Lende is the author of "If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name: The News From Small-town Alaska."
Haines, Alaska -- The Chilkat Valley News here hasn't covered the national election. A caller asked the editor, Tom Morphet, to write about Sarah Palin. He told her that he only covers statewide or national politicians when they come here, if they're from here, or if they're deciding issues or working on projects based here.
When the woman argued that Palin was the biggest story since George Washington, Morphet said he missed that one, too. Later he said, "I wished I'd said, 'We're a newspaper. We're not People magazine.' "
He didn't mention the governor's vetoes. But using his criteria for coverage, the only thing he could report about Palin is that she vetoed funding for the Chilkoot Lake campground bear monitor, asbestos removal, a sewer main, repairs for the pool, Big Brothers Big Sisters and the Boy Scout camp. (She also vetoed funds for statewide programs that we care about, like the Special Olympics and an Anchorage home for unwed mothers. Go figure.)
Still, I bet that if you walked into the bakery and asked the coffee crowd who was voting red and who was voting blue, most of them would say "none of your business." A pollster would write that down as "undecided."
Do you think anyone is undecided? My guess is the national election is just like our sales tax question: We all knew how we'd vote, but only a few shouters pro and con said so ahead of time.
They don't like to pay taxes up in Wasilla, but here in Haines we pay a 5.5 percent sales tax on everything. Recently, some guys got together and had us vote on a ballot measure to remove fuel (gas, home heating and propane) from that tax, because it's costing about $5 a gallon. The trouble is, the tax raises more than $400,000 a year; that goes a long way toward paying for our library, school activities and ambulance service. We are not a rich town, but we care about the greater good. We voted 793 to 322 to keep the tax.
You've probably seen pictures of the big-box strip mall they call Wasilla. If you want to see Main Street Alaska, please come to Haines. All the stores here are locally owned. Our family has a lumberyard. We don't buy our guns, socks and butter at Wal-Mart. We buy them at the Olerud family grocery and sporting goods store. The Oleruds buy building materials from us. That's small-town economics. Our only bank is safe because the banker won't loan you money unless you can prove you don't need it.
In Haines, we sometimes say "no" to big government. The Borough Assembly decided not to support the Patriot Act. (Remember that -- and phone tapping and no-fly lists?) The public library board (mostly women) took matters one step further and stopped saving old lending records. So, if the FBI ever asks what books I've read, they'll only see the ones I have out currently.
And no, we can't see Russia from here. But we can see Canada, and many of us are dual citizens. Local Alaska Natives have family on both sides of the border. A lot of our children were born in the Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, hospital because we don't have one here. And it costs less there than down in Juneau, especially if you don't have health insurance. I pay for my family's health insurance, and it costs about $12,000 a year and doesn't include dental, which is why our dentist is Canadian. When the McCain/Palin crew says they don't want to be like Canada, all my self-insured or uninsured friends shout "why not?"
One other thing, Haines, like lots of small rural towns, has struggled with the tragic scourge of alcohol abuse since our first contact with the Western world. It would be tough for anyone to get elected here if they looked to Joe Six-Pack for advice. We prefer Tammy Tea-Totaller. Our new mayor is an Alaska Native woman who supports a ban on smoking in public places.
And that's the news from a real small town in Alaska.