Chilkat Valley News - Serving Haines and Klukwan, Alaska since 1966

As much as I wish I could stop bullying in Haines by making a public comment on KHNS or writing a letter to the editor, I think the problem of bullying needs a deeper and broader discussion.

I wasn’t surprised by all the new faces who came forward for assembly and planning commission — we had three years of relative civility under the leadership of Mayor Olerud.

Every recall attempt in Haines was bullying in action. Publicly berating elected officials who subsequently stepped down from the borough assembly was bullying. Taking out opinion pieces and writing letters to the editor to demean and discredit individuals is bullying.

A Mayor holds the power to allow bullying, and silently condoning bullying is a bully in sheep’s clothing. The most unfortunate thing about bullying is that those who do it don’t recognize it in themselves, and their victims don’t realize they are being bullied, and too often respond to the authoritative bully—whether a police chief or a Mayor, a parent or a peer—with submission or hostility, rather than defusing the bully.

We need to learn how to call out bullies without fanning the flames of uncivil behavior and discourse.

Let’s stop bullying in the voting booth!

And let’s ask our new assembly to make job number one an end-bullying-in-Haines campaign.