The Old Neighborhood (My Alaska, and Sarah Palin's, deserves better from America)

Slate ^ | Sept. 18, 2008 | Jim Albrecht

[Lorianne]

For a long time I've been an Alaskan in exile, spending only a portion of each year (the sunny part) in the homeland. As a result, I am the only Alaskan that most of my friends know. So, when Sarah Palin was picked as the Republican vice-presidential nominee, the e-mail poured in. "Not all Alaskan families are as weird as the Palins, right?" wrote a friend from California.

"Let me assure you," I wrote back. "They are all freaks."

I then described, at some length, the neighborhood I grew up in. There were my parents, superorthodox Catholics, complete with backyard statuary. Across the street, an Air Force officer and family. Next-door to them, a gay couple. Not just gay, but extra-flaming, mow-the-front-lawn-in-a-nightshirt-and-nothing-else kind of gay, walk-into-a-bar-yelling, "A beer for the queer!" kind of gay (in Alaska, in the 1960s!). My parents kept an extra set of house keys for "T-Bird Tommy," as the more flamboyant partner was known, so that when he came home drunk and couldn't find his keys, he would have a nearby spare.

[Lorianne]

Great article!

[Paul Heinzman]

America deserves Sarah Palin.

[feedback doctor]

The article was not what I expected. You are correct, it is a good article.

[FlingWingFlyer]

I feel really bad for anyone who has not lived in Alaska for at least a year. They haven’t lived.

[cherry]

yes......I needed to read that tonight......today’s has been a bad day for me emotionally.....this elections is driving me nuts....

[littlehouse36]

This is priceless. Thanks for posting.

[biscuit jane]

Wait. A friend in California worried about “freaks” in Alyeska ??? HA ha ha !

[highpockets]

Great read.

Do not read the comments, they find the article lacks enough Black Liberation Theology.

I am sick of Obamabots repeating the same bs.

Questions about her religion and total blind acceptance of a racist like Obama.

[biscuit jane]

Great article. Thanks for sharing.

[tuckrdout]

I like the line, “we all don’t have to agree about everything, but we do have to survive the winter.”

That is the way it is in Montana as well. We have to survive the winter.

Right now, we are experiencing an economic ‘winter’, and I want a leader who will work with everybody to accomplish that goal: survival!

I can not believe that people would take one issue: abortion, and ignore everything else Sarah stands for. Haw narrow minded is that? It is almost as if they are proving the sexist bias that women can not think through an issue but instead face things in an emotional manner! The women on the left, in large numbers are a walking advertisement for the arguments of sexist men!

Listen, when Roe V Wade was passed, first of all “Roe” says it was based on a lie....and we were so far behind scientifically. We didn’t even have ultrasound. Women didn’t know what they were doing! Now, with science moving ahead, I believe that it is prudent to re-examine an outdated principal.

[tuckrdout]

^how....how narrow minded is that? I am tired now...should go to bed....

[seacapn]

It is an interesting article, and it brings up some memories. I also grew up in semi-rural Alaska (it became less rural as time progressed). The ethos was VERY libertarian. I recall the older gentleman and his wife down the road sometimes smoking marijuana together as we skidded by on our snowmobiles. I recall my father sending me out on a weeklong moose hunt with the other boys, led by a member of a local native tribe - at the age of eight. I recall falling face-first on a local frozen creek as a child, knocking out several baby teeth prematurely, and my mother telling me I should be glad they came out all at once, like a bandage pulled off quickly, rather than one-by-one.

It was a sparse but complete and happy life. And I'm very happy I had the chance to experience it.

[burster]

Alaska is still like that in many ways. We have quite a few lesbians in Valdez, but nobody makes a big deal about them. We have a wide variety of different religions, and most of the time they get along just fine. Of course, there was the one incident where the female pastor’s (Lutheran) husband got involved with one of the local married women in the church, but...

I do remember one interesting incident back in the 90’s in terms of tolerance of ideas, however. We had one guy show up for some work in the summer who blatantly put a sign in his car window saying “Won’t work with niggers.”

Now there aren’t a lot of african-americans in Valdez, but those who do live here are valued members of the community. About 3 days after this sign went up, while the guy was sleeping in his car, someone shot up the car with about 30 rounds from a 22 rifle. The guy wasn’t hurt, but he got the message and left town the next day. A few months later he was shot and killed by a female security guard on the state ferry system because he was clawing for a gun out of his backpack for some reason.

But, Valdez is a lot bigger than Chickaloon. That place is barely a wide spot in the road. I doubt if there are more than 3-400 people in a thousand square miles around there.

[CaptRon]

In 2006, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that the state was obliged to extend employee benefits to same-sex partners of its employees. The legislature subsequently passed a bill that would block the state from extending these benefits. Palin vetoed the measure, even though she, too, opposed the court decision. "Signing this bill," she explained, "would be in direct violation of my oath of office." In other words, she saw her ideological views as subordinate to her obligation to the rule of law. And unlike the legislature, she apparently saw no sense in creating further division when the only practical result would be more litigation and a heightened sense of division and offense.

Whoa! I thought she was ardently anti-gay! The One told me that so it must be true.

[FreeRadical]

Thanks for posting this. The writer loses a wee touch of credibility when he mentions four stroke snowmachines. (Four strokes are only recently around and he mentions them as if from a while back.) No matter, I’ll give him a pass... at least he got snowmachine correct.

I’m afraid that much, not all, but much of what the writer refers to no longer applies in the urban areas here. I’ve only been here 12 years, but I can see a difference.
The stupidity of the public school educated youth in Anchorage is breathtaking. The amount of liberal crap that one has to tolerate about town is a real pisser. Our open border has allowed CA, OR, WA and CO scum to flow in unabated.

Ted Stevens has allowed the notion that a government job, or a pork barrel job, is a good job to grow in the mindset here. It’s amazing how many people think they have good jobs, when all they are doing is pushing paper around for the attenuators and regulators and takers. Trying to tell someone they are earning 65k a year in a job that is actually a net economic negative and doesn’t help the world is a real challenge. I get really angry about this. The feds and the state simply have too many people up here.

Still, I think the ratio of dumbass to decent fellow is pretty low in Anchorage and much better in real Alaska. Anchorage is not Alaska, but you can get there from here. Cliché yes, but based in truth.

In Anchorage the homeschooling community thrives. Most people get the notion that guns don’t kill people, people do. The smiles from strangers are real and more frequent than in other cities this size. There are pockets of ghetto that are approaching ugly, but I know of no true ‘no go zones’ like in so many cities. The “I’ll help you because some day you may help me” attitude still lives. I live in Anchorage by choice and one of the many reasons is there are more Americans per capita here than any place I have been. The saying used to be, “Alaska is what America was.” Today it is, IMO, more accurate to say, “Alaska is closer to what America was.”

[peggybac]

Now I want to move to Alaska.

[mplsconservative]

Thanks for the wonderful description of your state. Sounds like a great place to live!

You commented, “I’ll help you because some day you may help me” attitude still lives.

That attitude still lives here in the upper Midwest as well, at least in the rural and suburban areas. We women still lend our neighbors a cup of sugar. Everyone knows who the kids in the neighborhood belong to and we keep an eye on them. We take in each other’s mail when we’re on vacation. In the summer, we share a beer or two. The best time is in the winter after a big snowfall. All the guys show off their cylinder index and blow out the whole neighborhood. It get’s a little old in March though as the enthusiasm level goes down a bit. LOL

[WyvernAK]

As a soldier at Fort Wainwright AK, I have been through 2 winters so far, and while I like Alaska alot, us being deployed to Iraq this month sure sounds good next to the thought of a 3rd winter. Same goes for most of my unit. Iraq here we come :)

[FlingWingFlyer]

I’d give anything to be back at Ft. Wainwright. I was there for four and a half years. I was in the 222nd Avn. I don’t think that unit is there anymore. That was back in the early 80s. Anyway, the Army had to run me off so somebody else could have a turn. LOL!