Alternatives
The real reason for the psychic dislocations in Alaska is_________________ [fill this in yourself].
In small towns and big cities, friends will go from house to house, knocking at the shutters and chanting:
Get up, Alaskans,
Sweet, holy Alaskans,
Get up and face life!
Real life is in exile,
The Inner truth is in exile,
The people is in exile,
Get up to serve greater life!”
Adapted from
The Earth is the Lord’s, by Abraham Heschel
“Wouldn’t it be great if, instead of obsessing over the consumption of goods, our culture focused instead on generosity? What if we thought as much about our contribution to our own development and the well-being of others as we did about the latest dress design or car model? What if, instead of plastering pictures of semi-clad women on billboards everywhere to sell moisturizing lotion, advertisers suddenly posted commercials showing the peace that you can find from helping others? What if television commercials asked us to question our self-centered beliefs and donate to worthy causes rather than mindlessly commanding us to buy? It could happen, you know. Businesses would discover that it was more profitable to share their money than to pocket it. Everyone’s top priority would be to educate others about their freedom and potential for inner happiness.”
Robert Thurman, Infinite Life: Awakening To Bliss Within, 2004
Put up signs like this one at the Portland Grotto:
‘This is a sacred place. Please help us to maintain a prayerful atmosphere.’
Prayer, Peacefulness, and Reflection in Public Places
“The Sonoma Country Chapter of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship has decided to meet in public more often, making their usual opening meditation a vigil for peace, silence, and turning inward, in the heart of the city. Weather permitting, they will meet as an island of peace in the central courthouse square in Santa Rosa, surrounded by traffic.” Fellowship magazine, July 1998
‘Give Back the Night’
Take Back the Night is a national movement which protests against violence towards women (see page 3). This is a natural response to violence, and an important one - but women should not be forced to take this adversarial stand.
It’s not the duty of the abused to stop abuse, or the enslaved to fight for freedom. This is the old paradigm. The new paradigm resolves conflicts by nullifying the factors that produce them.
It’s we men who are responsible for violence against women, and it’s we who must give in order to prevent women from having to take. What we must give is our own identity, our secret thoughts and aspirations. First and primarily, we must view ourselves as human beings and living beings, and only secondly as men. Real peace depends upon the achievement of humanity, which is what makes shared humanity possible.
First, we can make a personal commitment to become a person for whom sexual violence is impossible. Second, we can refuse to participate in sexually divisive activities. Third, we can stand up for this vision, by challenging social and cultural norms that generate and degenerate relationships.
You look up at the black sky, breathing deeply, or around at the deserted paved streets, feeling the cool wind and the asphalt under your feet. The liberty to walk alone at night is not a luxury. It’s an essential part of the independence and solitude necessary for self-knowledge. Limiting the opportunity for this diminishes the spirit, and this is a crime against humanity that’s just as detrimental as the physical threat of physical violence itself.
From Helping Kids Succeed - Alaskan Style
These simple ideas were collected from Alaskan families. They are based on the Developmental Assets framework.
Greet them by name
Smile, wink & joke with them
Include them in conversations
Praise them & give specific compliments
Help them with homework
Hug them or pat their back
Pray with them
Plan something together
Display their photographs
Answer their questions
Ask for their help and ideas
Go for walks together
Discuss their dreams and fears
Tell them stories
Steam together
Set goals & take on challenges together
Be consistent with them
Explain your reasons to them
Attend their games, performances & events
Have them teach you something
Open your home to their friends
Go hunting and camping together
Listen to them
Be open with your feelings
Offer options when they ask for your help
Allow them to make choices & mistakes
Do things their way sometimes
Go berry picking and make jam
Give them space when they need it
Create a tradition and keep it
Talk proudly about them to friends when they are near
Exercise together
Be available to them every day
Vote with their needs in mind
Be spontaneous - silly sometimes
Expect their best, not perfection
Honor who they are
Love them no matter what
ASSETS ideas
Copies of Helping Kids Succeed—Alaskan Style and the ASSETS Initiative are available for free from the Anchorage School District, by calling (907)269-3425, or writing to
Alaska Humanity News asked Doug Modig for practical suggestions for how his vision for the future could be achieved in Alaska. For full interview, see Unheard Voices, page 9
“I don’t know if an institution or building can help. Institutions are more bureaucratic now. Generally there’s a wall between those who serve and those who are served. The Native Heritage Center is a beautiful building, and they say it’s for Natives, but it’s really for tourists.
“But we could use a place where you could sit down and talk with others. To do a traditional cleansing ceremony, like our steam house thing; like a sweat lodge or Mukai. We need a gathering place, for ‘eagles.’ A place for special kinds of learning enterprises.
“In order to address continually emerging issues, and the unknown and unknowable future, we have to create places where we can continually learn. To talk with people from different cultures. Let it be for dialogue and learning for Natives, but open to anyone to come and participate.”
Father Michael Oleksa’s suggestion.
See page 5 for more of the interview.
I’ve been working for the last five or six years with the Alaska Association of School Boards ASSETS initiative, which is basically an insight based on modern research, but which has been around for millennia - namely, that the healthiest, most resilient kids come out of societies where they have lots of adult interaction.
In Alaska people have often left their extended families behind. They are deprived of interactions with aunts, uncles, grandparents, and even neighbors who may have been there for generations. Many of our kids have lost this kind of safety net of adults as role models, guides, and just simply as people who know them and support them.
The next step for me has been to get involved with Big Brothers/ Big Sisters, matching kids to families and raising this consciousness. We should be those caring adults that the kids need. If it doesn’t happen naturally, then we have to have a program to do it deliberately and intentionally. Lets do it in our smaller communities and then in our cities. Then we could beat these problems. We could turn this around in a decade or sooner. But it’s going to take a communal, social awakening. We’re responsible for all our kids. All kids are our kids.
Big Brothers/ Big Sisters has offices in Juneau, Anchorage and Fairbanks, where volunteers are screened and matched up with a Little Brother or Sister. The requirement is to spend an hour a week with that kid, for a year. We have hundreds of kids on the waiting list, and we don’t have enough volunteers.
For information about Big Brothers/ Big Sisters call 278-2621, or go to http://www.bbbs-anchorage.org.