Opinion Articles

(or at least be poor for a good 10 years...that will fix them)
I stumbled across this article by accident while trying to get the scores of the 2A basketball teams in the state. http://www.adn.com/front/story/2451673p-2499170c.html is quite the article and while Rosemary Shinohara, to whom the article is attributed to, is not necessarily to blame, I hope that the tone and far reaching implications of this article were examined before it was printed.

Follow up:

As I have been mentioning in several other articles, I'm working on an article about the media and why their headlines and stories are made public in the first place so do not write me about the media.

The article starts off with a valid point, the colors of the Strawberry Village houses are bright and do stand out. The color, in fact, is the first thing I noticed about them and I drive by them several times every day. I believe that the colors are what drove the article to be published in the first place. The article, however, goes beyond the colors and this is where people need to grow up and get a real life.

The first part of the article that stands out in my mind is Jean Parsons' quote 'This has to be the zenith of instant slum production." I wonder, Miss Jean, have you ever been poor? Have you ever had to worry about shelter? If so you would have gladly lived in such a neighborhood. If you were poor and still made/make such statements you represent what a lot of what is wrong with this society. If you were poor you represent the poor people unwilling to accept anything but a silver spoon and so you stay dirt poor in spite of yourself.

Also, Miss Jean Parsons, you must have missed the articles, news media and all out mayhem not too long ago about how Anchorage is "running out of space." Anchorage (we) spent good money to get developers into Anchorage to advise us on our land shortage. Not only is Strawberry Village taking up all the available land, they do so well within the expanses of some of the richest neighborhoods in town. Have you ever driven down Klatt Road? I hope you tell them the same things you tell Strawberry Village because if you don't you are a hypocrite. Klatt Road houses are just as close together as Strawberry Village houses.

The same goes to Joe Del Donno who stated:
"You can literally stand in them and reach from one room into the next." I think that you need to take a serious pay cut and live on minimum wage for about 10 years. During that time you will find that you'll be happy to find a place that has doors, smells decent and is safe let alone a place that actually has rooms in the first place. Most houses allow you to stand in one room and reach into the next, normal people call this area you speak of a doorway.

People forget what it is like if they were poor and they never know what it is like if they are/were never poor. Alaskans (we) are quick to criticize other parties that threaten our way of life in Alaska by saying "You simply do not understand what it is like to live in Alaska." On the same side of the coin there are still Alaskans threatening other Alaskans' way of life by criticizing their homes, homes that were recently built, well thought out and were approved by the municipality in the first place.

This brings me to another point...where were Joe and Jean when these houses were being designed and built?

The poor are oppressed the way it is. If you don't think so, try being poor. After you have been poor and lived in poor neighborhood apartments, buy a house in Strawberry Village. Strawberry Village, a place of your own; you can finally own the place where you live and forget about throwing away all of that rent money every month. A place that you can be proud of the place you have worked for your entire life. The place where you know you can provide for your children with or without a spouse, while in retirement or suffering from a disability. Hasn't anyone read The Jungle by Upton Sinclair? Those of you who criticize such neighborhoods are no better than the con-artists that ripped off the immigrants.

Strawberry Village, a place where you can buy the local newspaper to be reminded that people don't like the places you can afford or the fact that they have to live next to a community like "yours." A place where all the benefits of being in a safe neighborhood are tainted by the ignorant few that think segregation of the poor isn't the same thing as segregation of the races.

Joe and Jean and people that agree with them, unless you were misquoted or misunderstood you need to wake up to reality and try to improve all of Alaska and not just the parts that only affect you and your interests. It saddens me to know there actually are people in the world like you. Maybe the village does need to be repainted but it is just paint. Stop picking on people that are doing their best improve themselves and fit in without giving up the qualities that make them unique. GROW UP AND GET A REAL LIFE.

According to Dictionary.com:
Zenith: 4. The point of culmination; the peak: the zenith of her career

As used in this article:
Zenith: 1. When used properly by a person, the use of the word "zenith" denotes the user is an educated idiot.