An open letter to the City of Homer, the Kenai Peninsula Borough and the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District

My name is Jay Bechtol and I currently lead the HYPE Advisory Panel. HYPE, Homer Youth Programs Everyday, is a grassroots community coalition of individuals, parents and organizations dedicated to ensuring that the youth of the greater Homer area are raised in a community which supports them.

We are building on the work of many people before us to increase the availability of activities for youth in our community during out of school time. This includes coordinating programs, sites and activities to keep the youth engaged, safe and invested in the future of our community.

Sites which are both safe and engaging are often hard to find in rural Alaska. The potential loss of a fantastic community resource like the Homer High School swimming pool is simply embarrassing.

Were we in some larger community, it might be easier to find a private organization to step in and carry the weight. Here on the southern peninsula, we need to rely on our public agencies to provide that level of support.

We encourage the District, the Borough and the City to sit down together with the goal of keeping the pool open. The load becomes much lighter when shared between the public agencies who are tasked with making our communities, well, communities.

Please recognize the importance of this resource and take the necessary steps to ensure its survival.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the Homer Youth Programs Everyday (HYPE) Advisory Panel.

Jay Bechtol

Community partnership helps keep Homer children safe on the water

The Alaska Marine Community Coalition would like to extend our thanks to the Opportunity Fund at the Homer Foundation for its generous support of the Safe Fishing Families Initiative. Through this investment, AMCC is distributing more than 100 U.S. Coast Guard-approved child and youth life jackets throughout the Homer community.

In Alaska, children are a part of the working waterfront. They play on docks, fish and live alongside their families aboard vessels, and spend time in open skiffs. For these children, properly fitted life jackets are critical for preventing drowning fatalities and cold-water immersion injuries while working, living and recreating on the water. Unfortunately, due to rising operational costs and living expenses, purchasing new or replacing outgrown life jackets can be cost prohibitive for many fishing families.

The future of Alaska’s fishing communities depends on the next generation growing up safely on the water. As a fishermen-led organization dedicated to strengthening Alaska’s fisheries and the communities that depend on them, AMCC is proud to launch this effort in Homer and hopes to bring it to more Alaska communities in the years ahead.

Distribution is underway in partnership with local organizations Alaska Boats & Permits and the Homer Charter Association. 

Free child and youth life jackets are now available for pickup at Alaska Boats & Permits, located at 3808 Ben Walters Lane in Homer, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Amanda Piatt

AMCC Operations Manager

Thank you for supporting senior center

The Homer Senior Center would like to thank the Sons of the American Legion Post 16 along with the American Legion Auxiliary Unit Post 16 for their generous support of the ongoing elevator project.

Acts of generosity often happen quietly, but they deserve to be recognized.  The dedication of Post 16 reflects the true spirit of service and demonstrates the continued commitment to Homer’s seniors and to our community.

On behalf of Homer Senior Center and its residents your support is sincerely appreciated.

Shirlie Gribble

Homer Senior Center Board of Directors

Unhumans?

On July 16, Trump embraced the Unhumans Conspiracy, which is also endorsed by JD Vance and Steve Bannon. This conspiracy is put forth in a 2024 book entitled, “Unhumans: The Secret History of Communist Revolutions (and How to Crush Them)” by Jack Posobiec and Joshua Lisec. The authors claim that the American Left desires a communist dictatorship and that we  should be labeled “Unhumans” who should lack any human rights.

“Unhumans” is both a manifesto and a guide for action. Its central argument is that leftists are not fellow human beings who should be accepted as part of a pluralistic society, but rather unhumans bent on destroying the civilized order (read: whatever Trump and Stephen Miller decide). To unhuman someone means to deprive someone of their rights to life, liberty and property.

Stopping the unhumans will require shedding commitments to democracy, free speech, reasoned debate and tolerance of alternate points of view. Instead, the Right should find its role model in Caesar, Pinochet, Francisco Franco and various murderous, anti-communist dictators of the 20th century.

Books like “Unhumans” attempt to convince us that all threats in fact come from immigrants and unions, rather than from people like Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, oligarchs who think popular self-government was a mistake.

Trump hasn’t been able to alter birthright citizenship, but Miller is adamant that naturalized citizens can have their citizenships revoked and he is happy to draw those guidelines.

Trump’s proposed $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget for 2027 appears to be a war chest for more endless wars, to include eliminating all citizens here in the U.S. who don’t agree with him.

Brother Asaiah encourages us to love one another with no limitations whatsoever, to renounce war in honoring each and every soul who walks alongside us in this human/spiritual journey.

We at Veterans For Peace will continue to embrace Brother’s philosophy, and we will participate in all peaceful actions to end a right-wing regime that does not recognize everyone’s humanity.

“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” — Mother Teresa

We continue our peaceful resistance.

Michael A LeMay

Homer Veterans For Peace