Of Ballots And Bears by Heather Lende

Heather Lende lives in a small Alaskan town called Haines.  She is the obituary writer for the town's newspaper and as such she gets to know most of the people she shares the town with.   Her husband runs a lumber business and her children grew up to be in the education business, along with other occupations.  In such a small town, everyone depends on others to help and everyone pretty much knows everyone else.

Lende feels the need to do more than write books and be interviewed on NPR.  She decides to run for the position of being one of six people on the town assembly board.  She didn't spend much on her campaign; she felt that after all her time living there, everyone pretty much knew her and her progressive policies.  Much to her surprise, she won one of the seats up for election as did the owner of the newspaper.

This book talks about what governing is really like, how it is often better to listen than to be the first one speaking or the loudest one.  For each issue, she has to balance her own position against what those who elected her feel is best.  She was shocked to see that sometimes, people she had considered friends for years, were against what she honestly thought was best, and would say or do things that were hurtful to her.

The best example of this was the recall election.  One of the biggest issues in Haines was the renovation of the town bay and port.  There were those who were determined to push their idea through stating that it was good for business and there were others who were hesitant to make the changes wondering about the environmental effect.  There was also the issue over hiring someone in the local government to oversee various construction projects.  When Heather, her editor friend and a third member voted to hire someone other than the local favorite, they soon faced a recall election.  It was heart-wrenching for her to realize that there were enough people who thought she had done a poor job to get the recall on the election cycle or that she had misused her position.

Lende has written a series of books about her life in Haines and I've enjoyed every one of them.  The dependent nature of living in such an environment and needing to rely on those around you is clear in everything she writes.  This book shows a naive and vulnerable side of Lende that her earlier books did not but the stories she tells are familiar to those of us who fought politics in jobs and on issues.  Her ability to withstand the storms and learn a series of lessons from this time is interesting and informative.  This book is recommended for memoir readers.