One Day, Three Bills for Alaska’s Organized Militia
Passing a bill is a big deal in the legislature. It often seems like it should be easier than it is, but it’s a long (sometimes years-long) tedious, slow, painstaking process often made worse by partisan bickering. So it’s nice when everyone can agree on something, and when THREE bills are signed into law on the same day in the same place, it’s an event to notice. And it took place today at the American Legion Auxilliary Post #1 on Fireweed Lane in Anchorage. I’ve done quite a bit of reporting on Alaska’s unorganized militias, and even wrote a book…
#MeToo
“Me too.” This week it became a revived movement. Ten years ago, Tarana Burke started it to support young women of color who had been abused. A week ago a post went up on social media from actress Alyssa Milano. “If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote ‘Me too.’ as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem.” The goal was not to fix sexual harassment or assault, but to just define how prevalent it is. It didn’t take long to start to wonder #WhoHasn’t. Millions of women told their…
Parnell Ignored Guard Sexual Assaults
By J. Pastrick As a U.S. Army National Guard veteran, I’ve watched with dismay as Gov. Sean Parnell’s administration ignored reports of unpunished sexual assault in the National Guard. The stories sounded all too familiar. When I was in the Alaska National Guard, sexual harassment was all too common. As the only female recruiter in the Alaska Army National Guard, I was subjected to harassment by my immediate supervisor and two male recruiters to the point where it was intolerable. I reported sexual harassment, and a subsequent investigation confirmed it. However, the harassment did not stop. The “good ol’ boy”…
Parnell, GOP Continue Guard Scandal Coverup
Earlier this year I received a loose-leaf notebook bulging with documents that detailed the sexual assault coverups and corruption in the Alaska National Guard. I spent a few months compiling information and interviewing as many people as would talk, trying to understand the players and the broad outlines of a mind-blowing scandal with real victims. People talked to me even though they were afraid. Terrified, actually. For years those who had spoken up against crime in the guard had had their careers destroyed. Nevertheless, a handful of brave souls tried to sound the alarm — even going directly the governor…
Palin and #WTF Foreign Policy
by Jeanne Devon and Zach Roberts Half-term Governor Sarah Palin has once again decided to demonstrate the flexibility of her intellectual consistency, and take a firm stand on two sides of a controversial issue. Last week she claimed that President Obama “blew it again,” with a deal that traded five members of the Taliban for the return of captive U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. Bergdahl stated that he had been tortured and kept in a cage during his nearly five years as a prisoner of the Taliban. That didn’t seem to be reason enough for the President to work for the…
Bailing Out the War Profiteers
It’s hard to believe how many years we’ve been at war. I protested the invasion of Iraq for many reasons, one of them being “we can’t afford it.” Friends of mine in the Alaska National Guard were deployed over and over. Clearly we spent more than borrowed money on the wars; we spent lives, and their time with families and friends. But they’d signed up, and they didn’t complain about their jobs. When they complained, it was about the contractors. “How does the lady contracted to hand out towels at the base gym make three times what I am, and…