Outlook; 407; Clinic / Imaginarium

0. 0. 0. 0. 0. You need to really embrace. That. It's a job that has to be done. Lazy girls like be fired. Why I'm not in love with this people. Otherwise I was appalled. I like you know. Really make. Me. You. Know. My window into the community. You don't want your vote. They're really mine. Hello everyone and welcome to Outlook. Tonight on our show determined community action in Mountain View resulted in a much needed health center. Should we amend the Constitution to define marriage and the imaginarium builds science literacy by making science fun. According to government statistics Mountain View is one of the poorer areas in Anchorage. Many don't have health insurance some are served by Medicare with a native health services but many fall through the cracks in a city where the average cost to a

doctor may cost $100. This is because one of the. Community groups. The other party and I understand their needs.

The money come for and then at that time the Concerned Citizens of Mountain View are a community group seeking to revitalize the area. As part of a long term agenda. They focus on the need for a health care facility in the neighborhood. Evans is a businessman in Mountain View and a member of. Never made it that. Way. So they get out of the. PRESS. There are.

Many of them hadn't seen a doctor in years and a variety of. Primary care. The reaction to these volunteer clinics and the push for a grant from the Providence helped to open the first primary care. It was crucial providences participation that this was a grassroots project. And that's important to us because. We're we're past the eternal list a kind of patriarchal system where we decide what's best for people and we come in and do it. There is no sense of ownership and no sense of pride when that kind of situation occurs. So when something like this happens where a. Group of people came together and saw helpmeet saw that they had a sense of purpose.

And could come together and work together to bring about health care needs in the community that was very important for us. Because Mountain View has a high population of Alaska Native. Americans. Could with the movement of the new native hospital out it's a fair distance. Issue for quite a few people. And so when interest from within the we were ready to fulfil to. Take part in a request. Only a part time basis. The people. Here.

If. Their health care provider. The. Last. They have to deny any service is it say if people don't meet the service desk by inspectors. But the facility with free and basic medical equipment was uncertain. One thousand ninety eight citizens agreed to place the facility Health Center

as part of a national system would run for nominal apply to help care for the medical personnel like the. Doctor let go to say 20 years ago you may have had a provider a little. Paperwork with a little help. The other low. Blow able to process all of the other back supports. It will now be called the Mt.. It will continue to rest.

And work vigorously on a smaller scale providing health care and that in the building. That. Put on the community. It. Is making sure that if I get information from the two kids. That. Are like this and since it was. Before. Yesterday. When. The fights and. The author continue. Until to get property that I can to Encina but make sure that people. Always thought about when the pen ready to fall short to the point. Because you don't have the

budget for it and support from our. Clinic could. Go away or could suffer. So though that here without being looking that close. Partnership with Will. The first thing is to create a functional medical plan to make sure that the basics of providing medical care are there they're connecting right there. That's what we've done somewhat to date and what we can tell you to do as a clinic becomes more stablished branching into more activity related to schools to other groups in town to stations to do patient education groups to peer support that whole thing is very much a philosophy part of the philosophy of what we do and what you. And very much a patient sort of mal expressed. Make you feel. Here's an example of community grassroots in action.

Individuals do make a difference in this town. Thanks to Tony Morris our guest producer for that segment. Coming up a ballot measure to would amend the Constitution to define marriage. Two views on why we should or should not do that. That's next on Outlook. And you will see 10 seconds. With. Me. But it's not and that's why I'm here to help you make sense of it all because the news is easy. The challenge is determining. And that's just. A ballot measure to win the next election would amend the Constitution.

It would say for a marriage to be valid a marriage may exist only between one man and one woman. Today we're going to talk about that issue and I'd like you to meet my guests Allison Mendel is the campaign manager of the no on 2 campaign and that is that we should not amend the Constitution. And Mary Ann Pease represents the Alaska family coalition that supports a yes vote which means that we indeed should amend the Constitution. Correct. Which brings us really to a really Quark's question of the campaign and that is whether or not this amendment is needed. Now listen I'm going to ask you to take that on first and then Marianne since it's so important let's hear from your two side by side. Oh a lot of people don't realize I think that same sex marriage was made illegal by the legislature in 1996. So if this is put in the Constitution it merely repeats what is already in the statute and goes in the Declaration of Rights section of the

Constitution which is in general. The rest of it is just a list of the rights that we have and the things that the government can't do and we think that it's a really bad idea to put what's essentially a legal disability into the Declaration of Rights section the Constitution about you Marian. Well why or should it either be amended or not. OK it goes back to when two men browse and do can apply for a marriage license and they were turned down by the state because they were of the same gender. Alaska statutes holds that in order for a marriage license to be valid it has to be one man and one woman applying for that license. The superior court judge ruled that indeed there was an interpretation that would allow this same sex marriage to take place in fighting that decision. The Alaska legislature determined that the people needed to decide the issue. So that's why the election day we were going to. We're going to be confronted with the issue of the people voting on whether it is OK for marriage to exist between one man and one woman

or whether it can indeed be the same sex. But I'm hearing that there is a law on the books. Why do we need to have a change in the constitution why should we meddle with the Constitution. Already there is a law that prohibits this. So I am not quite sure I understand. Well if one judge could interpret the Constitution and he could read through it from the very front to the back and nowhere is it is it specifically stated that a marriage can take place between the same sexes. Yet he could interpret it to mean that then we need to go to before the people who are the actual authors of the Constitution ask them to decide what the what the interpretation should be and the people will be voting on whether the marriage should remain between one man and one woman. Also just my whole ski's judgement. If indeed the constitutional amendment fails and there is no Constitutional amendment what would happen as a result of his judgement.

Well nothing's going to happen as a result of his judgement because all he said was that in his view the Constitution would allow marriage between people of the same sex unless the state can show a compelling state interest to prohibit it as it did in the 1906 law so if in fact it's so important not to permit same sex marriage the state should be able to come forward in a law suit and show a compelling state interest which is the point at which the law says that now is waiting for that to happen. So if this fails at the polls that that will be the next thing the state will have to come up with its reasons why it's illegal. So the Alaska Family Coalition is saying that they don't want to wait for that compelling interest to be spelled out that their the the the constitutional amendment is going to change that or not allow that to happen is that. Well actually it's not the Alaska family coalition that made that call it's our Superior Court that said that it is that this will appear on the ballot and it will be voted on by the people the people the authors of the Constitution not the judges.

What's wrong with the people voting on something like this Alison. Well it depends on what you're voting on and really the question isn't that the question in the campaign is that we should people vote people are going to vote. The question is how should they vote and and what we're saying is this kind of thing does not belong in the Declaration of Rights section of our Constitution. You know same sex marriage is in the Constitution because marriage isn't in the Constitution. All of our social rules about who can do what and when are in statutes where they belong the Constitution is a general set of principles by which we order our legal lives. And it says you know what the state can't do to you and what the rights are that we all have in this kind of thing isn't in the Constitution anywhere and doesn't belong there we shouldn't start picking out the rights of certain individuals and saying yes everyone has the same rights except these people don't have that right and these people don't have that right. It's a very bad precedent for our Constitution.

And you want to respond to that. Well yes in order for people to pick and choose of right has to exist. And nowhere in Alaska in our state statutes is there a right for same sex marriage as a matter of fact no place in the world. Is there a right for same sex marriage. No nation has same sex marriage authorized on their books. And one of the things that you're saying is that no one too is being influenced by outside groups. Yet your campaign received half a million dollars from an outside group. Sounds like the pot calling the kettle black here. What is who has given you this money. What is the expertise that they've given you given to you and why are they coming forward at this point into Alaska to do this. OK well the five hundred thousand that you're referring to came from the morning church in Alaska has a fairly substantial community of Mormons 24000. And if each of those people gave a mere $20 it would easily amount to the 500000.

If you look at what the Mormon Church requires as a tithing this is a very small amount that comes back to a community that has a fairly large following. We're not receiving any direction from the Mormon Church. The Mormon Church gave us that money to use in whatever way we felt would be best to foer the cause of keeping marriage between one man and one woman. And the Mormon those who practice the Mormon faith didn't contribute on their own but it came through a national organization. You know I'm not sure I believe that is the is the normal protocol for the Mormon Church I mean I'm not sure if the Catholic Church gave $100000 or $500000 would we say it was a Rome based church. I mean you know I don't know. ELLISON What about your group. What kind of outside guidance have you had. Guidance guidance expertise people come coming and saying here's what I think you should do here's some money and to do it with and so on guidance we haven't had any guidance we've hired consultants professional consultants from

other parts of the country we've gotten training. But our campaign is entirely run by statewide steering committee of Alaskans and most of us are Alaskans have been here a long time. It isn't anything that's directed by someone else. We're about money. We've gotten individual contributions from people all over the country and you know fairly small amounts but we haven't had any infusions of cash from outside organizations except minute amounts $25. What about your steering committee is that all made up of a lot of states or others yet from the outside. You know there are people asking. And one of the concerns that people have have is if you limits constitutional rights in this case where does it lead. Are you concerned with that and I don't see this as limiting a constitutional right. Again as I said before right is something that has to exist. The right for people of the same sex to marry. Just flat out does not exist.

I have a hard time seeing why we need to amend the Constitution to list all the rights that don't exist and what the Constitution does as will lead the list the rights that do exist. So if the argument is this isn't a right you don't have it. Then why does there need to be in the Constitution at all. There are a lot of rights that don't exist and we certainly don't list them in the Constitution. Now's the time to summarize for for the viewers tell me why I should vote either yes or no on this amendment. And Marian Let's start with you. Sure. The societal benefits of marriage between one man and one woman I think have been proven over time. There's a basic philosophy that this community has that we need to get back to the traditional family values. I think moving forward and recognizing the societal benefits of a marriage between one man and one woman the love that is generated between these people the children that they raise and the positive effects of the traditional institution of marriage is what we should focus on.

Marriage should remain between one man and one woman and I would encourage you to vote yes on Proposition number two. House and family well I don't see that traditional marriage is in any way threatened. But I do believe that the Constitution is threatened because this is a really bad precedent to put something in our Constitution that limits the constitutional rights of one identifiable minority especially when the activity is being limited it is illegal under state law anyway and we don't want to see this happen to our Constitution is a document for all of us and it should remain a document for all of us. Thank you both for coming. Thank you. Thank you. And we talk about the importance of science education and then what do we do. We build ball fields and hockey rinks. Now there's nothing wrong with that. But what are we building to develop enquiring minds. Well there's one place where science is fun and that's the imaginarium Discovery Center.

It's the bubbles everyone remembers or most Body Wrap bubbles. The whys and wonder of it all. Just love to play with bubble going to adults just love to play with bubbles. This mainstay exhibit at the imaginarium Science Discovery Center in downtown Anchorage was an instant hit some 10 years ago when a small group of dedicated people committed to creating a place where children of all ages could discover how the world works. I think that is very much aware of the world and looking at the world around us and wondering. Very often that leads to scientific literacy. Of our. Time.

Since then more than 1 million people have come to explore and discover and have a good time. This year we're starting up a lot of new work and learning that new life also. You live it or make it known. We also have. An event that. Programs span all age groups and supplement science curriculum in private school and school districts across the state. They teach 400 a year. We were delighted to discover that the imaginarium was going to be able to offer us field trips that were centered around the very topics that we were going to be teaching in the classroom. This particularly involves

electricity. Has been. Enhanced and. It's taken the learning a little further. Deeper than hands on experience is. Really much more efficient. Very excited about. Their science to go programs of travel from barrow to Juneau and in Anchorage that are adopted by businesses. And schools and brute and the organization that replaced him from. About six and seven different science. Evidence board our lab planetary and reptiles and build their own school assembly programs on solids looking for gases like the bank. Or. You're in science very much you can do that cold science means. You. Like many non-profits money is tight. Less than 1 percent of the revenue comes from public funds workshops memberships private donations

grants pay the bills. Talented and dedicated staff create miracles every day and volunteers including about 30 dollars even for a. Couple of more and. That's one of them. And. Very. Powerful in. Heaven. That. Said. If I'm. Going up. There. To have adult volunteers help out with teaching program building is that it. Helping with our own. Race. Or help right. Rhythm. And. Science is increasingly considered a core subject of reading writing and arithmetic. And which students perform well above the national average in science.

Him to. The United States. So I lost him because I don't write that out. But. That's. Well. Above. The Middle. We're building. Perfectly through word. Our society is so driven. That. We need to provide an up have a few that learn about. Keep the ball bubbling Imaginarium and the motors moving and the hammers hammering and electricity sparking to keep our minds alive to the wonders around us. Well the imaginarium needs your financial support of course your talents and your time. You can just call them at 2 7 6 3 1 7 9. Next week on Outlook neighborhoods can become racetracks as people escape clogged streets. Creative solutions to increase safety.

And the war on cancer is being waged behind a microscope that you as a. Well that's our show tonight. I hope you enjoyed it. Hope you're with us next week. We'd like to hear from you give us a call. See you next week on Outlook. I'm governing by holds good. If you have questions or comments you would like a copy of tonight's program call K. K. am area code 9 0 7 5 6 3 7 0 7 0 4 Write us at our blog k k m Channel Seven thirty eight seventy seven University Drive Anchorage Alaska 9 9 5 0 8 or e-mail us at this address.