Paul,

I don't take it wrong. I know what you're getting at, but I think there are lots of reasons and plenty of blame. And obviously some of it falls right in the bullseye. But, some of it is well beyond the level of individuals too. Places like Nulato, Tanana, Saint Michael...they were military forts, and they had the backing of the Federal Government, just as Fairbanks and Anchorage are now. And they remained important until, through no fault of their own, they became 'nowhere'. A place like Anchorage didn't have a name much less a reason to exist until the railroad came through....until the Federal Government ensured that the railroad came through. With a railroad, river traffic to the growing, thriving mining camps around Fairbanks was no longer important. That killed the most significant port along the west coast: Saint Michael, and that, together with the new technology involving oil-fired boats meant that the wood cutting jobs along the Yukon- which supplied the steamboat traffic- were no longer important, and they died out. And those were big hits to rural economies. And now we have people living in stick frame houses. They pay for them. It's based on incomes which are generally not even high enough to pay the interest. Anyone who owns or builds their own home in rural areas has virtually no equity. Who is going to buy a house and pay $1000/month when they can wait for, and get, a house for which they only pay a portion of the interest for 20 years, after which they own it? And these houses are often built by a low bidder and shipped in. Some batches are so inferior that they require twice the fuel to heat that even poorly build local houses do.

The problems are very complex. Nothing is black and white. People know they have been bought off, yet, like the majority of people in this country, they accept the 'buy-off' with some regret - and resent the fact that they do. And then their kids lose further touch with a culture which has sustained them for millennia.

It's not like we can go back in time and erase the urban sores on the state - nor should we even consider that. Yet, while I am as disappointed and disgusted as anyone by the rural 'dregs of society' that land on the streets of the cities , I also get defensive when those who have never really lived "in Alaska" place them in judgement. I truly believe we are in this together. I wish the Fed/Gov would just stay out of our business because I really don't think they've helped - going all the way back to Sheldon Jackson. But I think we have all carried someone else's water at one time or another. I know rural has done so for fledgling cities. I know that's been turned around for a while now too. But we all need each other. If Algore and Lenny D' are right about things, we'll all be more like rural people than like urban folks before it's all over. I don't think we want to lose knowledge that has so much history.

Last edited by Klikitarik; 01/21/16.
Sometimes, the air you 'let in'matters less than the air you 'let out'.