Heather Lende’s new book, OF BEARS AND BALLOTS, is a charming and heartening account of her experience as an assembly member in Haines, Alaska.
Even though we couldn’t be further away geographically, Haines is not so dissimilar from my own village of 10,000 people situated just north of Manhattan. But that’s the thing about breaking down issues at the hyper-local level. When it comes to our very human need to vocalize our vision for our homes and communities, we have far more in common than less.
Lende’s honest account of finding her voice and her nerve in the face of neighbors who had little interest in crossing the political divide (and who invoked some obscure local law to recall her election) was… well, a relief. Oh. Local government really is part circus, part-situational comedy everywhere. And leadership positions are generally filled with good people (mostly) who want to do what’s best for as many people as possible. They’re also filled with some other good people with some not-so-great ideas (and a few bad apples, too).
I couldn’t help, though, as I read Lende’s account of her years of service think about the ways we don’t make democracy work for everyone.
Evelyna, a car-free woman who, according to Lende, lives in a “low-income Native neighborhood” makes a brief but powerful appearance. She shuttles groceries, library books, and wayward trash in a wagon around town. She also offers the most thoughtful public comment in the entire book. Why “was [the harbor] being designed only for owners of boats and trucks when the waterfront belonged to everyone?” she asked. Evelyna only wanted a place to enjoy nature with her dog alongside all of the other uses being proposed.
Her initial statement “didn’t go so well,” writes Lende. “But Evelyna took it in stride.”
By taking it in stride, she skipped out on her allotted three minutes at the mic for three minutes of silence “with the hope that we may think better of one another and to remind ourselves why we love this place.”
It was a stunt — sure. But I can’t help but wonder: did that really yield the outcome Evelyna wanted?
Did she really feel like that was her best option, or her only option?
Are public hearings the very places where dreams go to die?
🐻🇺🇸
Lende believes in and practices by the guidepost that a kind leader is a just leader.
“The older I am,” she writes, “the more I realize that to be a kind leader—or just a kind person in the world… requires courage.” We need more people like her in office — reflective, vulnerable, willing to change.
But leaders, too, need to learn to make room for anger, hurt, rage — all of it. Not their own, but their constituents. And not the constituents with the most privilege who are bullies but the least — the ones who aren’t represented by their leaders and the ones who aren’t invited to the table. I want to live in a world where Evelyna not only expresses herself fully, completely, and honestly in those three minutes, but in a world where her ideas are fully heard, internalized, and acted upon.
Who knows if Haines, Alaska will ever be that kind of place.
But I have a feeling Lende could be that kind of leader.
🐻🇺🇸
OF BEARS AND BALLOTS by Heather Lende, published by Workman Publishing (2020)
Find this title in your local independent bookshop.
A note about this review: I received free advance reader copies of these books from Workman Publishing. I am under no obligation to review these books and all opinions are my own.
