Elise Patkotak

ELISE PATKOTAK

Volunteers make world a little nicer

Given the news we read on a daily basis, one could come to the reasonable conclusion that, as my mother would have so succinctly put it, we are going to "H E Double hockey sticks" in a hand basket and there is little to do but await the wrath of whatever deity in which you believe.

ELISE PATKOTAK

Aging takes guts in this political climate

We can argue for a long time whether Obamacare or Romneycare or some other care is the answer to what ails America. What can't be argued is that there are two classes of people in this country right now, those who can afford to be healthy and those whose health care plan consists of hoping to god nothing happens to them.

ELISE PATKOTAK

Children deserve a safe 'forever home'

You know what one of the hardest things to do is when working with troubled children? It's holding your tongue and your temper as the child explains to you just how wonderful their parents are.

ELISE PATKOTAK

Alaska veterinarians do disservice to dogs, villages

Back in the 1970s, when I was the North Slope Borough health director, a man walked into my office one day and announced he was the vet from the Naval Arctic Research Lab (NARL) down the road from town.

ELISE PATKOTAK

Offensive continues in war on women

Here's where I get confused. Conservatives seem to find all life extremely sacred, to the point of interfering with a woman and her doctor during the most private of moments.

ELISE PATKOTAK

Your vote doesn't count; Big Oil's does

Alaska does democracy and governance a little differently than the rest of the country. It's like everything else in Alaska. Our attitude is simply that we don't care how they do it in the Lower 48.

ELISE PATKOTAK

Breakup's not so bad if you can escape

Ah, breakup in Alaska -- streets with puddles deep enough to qualify as Olympic diving venues, cars sending up waves you could surf, potholes that could swallow Cincinnati, and sidewalks covered with water that covers a sheet of ice that sends you sliding a good 500 feet before landing on your caboose.

ELISE PATKOTAK

Mayor's manners missing at Bean's

I grew up on the East Coast where political traditions seemed a little different than here. Our politicians were expected to be jovial, convivial, able to walk into a Sons of Italy Hall and know half the people there while shaking the hands of everyone they'd yet to meet.

ELSIE PATKOTAK

Vote yes on Prop 5 -- equality is for everyone

I grew up in a world of "confirmed bachelors" and "spinsters." While some of those people might truly have been no more nor less than that, for many those titles were the closet in which they hid their true identity from the world. They had to hide. They were gay.

ELISE PATKOTAK

Trust? Sen. Lisa Murkowski lost mine

I really believed what Lisa Murkowski said about representing the people who took a chance on her and gave her another term in office. Then she voted against health insurance coverage of birth control for women based on the claimed principle of religious freedom.

ELISE PATKOTAK

Want to annoy Santorum? Go to school

It's simply amazing that all these many years later I find out my mother and father were secretly trying to wean me and my siblings from the religion that was an all encompassing part of their lives by insisting we attend college.

ELISE PATKOTAK

Religion shouldn't define a candidate

Most Americans look askance at the imposition of Shari'a law in many middle Eastern countries. Yet they don't act very concerned at attempts being made in America to enact conservative Christian morality as the law of our land.

ELISE PATKOTAK

Attempt to put limits on women misguided

It's been a rough few weeks for women. First, a group of men who have only ever had relationships of whatever kind with other men (hopefully) pronounce us as condemned to hell if we use birth control. Then another group of 16th century thinkers claims that if women go into combat situations, they will either be raped by the brutes who surround them or protected by the chivalrous knights who surround them. Either way, this group states, women should not be in combat.

ELISE PATKOTAK

Not all Catholics buy what church sells

I've asked friends who are practicing Catholics how they reconcile their personal actions with the positions of their church when those things are in conflict. Since the Catholic Church is pretty clear that holding conflicting opinions in certain areas can lead to a very hot afterlife, it always struck me as strange that they could be devout Catholics and yet feel no need to adhere to every pronouncement made by their church.

ELISE PATKOTAK

Rugged week for Alaskans, big and little

When I saw the story, I felt such an overwhelming sense of sadness. Little tykes shouldn't be lying in a hospital bed or morgue from a beating. But that's exactly what two little kids from Barrow were doing.

ELISE PATKOTAK

Airline did right by its prayer cards

Since some segments of our community are already sure I'm from the dark side, or heading there soon after my demise, I might as well explain my take on the Alaska Airlines' prayer card issue.

ELISE PATKOTAK

Prevo, Gingrich cross the 'sleaze' line

Whether or not Jerry Prevo broke the law with his church's property tax exemptions is perhaps not as important as the fact that it all just feels sleazy. Churches shouldn't feel sleazy. Given what most churches preach, they should be so far from the line separating legal from illegal that there is no doubt whatsoever that they are upright and honorable.

ELISE PATKOTAK

Age has a way of making cold feel colder

I love snow and cold more than I ever loved sun and sand. This makes me a bit of an oddball in a family where temperatures dipping below 60 are considered a sign of the apocalypse.

ELISE PATKOTAK

Wealthy taking over our government

The House of Representatives is traditionally considered the people's house. If our representatives have incomes most of us can only dream about, while our own incomes continue to stagnate or fall, the question must invariably arise as to how much they are really looking out for us and not just themselves and their wealthy sponsors.

ELISE PATKOTAK

Damage occurs long before the end

While this 14-year-old lay in a bed dying of a heroin overdose, why weren't her parents concerned with where she was all night? Maybe they weren't part of her life or, if they were, they were not a terribly positive part.

ELISE PATKOTAK

Here's to those deserving 'Hall of Infamy'

And so we come to that special time of the year when we say goodbye to the old and welcome in the new. Before we do, let me announce the nominees for my 2011 Hall of Infamy. Who will get to join such permanent inductees as Tom Cruise and that thing on Donald Trump's head?