Everyone likes a good "yarn" - except when it's told over and over. So, putting aside whether you're a Sarah Palin devotee, not one, or are somewhere in the middle, Alaska's 24/7 attention to "Everything Sarah" - while intriguing - has had a major negative effect few are talking about.
When a state's political debate becomes about a personality, and not the merits of an issue, we all suffer. People stop thinking and analyzing, and we get knee-jerk policy. I get e-mails every day from people who either want me to blindly support or oppose EVERYTHING the Governor does. With the Governor's resignation, hopefully, the merits will matter again, because this state has a lot of problems, and we could do better than focus energy on promoting or undermining Alaska's biggest personality. That's sport, not statesmanship. We're not going to fix Alaska's poor graduation, college attendance, rape, domestic violence, health care, and economic problems by dumbing down our political discussion so that all we care about is devotion or opposition to one political figure.
The first step to curing an addiction is to recognize it. Want proof that too many have become too Sarah-obsessed? In July the state's four largest media outlets posted 183 web headlines about our former Governor. Trust me. That wasn't 183 stories on real solutions to our greatest problems. They were more like, "Palin's Farewell: The Entertainment Angle," "Palin to Visit Kotzebue," "Palin Hailed in Visit to Western Alaska," "Palin on Farewell Tour," "Local Woman Files Ethics Complaint against Palin," (does every complaint really justify a story?), and, "Palin Appears on Gun Rights Radio Talk Show."
Not good enough for you? Let me try a national angle. I think we can all agree on this. I have no business ever appearing in Vanity Fair. And, I've got to say, I never foresaw any circumstance whatsoever that would have me agreeing with former Senator Lyda Green, AND in a column that featured Levi Johnston. It took a national obsession over Sarah Palin to make that happen. Well that, and that sometimes I look pretty good... in print.
OK, now I'm ready to go in for the kill. I hate to break it to you, but whether or not you use Twitter isn't news. But this year there have been 4 more local news stories on what the Governor "Tweets", than on solutions to, let's say, a recent, detailed, notable and barely mentioned federal review showing Alaska is failing most of our 2,000 foster youth - the children for whom the State of Alaska is legal guardian. I'm just not interested that, as a recent news story reported, the Governor Tweeted: "elected is replaceable; AK WILL progress! + side benefits=10 dys til less politically correct twitters fly frm my fingertips outside State site."
I want Alaskans to know about how we're failing the next generation more than I want to read incomplete Twitter sentences. Unfortunately, I know a lot about the latter from articles like, "Palin Issues Final Tweet on State Account," "Palin Promises to Keep Tweeting after Leaving Office," "Palin Signs Bill in McGrath, Tweets," and "Palin Impostor Tweets with Impunity."
This obsession does nothing to make us smarter, and does nothing to help solve the major problems thousands of actual human beings in this state face every day.
Folks in the press do their best, and in an industry struggling to stay relevant when people can get their news for free online, newspapers especially have to find ways to sell papers. But I hope, as the Palin-obsession dies down, there will be print space again for the kind of investigative, relevant stories Warren Buffett was talking about when he said: "[P]eople read the press to inform themselves - and the better the teacher, the better the student body."
I don't want to harp (OK, I actually do). But I think Buffett meant that a detailed story on a subject, like a recent federal report explaining how the State of Alaska is failing as parents for Alaska's 2,000 foster youth - a story that would prompt public discussion, and long-overdue policy fixes - might well fit the space formerly used for Twitter stories. And since it received so little attention, let me tell you a few things about what that report, which has received little news ink so far, says.
It says: Alaska is NOT adequately protecting its foster youth from "abuse and neglect;" Alaska is NOT doing what's needed to keep "children in their homes when possible and appropriate;" Alaska is NOT doing adequate work to help youth maintain "family relationships and connections;" Alaska's foster youth are NOT "receiv[ing] services to meet their educational... physical and mental health needs;" and, Alaska is failing to help ensure a successful transition from foster care into adulthood. Social work staff, who work hard in trying circumstances, are told by the state to "parent" these youth over whom we have legal custody without adequate resources - and youth are told to succeed while getting little of the support children who have caring parents receive. Do you think there might be room for some policy discussion and solutions here?
So... as a legislator who sometimes agreed with the Governor, and often disagreed, I look forward to being judged on my work. On whether my ideas are good or bad. On what I think and not on who I fawn or don't fawn over. I hope being judged on my devotion to promoting one person's success or demise will be a thing of the past.
Les Gara, a Democratic state representive for Anchorage's 23rd District, was born in New York and came to Alaska in 1988 fresh from Harvard Law School to clerk for Alaska Supreme Court Justice Jay Rabinowitz. He was a state assistant Attorney General before entering private practice. Since 2003, he has served as a state representative. He has won a "Defender of Democracy Award" for his efforts to open government meetings and limit the influence of money and lobbying in politics.