At least a few hundred folks were. Interesting deal-is anyone else confused? I show up to inquire about how do I get in for what I thought was a "Town Hall" style meeting . . . or dog and pony show, which I hear are cool but I've never been. Anyhow, I talk to this lady who was working event (no name tag or anything but very nice) and ask her why not do it at a bigger venue so that everyone who wants to attend can, and she said they could not afford a bigger place because she was with "Americans For Prosperity" and they did not have thousands of dollars to pay for event-something like that. And I was thinking in my head-aren't the Koch brothers billionaires? I get it-iHeart execs have lots of money and I don't . . . okay. So I ask if she lives here and she said she did not as she worked for "Americans For Prosperity" but she was assigned to the Alaska chapter. So does that mean she lives in Anchorage? I wanted to explore more, but like five police officers were escorting a dude out the door-I could not hear what was going on, but I guessed it was another concerned Alaskan citizen like me wondering why they were being kept out of what should have been an open meeting. Funny, isn't it? Not really. So I went outside to join the rally of passionate Alaskans who care about the future of our state and our kids, and know that the answer is not the ridiculously deep budget cuts that are trying to be ramrodded down our throats. I think that's enough ranting for now, but I am deeply concerned about not just the proposed budget cuts, but the way our basic liberties are being abused and we're supposed to sit back and let that happen? Since when are our elected officials not supposed to be accessible to us? You can't wear a UAF shirt to an event? Why was there so much confusion over what kind of meeting it is? And why is an outside group paying for it? And why hasn't Dunleavy accepted any of the other ofers from folks willing to pay for the meetings so more people could be there, I mean if the argument is he was trying to save the state money . . . yeah there's more questions than a barrel full of monkeys. Why were all those monkeys in the barrel to begin with?. There's a whole lot more to this story.
That's Sandi Ryan with Fairbanks Education Association on the truck. I had some other photos I'd like to post too.