Here is a modest proposal for making Juneau great again.
As we all know, our town was named after a miner, Joe Juneau. But Joe was a Canadian, from Quebec, not a true American like the rest of us. It doesn’t seem likely that he ever even bothered to petition the federal authorities for U.S. citizenship. An illegal, or maybe a semi-legal, so clearly, we’ve got to get rid of the name.
But what name if not Juneau? We all know that President Warren Harding, elected in 1920, was known mainly for financial scandals and at least one long extramarital affair. In 1923 he visited our town while on the first-ever presidential visit to Alaska. But on his way back to the Lower 48, he suffered a serious illness and died shortly afterward in San Francisco. Since he played such a great part in Alaska’s history, we could name our town Harding, or maybe Warren, in his honor, in place of that undocumented immigrant from Quebec. Make Harding Great Again!
Douglas Mertz
Douglas