By JAMIE ALLARD
In the next couple of days, you’ll receive a very important document in the mail – it’s your mail-in ballot for the election that has just started for Anchorage mayor, school board members, as well as for the recall of an Assemblyman and a number of borrowing measures called bonds.
It may look like junk mail to you, but it’s anything but that. Don’t toss it! It’s your passport to a better future for your family. Treasure it, and guard it with your life, and then mark it and mail it in right away. Your ballot is your say about the quality of life in Anchorage.
If you, like I do, think that Anchorage is seriously off track, then you have a decision to make: Who do you trust to lead Anchorage for the next three years? Who represents your values the most? Is it time for Anchorage to reclaim law and order, and make our neighborhoods safe again? Is it time to have sensible policies, or are we OK with the decline and fall of Alaska’s greatest city?
This election is about our future and whether we’ll continue to plunge headfirst into the progressive vision of a dystopian future, or if we’re planting our feet now for sensible, responsible leadership.
The people of Anchorage are wonderfully diverse, with a strength and grit that comes from being hardy Alaskans. We have what it takes to make Anchorage thrive for our children, and their children.
But we have all felt the weight of our city struggling under failed leadership for six years. Anchorage is our home. Now is our chance to make our city the best city it can be.
Voting is a privilege, hard-earned and secured by the sacrifice of so many lives. We know that freedom isn’t free, and we must continue to fight for it every day. This election isn’t about red or blue, left or right, but about leadership.
Moving forward, we must work together. And that begins with that ballot in our hands. Together we will stand up, do our civic duty, and vote our principles.
Friends, there are times in history we can point to where one vote made all the difference in the course of human events. This could very well be one of those times.
A better future for our city depends on us doing this one small act of citizenship.
It is our time. Our time to vote.
Jamie Allard is the Anchorage Assemblywoman representing Chugiak / Eagle River.
