at my producer, “Who is this woman? She sounds like a LIBERAL!” There is a good reason I sound like a liberal: I am. And the caller would be surprised to learn that this puts me right in step with the history and the foundation of our state. So much of what I believe stems from equality granted by our constitution. It was written by more Democrats than Republicans yet delegates debated in a spirit of nonpartisanship. One delegate said, “we chose to put the good of Alaska ahead of…