Myrl's Challenge

Myrl Thompson has been part of the glue that held progressives and muckrakers together in the Mat-Su Valley for a lot longer time than we had any victories to celebrate. He managed to get into the sticky nature of many GOP politicians' agendas, funding, lapses and ineptitude, far more deeply than any other Valley commentator up here, in print. And yet, during the recent legislative session, he could still approach any politician in our elected government, and get them to talk.

He has been showing up for meetings of every progressive movement here in the past five years, and has helped start some of them. He's been there, fighting and writing, from the beginning of the electoral victories. Now Myrl's a victory himself. A last moment one, he tells me.

Myrl Thompson was elected by the Mat-Su School Board last week, to fill a vacant seat on the board that had been held by Sandra White of Talkeetna. White had been elected on an agenda promising to get more resources from the district into her community. Members are elected district-wide, not by areas, in a district almost as big as New England, without Maine.

The margin of his victory in the school board vote, is the most recent indication that the continuing string of victories by honest candidates from the left here, is no anomaly. The level of preparation the Mat-Su Democrats are putting forth to get ready for the upcoming Alaska Democratic Party Convention, will prove to be another example of the progress. And of the statewide resonance.

Myrl's challenge will be to convert his put-of-power energy into local legislative action that makes as much sense as did his columns, radio reports and organizing passion.

Here's a link to a column by Myrl that Alaska progressive icon Jim Sykes says was his favorite. It is called Housewives Go Wild for Speaker of the House.