Our beautiful state is in rough times. You can see it everywhere you go. Last week I travelled to the far away island of Adak for a hunt. While there I was able to talk to many residents. It’s apparent that the private sector is struggling. Every single person I talked to brought up the economy, even when I was just trying to have a conversation about the weather. Several people I talked to have two, three, four, or even five jobs. Some of that I am sure is to fight boredom but some of that was trying to make ends meet.
I think the path to economic recovery is a lot easier than our frustrated hearts tell us. We must return the power back to the people and companies in the private sector. The everyman needs to learn, study and understand how the political structure of our state works. As we do this, we must engage with our neighbors and community.
Too often I see posts on social media or get tied into conversations in the office saying we should file a class action lawsuit against the governor or perhaps charge him with some abstract crime like theft. To be clear: this is a complete waste of time and energy. One would have as much luck with that as one would have creating a petition for interstellar alien life to come from space. There is no possibility whatsoever that this will accomplish anything. It might make some people feel good in the process but that’s about it.
I also see a handful of political candidates with campaign promises that are so far fetched that I am completely shocked that they would put these in writing. One candidate for example promises to build a “cement factory” and a “steel factory” in order to bring those industries to Alaska to stimulate our economy through export. This is fundamentally flawed because Alaska lacks the resources and infrastructure to make this a reality. We would have better luck creating orange groves for export. We as citizens should question and press for answers not just from them directly, but study what they present to us and verify or become educated and learn if their propositions are in the realm of possibility. The promises made by these candidates are misguided attempts to gain votes at best and outright lies at worst. These promises will never happen because they are virtually impossible.
We should therefore affix our eyes on truth. We must not allow our great state to continue to be taken from us by allowing falsehoods and misleading promises to prevail. Politicians and candidates are often disconnected from the population that employs them. The example I used above is from a candidate who likely has little to no understanding of how exactly resource extraction or development works. Regardless of their background, their plan is ludicrous and truthful discourse should be engaged to either educate them or to sway the uneducated from voting for them.
Truth and discourse is the only thing that will bring back the Alaska economy. We have always had a state comprised of unique people with unique characteristics. I have never thought that the indefatigable spirit of the Alaskan would back down from conflict but here and now I am seeing people increasingly frustrated with our political landscape and not knowing how to engage the representatives that they employ through the power of the vote. We must unabashedly reach out to our representatives and demand that the political posturing and endless games end. There is no better time than now to do this. Our record-breaking fourth special session just ended but our legislators will return to Juneau in January to begin their regular session.
Right now, most of them are heading back to their homes for their holiday vacation or already there. Most of them have social media accounts that they stay up to date on. I challenge every one of you reading this to reach out to them and have civil yet passionate conversations with them, seek the truth, and call them out when they deliver mere platitudes to us. It is time that we work together to bring back Alaska.
