Everyone in Adak is leaving. The village cannot afford to pay its gas bill, and they have been cut off. Their numbers have already been cut in half in recent years, but gas prices will force them all to leave.
The mayor/chief of police resigned.
I cannot imagine where 130+ people go to start over, and from something that is not a natural disaster. A hurricane did not hit these people - high gas prices did.
I am still stunned at the lack of attention this is getting, from the local media, the state, our Governor, Sarah Palin. I posted this on Saturday night, and figured it would be headline news by the next afternoon (and no, not because of me - because a town in American cannot afford gas and is shutting down!) I posted again on Sunday night, happy to see it, at least, on the ADN.
The Anchorage Daily News reported on it Sunday night/Monday morning (and props to them for getting it on the front page of the Web site - if not the paper copy). A radio station in the region Adak is in mentioned it. No local TV news - or non-local, for that matter. I noticed a paper in South Carolina grabbed it from the ADN. But nothing else? Really?
Palin had a message today for Alaska that the local TV media did pick up - her message was to attack the man she fired and reverse her previous opinions and reasons. Her only message for Alaska today, the day Adak residents met, found out they no longer have a mayor and started planning how to restart their entire lives - her message was of defense of herself and an attack on a former employee.
In some wierd bit of irony, one of the news stations visited a different village to report on how many people were having to leave Rural Alaska because of the costs. No mention of entire town being told to leave that day.
This is not the first Alaskan village to have to leave the land, and it won't be the last. How many residents will be forced into the city this winter? How many villages will be facing extinction?
I have heard suggestions that the villagers go to stay in the governor's mansion. Why not? Even if she were not running for VP, she doesn't use it much. They will need a home, and jobs, and schooling. And they will need to get off the island - it will cost the individuals of Adak their entire energy rebate - $1200 - just to get them off the island. Will Governor Palin lend them her private jet?
I have also heard some terribly cold comments - so what, it's only 130 people? So what, it's a "newly incorporated" village - they should have known better? Palin shouldn't be responsible for their "irresponsibility."
I ask these people to look at the history of Adak - the real history. Aleut/Unungax people have lived there for thousands of years. They have prevailed through enslavement, relocation and disease during the Russian "discovery." They have prevailed during the further massive deaths after Alaska was bought by America. The Aleut people of the Aleutian chain were forcibly removed from their homes during World War II by the American government when the Japanese invaded and occupied two of the islands. They came back. They stayed after the military base shut down in the 90's, incorporated as a village to be able to stay, and they stayed through a winter of frequent blackouts.
They are finally undone by energy costs.
Big processing ships have outmanned them on the water, so they had little money to work with in the first place.
I cannot tell you what this does to me, to hear that another village is being emptied, that these people will not be able to stay, and it is entirely preventable. This is not a hurricane to prepare for and rebuild after - but nothing to do but wait in between. The gas is literally in the town - but they can't afford to buy it.
And our governor dares to run on the platform of being an "energy expert?"
Please, look at the exodus from the villages, look at this town that is vacating the island - then look me in the eye and telling me she's doing everything she can?
She is doing nothing at all.
UPDATE!: Thank goodness!
Showing posts with label gas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gas. Show all posts
Monday, September 15, 2008
This is happening in Sarah Palin's backyard
The town will have no power. Residents are being asked to leave. One man has already suffered medical problems because he could not get power to his respiratory equipment. Teachers are trying to have classes in their homes with small generators.
This is not some third world country. This is not even Texas or Louisiana, where thousands are facing the aftereffects of a hurricane.
This is a small village in Alaska.
Adak cannot pay its gas bill. They've been struggling with this problem for some time, but they were finally cut off. A combination of problems - as the Anchorage Daily News reports, were the cause, but the obvious - rising fuel prices - is one of the main culprits.
The other is the fishing industry. This tiny village of less than 150 people has been hit hard by the prices. It's a village that has been hit before with so much, historically - first the Russian invasion and "relocation", World War II invasion and forced relocation, and more recently the shut down of the military base.
A quote in the Anchorage Daily News, from an Adak medic:
"It is beyond my comprehension that such a situation like this can occur in an American city," Adams said.
Ironically, the ADN reported on a Senate hearing in August about Rural energy in the paper on the same say. Sen. Murkowski was urging Rural residents to stay in the villages, and a panel of Native leaders and energy experts talked over solutions to the energy crisis in the villages.
I applaud all those at this hearing for working towards solutions. I was not much of a fan of Murkowski, but in things like this, and others, she's on the right track. But mere weeks after she urges villagers to stay in the village for the sake of culture and the connection to the land, residents are asked to leave Adak.
But where is our governor?
I asked this last night, and today I see she's campaigning in Colorado.
Even the Republican delegates took a half day to look after the Hurricane crisis. Why can't she come take a look at this? I don't know that she would do anything - check my earlier post for her veto on another small Rural community that went over on their energy costs last year. They were looking for state funding to help in their costs. Palin line-item vetoed it. Is this what she meants by "reform?"
She only just left - this would have been a good issue to address while she was here in Alaska to take care of ... well, giving interviews about how little she knows about foreign policy I suppose. And rallies. Several rallies.
Palin recently pushed through giving every eligible Alaska resident a $1200 check as an energy rebate - which began distribution this weekend. You can imagine the popularity of that for the public (for any doubters, you need only have gone by Best Buy this weekend and counted the game systems going out the door.)
The ADN reported on lawmakers that were opposed to this plan (you can imagine the cahones it took to oppose giving out free money!) before it was passed, and just WHY they were opposed:
"They said the House plan to simply pay Alaskans a $1,200 rebate and to suspend the state's 8-cent tax on each gallon of gasoline isn't broad enough to cover needs statewide, especially in the costly Bush (Rural Alaska) where $1,200 just won't go as far."
Looks like it only took until the very weekend the checks were being distributed to be proven right.
I have been increasingly frustrated with the coverage - or lack of coverage - on this situation. I posted on this last night (Saturday.) A few hours ago the Anchorage Daily News finally reported on it. There was nothing in the local television news, much less national reports.
WHY IS THIS NOT NEWS?
An entire community of people is without power and being asked to leave their homes because they cannot afford the fuel! The State of Alaska has a MULTI BILLION DOLLAR SURPLUS!
THIS IS PREVENTABLE!
This is not some third world country. This is not even Texas or Louisiana, where thousands are facing the aftereffects of a hurricane.
This is a small village in Alaska.
Adak cannot pay its gas bill. They've been struggling with this problem for some time, but they were finally cut off. A combination of problems - as the Anchorage Daily News reports, were the cause, but the obvious - rising fuel prices - is one of the main culprits.
The other is the fishing industry. This tiny village of less than 150 people has been hit hard by the prices. It's a village that has been hit before with so much, historically - first the Russian invasion and "relocation", World War II invasion and forced relocation, and more recently the shut down of the military base.
A quote in the Anchorage Daily News, from an Adak medic:
"It is beyond my comprehension that such a situation like this can occur in an American city," Adams said.
Ironically, the ADN reported on a Senate hearing in August about Rural energy in the paper on the same say. Sen. Murkowski was urging Rural residents to stay in the villages, and a panel of Native leaders and energy experts talked over solutions to the energy crisis in the villages.
I applaud all those at this hearing for working towards solutions. I was not much of a fan of Murkowski, but in things like this, and others, she's on the right track. But mere weeks after she urges villagers to stay in the village for the sake of culture and the connection to the land, residents are asked to leave Adak.
But where is our governor?
I asked this last night, and today I see she's campaigning in Colorado.
Even the Republican delegates took a half day to look after the Hurricane crisis. Why can't she come take a look at this? I don't know that she would do anything - check my earlier post for her veto on another small Rural community that went over on their energy costs last year. They were looking for state funding to help in their costs. Palin line-item vetoed it. Is this what she meants by "reform?"
She only just left - this would have been a good issue to address while she was here in Alaska to take care of ... well, giving interviews about how little she knows about foreign policy I suppose. And rallies. Several rallies.
Palin recently pushed through giving every eligible Alaska resident a $1200 check as an energy rebate - which began distribution this weekend. You can imagine the popularity of that for the public (for any doubters, you need only have gone by Best Buy this weekend and counted the game systems going out the door.)
The ADN reported on lawmakers that were opposed to this plan (you can imagine the cahones it took to oppose giving out free money!) before it was passed, and just WHY they were opposed:
"They said the House plan to simply pay Alaskans a $1,200 rebate and to suspend the state's 8-cent tax on each gallon of gasoline isn't broad enough to cover needs statewide, especially in the costly Bush (Rural Alaska) where $1,200 just won't go as far."
Looks like it only took until the very weekend the checks were being distributed to be proven right.
I have been increasingly frustrated with the coverage - or lack of coverage - on this situation. I posted on this last night (Saturday.) A few hours ago the Anchorage Daily News finally reported on it. There was nothing in the local television news, much less national reports.
WHY IS THIS NOT NEWS?
An entire community of people is without power and being asked to leave their homes because they cannot afford the fuel! The State of Alaska has a MULTI BILLION DOLLAR SURPLUS!
THIS IS PREVENTABLE!
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