Forward

The Winds of Change

 Over thirty six years ago I arrived in Alaska.  I have now seen it all.  From Kaktovik to Barrow, on to Point Hope to Kotz, to Wales on the Continental Divide then on to Nome and Unalakleet.  Emmonak, Alakanuk, Chevak, Kipnuk, Quinhagik, Togiak and I could continue, but I’m sure you don’t need a list of places I have been in Alaska.  As Robert Service wrote, the Bard of the North, It’s a great, big, broad land ‘way up yonder, It’s the forests where silence has lease, It’s the beauty that thrills me with wonder, It’s the silence that fills me with peace. 

 The first year convinced me, there is no going home, as I’ve said, I’ve seen it all.  Seventy below zero, drilling ice fishing holes in lakes with seven feet of ice, running the Yukon by boat from Dawson City, Yukon Territory to the mouth near Alegnigik, Alaska.  It has been a hoot.

 To be sure, we can all be proud of where we live and where we were from.  Alaska peaks my cap and so it should, a hunter, gatherer in an almost untouched wilderness far to the north.  Grizzly’s  abound, packs of the gray eyed wolf roam free and danger is just a step away out your front door.  Always walk with your eyes on the horizon, do not look at your feet.  Your feet will always be there, it is the horizon that will change your fate.

 I am sixty now.  I have watched the clock turn.  Thirty six years ago I wrote a Letter to the Editor of the Fairbanks Daily News Miner.  In it, I wished the State well and wrote:  Alaska, a gem to be cut and shaped wisely.  From the Wolf predation problem to the oil in it’s heart.  I wish you well.  I still have that letter, and I have seen the wind change over time.  I still have hope for our future, but I am sixty now and know deep down a person’s hope often runs headlong into reality and things don’t quite work out as they should.  An example, Alaska has been in the throws of a controversial predator control situation since the early ‘70’s.  On again off again with each passing Governor.  I don’t know if it is right or wrong, but I know and believe the area biologists when I’m told there is a problem.

 A guy named Gordon Haber, a self professed expert on why Alaska is utterly wrong for killing entire packs of wolves, looked for the mistakes Fish & Game made in their efforts.  He found several, not critical mistakes, but enough of an affront the drive by news media splashed it all over front pages nationwide.  Haber had his day in the sun and the Wolf killing continued.

 He then focused on the State’s efforts on ridding an area near McKinley National Park of a particularly destructive Wolf Pack.  That was read by the media and nation as the Park Wolves were targeted.  Only the pack that used part of McKinley as their turf.  I think two radio collared Wolves escaped being killed in that one.

 Here it is, 2008, and the initiative is on the General Election Ballot, once again, to stop the State sponsored Predator Control programs.  I, for one, will leave that decision to Biologists trained in animal dynamics to decide yea or nay, not an emotionally charged, ill informed general population to say yes or no.  Haber, by the way, was being funded by an animal rights group as I recall, not that it matters much now.

 I remember the horrible wrangling in congress over the oil pipeline.  That was going on just prior to OPEC causing the old odd even days at the gas pump and boosting the price per gallon to record highs.  1973 I think it was, maybe ’74, who cares?  I remember the environmental movement sweet talking many politicians into blocking the construction of the line and remember well when the deal was finally made.  I still have a few bumper stickers that proudly proclaimed: “Let The Bastards Freeze In The Dark” oozing disgust for the radical among the green.

 Here it is, 2008, and oil futures speculators and increased demand from India and China have pushed crude to record highs once again.  A gallon of regular gasoline sells in Kenai for $4.59.9.  Shipping and transportation costs you say?  Nay, I live a mere 14 miles from the refinery and within 25 miles of the Swanson River and Cook Inlet oil fields.  Nothing has changed except the cost, no new transmission pipes, no new wells, nothing but the cost.

 The Jimmy Carter ANWR lock up was really good for America in these spiraling out of control times.  The American economy is being destroyed from within.  Not by OPEC, not by the Oil Companies, but by the very people we elect to serve us, the house and senate.  Bickering, squabbling and fighting over issues that make most people yawn in disgust.  Shame on them.  Shame on us L  It won’t be long until I’ll need a Bank Loan to buy the gasoline for my push lawnmower so I can cut my grass, in Kenai, 14 miles from the Tesoro Refinery and within 25 miles of the Oil Fields.  The Continental Shelf oil?  Congressionally Off Limits.  ANWR?  Congressionally Off Limits.  Colorado oil shale?  Congressionally Off Limits.  Eastern Gulf of Mexico oil?  Congressionally Off Limits.  Think!!  We are electing and paying these idiots to destroy us!  Why not just slash your wrists?

 What else have these fine folks “helped” us with?  Every gallon of gasoline is taxed to the tune of roughly 16% or about $.74 a gallon.  Ease up on the taxes?  Hell no, let’s hold another round of congressional hearings and make another effort to lay the blame for the mess we’ve made at the feet of those bad old oil companies.  My God Congress is stupid!  I was born at night, but not last night!!

 As Robert Service wrote:  “You’ll hate it like Hell for a season, and then you’ll be worse than the worst.”