Amazingly, as disturbing as this behavior has been to most Alaskans, we currently find that our own military is being subjected to attack right here at home. On November 29, in the waning minutes of an Alaska Redistricting Board meeting, a member of the board attempted to take action to find a way to remove many of our military members and their families from being counted for representation in the Alaska Legislature.

Fortunately, upon advice from their attorney that they should at least seek public comment before taking action, the decision was delayed until the board's next meeting, on Friday, December 8.

During the 1990's, all military personnel and their families in Alaska have been properly and fully represented, but the argument for removing the military has its roots in a 1972 Alaska Supreme Court case that struck down an old prohibition against counting the military when redistricting the state. Shortly after that decision, the Court, recognizing the inherent problems with removing just a portion of the military from the redistricting process, noted their "vain hope that the legislature would update the reapportionment provision of the Alaska Constitution with an appropriate constitutional amendment."

In 1998, the legislature did just that and, over the objections of a state assistant attorney general, passed the amendment that once and for all would stop a redistricting board from manipulating the US Census Bureau's figures for their own political purposes. The people responded by adopting the amendment, so the Alaska Constitution now requires the Official Census numbers, including all military families, be used for purposes of redistricting the state of Alaska.

Unfortunately, this requirement must be pre-cleared by the Department of Justice before an individual can go to court to enforce it. This technicality appears to give the board no legal obligation to follow the will of the people. (We won't receive word from the Department of Justice until after we receive the 2000 census data).

The opponents of a full military count are poised to continue arguing that military personnel who don't necessarily intend to make Alaska their home after they serve should be defined as "non-residents" and not be represented in the legislature. Of course, the military opponents don't endorse applying this same standard to other classes of people, such as out-of-state students, foreign aliens, or even convicted felons serving time in an Alaska prison. They all get to be fully counted and represented.

The simple fact is that the military population in Alaska has been over 18,000 uniformed personnel for more than six years. This is a group of people that lives, works, plays, and even rescues us, each and every day. Their kids go to Alaska schools. They obey the same laws. They participate in community organizations. And they call their legislators when they have a problem with state government. Quite simply, over 18,000 of them, live here! The other side doesn't want to count them for purposes of representation but they can't wait to count them when asking the federal government for additional money because of them.

In fact, Alaska's military are not much different from most of us except for the fact that they have chosen to place themselves in Harm's Way so that the rest of us can sleep peacefully at night.

Not only is including them the right thing to do because they deserve it, but by discriminating against them, the vote of every person who has a military presence in their community is diluted. If certain Democrats have their way, residents of at least Anchorage, Fairbanks and Kodiak would lose representation by removing, "from the figures," military families. However, removing them from the census count does not remove them from their communities. The legislators in those areas will in fact have many more people in their district than other representatives throughout the state. This means your representative will have less time to represent each individual's interest. So much for "one person, one vote" when it conflicts with political advantage.

I believe most Alaskans appreciate and honor the men and women in uniform who place their lives at risk. We need to send a message to make certain they have equal representation in our state legislature. I encourage every concerned Alaskan to attend the Redistricting Board meeting on Friday, December 8, at the Anchorage Legislative Office at 10 a.m., call the Board at (907) 465-4637 or e-mail them at: Gordon_Harrison@legis.state.ak.us.

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