Opinion: Congress should mind the city's business, not get involved in the Israeli conflict

Imagine the uproar, the uproar, the unforgiving shock of reality last week when Israeli “strongmen” and tunnel-dwelling Hamas terrorists realized that Anchorage Congress was asking them to lay down their arms and stop killing each other. I wonder if I can do it? ?

It said so in no uncertain terms. After a similar resolution put together by Assemblymembers Karen Bronga, Felix Rivera and Jorge Martinez a week ago failed to pass without debate, lawmakers moved to adopt an amended resolution that conveys that very message. The vote was 8-4.

Still, the war continues.

Bronga said he views the original resolution as uncontroversial and that the sponsor raised the issue as an example of how uneducated and unconcerned Congress is on this issue. He said he even thought he might be awarded the “Medal of Honor.” That initial effort created a storm and required major recalibration for final approval. ”

The Anchorage Congress urges our federal delegation to seek an immediate bilateral ceasefire, the release of all hostages, immediate access to life-saving humanitarian assistance to Gaza for civilians and hostages, and ultimately a long-term commitment to the Gaza Strip. We urge you to support negotiations that will lead to peace and security. The people of Israel and Palestine,” the final resolution read.

While the first resolution was introduced – This is too much, this is not enough – cries from the peanut gallery and the surprise of lawmakers like Meg Zaletel, who said they were “crazy” Despite the confession, the mitigation measure was passed. About that issue. To her credit, Ms. Zaretel at one point correctly opined that a parliamentary resolution on this matter was “inappropriate.” Others felt she was out of line, “incompetent” or unwilling to turn their noses up on the subject, she said. After all, none of these men ran for office on the basis of their foreign policy expertise. Councilor Kevin Cross took a more scathing view, saying the council's resolution suggested virtue. Members Zaretel, Scott Myers, Cross and Randy Salto were the adults in the room when the final votes were counted. They voted against it.

H.L. Mencken, who was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, and cultural commentator, was at the time saying that we deserved a whole time-wasting dog-and-pony show as part of a never-ending war against… It would have been skewered as a shining example of government. He called it “Bubus Americanus.” Mencken would have liked our Congress and its propensity to waste resources on such obvious displays of arrogance. He probably has a point. Does Congress actually believe that it knows best about conflicts, even though some of its members admit to being illiterate on the issues? Instead of worrying about their opinions and questions, I chose to spend my precious time telling others what they should do and how they should live. What will happen to the next conflict, the next conflagration? What will happen in the next war? Will Congress give answers to those as well?

Perhaps the most telling comment to come out of the “debate” surrounding this resolution was Cross's argument in opposition: “Our own house is on fire.” He was right.

While our august Congress ponders the unfathomable and solves world problems that lawmakers admit they don't fully understand, the rest of us casually observe. You can see the once solid downtown where you could believe people are slowly disappearing, or before that, the snow turning into glaciers. Farming will either cease or the natural gas used to heat homes will run out. Then there's the dam on the Eklutna River, crime, Anchorage's future power and water needs, or an education system that consistently ranks among the worst in the nation. Then there's homelessness, or housing shortages, which only seem to be on the rise, even as tens of millions of taxpayer dollars are spent on their problems.

The list of tough challenges for this city is pressing and endless, but Congress believes we have the time and means to end the war half a world away. War is a terrifying and soul-crushing glimpse into Hades. The collateral damage and human suffering are unfathomable and unimaginable to most people, and no sane person who has seen them up close and personal would want to see anything different. The human impulse is to help and stop genocide and genocide, but even if every council in every town in this country passed a resolution, either one side would not be able to continue, or both would be in their own interests. We cannot end the conflict until we find an ending. own interests.

In the meantime, the people chosen to handle the people's work, the menial, arduous, unglamorous work of government, should do what they do best and what they can do to have some real effect. It is.

To do otherwise is to evade the obligation to tip the windmill, as our Congress has done.

paul jenkins Former Associated Press reporter, editor-in-chief of the Anchorage Times, editor of the Voice of the Times, and former editor of the Anchorage Daily Planet.

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