Last week, MRC released a study on how the broadcast networks fawned over Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a deported Salvadoran illegal immigrant, with sympathetic coverage.
From April 1 through the morning of April 15, ABC, NBC, and CBS dedicated a staggering 64 minutes, 57 seconds to the case. All the while, the networks ignored — ZERO minutes — the trial of Salvadoran illegal immigrant Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, found guilty of the horrific rape and murder of Rachel Morin.
One key to the networks’ journalistic malfeasance lay in the attorney for the Morin family squarely blaming Biden’s immigration policies for their daughter’s death, noting that Martinez-Hernandez was caught at the border three separate times.
MRC’s latest study on the Kilmar Abrego Garcia coverage fiasco exposes the farm-league leftists at CNN and MSNBC, who, over three weeks, shamelessly peddled Garcia as a “Maryland man” or “Maryland father” 506 times in 318 reports, dwarfing mentions of his Salvadoran origin by nearly fivefold.
All to paint Garcia as a sympathetic figure. The media believe in importing, not deporting, potential Democrat voters.
MRC’s analysis also found that MSNBC, in 161 stories, mustered only 11 mentions of Garcia’s illegal status (6.8%) and noted his Salvadoran roots in just 30% of reports (48 times), peddling the “Maryland man” fraud with gusto. CNN, barely less complicit, cited Garcia’s illegal status in just 21 of 157 segments (13.4%) and his Salvadoran nationality in 34% (54 times).
The cable networks largely ignored new allegations against Garcia, including a 2021 protective order filed by his wife, who accused him of punching and scratching her, leaving her bleeding, and a 2022 detention in Tennessee on suspicion of human trafficking. CNN mentioned the protective order in just 36% of 25 segments (9 times) and trafficking once (4%); MSNBC cited the protective order in 15% of reports (5 times) and trafficking once (3%).
One of the decisive factors leading to the victory of the world’s peace-seeking nations in the Second World War was the effective cooperation of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition.
Today, after the passage of 80 years, it is vital once again to recall this unique episode, when the Allied countries, despite sharply divergent governing structures and ideologies, managed to reach agreement on a shared global imperative—to present a unified front against the powers that promulgated fascism and militarism.
A great example of the war cooperation between two great nations is the wartime Lend-Lease Agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union, signed in Washington, DC on June 11, 1942, allowed the two countries to provide mutual assistance in fighting a war against aggression. One of the unique examples of such cooperation was the establishment of the Alaska–Siberia Air Route (ALSIB), on which approximately 8,000 combat and transport aircraft were delivered from the United States of America to the Soviet–German warfronts between September 1942 and October 1945.
Soviet and American pilots flew the Alaska–Siberia Air Route to deliver combat planes halfway around the world, traversing more than 12 time zones, from Great Falls, Montana, to the Russian warfronts. Much of the route lay over remote and roadless wilderness where pilots made their way in stages from the safety of one hastily built airfield to the next. Alaska served as the exchange location for transferring the planes to the Soviet Union.
United States Army Air Corps pilots from the 7th Ferrying Group and Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) flew combat planes from their points of manufacture in the U.S. to Great Falls, Montana, where male pilots of the 7th Ferrying Group flew them across Canada to Ladd Army Airfield, now Fort Wainwright, near Fairbanks, Alaska.
From there, pilots of the USSR’s Air Force flew the planes over western Alaska and across Siberia to the warfronts. Due to severe weather conditions, mechanical problems, and other adverse circumstances, 133 of these airplanes crashed in North America and 44 went down in Siberia along the Alaska–Siberia Air Route. During their time of service, 38 WASPs died and many more were wounded in the line of duty in the United States while delivering planes to Great Falls.
In the process of transferring aircraft in Alaska, Soviets and Americans got acquainted, and many became sincere friends, carrying on in friendship for the rest of their lives what had begun as a purely strategic alliance. The friendship and cooperation between the two nations during this period of history is now little remembered in the wake of 45 years of ill will fostered during the Cold War (1946 to 1991), and recent resurging tensions between Russia and the United States.
Yet, in many ways, our two countries continue to rediscover the benefits of cooperation, as the rebuilding of economic and social bridges continues. Today, therefore, it is important to remind Alaskans and other peace-seeking citizens of the U.S. Lend-Lease Program and Soviet–American war cooperation of the 1940s. Beyond the achievement of victory in World War II, the Alaska–Siberia Lend-Lease Program established a tradition of cooperation across the Bering Strait that continues to this day in the form of various intergovernmental agreements, including the Shared Beringian Heritage Program of the U.S. National Park Service, and numerous ongoing people-to-people cultural and economic exchanges.
At the present time, both in Russia and the United States, much research has been conducted and many documentary films, books, scholarly works, and popular articles have been released that shed light on the U.S. Lend-Lease Program, including the unique Alaska–Siberia Air ferry route, which was unprecedented in world history prior to World War II and has not been duplicated since.
Undoubtedly, the program played a vital part in the defeat of Nazi Germany and its Axis powers. The architects of the hallmark Lend-Lease Agreement and Protocols and conceived the ALSIB route deserve modern-day accolades, as do the American and Russian veterans who risked their lives to ensure the Lend-Lease deliveries were completed.
In a letter dated March 22, 2001, to US Senators Ted Stevens and Frank Murkowski in support of the construction of the WWII Alaska-Siberia Lend-Lease Memorial in Fairbanks, Stanley B. Gwizdak, Jr., then Acting Chairman of the Interior Veteran’s Coalition of Alaska, wrote:
“It is important, I believe, for the Russian and American people to recall and to celebrate a common heroic effort in combating a treacherous enemy during a daunting and terrible time when the outcome of that war was very much in doubt for both of us. This was not just the effort of Armies, Navies and Air Forces, but also the entire mobilization of both nations industrially, politically and spiritually. Our group still has those who remember this war and we are proud to endorse the Fairbanks memorial as well as all others.”
The heroism of American and Soviet pilots who flew Lend-Lease combat aircraft from the United States to the Soviet Union during World War II, and of all who participated in this endeavor, will always be remembered.
Alexander Dolitsky was born and raised in Kiev in the former Soviet Union. He received an M.A. in history from Kiev Pedagogical Institute, Ukraine in 1976; an M.A. in anthropology and archaeology from Brown University in 1983; and enrolled in the Ph.D. program in anthropology at Bryn Mawr College from 1983 to 1985, where he was also lecturer in the Russian Center. In the USSR, he was a social studies teacher for three years and an archaeologist for five years for the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. In 1978, he settled in the United States. Dolitsky visited Alaska for the first time in 1981, while conducting field research for graduate school at Brown. He then settled first in Sitka in 1985 and then in Juneau in 1986. From 1985 to 1987, he was U.S. Forest Service archaeologist and social scientist. He was an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Russian Studies at the University of Alaska Southeast from 1985 to 1999; Social Studies Instructor at the Alyeska Central School, Alaska Department of Education and Yukon-Koyukuk School District from 1988 to 2006; and Director of the Alaska-Siberia Research Center from 1990 to 2022. From 2006 to 2010, Alexander Dolitsky served as a Delegate of the Russian Federation in the United States for the Russian Compatriots program. He has done 30 field studies in various areas of the former Soviet Union (including Siberia), Central Asia, South America, Eastern Europe and the United States (including Alaska). Dolitsky was a lecturer on the World Discoverer, Spirit of Oceanus, and Clipper Odyssey vessels in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic regions. He was a Project Manager for the WWII Alaska-Siberia Lend Lease Memorial, which was erected in Fairbanks in 2006. Dolitsky has published extensively in the fields of anthropology, history, archaeology and ethnography. His more recent publications include Fairy Tales and Myths of the Bering Strait Chukchi, Ancient Tales of Kamchatka, Tales and Legends of the Yupik Eskimos of Siberia, Old Russia in Modern America: Living Traditions of the Russian Old Believers in Alaska, Allies in Wartime: The Alaska-Siberia Airway During World War II, Spirit of the Siberian Tiger: Folktales of the Russian Far East, Living Wisdom of the Russian Far East: Tales and Legends from Chukotka and Alaska, and Pipeline to Russia: The Alaska-Siberia Air Route in World War II.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski has long been recognized for her constant dissent within her party and her disapproval of President Donald Trump. In recent remarks now being reported around the mainstream media across the country, she highlighted the pervasive fear among her Republican colleagues regarding potential retaliation from Trump.
“We are all afraid,” Murkowski stated at a summit of nonprofit leaders in Anchorage. She elaborated on the perceived threat of political retaliation, which is the normal part of the political process. She said she feels anxious about using her voice in the current political climate.
“It’s quite a statement. But we are in a time and a place where I certainly have not been here before. And I’ll tell ya, I’m oftentimes very anxious myself about using my voice, because retaliation is real. And that’s not right,” she said, as reported by media present.
This contrasts with earlier statements, in which she said she was not afraid, but her colleagues were afraid because they saw what she goes through.
On March 19, she told reporters that her Republican colleagues are “zip-lipped” and “afraid they’re going to be taken down” or “primaried” for opposing Trump or Elon Musk’s policies, particularly those related to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which she has verbally opposed.
“They’re looking at how many things are being thrown at me, and it’s like, ‘Maybe I just better duck and cover,’” she said.
Murkowski’s recent comments reflect a shift from her previous assertiveness to a more cautious approach. She does not come up for reelection until the end of Trump’s presidential term, in 2028.
Murkowski broke away from Trump long ago — even before he won in 2016, when it was clear that she did not vote for him. In 2021, she voted to convict him during his impeachment trial, a vote that she took after he was no longer in office. More recently, she has opposed several of his nominees, and criticized his foreign policy leadership. In 2024, she would not say who she voted for, but did say that she did not vote for Trump.
In a time when privacy concerns dominate public discourse, the conversation surrounding the tracking of gun and ammunition purchases by financial institutions has become increasingly urgent.
We introduced companion bills, SB 136 and HB 143 respectively, to prohibit such tracking which is not merely a matter of protecting gun owners; it is a broader issue of civil liberties and personal privacy.
At the heart of the matter lies the principle of privacy. Financial institutions have long been entrusted with sensitive personal information. The idea that these institutions could monitor, record, and report on an individual’s legal purchases of firearms and ammunition raises significant legal and ethical questions. It is crucial to consider whether consumers should have the right to engage in legal transactions without being subjected to surveillance or profiling based on their choices. By prohibiting the tracking of these purchases, these bills affirm the importance of personal autonomy and the right to privacy in a constitutional republic.
Moreover, tracking gun and ammunition purchases could set a dangerous precedent. Once the door is opened to monitoring one type of transaction, where does it end? Today, it may be firearms; tomorrow, it could extend to other personal purchases, creating a slippery slope towards broader financial surveillance. The implications are unsettling: a society where individuals are constantly monitored for their purchases could lead to a culture of fear and distrust.
Citizens should not have to worry that their lawful activities might be scrutinized or reported to authorities without just cause.
Legislation that prohibits the tracking of gun and ammo purchases also serves to protect the rights of law-abiding citizens. The vast majority of gun owners are responsible individuals who abide by the law. Subjecting them to tracking merely for exercising their rights can be viewed as an infringement on those rights.
These bills are a necessary step toward safeguarding our privacy and civil liberties. This shared effort is an affirmation of the belief that individuals should have the right to engage in legal activities without being monitored or judged. They are bills similar to those passed in other states and another currently in Congress. SB 136 is in the Senate Labor and
Commerce Committee and the House companion, HB 143, is in the House State Affairs Committee.
Sen. Mike Cronk represents Senate District R in the Alaska State Senate including the communities of Northway, Tok and parts of the Fairbanks North Star Borough. Rep. Cathy Tilton represents House District 26 in the Alaska House of Representatives including the areas of Fairview Loop, Knik-Goose Bay and Settlers Bay in the greater Wasilla area.
Michael Pillsbury, senior fellow for China strategy at the Heritage Foundation, told Fox News’ “Mornings With Maria” today that Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska is being targeted by China’s government due to his push to reopen the military base at Adak.
In recent weeks, Sullivan has been more vocal about the importance of the now-shuttered Adak Naval Base, which China may see as a challenge to its geopolitical and military ambitions.
The base, 1,220 miles from Anchorage and closer to Asia than mainland North America, was closed in 1997. Sullivan cites the need for it to be reopened to counter joint China-Russia naval operations and the continuing air incursions by Russia in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone.
Pillsbury, a leading authority on China, is the author of “The Hundred-Year Marathon: China’s Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower.” He was responding to questions about China’s reactions to increased tariffs announced by President Donald Trump, and he gave a pessimistic report on the deteriorating relationship between the super powers.
His remarks about Sullivan come at about the 8:35 minute mark in the interview here:
Pillsbury’s statement was part of a broader discussion about a statement from China’s Commerce Ministry that said China will take countermeasures against any country that makes trade deals with the United States.
As reported by Reuters, China has imposed sanctions on some members of Congress, government officials, and heads of non-governmental organization for their “egregious behavior on Hong Kong-related issues,” its foreign ministry said Monday.
“The sanctions are also on Dan Sullivan of Alaska,” Pillsbury said on Mornings with Maria.
“He wants to reopen Adak, the island, and make it into a really powerful base for our air forces against China, so they’re after him now. I notice the Chinese press picks out people it wants to demonize and Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Marine Corps retired colonel, he’s their new punching bag,” Pillsbury said.
Sullivan, in a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing earlier this year, mentioned that a Chinese company, suspected of being linked to the People’s Liberation Army, approached the Aleut Corporation about leasing land on Adak. He said the company was “almost certainly a front for the PLA,” which would give China a strategic foothold on the island.
“After the President’s election, he actually put a statement out saying: ‘We will ensure Alaska gets increased defense investments as we fully rebuild our military, especially as Russia and China are making menacing moves in the North Pacific.’ That’s a quote from the commander in chief,” Sullivan said during that committee hearing, speaking to Admiral Samuel Paparo of INDOPACOM.
“I know I’ve raised this with you, but it’s a little bit of an issue just in terms of the urgency. As I mentioned, the State of Alaska, the Aleut Corporation—a great Alaska Native Corporation that owns the land there, and the U.S. Navy were in Adak a couple weeks ago doing a site assessment. They’re going to get that to us soon. The Aleut Corporation I’ve talked to. These are great patriotic Americans—Alaska Natives serve at higher rates in the military than any other ethnic group in the country. They would love to do a deal with the Navy, a 99-year lease or something like that. But you know who checks in with them once a year, Admiral, about leasing Adak?” Sullivan asked the admiral, who responded that he would have to guess it was not a friendly nation.
The answer is China.
“It’s a Chinese shipping company that is certainly, in my view, a front company for the PLA. How embarrassing would it be to the Pentagon or the Navy — these guys would never do it; the Aleut Corporation is all patriotic — but let’s assume they weren’t, and somehow they signed a 100-year lease with a Chinese shipping company that is always out there looking at Adak. Do you think that would be embarrassing for the U.S. Navy and the Pentagon?” Sullivan said to Paparo.
Sullivan has cited Chinese interest in Adak as part of his broader argument for reopening the base. In discussions with military leaders like Paparo and Gen. Gregory Guillot of NORTHCOM, he reminded them of China’s and Russia’s joint military operations near Alaska, including naval task forces in the Bering Sea and now-routine air incursions.
The US Navy is preparing a report on Adak reopening options, due in the coming weeks.
With the death of the most controversial pope in centuries, perhaps of all time, the entire planet will be focusing on the election of a new supreme pontiff for the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
You do not have to be Catholic in order to fully grasp the significance of this event. American Catholics and non-Catholics alike have watched, with largely muted shock and disdain, what happens to planetary morality, and truth in general, when we do not possess a giant of a man who fills the Shoes of the Fisherman. It has happened before. The Catholic Church and its popes, for two thousand years, have demonstrated the full display of human strengths and weaknesses, virtues and sinfulness.
The world was spoiled by the magnificence of John Paul II’s long, strong and eventful papacy, from 1978 until 2005. Even his predecessor, the generally weak and feckless Paul VI, held the line against the worldwide sexual revolution with the 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae. It was once ridiculed. It is now seen as prophetic. The papacy’s strength was further encouraged by the election of Pope Benedict XVI [2005-2013], but his early promise slowly devolved into a flat tire.
But none of them, which also apparently included John XXIII [1958-63] and Pius XII [1939-58] were immune to the nefarious machinations within the Vatican that led to the appointment of many bishops and cardinals who were anything but faithful to moral and religious truth. The stars were subsequently lined up for the Francis papacy, whose legacy has been confusion and credible accusations of outright heresy.
The initial charm of the Francine papacy did not last long. Becoming “up-beat,” informal, or accessible did not lead to an increase of faith among Catholics. Rather, it discouraged them and the rest of the world with foolishness, contradiction and confusion. Off-the-cuff press conferences and informal interviews which questioned the existence of hell, encouraged the heretical idea that all religions were the same, and the appointment of morally questionable bishops and cardinals, all made the term “papal infallibility” misunderstood by Catholics and non-Catholics alike.
Some of the events were downright childish. We can begin with the absurd use of St. Peter’s Basilica for a laser light show, or allowing the hard-edged rock group U-2 to perform in, of all places, the Sistine Chapel. Accepting a hammer-and-sickle crucifix and allowing intercommunion with non-Catholics made a mockery of the Church’s historic stand against communism, as well as faith in the sacredness of the most precious of all sacraments.
But far and away THE worst event was the Pachamama episode, an embarrassment so colossal that it pains this writer to even recall it. It was an absurd piece of rank idolatry, which culminated in a poorly orchestrated Papal Garden fertility goddess worship. For non-Catholics who have long decried devotion to the Blessed Virgin as something similar, I won’t waste the time here, but invite an open debate about their 500 year-long misunderstanding of Mary’s role in salvation history. This was hardly the same thing.
Pachamama was stolen by an authentic young Catholic from Austria who tossed it into the Tiber River at dawn. His courage saved the honor of the Church.
None of this can be understood unless we look at the momentum created by one of the most evil of all men in history, Joseph Stalin. His infiltration of Russian Orthodoxy by the Soviet secret police is an historic and accepted fact. But far less known is his green-lighting of the same tactic for the Catholic Church. His chosen acolytes were not only communist agents but also known homosexuals, neither of which demonstrated faith nor care for their own eternal destiny.
Bella Dodd was an Italian communist immigrant and naturalized American citizen. By the 1950s, she had been expelled from the communist party and openly embraced her Catholicism, thanks to the influence of Fulton J. Sheen, the American television icon of the 1950s. She testified before congressional committees on her work:
“In the late 1920s and 1930s, I personally put eleven hundred men into the priesthood in order to weaken the Catholic Church from within. The idea was for these men to be ordained and progress to positions of influence and authority as Monsignors and Bishops…. Right now, they are in the highest places, where they are working to bring about change in order to weaken the Church’s effectiveness against Communism. These changes will be so drastic that you will not even recognize the Catholic Church.
“Of all the world’s religions, the Catholic Church was the only one feared by the Communists, for it was its only effective opponent. The whole idea was to destroy, not the institution of the Church, but rather the faith of the people, and even use the institution of the Church, if possible, to destroy the faith through the promotion of a pseudo-religion. Something that resembled Catholicism but was not the real thing.
“Once the faith was destroyed, there would be a guilt complex introduced into the Church … to label the ‘Church of the past’ as being oppressive, authoritarian, full of prejudices, arrogant in claiming to be the sole possessor of truth, and responsible for the divisions of religious bodies throughout the centuries. This would be necessary in order to shame Church leaders into an ‘openness to the world,’ and to a more flexible attitude toward all religions and philosophies. The Communists would then exploit this openness in order to undermine the Church.”
One can now see how the Francis papacy brought to fruition the communist plan. Even now, as the conclave meets to select a successor, only God can save the Church.
It would seem, due to the late Pope Francis’ appointments to the College of Cardinals, that there is an apparent strangle-hold and lock on the papal office. But the workings of the Holy Spirit on each individual Cardinal is the wild card in every conclave. Papal conclaves in the past have involved coercion, death threats and worldly politics — but also courage, faith and a willingness to defy the evil powers, which the world will continue to experience until the end of time.
The story of Christianity is the story of repentant sinners. This means all of us. And as C. S. Lewis wrote in The Great Divorce, those who adhere to spectacular evil are often more apt to accept repentance and conversion than the lukewarm or indifferent.
Christ said, “The reason I came into the world was to testify to the truth. All who desire the truth hear my voice.”
Yet Pilate asked, “What is truth?”
The corpus of Catholic doctrine, held for 2,000 years, dares to proclaim it, in the face of internal and external denials.
All men of good faith, Catholic or not, should pray for a pope faithful to the truth.
Bob Bird is former chair of the Alaskan Independence Party and the host of a talk show on KSRM radio, Kenai.
Nuremberg marked the 80th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Nuremberg on Sunday, April 20. It was a pivotal urban-combat conflict in the final weeks of World War II. The battle, which took place from April 16 to April 20, 1945, resulted in the capture of the city by American forces after an intense battle with German defenders. The US Seventh Army capture of Nuremberg culminated with the raising of the American flag at the Zeppelinfeld, the Nazi rally stadium.
City officials, historians, and local residents gathered at sites across the once-Medieval imperial city of Nuremberg to commemorate the anniversary, including the Nuremberg Castle and the Old Town area, much of which was heavily damaged during the fighting and preceding Allied bombing campaigns.
The battle was part of the US Seventh Army’s advance into southern Germany. Lieutenant General Alexander M. “Sandy” Patch led the Seventh Army through its campaigns in southern Germany, including the capture of Nuremberg, until his death in November 1945. Patch was born in Fort Huachuca, Arizona on Nov. 23, 1889, and this account recognizes him as one of the most under appreciated generals of US military history.
Nuremberg was the heart of national Socialism under Hitler’s regime, serving as the site of six massive Nazi rallies between 1933 and 1938, and was the location of the Reichsparteitag (Reich Party Congress) grounds. The capture of the city by the US 45th Infantry Division was both a strategic and psychological blow to Nazi Germany in the closing days of the war.
April 20, which was also Adolf Hitler’s birthday, was the day American forces finally took control of the city, after fighting five days in what was block by block urban warfare, with snipers around every corner.
“The Germans used every trick in the book to hold the city,” says the history of the 3rd Infantry Division published by the US Army in 1947. Aside from small arms fire, US fighters even encountered German corpses rigged with booby traps.
The fall of Nuremberg was quickly followed by the capture of Munich and, in early May, Germany’s unconditional surrender.
Today’s commemorative events in Germany included a wreath-laying ceremony, a historical exhibition at the Documentation Center Nazi Party Rally Grounds, and moments of silence to honor both military personnel and civilians who lost their lives.
“Happy Easter” is a greeting for everyone. Today we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, a central tenet of the Christian faith. As described in the New Testament, Jesus left his tomb and was victorious over death and sin, offering hope of salvation and eternal life.
Easter is the hardest of the holy days to comprehend because it demands ultimate faith.
“There is no other way to approach the crucifixion of Jesus and its aftermath in a celebratory mood, unless you accept the whole package: God, sacrifice, death, resurrection, and redemption,” writes J.T. Young, in his essay about the “most demanding holiday.”
Of Christianity’s two most-observed holy days, Christmas is the celebrated by society in general, as it is easier to understand, at least in some ways, Young writes. There is a birth to celebrate, and then there is the grand secularization of Christmas, which has overtaken much of the original meaning. All of this makes it more approachable.
But then the baby Jesus grew up to be a man who was vilified, tortured, and who died an agonizing and painful death.
For Easter, the focal point is the suffering and martyrdom of Jesus.
“Society tries to secularize it as best it can — eggs, bunnies, chicks, all elements of new birth and the spring season in which it occurs. But those elements are really the opposite of what is outwardly taking place: suffering, public execution, shame, ridicule. Death,” Young writes. And on the third day, the conquering of death. That takes faith, and a lot of it. Many Christians puzzle over how that can be. How did Jesus defy Biology 101?
“For those who struggle with making the ascent to Easter’s full demands, they are not alone. The disciples of Jesus could not — would not — grasp the manifest aspects of Easter. And they refused to accept the pronouncements of Jesus about it — to the point that Jesus rebuked Peter harshly, “Get behind me, Satan! (Mark 8:33) When it finally occurred, just as Jesus had foretold, only John would approach — and then out of familial duty, not discipleship. Nor did John go to celebrate; he went to comfort Mary, the mother of Jesus and his relative,” Young writes.
On Saturday, a handful of drag queens were the scheduled event at the Noel Wien Public Library. The organizers, Fairbanks Queer Collective, scheduled the event intentionally for the same timeframe that the conservative group “Moms for Liberty” meets at the library.
Local drag performers King David, Killian Dalliance, Mist Etheriesca, and Oasis Debris, started the afternoon by reading books aloud for younger children, and then moved on to books for older youth.
Drag Queen Story Hour at Noel Wien Library
“Everything is age appropriate and filled with joy. After storytime, stick around for bracelet-making, coloring pages, board games, and community time. You’re welcome to bring a snack for yourself or something to share. Food is allowed in the Active Learning Lab, and all ages are welcome,” the announcement said, and then added that “Moms for Liberty, a group known for anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, meets at the library at the same time. These joyful queer gatherings are intentionally held during that window to offer community care and visibility. We encourage folks to stay aware, take care of themselves, and show up in ways that feel right for them.”
