Anchorage Daily News responds to controversy stirred up by April/May 2006 Humanity News edition
On Sunday, May 7, 2006 the Anchorage Daily News published three articles about the April/May edition of Alaska Humanity News. Our stories on the way Alaskan arts organizations refuse to make judgments on the basis of moral or spiritual criteria was upsetting to those organizations, and the Daily News—the principal media outlet that reviews and promotes them—took this opportunity to explore (and, to some extent, to defend) the ideas of the arts status quo.
You can find the three articles they published here:
Art and morality: Article’s authors discuss high art and low spirituality
Artists, presenters bristle at idea of ‘objective standards,’ by Dawnell Smith
Nobody owns the franchise for truth and good taste, by Mark Baechtel
If you’d like to continue the discussion, click on one of the two buttons at the top of this page to enter our forums.
Alaskan grassroots ORGANiZiNG
An interview with Out North’s Gene Dugan and Jay Brause
by Kevin Cassity
(An abbreviated version is presented in the print edition of Alaska Humanity News.)
Shifts in political power, economies, social organization, and human consciousness often come not from political leadership, but from grassroots actions born from the ideas and convictions of individuals and initially small groups of individuals. From such ordinary beginnings outside the “corridors of power” come leaders like Nelson Mandela and Wangari Maathai, organizations like Amnesty international and Doctors Without Borders.
In this column, we’d like to take a closer look some Alaskan grassroots organizations and their attempts to create positive social change. Our intention is to better understand grassroots organizing and to help with the cross-fertilization of creative ideas and community resources.
In our first installment, we’ve interviewed Out North (ON) founder/director Gene Dugan and co-director Jay Brause. This interview comes on the heels of news that Gene and Jay will be leaving Out North, thus ushering in a new chapter in Out North’s development.
In this interview, Gene and Jay reflect on ON’s history and talk about the future of ON. Due to space limitations we’ve printed only a portion of the interview. Those who would like to read a more complete version of the hour and a half interview can find it online at http://www.humanitynews.net
First, a bit of history, from Out North publication, “An Out North Primer” :
Out North took flight from the imagination of Gene Dugan and other artist-activists who wanted to challenge and change Alaska through creation of contemporary art for under-served audience. in 1985, Out North Arts & Humanities was incorporated to promote that vision. it spent its first four years as a community-based project touring plays that examined gay and lesbian experience. in 1989, after a local professional theatre company closed its doors, Out North (ON) bought that theatre’s subscriber list and expanded its audience. in 1990, Jay Brause joined ON and began work to secure a permanent home for ON’s growing programs and audience. in 1991, ON moved to Grandview Gardens Cultural Center (a former neighborhood library) in a low-to-moderate income area of east Anchorage and began a writing program in an area youth detention facility. in 1993, ON expanded again by presenting new works by national and international artists in visual, performing and media discip and Jay Brause announced their plans to leave ON at the end of the year.
Since its founding in 1985, ON has weathered eight attacks on its public funding, winning in six of those fights and growing through it all. in 1992 it became the center of controversy while presenting Pomo Afro Homos, a gay African-American ensemble based in San Francisco. After the Anchorage Municipal Transit authorities refused to allow ON to place ads for the show on city buses, ON took the Municipality to court and won the right to place the ads. The mayor then vetoed a $19,000 Arts Commission’s grant to ON, but the Municipal Assembly unanimously overrode the mayor’s veto. From this struggle, ON received a national free speech award presented in New York at MoMA, and experienced an increase in national and local support. in 1997, after four more unsuccessful attempts to reduce or eliminate ON’s local public funding, a late night (and unobserved) move by Assembly opponents ushered in the most difficult funding battle in ON’s history. A $22,000 arts grant for ON was ON has received a number of awards for service and excellence, including a national award from the Rockefeller, Warhol, Nathan Cummings, Robert Sterling Clark, and Joyce Mertz-Gilmore Foundations for “Upholding the principle of freedom of expression in American life” (1993); Alaska Governor’s Award for the Arts (1996); Alaska Association for Volunteer Administration and BP (Golden Heart Award for volunteer program 1997); Best Live Theatre (Anchorage Daily News 1997); Best Arts Organization (Anchorage PRESS 1998); Metropolitan Community Church of Anchorage (Human Rights Award 2002); Standing Together Against Rape (Award for Community Service to Victims of Sexual Assault 2003); Planned Parenthood of Alaska (Award for Choice in Education 2005); Anchorage School District (Best Practices nominee, School Business Partnerships 2005) and Anchorage Mayor’s Arts Award (Youth Arts Education 2006).
AHN: Can you say a little more about how you got started, and your intentions, with an eye towards giving people an idea of how a grassroots organization might begin?
Gene: ON started as a desire to do one or two events a year that dealt with gay community issues in a theatrical way. it was Anchorage based, and then we got invitations to do productions around the state. Some data was collected in the spring of 85 ... in a statewide survey (of the gay and lesbian community) ... For that particular community at that time they did not see their lives positively portrayed in the popular media or anywhere and so there was a huge need from this community of people to see their lives on the stage, so one of the responses of Out North, Out North, was to serve this population.
AHN - Are there any experiences that stand out as most difficult or most rewarding in the time you’ve run ON.
Gene: I’ve been trying to think about a “most.” I haven’t come up with a “most” on either end of the spectrum ... (one experience that comes to mind is) watching the rehearsal of a play that we had commissioned… being performed on a balcony at a B & B overlooking the Asiatic after the play had been first done in New York and then at ON, where it was rewritten for touring, and redesigned, and then it went to Croatia where the play was actually set. We got to be there and be part of that.
Jay: And I think for me it was the juxtaposition of two forms of creating community that occurred on the same day. One was the funeral of my father, and we had a guest artist here that had a performance that night, and I had to excuse myself from the private gathering after that funeral service to attend to the artist and the audience we had here for a show called “interviewing the Audience” that was with Spaulding Gray. it was a brilliant night of connection between audience members who got to hear through skillful and humorous interviewing technique, their lives on stage before them. A hundred people in that room who totally enjoyed and were perplexed by their neighbors. And Spaulding made a comment, he had been here several days with his wife and his kids, skiing and such, and he said, “This place is an oasis,” meaning Out North. This is such a conservative state, and I didn’t realize how bad it was here, but then you’ve got this place.” And people r nd their heart and their soul has been powerful, and it happens time and time and time again here, so I’m perplexed by this question, what great moment, what meaningful moment do you want to hear.
Gene: They all seem small and insignificant, but to the people who experience it they’re life changing at times.
Jay: And that’s the privilege of doing this work. And we always connect the art to the audience with post show discussions, with workshops in the community, with the writing exercises that occur with artists or the would be artists. it’s not a simple matter of thinking that it’s about an attainment. it never has been.... it’s as simple as, and I know it will be offensive to some of your readers, but think of being a young gay person who for the first time sees two men kiss on the stage. this is a live real event, and that was in San Francisco for me in 1977. As a heterosexual person you grow up with that all the time, your mother your fathers model to you, it’s shown to you, it’s displayed as good, wholesome, God said, ‘Let there be,’ but for someone who’s gay or lesbian you get all the other messages, it’s wrong, it’s devious, it’s deceitful, it’s evil, it’s spiritually invalid by people who teach in spiritual traditions and religious Catherine Stadem, in an Anchorage Daily News review, said, “ Out North has raised the consciousness of the community on the subject of homosexuality, supported local playwriting, brought in cutting-edge performers from Outside and, after 20 years, has evolved into a place where making good art regardless of sexual orientation is the focus.” She’s one of the grand dames of criticism in theatre here in the state and for her to write that last year was really touching for us. Not that we’ll ever negate the importance of working for GLBT (gay/lesbian/bisexual/transsexual) issues, it’s incredibly important, but she’s also recognizing we do more than that, and I think that’s pretty good.
AHN: Where has your resistance in the community come from?
Spiritual ayatollahs, with ayatollah not being pejorative against a religion but rather to represent a class of people who believe they have God’s answers for the lives of people ... also fundamentalist preachers. The resistance comes from a culture that can devalue a whole people. it’s right next door to us.... Visiting artists are a little shocked to find us between two fundamentalist churches and not in a liberal neighborhood, one with cafe’s and art stores… rather than in an arts district.
AHN: Has there been any progress for you (in regards to) living with (religious/community) attitudes and actions that feel violent?
Gene: Not with the current legislature.
Jay: Not with the government of this country. We’ve understood decades before other people what the threat was to the democratic fiber of this country by the religious extremists of this country. We’re the canaries in the mine.... We have cultural and militant terrorists within our own borders who would go to war for who they believe to be Jesus Christ. it’s frightening. Do we reconcile with that element of our country? No, there’s no reconciliation. There is a civil war going on. Fortunately it’s a war of words and politics and money and power and influence.... Like Jews in Weimar Republic, we’re living in a bubble of growing tolerance, but I wonder if, like Jews in holocaust Europe, if we became too great a power, if we became too much accepted, if there might not be a reaction. I know that sounds very dark and very fearful, but the human history of one society after another has been the history of a reactive society taking away the gains of a minority. AHN: How have you changed personally over the time you’ve run ON?
Gene: Good question. I don’t know.
AHN: Has (this experience) been transformative?
Gene: Not transformative, but definitely changing from the focus of what I thought ON would be and would become to what it actually is. I thought it was going to be just an all-volunteer (organization) without a home that did one or two productions a year. After doing some gay issue plays, we looked at doing some things that dealt with topics in Latin America, political topics. And then sands kind of shifted and we got pushed one way and floated another way, and we got involved in a lot of issue oriented crossovers with art in the community, to the point that we decided to start bringing in professional artists from Outside who were doing work that was not being seen in Alaska, work that we felt was important, in order to start getting local artists to create their own work rather than replicating (works) that they could “take off the shelf.” it was a shift for me in seeing where the organization would go and also where art and culture in the community (would go).
AHN: How did that shift happen?
Gene: As much through my whim as through the support of the community.
Jay: I would say also from the deficit that you sometimes ran into. Where was the need? it’s not always asset based, but sometimes, “is there a hole?”
Gene: Right. Yeah, before the great AIDS plays, “As is, and “The Normal Heart,” we had a script that we tried to cast to bring some light to the AIDS issue and we couldn’t cast it locally. People were too afraid. that was a turning point where we said, okay, if we don’t have some people in town who are brave enough to do some of this, we need to bring people in....
Jay: What’s critical is that we were in and of the community making that invitation. It wasn’t as if it was something impressed upon the community from Outside. I grew up here from the time I was five years old and am well aware of preserving our own position. Sometimes it gets parochial, quite frankly, but many times it’s right because it’s trying to avoid colonialization. We are kind of third world in a way in our location geographically and in fact do have third world parts of our culture and economy. So I think that’s always a sensitive judgment call. So it’s not always being proactive; sometimes it’s being reactive that lets you make your best choices.
Gene: There was not only a lack of work for this gay and lesbian population to see themselves on stage, partly because they wouldn’t do it themselves. There wasn’t the bravery in the community to step out and say this is what I want to do.
Jay: And why was there (no bravery). There was no law that protected us in housing and employment, in our relationships…
Gene: ... there were people losing their jobs at that time…
Jay: ... and you still can (lose your job). In the military, as you know, you can’t serve this country right now, not that I think we should, but I mean it’s not an option for an openly gay or lesbian person in this country. I mean still, in 2006. in 1975 and 1976 we’d gone through the whole charter process in Anchorage in which we’d included sexual orientation as a protected class, I was part of that effort, and it got vetoed by then Mayor George Sullivan and they couldn’t sustain an override. I was looking at joining the Anchorage Equal Rights Commission that was newly formed, but I didn’t do that and years later when this opportunity came around to work for ON, in 1990, I began to realize, this is exactly what I wanted to do on the Anchorage Equal Rights Commission--rubbing elbows, spending time with people of different cultures, race, ethnicity, people of different class, people who had a different experience in this life than myself. ON became that place. ted from your nationality, your ethnicity, from within that language group to someone who’s gay and wants to see themself on the stage. Making the work happen where people create a bridge in their heart and mind is difficult work. We tend to separate, even those in the peace community-- they separate on different lines, politics, religious or spiritual attributes, whether you’re vegan or not, how pure are you in your food. We have these ways we divide. Our work is to find ways to get us in the same room. It’s never easy.
Gene: And at times we’re surprised at the positive reactions we get to our efforts. We were approached by VFA Arts in D.C. when they lost their affiliates in Alaska and they asked us to be the affiliate for arts and disability in the State, part of its international network, and we said, “Well, that’s not really what we do.” And they said, “Well, yes it is. You’re working with kids with learning disabilities, with youth programs, with performances, you’ve got a lift in the building that shows you’ve already taken that into consideration, you’ve got performers on stage who’ve got disabilities, you’ve got filmmakers with disabilities, you’ve got gay filmmakers with disabilities in your program, you’re covering it.” That was a proud moment. They really had to talk us into it, to take on this, on top of everything else that we do, but yes, it’s been rewarding.
AHN: Being as (running Out North) is difficult work, how do you sustain the energy to do it?
Jay: Well, we’re leaving (laughs). We’ve been burned out how many times? Fifteen dozen times? Jesus said 70 times seven for forgiving your neighbor. I think it’s basically that for us when it comes to swinging back from being burned out.
Gene: We’ve had several drafts of angry letters of resignation over the years…
Jay: ... to submit to our board.
Gene: But this time it wasn’t an angry resignation
Jay: It wasn’t. It was about making positive changes for ourselves.... I would really want to share with your reader that… if you really are a leader, it’s difficult. If you’re within a gang it’s easier. And a gang can be all running down George Bush over a pint, a gang can be all doing your yoga exercises with your zen master, a gang can be gang banging, but when you stand to leadership, when you in fact say here I am--and there’s not necessarily someone behind you--it’s easy to get burnt, and where do you find replenishment? My father was in the religious biz. He was a progressive minister. I claim no faith now, but I have a wellspring of worth taught from years as a child of knowing that I had intrinsic worth. And that’s why I was able to deal the (cultural) message that taught me that as a gay person I didn’t have value. What was greater was that message that I was valuable. I think if you’ve got that at the core you can always spring Gene: ... gay people telling us we were doing horrible things for the community because of it ...
Jay: ... rocking the boat, you know, “It’s dangerous for all of us if you flip the canoe, all these kinds of images,” and we went over to our local restaurant here, Sweet Pink Pepper, and we were sitting down, crying in our rice and feeling miserable for ourselves, and somebody caught our eye, a guy we didn’t know. He was at the ordering station and we were sitting down, and he caught our eye, and he wandered over to us, and (said), “I know you don’t know me, and it’s not important, I just want to thank you for the work that you’re doing. I know it must be tough.” I’m connected to the tears that I felt, the tears at such a deep and meaningful thanks for the risks that we took, the economic damage that we incurred, even (our) life safety, we felt, (was) at risk at times.
Gene: You could have given us a million dollars, and it wouldn’t have meant as much.
Jay: And unfortunately for our opposition in this state, he refueled us. That simple act, and it’s something I’d want everyone to understand who reads this interview. It doesn’t have to be that you give up your life for the cause, it can be just that simple act of thanking someone who took up their life for that cause, for you. Just buy them a cup of coffee sometime and say thank you. Especially when it’s unexpected .... If it’s Ethan Berkowitz who went on the line for you or some spiritual leader in the community who you think has it right. Have you ever thanked them? In that “shit happens, good things happen” sort of a way, for us on the receiving end, it’s an immensely important gift.
Gene: Another incident like that was when we were in front of the assembly to get their vote for purchasing this building and it was the same time as a funeral in the arts community, attended by our friends in the arts community, that filled the Atwood Hall--that’s how big it was--and we knew that the arts community wasn’t going to be there and we thought “Oh, well.” The surprise was that our neighbors, people from this neighborhood came, and they spoke out saying that they wanted this facility in their neighborhood. They talked about how good it was to have an arts group in their neighborhood. and parents talked about what great things we’ve done for their kids, and people ... came out because that meant something to them.... That was extremely gratifying.....
Jay: When Dan Sullivan, who was opposed to us getting the building, asked “Well, how many are here tonight--because he didn’t want to deal with all the testimony-- to testify in behalf of Out North, and three quarters, five sixths, of the house hands went up, and he said, ‘Oh it looks like about 150 people or so.” That’s incredible for an assembly issue, to have that kind of showing ... that’s grassroots ... and it comes from people deciding for themselves that (the support has been) earned.
AHN: How has the Anchorage community changed in the time ON has been here?
Jay: There was a story today about a new group, City Lights Theatre, out in Palmer that started to ... do this play that got ... censored by the Valley Performing Arts Board, the theatre out in Wasilla last year, and (so) a new company formed.... And I smiled… when I read that review because I said, “ I feel that a child has been born that’s of these loins,” from ON. Whether they recognize the parentage or not, I know in some way our being here and staying here has been an effect to that company’s existence .... People out there of moderate or liberal disposition, who want to see something more challenging than just another musical are saying, “My life has a void. I want something that speaks to me.” And they’ve asked for this company to be that. And an audience showed up, and they’re feeling pretty good, and they should be because they just had that experience. But i’ll tell you what. Twenty years ago it wouldn’t have happened .... We wereGene: Yeah, we’re constantly being told, “Why don’t you do this show, because (whispers) we can’t do it.” Vagina monologues was one of those. So we did it. It was this big wicked thrill in Anchorage. We sold out. We extended. And then there were other productions happening in Anchorage. It kind of opened the door. We’ve done that several times in our history.
Jay: Posters were being torn down for that production. This was just like five or six years ago. Postal carriers who weren’t delivering the mailing carton that we sent out on a route, and I can name you the street, out in Eagle River. You know, things like that were going on for the Vagina Monologues. You know, it wasn’t a lesbian work or something. What we got from that though, was that both Planned Parenthood of Alaska an Standing Together Against Rape both recognized that as having really contributed to the dialogue about women’s lives in this community, and honored us with awards in 2003 and 2005. And we were so taken by that. My mother was born before women had the right to vote in this country, and it always struck me that here was this person who was a second class citizen, and in her lifetime had that change occur, and how much more work there is still to be done to value all people....
AHN: Are there any other organizations in Anchorage that have stepped out in ways have helped you and heartened you in your work?
Gene: There are many organizations that have an affinity for what we do… sometimes we’re able to work together, and sometimes we’ve got to do our own thing too.
Jay: I think one area where we provided leadership, and the fruits of that labor are being seen, is with kids who are marginalized, economically, racially, and with disability, and also incarceration. We started in 1991 working with a direct in-reach program with McLaughlin Youth Center, way before other groups were doing that, and didn’t get a dime from it. It’s just that we felt really strongly about it because Gene and I had both experienced growing up, friends who got off on the wrong track, who damaged their lives and their relationships to people, who became what is called “criminal.” But we believe steadfastly that you can never give up on anyone. So we started that work, and we watched our peers start doing it too--not copycat, they have their own way and reason for doing it--but I know that they’ve seen that you can do that work and it makes sense, and they’ve stepped into the role as well. Sometimes it’s competitive. They get funds now that we u With regards to other groups that have been helpful to us in terms of their own work, Cyranos, certainly, has put on more difficult work as part of the repertoire of doing contemporary American theatre. They come at it from an artistic practice, not one that ties necessarily to having a social impact. We’re deliberate about that. For them it’s more like an effect. But we are soul-mates in a way as companies. The University has taken on, occasionally, some work that is ... much riskier than I think they might have done without our example, and before this sounds like tooting our own horn, which I don’t want (to do), each company takes risk that is appropriate for their audience. Each group takes risk that advances their own edge as they feel they can.
For us, some of the other places we draw some solace.... The Design Forum has brought up some really great idea people that are food for the mind. Bunnell Street Gallery down in Homer is an incredible organization.
Gene: Beyond our Anchorage borders, what’s been really important for us in our growth as an organization and our ability to serve the Anchorage community is that we’ve become very well connected nationally and internationally (via) The National Performance Network, the National Association of Media Arts and Culture, Network of Cultural Centers of Color, Youth Media Network, and through some very specific venues throughout the country and overseas.
Jay: So it’s not always here. It’s also the world community that we take our cue from.
AHN: What would you like to see in terms of the future of ON?
Jay: Affordable housing for cultural workers. We have an arts and culture district that doesn’t yet encompass that, and it needs to. The new Mountain View arts and culture district really needs to get on the ball and make sure that this company is part of envisioning how artists will be part of that community. In order to create a creative community you have to have more than the condition of a space in which to create work. You also have to have a livelihood, and artists by and large choose a life that’s certainly more difficult than many, where there’s no salary schedule or benefits. And for us as community to turn a blind eye to it’s creative forces isn’t a wise practice. ON has been working for years now and I’m hoping that my successor will be successful in getting, a village if you will, a housing community together, where people of creative conscience can live together and start creating that space. That’s really critical. It’s something I’mAHN: How have you been working towards that?
Jay: In 97 the board changed the articles of incorporation to include affordable housing, and that was approved through the iRS, so that’s a really important thing… that means a lot legally. Then we did that demonstration project of moving a home that was going to be destroyed because of a renewal project in Mountain View and we relocated it, new foundation, fixed it up, and sold it to a First Time Home Buyer, and did it successfully. I was the contract manager for it. That was the same year we were under attack for all this stuff going on and I was so busy keeping the ball in the air it was impossible to move that forward. We started working with some national consultants. We got some national funding to do some studies. We identified a space to do a project. And now we’re at a point where we’ve done the feasibility studies, all that type of stuff, we’re ready to move forward with financing .... That’s the next step. To me it was bittersweet toAHN: What’s the criteria for that type of housing? Does an artist have to show work?
Jay: Yep, and they have to show intention--and (in this intention we are) different than many of our colleagues and friends-- to give back to the community. It’s not just about getting. You have to be purposeful about what your intention is--in what you will give as far as arts education to youth in the area, as far as what you might do for installation or your performance work in the community. We’re looking at making a quid quo pro of sorts on some level of how you would be part of that community. To what degree do you need to make a livelihood from your art? There’s all sorts of standards on that, and we’d probably choose a pretty minimal one. A threshold usually taken is that at least 10% of your household income is derived from your work and your art. And then that you have some sort of portfolio that shows your training and your abilities, and it’s adjudicated by a panel of peers. There’s going to be a screening committee that does a financial reviewGene: There are a lot of artists who are hermits, but this is not the kind of project for a hermit artist.
Jay: This is why we’d like this to happen in a place like Mountain View, which is supposed to be about building community, and artists can very much be part of that. We know this. We’ve already had artist, visiting artists, stay long term in houses that we’ve had in Mountain View. They start playing basketball in the neighborhood, the whole thing, (artists) who knew who was scoring what drugs and who sells what on the street and who knows who’s in what gang, (artists) who knew the life blood of the community. Those are the artists we want to work with. They’re not people who come to walk on the stage and then go to a wine and cheese party afterward. That’s not what we want. And that’s what a lot of people think artists are about.
AHN: It seems that in this transition to a new directorship of ON, you’re offering a lot of hard work, risk, vulnerability, and probably not a lot of financial reward--a difficult job. Do you see people stepping up, taking an interest in filling those shoes? What is your sense of how the passing of the baton might happen or if it might happen at all?
Gene: I think we’ve been connected enough nationally and internationally that ... we don’t really have any fear that there will be nobody who will step up to the plate.
Jay: Because he’s the artistic side and I’m the business side (of ON), it’s more complex for me because there’s real stresses and strains for organizations in these type of transitions. A huge one is, “How do you honor the founder’s vision and at the same time not have it cast in concrete.” We’re creative people, so our successors necessarily will be creative forces as well. They’re going to want to imprint this company, and I would not want to see anyone hired for this company who thinks their job is simply to follow what Lennon set out, you know, here’s the people’s vision of the utopian state and you will follow the orders. No. One of the reasons we knew we had to leave the state is that it will be tough to watch those changes if we were close. This is the time for the child to step out on his or her own, and for us not to see the foibles, for us not to see the missteps, for us not to say, “Ohmygod what did they just do.” We recently We’re wondering if we might not engage the (Anchorage) community and say, ‘Here’s what we think we should do. What do you think?” We’re still putting the pieces together on it, but we’re hoping we can do it in late April. Leadership of this organization, staff and board and key artists are now very busy on trying to see if we can put together with this consultant friend of ours a two day “empanelment” of our community to talk about the “what next.” This is the first time we’re talking about it publicly. This is a recent idea. it’s just one week old. We’re still running it through board at this time, but we have the consultant willing to come. We know the organization is going to have to have a big bump up in what are called “unrestricted funds.” A lot of money that comes into an organization like ours is restricted by a grant or a donor, or it’s for a specific purpose, and you can actually wind up not having the money to pay a salary, or the light bill, and if we’re going to leave to our successors the tool they need more than any other, it’s cash flow. We’re going to have to ask our community, “Do you value this organization enough to help us put that money in the bank?” We’ve got to ask that question, and we don’t know what the answer will be. Because without sufficient cash flow, our salaries now are not competitive for a national call for our replacements. That’s not a criticism of the organization, it’s a fact of life. (Director salaries) have got to be bumped up by atGene: We pay light, heat, gas, water, trash removal like anyone else. It’s not a luxury.
Jay: And then there’s a third element that’s so critical. Gene has been constrained time and time again from being able to bring in an artist whose work would really excite artists and students and audience here because we simply didn’t have the money. If we really want to bring something here that we know would excite the imagination of an audience there has to be more money. There’s a huge shift that has occurred in the working environment of the non-profit community in this country. It’s been a very calculated casualty of the Republican philosophy of this country, which is in dominance right now, which is “local communities must support what is locally enjoyed.” Well, local communities don’t have those resources either, so the arts and quite a few other areas--what we call ‘the life of the mind’--have been underfunded in this country. Certainly we’re in one of those fields. We’re at the bottom of the heap as far as wage scale and stuff We need to be advertising for our replacements by June. That can be out of the bag. The board will put out the announcements for positions in June. We’ll still be here, we’ll still be working, we’ll still going to be trying to raise money, do all these these things for the transition of the organization.
AHN: Can you say more about the role of the board?
Gene: They hire and fire us. but that’s more for another issue.
Jay: We feel very strongly there needs to be a retooling of the business models available for entrepreneurship in the non-profit community. “Risk and return” it’s called in the business world, and we don’t have return for risk in the non-profit field. We have been as entrepreneurial as any of our friends who started up businesses, and at the end of 20 years of work we walk away with, the word is “bupkis” (nothing). We have no equity. and as a social justice issue it is profoundly affecting the non-profit community....
Gene: Somebody asked “You’re going to cash in your retirement?” “What retirement?”
Jay: We didn’t get health insurance till two and half years ago and that’s quite typical for smaller non-profits.... It’s a tough area to work in and yet the entrepreneurial risk and reward system doesn’t exist. That’s why we want to make sure there’s more money in the bank, so our successors are treated better. I’m not mad at the board on this.... It’s a systemic problem. Here we are trying to change the world and we do nothing to help ourselves. It’s a problem.
10 - AHN: Can you say anything more about your future plans?
Gene: If we told you we’d have to kill you.
Jay: One thing we can let people know is we’re holding onto our house. Regardless of where we go we’re holding on to our house. We haven’t left alaska even if we leave it. who knows. We may even keep our voter registration here.
AHN: Anything else you’d like to say?
Gene: Community development is what our organization is all about. Art is how it happens.
Jay: I think among a lot of your readers there’s this real innate respect for native cultures. The idea that the more we can give back to the land, the more in sync we are with what our natural rhythms are as a people and a species. And I’d like to interject for people who have that type of observation on life that “Where is art in these systems but front and center of the fire?”--the storytelling, the dance, the drum, all those things are artifacts of art, language itself, and yet we displace it rather than be with it. If you want to understand something of what we call “primitive culture” and (see) where they’ve got it right, they never separated art from life. People felt badly for me having gone from the peace and justice, environmental, civil rights work that I cut my eye teeth on, and I went into the arts and they said, “How could you do that? How could you go into something so unimportant?”
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Photos of Bolivia
Looking for photos of the mines in Bolivia? Click here.
Unheard Voices in the August, 2005 issue of Alaska Humanity News looks at the life of Walter Rodriguez, a miner in Potosi, Bolivia. (See Archives for the article.)
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Conscious Business Alliance forming now!
The Conscious Business Alliance is a group of businesses and customers who promote humane ways of selling and buying. Our goal is to support each other in creating a business climate where doing good is just as important as earning money. We seek to be honest, caring, and thoughtful about all the ways in which doing our business has an effect.
What is mechanical does not have to be prior in human relationships. Businesses do not exist only to make a profit and to provide a service that is appealing to customers. They also create fulfilling livelihoods, products and services. Meaning, quality, and care should always come first. This goal of the Conscious Business Alliance is to support this way of doing business.
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The Summer issue of Alaska Humanity News will look at the operating principles of major Alaskan businesses. In accordance with our new operating principle, invoked as a result of the insipid response to our issue on arts in Alaska (April/May 2006), we are designing a program that expresses our views about this.
Our new principle is that in every edition of our paper we will create or support a positive, tangible, program or event that is a response to the flawed news that we uncover. The ‘positive, tangible’ program for the issue on business is the Conscious Business Alliance. Return here, or pick up the summer paper, for news of this crucial, absent institution.
Survey finds local arts organizations lack objective standards for morality
By Crystal Hutchens
Research by Jennifer Johnson
Alaskan arts organizations do not have standards to judge what is beneficial for viewers, according to a recent survey undertaken by Alaska Humanity News. Most do not have any standards at all to judge what is of transcendent or universal significance in artwork; although a minority of groups claimed to have personal or implicit values for judging what was meaningful, none had explicit standards of this kind.
Leaders of Alaskan arts organizations demonstrated a great deal of concern for being of service to Alaskans, and deepening awareness seems important to all who responded. But even when improving the welfare of citizens is a written objective of the organizations, as is the case with the Alaska Council on the Arts, such ideas are often not taken seriously. According to Charlotte Fox, director of the organization, “That’s our enabling legislation, which was written in 1966, forty years ago. ‘Welfare’ may have had a different meaning then. The enabling legislation is quite quaint, because they talk about how people have more leisure time, and therefore we need to have a state agency that provides arts and cultural events. Welfare and moral quality do not have a direct a connection as far as our work goes.”
Ira Perlman, director of the Alaska Humanities Forum, is clear that moral and spiritual values do play a role in their programs and in the grants that they make, but only implicitly, through the personal views of the members of the panel that makes those decisions. The standards are not explicit or objective.
Many of those who responded to our survey felt it was not their duty to judge artists by any standards in particular. Out North, for one, suggested that ur questions should be directed to the artists themselves. But we were digging deeper for a response from the people who do choose what art to display.
We addressed our survey to many more art organizations and venues than we received responses from. Some did not respond at all and some, like the Rasmussen Foundation, which gives out grants and fellowships to working artists, said our questions did not apply to them, despite the fact that there is a lengthy application process to be considered for a grant. The International Gallery of Arts responded to our survey by sending the answers to questions another newspaper had asked them in the past. It included their mission statement, but failed to directly address our specific questions.
Those who make the decisions about what art is made available to the public are in control of what comes through to the consumer or the participant in any art form. This survey is an attempt to make sense of how those decisions are being made.
The following is a selection of responses from organizations that responded to the survey. The complete interviews, along with a summary of the mission statements of each organization, appear on our website.
1. On what basis do you decide what works to promote, exhibit, or perform? How do you determine what ideas are worthy of expression?
Alaska Center for the Performing Arts (ACPA)
Interview with Codie Costello, Director of Development
The ACPA is not a producing organization. The facility is owned by the Municipality of Anchorage, and managed by the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. The seven resident companies and other clients that use the facility determine their own programming based on their mission and goals
Snow City Café
Interview with Laile M. Fairbairn
We choose artists that reflect a variety of media, and who seem to have a cohesive theme or style. The cohesiveness of the show is important to us because we want our customers, who are at the cafe primarily to eat the food rather than view art work, to understand that one artist is showing his or her work and not a hodgepodge
Cyrano’s
We choose a season that is eclectic, and for artistic reasons. There must be a passion factor involved.
Out North
Out North provides opportunities for contemporary creative visual, literary, performing and media artists to exhibit original work. As we support both professional and community-based artists, we embrace a wide range of work and expression that very often reflects a progressive value system, at its heart.
Radio Free Palmer (http://www.radiofreepalmer.org. Not yet broadcasting)
Interviews with David Cheezem, Mike Chmielewski, and Jim Sykes
Webcasts of public meetings to invite people to cooperate and solve common problems. Interview programs and debates that focus on current issues are also envisioned. The station is envisioned as an open and grassroots oriented station. Issues that affect the community broadly will likely receive top priority.
Alaska State Council on the Arts (ASCA)
Interview with Charlotte Fox, Executive Director
We don’t make decisions based on what is worthy of expression. Rather they are based on artistic excellence and creativity, and all the criteria that you can find on our website.
Alaska Humanities Forum
Interview with Ira Perman, President.
Like every organization in a democracy, our decisions are made by committee. It is difficult to do. No one person makes those decisions. And they are generally made in response to requests.
Anchorage Symphony Orchestra
Interview with Sherri Burkhart Reddick, Executive Director
For us there is a long history of repertoire. We have a whole history. These works have stood the test of time. What is the piece that we haven’t done in a while? And things relate through time and in history. It’s our sixtieth anniversary.
2. Is the effect of the cultural work on the inner life of the viewer an important variable in your decision-making? If so, in what way? (For example, the effect on sensitivity, imagination, or understanding.)
ACPA
Refers to the answer of question 1
Snow City Café
Not answered
Cyrano’s
Theater is a two way street and does not exist without the audience. We always hope that what we choose is not only entertaining but enlightening but also sparks the mind and heart and imagination. In addition, theater has the power to evoke understanding or at least to consider another point of view, along with the universals that connects us all.
Out North
We work with our community, artists and ideas as if this were a holy space without the dogma. We’ve found our audience wants us not to make their art easy, but challenging and rich in the possibilities of understanding a common human condition across what would seemingly separate us.
Radio Free Palmer
(RFP combined answers 2-5 into one multi-layered statement)
What role does a radio station have in defining these terms? I would say that the role has to be pretty minimal. We are a conduit for the artistic community. As such, we should try and represent as broad as possible range of content, allowing the community to define that range. One thing we cannot be in the business of is defining good art. Even if we could define it, I don’t think it would be good for the community to restrict all expressions to ‘good art.’
People don’t like to admit it, but every piece of ‘good art’ is built on a foundation of ‘bad art’ that preceded it. Good artists need bad artists to work off of--even if we were qualified to
decide what was ultimately beautiful, doing so would do more damage than good.
ASCA
I would say, No. That’s not an issue, for us as a public agency. How people are going to respond to a work of art is not part of our mandate or mission.
Alaska Humanities Forum
We look for this quality [of understanding] in general in our grants. For example, in research grants, where someone is trying to uncover a piece of history, this is a process of helping to understand how we got to where we are. Especially in a state like Alaska, aside from natives a lot of us come from someplace else, and we are detached to some degree from our history. We try to encourage everyone, in one way or another, to ask those important questions–of who we are, and what are our values.
Anchorage Symphony Orchestra
It is interesting in symphony orchestra: we are selective and yet it is a personal experience. I see people leave the concert hall and they are like ‘wow,’ ‘wow’. We had a concert after 9-11 and never was it more apparent. We saw people coming together. We selected certain pieces that we had collected. We felt people needed to come together and they needed to be reminded of beauty.
3. Does culture have a moral quality? Do cultural venues have a moral responsibility for the consequences of their productions? Do you seek out works that have a strong vision of what is good, true, or beautiful?
ACPA
As mentioned above, ACPA is not a producing organization. Alaska Center for the Performing Arts is a venue that seeks to provide a safe and pleasant environment for all patrons, enabling access to programming of their choosing. Each client manages their own marketing and communications in relation to their productions.
Cyrano’s
The works that we produce can have that outcome, but what we look for is vision and substance, and that might ask questions rather than simply provide answers.
Out North
Insomuch as art, philosophy and science deal with matters of the mind and body, and how we relate to one another and our world, yes. It doesn’t require that all we do be good, true or beautiful. Art, like nature itself, is gloriously and ingloriously all that it is.
ASCA
I guess if we talk about the moral as being something that could be pornographic I would say yes. I’m sure that art does have a moral quality, but whether that is a concern of ours, or something that we ponder in our work, I would say no. We don’t address this. None of our criteria is based on any kind of a moral quality, so I would say no.
Alaska Humanities Forum
Culture itself does have moral qualities....One of our goals is to reinforce and remind people of those qualities. It applies morals and values, good and evil. They’re all embedded in culture. It’s a code. The Ten Commandments is clearly a cultural foundation of Western culture....As I’ve watched it play out around this table, morality is an intrinsic part of our discussions. Our members have this deeply embodied in their instincts
Anchorage Symphony Orchestra
Of course – it is the culture. I don’t know how you can separate it! We create our culture. I don’t see how you CAN separate them. Obviously, we set out to enhance the quality of life that can be what is good, true or beautiful. Sometimes you have to play what is not – like a performance we had on the AIDS crisis, or a piece from the movie Platoon
4. What is the role of spirituality in the cultural works you endorse? Does culture affect the ability to grasp noble ideas and to lead a noble life? What is the source of these qualities? In your artistic works do you look for a spiritual dimension?
ACPA
not answered
Snow City Café
not answered
Cyrano’s
I would say the answer to your question is yes. In most plays there is a transformation of some sort. This was the original purpose of theater and of course, story telling in general. Sometimes we do hope to inspire with the plays we do.
Out North
Inspiration is one of the true forces of art and culture. Because we look for work that can either challenge or inspire, we feel we offer the world as it may be and as it could be. We promote an examined life where one considers not only one’s own well-being but also the well-being of others.
ASCA
Some grants and programs have a great deal of spirituality and some have very little, but again that’s something that is determined by the audience or the viewer, and not by us. We look at a work or a piece or a painting or a score, and we don’t make that kind of judgment in our criteria.
Alaska Humanities Forum
It’s intrinsic in the word ‘culture’ that spirituality is there to some degree. Perhaps certain works are less likely to bring this out than others. I know that in the performing arts world there is a magical quality that can sing out to you, and that makes your soul soar.
Anchorage Symphony Orchestra
I don’t think you can answer spirituality in a sentence or two. We do not necessarily approach our decision on its spiritual impact. W have some work that is expressive of spirituality, and some that is expressive of sadness. It isn’t necessary to make those choices in terms of spirituality. But, it is not from our perspective the number one choice. We are sharing not only spiritual impact but emotional impact.
5. Will you promote a work that is violent, obscene, or degrading? What role does the ugly, the vulgar, the base, the corrupt, the deceitful, the dishonest, the false, the vile, and the wicked play in cultural venues? Do these destructive qualities have a role in the works you support?
ACPA
not answered
Snow City Café
We do not show work that we think the general public would find disturbing while eating their pancakes. We had a painting of Jesus bleeding from his nipples and an anatomically correct male Ken doll on a pedestal that we thought, in hindsight, weren’t appropriate for our audience.
Cyrano’s
A theater reflects the people involved and our taste in plays. Sometimes the words/values you suggest are part of piece because triumph over these concepts (good winning over evil) is what creates the conflict. There has to be conflict in a good piece of theater. I think your question is not well put.
Out North
Yes, without ugliness we cannot know beauty. Additionally, too often majority culture defines what ‘ugly’ and ‘beauty’ is, and sometimes very wrongly for a minority culture. Important art necessarily deals with this paradox in definition and practice.
ASCA
I hope not. But, again, that is in the mind of the viewer. No. We wouldn’t say we’re not going to fund that because it is violent, or because it is not violent. That’s not part of our criteria. I think of Shakespeare. There’s a whole history of violence and deceit in theater, that is all part of a reflection of people’s lives. In theater you will see a piece that has violence or that is degrading, but the whole point of the piece is to come to some kind of resolution that that is not a good thing.
Alaska Humanities Forum
Absolutely these qualities exist in works of art, although it may be driving at the opposite of these things. It’s not all beautiful. There may be a value in catching someone’s attention by bringing something shocking. To cause them to question. You might get a better understanding of what beauty can be. The Hunchback of Notre-Dame: was he ugly? Was he beautiful? Posing the question is
important.
Anchorage Symphony Orchestra
Sometimes the only way to demonstrate beauty is through the beautiful overcoming the ugly. In the repertoire of music through orchestra we understand the performers intent, and there are decisions to be made with the placement of the repertoire to be heard. There are characters, opera and different stories with a heroic ending. The beauty of humanity will overcome.
6. Is there anything else you’d like to say about the state of the arts in Alaska, or in your own endeavors?
ACPA
not answered
Snow City Café
I bought a bumper sticker from Killer Designs—“The artless are in charge of funding the arts.” I totally believe that. Showing art at the cafe is our way of supporting the arts.
Cyrano’s
The state of the Arts needs more media coverage so people are aware of the thriving arts offerings there are. Alaska is fortunate to have such a rich variety of arts and artists.
Your questions seem to want simplistic answers. It reminds me of a survey that is wanting certain answers and slants the questions. And although what your getting at I may or may not agree with, it forces me to an ACLU position of first amendment rights of free expression of art and artists.
Out North
Out North respects the life of the mind, therefore choices regarding content and intent are rightfully the artists’. We have a choice to view or not view artists’ work. These twin freedoms—of expression and choice—are as sacred to us as the Bible may be to you.
Radio Free Palmer
From the response to the relatively simple act of making available podcasts of meetings, interviews and talks--I submit that Alaskans seem to thirst for information about activities that affect them.
Observing the increased activities of organizations such as the Palmer Arts Council and their current well-received production of {proof} suggests that at least here in the Mat-Su Arts are enjoying a lively surge of creativity.
ASCA
I pride ourselves – the State of Alaska – and I admire the individuals and organizations that persist in bringing arts to their communities in little, tiny spots. Despite money and geography, they say, “We’ve got to bring the arts to our communities.”
Alaska Humanities Forum
It’s a constant effort. We’re trying to make Alaska a better place – that’s a two second summary of what we’re trying to do.
It’s a challenging field to be in. In this crazy day and age, in which people are just trying to make it day to day, paycheck to paycheck, people don’t have a lot of time. It’s hard to think of the big questions. But you’ve got to live your life by some code. Your life has to have meaning.
Anchorage Symphony Orchestra
I am always wanting to encourage people to participate. I hear people who received concert tickets and then they were hooked. I always encourage people to hear the music. I can’t see life without music and not just music but arts and cultures too.
mission statements
ICGA
The mission of the International Gallery of Contemporary Art (IGCA) is to present new works in visual and interdisciplinary arts, to provide the community with a place where provocative ideas, diverse art forms, artists and audiences can come together, to offer a point of view that encourages vision, risk-taking and discovery, and to be an art space where experimentation and risk are still
possible.
Alaska Center for the Performing Arts
Alaska Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. is an organization founded to operate, promote and maintain a four-theatre complex which serves as a social and cultural meeting place for all Alaskan residents, the visiting public and performing arts presenters and producers. In addition, it promotes the artistic endeavors of all Center users and presents special events which complement other activities and enrich our community.
Snow City Café
Our cafe has a mission statement about the food, atmosphere, etc., but I assume you want our mission statement regarding artwork. We don’t have one—essentially, we strive to provide our customers and staff with an interesting and varied show every month. I’ve never tried to articulate our art mission before so I’m not sure how it will stand the test of time.
Cyranos
To provide a full season of professional-quality live performances of
classic, contemporary and original plays. We cultivate and nurture
Alaskan Theater Artists. We strive to bring the very best theatre
possible to Alaskan audiences at affordable ticket prices.
Outnorth
We have a mission, but we prefer to answer this question with our “guiding principles”. It helps give someone a deeper insight into our organization. Here it is:
Out North’s its all about: creating and connecting art, community and change. We work: to discover and share cultural explorers whose ideas challenge and inspire our lives; to build lasting and momentary space where all generations gather and learn; and to raise up, through the arts and humanities, people marginalized in our times. We value: creativity | supporting creation and circulation of contemporary ideas and work in the arts. expression | exploring our life and times fearlessly through the arts and humanities. community | building a community of learners who welcome gay and lesbian people. change | serving as catalysts for progressive culture and policies in our region. stewardship | respecting our mission, work and values in all we do.
Radio Free Palmer
Radio Free Palmer is a non-profit formed to establish, develop and operate a radio station in the Palmer area to facilitate building
an informed, involved, diverse and reflective community and to
provide broad citizen access and participation in radio.
Alaska State Council on the Arts (ASCA)
The Alaska State Council on the Arts exists to enhance cultural development in the state by ensuring that art of the highest quality is accessible to all Alaskans.
Alaska Humanities Forum
The mission of the Alaska Humanities Forum is to use the wisdom and methods of the humanities to enrich the civic, intellectual and cultural life of all Alaskans. The Alaska Humanities Forum engages Alaskans in humanities-based projects and innovative programs which are either funded by the Forum or run directly by the Forum.
Anchorage Symphony Orchestra
No mission statement given
Editorial
America has no soul
How strange it is that some of the most beautiful, thoughtful, and even compassionate Alaskans are willing to devote themselves to what is insensitive and ugly. The very people who have the greatest creative influence on society - artists and directors of cultural organizations - often devote themselves to the cause of freedom of expression, even when this means promoting pieces that are harmful. How is it that these people, who devote their lives to creativity, have become so utterly disconnected from moral or spiritual realities? That is the enigma which we were struck by in conducting interviews for the front page article in this issue of Alaska Humanity News.
Our sensitivity to the power of art is inadequate. The important issues have not been part of the conversation and are being forcible removed from it. As the director of the Alaska State Council on the Arts claimed in an interview for this issue, the idea that art should serve the public welfare, which is still a part of their mission statement, is now considered to be quaint.
It is impossible to be neutral. In failing to take a stand for what is good or true, the floodgates are opened to their opposites. Of course, artists almost always maintain that the violent or materialistic things they describe serve only to point to what is good. But even when this is the intent, there is only so much profanity a person can take before their spirit is injured.
Art can shatter as easily as it can create. Profane or obscene material shatters sensitivity to beauty. Our inner life hangs in the balance: once corrupted, love is impossible.
It may seem that local arts venues are not responsible for such dire potential consequences. But these are the gatekeepers of culture. By opening the floodgates, there is no way to control what is overrun downstream.
In a future issue of Humanity News we will take a look at popular culture, and the sorry truth is that this is a pornographic culture. America has no soul. But what is the soul? Understanding that is, in fact, the goal of great art, of art that would be worthy of our potential.
The great arts wake people up to their higher nature. They call us to what is best and truest. They lift us up, make us whole, and strengthen us to fight degradation. They are a response to the failure of culture, and to the emptiness of institutions.
It’s not easy being raised in our own culture, as we all are. Innocence, purity, and simplicity is bred out of us, and with this goes the facility for joy. Goodness cannot coexist with depravity.
It is quite possible to walk into Cyrano’s theatre, our wonderful local playhouse, and see a play that demolishes common sense about what is good, for example by exploring the legitimacy of having sexual feelings for an infant. This is considered daring because the playwright, Edward Albee, had the right credentials.
Our respectable cultural venues often have absolutely no sense of the difference between right and wrong, because there is no longer any way to establish a hierarchy and judge these qualities. That is why one of our long-term goals is to create a framework for judging art and holding accountable artists and those who support art for the ramifications of what they are doing. But our hope is to actually create a culture of care - by standing up for the good, true, beautiful, and sacred, and making artistic creativity of this kind a part of daily life.
Unheard voices
By Geoff Bederson
The wild story of a hardened criminal fighting Alaska’s crooked cops, and how change is possible
This is the abbreviated version of the interview with Danny Hill, which was printed in the April/May edition. The full interview will be uploaded to this site soon.
I had hired Danny because he seemed to be the gentlest of all the carpenters that applied for the job. It turned out that he is also a wonderfully skilled carpenter, able to judge angles and curves without even using tools.
I knew something strange was going on when the entire group of tradesmen that Danny had surrounded himself with turned out to be ex-prisoners. Later I found out that Danny had been quite a different a person than he is now, and the more I learned about the story of his transformation the more I was captivated and inspired.
Reading your unpublished book, I felt that the stories of high-speed chases and thefts from crooked policemen were strangely exciting.
Danny Hill: The book was intended to be nothing more than the truth about a five month period when I had escaped from prison. I escaped to seek my revenge on the crooked cops that had locked me up, and it became a very lucrative thing to do.
It was nothing but revenge at first, but when I robbed the first one I came out with hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, fully automatic weapons, and explosives and rocket launchers. There were guns that had been reported destroyed by the Anchorage Police Department. There was four kilos of cocaine and two kilos of heroin, and all of these things were in my possession. They all came out of this one crooked cop’s home. Originally it was nothing more than revenge, but then, it was very profitable.
According to Anchorage’s Most Wanted and also America’s Most Wanted, and according to the police, I was public enemy number one in this state. Not because of any kind of violence, but because the crimes I committed were well thought out and timed. They weren’t just random acts, so the police considered that it was organized crime.
Talking about all that was the original intention of the book. But now I’d like to talk about the change between who I used to be, and who I’m trying very hard to become. The book was going to end when I was arrested five months later, and it was a pretty big bust. But a lot of things have happened since then. Now it’s going to be about what happened after that period, where I gave my life to God and I turned my life around, and I decided to become someone else.
Why did you go to jail the first time?
I was growing weed and they couldn’t catch me. I was making $120,000 every ninety days, and the cops wanted their cut. They couldn’t get their cut, so to get me out of the way they fabricated the first thing that they put me in jail for. And after that I was full of hatred.
I had money problems. That’s what led me to making big money growing marijuana. But I later found out that what was missing in my life was a sense of purpose, and a sense of belonging, and a sense of importance. And that importance I felt from being in the drug scene, and controlling everyone else. That was a powerful position to be in.
Once in prison I was driven by hatred. I was put in prison for something I didn’t do, and they knew that I didn’t do it. Now, I’m not claiming to be an innocent man. I was guilty of other things that they couldn’t pin on me. I committed a lot of crimes. I’m just innocent of what they charged me with.
I was known as the Rabbit because I would escape three times per week to smuggle tobacco. I would walk three miles. They couldn’t prove it. I was supporting three families. They knew I was doing it, but they couldn’t catch me.
I was in and out of prison for eleven years. For eleven years I was always on some type of supervision.
Why did you get started on the wild crime spree you describe in your book?
I started to do it for money. It was like cornering the market, because who else wanted to do it? Who else wanted to steal this incredible bounty from those crooked cops?
We bought tickets to Belize. Everything was planned. Four times we left the airport in high-speed chases. Four times we lost everything that we had. Several times the place we were staying in or had just left got raided. It was an exciting but horrible experience, one that I don’t ever want to go through again. But I’ve never felt that much excitement in my life.
Some of the scams we were pulling would have been viewed as impossible to pull. Once you reach the point where you have nothing to lose, tomorrow is promised to no man. The people running with me probably weren’t going to see tomorrow anyway, and we all just accepted that. Once you accept the fact that you have nothing to lose, then everything is to gain. And instead of being afraid of what you are doing, you just get excited about it.
It turned into a five month-long crime spree that I’m not proud of, but it’s part of my life. And I don’t deny it.
It seems that most of your criminal activity was directed at corrupt police officers.
It was. But I don’t want to make myself out to be a saint. I was definitely a threat to society. I was a very angry individual. I felt like I had nothing to lose, because I was on the run. I knew that my life was not worth a hill of beans, because the police officers were out there on the streets, bribing drug addicts, bribing prostitutes, to find me. And I knew that when they found me they were going to kill me.
The way everything played out they didn’t have an opportunity to do that. But I believe they’ll follow through with it eventually.
Reading your book it seemed that though you were committing crimes, at the same time you were fighting injustice. To what extent do you think you were actually doing good?
In my mind I was aiding justice. But, honestly, I don’t think I had any intention of doing good. I didn’t have good in my heart. I had a lot of love in my heart, for certain people. I had a lot of hatred in my heart for unjust people. I never held it against it against homeless people for doing what they had to do to survive. I did hold it against people who had an option, and who were in a position of power, when they chose to be unjust, immoral, corrupt. That’s what I truly hated.
Most criminals are willing to admit what they are, who they are. They’ll tell you, I’m a dope fiend. I am what I am, and so what? But no crooked cop is going to admit what he is doing on the side. Nor would a politician. It’s only behind closed doors, or in dark alleys, that they’re going to show their true colors.
Behind bars you sit in the hole, where you have no connection with humans, and you get a lot of time to think. You’re not allowed to have a radio or a book. You have nothing to do but look at the ceiling and stare. The injustice that I suffered just kept going through my head. I felt like a victim. And that turned into anger, and that turned into hatred and rage, and that drove me to a point where I just didn’t care anymore.
In my heart I wasn’t doing it for good. I was giving them what they deserved. I didn’t care if I lived or died. I didn’t care if I helped or killed. I didn’t care at all about anything. To the point where I was willing to escape from prison and go get my revenge. And that’s what I did.
How did you begin to turn your life around?
During the eleven year period I was in and out of jail I had no thoughts of changing. I didn’t see any way to change, to turn it around. My only thought was getting out and continuing right where I left off. But I didn’t want to be in prison the rest of my life.
I knew that they were going to put me out of jail in January, in a parking lot in Palmer, with everything I owned in a cardboard box. I had no friends, I had no family, I had no money. Right before my release, child support wiped out my last dime. I didn’t have the money to buy a pack of cigarettes, or a hamburger. I didn’t even have a winter coat, and it was January.
I was a carpenter and I had no tools. A carpenter with no tools is like a car with no tires - it’s just useless. I knew that the only way I was going to be able to keep from committing another crime was to get some help. I turned to the Salvation Army.
I turned my life around completely. The only thing that actually helped me was giving my life to God, and getting into church. And I’ve noticed that now that I’ve gotten away from that problems are starting. A lot of times that’s when the Rabbit comes back. That’s who I was known as. I get in some little argument, and before you know it I’m in a rage - the Rabbit is coming right back out.
Still, most of the people that look at me think of me as some kind of success, because I’m not out there on the streets doing what I was doing. And a lot of them have told me that they look up to me because of that. I’m not out there selling drugs, I’m not out there robbing and stealing and smashing and being that violent threat to society, anymore.
It took you many years to change. What can we do about someone who is still extremely angry, someone who is dead-set on actually causing harm?
They’re going to go right back to prison. So let them screw up.
There is no help in prison. If you get into some of these programs - a halfway house, for instance - you have a chance of getting back on your feet. But a lot of people, such as me, could never see a halfway house. I had escapes on my record. For someone in my situation, you do every day of your time, and then finally you get kicked out in the parking lot at seven o’clock in the morning, when your time’s done.
There is no education program in prison. There’s no benefit in going to prison. I see it as the biggest harm that there could be, because I’ve seen guys go into prison that shouldn’t be there, people who have become somebody else by the time they get out. The education they had in prison has taken control.
Your normal thinking mind gets put aside. You’re in a whole different world. You’re facing the dregs of society. And in order for you to survive you have to conform to that lifestyle. It’s like shellshock. You get out of a war and come into a peaceful society with a killer mentality.
It’s a revolving door here. Once you go into the prison system here, you can pretty much count on going back. Because this state makes money out of incarcerating the prisoners. I’d rather not elaborate on that. But that will be another chapter in the book.
How corrupt do you think the system is?
I dealt a lot with crooked cops, crooked judges, crooked lawyers. I dealt with crooked politicians. I saw these people on a daily basis. But when I told people about this, they said, that’s impossible. We have a system that’s based on checks and balances. We have people that are in charge of making sure that there’s no corruption. But when you get the bank robber to protect the vault, don’t be surprised when the vault comes up empty. Don’t be surprised when you’re in the middle of a corrupt society.
I would say thirty percent of APD, possibly more, is corrupt. I know a police officer who was forced to leave the force because he wouldn’t take a bribe. They threatened his family. They threatened to kill him. Other police officers did this. And he’s not a police officer anymore.
I believe that the police department is a very important thing. Society needs the police, but society is not willing to accept reality. They don’t want to believe in crooked cops. They don’t want to believe there’s corruption in government.
There are two million prisoners in the U.S - the highest rate of any country in the world. What can we do about that?
The biggest thing that people can do is open their eyes. The truth has been out, but people don’t want to face it. People are brought up to believe that there’s no corruption. In Mexico people are not brought up that way. They are brought up with their eyes open, and they know about the corruption. In America, people are brought up to believe that they don’t have to worry about these things. We have people who take care of problems like this, so you can live with blinders on. People don’t want to accept the truth, because the truth is not appealing. And people are quite lazy. They turn their back. They don’t do their part to face these problems. They just leave it to someone else. It’s not a pretty picture, so they don’t want to look at.
One of your passions is to help people, especially people who are in trouble.
Because I’ve been in their shoes, and I know how it feels, and I know how hard it is. People that have never been in that situation don’t understand. Every chance I get, I try to help the people I’ve done time with, or the people that are truly trying to change. And I’ve met several fine people in prison.
My greatest passion is getting people to turn their lives around. That’s a gift that’s been given to me. I turned my life over to God, and I made the decision to be a decent person, a pillar of the community, and someone who could be respected. After that I made that decision I wanted to help other people become all they could become also. People with bad reputations, people with drug problems, people with prison records, people who were institutionalized and didn’t know how to get back on their feet. Because I was faced with the same situation. It was a very scary situation: knowing that I was getting out, and knowing that no one is going to help.
My main interest was in helping people that were in the position that I was in. I wanted to help, but every time I attempted to help any of them it really cost me. It really hurt me. With the exception of one, Darryl Waters, they all went back to the old way of life, turning against everything that I stood for. Several times my car has been stolen. Several times I’ve been taken advantage of. And several times I’ve been put in the middle of things that I should not be in the middle of.
What can you say to someone that is reading this and is asking themselves what they can do to help prisoners?
The first thing I had to do was to make the decision not to do these things anymore. Once you know someone that’s made that decision, then you do what my buddy Mitch did. You help, in whatever way you can. Support them, whether it’s financial, verbal, or spiritual help.
How are you going to believe in yourself unless someone believes in you? Someone that’s coming out of prison has been told that they’re worthless, and so they believe it. They’ve been told they’re coming back to prison.
You don’t have to open your house to them. But buy them a hamburger. That’s a first step. Pick them up. Drive them to the shelter, if that’s where they have to stay. Do anything you can to give that person a sense of belonging, a sense of importance and hope. When you come out of prison hope is something you don’t have much of. Because all you can see is what you’ve got in that box, standing in the parking lot.
If you don’t know anyone in that position, I would suggest giving to the Salvation Army. The Salvation Army Adults Rehabilitation Program was a big help to me. They help people overseas, and the people right here in our hometown that need help. And there was also Catholic Social Services. You can give anything: money, donations, volunteer time.
You are in trouble again.
Yes, and I’d like to talk about that in the next installment. But I can say that it’s so crazy, all I could do was put it down in a book. I had to write the book third person, because I’m worried about how it’s going to come back on me and my family. But it will all be there, and now that I am on the run again, I feel that I have to name names in order to protect myself.
Culture definitions
Help keep track of Alaskan culture?
We invite you to join us in this long-term commitment to improve culture, both popular culture and the art world promoted by the cultural elite: artists, directors and producers (which we examine in this issue). On our website, humanitynews.net, you will find a discussion forum with background information about major cultural venues in Anchorage and Alaska, including the full interviews conducted for this issue. We hope that this can be a space to respond to - and to hold accountable - what occurs in these places in the future. Help us keep track of what lifts, and what lowers! --editors, Alaska Humanity News
Judging Art
Definitions
Judging Art
The value of art is in something beyond itself - something that we can know and aspire to. It is quite possible that works of art can injure or shatter a person’s spirit (and this is especially obvious is the world we inhabit today). That is why it is essential that we create a framework that could make sense of our culture. One of our goals in this issue of Alaska Humanity News is to make a first attempt at doing so.
Much art does utilize conflict, but almost all artists defend the use of violence by suggesting that the intent is in pointing to something higher. This is believable only if this is accomplished in an open and active manner, focusing and elaborating on the good rather than on the harmful.
One of the reasons any kind of hierarchy of cultural value is abhorred by thoughtful people is that defenders of this idea are so often bigoted and ideological. We don’t want to be this way, either.
High level
Expresses these transcendent
qualities: the beauty, truth, good, love, and the sacred.
Nourishes these personal qualities: Purity, depth, inwardness, awareness, holiness, integrity, honesty, faith, compassion, commitment, care, autonomy.
Effect: Works of art of this kind recognize your whole self, and call you to your higher nature. They also oppose superficiality, degradation, and manipulation.
Mediocre level
The magnification of the profane, superficial, and material. Life is entertainment, and art is distraction from what is transcendent and eternal. It is ignorant, profane, and ideological.
Personal qualities: Greed, narcissism, self-interest, hard-heartedness, isolation, and sanctimony.
Effect: Loss of the capacity to perceive realities outside of oneself: Insensitivity.
Low level
Appeals to these realities: the ugly, the false, evil, and hatred.
Magnifies these personal qualities: bigotry, destructiveness, and sadism.
Effect: Destruction of the capacity to see what is good: Degradation and nihilism.
Definitions
We can’t expect our references about transcendent realities to make sense unless we explain the words we are using. It is for this reason that the editors of Alaska Humanity News have made a first attempt at defining we mean and are aspiring to. (Writers are differentiated by varying fonts).
Culture is the collective expression within a society of the True, the Good, the Beautiful and the Noble. It is individuals, groups, and communities collaborating at many levels in an endeavor to manifest, make known, demonstrate, celebrate and exalt their understanding of these permanent things.
Culture is what cultivates the character in a population that spontaneously produces the society we inhabit. The highest vision of culture is one that wakes people up to their higher nature, and provides tools and opportunities to express this in tangible ways in everyday life.
Beauty is the pure expression of Transcendent Reality. A thing is beautiful only insofar as it is able to clearly manifest the essence of that reality. To behold Beauty is to catch a glimpse of the Good, the True, and the Noble.
External beauty is an object that attracts, but it can attract only because a transcendent value is imputed to it (usually unconsciously). Inner beauty is correspondence of a subject to what is good, true, and sacred.
Perception of beauty is graduated, ranging from superficial to deep. Deeper perception of beauty - appreciation of the inner, as well as the outer qualities - comprehends more of the subject.
The Sacred is that which confers meaning and purpose. It is the foundation on which value rests. It is the Transcendent Essence of things. It is the source of intuitions of Ultimate Reality and Meaning.
Sacred: Purpose, significance, meaning - wonder, reverence, holiness - the deepest and most direct connection to reality.
Perception of the sacred occurs through a subtle sense that humans have but which must be protected and cultivated, and this is the function of culture. It requires an integrated self: one’s whole life being in the service of the most beautiful that we can conceive. These personal qualities include humility and commitment, and result in purity - the purity that is required to sense the sacred.
The good is beauty, love, truth, and the sacred, and action to promote these. It is also peace, justice, prosperity, and joy, which are all results of the former.
The good is also action or service to bring these qualities into reality. It protects them from harm, from desecration, and from apathy. It involves a personal commitment, based in the truth of one’s identity, to use all of one’s resources to bring that visionary world into reality.
The Good and the True are of the same essence. They exist together. Where one is, so is the other. The Good is everything that expresses the Divine Nature. Insofar as a thing expresses Ultimate Reality it is Good, and the degree of Goodness is directly proportional to the clarity or intensity of the expression.
The True is like the Good. Truth is an articulation or expression of Ultimate Reality. Truth is a manifestation of the Divine Nature. Magnitude of Truth does not change its Ultimate Essence. All Truth has its origins in Transcendent Reality.
Truth is all of the dimensions of reality, including those which our senses are sometimes too dull to perceive. Understanding is the capacity for perceiving the full range of truth. To see deeply requires recognition of what limits perception: self-centeredness, ideology, and dogma. And it requires the personal qualities of perseverance, honesty, and love.
Everything is susceptible to being comprehended, including what is false or destructive. But it is the transcendent realities - beauty, love, the good, and the sacred, as well as truth - which reveal what these actually are.
The Noble is the expression of the Good, the True, and the Beautiful in human life, community and society. Life is Noble insofar as it manifests these qualities.
Love
Love is possible when self-seeking ceases, when we are able to see into other’s hearts, and recognize what is most important and most beautiful there - all capacities that are not normally easy to develop, and which require a culture of care that would help develop them.
Love binds together our individual fates, setting them into service of the dimensions of reality.
Transcendence is the quality of Ultimate Reality that is beyond the ephemeral thoughts of the mind or the fleeting feelings of the soul and the changing resolve of the will. It is a permanent quality of Ultimate Reality.
Degradation
“The essence of all vulgarity lies in want of sensation. Simple and innocent vulgarity is merely an untrained and undeveloped bluntness of body and mind; but in true inbred vulgarity, there is a dreadful callousness, which, in extremity, becomes capable of every sort of bestial habit and crime, without fear, without pleasure, without horror, and without pity. It is in the blunt hand and the dead heart, in the diseased habit, in the hardened conscience, that men become vulgar; they are for ever vulgar, precisely in proportion as they are incapable of sympathy, -of quick understanding.” John Ruskin
The deep Anchorage talent pool – Dive in!
By Crystal Hutchens
The underappreciated and untapped musical talent in Alaska, and Anchorage especially, is astounding. We’ve already had a couple of acts go national. Take Jewel, for example, who doesn’t even have a presence here and regularly cancels Alaskan show dates. She markets herself as ‘from Alaska’ for the sheer mystique that surrounds our incredible state. But imagine if you had a chance to see her perform in a tiny café or bar right in your own neighborhood, where she was close enough to touch and talk to. Imagine further that the price of such an intimate concert was as cheap as under five dollars or even free. Literally hundreds of performing songwriters and bands of at least her caliber are performing in our hometown all the time. And in recent years, more and more venues are taking advantage of such a commodity by booking them to play in their restaurants, cafes and clubs. Tapping into the amazing Anchorage music scene is as simple as checking your local newspaper club calendar listings or doing a little internet surfing and of course, getting your body out of the house!
People who support local music are often avid, but they don’t tend to come out in droves in our town. One of the greatest things about the art of music creation is that the final product is communal. The listener can enjoy the music as much as the creator can. Think of your favorite song or band and how much they affect you on an emotional level. It’s an interactive art form that, at its best, punctuates your life experience. In the office, in your car, on your TV and at the movie theater, a few minutes of melodic chords and some catchy lyrics strung together are used to great effect on your spirit, heart-strings and mind. And everyday in Anchorage, amazing creators of this fine art go relatively unnoticed.
36 Crazyfists, who honed their skills here at the Anchorage music scene, signed a record deal with major/indie label RoadRunner Records shortly after moving to Portland, Oregon. They come back to perform at least once a year and always hire local bands to be their opening act. Lead singer of the band, Brock Lindow, cites local Anchorage band, T.S. Scream as one of his major influences. T.S. Scream are often thought of as grandfathers in the Anchorage music scene because they have been performing here so long and have inspired so many other people to start bands and perform. While the years have seen many a band come and go, the Screamers have persevered through time to keep doing what they love to do. The two lead songwriters, Steve Mashburn and Scott Ferris, have been performing as T.S. Scream since 1989. Despite weathering several break-ups and roster changes, they just keep coming back stronger. As a band, they check their egos at the door and support local music and talent. They are also role models for not giving up on your dreams. You can learn more and sample their music at http://www.myspace.com/tsscream.
Another great local band that just keeps on trucking is Wupt, who you can often find on the same roster as T.S. Scream. In some ways the local music scene is very interconnected because among the older bands ideas and venues are shared and they generally try to support each other. Wupt is one of the most supportive bands out there, always offering up information to fellow musicians on media support they’ve received and by being in the audience to support fellow bands. This group of married guys call themselves Wupt in reference to being under the thumb of their respective wives. Their songs as well as between-song banter are laden with humor on married life as well as many other topics. If you can poke fun at it, they will, and all on the backdrop of well executed and original music in the realm of Bauhaus meets the funky fresh prince of Belair (before Will Smith was a movie star). I’m often hard-pressed to describe their sound but you can learn more and listen to Wupt at http://www.myspace.com/Wupt.
Another popular type of local music is the singer/songwriter category. Among the many performing songwriters in town, there are a handful of exceptional talents; among the best stands Emily Dalsfoist (who made a name for herself under her maiden name of Tornfelt), and in the last year she has assembled a neat little outfit of musicians who go by the moniker Syran. The band includes her longtime drummer friend, Ford Tennis (from a former band of hers) and her brother, Tyler Tornfelt on stand-up bass. Syran could lazily be labeled folk-rock, but they have a unique style, which is hinged upon Dalsfoist’s signature songwriting technique. The music itself is intricate, with pausing and unusual timings, and the lyrics, as well as their placement, are powerful, precise and not at all standard formula. Check out their song samples and more information at http://www.myspace.com/syran.
You may have noticed that all the bands covered here have Myspace sites to promote themselves. Myspace is a great way to find out about local musicians. The few I’ve mentioned here are but a scratch on the musical surface. All the bands here are also connected to other Anchorage bands on Myspace. If you don’t already have your own page, it’s easy to sign up and then you can communicate with bands as well as be alerted when they are performing. If you’re looking for a good place to start, check out my Myspace site, which I have linked to tons of great local talent. The most important thing you can do to support local music in Alaska is get out there and go to shows. And once you get started, you’ll be amazed at what you find! Happy surfing. http://Www.myspace.com/crystalhutchens.
The deep Anchorage talent pool – Dive in!
By Crystal Hutchens
The underappreciated and untapped musical talent in Alaska, and Anchorage especially, is astounding. We’ve already had a couple of acts go national. Take Jewel, for example, who doesn’t even have a presence here and regularly cancels Alaskan show dates. She markets herself as ‘from Alaska’ for the sheer mystique that surrounds our incredible state. But imagine if you had a chance to see her perform in a tiny café or bar right in your own neighborhood, where she was close enough to touch and talk to. Imagine further that the price of such an intimate concert was as cheap as under five dollars or even free. Literally hundreds of performing songwriters and bands of at least her caliber are performing in our hometown all the time. And in recent years, more and more venues are taking advantage of such a commodity by booking them to play in their restaurants, cafes and clubs. Tapping into the amazing Anchorage music scene is as simple as checking your local newspaper club calendar listings or doing a little internet surfing and of course, getting your body out of the house!
People who support local music are often avid, but they don’t tend to come out in droves in our town. One of the greatest things about the art of music creation is that the final product is communal. The listener can enjoy the music as much as the creator can. Think of your favorite song or band and how much they affect you on an emotional level. It’s an interactive art form that, at its best, punctuates your life experience. In the office, in your car, on your TV and at the movie theater, a few minutes of melodic chords and some catchy lyrics strung together are used to great effect on your spirit, heart-strings and mind. And everyday in Anchorage, amazing creators of this fine art go relatively unnoticed.
36 Crazyfists, who honed their skills here at the Anchorage music scene, signed a record deal with major/indie label RoadRunner Records shortly after moving to Portland, Oregon. They come back to perform at least once a year and always hire local bands to be their opening act. Lead singer of the band, Brock Lindow, cites local Anchorage band, T.S. Scream as one of his major influences. T.S. Scream are often thought of as grandfathers in the Anchorage music scene because they have been performing here so long and have inspired so many other people to start bands and perform. While the years have seen many a band come and go, the Screamers have persevered through time to keep doing what they love to do. The two lead songwriters, Steve Mashburn and Scott Ferris, have been performing as T.S. Scream since 1989. Despite weathering several break-ups and roster changes, they just keep coming back stronger. As a band, they check their egos at the door and support local music and talent. They are also role models for not giving up on your dreams. You can learn more and sample their music at http://www.myspace.com/tsscream.
Another great local band that just keeps on trucking is Wupt, who you can often find on the same roster as T.S. Scream. In some ways the local music scene is very interconnected because among the older bands ideas and venues are shared and they generally try to support each other. Wupt is one of the most supportive bands out there, always offering up information to fellow musicians on media support they’ve received and by being in the audience to support fellow bands. This group of married guys call themselves Wupt in reference to being under the thumb of their respective wives. Their songs as well as between-song banter are laden with humor on married life as well as many other topics. If you can poke fun at it, they will, and all on the backdrop of well executed and original music in the realm of Bauhaus meets the funky fresh prince of Belair (before Will Smith was a movie star). I’m often hard-pressed to describe their sound but you can learn more and listen to Wupt at http://www.myspace.com/Wupt.
Another popular type of local music is the singer/songwriter category. Among the many performing songwriters in town, there are a handful of exceptional talents; among the best stands Emily Dalsfoist (who made a name for herself under her maiden name of Tornfelt), and in the last year she has assembled a neat little outfit of musicians who go by the moniker Syran. The band includes her longtime drummer friend, Ford Tennis (from a former band of hers) and her brother, Tyler Tornfelt on stand-up bass. Syran could lazily be labeled folk-rock, but they have a unique style, which is hinged upon Dalsfoist’s signature songwriting technique. The music itself is intricate, with pausing and unusual timings, and the lyrics, as well as their placement, are powerful, precise and not at all standard formula. Check out their song samples and more information at http://www.myspace.com/syran.
You may have noticed that all the bands covered here have Myspace sites to promote themselves. Myspace is a great way to find out about local musicians. The few I’ve mentioned here are but a scratch on the musical surface. All the bands here are also connected to other Anchorage bands on Myspace. If you don’t already have your own page, it’s easy to sign up and then you can communicate with bands as well as be alerted when they are performing. If you’re looking for a good place to start, check out my Myspace site, which I have linked to tons of great local talent. The most important thing you can do to support local music in Alaska is get out there and go to shows. And once you get started, you’ll be amazed at what you find! Happy surfing. http://Www.myspace.com/crystalhutchens.
News of the real
We are inundated with news, but it is skewed. This page is a summary of mainstream articles from the past couple of months that are striking in ways that they missed the message.
What if the actual news were right before our eyes, but we didn’t see it? Our goal is to unearth inner news: news of the shattered and the broken, news of the beautiful and the good.
There are many ways to re-capture culture. Simply by becoming fully aware of the reality of news is one way that reality is transformed. See the Discussion forum at humanitynews.net to continue and elaborate—add your own stories—and reclaim news from its bland and conventional condition (the full stories are posted there as well).
Culture
Culture ‘facts’
“Among industrialized countries we have the highest rates of teenage pregnancy, abortion, infant mortality, divorce, single-parent families, murder and rape, drug consumption, imprisonment, air pollution, and toxic-waste production.” Michael Shuman, Going Local
Pornography in public space aggressively defended. ‘
County Officials Apologize After Library Porn Incident’
Feb 17, WTOP Radio, Rockville, Md.
Montgomery County officials are apologizing Friday, after two local Homeland Security Department employees tried to prevent people from searching for pornography on the Internet in a public library last week.
Montgomery County Executive Doug Duncan tells WTOP the officers clearly broke county policy when they told one Little Falls Library visitor his choice of Internet site violated sexual harassment laws.
“These security officers clearly overstepped their bounds,” Duncan says. “They are not there to look at what people are doing in our libraries and other facilities. They are there to protect those facilities.”
This type of incident will not happen again, Duncan says. “It’s a matter of training and we’ll make sure we get the right training and make sure people understand what their roles and responsibilities are,” he says.
Duncan says he wants people to feel their privacy will be respected in county libraries. “We want people to come to our libraries and feel safe and secure and get the information they need,” he says.
The security officers involved in the case have been re-assigned.
Anchorage Daily News defends pornography through impartiality
Acclaimed romance novelist blushes at her own prose
Jackie Goforth: Author writes under the pen name “Jackie Ivie."’
By S.J. Komarnitsky, January 2, 2006
WASILLA—When Jackie Ivie writes the steamy sex scenes for her romance novels, she is clearly trying to titillate her readers.
But her alter ego, Jackie Goforth, blushes at the prose that makes her an award-winning romance novelist. “The real me isn’t like this at all,” she said.
“Some of the stuff I write is not postal acceptable,” the 47-year-old acknowledged.
Of her awards, she points out that a second place for “most sensual book” lost out to a tale of an incubus invading women’s dreams and fulfilling their fantasies. She also pokes fun at another award for “most historically accurate novel.”
And as far as writing those steamy scenes where the men’s bare chests ripple with sinew and the women swoon with pleasure, the mother of four and grandmother of three said she tries to pretend she’s not there.
“I did it with my eyes closed and a paper bag over my head,” she said, mimicking typing on a computer with her head turned to the side. “All right, all right, I can’t believe I’m writing this.”
Hip culture critic justifies the sexualization of culture for the very young
Teenage sex fiction: ‘Young Adult Fiction: Wild Things ‘
By Naomi Wolf, New York Times, March 12, 2006
These books look cute. They come in matched paperback sets with catchy titles, and stay for weeks on the children’s books best-seller list. They carry no rating or recommended age range on the cover, but their intended audience - teenage girls - can’t be in doubt. They represent a new kind of young adult fiction, and feature a different kind of heroine. In these novels, which have dominated the field of popular girls’ fiction in recent years, Carol Gilligan’s question about whether girls can have “a different voice” has been answered - in a scary way.
Unfortunately for girls, these novels reproduce the dilemma they experience all the time: they are expected to compete with pornography, but can still be labeled sluts.
But teenagers, or their parents, do buy the bad-girls books - the “Clique,” “Gossip Girl” and “A-List” series have all sold more than a million copies. And while the tacky sex scenes in them are annoying, they aren’t really the problem. The problem is a value system in which meanness rules, parents check out, conformity is everything and stressed-out adult values are presumed to be meaningful to teenagers.
We need a new cultural movement
A New Civil Rights Movement, by Bob Herbert
New York Times, December 26, 2005
You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to know that some of the most serious problems facing blacks in the United States - from poverty to incarceration rates to death at an early age - are linked in varying degrees to behavioral issues and the corrosion of black family life, especially the absence of fathers.
Nearly a third of black men in their 20’s have criminal records, and 8 percent of all black men between the ages of 25 and 29 are behind bars.
I believe that nothing short of a new movement, comparable in scope and dedication to that of the civil rights era, is required to bring about the changes in values and behavior needed to halt the self-destruction that is consuming so many black lives. The crucial question is whether the leadership exists to mount such an effort.
A good first step would be a summit meeting of wise and dedicated men and women willing to think about creative new ways to approach such problems as crime and violence, out-of-wedlock births, drug and alcohol abuse, irresponsible sexual behavior, misogyny, and so on.
Social justice
It’s better to be a cow
‘World’s poorest pay for WTO compromise’ Larry Osei-Kwaku, Johannesburg, December 19, 2005
“It is better to be a cow in Japan, subsidised for $7 per day, than to be a human being living in Africa,” according to the leader of South Africa’s largest labour federation, in a statement, calling Sunday’s last-minute WTO agreement in Hong Kong an ‘abysmal failure’.
“Last year was the first year on record, according to an annual study by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, that a full-time worker at minimum wage could not afford a one-bedroom apartment anywhere in the country at average market rates.”
“Only human beings are deprived of free access to the basic necessities of survival. We have created a system of ownership which puts the human species below all others as far as access to food and water is concerned. Mountains of food may be rotting in warehouses, and crops of grain burnt to maintain the market value, but if humans have no money they can have neither food nor water.”
Satish Kumar, Resurgence, March/April, 2006
The evening news missed this story last night. Why?
“Twenty thousand children died yesterday of hunger-related causes, twenty thousand will die today, and twenty thousand tomorrow.”
Child abuse not caused by poverty
(Deep response: Culture of care)
‘Children in Torment,’ By Bob Herbert, March 9, 2006
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, nearly 1,500 children died from abuse or neglect in 2003, the latest year for which reasonably reliable statistics are available. That’s four children every day, and that estimate is probably low.
Authorities in Michigan reported the heartbreaking case of a 7-year-old, Ricky Holland, who begged his school nurse not to send him home to his adoptive parents. “Let me stay in school,” he pleaded. He was later beaten to death with a hammer, prosecutors said, and his bloody body was dragged away in a garbage bag. His parents were charged with his death.
The deaths, as horrible as they are, don’t begin to convey the enormity of the problem. In 2003, authorities were alerted to nearly three million cases of youngsters who were alleged to have been abused or neglected, and confirmed a million of them. The number of cases that never come to light is, of course, anybody’s guess.
We know some things about child abuse and neglect. We know that there is a profound connection between child abuse and substance abuse, for example. We know that abuse and neglect are more likely to occur in households where money is in short supply, especially if the caregivers are unemployed. A crisis in the home heightens the chances that a child will be abused. And adults who were abused as children are more likely than others to be abusers themselves.
Health
“About three of every ten Americans will be involved in an alcohol related car accident at some point in their lives.”
Being fat is the direct expression of sloth, mediocrity, and meaninglessness. It is the physical indicator of a loss of vitality, inspiration, and joy.
Fat kills far more Americans than terrorists
By Nicholas Kristof, NYT, January 29, 2006.
Fat kills far more Americans than terrorists. Indeed, The New England Journal of Medicine reported last year that because of rising obesity, life expectancy in the U.S. might soon stop rising and could drop.
Obesity is linked to 112,000 deaths a year in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and leads to an extra $75 billion in direct medical costs. Type 2 diabetes has increased tenfold among children in just the last 20 years.
One-third of today’s 5-year-olds in America are projected to get diabetes at some point in their lives. It’s already the leading cause of blindness, and a 10-year-old who has diabetes loses 19 years of life expectancy.
External response: Deemphasize use of cars; encourage pedestrian-friendly development. Political response: Curbing soft drinks in schools, informing all parents of their children’s body mass index as a step to encouraging fitness, giving exercise breaks as well as smoking breaks, paying for preventive health checks like mammograms and prostate examinations, subsidizing efforts to quit smoking and seeking to give food stamps more purchasing power when they are used to buy fruits or vegetables.
Government
‘Secret death squads’
‘Sacred Terror.’ Global Eye, By Chris Floyd. December 9, 2005
The much-belated, poll-prompted outcry of a few U.S. elected officials against the widespread use of torture by the Bush administration—following years of silent acquiescence in the face of incontrovertible evidence of deliberate atrocity—is a welcome development, of course. But it has left an even more sinister aspect of Bushist policy untouched, one that likewise has been hidden in plain sight for years.
On Sept. 17, 2001, President George W. Bush signed an executive order authorizing the use of “lethal measures” against anyone in the world whom he or his minions designated an “enemy combatant.” This order remains in force today. No judicial evidence, no hearing, no charges are required for these killings; no law, no border, no oversight restrains them. Bush has also given agents in the field carte blanche to designate “enemies” on their own initiative and kill them as they see fit.
The existence of this universal death squad—and the total obliteration of human liberty it represents—has not provoked so much as a crumb of controversy in the American establishment, although it’s no secret.
In December 2002 Bush officials made clear that the edict also applied to U.S. citizens, as The Associated Press reported.
Education
11 Million Adults Illiterate, Study Shows
Associated Press, December 15, 2005
An estimated in one in 20 U.S. adults is not literate in English, which means 11 million people lack the skills to perform everyday tasks, a federal study shows.
From 1992 to 2003, the nation’s adults made no progress in their ability to read a newspaper, a book or any other prose arranged in sentences and paragraphs. They also showed no improvement in comprehending documents such as bus schedules and prescription labels.
Perhaps most sobering: Adult literacy dropped or was flat across every level of education, from people with graduate degrees to those who dropped out of high school.
National Assessment of Adult Literacy: http://nces.ed.gov/naal
Economics
Money
“Money is supposed to be a medium of exchange, but in reality it has become the ruler of our lives. And as money is always kept in short supply, there is no way all human beings can have enough, and therefore no guaranteed provision of food and water for every human being on earth.”
Satish Kumar, Resurgence, March/April 2006
Corporations
“Half of the largest economies in the world are corporations, not countries, and with power comes responsibility.”
‘Rising inequality is driven by the giant income gains of a tiny elite, not the modest gains of college graduates’
February 27, 2006. By Paul Krugman
What we’re seeing isn’t the rise of a fairly broad class of knowledge workers. Instead, we’re seeing the rise of a narrow oligarchy: income and wealth are becoming increasingly concentrated in the hands of a small, privileged elite.
The truth is quite different. Who are the winners from rising inequality? It’s not the top 20 percent, or even the top 10 percent. The big gains have gone to a much smaller, much richer group than that.
The idea that we have a rising oligarchy is much more disturbing. It suggests that the growth of inequality may have as much to do with power relations as it does with market forces. Unfortunately, that’s the real story.
Movie review
V for Vendetta
Reviewed by Diana DeFazio
Based on Alan Moore’s graphic novel (which I have not read), V for Vendetta is set in a futuristic Great Britain in the grip of a fascist police state. Government controlled airwaves, propaganda, social repression and a maniacal dictator dominate society in the year 2020. You get the idea. Evey (Natalie Portman) meets the masked vigilante “V” (Hugo Weaving) when she is out after curfew and V rescues her from a dangerous encounter with the secret police.
Initially entertained and eager to see how the heinous police state would unravel at the hands of V, I quickly discovered that Vendetta is not that brave, nor that revolutionary, nor that entertaining. And at a very particular point (spoiler ahead), I lost all respect for the film. Before I get into the details of the scene which was so pivotal to me, I should say that V for Vendetta, not surprisingly given its title, epitomizes the view that the ‘ends justify the means,’ and I am unashamedly biased against this viewpoint.
While we are urged to consider V’s ‘ideas,’ it’s what he actually does that counts. And what does he do? He tortures Evey. And why does he do it? To force her to face her own death, and in so doing to set her free so she can act against the authority that is imprisoning her and everyone else. And how does she respond when she realizes that the excruciating torture she endured was perpetrated by a supposed friend? She’s angry for an unbelievably short time and then essentially thanks him for it! And, I might add, after the torture Evey becomes V’s unquestioning and adoring ally.
I believe it is indefensible to portray torture as being good. Evey is subjected to isolation, relentless interrogation, threat of execution, hooding and submersion into water until she nearly suffocates - the same torture tactics being used in the real world this very moment in countless places and to countless people (at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, clandestine CIA “Black Sites,” and innumerable other locations known and unknown around the world).
Are we really to believe that V has done Evey a favor by torturing her? This is a particularly sinister representation of the effects of torture at a time when it is critical that the public understand what torture is and really does, and how we are implicated in its practice around the world. While I don’t doubt that suffering can lead to positive transformation for some people in some cases, torture in particular is not known to produce such results. It is well-documented that torturing a person has long lasting physical and psychological effects on the survivor. That is why specialized rehabilitation centers have been set up around the world to provide treatment to torture survivors.
You may think I’m hung up on this torture point and am taking Vendetta too seriously. But I think that the makers of the film, while injecting it with definite humor, ultimately wanted us to take it seriously. Why else would they draw so many important parallels between the past, present and future that we may be creating? The political points of Vendetta were not lost on me.
Mahatma Gandhi, who led a nonviolent revolution, said “an eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind,” and I agree. In the end, I just can’t rally for the masked man wielding knives, slitting throats and torturing even if he does have a great art collection. And if he is supposed to represent all of us, you and me, then all of us should be really worried.
And did I mention that Vendetta bored me, which means even if you are inclined to disagree with everything I have written up until now, for that reason alone you might want to save your money.
132 minutes, rated R
Alternatives
Art can help us build a culture of care by ____________________________________ [fill this in yourself].
How do we measure culture? “By how much spiritual substance there is in its everyday existence....We gauge culture by the extent to which a whole people, not only individuals, live in accordance with the dictates of an eternal doctrine or strive for spiritual integrity; the extent to which inwardness, compassion, justice and holiness are to be found in the daily life of the masses.”
Abraham Heschel
“A good Booke is the pretious life blood of a master spirit, imbalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.“
Sign over the entrance of the New York Public Library reading room
Beautiful Books Week
An alternative (and complement) to Banned Books Week, this is a way to compensate for the harmful effects of excessive tolerance and open-mindedness to what is degraded. Beautiful Books will highlight artistic works that are meaningful, elevating, or profound, and it will criticize works that are degrading, perverse, or injurious.
We don’t support the censorship of ideas. Government should protect the free expression of ideas. But some forms of expression should be restricted. We do not call for government action. Our most effective tool is moral confrontation: rebuking or applauding those who stock our libraries and theaters with vile or valuable material.
During preliminary meetings to prepare for this badly needed new event we will explore opportunities for ‘spiritual activism,’ and examine which kinds of works are degraded, and which are ennobling.
For more information and to express your interest, go to humanitynews.net (click on ‘Spiritual direct action’).
Examples of life in a culture of care
-- Free readings of beautiful works in public spaces and other unexpected places.
-- Expand the human touch. For instance, loudspeakers that announce the closing time of a library or other public or quasi-public spaces are vaguely dehumanizing. Instead, the librarian simply walks around, informing readers in a quiet, gentle voice.
-- How can care be brought to institutions? This is a mystery, but the result that we want to envision is that at every stage of interaction in a bureaucracy, officials would recognize the person and establish a human relationship.
Submit ideas for living a culture of care into being at humanitynews.net
The Moral Commons
A fundamental human right is seldom recognized, and never included in human rights declarations: the right to whatever is essential for self-knowledge and spiritual vitality.
We are so inactive, and so ineffective in standing up against popular culture and for sacred culture. The only reason we feel powerless is that we won’t put our lives on the line. We want to prepare to do this.
We have the right to protect and nurture the moral commons. The Moral Commons is a project to promote authenticity, understanding, and care through direct spiritual action: challenging aggression, superficiality, and degradation.
The culture that we inhabit is a regime of the crude. We can protect ourselves from the assault of culture, which produces physical, psychic, moral, and spiritual numbness. We need not tolerate this assault on what is most important.
At the meeting:
Understanding degradation, superficiality, and manipulation.
Meditation and discussion: What is harmful?
Planning for action: Discussion of various possibilities for Spiritual Direct Action.
For more information and to express your interest,
go to humanitynews.net (click on ‘Spiritual direct action’).
“When virtue is in presence, all subordinate powers sleep....Men such as they are, very naturally seek money or power; and power because it is as good as money….And why not? For they aspire to the highest, and this, in their sleep-walking, they dream is highest. Wake them, and they shall quit the false good and leap to the true….This revolution is to be wrought by the gradual domestication of the idea of Culture. The main enterprise of the world for splendor, for extent, is the upbuilding of a man.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Modern knowledge is departmentalized, while the essence of culture is initiation into wholeness, so that all the divisions of knowledge are considered as the branches of one tree, the Tree of Life whose roots went deep into the earth and whose top was in heaven.”
H.J. Massingham
“If you can fix some conception of a true human state of life to be striven for…all your art, your literature, your daily labours, your domestic affection, and citizen’s duty, will join and increase into one magnificent harmony. You will know then how to build, well enough; you will build with stone well, but with flesh better; temples not made with hands, but riveted of hearts; and that kind of marble, crimson-veined, is indeed eternal.
“Art is the instinctive and necessary result of power, which can only be developed through the mind of successive generations, and which finally burst into life under social conditions as slow of growth as the faculties they regulate. Whole eras of mighty history are summed, and the passions of dead myriads are concentrated, in the existence of a noble art; and if that noble art were among us, we should feel it and rejoice; not caring in the least to [hear] lectures on it; and since it is not among us, be assured we have to go back to the root of it, or, at least, to the place where the stock of it is yet alive, and the branches began to die.”
John Ruskin
“There can be no neutrality. Either we are ministers of the sacred or slaves of evil. Let the blasphemy of our time not become an eternal scandal. Let future generations not loathe us for having failed to preserve what prophets and saints, martyrs and scholars have created in thousands of years.
“Not the individual man, nor a single generation by its own power, can erect the bridge that leads to God. Faith is the achievement of ages, an effort accumulated over centuries. Many of its ideas are as the light of a star that left its source centuries ago. Many songs, unfathomable today, are the resonance of voices of bygone times. There is a collective memory of God in the human spirit.”
Abraham Heschel
Challenges
Do not profane your mind
Express a careful, actively benevolent love
Take less from the poor
Do not profane your mind
“The mind can be permanently profaned by the habit of attending to trivial things”
Henry David Thoreau
“When in wild, unruly crowds
We move with care to shield our broken limbs,
Likewise when we live in evil company,
Our wounded minds we should not fail to guard.
For if I carefully protect my wounds
Because I fear the hurt of cuts and bruises,
Why should I not guard my wounded mind,
For fear of being crushed beneath the cliffs of hell?”
Shantideva
Express a careful, actively benevolent love
“Every day and every hour, every minute, walk round yourself and watch yourself, and see that your image is a seemly one. You pass by a little child, you pass by with ugly and spiteful words, with wrathful heart; you may not have noticed the child, but he has seen you, and your image, revolting and godless, may remain in his defenseless heart. You don’t know it, but you may have sown an evil seed in him and it may grow, all because you were not careful before the child, because you did not foster in yourself a careful, actively benevolent love.”
Feodor Dostoyevsky
Take less from the poor
“The urgent challenge facing the world is not to give more to the poor, but to take less from the poor; the rich have to get off the backs of the poor and get out of their way so that they can look after themselves.”
Satish Kumar
Greybeard's Box
Is art a spectator sport?
Does public funding for art mean it’s better to see than be?
Can there be art without heart?
Unheard Voices
Putting together a new world
Click on Archives: Feb/Mar 2006 to see the contents of this month’s paper.
By Geoff Bederson
Every person is a world, and each is imbued with significance that is practically impossible to comprehend. It’s a little sad when this significance is not recognized, or when we pass potential soul-mates with a glance.
As Harry describes in his editorial on page 2, there is something beautiful and still alive in many Alaskan communities, in spite of the trauma of the past couple of hundred years. These gentle souls are right here, right now. All we need do is open our eyes, and listen. And when we talk, let’s speak about our own truths.
Elena Ransum: I grew up in Kipnuk, a town close to Bethel, ten to fifteen miles from the Bering Sea. It’s over five hundred miles out of Anchorage. I lived there from 1966, when I was born, until Jan 1, 1998, when I finally decided to come to Anchorage.
I am Yupik Eskimo.
There are two corporations in Kipnuk: Calista Corporation and Kugkaktalik Ltd. Corporation. Kugkaktalik owns the grocery store, merchandise store, and gas station. There is a Moravian Church in Kipnuk.
What was your childhood like?
Mostly in my childhood I used to walk all the time. My Dad taught me how to survive. He taught me how to operate a snow machine and boat. We use the lakes in the summer for fishing and hunting. In the wintertime, we use snowmobiles or walk.
My Mom taught me how to make baskets. I completed from kindergarten to 8th grade. I quit at ninth grade, at about sixteen years of age.
I got out of my parents when I was seventeen years of age. I was taking care of family.
What was it like growing up in the village?
I used to think that there was nothing to do in the village. No arcades for the little kids to run around. I couldn’t talk to anybody. I would go all around the village.
Most of the people hide their feelings. They don’t know about right and wrong. There is no discipline. There is touching - I know a lot of people who experienced being sexually abused. And they won’t even talk about it. It’s really hard.
I experienced it, and I tried saying something about it. But I was told to leave it alone, to let it go. I had to get away from my hometown for that reason, too.
Drinking came along. I tried it out, when I was twelve years old. I wanted to have fun, like the other kids. My first experience was Canadian Mist, and then we served whiskey, and Budweiser. I drank a couple of glasses, and then I passed out. I woke up in a sleep-off. I was just twelve years old! And I lied about my age, so they let me go.
I had seen my Dad drinking most of the time. He’s been sober about fifteen years now.
I got married when I was sixteen. I fell in love with this one person. I thought it was the love of my life, forever. He died on the way back from his school in Denver, Colorado. He was drinking. He was found hanged on a statue in front of the Captain Cook Hotel. To me he wouldn’t kill himself, though the police called it a suicide. I don’t believe that. I think it was a setup.
You must know of a lot of tragic stories.
Mostly during the summers there’s drownings, related to alcohol. It might be suicide, or it might be accidental. There is domestic violence. Most of it is caused by alcohol. There wouldn’t be a lot people going into prison if it weren’t for alcohol.
My hometown is dry, but people bring it in somehow. I don’t know how it is now, but they used to make homebrew.
The only way that a native person copes is to numb the feeling with alcohol. That’s what I did. Numb my pain.
A lot of Eskimo culture was lost, but not much of Western culture has come.
There should be a combination of the Eskimo and the Modern. The old culture doesn’t seem to help people now. I don’t know what the elders thought. I never even had a chance to ask my Mom.
I speak Yupik. Most do speak Eskimo in the villages. I speak in my own language to my parents. Younger ones are speaking English. Three of my kids can understand my language, two don’t. Yupik is starting to be gone. There’s English mostly.
What do you think could be done to help the villagers?
It would be best for them if there were a place for the children and teenagers to hang around. Like an arcade. Fast food. There’s no fast food there. Most of the kids during the summer time, they have a place to play basketball. There is a basketball court.
They just put a laundromat there. It’s going to be really fun for everybody. A long time ago they tried to open it up, but people said that it was no good, a lot of girls will start getting pregnant. Yeah! I have no idea why. They thought it would be a wild place. That’s not true. They have needed a laundromat for a long time.
Now, we wash clothes at home and hang them up outside, even in the middle of the winter.
Why did you leave Kipnuk?
I didn’t have a career to strive for, no goals. No adults schools, nothing. No jobs. Most of the people know basket weaving and bead work, hunting. But that’s not enough. People feel helpless or worthless. There’s nothing for me there.
When my first husband died, in 1990, I was on my own. From then on, I took care of my kids, trying to support my own family. Doing men’s work, hauling water, hauling ice in the winter, using the hand to pump the snow machine gas.
What has it been like living in Anchorage?
I like being here, meeting new people or trying to live on my own with my significant other. There’s more jobs, there’s things for me to do, everyday. There’s a lot of creative stuff. I like living like that. If there was no America, we would have none of that. No stores. We wouldn’t be sleeping on beds, we would be sleeping on the ground. There would be no TV or music. I even know how to go on the computer.
When I moved to Anchorage I learned how to drive a car. I told myself, wow, this is a new thing for me. When my family comes here I drive them around, and go shopping, and they’re really happy. It’s getting me lazy to go on my own feet! But I like it this way. It’s new for me. It takes me anywhere. It got me a job, a couple of times.
You seem very good natured, very kind, sweet.
I’ve learned that from my parents. My Dad used to tell me, Don’t ever treat a human being wrong. You’re a human being.
I don’t see anybody different. They’re human beings, like me, even though they’re different. I don’t see the difference between Natives and others. My Mom and Dad taught me how to do that. Who you are - you’re a human being.
What is the origin of your medical problems?
It’s related to the use of alcohol. I used to drink a lot, and it affected my health. That’s what I was told. When my liver and pancreas go up, I have to be in the hospital. That’s the only way they can be controlled, by I.V. I’m taking about six different kinds of pills, medications. I’ve been taking these for about eight years now. I have no idea how serious it is.
I’ve been sober for quite awhile. I don’t miss drinking at all.
What do you care about?
I do care about my life. I like being on my own. I like going places, and that I don’t have to use my legs in the big city. When I need something in the house, I can just go to the store and get it.
Sometimes I get tired sitting down, making baskets. But I’m making different shapes of baskets, now. My Mom sends me the straw.
My dream used to be medical, medical assistant. But not now. I wish I had more education, even though I graduated with a GED. Reading keeps me learning more.
I like to cook. My kids love to eat what I cook. Every time I go home, once or twice a year, I cook. The last time I lasted only two months.
They want me to come back. I miss my hometown, but whenever I think about it I remember that there’s nothing to do there.
Alaska native corporations invest in military
Failure to respect traditional cultures reaps profits but leads to social decay
By Ian Overton
A number of village and regional corporations are participating actively with the federal government and other major corporations in the globalized industry of marketing for war: missile development, defense contracting, and military base construction. This phenomenon is the result of a long process in which Native Corporations have adopted a corporate model for the use of Native resources.
In December of 1971, the U.S. Congress approved the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANSCA). ANSCA sought to provide resolution to the longstanding issue of Native land ownership and use, by creating business corporations to manage land development, provide services and opportunities for shareholders, and pursue investment opportunities. According to the charters of these Native Corporations, their overall goals are to provide dividends to its shareholders, by pursuing whatever business opportunities it can find; to use those dividends to advance non-profit social opportunities for Native peoples, for example in education, culture, health care, and industry; and to maintain the traditional hunting and gathering lifestyle of a subsistence economy. At the time of the creation of ANSCA Native leaders thought the corporate model would improve the quality of life for Native peoples, while helping them retain their traditional cultural values.
As reported by the Anchorage Daily News on December 23, 2005, a new subsidiary of Cook Inlet Regional Inc., ANC Research & Development, began contracting for research and development in space and missile defense engineering. Greg Razo, CIRI’s vice president of government contracting, noted that the subsidiary “will be working with a significant industry partner.”
It is not surprising that Native Corporations are highly involved in the business of war. The Anchorage Press reported in March, 2005 that no-bid government contracting with large Native Corporations has risen from $195.5 million in 1999 to $1.3 billion in 2003. As the Press article reveals, some village corporations, such as Olgoonik, of Wainwright, AK, have received more than $225 million in government contracts since 2002 to help construct “U.S. military bases and embassies from Alaska to Kosovo,” but much of the work is being done by the corporation’s non-native contracting partner, which in Olgoonik’s case is Halliburton. Also mentioned in the Press article is a Chugach Alaska Corp. subsidiary, Chugach McKinley, which won no-bid/ no-competition contracts to employ and oversee civilians assisting military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and NANA Pacific, which in March 2004 was awarded a $70 million contract for work on the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr.
A twenty-year enrollment administrator for Chugach Alaska, now adjunct professor for Native History and Politics at UAA, Jim LaBelle, says, “Some companies are into government contracting and Department of Defense contracting big time. And they’re helping manufacture, and maintain, and operate military systems. And that’s okay for the majority of shareholders, because they put in directors… who are going after these federal contracts. … My own regional corporation, for example, is weighted heavily in Department of Defense contracting, and I support that 100%.”
Whether or not military contracting is aligned with widely espoused traditional native values, such as community sharing, respect for others, one’s self, and one’s elders, respect for the land, and respect for one’s heritage, for example, is a highly contentious issue that traces back to the passage of the Alaska Native Settlement Claims Act (ANSCA), by the U.S. Congress in December 1971.
With ANSCA, there was a shift in traditional native values to include ‘profitability’ as a core value, and to assimilate the tribal way of life into the mainstream of globalized free trade. In an interview conducted for this article, Professor LaBelle explained it this way: “Basically, these corporations are like any other company in America. They’re based on the ‘Western model,’ they have Boards of Directors, they have their officers, they have shareholders, so in that regard, for probably the most part, I think a lot of indigenous groups have, with regard to their economic development focus, adopted this Western model…. And I think even thirty-five years later it’s still looked on as an experiment. It’s been successful for many village and regional corporations, and then there’ve been a few that haven’t really benefited from this model. They’ve had failures, bankruptcies….
“Part of [that] had to do with the fact that [some] regional corporations were never adequately capitalized, [and] it takes money to make money. And if you don’t have much money to start off with, then you’re not going to have very much success in generating the profits that you could have, had you been adequately capitalized. I think the other problem just had to do with lack of training. I mean, one day we were traditional hunters, fishermen, and gatherers, and the next day we were expected to run multi-million dollar corporations. … So early leadership had no such training, or background, and so there were a lot of problems. Thirty-five years later, a lot of these village and regional corporations have educated their leadership, to run their village and regional corporations in the corporate Western model. To make them a viable organization.”
Corporate leaders, who assert their right to participate in the cash economy of globalization, rigorously defend this shift in values. Sheri Buretta, President of the Association of ANSCA Regional Corporation President/CEOs, stated in a letter in the Alaska Native Corporation’s Annual Economic Report of 2005, that: “In 1971, our land claims were settled, and we embarked on a new course, integrating ourselves into the cash economy with corporate structures to build an economic base for our people. … This [no-bid government contracting through the Small Business Administration’s] 8(a) Program is helping us to bring economic self-sufficiency to our people, many of whom still live in Third World conditions, lacking the most basic amenities of even sewer and water.”
Despite this goal, social indicators for Alaska continue to decline, even though profits for big corporations are stated as increasing. Rape, suicide, imprisonment, and alcohol and drug abuse are significantly higher for Alaska than the rest of the United States, and more so in recent years. Many people are feeling the effects of hyper-inflated gasoline and utility prices, especially in rural areas. A Bethel-raised elder, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that “people whose wages are not peanuts are having to leave because they are paying $300-$400 electricity bills.” She also stated that “Governor Murkowski has left the people there to rot.”
Other corporation, civil, and religious leaders cite the change in cultural values as a source of division and strife among Native peoples. One subsidiary director to Chugach Alaska Corp. cited how Natives born after 1991-2 do not have political representation as shareholders, unless their family grants shares of stock to them. Michael Gilbert, a youth activist and Doyyon shareholder, critiqued the non-involvement many shareholders have in electing their Board of Directors. “At a recent shareholder’s election,” Gilbert said, “Doyyon held a raffle. After the raffle nearly everyone left, and then the election was held.” Father Michael Oleksa, dean of St. Innocent Orthodox Cathedral in Anchorage, suggested in Alaska Humanity News, May, 2005, that “The underlying reason for this kind of anti-social and self-destructive behavior comes out of a century of cultural disruption… [Three generations] have been placed in the untenable position of having to choose between their own culture and the dominant one. The anger comes out more in the third generation [of today’s youth].”
ANALYSIS
The subsidiary director of Chugach Alaska Corporation described how native corporations have prioritized their region’s traditional values to embrace the cash economy of globalization: “The non-profit organizations [that provide services for elders, students, employment, cultural heritage, etc.] are funded by the corporations. So everything the non-profit side can do, essentially depends on the money the corporate side brings in.” In the United States, the overall political-economic policy is determines the degree to which privately owned corporations are responsible for helping improve the physical quality of life for an entire region, state or the nation. Native corporations in particular were designed with the directive of accomplishing this goal for their constituents. However, the specific national policy that aids all corporations in accomplishing that goal, typified by the administrations of Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy, was abandoned shortly before Native Alaskans even had the legal ability to develop their own lands.
Three months before ANSCA was ratified in 1971, the United States abandoned the fixed-rate exchange controls policy of the Bretton Woods monetary system, which Roosevelt had installed in 1944. FDR’s ‘fair trade’ gold-reserve system pivoted on the generation of national credit for corporate businesses, to fund the construction and maintenance of the basic economic infrastructure characteristic of a ‘first world’ nation, such as hospitals, schools, transportation, industry, and agriculture. At the Azores Conference on August 15-16, 1971, this system was replaced with the London-centered, speculative ‘free trade’ gold-standard system, which allowed financial and industrial corporations to outsource our nation’s logistical potential for the purpose of procuring greater profits. The distinguishing characteristic is the latter’s emphasis on financial capital, as opposed to physical logistical capital. The recent letter by Sheri Buretta demonstrates this emphasis most succinctly. It still remains to be seen if continuing in this manner will bring a greater quality of life to the Native peoples of Alaska, whether or not they are shareholders.
Contact Ian Overton at ian@qupq.com
Challenge
Non-political solutions to the Iraq war
The American response to the Iraq war has been just as divisive as the war itself. On one side are hawks, who support the use of force, and on the other are doves, who condemn the war-makers.
In this Challenge we will ask a spokesperson for Alaskans for Peace & Justice, and a representative from an organization which supports the war, to say something that is good and true about the side that they oppose.
There is a resolution to intractable global conflicts which is lasting and deep, which involves neither force nor retreat. The transformation of deep-seated human ‘realities’ is possible, but we must be willing to enter into others’ hearts.
One of the goals of Alaska Humanity News is to explore everyday events and situations that escape attention because they are omnipresent. CHALLENGES is one of these features. Look through this edition to find other unusual features.
Send us news about perplexing contradictions, about unexamined assaults on everyday life, and we will take a look inside the news, and outside the box, and publicize it. See page 4 for a look at last month’s Challenge: Working conditions in Alaskan canneries.
Coming soon: the official response.
Editorial
Finding true riches in Alaska
Why is it that we Alaskans, with all our material riches, have so little understanding about what creates lasting wealth? One example of our culture of mediocrity is that the heritage of our native populations is being squandered. As the lead article in this issue points out, native corporations have adopted the same narrow economic strategy which dominates the rest of the world we live in.
It is easy to suggest a practical response. We could say that native organizations ought to fulfill their original mission, developing the cultural and spiritual life of their populations. But this is not likely. If leaders are going to serve the actual needs of their constituents they have to have a clue about what these are.
They do not have a clue, because we are suffering from a lack of insight. We have numbed ourselves so much that we don’t even care. It is as if we were forgetting half of ourselves - the sensitive, vulnerable part, the secret, inner part, which is capable of perceiving the sacred, and of bringing wonder and beauty to everyday life in society.
This is the true definition of globalization: lack of meaning, integrity, and wisdom. It is this which produces our vapid and profane culture of entertainment. It is this which results in the scarcity of meaningful educational opportunities, and of meaningful productive activities. The corporate model of money-making is merely a expression of our identity. It is this which causes many people to turn to and face oblivion.
It would be more pleasant and easier to congratulate ourselves on being great Americans. But we must dig deep if we want to have hope for humanity. And we do have hope - grand, beautiful visions of an Alaskan culture that would be worthy of its physical beauty.
We can imagine a confluence of what is best in our diverse traditions and in each other. In order to accomplish this we must have a dialogue of civilizations, with educational forums that engage the whole population. This means that we must create an entirely new educational system. Our present system is founded on the same corporate model that governs all of contemporary culture. Its emphasis on hierarchy, qualifications, and quantitative success nullifies the richness of our human resources.
It has nothing to do with how clever you are. It has nothing to do with how much money, education, or power you have. The truth is the quality of your awareness, sensitivity, and insight.
We are badly in need of centers that cultivate what is best and truest in each of us. This is where our time and money should be spent, because these are our real human and spiritual resources. This is the scenery underneath the surface, which could be more interesting to travelers than what is merely physical, and which could be the source of a whole new tourism industry.
We could begin with an active exploration of the once powerful stream of the indigenous. Traditional Eskimo culture, for instance, is renowned for its sense of shared humanity, of innovation and courage.
Alaskan villages could be a light to the world, mixing together ancient and modern, native and Western, traditional and technological, wild and technological - but on the basis of insight into what is actually important.
Alaskans used to be known for generosity, for offering assistance to those in need and facing natural dangers. We could live up to that reputation, by offering what is truly important to those who are suffering because of our insensitivity. We could create a world worthy of our potential - a world of love, understanding, and beauty. Let us begin with a day of silence, a day of humility. And then a day of dialogue, of learning. The next day could dawn with the most majestic sunrise we ever saw.
Go to our humanitynews.net website if you’d like to help create a dialogue of civilizations for Alaskans, or to explore how we can create centers for the cultivation of what is good and true.
Opinion
The cultural vitality of Alaskan communities
By Harry Davidson
Affluence does not translate into cultural vitality. Alaska’s regional and local corporations corporations have increasingly participated in the global economy, providing dividends for their shareholders, while social crisis indicators continue to decline and are among the worst in the nation (See Alaska Humanity News, May, 2005).
Cultural stewardship and vitality cannot be built on economic prosperity as defined by today’s global marketplace. This is painfully evident. A glance across the rubble of America’s cultural wasteland is evidence enough. So cultural vitality and stewardship is not just an Alaska Native problem-it is a human problem on a global scale.
The first thing that needs to be done in a conversation about culture is to define it. The word ‘culture’ is so widely used today to describe almost any group activity that it has nearly lost its original meaning. Not so long ago the word meant, “The training, improvement, and refinement of mind, morals, and taste.” So culture had to do with transmitting and developing the noble, the good, the true, and the beautiful. This is not the job of a corporation or a government. This is the job of communities. Remember? “It takes a whole village to raise a child.” And insofar as a community embodies the noble, good, true, and beautiful, then it is able to transmit these qualities. Where they are absent, culture is absent, and there is essentially no vitality and nothing to steward.
This is the case in many communities across America today. Pop culture and post-modern culture is actually the absence of culture. Which is to say the absence of a vital spiritual life within a community. This is also true about many of Alaska’s communities, both urban and rural. So the first question to be asked concerning cultural stewardship is whether there is true culture within a community to be stewarded. Communities that have no real culture will eventually disappear. And some communities that actually do have real culture will also disappear due to overwhelming external circumstances that subvert the best efforts of those communities to sustain their culture.
Alaska’s rural and Native communities are unique in this global struggle to preserve and sustain local cultures and communities. Though in many there are acute social problems there is often still a strong sense of community ownership and connection to place, along with the presence of a vital spiritual life. These qualities are stronger than the ebb and flow of economic prosperity.
Many of today’s rural communities existed before the historic gold rush years and outlasted the decline of the boomtowns. The boomtowns were built on fleeting economic prosperity, not the cultural foundation that the historic villages were built on. Some of those cultural origins still exist across rural Alaska, and that is reason for hope.
Is it possible that Alaska’s rural and Native villages could model an example, and provide the leadership for the rest of Alaska and beyond, in revitalizing and restoring real culture to our local communities? That minorities have often been the source of cultural and spiritual revival is historical fact. Such a thing could happen here in Alaska, and perhaps it has already begun. Communities that have lost real culture or never possessed it look with a kind of healthy envy on the communities that still do have real culture and real community. They lead by example, which is the most powerful form of leadership. Time will tell, but we have much to be hopeful about.
Now more than ever we need clear-sighted leadership. The heady days of corporate and government promises of a better, more prosperous future are behind us. The future rests in the hands of the communities across Alaska. We know that now, if ever we forgot. And it is just this, at this critical moment in our history, which is so important and a reason for hope.
Harry Davidson was born in Kodiak, raised in Southwest Alaska, and is now a business owner in Anchorage. E-mail: harry@qupq.com.
Letters to the Editor
A much better transit option
America does have a soul
Iraq war is no good
A much better transit option
Hi, I read your story in the Alaska Humanity News (November, 2006, ‘Assembly overturns pedestrian-friendly city plan’). I just thought I’d let you know about a plan I’m trying to get policy makers to notice.
It’s an emerging technology called personal rapid transit (PRT). Independent studies show it can capture 30% to 50% of trips away from cars. This is unheard of in public transit circles, where in most cities public transit captures somewhere around 3% of all trips.
New Jersey recently appropriated $75,000 to study potential applications there. Palo Alto just received a $325,000 EPA grant to study the potential of PRT for a business park there. Washington state recently changed it’s laws to allow public bonding for PRT systems. London Heathrow airport just inked a deal to build a PRT shuttle.
A first step for Alaska would be to appropriate money for a planning study of potential applications here. This would likely cost $100,000 or so. Chump change for the Government.
Learn more about PRT:
http://www.cprt.org/alaska
http://www.skywebexpress.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_rapid_transit
-- Ryan Kennedy
America does have a soul
Excuse me? Aren’t you a little mixed-up Mr. Editor? Please note some serious discrepancies:
Dan Coffey’s actions are reported by you as being audacious, contradictory, moral and social injustices, brazen, and responding to the ‘tiny vision.’
I used to accept that society in general is truly a reflection of our consciousness. But note that society (humanity) is wising up and becoming very much less tolerant of all the above. In other words, the consciousness of the world is rising. Humanity is learning. A few professionals and corporations are, too. Wow, even a few politicians and newspapers. Are you?
America does have a soul and it is waking up to the diatribe of the Old School.
Do what? Apologize to the Old School of Force? To the old, callous leaders such as Dan Coffey, Gov. Murkowski, or President Bush, or the Ohio Gov??? These men are outdated and need to be replaced by men and women with consciousness and wisdom. Yes, with love.
You say that politicians, businessmen and bureaucrats cannot be reformed by force (yet they are the ones who are using force on us). I agree. Observe that your lifeless society is coming to life (and consciousness) and observing-and no longer tolerating the old way.
Blame accomplishes little. But THEY are not responsible. Individuals are. A transparent government is the only way to go. Forget the diatribe about security. King Coffey does not rule. The public does. Coffey’s idiotic statement that he was voted in and that gives him the right to change public opinion is ridiculous. Bush said the same thing about himself.
You went back and forth in your article. I suggest that you are beginning to understand-but not there yet. I have hope for you.
-- Gary Dorsey
Iraq war is no good
A Vietnamese friend explained that many GIs were killed in Saigon as retribution for the loss of family members. The question needs to be asked: given our history, why has Mr. Bush allowed so much reprehensible use of force by our military in Iraq? Ample are the reports. One objector has fled to Canada after refusing to fire on a carload of women and children. The objector is in Canada but his officer is still giving orders in Iraq.
Our troops used firepower to corral would-be Fallujah refugee women and children back into the city which we subsequently fire-bombed with white phosphorous. Our troops next dumped truckloads of charred civilian bodies into a lake. Check out the blogger web site http://www.truthout.org and look for Fallujah videos.
Our money would be better spend building bridges than fighting unnecessary wars. Gov. Murkowski is interested in building a bridge or tunnel under the Bering strait to Russia. What a good idea: a project which will demonstrate a commitment to building a bridge to the whole world.
-- Dana Carros, Kodiak
Is there a way to respond to global conflicts that actually resolves their causes? See Challenges, page 1, for a suggestion about how this may be possible.—Editor
Challenges
Working conditions in Alaska canneries are unfair
By Dennis Burke
It seems that the fishing industry is not interested in responding to our challenge about their employment contracts. Several canneries were contacted but none replied. Even an offer to allow for a written reply met with no response.
Well then we will let facts speak for themselves. The average wage for a cannery worker is 7.50 to 8.00 an hour. This is little more than Alaska’s minimum wage. Hours are long (twelve to fourteen hour days are common), and the work is dangerous, wet and cold. Jobs are seasonal, and there is no guarantee of return the next season. A certain level of fear and intimidation, created by these factors, drives the tired workers into a hectic, competitive pace that only adds to the dangers. Moving forklifts, massive machinery and sharp implements in a wet, cold, slippery environment creates situations that lead to high incidents of injury and even death.
The workers are transported to remote, wilderness sites along Alaska’s coast, to smelly fishing villages, that has little activity outside the fishing industry that dominates the town. These villages are remote and would not exist without the canneries. The companies usually provide tickets, on a contract basis, for the remote sites. At less remote areas, like Seward, transportation is sometimes not provided. Also at remote sites housing and food is provided. The food ranges from excellent to seafood leftovers from processing. It is to be noted that usually the union companies offer the best deals.
If a person making an employment contract breaks it before the term is up (usually from beginning to end of season-about three months on average) they must pay their own way back. Tickets are expensive and usually eat up all money made. Some of the nearer canneries offer tent space, and the cost of food, as much as $7.00 a meal, is deducted from paychecks.
Here’s what NIOSH (The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) has to say about the Alaskan commercial fishing industry:
The Alaskan commercial fishing industry has an occupational fatality rate of 140 per 100,000 yearly, which is twenty times the national average.
The objective of Alaska Humanity News is to address current problems in the light of our objective at problem solving. We had hoped for responses from those corporations contacted at random. Without input we were forced to “call them as we see them.” We were offered no opposing view or explanation. It is not our policy to caste aspersion. We would be happy to publish a response from any interested party!
—Dennis Burke
Greybeard's box
Feb/Mar 2006
Is semantics only a word game?
How effective is talking at, to, or with someone?
Why do have two eyes, two ears, and one mouth?
News Of the Real
Spiritual level decreases
Economics: Tight immigration policy hits roadblock of reality.
Desperation forces millions to come to U.S.
Culture: Potent Mexican meth floods In as states curb domestic variety
Use of hard drugs has spread to the Midwest and other U.S. areas once far removed from violent crime and drugs
Government: Bush fails to live up to his own beliefs
What if the actual news were right before our eyes, but we didn’t see it? Where is the dynamic, challenging, inspiring news that we don’t have words yet to explain: inner news, news of the shattered and the broken, news of the beautiful and the good?
Our goal is to compare conventional (political) problems, questions and responses with human ones. This page is a summary of our continuing exploration of a multitude of contemporary political issues. See the Discussion forum on our humanitynews.net website for further attempts to see through the bland analysis of contemporary news.
Spiritual level decreases
“The political and corporate leadership, and half the population of the U.S., live in isolated ignorance of the real world and promote their way of life as the answer for, and the envy of, the rest of the world.”
“We have made words into dangerous weapons....Worse than all of these...Is the silence, the resounding silence, of good Americans.”
“All-consuming consumerism has brought the psycho-spiritual evolutionary journey of Western man and woman to a standstill, or even into regression, in a few decades. Through the glorification of material excess as the ultimate goal in life, and by rewarding effort for gain rather than for good....The illusion of progress, the numbing and dumbing of human development, and the diminishing of the human spirit have been foisted on us, and especially on our children, by the priests and profits of capitalism.”
John Whitmore, Resurgence, Nov 2006
Economics: Tight immigration policy hits roadblock of reality. Desperation forces millions to come to U.S.
Political question: Should economic refugees be allowed into the U.S.? Conservatives: No. Liberals: Yes.
Human question: What kind of global culture would reduce (or end) desperation in poor countries? How can we create a world where anyone can travel, work or live in any country?
In September, domestic security officials promised to tighten control of the border with Mexico by swiftly deporting all illegal immigrants seized there, ending the practice of releasing thousands of illegal immigrants to the streets each year because of shortages of beds in detention centers.
In the first three months of the 2006 fiscal year, the number of illegal immigrants from countries other than Mexico who were caught crossing the border surged nearly 30 percent compared with the corresponding period last year, notwithstanding hopes that the policy would deter such would-be immigrants.
But even with the difficulties, officials say they are moving more aggressively than before.
The number of people processed through expedited removal increased to 10,607 in the first quarter of this fiscal year, up from 4,227 in the first quarter of last year, official figures show.
The problem has ballooned as tens of thousands of illegal immigrants from countries like Brazil and El Salvador, along with others as far afield as India and Romania, wade into the rushing river here in hopes of reaching the United States.
New York Times, January 20, 2006
Culture: Potent Mexican meth floods In as states curb domestic variety
Use of hard drugs has spread to the Midwest and other U.S. areas once far removed from violent crime and drugs
Conventional problem: How can we stop or lesson the scourge of meth in American towns?
Spiritual law: External cures magnify internal problems. The particular form of the crisis (for example, the use of drugs) subsides, but the symptoms soon erupt in another form.
Human explanation of drug use: It is a result of cultural failure.
Human problem: How can we subjugate the trivia and decadence that leads sensitive people into oblivion? He can we revitalize culture: bringing inspiration, care, creativity, and reverence into public spaces and everyday events?
In the seven months since Iowa passed a law restricting the sale of cold medicines used to make methamphetamine, seizures of homemade methamphetamine laboratories have dropped to just 20 a month from 120. People once terrified about the neighbor’s house blowing up now walk up to the state’s drug policy director, Marvin Van Haaften, at his local Wal-Mart to thank him for making them safer.
But Mr. Van Haaften, like officials in other states with similar restrictions, is now worried about a new problem: the drop in home-cooked methamphetamine has been met by a new flood of crystal methamphetamine coming largely from Mexico.
Sometimes called ice, crystal methamphetamine is far purer, and therefore even more highly addictive, than powdered home-cooked methamphetamine, a change that health officials say has led to greater risk of overdose. And because crystal methamphetamine costs more, the police say thefts are increasing, as people who once cooked at home now have to buy it.
“Our burglaries have just skyrocketed,” said Jerry Furness, who represents Buchanan County, 150 miles northeast of Des Moines, on the Iowa drug task force. “The state asks how the decrease in meth labs has reduced danger to citizens, and it has, as far as potential explosions. But we’ve had a lot of burglaries where the occupants are home at the time, and that’s probably more of a risk. So it’s kind of evening out.”
By Kate Zernike. The New York Times, January 23, 2006
Government: Bush fails to live up to his own beliefs
Bush professes to believe that Jesus is the son of God, whose words are literally divine commands. Yet anyone who compares what Jesus really said to Bush’s actions in power—the abandonment of the poor, the exaltation of the rich; the dirty insider deals, the culture of corruption, the politics of smear and slander; the perversion of law to countenance murder, torture and predatory war—can readily see that this profession of faith is a monstrous deceit.
“Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth; but I say unto you: Resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.”
Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount called for a revolutionary transformation of human nature—a complete overthrow of our natural instincts for greed, aggression and self-aggrandizement. This radical vision—erupted in the turbulent backwater of a brutal world empire. The vision’s living force sears through dogma, casts down the pomp of church and state, and gives the lie to every hypocrite who evokes Jesus’ name in pursuit of earthly power.
Global Eye, By Chris Floyd, December 23, 2005
Citizen Journalism
Iran War Would Detonate Monetary Bomb
By Ian Overton
Alaskan Humanity: Powwow at homeless shelter restores our shared humanity
By Dennis Burke
Iran War Would Detonate Monetary Bomb
By Ian Overton
A military conflict with Iran is completely unnecessary and totally avoidable.
The current drive to provoke a military attack on Iran, orchestrated by the British “allies” of U.S. Executives, is an ages old trick of “lets you and him fight.” Banking syndicates have used that tactic of getting two of their enemies to destroy each other, long before numbskulls like Cheney and Bush or Ahmedinejad ever got into power. Because of the stupidity of the crowds in the U.S. and Iran, not only are certain British officials manipulating us into a suicidal conflict, their prodding the U.S. into a “clash of civilizations” type aggression against the entire Muslim world would be pulling the trigger for a much bigger detonation: the collapse of the free-trade monetary system.
The success of getting this British plan on the table was made possible by the weak kneed response from leaders in the U.S. Senate, on their inability to call a spade a spade, and stop the nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. Mr. Alito’s legal philosophy of the “unitary executive” is the ideological grandchild of Nazi “Crown Jurist” Carl Schmitt’s “führerprinzip.” Remember, everything Hitler did was technically legal. After evading the Nuremburg Tribunal, Schmitt helped found the anti-Constitutional Federalist Society, of which Alito is a longstanding member.
Economist Lyndon LaRouche and the LaRouche PAC have launched a nationwide and international mobilization to expose the dirty frauds that were behind the Alito nomination as being the same dirty frauds that are pushing forward the Iran conflict. Last year, we succeeded in turning the tables on these traitors by mobilizing the Democratic Party. We got the Democratic Party, and even some moderate Republicans, to fight for the Constitutional values of this nation. Exposing the role of British officials like Jack Straw, Tony Blair, and Baroness Liz Symmons behind this scheme is how we reorient our nation back to policies that work for the people. Lyndon LaRouche’s recent report, “Deficits as Capital Gains: How to Capitalize a Recovery” depict how we can avoid the collapse of our national economy by returning to the Franklin Roosevelt system of “fair trade.” He will articulate this concept in depth, in an international webcast town meeting on February 23, 2006 at 9am AK Time/1pm EST, broadcast at http://www.larouchepac.com and http://www.larouchepub.com.
Ask yourself, given what happened after Hurricane Katrina, what would be the effect on world petroleum prices with an attack on Iran? What have the effects of the threats against Iran already been? What have the effects of the actions in Iraq already been? What would be the effect on the economy and your household if there were a collapse of the U.S. dollar?
There is one way to stop this: Get Dick Cheney, the pawn of British financial imperialism, out of office immediately!
Contact Ian Overton at ian@qupq.com
Alaskan Humanity: Powwow at homeless shelter restores our shared humanity
By Dennis Burke
This December 16th I witnessed an exorcism of sorts. It was a banishing of evil spirits from those most in need of relief. Banished were those spirits of despair and desolation that haunt the forlorn residents of Anchorage’s homeless shelters. Strangely enough it was also a new and welcomed twist on that hackneyed cliché about cowboys and Indians. For this time, when all hope was lost, it was the Indians that came riding to the rescue instead of the cavalry. At a time of year when, for some, despair reigns and winter assaults, some champions of justice arrived just in the nick of time.
The Brother Francis Shelter hosted an event that I was honored to attend. In their courageous effort to hold back the tide of humanity’s failings and society’s inadequacies, they attempted to bring solace and brotherhood to those ‘cowboys’ of Anchorage’s frozen metropolitan plains we call the homeless. These were moments of sharing and community that will set the standard in this new century. A ‘Powwow’ was held and negative spirits banished to the incessant beat of the drum.
Picture, if you will, a large, fourteen-foot high, unfinished hall, like a factory or storage facility. Now see one wall of glass looking out at a snowy Anchorage vista. In one corner are a Christmas tree and an upright piano with a manger upon it. Center-stage, upon a concrete floor which tonight will become a mattress city, native dancers are plying their skills.
Several groups of dancers performed. The dancers were both male and female and ranged in age from six to sixty. Some were in traditional garb and others weren’t. Many tribes were represented. They came from Alaska and from as far away as the American southwest. To the intense, powerful beat of the drum they did various renditions of natural species. The dances were reminiscent of birds and grazing animals. One of the residents told me that one dance reminded him of the ‘funky chicken,’ a dance popular in the early seventies (or was it the late nineties?).
Miraculously, worn sorrowful faces lost their woe and smiles returned, after long absence. It had an amazing effect, which only added to the power of the moment. An infectious spirit of gaiety took hold. We were all drawn in. Then we were all invited to dance. A dance was done in respect to the women present. They weren’t invited to dance, for it was in their honor. Then there was a dance that we all joined in. I asked one of the drummers what the words meant. Here they are, as translated from Lakota. “The red road I’m walking, thank you grandfather. With the pipe I’m praying, thank you grandfather.” Simple, but to the point. I was told that “the honorable man is a member of all tribes.” The people who shared their time at this event proved the point.
Restaurant Review
The chowder house adventure
Reviewed by Crystal Hutchens
Alaska’s special variety of long, cold, snowy, dark winters leaves its inhabitants looking for a special kind of comfort food. Most restaurants that offer hearty chowders during the winter months know what I mean. On a cold day, a little café like Middle Way often sells out of its homemade soup. I decided the thick of winter would be a great time to do some comparison tasting of that good, old standby, clam chowder, and its offshoots; the Alaskan version sometimes adds a twist with different seafoods. There are so many great offerings in town, I didn’t even get to sample all of the restaurants I intended to. I stopped by the Bradley House on a Friday and their clam chowder was sold out before dinner time. I tried to stop by for a cup of Humpy’s clam chowder one early Friday evening, but I couldn’t find a parking space within a mile of the place. At nine months pregnant, walking isn’t my best sport, so I had to abandon the mission. I’ll tell you about the places I did try, and leave plenty of discovery up to you. Even aside from chowders, Anchorage is a great town for homemade soup. on appetite!
Bear Tooth Grill, 1230 W 27th Ave.
Almost as an afterthought, I added a cup of the Grill’s halibut chowder to my recent take-out order when I noticed it on the menu. This soup, which is available every day of the week, was definitely my favorite. I might go so far as to say the stock was the best I’ve ever tasted. I say might because I’m getting on in age and my memory isn’t what it used to be. Made with real cream and fresh rosemary, the buttery finish on each delectable bite kept me digging in for more. It had a rich, creamy thickness that had nothing to do with flour or any other kind of standard thickener found in typical chowder. Chock full of potatoes, carrots, celery and garlic, the predominant flavor was the delicious rosemary. I thought it was a little stingy on the halibut, but there was plenty of the soft fish flavor in the mix. $2.95 cup, $3.95 bowl.
Phyllis’s Café, 436 D St.
Available every day of the week, Phyllis’s Café offers up New England clam chowder with seafood of the day. On the day I stopped by, the seafood bonus was Salmon, Halibut and, the chef said, “I threw in a handful of shrimp.” This soup was very thick and rich with plenty of clams, potatoes, celery, fresh herbs, and lots of shred sized pieces of the previously mentioned fish choices. It was perfectly seasoned and not too salty. My cup of soup was accompanied by a chunk of fresh sourdough bread, from local bakers (Europa), which was great for dipping and scooping out the last of the soup when I hit the bottom of the bowl. I was told they also sometimes get fresh bread from L’Aroma Bakery. $3.00 cup, $5.00 bowl.
Jackie’s Place, 2636 Spenard Rd.
Homemade on Friday’s, Jackie’s Place serves up a hearty clam chowder. I ordered a bowl and it was definitely a meal. It was stocked with plenty of large potato chunks, celery and ample clams from little chunks to big nickel sized pieces. It was also teaming with big chunks of chewy bacon. Not too salty, it was seasoned with lots of fresh herbs and the stock was thick and creamy. Ask if you want crackers. $2.50 cup, $3.50 bowl.
Leroy’s Family Restaurant, 2420 C St.
Offered on Friday’s, Leroy’s chowder was good, if a little boring. It was very creamy and seasoned well with lots of clams and big potato chunks, but nothing else. I ordered a cup and my waitress brought me a bowl, explaining she was out of cups, but would still charge me for one. She also delivered a big basket of crackers with the soup. I can’t say anything bad about the chowder, but there’s nothing really to rave about either. For standard fair, it was done well. $3.25 cup, 3.95 small bowl, $4.95 large bowl.
Cattle Company, 300 W Tudor Rd.
Served on Friday’s, this chowder was the disappointment of my soup sampling adventure. Made in-house, I wouldn’t recommend ordering it if you are torn between soup or salad. The stock was rich and creamy, but it was over salted, and definitely thickened with either corn-starch or flour. It was loaded with cubed potatoes and everything else--bacon, celery and clams--was minced. I only took a couple bites before pushing it aside and moving on to my meal. On the up-side, I took the leftovers home, and adding a little fresh cream made a decent meal out of it. You can choose it as a side to your meal or order a bowl for $3.99.
Movie Review
Munich
Reviewed by Jamey Bradbury and Diana DeFazio
In an early scene in Steven Spielberg’s new three-hour action/drama, Munich, Avner (Eric Bana) levels his gun at the first of nine men he will eventually assassinate and demands, “Do you know why we are here?” Even if Avner’s target doesn’t, the audience does: The target is one of the men responsible for planning the 1972 abduction and murder of eleven Israeli athletes by the Palestinian terrorist group Black September at the Olympic games held that year in Munich. As an act of retaliation, the Israeli government handpicks a group of Mossad agents-Avner among them-to find and exterminate as many of the planners as possible. As he repeats his question-"Do you know why we are here?!"-those of us with long assassin movie experience can’t help but wince: Asking the target questions is a rookie mistake.
Avner, though, is no rookie, as we soon find out. Chosen to be the team leader for a five-man assassination squad, Avner quickly overcomes any squeamishness he may have had about trafficking in death, and becomes the cool, collected core of the group. As the five men methodically take down each person who had a hand in planning Munich, each man begins to question the justification for the killings. Their motivation is the idea of home: They are soldiers in a war to take back their homeland. But the question each man eventually asks is, “At what price?”
Curiously, Avner is the last man on the team to question the justification for killing the planners of Munich. Traditionally, the moral dilemma central to a film like Munich is grappled with by the main protagonist, but in this case Avner is convinced almost until the end of the film that his cause is just. He detonates bombs and fires his gun, and bodies fall in his path, but it is not until he and his fellow Mossad agents become the targets of revenge that he questions the futility of his actions. In a conversation at the end of the film with his Israeli government contact (Geoffrey Rush), he points out that although he has killed nine of their Palestinian enemies, nine more will take their places. In Munich, every act of violence begets another vengeful act; every slain enemy gives rise to another, often crueler, enemy.
Munich, by its very nature, requires scenes of violence and bloodshed. Perhaps Spielberg bought his fake blood in bulk, though, because he seems determined to use it all in this film. After three hours of blood-spattered walls and severed limbs dangling from ceilings, we left the theatre feeling pummeled. While the film was clearly supposed to make us question violence, it simultaneously glorified it. Some violence is required to convey the meaning of this film, and no one paying $9.25 to see a movie about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would expect to leave the theatre without seeing a bomb or two go off. But the subtler scenes of the film-the blood on the pillow of Avner’s “clean-up” man, Avner’s own frantic ransacking of his own room when he suspects he may be a target of revenge for the acts he’s committed-are far more powerful than most of the graphic scenes, and leave us asking the questions Spielberg wants us to ask.
Buried in this violent film, ultimately, is a message of nonviolence. By the end of the film, Avner cannot walk down the street with his young daughter without fearing that someone might be following him; he cannot make love to his wife without visions of the murdered Israeli athletes playing in his head. He has come to realize that his own participation in violence has not given him a safer home (in fact, he has moved his family away from Israel by the end of the film). But although the viewer understands that Avner’s enemy is also fighting for the idea of home, Avner himself cannot reach this understanding; for him, and for his countrymen, there is no getting beyond the ideology that makes Palestine an enemy.
Entertainment value:—stars
Meaning:—stars
Lack of gratuitous violence or sex:—stars
Lack of advertising:—stars
Overall quality:—stars
Emotional impact:—stars
(out of 4 stars)
Organizations we support
Revolutionary Urban Natives
Revolutionary Urban Natives is an organization that seeks to foster a strong community of Native people who are active in creating positive social change for indigenous people. We seek to understand and reveal the untold history of the Native experience. We seek to individually and collectively heal from traumas such as the “Great Deaths” which caused intense inter-generational grief.
This inherited legacy, along with the movement from subsistence to a cash economy and being forced into a multi-layered, philosophically different governance structure has caused a severance from our indigenous identities. Our indigenous cultures have been put to sleep, our people have been reprogrammed and assimilated, and because of this loss of identity, Native communities suffer in disproportionate numbers from societal ills such as depression, suicide, alcoholism and violence.
We seek to eliminate the practice of continued assimilation and apathy toward Native people. As citizens of this state and country, we “New Natives” find ourselves in a unique position. Our culture has obviously changed, and is changing still. But at this point in history, we have learned that we are not powerless, and that we will not allow ourselves to feel shameful of who we are.
We must make our voices heard in an organized, peaceful and unprecedented way. We are comprised of both Native and Non-native people who recognize the responsibility for each individual to heal from these past traumas. One by one and together, we seek to heal as we build collective strength, taking back our identities, telling our stories and making a critically stronger presence in the decision-making levels of our society. We invite you to participate! Contact runalaska@gmail.com
.
--Randi Madison
Alternatives
We can bring together the best in Western and Native culture by ____________________________________ [fill this in yourself].
George Gottschalk, Jr
In an interview with George Gottschalk, Jr., life-long Alaskan and Native activist from Naknek, three vital areas were identified as critical to cultural revival and the vitalization of rural Alaskan and Native communities:
1.) Repeal and vacate all laws and regulations at State and Federal levels that impede and subvert independent Native governance.
2.) Return to the old traditional Village Counsel model of local governance, which was both matriarchal and patriarchal and governed by consensus, rather than by the democratic model of majority rule.
3.) All education at elementary, middle and high school levels must be in full control of village and regional governing counsels.
See the Alaska Humanity News website, humanitynews.net, for portions of the interview by Harry Davidson, Alaska Humanity News.
There are over 1.5 million indigenous people in the U.S....
There are at least 3,000 native nations in the world that continue to function within the boundaries of the 200-odd countries that assert sovereignty over them.
Understanding Native Spirituality
Education causes the loss of identity
Education causes the loss of identity. How venomous are the words of a book when read by an indigenous person. He becomes a despot instead of a healer. Education and migration are the greatest threat to our culture. They are opposed to our communal way of living.
We need to rescue the indigenous values that have been erased. There are four indigenous principles: Reciprocity, solidarity, redistribution, and hard work. This has allowed us to survive during the last five hundred years.
When we achieved a level of government participation we thought this was a very special time, but found out that is was NOT. Once we were part of the government, we had to support policies that previously we opposed.
Yachay, Quechua Indian, Quito, Ecuador, Summer, 2004
Black Elk
“Everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the power of the world always works in circles, and everything tries to be round. In the old days when we were a strong and happy people, all our power came to us from the sacred hoop of the nation....Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood and so it is in everything where power moves.”
Black Elk
U’wa
“All of us U’wa, equally, are very poor. There’s nobody who has more money than anybody else. There’s not this inequality. We U’wa believe that if one person has more money or more land or food than someone else, they need to help them. That’s part of our culture. The poor help those who are even more poor.”
“It would be good if people understood the organizational structures of the indigenous people of the world. The organizations of the indigenous world are the most ancient structures of the world, and they have a kind of intelligence that is very concrete and complete. They don’t sell themselves for anything. Talking with other indigenous organizations from around the world, we know that we are on an equal footing with them because it is our hearts that lead us. The heart is what gives us the intelligence that we shouldn’t rule the world. The ceremony encapsulates it all. All the world has ceremonies, and it is these ceremonies that protect Mother Earth.”
Berito Kuwar U’wa, leader of the U’wa people of Columbia, Saying Yes
What is true wealth?
“Invest not your interest (and self-interest) - invest your principal and your principles.”
Aqeela Sherrills: The Reverence Movement
“Why should all virtue work in one and the same way? Why should all give dollars? It is very inconvenient to us country folk....Farmers will give corn; poets will sing; women will sew; laborers will lend a hand; the children will bring flowers.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Spiritual Laws
“Money is not wealth: it is only a measure of wealth; the real wealth is people, communities, cultures, land, forests and rivers. Accountants therefore need to take all these elements into account. The bottom line has to include social and natural as well as financial loss and gain.”
Satish Kumar, Resurgence, Nov 2005
Eskimo alternative to violence
“When quarrels are not settled [through public opinion or by an elder], then some form of contest is held, preferably a game, that takes the place of an outright battle. Wrestling or head-butting contests are typical forms of quasi-dueling in Eskimo society. It is done in public and the winner is considered by the public to have won his case. Particularly interesting is the famous Eskimo song duel: the weapons used are words, ‘little, sharp words, like the wooden splinters which I hack off with my axe.’….Singing skill among [the East Greenlander Eskimos] equals or outranks gross physical prowess.”
Erich Fromm, The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness
Challenges
From Mother Teresa and Desmond Tutu
Poem by Nelson Mandela
“If you want to help, share something of yourself--not from your abundance--but until it hurts. Give what costs you--make a sacrifice--do without something you like, so you may share what you have saved thus with those who do not even have what they need. Then your giving will be true giving--loving until it hurts....Be God’s hands to serve the poor in your spare time, and be His heart to love the poorest of the poor all the time.”
Mother Teresa
“There is no neutrality in a situation of injustice and oppression. If you say you are neutral you are a liar, for you have already taken sides with the powerful....All over the world you see God’s children treated as if they were rubbish...the situation between the haves and the have-nots, between the powerful and the powerless, is a form of global apartheid.”
Desmond Tutu, 2005
How can we respond to injustice in a way that does not take sides with the powerful, but which also does not adopt their tactic of using force (even if it is for a good cause)? See the Discussion forum on the humanitynews.net website, and our Challenge on page 1.
Expected Obviousness
all inspirations run dry,
hell falls into place,
nothing remains of what we dreamt of,
all humanity is abandoned,
isolation is abundant again,
pain recedes like an old widow’s hairline,
feeble jokes replace conversations,
no one is looking at much,
no one is hearing much,
not much remains, not much remains....
Nelson Mandela, 2004
View and contribute to our message forums
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Mutual, reciprocal support of Alaska Humanity News
Core supporters of Alaska Humanity News
We are continuing to sell display and classified ads (a rate card can be found on our website), but we are developing a new model to support this paper: one in which co-participants make a mutual commitment to support each other and our work in making a better world. We are seeking individuals and businesses who want to be an integral part of this enterprise. Businesses contribute $30 per issue ($180 for the year) and can submit a business card size ad in each edition; individuals will contribute $50 per year and be entitled to other benefits. See our website for details, or contact us via phone or email.
Latest news from Alaska Humanity News
Alaska Humanity News to become bimonthly
We are pleased to announce that Alaska Humanity News will be completing its first year and entering 2006 prepared to explore new dimensions of transformative news. In order to simplify our operations and maintain sustainability we will be publishing every other month, for the time being, beginning with this issue.
Contribute your own news
Starting February we will be providing space for citizen journalists to contribute their own news. If you resonate with our vision of meaningful news, send us stories on any Alaskan topic that interests you. Please review our essays on the meaning of news at our website, http://www.humanitynews.net (go to the links at Our Vision). Submissions should be 500 words or less.
Bob Lord
Our Advertising Representative Bob Lord died October 17 at the age of 62. Bob was involved in this paper from the beginning and was instrumental in giving Alaska Humanity News a running start. He made this commitment partly in order to be of service to a project he believed in.
Core supporters of Alaska Humanity News
We are continuing to sell display and classified ads (a rate card can be found on our website), but we are developing a new model to support this paper: one in which co-participants make a mutual commitment to support each other and our work in making a better world. We are seeking individuals and businesses who want to be an integral part of this enterprise. Businesses contribute $30 per issue ($180 for the year) and can submit a business card size ad in each edition; individuals will contribute $50 per year and be entitled to other benefits. See our website for details, or contact us via phone or email.
Seeking Co-Creators of Alaska Humanity News
Alaska Humanity News is seeking persons to help guide and create this paper--to maintain, develop, improve, innovate, and produce it. Do you resonate with our vision and want to volunteer their time and energy to bring new life and momentum to it?
This is a great opportunity for someone who wants to take an active, creative role in this unique endeavor. If you are interested please explore our website humanitynews.net, and contact us.
Opportunity: “Compassionate Businesses”
A stipend of $500 - $1,000 is available for someone to help develop a program to bring together thoughtful, caring, meaningful Alaskan businesses and customers. The program could involve alternative currencies, punch cards, publications and other means of supporting economics with a human face. For details see our website http://huzanity.org/Projects/Elemental%20Society/Economics.htm, or contact us via phone or email.
Assembly overturns pedestrian-friendly city plan
Brazen effort to remake city for wider roads and big businesses
By Crystal Hutchens
A group of Anchorage citizens are up in arms because of recent changes made to the draft plan of the Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) by the Anchorage City Council. Despite three years of effort and thirty meetings involved in creating the draft plan, the mandate to build town centers, wider sidewalks and other features that would promote diversity and vitality were written out of the plan during a meeting in November.
The public process developing the mandate to create a human-scale city has lasted over ten years, and includes the city’s Anchorage 2020 plan and the Anchorage Bowl Comprehensive Plan.
Assembly Vice Chair Dan Coffey refers to the plan as “a flawed vision brought forward by a special interest group with an agenda” in a lengthy dissertation written in defense after the backlash.
Responding to claims that the Council acted against the public will, Dan Coffey was unapologetic. “I was elected by 43,000 people,” he said in an interview for this paper. “The Assembly is intended to be in the process.” Details are provided in the position paper Coffey wrote defending his actions. The paper cites many reasons for making alterations to the draft plan. He claims that “the Administration presented the Assembly with a flawed, politicized document that did not reflect the views of the vast majority of people in Anchorage.”
Carroll Stockard, an Anchorage area architect familiar with the way building codes are altering the development of the city, is skeptical of the power and legitimacy of the public planning process. “People who spend three years working on [a plan] don’t pass a law,” he said. “A big part of the story is how naive the people [were].”
Polarized visions of the Anchorage’s future
There is not much middle ground between the two sides. On one side are those who put their time and effort into the draft plan; on the other, those who made sweeping changes to the plan, without taking account of those involved in the planning process.
The Land Use Code, or Title 21, and its recent rewrite, are part of the Anchorage 2020, Anchorage Bowl Comprehensive Plan, which was adopted in February of 2001. It was produced over a five year period through the collective efforts of many individual and community groups, and it governs the development of the Municipality of Anchorage, a 1,955 square mile area between Northern Prince William Sound and Upper Cook Inlet. Ten percent of the municipality is inhabited.
Former Mayor George Wuerch, in the introduction to the Anchorage 2020 plan, writes that it serves “as an inclusive process allowing interested citizens to work with Municipal staff and elected officials in making policy concerning the land use in the Anchorage Bowl,” and that it is a “guide for elected officials as they deliberate community development issues. This plan will help us to make Anchorage one of the most attractive cities in the world with safe, clean neighborhoods, a first class education system, and a wide variety of economic, cultural and recreational opportunities.”
In a written defense of his actions entitled “The Truth About the Long Range Transportation Plan,” Coffey claims that he acted responsibly. “I began talking and listening to people in the City Government, the State Government (traffic engineers, planners, financial people) and those in the private sector who were knowledgeable about transportation. I read additional materials submitted by various special interest groups. I read additional materials provided by staff. I read the Planning and Zoning Commission recommendations. When the Assembly held public hearings, I participated in those hearings. During the hearings I told people about my concerns (the north access into the U-Med District, the over-emphasis on transit and trails at the expense of roads, maintain the roads and trails we have, etc.). I asked questions of the participants in the public hearings on these issues. After the hearings, I conducted outreach to people and institutions that I knew would be impacted by my proposed amendments to the draft Plan. This included discussions with Providence Hospital, UAA and APU on the north access to the U-Med District. All three institutions supported my amendment to conduct a study to determine the best north access to the U-Med District. I spent more time reading more material and more time talking and listening to more people before I prepared the amendments that I submitted. Finally, I listened to my colleagues on the Assembly when the Administration and the individual Members presented their amendments. My votes on the amendments and the draft Plan reflect my studied opinion as to what is in the best interests of the City of Anchorage.”
Steve Cleary, Executive Director of AkPIRG (Alaska Public Interest Research Group) sent this reporter his statements presented at an AMATS (Anchorage Metropolitan Area Transportation Solutions) meeting on November 10. “In two evenings, the Anchorage Assembly negated the hard work that hundreds of Anchorage residents had put in, encompassing over thirty meetings in three years. The current politicization of the LRTP appears to hinge on whether roads should be the focus of the plan, or whether it should be more inclusive of other forms of transportation. It’s a false and unnecessary choice. Congestion costs money, time and increases dangerous pollution. Other modes of travel besides the car benefit those of us who choose those modes, but they also benefit car commuters because fewer cars on the road means less congestion. Therefore, an investment in public transit isn’t anti-car anymore than investment in roads is anti-bus or anti-bike. A balanced plan would ensure that commuters would have transportation choices. Unfortunately, the Assembly’s changes have removed that balance and I urge you to return to the original LRTP.
“Specifically, these changes should be made to the current LRTP:
- Remove the Bragaw Extension cutting through the University area.
- Restore Lake Otis and Tudor intersection improvements to the project list.
- Restore the south Coastal Trail to the project list.
- Develop a long term transit plan with dedicated funding for operations and maintenance based on the comprehensive plan land use goals.
- Hire a non-motorized transportation staff position.
- Add a discussion of cancer-causing benzene and volatile organic compounds to newly drafted Air Quality Chapter.
- Restore the policy to spend at least 15 percent of road construction dollars on enhancements.
“Many Anchorage residents participated in the forming of the LRTP and their input is critical to our community. Cynicism and apathy by average citizens is high already. If dedicated people spent countless hours trying to better their community and their input is discarded, then that distrust of the public process will only increase.”
Cleary also responded specifically to Dan Coffey’s position. “Mr. Coffey and other Assembly members unnecessarily politicized the transportation process. Of course they are part of the process, for which they were elected. In his remarks, Mr. Coffey appears to be hiding behind the term “special interests” with an anonymous letter. The truth is that hundreds of members of the public turned out to meetings for the past three years to participate in the formation of their community. To now say that their participation hijacked the process is cynical and dangerous to our democracy.”
According to Cleary, among the fifty amendments to the transportation plan made by the City Council was the removal of the term ‘visually appealing.’ “Did that not come out in three years of public meetings? It seems a notion so simple would have, unless the assembly invented it. In addition, one of the Assembly amendments passed Monday night and rescinded on Tuesday would have built a $110 million expressway linking Boniface with the airport, requiring the demolition of 70 houses and affecting 30 businesses. Even Assembly member Dick Traini changed his vote on the project when he learned that his family’s home is located within 50 feet of the new expressway. That’s why long range plans aren’t developed in two days.”
Coffey claims that he was acting in the best interest of the public. “The emphasis in the draft Plan on transit, on trails and on the walkability coupled with the anti-automobile rhetoric, all seemed to me to have little or nothing to do with the City as it exists today or as it will exist into the foreseeable future…While there are problems that are clearly caused by automobiles, we need to address those problems, not adopt a Long Range Transportation Plan that condemns the automobile.”
According to Cleary, we can accept the automobile as an essential part of city development without it being the only option. “Politicians at all levels blast our dependency on foreign oil. Yet none of them have been accused of being anti-oil. The same should be true about transit. The more choices and opportunities we have, the better our traffic will flow. Unfortunately, three years of long range planning by the Anchorage community was undone in two nights by a politicized assembly that only cares about the next election.”
Contact Crystal Hutchens at crystal@qupq.com.
Alaska university system in danger of bankruptcy
High costs, fewer opportunities put students and economy at risk
By: Ian Overton
The statewide University of Alaska system is in trouble. In addition to years of funding shortages, various hiring freezes, trimmed benefits, and increased tuition, basic operation costs are rising due to commodities inflation in petroleum and minerals around the country.
As reported in the UAF Sun Star, the state is expected to benefit from a $1.5 billion ‘high oil prices’ bonus. The Student Board of Regents is hoping to receive $560 million from these funds to pay for what UA President Mark Hamilton calls ‘increasing unavoidable fixed costs’ such as fuel prices, employee salaries, healthcare and retirements, and basic maintenance of facilities. At the same time, all Alaska residents are preparing to be hit by “increasing unavoidable fixed costs” from the same high oil prices.
In his 2003 State of the State address, Governor Frank Murkowski indicated that he would not support expanded State spending. “Alaskans tell me they expect state government to tighten its belt and focus on our basic priorities--education, transportation and public safety….We will be asking all Alaskans to make sacrifices for the mutual long-term good. We simply have to hold the line on state spending.”
Despite Murkowski’s promise of a $10.5 million increase for University of Alaska operating costs, the statewide system only received a net increase of $4.5 million for the 2004 fiscal year. Since then, Murkowski has created about 8,500 jobs in industry. On the other hand, state employees had their retirement funds placed into private investment accounts, a policy the Bush Administration has attempted and which has been abandoned.
Despite the procurement by Senator Lisa Murkowski of $250,000 for distance education courses in January 2004, the new state budget eliminated about twenty-five percent of UAA’s self-support courses. Tuition waiver programs offered by the College of Arts and Sciences were eliminated, without any warning to the students who were receiving them. A university-wide freeze in hiring, faculty travel, and large equipment purchases was enacted by then-Chancellor Edward Gorsuch, who stated, “While we’ve had increasing funding, it hasn’t kept up with inflation or fixed-cost increases.”
During 2003, the Alaska Community College Federation of Teachers nearly went on strike in protest of pay increases that did not rise in step with the cost of living, among other issues. Some of the colleges that would train Alaskans to build and operate the proposed gas pipeline were hit by that budget. Thomas Case of the College of Business and Public Policy said adjusting class size and possibly eliminating some staff positions is required to meet the 2005 budget. Jan Gehlor of the Community and Technical College reported that the Adult Learning Center will be eliminated, and proposed reductions in administrative jobs. Robert Lang of the School of Engineering suggested a cut in the number and frequency of courses, and predicted that recent enrollment increases at UAA indicate that students may have to be turned away.
The University of Alaska is still experiencing shortages. The Social Sciences College at UAA is in the midst of a hiring freeze and tuition waivers for senior citizens have been halved. UAA also signed a sponsorship contract with Wells Fargo, the largest corporate bank in the United States. For a price of $100,000 a year, for a term lasting five years, the Physical Education Facility has been renamed the Wells Fargo Sports Complex. The identity of the sponsor was hidden from students until the change was made.
In addition, student housing is dilapidated, pensions for professors is threatened, and the teacher/student ratio is not improving.
University of Alaska President Mark Hamilton said in 2004 that the emphasis would now be on using “other people’s money, as opposed to state money.”
David Parks, previous Student Regent, pointed out that students “provide dividends unlike that of any other natural resource this country can provide.” Current Student Regent Jacob Gondek concurs, stating, “The average student, when they graduate, every $1 they spend gets $6 back.” While this may be true if graduates stay in Alaska, until that graduation day occurs students are experiencing yearly 9-10% increases in total costs across the nation, manifesting on campus as yearly tuition hikes, adoption of new technology fees, stricter fines, and new parking/housing permits, and manifesting off campus as inflated gas prices, increased heating and electric utilities costs, and higher prices for food.
The cuts in student aid just enacted by the U.S. House of Representatives, if made law, would add another $5 billion a year to students’ costs in servicing their college debts, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
UAA Chancellor Elaine Maimon stated in an interview, “Education is an investment in Alaska’s future… The reality is that rising costs associated with fuel, utilities, healthcare, insurance premiums and retirement are threatening the ability of the University of Alaska to carry out its mission. We have to pay these costs. If the state does not fund UA’s request this year, the university will be forced to take money from existing programs to pay for these unavoidable costs. As a result, the new programs specifically designed to meet Alaska’s workforce needs will be most vulnerable in a cost-cutting environment.” Not only the state of Alaska is also being hit by this reality: so is the nation.
Higher costs of living have extended the time it takes to earn a degree. Only 63% of all fulltime college and university students in America in the twenty-first century graduate from a ‘four year’ undergraduate college within six years or less; more than a third of the students require more than six years to get a degree-if they eventually get it at all- and most require a simultaneous job, or jobs, throughout. Only forty-four percent of fulltime black and Hispanic students get a ‘four year’ degree within six years. One main reason for this is that seventy-two percent of all twelve million fulltime students hold a job or jobs through the school year, up from sixty percent in 1994-1995. But eighty percent of community college students work, and eighty-four percent of students whose family is in the lower third of incomes work.
Forty-two percent of full-time students work twenty hours per week or more-the level at which academic work often is degraded, and graduation chances decline, according to recent studies.
In fact, ten percent of all private college students work more than thirty-five hours per week (i.e., they basically hold a full-time job while fulltime students); eighteen percent of all public four year college students, and thirty percent of all community college students, work more than thirty-five hours per week through the school year.
These are symptoms of a national economic system, of which the University of Alaska is a part, which is in severe financial distress. On November 15, the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education released a forecast that because of the high and still escalating (six percent per year) cost of higher education, by 2020 the portion of the American workforce with a college education will fall, from 17.1% to 15.4%.
It is up to Gov. Murkowski, the Alaska Legislature, and the Alaskan people to decide whether Alaska’s university system will receive the assets it needs to function.
Contact Ian Overton at ian@qupq.com.
Challenges
Will The Alaska Club offer fair membership options?
Physical exercise is essential for many of us who commute to office jobs in cars. Health clubs typically require year-long memberships, even if one is not able to use the facilities during much of that period. The appearance is that clubs are using their control of the market to unfairly extract money from customers.
Why do health clubs offer such poor membership choices for customers? Are they willing to offer memberships that would serve the needs of those who cannot make a commitment to using the clubs continually for an entire year--for instance, with monthly memberships, or punch cards able to be used a certain number of times?
One of the goals of Alaska Humanity News is to explore everyday events and situations that escape attention because they are omnipresent. CHALLENGES is one of these features. Look through this edition to find other unusual features.
Coming soon: the official response.
Humanity News News
Alaska Humanity News to become bimonthly
Contribute your own news
Bob Lord
Core supporters of Alaska Humanity News
Seeking Co-Creators of Alaska Humanity News
Opportunity: “Compassionate Businesses”
Alaska Humanity News to become bimonthly
We are pleased to announce that Alaska Humanity News will be completing its first year and entering 2006 prepared to explore new dimensions of transformative news. In order to simplify our operations and maintain sustainability we will be publishing every other month, for the time being, beginning with this issue.
Contribute your own news
Starting February we will be providing space for citizen journalists to contribute their own news. If you resonate with our vision of meaningful news, send us stories on any Alaskan topic that interests you. Please review our essays on the meaning of news at our website, http://www.humanitynews.net (go to the links at Our Vision). Submissions should be 500 words or less.
Bob Lord
Our Advertising Representative Bob Lord died October 17 at the age of 62. Bob was involved in this paper from the beginning and was instrumental in giving Alaska Humanity News a running start. He made this commitment partly in order to be of service to a project he believed in.
Core supporters of Alaska Humanity News
We are continuing to sell display and classified ads (a rate card can be found on our website), but we are developing a new model to support this paper: one in which co-participants make a mutual commitment to support each other and our work in making a better world. We are seeking individuals and businesses who want to be an integral part of this enterprise. Businesses contribute $30 per issue ($180 for the year) and can submit a business card size ad in each edition; individuals will contribute $50 per year and be entitled to other benefits. See our website for details, or contact us via phone or email.
Seeking Co-Creators of Alaska Humanity News
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Editorial
Don’t blame Dan Coffey for tiny vision
We don’t blame Dan Coffey or any other City Council member for throwing out the Anchorage Long Range Transportation Plan. True, this was an audacious act. It contradicted a mandate determined by a public process that lasted for years. But assigning blame to leaders is a polarizing, adversarial attitude which we disavow. This newspaper stands for another way of responding to moral and social injustice.
The brazen acts of our politicians serve us perfectly. They reveal the state of our culture and the level of our consciousness, and this ought to be a challenge to build a culture which expresses our truest and highest nature. From where can this culture arise?
A tiny vision dominates society, one which satisfies the craving for security and privacy, for smooth highways that connect corporate businesses with luxurious homes. Those who are either more sensitive or less privileged pay a heavy price for this one-sided approach. We don’t hear from them, because they are felled by meaninglessness. The humble ones, living in basements, shoveling snow. The tormented ones, injecting or imbibing drugs. The lost ones, staring at television screens. And the rest of us, brainwashed by prosperity.
An alternative vision is supplied by groups like the Anchorage Citizens’ Coalition, which support human- scale and pedestrian-friendly development. In surveys and studies, the public has demonstrated that they want a walkable city, viable public transportation, and diverse, mixed-use town centers. These concepts are important, but they are still just a fragment of what fulfilled human nature in cities could look like.
The greatest danger is having a vision that’s too small. There is a great dream that was cherished by humanity for thousands of years, but was abandoned during the genocides and dictatorships of the twentieth century. We have succumbed to materialism; the drive for security, money, glory, and sensation is dominant; and America has no soul.
We need a vision of a city that takes account of the full range of human potential. Rich in opportunities that meet our inner needs, it would be a city that teaches, entertains, and heals each of us to life, with intersections of ideas, thoroughfares of active love--a diverse, beautiful, challenging city which could be accomplished simply by the force of our own integrity.
It doesn’t matter if that city exists now. What is important is that there is a pattern of if it laid up for any person who wishes to contemplate it, and so beholding it, constitute himself its citizen (See page 10).
Do not blame our adversaries. Rather, fall down before them and ask their forgiveness. We are exactly the same as the one who stands before us, and maybe we are ourselves the most guilty party. However mad this may seem, it is true. For if we ourselves were clear enough, maybe there would be no callousness or brutality among our brothers and sisters. (See page 12).
Politicians, businessmen, and bureaucrats cannot be reformed by force. The response to lifelessness in society is the courage to express our inner life actively, in public situations. The response to political scuffling is active love.
Opinion
City of God
By Harry Davidson
There is a perennial tension between the way the systems of the world seem to work, how they function on a day-to-day level, and how we hope they could be in their ideal. How government, education, economic and religious life actually work is without exception contrary to our deepest intuitions of a noble, just and equitable world where our highest ideals rule the day and we rise to our God-given potential collectively as communities, embodying what we all know to be true and good.
When these institutions fail to achieve their ideal we either mourn the loss or become cynical. Far better to mourn; for in mourning there are the seeds of hope for something better. We mourn because we have seen a better way and know it to be possible but for our own weakness and failures. We mourn because there is engraved in the collective psyche of all people, all communities, a vision of cooperation, mutual trust, heroic sacrifice and joyful celebration that lies just below the surface of the broken, dysfunctional ways we experience life together.
We know we can do better. We know we ought to do better. Some of us long and languish for a day to come when this will be so. The more disconnected and fragmented communities become the more we yearn for the good city, the good village, the good life with good people. In many ways we are more fragmented now than ever. The promise of true community echoes all around us. Images flicker in our eyes, mocking us like a house of mirrors. Virtual villages, internet communities; we know the names of the fleeting figures that glow on our television and computer screens, but we do not know the names of our neighbors. So we long and yearn to belong to a good and decent city, a city of refuge. And may we never cease to long and yearn, for in our yearning is our salvation.
If we allow ourselves to slip into cynicism, if we give up on the ideal of the Good, we are lost. We are not lost because we have tried and failed, and now in our disappointment mourn our loss. We will be lost only if we surrender to hopelessness. We are not necessarily called to build the good city; rather, we are called to work for the good, knowing that what we long for in our deep heart is nothing less than the City of God. Until that day come we are to selflessly labor and keep no account of victory or defeat. In the labor itself, in the work of love, there is redemption. And in laboring for the good and true and beautiful we shall find one another, we shall find true community, perhaps even the gates to the City of God.
Harry Davidson was born in Kodiak, raised in Southwest Alaska, and is now a business owner in Anchorage. E-mail: harry@qupq.com.
Letters to the editor
Some overseas manufacturers are just
The smiling Eskimo is imprisoned
Some overseas manufacturers are just
I head up the social compliance department at VF Corporation. It is my job to make sure that all of our suppliers operate their facilities in a healthy and safe environment. Where the employees are treated ethically and the local laws are observed. We have a full time staff located all around the world who are dedicated to this effort.
I am responding to your recent article about sweatshop labor [November, 2005]. Specifically your comments about Nautica In your article you state that “Other affiliates of VF Corp., such as Nautica, are known to have sweatshops in Myanmar, which is a military dictatorship”. For the last 6 years VF has not allowed any of it’s affiliated brands or licensees to import any products from Myanmar. In fact for the last year and a half it has been illegal for any US company to import any apparel products from this country.
Nautica has only been a part of VF Corporation since July 2003. At that time there was no merchandise being produced in Myanmar and none has been placed there since. It is quite possible that Nautica did place goods in Myanmar prior to the purchase date while they were under different management.
Ron Martin
Compliance Director, VF Corporation
Ian Overton responds:
The quote you reference is from a report written by C. Coward (2001) at Marlborough University detailing the various companies that had factories in Burma (Myanmar). This includes Nautica. As my article dealt with specific Anchorage contractors I was not inferring anything about other VF brands. In the interests of justice and ethics I do suggest VF follow in the footsteps of other businesses and initiate disclosure of factory locations and what varying protective measures all its affiliates may engage in. For example, many companies include photographs of factory conditions, while others make freely available their internal code of conduct.
The smiling Eskimo is imprisoned
As you well know our state is served primarily by one Airline, Alaska Airlines.
I would like to see an exposé on the true Alaska Airlines, with emphasis on the fact that Alaska Airlines is neither Alaskan (its headquarters is in Seattle), in attendance or business (Alaska Airlines is under Alaska Air Group or AAG, a Delaware corporation since 1985). Yet the smiling Eskimo and this state are plastered and hijacked for corporate commercial endorsement.
Taking this story to deeper waters would mean investigating the current conditions in which Alaska Airlines finds itself.
1. Labor problems (a simple internet search will lead you to all stories for reference, including recent layoffs).
2. Safety problems (flight 261 crashed on Jan. 10, 2000, yet Alaska continues to pile-up fines from the FAA.
3. Internal problems. The current Board of Directors is seemingly in a battle against its own shareholders. Evidently many votes were withheld in the last shareholders meeting. source:votepal.com
4. Two of the current board members have questionable affiliations, one being a former employee of Arthur Anderson, the accounting firm implicated in a recent corporate scandal, the other being a former official with a California electrical entity which had a hand in the California blackouts. Other problems include AAG having a sham trust to pay workers sick-leave while enjoying certain tax benefits.
Could it be the smiling Eskimo has been hijacked and held hostage? Please shed some light on this company who at the surface appears to be wholesome and friendly. I believe the public needs to know that Alaska Airlines crafts an image that is not true to it’s character.
Charles Brenner
Greybeard's box
November, 2005
If we are what we eat, will we become alike or different?
Will doctored food make doctored people?
Who determines who eats and who doesn’t?
Greybeard's box
December 2005/ January 2006
Do we still have government of, by, and for the people?
Can someone’s dream be another’s nightmare?
Does contracting out create more whistle blowers
than civil service?
Unheard Voices
Fulfillment in traditional, religous, family life
Click on Archives: Dec 2005/Jan 2006 to see the contents of this month’s paper.
By Geoff Bederson
I met Bhavani when she first arrived in Alaska, directly from the opposite side of Earth and the opposite culture of humanity. From the beginning I noticed that she was peaceful, humble, thoughtful, and gentle, and I couldn’t understand this. Here we are trained to breathlessly pursue goals that are out of reach. It is a struggle to return to simple truths, like those which Bhavani brought here, and which she carries along with her to this day.
Bhavani: I grew up in a city in Southern India. It was a traditional, disciplined life. There is a tradition or custom for everything. For instance, there is an elaborate ceremony for naming children, which is marked by chanting of songs and singing of hymns.
In all things the family will teach you: don’t do this, or do these things. Don’t choose bad things. You should not lie about anything, you should tell the truth.
Family is important to me because everything starts from the family. The family has to have strong principles, like a housewife being disciplined. The family is the foundation of our society. If the family is strong, the society will be good.
I am still doing that. We are following all of our traditions. The traditional life is good.
Now that you have been living here for seven years, what do you think of the traditional life you led, growing up in India?
It felt safe. We prayed at home, and went to temple and prayed to God everyday. We have a lot of temples in India. We walk there in the morning, it’s just ten minutes away. During festivals we go in the evenings, because in the mornings we’ll be praying at home. Every time our family was together.
I am a Brahmin, the highest caste. We had certain privileges. Some castes can’t even go to the temple. But I believe that every caste should be able to do the same thing. I don’t like that some have more privileges. This is changing in India now. In America everyone is the same. That is something I like. Everyone should be the same.
An American teenager would be rebellious, seeking freedom. Were you like that?
No. I was happy, then and now.
Sometimes we went to films. We’d listen to music on the radio, old religious Tamil songs. We didn’t listen to popular music.. My friends were also traditional.
With all your love for that life, why would you choose to come to America?
I was twenty-two when I got married. In India parents choose the husband and wife, and make a match with the horoscope. When there is a good match, they will go further and talk. When I told this to some of my American friends they were surprised and asked me, “ you married a guy you have never met before?”
I didn’t have the dream of coming to America. Because I got married, and my husband worked here, I had to come here with him. I thought it was good, because a lot of people said that America was good. I was glad to have the chance to visit America.
I have two children. I came to America right after my marriage, and my son was born here.
What was your first impression when you came to Alaska?
It was so cold, but I liked the snow. I was so excited to see this place. The people were so nice here, friendly, they say hi. They’re friendly on the streets, but when you are in your home nobody will talk to you. When you come inside, that’s it.
It’s not like that in India. In India people don’t say hi until you get to know them. But we will stay and talk with the neighbors in our homes. We talk with each other everyday. I like that very much.
Transportation and roads are much better here. In India it’s not like that. The bicycles, auto-rickshaws - everything is going on the same road. There is no lane discipline like we have here.
Now that you’ve been here seven years, what is your impression of American culture?
There is quite a lot of spiritual life here. The thing I like most about America is that people believe in God. It doesn’t matter what God they believe in. I see lots of churches here. Just as all rivers meet in the ocean, so do all religions lead to one God.
American culture is totally different from Indian culture, mainly in family values. Here many teenagers are on their own, they have to make do by themselves, they have to work. There are single moms, single dads. People will get married, and in a couple of years they will get divorced. This affects the kids life. We have more family values in India. That’s the part I don’t like about the U.S.
Family values in the U.S. have to improve a lot. There is a lot of smoking and drugs. The kids will be spoiled because of this. Everybody has some problems, a lot of problems. If they had family values, they could avoid those things.
I miss my home country a lot. India is very rich in its customs and traditions, right from birth to death. I miss that here.
We don’t have much tradition here, but does this mean that we have more freedom?
My own life is the same as it was in India. Since we have a temple and a small Indian community, we gather together and celebrate some of our festivals here in Anchorage.
Here there is freedom of speech. People can do whatever they like within the law. Back in India you cannot say what you want. There will be a political problem. Even if the law permits it, sometimes you cannot do it in India.
But too much freedom is dangerous. For instance, a child can call the police on his or her parents. I feel like parents’ hands are tied here. In India children don’t have much choice. Children should be obedient, and mine will be. I don’t like it when children are not. Even after they get married, the woman has to listen to the husband, as he is older and has more experience in life than the woman. This is good. In India it is much more difficult to get a divorce, especially for a woman. The divorce culture in India makes it the most unique country in the world.
A lot of Americans are tortured because of the feeling they need something they don’t have. But you seem very peaceful. Are you restless?
No. So far I am not like that. I have a good husband, I have good kids. I am peaceful, because I have everything. An Indian women will only chose on the basis of these things. They will pray to God, for a good husband, that is the main thing.
So far I don’t have any difficult challenges. My life is normal, it’s easy. As you think, so it will be. If you have respect for older people, if you take care of them as they get old, your sons and daughters will do the same thing to you as you get older. Your life will be very easy. It depends on how you look at it.
What is the goal in your life?
I was studying, but after that I got married and came here. My personal goal is to be a good wife, and a good mom for my kids, and to have a good education for them. I want to take care of my parents and parents-in-law.
I want to be a good person. Good means disciplined, moral, truthful, courageous - and humble.
I want to go back to India. We have to tell them when we are going out, we will ask permission of my mother or father-in-law. I am not afraid of losing my freedom.
I want to raise my kids in India. They will go back to India, in order to learn their culture and traditional life. I will have freedom over there, too.
News of the real
December 2005/ January 2006
Human beings are dominant
The biomass of homo sapiens now exceeds that of all other land animals combined. There are more people than birds on our planet.
Seventy percent of all television shows now have sexual content
The number of sexual scenes on television has nearly doubled since 1998. This was the major finding of the Kaiser Family Foundation in a new study released on November 9. According to the study, “Seventy percent of all shows have sexual content, up from 56% in the first study in 1998 and 64% in 2002. Two-thirds (68%) of all shows include talk about sex, and 35% of all shows include sexual behaviors. The proportion of shows with sexual content in prime-time on the major broadcast networks has also increased. Nearly eight in ten such shows (77%) include sexual content, compared to 67% in 1998 and 71% in 2002.
“Among the top 20 most-watched shows by teens, 70% include some kind of sexual content, and nearly half (45%) include sexual behavior.”
In addition to being more frequent, the PTC’s own research shows that the sexual content on television has become coarser and more explicit. In the past month alone, popular prime-time broadcast series have included plotlines about bestiality (Boston Legal), a sexual relationship between a teenaged girl and her adopted brother (Close to Home), and a pedophile (Without a Trace).
Parents Television Council, parentstv.org. November 9, 2005
French riots not caused by poverty, racism, or other external factors
Typical narrow interpretation of the French riots
Eleven nights of consecutive violence followed the deaths of two young Muslim men of African descent in a Paris suburb. Clichy-sous-Bois, the impoverished and segregated north eastern suburb of Paris, home to the two dead boys and the initial violent reaction to their deaths, was always a ticking time bomb for the kind of dramatic social upheaval we are currently witnessing. One in two inhabitants are under twenty, unemployment is at over forty percent, while identity checks and police harassment are a daily experience.
Humane explanation
Incredibly, a simple gesture of regret could go a long way towards defusing the tensions for now. At a press conference organised the morning after the gassing of the mosque, a young Muslim girl summed up a widespread feeling: “We just want them to stop lying, to admit that they’ve done it and to apologise. That’s the only think that we are asking them to do.” It might not seem much, but in today’s France it would require a deep political and ideological transformation with nothing short of the full recognition of these eternal ‘immigrants’ as full and equal citizens of the Republic. This is not about to happen anytime soon.
Naima Bouteldja, November 10, 2005
Another world is possible
A new model for trade was proposed during President Bush’s visit to the Fourth Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Argentina. Amidst massive protests, [Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez] cited the sale of Venezuelan petroleum to fourteen Caribbean countries at a 40 percent discount and with an interest rate of one percent over twenty-five years.
“It was a turning point in Latin American history,” claims Marcelo Langieri, academic secretary of the Sociology faculty at the University of Buenos Aires. Langieri emphasized what he considers a paradigm shift in the dialogue. “Not only was the FTAA questioned, but also the neoconservative economic model and capitalism,” and by somebody in a position of power such as Chávez’s.
Regional opponents of Bush’s free trade agreement accuse it of fomenting inequality and placing poorer countries at the mercy of wealthier ones. The Bolivarian alternative proposes regional integration with the goal of fighting poverty and social exclusion.
President Bush’s entourage in Argentina included 2,000 people and four AWACS surveillance systems.
The Nation, Nov. 5, 2005
Medical bureaucracy encroaching on travelers’ freedom
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a phone-book-thick proposed rule yesterday that would give the federal government new powers to track the comings and goings of individual travelers and expand the circumstances under which passengers exposed to a serious communicable disease could be isolated or quarantined.
Although travelers would be asked to provide more personal information--including phone numbers and e-mail addresses--the goal is simply to be able to contact people if it becomes apparent they sat near an infected person while traveling.
No one could be forcibly isolated for longer than the amount of time it takes for the suspected disease to be no longer communicable--less than a month for most diseases.
November 23, 2005, Washington Post
Cingular and Verizon to make pornography available on cellphones
The nation’s major cellular phone carriers said yesterday that they had adopted a content rating system for video, music, pictures and games that they sell to cellphone users--a development that could pave the way for them to begin selling pornography and sex-oriented content on mobile devices.
The carriers said the ratings, meant to mimic content classifications for movies and video games, are voluntary.
Initially, the carriers would classify content in two categories: general interest and restricted content deemed appropriate only for people over the age of 18.
The carriers said they had agreed not to begin making restricted content available until they had developed filters and other technological tools that would enable parents to prevent children from getting access to inappropriate material.
The carriers, including Cingular Wireless and Verizon Wireless, the largest and second-largest mobile companies, said they were developing filtering technology and that it should be available soon.
November 9, 2005, The New York Times
misc
Believe it or not you Can Read it!
I cdnuolt blveiee that I cluod aulaclly uesdnatnrd what I was rdgnieg The phaonmneal pweor of the human mind Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t matter inwaht order the ltteers in a word are, the only iprmoatnt thing is that the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can still raed it wouthit a porbelm. This is bcuseae the human mind deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the word as a whlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt!
Opinion
Saving UAA requires national protectionist policy
By Ian Overton
It was President Franklin Roosevelt’s collaboration with Harry Hopkins and Harold Ickes that was absolutely crucial in turning around the Great Depression, putting the United States back to work, and launching the most intensive period of infrastructure development in human history. Their intervention to restore the bankrupt private and public sectors saved our country from disaster. There is nothing in what Roosevelt, Hopkins, and Ickes did, in 1933, that can’t be replicated today.
Today, the situation globally is far, far worse than it was then. What Roosevelt inherited was a national infrastructure capacity that had been reduced by half under the austerity policies promoted by Hoover and Andrew Mellon. Today, we face steel production that is a fraction of what it used to be. Our energy plants are aging and many need upgrades. Transportation systems are eroding and inefficient. Universities and colleges are facing years of budget shortfalls and tuition hikes. Petroleum and minerals are at record high prices. These are symptoms of an overall systemic problem: When the U.S. cannot produce the basic commodities it needs to provide real opportunities for its citizens to upkeep and advance their lives, but instead depends on over $6 billion worth of imports per day to avert a total national breakdown, it is a first world country that is asphyxiating itself. The abandonment of FDR’s “fair trade” producer society programs for Wall Street’s “free trade” services society policies has brought this onrushing breakdown to the doorstep of Alaska’s future.
Speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Nov. 22, Ford Motor Co. chairman and CEO Bill Ford urged the U.S. Congress to provide tax credits for the conversion of auto factories, and the retraining of the auto workforce. He urged “a collaboration between government and business.” This was what FDR did to produce enough logistics to bring us out of the depression and win the war. It is what the U.S. must do again to avert bigger disasters lurking beneath the consumer mentality.
Ford’s proposal would head the auto sector in a different direction than that offered by General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner, who announced Nov. 21 that he would close all or part of 12 GM factories in the U.S. and Canada, and fire 30,000 workers--slashing GM’s production workforce by 30%. A week earlier, the CEO of GM spinoff Delphi (the nation’s largest auto-parts maker), Wall Street thug Steve Miller, has declared that he would lay off 24,000 of Delphi’s 34,750 production workers in the U.S. and Canada--71% of the workforce.
On Nov. 23, economist Lyndon LaRouche wrote a letter on the matter of reorganizing the U.S. auto industry to Bill Ford, in which LaRouche expressed agreement with Ford’s statement, and reiterated emergency measures for the auto sector LaRouche had publicly warned Congress about last spring. He emphasized the need to develop the scientifically advanced machine-tool-design capability embedded in the auto industry, which is capable of producing almost anything needed to reconstruct the U.S. economy.
LaRouche proposed an Act of Congress to create the authority for such a reorganization of the auto industry. On Nov. 24, LaRouche issued a policy memorandum that focused the reorganization of the auto sector from the advanced standpoint of launching a world economic revival and an emergency reform of the bankrupt international monetary system.
Without implementing these measures nationally, any bailout of the UA statewide system would merely be prolonging the inevitable, even with a gas pipeline. Our state cannot provide its young adults their rightful opportunities to provide for Alaska’s future without a national protectionist policy.
Concerned Alaskans should watch LPAC’s Janurary 11, 2006 webcast: 9am at http://www.larouchepac.com
Contact Ian Overton at ian@qupq.com
Restaurant review
The Great Alaskan Chip Tour
Reviewed by Crystal Hutchens
All chips are not created equal. I can testify to this after a recent tour of several Anchorage Mexican restaurants. Further, the chip might be the most important part of the Mexican restaurant experience. It’s the first thing to arrive at your table; it’s your first impression of the restaurant and the meal that is to follow. Are they fresh, crisp, warm? Do they whet your appetite or leave you unimpressed? The salsa is equally important and was included in the decision-making process. The following list is in order from my favorite to least enjoyed. I tried to include plenty of details because there are many criteria on which to judge and preferences will vary from person to person. This is by no means an all inclusive list. There are many great Mexican restaurants in Anchorage that I didn’t even have a chance to get to. You’ll have to get out there and conduct your own experiments where I left off. Happy chip and dipping.
Pancho Villa, 3104 Spenard Rd.
Of all the chips I tried recently, these were my favorite. Made at the restaurant, these chips are so thin they offered the best crispy crunch. They were served warm, oily and perfectly salted. Our waitress said they were made fresh daily and they tasted as if they were just made. Accompanied by mild and spicy salsa, I enjoyed both. Often the mild salsa served with chips is too heavy on the tomato flavor, which makes me think of canned tomatoes. This mild sauce was very flavorful with a heavy hint of cilantro, not too chunky, but not too thin. The spicy salsa was also of a medium consistency and medium heat. It had traces of cilantro and visible red pepper seeds were definitely the culprit of the heat factor.
Don Jose’s, 2052 E. Northern Lights Blvd.
These chips were more substantial than the super thin chips at Pancho Villa, but they weren’t at all thick. They were served warm, very crisp and crunchy and not too salty. The mild sauce was very chunky and also very flavorful. I thought that if I had the inclination I could of heated it up to use as spaghetti sauce. The spicy salsa was also quite chunky, very flavorful and had a pretty spicy kick. Our waitress said they were made in-house from tortillas they purchased locally.
Qdoba Mexican Grill, 702 E Benson Blvd.
Qdoba is an order-at-the-counter establishment and you have to buy chips if you want them. For $1.95 you get a standard sized basket of chips with your choice of mild, medium or spicy salsa. My friend and I chose the mild salsa and paid extra for a side of medium salsa. For $2.50, we also ordered a second basket of chips with guacamole. The counter service person told us they made the chips fresh every day but she had no idea where they got the tortillas. A little more on the thick side, they weren’t quite as crisp. They had a course texture but were still pretty crunchy. There was enough salt on them to be visible. Neither my friend or I were impressed with the mild salsa. It was prepared like pico d’ gallo, with nothing more than big chunks of less-than-fresh tomatoes, sparse onions and a little cilantro. It was bland and virtually flavorless. The medium salsa was quite good. It was green, chunky, and likely made with chilies and possibly tomatillas. It had a tangy flavor and a not too hefty kick. The guacamole was also quite tasty; it was chunky and flavorful and made with fresh avocados.
LaMex, 2550 Spenard Rd.
LaMex makes their own chips from their own tortillas, but in massive quantities. I’ve been behind the scenes there and they are not made daily, but kept in a giant barrel. This makes for a sad looking basket of chips when they arrive at the table. They aren’t served warm, and as opposed to most places, a majority of the chips in the basket are broken which makes them aesthetically unappealing as well. They are on the thick side, so even though they are crunchy, they aren’t really crisp. The mild salsa is very runny and tastes like flavorless tomato sauce. The spicy sauce is a little more flavorful, but almost insignificantly so, relying almost entirely on heat for its flavor, though it’s heavy on the cilantro.
Simon’s Taco Rico, 2409 C St.
These chips were my least favorite, but for personal preferences. They were served warm, but dry as if they had been baked instead of fried. Likely it’s the American in me that enjoys a nice, oily chip. They were crisp but bland, and seemingly unsalted. They reminded me a little more of a thin cracker than a chip. The salsa was a little more unique. Both the mild and hot were flavorful and not chunky, but seemed to be pureed. The sauce itself was thick enough to cling to the chip, it just didn’t have chunks floating in it. Both the mild and hot were flavorful. The only apparent difference between them was the medium spice of the hot sauce which seemed to come from pepper seeds. The restaurant itself seemed much more traditional than the standard Americanized version of the Mexican restaurant prevalent in our little burg. The hot sauce that came with my carne asada taco was actually better than the two sauces served with the chips. It was a moderately spiced and flavorful green sauce with pureed chillies and noticeable pepper seeds throughout. It reminded me of something you would find on the west coast, where those authentic taco carts are prevalent.
Honorable Mention: Taco King has a delicious chip of sorts on it’s dessert menu. For $2.50 you can order the Buenelos, a pile of deep-fried flour triangles sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and drizzled with honey. They are absolutely sinful on a calorie counters list, but a delight to follow a selection from Taco King’s inexpensive and traditional menu.
Organizations we support
Winterberry Charter School
Situated downtown on the corner of 2nd and E Street, Winterberry is one of Anchorage’s newest K-6 charter schools. The school fosters a passion and enthusiasm for learning through its focus on hands-on experience. The curriculum there can be seen as an ascending spiral; every day, a strong foundation is laid for future learning, and every day, teachers build on that foundation by engaging the entire child and all of his or her senses.
Winterberry has already displayed a knack for creative solutions as construction delays have called for quick adjustments. Soon, classrooms will occupy the first two floors of an exquisite, towering glass building. In the meantime, Winterberry has striven to find housing for some 200 students. Churches around the Anchorage area have served as temporary school sites for Winterberry and its students.
Each day, Winterberry students learn in a nurturing and stress-free environment. Students are greeted every morning by a teacher with a gentle handshake and a welcoming smile-a pleasant way to start the day. Children gather in a harmony circle, holding hands and reciting a poem that includes the lines: “Oh, may each deed throughout the day/Be bright and strong and true/oh, golden Sun, like you.”
At each grade level, emphasis is on interactive play and sensory experience. In kindergarten, the curriculum is play-based; children engage in cooking, exploring nature while on adventure hikes, storytelling to develop listening skills, and playing games that strengthen rhythm. As students pass from grade to grade, creative opportunities abound: Third-graders garden to develop agricultural skills, while sixth grade students engage in theatrical performances and write business correspondence. Often, traditional but often impersonal tools like computers, books, and compasses are abandoned, the teachers guiding the way instead through form drawing which travels into geometry.
Winterberry Charter School is a wonderful alternative to the public school environment. It is state-funded under the Anchorage School District, so no tuition is required. Winterberry is proof that going to school and learning is fun.
For more information on Winterberry Charter School, log on to http://www.winterberry.org or call 301-1201.
Organizations we support
Early-stage Alzheimer’s support group
The Alzheimer’s Disease Resource Agency of Alaska (ADRAA), a non-profit organization based in Anchorage, provides support, information, and education to Alaskans state-wide, who are affected by Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias (ADRD). Over the summer ADRAA received some exciting news--the Mental Health Trust Authority funded the agency to start a support group for individuals in the early-stages of ADRD.
In a 2005 survey conducted with family caregivers, ADRAA staff noted that 30% of respondents cited a need for support groups for people in the early stages of the disease. Several shared about the need for services at a critical time when individuals and families are coming to terms with the disease and also needing assistance with planning. Caregivers noted that their family members were not introduced to services until they were in the mid to later stages of the disease, long after they are able to be a part of the decision-making process.
ADRAA staff researched support group models and communicated with Robyn Yale, LCSW in San Francisco. Yale has 20 years of experience in the field of aging and Alzheimer’s disease. In 1986, she pioneered an innovative group for people in the early stages; this model has been replicated both nationally and internationally by the Alzheimer’s Association and other agencies and is outlined in her book, Developing Support Groups for Individuals with Early Stage Alzheimer’s Disease.
During the months of November and December, ADRAA staff will be interviewing individuals interested in participating in the group in Anchorage. The group will begin in January of 2006. There is no charge to participants. A group for family members will be held simultaneously.
ADRAA is hoping to reach more people newly diagnosed. Services can help increase knowledge of the disease, develop skills to cope with memory loss, increase awareness of community resources, and provide a forum for people to build relationships with others facing similar circumstances. For more information, call Julie Beatty at 561-3313, or stop by the ADRAA office, located at 1750 Abbott Road.
ADRAA is also seeking volunteers who would like to raise awareness of Alzheimer’s disease by participating in our Speaker’s Bureau. For more information on this or other volunteer opportunities, call 561-3313.
Movie review
Pride and Prejudice
Reviewed by Jamey Bradbury and Diana DeFazio
Hollywood has unearthed and dusted off its “How to Make an English Period Romance” kit to bring us a new version of Pride and Prejudice. The film is rife with misty English moors, swelling music meant to inspire the heart to burst inside the chest, and a whole gaggle of tittering females who listen at keyholes, keep the gossip mill alive, and provide entertainment for the masses in an age before television. So familiar is the backdrop of this film that it feels almost disappointing when, at the film’s conclusion, Mr. Darcy, tousle-haired and nearly bare-chested, comes tromping across the gray moor in the cloudy morning, determined to lay open his soul to Lizzie. The music crescendos for so long--with Darcy doggedly treading toward the camera all the way--that a scene that should have been one of the most moving begins to feel a little like a parody of this kind of film.
After some scene-setting at the Bennett’s home, the film’s action gets going when the characters attend not one but two balls: Hives of social activity where elegant ladies circle their dancing partners, then buzz through the crowd carrying bits of gossip about fellow party-goers. The action at the parties is a little breathless, although a long, single-camera shot that follows a series of characters through the labyrinthine rooms of the house is clever and well-done. It is here that Elizabeth first makes the sour Mr. Darcy’s acquaintance, and where we get a taste of Lizzie’s independent spirit, intelligence, and wit.
Keira Knightley gives us this latest incarnation of Elizabeth Bennett, though the viewer quickly begins to wish that the part had been given to an actress with more range. Knightley seems to rely on the script--well-written, with the best dialogue having been lifted straight from Austen’s pages--and a repertoire of five facial expressions which she tries to pass off for “acting.” Unfortunately, the film is filled with tight shots of Knightley’s face that are, presumably, meant to help us see what Elizabeth is thinking and feeling; the effect is a little claustrophobic.
Matthew MacFadyen, however, in the role of Mr. Darcy, makes good use of these close-ups. The strength of his acting lies not so much in how he delivers his lines, but in the subtle changes in his expression. Even before Darcy is quietly revealed to be a decent, loyal man, MacFadyen brings this side of his character to light using little more than a gesture, or a glance.
There are some fine moments in the film--a conversation between Lizzie and her father (played by Donald Sutherland) about her feelings for Darcy is possibly the best of these--and some excellent acting from Lizzie’s sister, Jane (Rosamund Pike), and Mr. Bingley’s sister, played by Kelly Reilly. For a tale about passion and romance, though, the film falls short of truly moving the viewer. Pride and Prejudice, after all, is about the pride of two individuals--how that pride prevents them from seeing each other for who they truly are, and how that pride is stripped away. Revealing oneself--the core of one’s soul, the truth behind the façade--cannot be a simple thing, and when Darcy and Elizabeth proclaim their feelings for one another, no swelling music should be needed. We should be moved simply by the meaning behind each touch, each sentence that passes between them. Alas, in the case of this year’s Pride and Prejudice, we are not.
In the end, it is a testament to the writing of Jane Austen, and not so much to the abilities of either Knightley or the director, Joe Wright, that the story still appeals to the audience, and that we continue to delight in the romance that grows between the eventual Mr. and Mrs. Darcy.
Entertainment value: 2 1/2 stars
Meaning: 2 1/2 stars
Lack of gratuitous violence or sex: 4 stars
Lack of advertising: 4 stars
Overall quality: 2 stars
Emotional impact: 1 1/2 stars
(out of 4 stars)
Alternatives
How can we produce a city that nurtures what is best and most beautiful in human beings?___________________________
[fill this in yourself].
"O let America be America again
The land that never has been yet
And yet must be.”
Langston Hughes
Functions of a City
Learning
Entertainment
Diversity and choice
Conversation and dialogue
Adventure and excitement
-- Economics and money-making
-- Safety and comfort
Spiritual inspiration
Anonymity and privacy
-- Transportation
Justice
Culture and art
Checked items are those which our leaders and ourselves adequately fulfill; the others are vast areas of parking-
lot-like desolation.
“No nation can last, which has made a mob of itself, however generous at heart. It must discipline its passions, and direct them, or they will discipline [it], one day, with scorpion whips. Above all, a nation cannot last as a money-making mob: it cannot with impunity--it cannot with existence--go on despising literature, despising science, despising art, despising nature, despising compassion, and concentrating its soul on Pence.”
John Ruskin
“The city will be governed by us and by you in a state of waking, not in a dream as the many cities nowadays are governed by men who fight over shadows with one another and form factions for the sake of ruling, as though it were some great good.... Perhaps a pattern is laid up for a person who wants to see it, and so beholding to constitute himself its citizen. It doesn’t make any difference whether it is or will be somewhere. For he would mind the things of this city alone, and of no other.”
Plato, Republic, Book VII & IX
“I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.”
Alexis de Tocqueville
“Democracy is not the highest goal. It is better than dictatorial regimes, it is better than monarchies, but it is not the end of the journey--because democracy basically means government by the people, of the people, for the people, but the people are retarded. So let us say: government by the retarded, for the retarded, of the retarded....Democracy cannot be the highest possibility man can attain. It is good in comparison to other forms of government that have preceded it, but not something that can succeed it. I call that meritocracy. I want a government by the people of merit. And merit is a very rare quality.”
Osho
Earth Democracy
“We are beginning to see that we are connected to each other through love, compassion, ecological responsibility and economic justice, which replace greed, consumerism and competition as objectives of human life.
“In Earth Democracy, rights are derived from and balanced with responsibility. Those who bear the consequences of decisions and actions are the decision makers....Earth democracy is based on those who pay the price for having a say, and those who carry responsibility for having the rights. This creates direct or basic democracy.
“All members of the Earth Community, including all humans, have the right to sustenance--to food and water, to a safe and clean habitat, to security of ecological space. These rights are natural rights; they are birthrights, given by the fact of existence on Earth, and are best protected through community rights over the commons.”
Vandana Shiva, Resurgence, Sept 2002
Expand Forums For Public Deliberation
“Establish a thoroughgoing democratic approach encouraging the active participation of citizens in the decision-making process through volunteer committees or commissions.”
“Deliberation day” and “deliberative poll.” “Voters would be called together in neighborhood meetings to discuss the central issues of the campaigns....They are thrust into a situation where they must offer reasons for their opinions and listen to those of others, each having real voices in a real group.
“State-level ballot initiatives…would establish Citizens’ Juries to examine every ballot initiative and offer an official deliberative public judgment to balance the torrents of special-interest advertising.....[Others] propose randomly selected citizen panels to interview and evaluate a wide range of candidates.
“There must be public exposure to an appropriate diversity of view....A broad spectrum of opinion must be represented, that people must be allowed to hear sharply divergent views, and that it is important to find not merely conventional wisdom and the reasons that can be offered on its behalf, but also challenges to the conventional wisdom from a variety of different perspectives. People should see, for example, that there are strong arguments for and against affirmative action policies, for and against a constitutional right to abortion, for and against government funding of the arts, for and against aggressive government action to combat certain environmental risks.”
Yes Magazine, Winter 2003
Commitment:
Devote at least 50% of your time to meaningful public activity
“Part of the discipline of daily life is to organize one’s activities so as to be able to devote a good share of one’s time and energy to public service in the community. That service cannot begin too early or be carried on too consistently; for the resorption of government by the citizens of a democratic community is the only safeguard against those bureaucratic interventions that tend to arise in every state through the negligence, irresponsibility, and indifference of its citizens.” Lewis Mumford, The Conduct of Life, 282.
Challenges
All government decisions should be based on quality, not quantity.
Protect small local businesses, neighborhoods, and public spaces.
Reclaim our streets. Reduce traffic. All streets should have sidewalks.
Quasi-public space (malls and big box stores): We should have civic freedoms that we once had in the public spaces that have been eroded. For instance, there should be the right to free speech.
Declaration of sovereignty
We refuse natural or cultural determinism, instinct and dogma. We refuse psychic and spiritual numbing, and decline membership in any group that diminishes our integrity by assigning our power to organizations. We stake our entire being on becoming and acting on what is real.
The declaration of genuine sovereignty recognizes that it is the individual--not institutions--who forms society and reestablishes it every day. It is not a statement, or any other public act, but the formation of a self that reclaims its full scope of action. This simple origin can produce a culture of care that would overcome continents.
Political sovereignty assigns power to governments. Inner sovereignty is a defeat of the bland state of the public mind. In all our active life--in what we do, make, feel, think, and care about--we will bring into being the culture and society that we envision.
Wisdom
December 2005/ January 2006
Challenge
“I shall never stop practicing philosophy and exhorting you and elucidating the truth for everyone that I meet. I shall go on saying...Are you not ashamed that you give your attention to acquiring as much money as possible, and similarly with reputation and honor and give no attention to truth and understanding and the perfection of your soul?...I shall do this to everyone I meet, young or old, foreigner or fellow citizen, but especially to you, my fellow citizens.”
Plato, Apology
Wisdom
“There can be no judge of a criminal on earth until the judge knows that he, too, is a criminal, exactly the same as the one who stands before him, and that he is perhaps most guilty of all for the crime of the one standing before him....However mad that may seem, it is true. For if I myself were righteous, perhaps there would be no criminal standing before me now....And if, having received your kiss, he goes away unmoved and laughing at you, do not be tempted by that either: it means that his time has not yet come, but it will come in due course; and if it does not come, no matter: if not he, then another will know, and suffer, and judge, and accuse himself, and the truth will be made full. Believe it, believe it without doubt, for in this lies all hope and all the faith of the saints....If you are surrounded by spiteful and callous people who do not want to listen to you, fall down before them and ask their forgiveness, for the guilt is yours, too, that they do not want to listen to you. And if you cannot speak with the embittered, serve them silently and in humility, never losing hope.”
Feodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
95% of supermarket food comes from agribusiness
Quality of Carrs/Safeway food is mediocre
By: Crystal Hutchens
Four companies control nearly half of all food sales in the United States. The largest six percent of farms control sixty percent of production. By supporting industrial agriculture, large corporations like Carrs/Safeway leave little room for small organic farmers and other eco-friendly smaller farms.
As of June 18, 2005, Safeway had 1,801 stores in the U.S. and Canada. In the U.S., most of these are located in Alaska, California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Arizona, Texas, the Chicago metropolitan area and the Mid-Atlantic region. There are 35 Safeway stores in Alaska.
In an interview conducted for this paper, a former four-year Carrs/Safeway employee, who wishes to remain anonymous, claimed that in-store labeling is inaccurate and unclear. While Carrs does provide some local produce, especially in the summer months, much of the produce sold during the winter comes from third world countries like the Philippines, Chile and Mexico. Seafood also comes from Thailand as well as China. In these countries workers rights and environmental regulations are far more lax than in the United States.
Safeway has a network of distribution, manufacturing and food processing facilities and a 49% interest in Casa Ley, S.A. de C.V., which operates 115 food and general merchandise stores in Western Mexico. They also have a 54% ownership interest in GroceryWorks Holdings, Inc., an Internet Grocer. The Safeway.com website provides an extensive labeling requirement check list for would be suppliers, including, the country of origin labeling or C.O.O.L. system, but provides no list of their current suppliers.
Industrial agriculture
The food system is dominated by an industry that is altering American communities. In 1970 there were 900,000 farms in the U.S. The number in 1997 was 139,000. Fifty million pounds of antibiotics are produced in the U.S. yearly; twenty million are given to animals. It costs an estimated $30 billion annually to treat antibiotic resistant infections in the US. The estimated input to produce a pound of beef is 4.8 pounds of grain, 1/4 gallon of gasoline, and 390 gallons of water. The injury and illness rate among poultry processing workers compared to trades like coal mining and construction is almost double. Just under 30% of agricultural subsidies go to the top 2% of farms. Due to genetic manipulation 90% of broiler chickens have trouble walking. 80% of U.S. pigs are suffering from pneumonia at the time of slaughter. De-beaking is used to prevent chickens from attacking each other. As little as .6 square feet is allocated to each full grown chicken in a factory farm. 35,000 miles of rivers are polluted by hog, chicken, and cattle waste. 61 million tons of waste animal are produced annually in the US. (Source: Yes magazine, Summer, 2000.)
Prior to the age of industrial agriculture, or Agribusiness, people depended on natural ecosystems. Animals, crops, wildlife and people were interdependent. Manure, a byproduct of the animal that doubled as a fine natural fertilizer, was on hand as crops and animals were rotated through seasons and conditions. Industrial farming separates crop farming from livestock. Manure becomes a pollutant, and without animals to feed, farmers don’t bother to grow the animal foods (grass, clover, alfalfa) that rebuild the soil for future crops. In today’s system, fertilizer has to be mined or produced and shipped to where it’s needed, and animals are kept on concentrated feedlots where they routinely require antibiotics.
In the early 20th century consumers bought basic staples for home cooking. Most farm products were sold as commodities on the open market. Pushing large volumes through the supply chain kept costs down. As women entered the workforce and the number of two-wage families rose, so did the demand for quick and easy to prepare meals. About half of all U.S. food purchases today are for snacks and meals prepared by food service establishments. Thousands of new products are introduced each year, and retailers must decide what to make room for. Corporations like Safeway, with their huge buying power, can dictate what they want to the supplier. Instead of the farmer of days past who just brought his wares to market, farmers are now required to meet the requests of the system they cater to. Corporate agriculture demands uniformity and dependability in order to produce today’s meal in a box.
Questionable business practices
Information sharing is one of the techniques grocers use to make decisions on what to carry in the store. But large corporations can also have an impact on what choices the buyer actually makes. Many large chain grocers--like our own Carrs/Safeway--utilize a member’s club card. Such cards, when swiped through the company computer, collect valuable data that is used for marketing purposes. Some speculate that overall store prices are sometimes raised to make the card more appealing to consumers. Implementation programs, such as frequent flyer miles, are added incentive to ‘join the club.’ Personal information collected on the application, such as where you live, is valuable to the marketer as well. This information collection process is based on sales items, so the buyer becomes part of a vicious circle. Marketers collect information about what the consumer buys and offers up more of the same.
There are many other questionable business practices at Carrs/Safeway.
In April of 2004, it was reported that Safeway was selling unlabeled beef from Canada, which hadn’t banned the feeding practices associated with mad cow disease. The Consumer Federation of California said Safeway was selling the product around the time that the disease was detected in a cow that had been imported from Canada. The case, limited to a single cow, prompted officials to ban importation of Canadian beef. Safeway confirmed that it purchases small quantities of beef from Canada but that it conforms to federal regulations. Safeway spokesman Brian Dowling said, “USDA allows for the importation of certain meat products from Canada. While we purchase only a small quantity of that product, all of it meets strict federal requirements for safety, wholesomeness and quality. Further, we fully comply with all state and federal labeling laws.” Richard Holober, a spokesman for the consumer group said, “We are not charging anyone with breaking the law. They are currently selling beef products we believe should be labeled a product of Canada so the consumer can be informed of what they are purchasing.”
A five month grocery strike led by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union ended in February of 2005. The Union leaders charged that employees, including clerks and cashiers, were forced to accept large pay cuts or no pay increases while new workers were brought in.
The former employee I spoke with told me that while the health benefits of Carrs/Safeway were good, holiday pay came only after two years of employment. To be considered for a management position, there is a hefty preference for a college background, while the company is not very lenient to those pursuing a college career while working at the store. Every employee must remain flexible and cannot have a guaranteed dependable schedule. There is a five minute tardy policy with a three warning system. After a verbal warning, and a second written warning, the third tardy results in dismissal, no matter the circumstances or how long the employee has been with the company.
My former employee source also claimed that the meat and seafood department don’t monitor their cooler system well enough, and perishable items left at the cashier station are not attended to well. Sometimes meat will sit for hours before being returned to the refrigerated area.
Safeway boasts about its environmental friendliness in its own literature: “Safeway has a continuing history of environmental responsibility, starting with cardboard recycling in 1960. Our environmental policy has included replacing ozone depleting CFC’s in our story refrigeration systems. In addition our customers have helped us recycle several million pounds of shopping bags.”
Despite this declaration, Safeway participates in an environmentally injurious system by selling farmed fish. Salmon farms are responsible for an increase in sea lice on wild salmon. Reports from the auditors-general of Canada, British Columbia and New Brunswick in October of 2004 state that “a series of federal and provincial investigations found that wild salmon stocks are at risk on both coasts and the government is failing to protect them.” The study reports that fish farming is adding sea lice to the environment that is 30,000 times higher than previously existed. Safeway executives convey that they continue to sell farmed fish because there is a consumer demand for it.
A rising number of consumers are concerned about environmental issues and the origin of their food. In “New Life at the Roots,” Yes Magazine, summer 2000, Carol Estes states that “Nine out of 10 consumers are concerned about food safety. A third are worried enough to buy organic (to the tune of $6 billion per year) and another 54% would if they could afford it. As a result, there are now 6,600 certified organic farms in the U.S. and 2,000 farmers markets, each with its own local flavor and specialties.” Organic food demand is rising faster than 20% each year, and there is a growing market for hormone- and antibiotic-free meat. A quick glance at the general health of our bodies, as well as the system that supports us, is all that’s needed to see why these changes have become an important option for some. th corporate grocery store concern focused on its own bottom line, it becomes the consumers’ responsibility to do the research involved in making informed choices.
Contact Crystal Hutchens at crystal@qupq.com .
Anchorage does use sweatshop labor
Response to Challenge is vague but certain
By: Ian Overton
In September, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors set a precedent for anti-sweatshop laws passed in the United States. The new ordinance is designed to prevent ‘responsible’ contractors and subcontractors from being underbid by those who allow sweatshop labor conditions with their outsourced labor. This applies only to garment manufacturers for the first year, as a test case. With a strict definition of ‘sweatshops,’ requirements for manufacturers to allow workers to organize, and a $100,000 budget to ensure that those who sign the contract stay true to their word, this ordinance is a real step toward fair and just commerce.
In last month’s ‘Challenge,’ Alaska Humanity News questioned whether Anchorage officials would be willing to prohibit purchasing supplies they knew came from sweatshops. We asked: Do you know if these products are made under just conditions? Are you willing to prohibit the purchase of products made under unjust conditions? Municipality Purchasing Officer Bart Mauldin said he did not know the answer to the first question, since he dealt mainly with local distributors rather than their manufacturers. In addition, as public servants the Purchasing Department is bound by the decisions of the municipality. Mr. Mauldin did note that any local ordinance must be backed up by national policies to be truly effective, which requires a standard of protectionism. The Mayor’s Chief of Staff, David Ramseur, had no idea about either question, and referred this author back to Mr. Mauldin. Mr. Ramseur did say, “Generally we try to purchase goods and services as cheaply as possible,” noting that other rules may apply.
It is a difficult to prove that our fire, police and bus uniforms don’t come from sweatshops, since some manufacturers don’t list working conditions and/or locations. Fechheimer Brothers produces these uniforms in unionized factories located in the Midwest and East Coast. San Francisco Knitting Mills has unionized factories in California and Arkansas, but doesn’t discuss its plants in the Dominican Republic. Blauer has three plants in the Midwest but doesn’t discuss conditions. Some police uniforms come from Horace Small and North Face, affiliates of the largest apparel corporation on the globe, VF Corporation. They don’t list factory locations, but Horace Small participates in W.R.A.P., a non-profit monitoring contractor. (Other affiliates of VF Corp., such as Nautica, are known to have sweatshops in Myanmar, which is a military dictatorship.) Gildan, which makes Class D uniforms for the AFD, is also a W.R.A.P. company, with an anti-sweatshop internal Code of Conduct, and has factories in Mexico, Haiti, and Honduras, the last being a participant in the Fair Labor Association. SanMar has factories across the U.S. and one in Canada, but doesn’t mention anything about unions. Tri-Mountain and Northern Outfitters (which supply bus uniforms) don’t even state their factory locations. Blackinton has made police badges in the USA since 1852, all ‘under one roof,’ and supplies clear evidence of their factory conditions.
If Anchorage citizens want our Assembly to pass a similar ordinance requiring truly ‘sweatfree’ conditions for uniform manufacturers we must address the free trade doctrine of globalization and call upon the U.S. Congress to act. Our national policy of unregulated commerce prevents any attempt by local government to protect international union wages and pensions, enforce adequate sanitation laws, or guarantee that non-union wages are living wages. San Francisco submits to this pressure on page 5 of their Sweatshop Ordinance, when it requires the setting of minimum wage requirement for international workers “adjusted to reflect the country’s level of economic development by using the World Bank’s most recent Gross National Income per capita Purchasing Power Parity Index.” The San Francisco ordinance doesn’t actually address the systemic problems of outsourced, unregulated trade, because it doesn’t question the city and county’s role as a market participant in the procurement process. If we want to address these systemic problems we must support national policies and programs that protect the development of the local private and public sectors from current IMF and World Bank-style structural “growth” reforms, such as Sen. Hilary Clinton’s (D-NY) call for a national auto summit to protect our nation’s machine-tool capability.
Most importantly, the San Francisco ordinance does not adequately address the overall crisis that unregulated trade in futures lending and derivatives is threatening, as warned by Jochen Sanio during the recent “Top Ten Financial Risks to the Global Economy” Conference organized by the Global Markets Institute (Goldman Sachs), and held on Sept. 22, 2005 in New York City.
President Franklin Roosevelt’s original intention for the IMF and related institutions was to aid sovereign nations in developing their own citizenry in the interest of humanity, not to collapse basic economic infrastructure in the interest of Wall Street’s ‘shareholder values.’ If we want to resolve our complicity in the use of sweatshop labor we will have to reject our hedonist monetary culture and revive a humanist culture that sees economy as the servant of man, not the other way around.
Contact Ian Overton at ian@qupq.com.
Challenges
Will Canneries Offer Fair Jobs?
The fishing industry reaps a real bounty from Alaskan waters. Workers are paid low wages and expected to work exceptionally long hours. Some of the companies expect their laborers to supply their own housing - usually in tent cities - and their own meals. If they do not complete the entire season they are expected to buy very expensive tickets back home, and they often find themselves stranded. This burdens Alaska’s already stretched social services.
We challenge these companies - many of which are national or multinational companies - to provide better wages, living conditions and more conscionable contracts.
One of the goals of Alaska Humanity News is to explore everyday events and situations that escape attention because they are omnipresent. CHALLENGES is one of these features. Look through this edition to find other unusual features.
Coming soon: the official response.
Evaluating the meaning of food:
A three step process
Quality
Taste
Health
Beauty
Usefulness
Endurance
Complicity
Conditions of those who grew the food or made the product.
Wages. Do workers earn a livable wage, or are they and their families malnourished, undereducated, without decent medical care?
Working conditions. Are they exploitative or decent? Are they dangerous or safe?
Environmental impact
Are environmental standards more lax in than in the U.S.?
Justice of the businesses or corporations. Are the needs and interests of the lower class taken into account? Are profits distributed fairly?
Implicity
Impact on society. Are communities strengthened or is society more mechanical and superficial?
Level of care. Why was the food produced: for money, necessity, greed, glory, and security; or for enjoyment, love, creativity?
Effect on the humanity of the producers. Does it reduce them to objects, or does it brighten, strengthen, refine, or form a living spirit?
Effect on the humanity of the users. Does it nurture what is best and most beautiful. Does it produce healthy, whole, and holy human beings?
Actual value of the product. Does it serve humanity, life, nature, and truth?
“It is not that men are ill fed, but that they have no pleasure in the work by which they make their bread, and therefore look to wealth as the only means of pleasure....There is not wealth but life. Life, including all its powers of love, and joy, and of admiration. That country is the richest which nourishes the greatest number of noble and happy human beings.”
John Ruskin
Editorial
An alternative vision for Carrs/Safeway
The American supermarket is a marvel. A superabundance of neatly packaged food products line the shelves, and shopping carts are wheeled down the wide, clean aisles, loaded high. In some nations this would be a miracle. But here an old man is filled with sadness and hopelessness about the loss of quality, which he remembers with nostalgia.
The explanation is not immediately obvious. There is a subtle flavor in every bite we eat, a foreboding sense that something is terribly wrong.
The key to understanding supermarkets (or anything at all) is to trace their causes back to the source. On average food we buy at local stores travels 3,000 miles, and it often comes from poor countries which do not have the same protection for workers or the environment that we have in the U.S. In any case, the food usually bland, highly processed food grown in industrial farms.
We can only guess where or how our food was made. We can’t even know if the food is genetically modified (it is illegal for communities to require that this information be disclosed to consumers).
Understanding these tangible causes is one thing. But we can follow the influences even further back, to the vision which lies at the heart of the process. We need to know why the food was grown and sold: who cared for it, and what they cared about.
It is the care with which a product is made that imparts the subtle flavor that makes it what it is. The value of a product is the depth of care and how it serves life. This is the inner nature of the food we buy.
When there is no care, the sadness spreads. Even a processed, chemically-saturated, genetically modified slice of American cheese can sustain life. But food made with care can inspire joy, if it is part of a worldwide process that is really life-giving: a chain of farmers, fertilizers, land, transportation, packaging and commerce that is founded in love. That may not be the world we live in now. But it is the true meaning of Carrs/Safeway and what it is called to become (and what we call for it to become).
Why are we are ballooning up like blowfish? It is the body’s expression of our culture’s choice to raise standard of living over quality of life. The underlying paradigm is a global industrial system in which a mechanical way of thinking regiments life. The industrial food system is founded on the use of force: the power of technology, money, and exploitation of resources and labor.
For most of us the response will not be a return to pre-technological society (though small, local farms have a special role to play and should be supported). But the same technology that conquers space and devours farms could be integrated with thoughtfulness for land, animals, and people.
It is a law of the land that we will reap what we sow. If the inputs are mechanical or brutal, our life will be the same. But if they are just, reflective, and gentle, our harvest will be abundant.
Industrial agribusiness is powerful. But a vision is mightier than the sword. All we need do is clarify and strengthen our vision of food, and, in one very fertile growing season, that world will burst into being.
(For more ideas on how to judge the meaning of food see pages 9 & 10)
“Being in the declining years of my life (age 70), I want to take this opportunity to vent my feelings as to the decline of almost every aspect of our existence. Meat is full of hormones and steroids, tastes like paper pulp. Vegetables, unless grown in the Mat-Su area, taste like library paste....Sausages and wieners are full of mechanically separated chicken (skins, veins, gristle). Breakfast cereals cost five times as much as dried dog food with one-tenth the food value....I feel sorry for our young people, who no doubt will see the results of this.” Letter to Anchorage Daily News, September, 2005
Opinion
Reclaiming the food process
By Harry Davidson
Process matters. That thought keeps returning as we examine our modern food production and distribution systems. In just fifty years we have managed to completely remake the way we feed ourselves. I remember an incident that took place about fifteen years ago when the Iron Curtain collapsed and Russia opened up. A contingency of Russian businessmen were touring around Anchorage and one of the stops was a Carrs grocery store. As they walked through the aisles of packed shelves and displays of fruit and vegetables spilling over in abundance, several of the delegates were overcome with emotion. It was too much. They could not contain themselves. Tears flowed down their faces. They were not tears of envy or covetousness, but tears of shock and surprise at the abundance and the realization that this abundance was available to them also. Such is the appearance of the modern agriculture system. But what is the hidden cost? What have we lost in order to build this brave new world of food production and distribution? We have lost the process. And in so doing we are the poorer for it.
Throughout history societies have celebrated planting and harvest seasons as occasions to express gratitude for the basic things of life and to transmit the community’s spiritual life and values, which have always been linked to the good provision of the earth. These seasonal celebrations have been an occasion for community building and renewal of the connections and relationships that are the glue of a living community. The sense of the sacredness of the earth as the means through which we receive Divine provision has played a central role in these community celebrations. Together we celebrate. That is the origin of our American Thanksgiving Day celebration. It isn’t “turkey day”. It is meant to be a day of gratitude. Alaska Native traditions associated with harvesting fish and wildlife have been and still are an important occasion to transmit spiritual life and community values of stewardship and respect for the land and its bounty. But as a society is slowly disconnected from the process of harvest and food preparation it is simultaneously being disconnected from a basic human apparatus through which it experiences the goodness of life. Returning from a trip to the garden with armfuls of carrots and broccoli mediates something and transmits something critical that we need to receive and understand. Harvesting salmon from our abundant waters says something to us that we cannot hear otherwise, and cannot afford not to hear. These words are continually being spoken to us. Because we are embodied beings, one of the important ways we receive understanding is through the embodied experiences of life. These are the processes of life that we must not lose. For in their loss we lose the very means through which we receive wisdom, that quality of life that recognizes and names goodness, truth, and beauty.
If we cannot grow our own food we can at least prepare it. We can immerse our hands in the abundance of the earth and so we can, in some measure, know it. Reclaiming is far more difficult than losing. But we must begin to reclaim the basic processes of life. Let us find our way back to the forests and rivers and inlets, back to the farm where we can again behold, in the goodness of the earthly, it’s Divine Source, and so fulfill our human duty to be wise stewards of this priceless gift of life.
Harry Davidson was born in Kodiak, raised in Southwest Alaska, and is now a business owner in Anchorage. E-mail: harry@qupq.com
Letters to the editor
November, 2005
Join together to resist torture & corruption
Unions are not necessary
Response to fish article
Join together to resist torture & corruption
Regarding your article ‘Do Sen. Stevens and Rep. Young support U.S. torture policies?’ [October, 2005]: You wrote very well, and it is important that people be aware of these atrocities which are perpetrated by our own government and military. Here is some additional information to validate and expound upon your article.
I am an organizer with the Lyndon LaRouche PAC for a New Bretton Woods. In August, we began distributing a pamphlet that outlined and exposed the U.S. policies, advocated by Cheney et al. in the White House, of preemptive nuclear war, terrorism against U.S. citizens, psychiatric torture at Abu Ghraib, et al., and other horrifying truths that have been documented publicly, but downplayed by a mindless mass media and ignored by an apathetic population.
Yet, despair not! It is very likely that in the upcoming days and weeks the Bush-Cheney regime will be forced into early retirement, as many officials and politically active people, even those who disagree with LaRouche, are realizing he is right when he says our nation cannot survive another three years of this corruption. The massive price-gouging by oil cartels on the price of petroleum is having a disastrous hyperinflationary effect on our economy, very similar to what happened in Weimar Germany in 1923. Farmers, truckers, factories, hospitals, military bases and even families are starting to shut down. Yet as the existing free-trade system reaches its boundary condition there is the opportunity to push through a return to the U.S. Constitutional system of statecraft, which is national banking, fixed “fair trade” exchange rates, infrastructure development, and innovations in the Classical sciences and arts for the benefit of all humanity. That policy shift is the essence of the New Bretton Woods program as well.
LaRouche is hosting an international webcast on November 16, 2005, at 9am Alaska time, in which he will address international heads of state, members of the U.S. Congress, labor officials, economic policy institute members, American citizens, and other important decision makers on how we must act to avert what would otherwise be an untimely end to human civilization as a whole. The webcast will be broadcast from Washington D.C., and can be viewed online at http://www.larouchepac.com. I urge you to visit this website, tell your friends about it, and to watch this webcast.
Ian Overton
Anchorage LaRouche Youth Movement
http://www.larouchepac.com
Unions are not necessary
Your October, 2005 issue [‘Challenges’] implies that employers who don’t allow their workers to join a union therefore exploit them. I know of non-profit organizations, not unionized, which treat their employees very fairly. Generalizations are chancy!
Albert W. Oakes
Response to fish article
Cathy Holt’s article [October, 2005] purports that Alaska is one of only two states without fish testing. This is wrong. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation has been conducting a Fish Monitoring Program in collaboration with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the International Pacific Halibut Commission, and Alaska subsistence users and commercial fishermen to collect and test fish for certain environmental contaminants. During the first two years of the project, DEC analyzed 520 samples of a variety of fish for heavy metals, primarily from marine waters. This report presents persistent organic pollutants data from 89 fish samples (18 chum, 17 Chinook, 24 sockeye, 11 halibut, 8 sheefish and 11 sablefish).
The program, initiated in 2001 is ongoing. DEC along with other research partners continued sampling in 2004 to collect more information regarding the health of Alaska’s fish. DEC continues to evaluate fish for heavy metals including mercury, persistent organic pollutants, and other chemicals recently recognized as being persistent and bioaccumulative, such as fire retardants.
We understand how important fish are to Alaskans as a primary diet and are working diligently to give the public the information it needs to make informed decisions about how much fish to include in their diets. According to the data set so far, the State of Alaska recommends unlimited consumption of traditional Alaskan species.
Far from being reluctant to share our results, we have posted them on our website. Our mission is to protect public health and the environment, and to give the public the information they need to make healthy choices.
Our most recent results can be found on our fish monitoring program website at http://www.dec.state.ak.us/eh/vet/fish.htm
Lynda Giguere
Public Information Officer, Department of Environmental Conservation
Unheard voices
Remembering to listen to what is really here
Click on Archives: November, 2005 to see the contents of this month’s paper.
By Geoff Bederson
If a face could talk, this one would speak words from a distant age. If a face could act, this one would recreate a world that has disappeared.
I’ve known Thomas for years as a guest at our Inn. Occasionally he did some electrical work for us in exchange for rent. He was not a big talker. I might see him hanging off of the roof, working in freezing temperatures, but he never complained. With all the turnover at the Inn I didn’t have time to listen to his story.
He speaks so slow. There is no flippancy or trivia spewing out of his brain. Something from the past, something that we have erased, still lives in him. In order to hear, you have to open up those compartments in your mind - the ones formed when we were still living in the wilderness, before the matrix of civilization lowered itself down on us.
Thomas Maillelle: I was born and raised in Holikachuk, on the Innoko River. We are a group of Athabaskan Indians in the Interior of Alaska. We lived a subsistence lifestyle. The people used to move around with the seasons, and fish and hunt and trap in different parts of the country.
I grew up in a log cabin. The only modern thing was mail, which came from the mail plane. There was no electricity, phone, water. We hauled ice in winter for drinking water, and we used good, clean snow for washing clothes. The snow was closer, but you needed quite a bit more than ice.
Drinking was pretty frowned on. It wasn’t accepted in public places. When people did drink they stayed home, because they knew everybody didn’t like it.
At one time the village was pretty big. It is still there, but no one is living there now. The whole village moved to Grayling in 1962. Then we got modern, with running water, electricity, and television. It sort of messed up everybody’s life. Everybody had too much leisure time after that. Nobody had to work, and we didn’t have to depend on each other too much.
Has the traditional culture been destroyed?
A lot of it is gone, but there are certain things you always remember, because they are a part of you. We respect each other enough to listen, rather than cut you off. We always treat strangers with ultimate respect. We feed them and house them, and make sure they have something to eat before they go anywhere. This kind of thing has never really changed.
What really changed is the modern conveniences that take over our everyday lives. Like heating your house: you don’t have to work to keep your house warm anymore, other than by the Western way, making money. Money became more important than people and friendship. Before, having a big family was the way to go, because the more people in the family, the easier it became to run a household. Now the more money you have the easier it is to run a household.
You can pay people off to do anything, to haul water, to put an oil stove in your house, to go hunting for you, to go to the store, to buy a slab of beef.
Alaska is a unique place: it is so remote yet modern. I traveled widely, but there is nothing quite like Alaska. The indigenous people still have roots. Everyone else wants what we got, so they’re all moving here. There are getting to be too many people.
You come from a very different world than I, but we are both living in the modern, global world. How does it feel to be part of this world?
I don’t like it here. It’s not made for survival. Without money it’s virtually impossible to survive, you live on the streets. The people that do have money look down on those that don’t. It’s been that way forever. This society destroys the land, the animals. There are hardly any more moose. They kill them for trophies. That’s how they killed the buffalo in the lower 48. There is a lot of waste. The landfills are getting pretty full, even in the villages.
But when I came to this modern world another world opened up to me, one that is not so temporary, that is more permanent than this one. I came to realize that my soul is made to live for eternity. I learned about the Bible, about why we are ultimately here, and where we will spend eternity.
All we see, smell and touch is temporary. All this will eventually be gone. Everything is rusting away, wearing out, burning up - there is nothing permanent about this world, except for our soul. I learned that after I moved to Anchorage. I learned the hard way, by searching and searching and searching for the meaning of my existence here.
I didn’t think there was much reason for me to live. I tried quite a few different ways to eliminate myself from this world. I counted 33 different ways my life was spared. I tried shooting myself, drinking myself to death, accidentally drowning. I became sober. The more I drank the soberer I got. It’s like drinking water after awhile. You quit getting drunk.
I kept asking, Why am I still alive? There must be a reason, a power greater than I know. I kept pondering that, I started going to church, I was reading this Bible. I found out that the reason for people to live is to give praise to God.
You don’t have to have money, clothes. You just have to take care of all the birds, the animals - they live without having money, without storing up things. You are worth more than fish, more than birds.
The peace and joy I have now is everlasting. I can see beyond this world. My job now is to help people realize that the peace they are looking for is very temporary.
How do you maintain your true identity in the middle of all of this busyness? How does it feel to be living here in this world?
I’m relaxed. I’m not worried about yesterday or tomorrow, or today. I don’t care about that. It’s not in my hands. My God said He is in control. I’m relaxed about everything. I have a peace about everything. I don’t like to read the newspaper. It’s mostly negative stuff. There’s some good information, but it’s basically old news.
I know how it is, I’ve been there. I did have a bad temper. I was mad at white people for ruining my land, hunting all my fish and animals, taking all the things that I knew and were part of a perfect little world, and turning it into a money-hungry world. And for forgetting about our grandchildren and generations to come.
I’m not mad anymore. I just feel sorry for them. I think Alaska Natives and indigenous people all over the world have a grounded world. They have a good grasp of concepts like unity, family, belonging. Indigenous people all over the world know that the spiritual world is as real as this world. The white people seem to have no understanding of this.
On the one hand you have been talking about the power of the indigenous culture and the meaning of it, and the other hand you have been talking about the Bible. How do these interact with each other?
The indigenous people knew of God. They had visitations of the supernatural, of God and his power, long before the white man ever got here.
The Native people knew about it, and knew it was coming, before it got here. Various prophets foretold of the Bible coming and being spread throughout Alaska.
Is there something else that is going on within you, that is very important but that people don’t recognize, that you would like them to recognize?
I’m holding back on quite a few things. There are a lot of things I’d like to say that I don’t think anybody would understand or believe.
One day I asked my God to see, and He showed me. I couldn’t begin to say what I saw. It was like a big flood, it was like looking at the stars, and every star was a bit of information, and this totally flooded me so that I couldn’t say anything. I saw that I was a very small piece of sand in the world, and this overwhelmed me. Now it’s constantly there.
It’s something that I want people to search for. You can have it if you search for it. The more you search the more you get. The more you ask the more He gives. It depends on you.
There will always be a hunger in each and every person, and non-fulfillment will make you search in other places. Love your neighbor as yourself, and if you do that you’ll not want to hurt him, steal from him, destroy him. That is the ultimate law. That is the bottom line.
News of the real
November, 2005
Ripoff news
Printers return relatively low profit margins. But the ink, ounce for ounce, is four times the cost of Krug Clos du Mesnil Champagne, which sells for around $425 a bottle. Ink is about the same price as Joy perfume, considered to be one of the more pricey fragrances, at $158 for a 2.5-ounce bottle.
After all, when this liquid gold is costing you $65 an ounce, you’ll want to use every last drop.
NYT
The fate of the dead
Every hour and every moment thousands of people leave their life on this earth, and their souls come before the Lord--and so many of them part with the earth in isolation, unknown to anyone, in sadness and sorrow that no one will mourn for them, or even know whether they had lived or not.
Feodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
The dominant way of organizing life is corporatization
A number of companies...have, over the past few years, transformed the American home into a corporate product - probably the last item in our $11 trillion economy that has yet to be marketed and branded on a national scale to consumers.
At the moment, one in four new homes in the United States is built by a large publicly traded home builder, but this ratio will probably change significantly. Several Wall Street analysts and most of the big home builders seem confident that their companies will be responsible for half of all new homes in the United States within 10 years and perhaps more (as the industry consolidates).
In recent years, the difficulty of getting things built has made business harder for small, local builders and easier for big companies, with their greater resources, to gain control of the housing market. “The large builders have taken the position: we’re just going to fight,” Chris Mayer, a housing economist at Columbia University’s business school, says. “ ‘We have lawyers, we have experts, we have money, we’re going to buy these tracts of land and fight it out’ “ - that, according to Mayer, is their position.
Chasing Ground, By Jon Gertner, NYT, Oct 16, 2005’
The mystery of the people’s apathy to goverment corruption
Straining to meet President Bush’s mid-October deadline to clear out shelters, the federal government has moved hundreds of thousands of evacuees from Hurricane Katrina into hotel rooms at a cost of about $11 million a night, a strategy local officials and some members of Congress criticize as incoherent and wasteful.
“We are wasting money hand over fist because we did not deploy the right policy tools,” said Bruce Katz, a vice president at the Brookings Institution, a liberal research group in Washington. “We could have thousands, if not tens of thousands of families, in stable permanent housing right now. And we would not have to turn to these costly measures, like hotels, motels and cruise ships.”
October 13, 2005, The New York Times, By Eric Lipton
Corporations can be reigned in
The City Council of New York City overrode another mayoral veto, passing a law that requires larger groceries and stores with food departments to provide a set level of health care benefits to their workers. It has been called an anti-Wal-Mart measure, based on criticism that Wal-Mart’s employee health benefits are inadequate. Bloomberg administration officials said the Council overstepped its authority because federal law prohibits municipalities from regulating the terms of employee health care plans.
October 12, 2005. By Winnie Hu, NYT.
The United States is an empire
[There have been] two hurricanes, which dramatized to everybody in the United States that we don’t have a government. And to the extent we do have one it is not only corrupt but a menace to other countries, to our liberties, to our Bill of Rights. There have been things unimaginable to me and most Americans--that we would have a government that is absolutely in your face to every country on earth. We have insulted everybody.
The principal bit of wisdom that I had to purvey, which I got from Thomas Jefferson and he got from Montesquieu, is that you cannot maintain a republic and empire simultaneously.
Gore Vidal, The Nation, Oct 20, 2005
Scientists and engineers are in service to the war machine
In a Grueling Desert Race, a Winner, but Not a Driver
Stanley, a robotic vehicle designed by a Stanford University team, appeared to earn its creators a $2 million prize on Saturday by being the fastest finisher on a 132-mile course through the Nevada desert.
The race, called the Grand Challenge, was a Pentagon project meant to promote the development of technologies for 21st-century automated warfare.
The Stanford scientists who led the 18-month effort to build Stanley said they saw their victory as a significant leap forward in the field of artificial intelligence, a discipline that has long suffered from big promises that did not pan out.
The three finishers were the survivors from a starting group of 23 teams fielded by alliances of computer, automotive and aerospace firms, university researchers and others.
The competition was organized by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or Darpa, and was intended to tap into the talents of researchers and innovators who might not otherwise be found by the nation’s military technology firms. Darpa gave birth to the Internet’s predecessor, the Arpanet, along with the Predator drone and the stealth fighter.
The New York Times, October 9, 2005, By John Markoff
Understanding situations
The intersection at Northern Lights Blvd. and Minnestota Dr.
The situations of everyday life are so normal that it is hard to see them for what they actually are. In this new feature we reflect on what is in front of us. Here are thoughts from Humanity News staff after we stood together one afternoon at the major Anchorage intersection.
I don’t belong here standing on the corner of Northern Lights and Minnesota. No, this is where trucks meet cars and the people within them meet each other with impatience. This is where wastefulness meets loneliness and where dreams of another life are stopped by a green light.
When a group of us decided to stand on the corner of Northern Lights and Minnesota to observe what goes on at a busy intersection, my expectations weren’t very high.
I myself am filled with red light rage. I have a terrible habit of creeping forward, centimeter by centimeter, as if I could intimidate the light into turning green with my menacing purple Tracker. It doesn’t help that the red lights conspire against me every time I’m running late--they’re a vast network of evil, snickering lights, determined to stretch the drive time from my house to work from fifteen minutes to forty-five.
The point being, I spend a lot of time in my car being angry and in a hurry.
These states of mind do not a pleasant or safe driver make. As I stood on the busy corner that chilly evening, I took notice of the drivers’ faces. Some were wearing a scowl familiar to me--the look I’ve felt on my own face, the look that says This red light hates me, and I want to kill it. Others seemed disengaged from traffic altogether, staring blankly at their steering wheels while they wondered what to have for dinner, or made a metal list of things to do that evening, or tried to remember the names of all seven dwarves.
But there were a couple drivers who wore contented expressions. I don’t believe these people were delighted by sitting in traffic; but they did seem okay with having caught a red light. In a busy day filled with appointments and deadlines, with have-to-dos and gotta-bes, in a world where our soles and our souls are worn away as we scramble from one thing to the next, perhaps these drivers welcomed the brief intermission the red light allowed. I can’t tell you what these folks were thinking as they gazed at the traffic light, but I don’t believe they were counting the seconds until the light turned green. There is a chance, though, that one or two of these drivers were savoring the moment; perhaps they noticed how the clouds had lowered themselves over the mountains like halos that evening, or maybe they made eye contact with another driver, a brief human connection in a sea of engines and exhaust fume and urgency.
I approached a women in an SUV, offering her a quote by Thich Nhat Hanh. She smiled with disdain and looked away. Her window was rolled up tight, so it was impossible to tell her that I just wanted to hand her an insight about a beneficial way to deal with red lights.
The intersection is not just an engineering necessity. It is a real metaphor: the crossing point and the way we actually intersect. The arterial streets are our life-blood, streaming us in armored shells to private destinations. Standing on the street corner, pulling my coat tight around my neck against the cold, looking back at the made up and fashionably dressed lady, I wondered: How can we open up these shells, and build intersections of human souls and true identity?
The public is invited to join us on Monday, November 28 at 5:15pm at the entrance to The Home Depot for the next ‘Understanding Situations.’ After 40 minutes there and at the adjacent Lowe’s store we’ll retire to a nearby cafe for an additional 30 minutes. We’ll each contribute an anonymous paragraph for the upcoming issue of Alaska Humanity News.
Restaurant review
Snow Goose
717 West 3rd Avenue
277-7727
Reviewed by Crystal Hutchens
A few years ago, I had a bad experience at the SnowGoose Restaurant. My companion and I had gone for an intimate dinner and the accompanying view. I ordered a seafood pasta dish. When it arrived I was dismayed that most of the seafood was still in the shell, including the crab. Tearing into a pile of fresh shell fish and shelling it yourself is one thing. Digging unshelled shell fish out of a saucy pasta dish is something else; I was not impressed. I told the waitress I wanted to send it back rather than dig shells out of my pasta. She said she completely understood and took the dish back to the kitchen without issue. However, because of the way the restaurant is designed with an open kitchen nestled off to the side of the seating area, I overheard the cook yelling at her, “Does she have any idea how much that seafood cost?” The waitress was kind and did not make the slightest reveal of the reaming she was getting in the kitchen, though the whole restaurant knew it. I didn’t go back there for a long time, even though the rest of the meal was good, if not memorable.
When the SnowGoose opened their expansive deck I decided to give them another try on one beautiful sunny day when I was strolling my young daughter around downtown. This time, I enjoyed my meal very much--a delicious curried shrimp pasta, no shells--especially with the added outdoor view and nice weather. SnowGoose is perched on the inlet at 3rd Avenue and G street. There is an great view of the Anchorage coastline from both the upstairs and downstairs seating areas, and of course the deck, which is only open in summer months.
The food offered at SnowGoose dangles on a line between fine dining and homestyle Alaskan cooking. When I want seafood that’s a little adventurous I think of the SnowGoose. They experiment with non-traditional flavors like one of my favorites, the Small-Batch Bourbon BBQ Salmon ($20.25). The Salmon is grilled and smothered with an Old Whiskey River Bourbon-Peach BBQ sauce. Sweet and tangy, it’s served with mashed potatoes and seasonal veggies. I’m also a big fan of the coconut prawns from the appetizer menu ($12.50), cooked crunchy and perfect and served with tangy marmalade sauce. Also on my list of things to try are the pizzas which sound anything but typical. Choices like the “Mat-Su BBQ Chicken,” “Sitka Salmon Cheese” and the “Moose Mexican” evoke imagery and flavors for an adventurous spirit.
On a recent visit with a friend, I opted to try something from the “El Specials” section, which might also be referred to as the meat menu. I ordered the Bandera Pork Loins ($15.95), which boasted of jerk seasonings, one of my favorite cooking styles and something I have perfected at home myself. Jerk is a special kind of spicing because it mixes the incredible heat of scotch bonnet or habanero peppers with “sweet” spices including cinnamon, allspice and thyme. The menu describes the pork loins as “marinated with our award winning Urban Pale Ale and Caribbean jerk seasonings, then twice glazed with our original apple-ale sauce.” I was impressed that the meat itself was tender, in a town where most restaurants serve pork up dry. But there wasn’t even a hint of jerk seasoning anywhere in the dish. Fortunately, I had prepared myself for that all too common disappointment. We seem to be a town lacking in Caribbean cooking ability and anything described as jerk is usually a paltry imitation. I was more disappointed that the pork tasted strongly of the ale the menu bragged about. The sweetness of the apple in the sauce did little to temper the impression that my meat had spent a great deal of time soaking in beer. The loins were served resting on a scoop of lightly seasoned and tasty red-skinned potatoes and a generous portion of sautéed vegetables--broccoli, zucchini, carrots.
My friend ordered the Fisherman’s Cioppino ($23.95), a seafood stew stock full of Alaskan halibut, scallops, shrimp and clams. I giggled a little to myself that the clams were served on the shell, but that’s fairly typical; they slid easily out of the shell with a fork. The sauce was rich with tomatoes and seasonings. A touch of salt for my over-seasoned taste buds brought it to life for me. The seafood, especially the halibut, was very tender. My friend said he loved it. Then, “for research purposes,” he ordered a mixed berry cobbler a la mode. Not generally a fan of fruit in my desert, I found this delectable. The crunchy, buttery crumb-baked crust melted in my mouth and I kept tasting it even though I was full from my meal.
SnowGoose, in operation for the past nine years, is Alaskan owned. They get produce and seafood locally where possible, and supplement with Cisco and Food Services of America. In summer months they buy produce from Charlie’s and Alaska Grown. Their seafood is from 10th and M Seafoods and New Sagaya, and some of the crab comes from small fisheries. That’s good news for the little guy.
Employees have the option to sign up for an I.R.A at certain times of the year, and to which they can choose their own contribution. The employer matches their contribution up to 3%. Operations Manager Daniel Raymer told me they have some teachers who work during the summer months and contribute their entire paycheck to the account. This type of benefit is not often offered to food service employees. It is not just limited to full time employees, which is typical of other types of companies. This is the kind of “setting the bar” practice I hope other local restaurants will take note of.
Raymer also books local musicians for their upstairs bar area on weekends. Great local folk artists like Jared Woods, Mike Gorder and Evan Phillips perform regularly, as well as the occasional band. Musicians are compensated well, which is important from an artist standpoint. Some venues will take advantage of the fact that musicians are anxious to get their work out and often compromise their own value. SnowGoose also had a great open-mic going on Thursday nights, which Raymer hopes to start back up this winter. Open-mics are especially conducive to building the music community, giving beginning musicians a place to get their feet wet, and seasoned musicians a chance to be helpful to their peers. Overall, the SnowGoose has a welcoming atmosphere, good food and entertainment. In addition to housing their own brewery, they serve up a mean root beer, sharp and heavy on the sarsaparilla. That’s a lot to offer under one roof. Having put my one bad experience in the past, I will continue to enjoy the SnowGoose for years to come.
The norm: 2 suns
Spirit 2 suns
Justice: 2 suns
Community: 3 suns
(out of 3 suns)
Movie Review
North Country
Reviewed by Diana DeFazio and Jamey Bradbury
Inspired by a true story of the first successful class action sexual harassment case in the United States, North Country is set in the 1980s in a small town in northern Minnesota, and tells the story of how mine workers abused the first women ever employed by the town’s iron mine. The central figure is Josey Aimes (played by Charlize Theron), a single mom who seeks employment at the mine to support her two children after leaving an abusive relationship.
At the mine, Josey and the handful of other female workers pay a high price for making real money (four times the minimum wage). They are subjected to unbelievable cruelty and degradation by their male co-workers who believe the women are taking jobs from men and have no business in the mine. (The first women to work in the mine were hired in 1975 after equal employment opportunity laws required the rapidly expanding steel industry to provide a certain percentage of new jobs to women.)
Directed by Niki Caro (Whale Rider), the film is both stark and subtle. The outrageous mistreatment in the mine is hard to believe, but the incidents actually took place. North Country is not narrow in its portrayal of abuse, and this breadth and depth prevents it from being a diatribe against men. The film shows how women vilify each other and how family relationships and community culture set the stage for what takes place within the mines. And we see that blue-collar mine workers are not the only ones implicated in the abuse--so too are the white collar managers.
North Country does not dwell only on dysfunctional or abusive relationships. There is a good deal of subtlety and beauty brought to this film. A thoughtful screenplay and strong performances by supporting actors Richard Jenkins, Sean Bean, Francis McDormand, and others bring depth to an already compelling story. And Thomas Curtis does a superb job as Josey’s teenage son, Sammy. In the end, North Country does more than it had to in telling an important story.
Entertainment value: 3 stars
Meaning: 3 1/2 stars
Lack of gratuitous violence or sex: 3 stars
Lack of advertising: 3 1/2 stars
Overall quality: 3 stars
Emotional impact: 3 1/2 stars
(out of 4 stars)
Alternatives
A meaningful global food system could be ___________________ [fill this in yourself].
Local food: Farmers’ markets, community-supported agriculture
The ‘local food’ movement emphasizes farmers’ markets, community-supported agriculture and other means of promoting fresh, seasonal produce while reducing our dependence on far-flung, excessively processed foods that require extraordinary subsidies and expenditures on oil and transportation to travel thousands of miles from field to table.
“Love all of God’s creation, both the whole of it and every grain of sand. Love every leaf, every ray of God’s light. Love animals, love plants, love each thing. If you love each thing, you will perceive the mystery of God in things. Once you have perceived it, you will begin tirelessly to perceive more and more of it every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an entire, universal love. Love the animals: God gave them the rudiments of thought and an untroubled joy. Do not trouble them, do not torment them, do not take their joy from them, do not go against God’s purpose. Man, do not exalt yourself above the animals: they are sinless.”
Feodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
“The ‘Great Economy’ “is not the ‘sum of its parts’ but a Membership of parts inextricably joined to each other, indebted to each other, receiving significance and worth from each other and from the whole….For a human, the good choice in the Great Economy is to see its membership as a neighborhood and oneself as a neighbor within it.”
“We can only find it wonderful, when we put our minds to it, that many people now seem willing to mount an emergency effort to ‘save the family farm’ who have not yet thought to save the family or the community, the neighborhood schools or the small local businesses, the domestic arts of household and homestead, or cultural and moral tradition-all of which are also failing, and on all of which the survival of the family farm depends.”
Wendell Berry, Home Economics
“Have you ever seen a horse or cow indulging in the abuse of the palate as we do? Do you suppose that it is a sign of civilization, a sign of real life, that we should multiply our eatables so far that we do not even know where we are; and seek dishes until at last we have become absolutely mad and run after the newspaper sheets which give us advertisements about these dishes?”
Mohandas Gandhi
“To be concerned with ‘humanitarian’ killing is quite absurd; to abstain from eating meat while destroying your son by comparing him with another is to be cruel; to take part in the respectable killing for your country or for an ideology is to cultivate hate; to be kind to animals and cruel to your fellow man by act, word, or gesture, is to breed enmity and brutality.”
J. Krishnamurti
Food Circles Networking Project
A Food Circle is a new way of conceiving of and organizing our agricultural and food systems. It connects farmers, consumers and communities together in interdependent, holistic ways. When we conceive of our food system as a circle, we acknowledge that we are connected with every other person in that circle through the act of food production.
Practically, a Food Circle is concerned with promoting the consumption of safe, regionally grown food that will encourage sustainable agriculture and help to maintain farmers, who will sustain rural areas. While the concept sounds simple, it means that we must radically change the way we participate in the act of growing and consuming food.
What you can do to help:
Buy your food from a farmer whose face you can see and whose farm you can visit.
Recruit and emotionally support families wanting to produce food locally.
Provide a market for locally produced food by knowing as much as you can about your food.
Get your church, school or community group to provide land for families wanting to grow and market food locally.
Create your own food networks of farmers, eaters, educators, churches and civic organizations.
Get involved in the Food Circles Networking Project by inviting a speaker to your next meeting.
http://foodcircles.missouri.edu
The Fair trade movement
The ‘fair trade’ movement is an important way of maximizing earnings to farmers while educating consumers about where their food comes from and how it is produced. Labeling and certification schemes that vouch for the content and origin of foods are key to building a solid foundation for alternatives to the corporate industrial food system.
The Agribusiness Accountability Initiative
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)
CSAs provides farmers with direct outlets for farm products and ensures fair compensation. There are many kinds of CSA. All include payment in advance at an agreed upon price. In some, members of the community purchase a “share” of the anticipated harvest, while in others they sign up for a predetermined amount of produce over the course of the season. In most cases, this commitment implies a willingness to share with the farmer both the bounty from the land and at least some of the risks involved with production.
http://www.csacenter.org/
Change your diet
What changes in our diet could do the most for the health of our natural systems? The Union of Concerned Scientists says there are two priorities:
Eat less meat: The average household consumes nearly 10 pounds of meat a week. Cut this in half and replace it with the nutritional equivalent of grains and you reduce food-related land use and water pollution by 30 percent and 24 percent respectively. Switching to dairy also helps, because a dairy cow can produce many times it’s own weight in milk in a single year. Just 10 percent of cattle in the U.S. are dairy cows, but their production of milk, by weight, is 3.5 times greater than the production of beef and beef products.
Buy certified organic produce: Organic farming reduces pesticides and fertilizer runoff into rivers, lakes, and ground water. Low-till practices and the use of cover crops reduce soil erosion, and organic soil-building techniques improve water retention, reducing the need for irrigation.
Yes Magazine, Summer, 2000
Challenge: Give Your Life For Food
“The wonder has always been great to me, that heroism has never been supposed to be in anywise consistent with the practice of supplying people with food, or clothes; but rather with that of quartering one’s self upon them for food, and stripping them of clothes. Spoiling of armour is an heroic deed in all ages; but the selling of clothes, old, or new, has never taken any colour of magnanimity. Yet one does not see why feeding the hungry and clothing the naked should ever become base businesses, even when engaged in on a large scale.”
John Ruskin
Resources
The Market Share Matrix
The Market Share Matrix is an ambitious project to map the global food system. It is a free, instantly-accessible website listing the names of the companies that dominate several aspects of the food system from seeds to retail. It provides an at-a-glance view of the countries and sectors where each company has a large stake. It also features regularly-updated data on market shares, sales, and concentration levels.
www.marketsharematrix.org.
Food Alliance
Food Alliance is a non-profit organization that promotes sustainable agriculture by recognizing and rewarding farmers who produce food in environmentally friendly and socially responsible ways, and educating consumers and others in the food system about the benefits of sustainable agriculture.
www.foodalliance.org.
Food Routes
Where does your food come from?
The FoodRoutes Find Good Food map can help you connect with local farmers and start eating the freshest, tastiest food around. Click here to find your local food on our interactive map, listing farmers, CSAs, and local markets near you.
There are many reasons to buy locally grown food. You’ll get exceptional taste and freshness, strengthen your local economy, support endangered family farms, safeguard your family’s health, and protect the environment. www.foodroutes.org.
Local Harvest
Farms, CSA, restaurants, grocery/co-ops, farmers’ markets.
The freshest, healthiest, most flavorful organic food is what’s grown closest to you. Use our website to find farmers’ markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area, where you can buy produce, grass-fed meats, and many other goodies.
www.localharvest.org
Wisdom
November, 2005
“Let them remember that there is a meaning beyond absurdity. Let them be sure that every little deed counts, that every word has power, and that we can, everyone, do our share to redeem the world in spite of all absurdities and all the frustrations and all disappointments. And above all, remember that the meaning of life is to build a life as if it were a work of art. You’re not a machine….Start working on this great work of art called your own existence. One of the ways of doing it-two ways of doing it-is, one remember the importance of self-discipline; second, study the great sources of wisdom. Don’t read the bestsellers. And, third, remember that life is a celebration or can be a celebration. There’s much entertainment in our life. And entertainment is destroying much of our initiative and weakens our imagination. What’s really important is life as a celebration.”
Abraham Heschel, Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity
My Coffee Shop Addiction
I’m not addicted to coffee; I’m addicted to coffee shops. To tell the truth, I don’t even like the taste of coffee that much, but I do like coffee shops. I like their atmosphere and the casual, laid-back attitude. Coffee shops provide a sanctuary from claustrophobic, downtown offices and crowded, hectic shopping centers. Best of all, a coffee shop is a place to locate kindred souls, fellow coffee drinkers who seek refuge from the rat race. People tend to have loyalty to their chosen coffee shop because, like bars, each has its own personality.
By coffee shop, I am not referring to those “temporary” buildings offering drive-thru service. Those are for the serious coffee drinkers, the ones who need a cup on the commute to work. For someone like me, these completely miss the point. Drinking coffee is like meditation and should be done in an environment that encourages contemplation.
I work in downtown Anchorage. I ride the bus in to work each weekday morning and I visit a coffee shop prior to going to the office. It helps put a pleasant break between my commute and the actual beginning of work. My favorite place for this is Sassafras next to 5th Avenue Mall. They’re locally owned and I know the barristas by name. Since I’m a regular, they know what I like to drink so there’s no need to order. They have pastries, fruit, teas and other stuff too. They serve lunch but let’s face it; at 7:00 AM it’s a coffee shop, not a café. I like that it has First Friday art up on the walls. Also, they make really good coffee too.
At Sassafras, I can usually tell which barrista is working as soon as I walk in just by listening to the music that is playing. They have a small boom box and the employees bring in their own music. Each one has their own style and you may hear jazz, folk or reggae depending on who was opening the shop that morning. I’ve sometimes discussed the music with them and gotten suggestions on new artists. Usually, I meet my friend, Richard, at the shop. We browse through the local free newspapers. We discuss our weekend and what we accomplished, or didn’t accomplish. This makes our transition to work better than the rush to commute and then immediately flinging into the hectic fray at the office. We know the other customers and we greet each other and talk about our weekend plans. It’s a comfortable place.
But one morning, it didn’t work that way. When I arrived at the shop shortly after 7:00 AM, Richard was waiting at the entrance. The door was locked, the lights were off and there were no signs of life. There was a pile of newspapers and pastries left at the door. We discussed our options and decided to go to a different coffee shop that morning. We are fortunate in that we have a large number of locally owned coffee houses through our city, but in this case, the only coffee shop that we knew of within walking distance was a corporate-owned store with a national brand name. We decided to hoof it over there and were on our way.
When we reached the corporate store, the differences with my usual coffee joint were obvious. It was much larger with a large counter full of items that I didn’t want to buy. There were two people working behind the counter, a man and a woman. The man seemed to be loaded with caffeine. He had wide-open eyes and smile that appeared to be just short of drug induced. I stepped up to the counter.
“WELCOME. WHAT CAN I GET YOU?” the man yelled. The wide grin stretched his facial skin a little shy of the breaking point.
Rich and I looked over the large menu. It was long and I didn’t recognize many of the items. I was worried that I’d order something unusual and undrinkable so I stuck with something familiar. I ordered a white chocolate mocha.
“ONE WHITE CHOCOLATE MOCHA!” the man yelled.
“ONE WHITE CHOCOLATE MOCHA COMING UP!” responded the woman with a similar decibel level. She immediately started to work and so I paid, left a tip and moved down the counter to where she was located.
As I looked around the shop, I noticed that the chairs were arranged into conversation pits and the place was decorated as if you had called the Home Shopping Channel and said “give me a Starbucks. And make it trendy.” If you try too hard to be trendy, you can become a facade. This place had all the trappings but no soul, a sort of a McDonalds version of a coffee house. Unlike my regular joint, none of the customers seemed to know each other. I was used to greeting familiar faces but in this place, I know no one and no one knew me.
“ONE WHITE CHOCOLATE MOCHA!” yelled the woman. She placed the coffee on the counter and beamed a big smile. Her eyes were like headlights. This was starting to freak me out.
I sat down and waited while Richard went through an experience similar to mine to get his coffee. When he sat down at the table, we surveyed the room. There was a chalkboard sign advertising that a new jazz CD was available for sale. Not surprizingly the music being played over the shop’s sound system was the same. My regular shop didn’t try to sell music. Although there were more customers here, they appeared to be mostly tourists awaiting a scheduled bus or van pickup at the Egan Center. This shop’s name was familiar to them. The same brand name store selling the same brand name coffee with cool trademarked names for specialty drinks. This store was selling coffee mugs, coffee beans and coffee makers. All with the corporate stamp of approval for a nice advertisement.
And there was something else that bothered me. In my regular shop, I knew the owner. I knew how hard she worked. I knew that the money I spent there went to help her pay bills. At the corporate store, my money probably helped the stockholders as much as anyone. When we purchase a product, whether it’s coffee, clothes or food, we’re purchasing more than the physical product; we’re purchasing the spirit of the item also. This is something you need to consider. Is your purchase helping a small businesswoman pay her mortgage or are you helping a corporate CEO buy another vintage sports car? Are you helping the workers’ pay their grocery bills or are you paying for the retiling of a board member’s summer house swimming pool? Think about it. Are you paying for a life of poverty for a farmer or factory worker? Are you purchasing damage to the environment?
The next morning, my regular coffee shop was open on time. I went in and the girl at the counter smiled and asked me if I wanted my usual. I didn’t ask about the what happened yesterday because it really didn’t matter. A couple of days later, I learned that the girl scheduled to open the shop overslept but, like I said, it really doesn’t matter. I like unpredictability. The shop isn’t owned by a corporation and I like that. There isn’t a standardized procedure for everything and I like that too. The place is comfortable and it makes me feel welcome. I’ll take the occasional hiccups in stride because to me that’s just part of the personality. I’ll take the idiosyncrasies because they come as part of the soul of the place. I may not need the coffee but the coffee shop has me hooked.
News of the real
October, 2005
The Larger Shame
“One of the most dispiriting elements of the catastrophe in New Orleans was the looting. I covered the 1995 earthquake that leveled much of Kobe, Japan, killing 5,500, and for days I searched there for any sign of criminal behavior. Finally I found a resident who had seen three men steal food. I asked him whether he was embarrassed that Japanese would engage in such thugery.”
Nicolas Kristoff, September 6, 2005, The New York Times
Moral news: The true nature of our personal and national character is revealed at times of crisis.
To More Inmates, Life Term Means Dying Behind Bars
“A survey by The New York Times found that about 132,000 of the nation’s prisoners, or almost 1 in 10, are serving life sentences. The number of lifers has almost doubled in the last decade, far outpacing the overall growth in the prison population. Of those lifers sentenced between 1988 and 2001, about a third are serving time for sentences other than murder, including burglary and drug crimes.”
October 2, 2005. The New York Times
Challenging news: America generates a whole city of prisoners without hope of freedom.
Government Intervention in Stock Market Detailed by New Report
“A major Canadian financial management firm concludes that the U.S. government has intervened to support the stock market so many times that ‘what apparently started as a stopgap measure may have morphed into a serious moral hazard situation, with market manipulation an endemic feature of the U.S. stock market.
The Sprott report concludes: Given the available information, we do not believe there can be any doubt that the U.S. government has intervened to support the stock market. Yet virtually no one ever mentions government intervention publicly, preferring instead to pretend as if such activities have never taken place and never would.”
Challenge
October, 2005
Do Anchorage institutions support sweatshops?
Do Anchorage government agencies buy supplies from companies that pay a living wage, have safe working conditions, and allow their workers to join unions? Or do these companies employ child labor, pollute, and exploit workers?
Would local politicians be willing to prohibit purchasing from these sweatshops for schools, hospitals, fire, police, and other government institutions?
One of the goals of Alaska Humanity News is to explore everyday events and situations that escape attention because they are omnipresent. CHALLENGES is one of these features. Look through this edition to find other unusual features.
Coming soon: the official response.
Greybeard's box
October, 2005
Is justice conditional?
Can you beat an idea with a stick?
If you play God, does that make you God?
Organizations we support
Sui Juris Court Angels...
We are American citizens organized to monitor the lawful Due Course of Law. We want to create forums where two adverse parties are able to put their truths into the record of the court without interference, in order to weigh out facts in law by an impartial judge and apply real law accordingly.
Come on in and become the most important individual in the court. Your input will bring honesty and insure fair and equal treatment, which is guaranteed by the Constitution and Bill of Rights. It will roduce Due Process, and protect the innocent. United we will bring Jeffersonian Reform and Liberty for All. Remember, ‘A Watchful Eye Balances Justice!’
Bouviers law dictionary, 1856 Edition
“Sui Juris - One who has all the rights to which a freemen is entitled; one who is not under the power of another, as a slave, a minor, and the like.To make a valid contract, a person must, in general, be sui juris. Every one of full age is presumed to be sui juris.
“Let me assure you that there is one thing, and ONE THING ONLY that the judiciary fears. And you are accomplishing it without even knowing it! Whether you believe it or not, the one thing that the judiciary fears of being brought into disrepute. Of having their deranged, sick, tyrannical system exposed to the public’s scrutiny.”
Visit our group “suijuriscourtangels” on the web… http://groups.yahoo.com/group/suijuriscourtangels/
Blessings of Love...^i^
Alternatives
We can make torture unnecessary and even unthinkable by _________________ [fill this in yourself].
“The idea of serving mankind, of the brotherhood and oneness of people, is fading more and more in the world, and indeed the idea now even meets with mockery....Paradise is hidden in each one of us, it is concealed within me, too, right now, and if I wish, it will come for me in reality, tomorrow even, and for the rest of my life....Until one has indeed become the brother of all, there will be no brotherhood.”
Dosoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
“Without love, you are trying to find out what is the right thing to do, and your action only leads to greater harm and misery; it is the action of politicians and reformers. Without love, you cannot comprehend cruelty; a peace of sorts may be established through the reign of terror; but war, killing, will continue at another level of our existence.”
J. Krishnamurti
“The years we have just gone through have killed something in us. And that something is simply the old confidence man had in himself, which led him to believe that he could always elicit human reactions from another man if he spoke to him in the language of common humanity. We have seen men lie, degrade, kill, deport, torture--and each time it was not possible to persuade them not to do these things because they were sure of themselves and because one cannot appeal to an abstraction.”
Albert Camus
“The organization of our society rests, not as people interested in maintaining the present order of things like to imagine, on certain principles of jurisprudence, but on simple brute force, on the murder and torture of men.”
Leo Tolstoy
“What is unique in man is that he can be driven by impulses to kill and to torture, and that he feels lust in doing so; he is the only animal that can be a killer and destroyer of his own species without any rational gain, either biological or economic.”
Erich Fromm
“The brutality with which we fought [Vietnam] almost certainly contributed to our defeat. In a war for ‘hearts and minds’ rather than for land and resources, justice turns out to be a key to victory…One might almost say that justice has become a military necessity.”
Michael Walzer
Palden Gyatso
Palden Gyatso is a Tibetan Buddhist monk who survived thirty-three years of torture and imprisonment in the Chinese Gulag. Gyatso called upon his training as a monk, using a meditation technique called tonglen, to refocus his thoughts when he was undergoing torture.
“What is the worst thing the Chinese did to you?” I asked, crudely.
Silently, the Tibetan monk reached and took out all his fake teeth. Then he told me that the Chinese had rammed an electric cattle prod into his mouth and shocked him so severely that all the roots of his teeth were destroyed. Palden Gyatso curled his tongue upward exposing some deep scars on its underside. Me, I just sat there dumbfounded and ashamed of my insensitive question. “The worst thing,” the translator conveyed to me, “was that the Chinese almost made me loose my compassion for them.” Again silently, the old man put his teeth back in his mouth and smiled, waiting for my next question.
“What will killing more people solve?” Gyatso asked, sadly. “Nothing! Violence only produces more violence. Compassion and non-violence is the only way to stop the deadly cycle,” he answered himself.
-- Michael Leube, World Tibet Network News
“I have spent 33 years in prison and have been physically and mentally tortured many times, but somehow I was able to endure those sufferings.”
“I like to mimic the path of a bodhisattva (a person motivated by altruism, who lives to serve others). Even after all this brutal torture, I don’t have an individual grudge against anybody. Yes, of course, at a given moment there is anger,” he says. “But it might help the world if this ordinary Buddhist monk talks about how anger causes our peace to deteriorate and destroys communities and nations. It all breaks down to anger, hatred and revenge. I am hoping that the telling of my story will bring some sort of hope for the future.”
“I don’t have any anger or grudge against the Chinese. It behooves me not to have anger. As a Buddhist practitioner, anger is your worst enemy. Any religious person should be able to make his anger subside. I really believe anger will bring unhappiness to yourself and others, and turn friends into enemies. I have to have tolerance and forgiveness.”
“If we continue to insist on truth, we begin to possess a sort of power that in the end is stronger than any violence we will come up against. And this has given us hope and laughter where it seems there shouldn’t be any.”
“Those who are driven by ignorance and anger are like a crazed or drunken elephant. That kind of elephant will only make a mess for himself and others. There’s nothing to feel for him but sympathy and pity.”
Palden Gyatso wrote The Autobiography of a Tibetan Monk (1998). He will be speaking in Anchorae on November 3 & 8. See page 4 for details.
Mohandas Gandhi
“A man who, when faced by danger, behaves like a mouse, is rightly called a coward. He harbors violence and hatred in his heart and would kill his enemy if he could without being hurt himself. He is a stranger to non-violence.”
“One must learn the art of dying in the training for non-violence....the votary of non-violence has to cultivate the capacity for sacrifice of the highest type in order to be free from fear.”
“I accept the interpretation of Ahimsa namely that it is not merely a negative state of harmlessness but it is a positive state of love, of doing good even to the evil-doer.” 24
If there is dogma in the Gandhian philosophy, it centers here: that the only test of truth is action based on the refusal to do harm. Tapas came, in the Gandhian interpretation, to mean willingness to suffer in oneself to win the respect of an opponent. Gandhi extended suffering through sacrifice to the social and political sphere. Ahimsa is not just ‘non-violence.’ It is ‘Action based on the refusal to do harm, to kill or to damage.’ From Conquest of Violence, by Joan Bondurant
Jewish Statement Against Torture
Inspired by the teachings of our tradition, we call on the United States Government:
To repudiate the use of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in any and every setting under United States control;
To affirm that it will uphold the letter and spirit of the laws regulating interrogation and detention, including the Constitution of the United States, Acts of Congress, and the international treaties that it has signed and ratified and to which it remains bound;
To state in unequivocal terms that the use of any tactics of physical abuse, the deprivation of food, water, sleep, disorientation, or purposive humiliation of a prisoner is prohibited;
To provide visits with the International Committee of the Red Cross for all those in the custody of U.S. military, military contractors, or intelligence officials;
To reject the practice (referred to as “extraordinary rendition”) in which certain prisoners are sent to countries which use extreme forms of torture in interrogations;
To investigate all allegations of torture in any setting under United States control and to apply proper legal sanctions against individuals found to have committed acts of torture and
To create an independent commission to investigate and report on the detention and interrogation procedures of US military and intelligence agencies and to set a course of corrective action.
News Article: Do Sen. Stevens and Rep. Young support U.S. torture policies?
Senator Lisa Murkowski opposes psychological & physical torture; views of others are unclear
By: Crystal Hutchins
It’s after midnight in the nation of free choice. You are watching the late-late show and munching a tuna sandwich, decompressing from a stressful day. Even as you contemplate tomorrow’s agenda, your worries are minor, trivial even, in the grand scheme of things; as you read this, a fellow human being is undergoing torture--and it could be sanctioned by your own government.
Where do our Alaskan representatives stand on the issue of U.S. torture policies? After repeated inquiries, we received no response from Congressman Don Young. We are left to wonder if Mr. Young is too busy to contend with a request like this, or if a lack of response says something in and of itself.
Senator Lisa Murkowski states clear opposition in her response to a couple of questions we asked of our representatives. In response to the question “Do you support the U.S. policy of extraordinary rendition?” Murkowski answered, “I believe the United States should adhere to the provisions of the Geneva Conventions when it comes to the treatment of prisoners. The use of torture as an interrogation technique is not only unreliable, but against the Geneva Conventions and U.S. policy.
“Under the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998, implementing the U.N. Convention against Torture, it is the United States’ policy ‘not to expel, extradite, or otherwise effect the involuntary return of any person to a country in which there are substantial grounds for believing the person would be in danger of being subjected to torture, regardless of whether the person is physically present in the United States.’”
We also asked, “Do you support the US policy of Psychological torture?”
“The Department of Defense has undertaken a number of investigations into allegations of abuse,” Murkowski responded. “These reviews have led to increased oversight and expanded training for detainee operations. On May 21, 2004, the Senate unanimously passed Senate Resolution 356, condemning prisoner abuses, demanding a full investigation, and urging measures to prevent abuses from happening again. In addition, the Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005 reiterates that torture is prohibited by U.S. laws, treaties, and the Constitution, and reaffirmed that no detainee should be subject to torture, cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment. I am pleased that the Department of Defense has created the Office of Detainee Affairs to develop policy recommendations for the treatment of detainees and to receive reports from groups like the International Committee of the Red Cross.”
On the other hand, the response from Senator Ted Steven’s camp was a little disconcerting. His press secretary, Courtney Boone gave this official response after repeated inquiry:
“Ted Stevens supports the tenets of the Geneva Convention as it relates to psychological torture and will not comment on extraordinary rendition as it is a classified matter.”
The Bush Administration has developed some flowery language in order to validate bypassing the Geneva Conventions when it comes to suspected terrorists. White House officials refer to the time after 9/11 as the “New Paradigm,” in which extreme measures have been deemed necessary “to protect Americans effectively from a terrorist attack.” Suspected terrorists aren’t considered war prisoners, but rather “illegal enemy combatants,” therefore falling outside the scope of accepted human rights practices.
Extraordinary rendition, the practice of sending suspects to countries where torture is legal, has been used for decades, but kept fairly secretive until recently. It was originally used on a very limited basis until after 9/11, when the New Paradigm kicked it into high gear. In a New Yorker article, “Outsourcing Torture,” Jane Mayer says, “The most common destinations for rendered suspects are Egypt, Morocco, Syria and Jordan, all of which have been cited for human-rights violations by the State Department, and are known to torture suspects.”
An example of this abominable practice is the case of Maher Arar, as reported by Jane Mayer. A Canadian born in Syria, he was placed on the United States Watch List of terrorist suspects, apparently for working with the brother of a suspected terrorist whom he barely knew. He was detained and sent to Syria where he says interrogators beat him, whipped his hands with electric cables, and kept him in a windowless underground cell. He was held for a year before the Canadian Government took up his cause, at which point he was released without charges in October, 2003.
In a report from the State Department in 2002, detainees in Egypt were “stripped and blindfolded; suspended from a ceiling or doorframe with feet just touching the floor; beaten with fists, whips, metal rods or other objects; subjected to electrical shocks, and doused with cold water and sexually assaulted.” Other accounts of Egyptian detainee abuse include a man wrapped head to toe in duct tape when released to U.S. custody, and an Egyptian linked to Al Qaeda who was chained to a toilet for days and urinated on by guards.
Torture victim Mamdouh Habib, an Australian citizen who was born in Egypt, was apprehended in Pakistan where he was investigating schools. The intent of his trip was to decide if he would move his family there. Eventually flown to Egypt, Habib claims he was beaten with blunt instruments and threatened to be raped by specially trained dogs if he did not confess to belonging to Al Qaeda. He also contends that he spent time in water torture chambers. One of the chambers held water up to his chin and he was forced to stand on tip-toe for hours. Another chamber contained water that covered his ankles and was in sight of an electrical switch, which his captors claimed would electrocute him unless he confessed. Between Pakistan, Islamabad, Egypt, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, he was held for three years and finally released without charges.
Psychological torture is another disturbing practice seeing widespread use. According to a comprehensive study released by the Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), entitled “Break Them Down: Systematic Use of Psychological Torture by U.S. Forces,” the most common types of psychological torture include sensory deprivation, isolation, sleep deprivation, forced nudity, cultural and sexual humiliation, the use of military working dogs to instill fear, mock executions, and the threat of violence or death toward detainees or their loved ones. The report is based on “evidence now available from witness accounts, documents released under the Freedom of Information Act, official investigations, leaked reports from the International Committee of the Red Cross, media reports and inquiries by Physicians for Human Rights.”
Psychological torture may be even worse than physical torture because of the long-term effects. The PHR study cites some of the more severe long-term symptoms as memory impairment, depression, vegetative symptoms and post-traumatic stress disorder. At the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in 2004, up to one quarter of 500 detainees were kept in isolation. PHR sources claim that some detainees “suffer from incoherent speech, disorientation, hallucination, irritability, delusions and paranoia.”
Experts in the field of interrogation, like ex-F.B.I. agent Dan Coleman, say information obtained during torture is often useless. He says there is no value in trying to talk to someone who’s been deprived of his clothes. “He’s going to be ashamed, and humiliated, and cold. He’ll tell you anything you want to hear to get his clothes back.” There are many cases of false confessions recanted.
Involuntary confessions are also not valid in court. Former C.I.A. counterterrorism expert, Michael Scheuer, says once a detainee’s rights have been violated, “you absolutely can’t” reinstate him into the court system. “You can’t kill him either. All we’ve done is create a nightmare.”
Senators John McCain (R-AZ), John Warner (R-VA), and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) have worked for approval on legislation that would prohibit cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment of detainees in U.S. custody. The legislation has been introduced in the form of amendments to the $442 billion defense bill for 2006. But is the new legislation working? Of foremost concern is the fact that it doesn’t apply to the C.I..A.
As recently as September 18, 2005, The New York Times reported that as many as 200 prisoners (more than a third) at Guantanamo Bay prison camp are on a hunger strike. According to the lawyers who represent them, they are protesting conditions and prolonged confinement without trial. Recent past hunger strikes have also come to light in the wake of the current strike. Although a six-member prisoners’ grievance committee had been established for a former strike, it was quickly ended, eventually resulting in the current strike. Several of the hunger strike cases are so severe that the prisoners are being hospitalized and force fed through IV and nose tubes.
Senator Stevens was part of a group who went to Guantanamo Bay prison in 2002. He reported, “There is no torture or abuse, the facilities are humane and detainees are being treated well.” In light of recent reports that prisoners are starving themselves to the point of being hospitalized and force fed to protest their treatment, this is difficult to believe. It’s likely that a couple of hours touring the facilities could only give so much insight to the actual conditions.
In a press release following his visit to Guantanamo Bay, Stevens said, “The difficult task in this war against terrorism will be how to deal with detainees and people like them in the future. They are terrorists, they have abandoned humanity and declared war upon peaceful people. They have been trained to kill and have proved they are merciless.”
Should we, too, abandon humanity? Our soldiers are also trained to kill, and are, apparently, trained in torture techniques that result in long-term psychological harm which, one might argue, is a fate worse than death. As a modern nation we have the responsibility to hold ourselves to a higher standard than the enemy. Perhaps the more important question, though, is what past actions have made us the target of such terrorist organizations? And do we want to continue on in the direction we are going?
Contact Crystal Hutchins at chutchins@qupq.com .
News Article: Alaska one of only two states without fish testing
Government reluctant to provide information that could hurt fishing industry
By: Cathy Holt
The fish you buy at your local Alaskan supermarket may be hazardous to your health, according to studies done by Alaska Community Action on Toxics (ACAT), in conjunction with Oceana.
“The greatest threat of mercury poisoning for the Alaska consumer is that from the store-bought fish purchased at the local supermarket,” states Pam Miller, founder and director of ACAT, citing findings from a major twenty-two-state mercury testing project which included samples taken from swordfish sold at Carrs in Anchorage. The project confirmed that some store-bought swordfish and tuna contain levels of mercury that the Federal Government has determined to be potentially hazardous to human health--and to young children, in particular.
“I think the latest science shows that there really is no safe level of mercury exposure,” says Miller, “especially for developing children who are particularly at risk for neuro-developmental problems.”
The FDA utilizes mercury “action levels” in order to determine when a fish is a threat for human consumption. “Years ago, the FDA had an action level of .5 parts per million (ppm),” Miller recalls. “Due to pressure from the industry, [the FDA] increased the action level to 1 ppm.”
Three swordfish samples collected from a Carrs supermarket in Anchorage were measured at .903, .668, and .503 ppm. Though these measurements are within the new standards set by the FDA, they are all above the original standards.
A visit to an Anchorage Carrs revealed that the store does make efforts to caution consumers about the mercury levels in swordfish and fresh tuna, although issuing warnings is not always possible. An assistant manager of the seafood department stated that she is somewhat familiar with EPA warnings regarding high levels of mercury found in swordfish, and that Carrs posts information on the packaging if the fish arrive with a warning label.
“Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t arrive with warnings,” she said. “The swordfish never does, so we do not ever post warnings on them. There is no law requiring supermarkets to post mercury warnings,” she continued, even though such information would allow consumers to avoid potential exposure to mercury.
Recently, Robert Kennedy, Jr., stated in a speech for the Cook Inlet Keeper that 48 states in the U.S. warn that at least some of the fish caught in their waters is unsafe to eat because of toxic levels of mercury. Nineteen of these states revealed that none of their fish is safe. The mercury found in fish poses the biggest threat to pregnant mothers, whose unborn children can develop neurological problems from exposure to mercury.
Searches on the internet revealed several studies done by independent researchers, all of whom reported healthy, consumable levels of mercury in fish caught in Alaskan waters. Alaska is, however, only one of two states that does not have official advisories to oversee fish testing; money has not been allocated for this purpose.
Even if we avoid the fish supplied in supermarkets and consume only fish caught in Alaskan waters, though, we are still not guaranteed long-term protection from mercury toxicity. Although the Alaska independent research studies revealed healthy results in our fish, according to Miller, we simply do not have all the information we need to make well-informed decisions.
“Without regulated testing, we don’t know a lot about other species of fish like halibut from certain locations that might have heavy mining,” says Miller, referring to one of the four main emitters of mercury. In addition to mining operations, chlorine plants, power plants, and medical waste incinerators contribute to the level of mercury in water.
“The state of Alaska has been very reluctant to provide the kind of information that people need in order to make important decisions about their fish consumption,” Miller continues. “The economy is strongly tied to fishing, so negative findings may lead to a decline in the financial well-being of the state.”
“Robert Kennedy, Jr., said that he can no longer take his kids fishing where he once did because the mercury levels are too high. A whole tradition of parents and families fishing together is disappearing,” Miller says. Here in Alaska, she reminds us, “There is a great deal of tradition associated with fishing. It would be a great shame to lose that.”
Opinion
The foundation of our civility
By Harry Davidson
Dostoyevsky said, “The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.” By this he shows us a window through which we can view ourselves, a view that allows us to measure the spiritual health and well-being of a society. Why is this so? Why did Dostoyevsky not say that we can judge a civilization by entering its hospitals or homeless shelters? Because of this: Prisoners are the rejected of a society. They have been removed from human community because they are dangerous or undesirable, and have the potential to do harm either by inflicting pain and suffering or by creating chaos and mayhem. When face to face with another human being whose intent is to harm, we are forced to confront the limits of our civility. Under duress we have clarity. But even more so when those who would do us harm are imprisoned and we have complete power and control over them. The depth and limits of our basic understanding and beliefs about the value of human life are put to their ultimate test. And this test does not change when the prisoner is a prisoner of war and a member of a hostile society or community that would subjugate and enslave us. In fact this measure of civility is even more effective and precise the more dangerous and threatening a prisoner may be.
If human beings are indeed made in the image of God, as many of the major world religions teach, and human nature is fallen, as they also teach, then this fundamental belief will inform the way we treat the prisoner. It is from this understanding of the human condition that compassion and mercy have their origin. These qualities are the responses of a culture that believes in the value of life based on its divine source. If human life is a gift of God, how dare we abuse one another; for if we do we have somehow abused God. Without this fundamental understanding of an ultimate accountability to the Divine Source, “all things are permitted”, as Dostoyevsky also says. So we will abuse and inflict suffering and pain on one another, and will even torture those we have imprisoned and who no longer have an advocate or voice. And when there is still a rudimentary belief in human dignity left in a culture, it becomes necessary to dehumanize the prisoner before they are abused or tortured. If the prisoner is not human then it is acceptable to mistreat them. But this need to dehumanize before abuse is inflicted only illustrates the depth of the intuition in the human heart that we ought not to mistreat one another even when we can justify it.
There is only one power that is able to change the human heart and thereby change the world. That power is love. The classic word for love in action is “charity”. When charity rules the heart it will find expression in even the most difficult situations. Christ said that the two greatest acts that a human may do are to love God and to love one’s neighbor. These two injunctions have been the cornerstones for true human community for several millenniums. When they function within the human heart and thereby within human community, there is no place for torture and abuse of prisoners. The thoughts and actions toward the prisoner will be of re-formation and reconciliation. An excellent example of this is the Faith Based Program that is in place and functioning at the Palmer Correctional Facility (see the May, 2005 edition of Alaska Humanity News, at humanitynews.net). And if our enemies take advantage of our compassion and mercy, as they often do, we can show them charity all the more. Ultimately, there is no power that can stand against charity. Only love can change the human heart and thereby change the world.
Harry Davidson was born in Kodiak, raised in Southwest Alaska, and is now a business owner in Anchorage. E-mail: harry@qupq.com .
Editorial -- Torture
Dissolving terror at the root
Lay aside the idea that we are not responsible for the foreign policy of our nation. As citizens in a democracy, we are complicit in the policies made by our representatives. And as residents of a state where our representatives play a prominent national role, we Alaskans have a special responsibility, even if we don’t know what destructive acts are taking place in our name.
True, the problems raised by terrorism and the war on terrorism are difficult to solve. We have a right (and a need) to protect ourselves from our enemies. We cannot let terrorists attack innocent civilians, especially when the victims are our own citizens. In the nightmarish world of national security, brutality seems to be the only effective response to the viciousness of our foes.
This quandary is a revealing example of how political news (whether of the right, the left or the middle) frames questions that are not fit for our use. There is no resolution to these flawed presuppositions and the dilemmas they produce.
When you enter the political arena the ability to resolve human problems at their source is lost. Instead, compromises are heaped upon compromises, and the temptation to use inhumane means becomes overwhelming. If you stand too close to the abyss, you will fall in. If you fall into that void, there is no way out.
Cruelty, enmity, and brutality are deeply rooted in human nature, but not inevitable. There is a regime in which these qualities do not arise, and this is the culture we must give birth to. In that world we would not have to ask whether torture or murder were acceptable, because they would be simply unthinkable. The inclination would not enter one’s mind. In that regime humanity would be lifted at least to the level of animals (none of whom ever acted with malice), and the mystery, beauty, and love of life would reign.
Belief in the defectiveness of politics does not imply that we intend to avoid present reality. There is another form of active participation in society. That is why, in the pages of this newspaper, we are striving to seek out and publicize the crucial fields in which we are complicit in harmful acts.
It is the news of the small-minded and the misconceived which can lead us to a point where these perennial problems can be resolved. In this special place, terrorism and the fight against terrorism are dissolved at the root. In this clash of paradigms, the regime of the crude is at odds with a culture of care and understanding - a culture which has the power to reach twisted hearts and rescue lost souls.
The very nature of what it means to be an American is changing, but it is not our politicians who are guilty, of electric shocks, beatings, humiliation, and deprivation of sleep and food. In fact, this is the hidden nature of our peaceful life, a product of the culture we ourselves produce, by living into reality our identity.
There is a spectrum of torture, from direct physical torture, to psychological torture (both now active elements in our war against terrorism), to the tortuous struggle we all face in living in a political culture that suppresses what is important and leads to addiction, mediocrity, and isolation. America was founded on idealistic principles, and we can restore these and even improve them. But we must begin by recognizing the falsity of political choice, and the power of choice that originates in humility.
For more information about the culture of care we want to build, go to our website humanitynews.net and click on ‘Creating centers.’ Come to our meeting on ‘Elemental Society,’ Thursday, October 27 at 7pm (See page 12 for details).
Letters to the editor
October, 2005
Peace Building
Is He Not Our Brother
Peace Building
As a young woman, I admired our military and believed those who served were defenders of truth and justice. My own father served during World War II. He was proud of his service and so was I. Today I am not proud that we send our sons and daughters to kill and be killed; and even worse, to be traumatized by the horrible things they will see and do while at war. While it may be gratifying that young people today are also willing to sacrifice for this country, why can’t they spread democracy in some other way? If the United States is such an advanced civilization, why have we not found an alternative to war?
Lest this idea be scorned as impractical one only needs to read the words of former To President Dwight D Eisenhower, “ Each gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed and those who are cold and are not clothed.”
One person can have the power to put a face on an idea. If women of the world joined together in the interest of peace, they could influence the leaders of various nations to attempt alternatives to war. There are in fact no less than a dozen women’s organizations attempting to do just that.
It is time for all women’s groups to come together under one coalition and use their strength in the cause of peace. After all if women can give birth to babies, why can’t they give birth to the concept of peace building?
Joette Storm
Is He Not Our Brother
We need to be more aware of and compassionate to people with mental illnesses.
I know a man with a ready smile and a gentle soul. However, to others his demeanor may seem scary and bizarre. When he was young he was an honor roll student and a basketball star at a local high school, and had dreams of taking his talents further. He wanted to have a family, settle down and live out the rest of his life in a traditional American way.
This was all before he was hit with a chronic mental disorder called schizophrenia. He is not crazy. He has a disease in his brain, just as if you or somebody you know may have heart disease or arthritis.
If he could have chosen his destination I’m sure it would not have been one full of paranoid delusions and hallucinations, or of homelessness in between stays at the psychiatric hospital. Nor would he have chosen to walk around flapping his arms ranting about conspiracies or wear a winter coat on a hot summer day.
This man, my friend, deserves as all people do to be treated with the utmost dignity and respect.
Please don’t fear him, give a smile, say hello, learn his name and embrace the fact you’ve just met a special and unique human being. For is he not our brother in this bizarre and sometimes scary world?
Kathy Tutko
Unheard Voices
The unglamorous life of a modest, unassuming Alaskan
Click on Archives: October, 2005 to see the contents of this month’s paper.
By Geoff Bederson
What is the news of the real and the unheard voices which express this? That is the mystery which this newspaper seeks to explore. Accustomed as we are to coarse or screeching voices, it is hard to hear the soft, gentle and wise ones.
Meek people are scarcely audible and scarcely visible. They do not proclaim themselves. They are more likely to be found sleeping on a floor than in a mansion on the Hillside. They are riding a bus, or standing on a street corner. They do not clamor for recognition. They don’t make speeches or run for office.
They may not be able to say why it is that they live as they do, and they may not even know. But they are misfits only from the perspective of society; from the reality that they perceive, there is a tremendous coherence. It’s not that they lack the drive for success: there is another kind of drive which motivates them and brings them to the brink of reality - the reality that exists all around us and which we will be able to see when the scales finally fall away from our eyes.
Phil Reid: I was born in Cordova, Alaska. Mom & Dad moved to Anchorage when I was two years old. I graduated from West High School in 1980. I like animals, dog races. I used to have a dog team, just for recreation, when I had my property in Knik.
I’ve been kind of living on the edge for about three years. I’ve been traveling all over, to Kenai, Homer, and Anchorage, living with friends. Now I want to get settled down and get serious, be more stable, so I can help others.
What do you mean by ‘living on the edge’?
It’s living by faith. It’s when you don’t know where you’re going to live, where your next meal is coming from. I just pray to God. He said, Do you have trust in me? And I said Yes.
Three years ago I was working for a construction company, and I hit a moose. I lost my truck and my license, and from there I just went downhill. Now I’m doing day labor, and working with friends.
I spend a lot of time at the bus station. It is a broken place. There are a lot of people are hurting, in need. It drains me, spiritually and mentally. I talk to many people there, from drug addicts to homosexuals, people who are just down. They have lost everything. The only thing I can offer them is an ear, and prayer. I have lived on the streets myself. It’s a scary feeling.
Why didn’t you take the normal path of people who have a profession or trade?
When I got out of high school I went to business school. I wanted to go that way, to do business, to have more things. I wanted to go that path, but God stopped it. I can’t say it didn’t matter to me. It did matter, I didn’t want to struggle. But now it doesn’t really bother me.
What stopped me was that I didn’t have the necessary drive to push and become successful. I didn’t want to put my effort into it. Sometimes fear stopped me. There are some people that try and can’t make it to that point.
Sometimes I struggle with that. I do feel isolated, because of where I am in my walk of life. Because I’m not in their bracket, I’m not in their league, I’m not ‘keeping up with the Joneses.’ Some people try to hold others back, a person who is trying to move up and be successful. They put you in a different category. This does limit me. I don’t have the tools to make it to where they are. I would need more college.
How do you feel about living in this world? Do you feel comfortable in it? Do you suffer because of it?
I like America, in some aspects. We can move about. In other countries there is more persecution. In some aspects, no. There is evil in the world and in things that are going on.
What I mean by evil is Satan, and demons. By nature humans are fallen. Evil is brought on by wants and desires, if you’re not grounded. Satan is in this world right now. Evil is anything that doesn’t reflect the commandments of Yahweh. Things that are happening in the families, in villages and here in town. Incest, heavy drinking, things that break up the family.
What about culture? Is there evil in American culture?
In some aspects it is evil. Growing up TV was like a babysitter for me. There is so much evil on TV. It desensitizes me. Murder, sexual innuendos, are a bad influence. TV could be a good teaching tool, but Hollywood and the news media are pretty much evil.
Homosexuality is glorified on TV. You are what you watch. There are harmful reality shows. There are demonic video games. They are very violent, and gang-related, raping women, murder, hijacking cars.
The Internet can be a very bad influence. They should take pornography off the Internet. It should be illegal on the Internet. Sex is good, but it’s between a man and his wife. I’ve seen many marriages break up through pornography. In some cases pornography leads to child molestation. Aside from the effects, it is wrong to begin with, and it shouldn’t be on there at all. It should be prohibited.
How does living in this culture affect you? Is this the kind of world that was envisioned by God, when God created the universe? After the millennium, in Paradise, will there be a Wal-Mart?
People do need to buy things. If I need something, I will shop. If I’m hungry, groceries might help. But movies, theaters, warehouses stores--they usually are not a good influence. They don’t have a godly influence.
In general, it’s materialistic. There’s nothing wrong with having these things. But in some people this brings greed, it makes them covetous. You don’t care how you get it. Sometimes you’ll just take it from your neighbor. Even some of today’s women are materialistic.
At supermarkets checkout stands, there is Cosmopolitan. In the magazine sections of stores like Barnes & Noble and Borders and Books, there is Playboy and hardcore, explicit magazines.
For me, just having the basics is enough. Being materialistic doesn’t really help.
Have you ever suffered?
Of course, everyone suffers. Let me begin with the physical. I spent nine years of my life in and out of the hospital. I had two major operations. I wasn’t supposed to live past fifteen.
I suffered verbally, mentally. How you speak to your kids is important. ‘You’re dumb, you won’t amount to nothing.’ I want to break that cycle. My parents were divorced. There was love there, but living in a broken family there isn’t structural love, which is what God wanted. There will be no divorce in my life.
What would you like to see in the world?
I would like to see a more loving world. I would like to see all of us live by the Ten Commandments. Help our neighbors. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I would like to see no more evil, no more sickness or death. I know this won’t happen until the Messiah comes.
I think the world could be a better place. It could reflect who we are. I would like to see more people helping people. For instance, my friend Tim has been helping me learn carpentry. We shouldn’t leave this to schools. We should help each other become self-reliant.
There should be more miracles. We should have more faith. We should have a love, a genuine love, for our neighbors, without any hate or animosity. I think that’s when the real miracles come. With that love and faith, we can change the world.
It seems that you have found a small community of people that nurture each other in faith.
It’s the Messianic movement, a small group that I’m in. We’re not all perfect. We try to help each other the best we can. We encourage one another. If you want to find out more about the faith, send me an email (to phil@qupq.com). I would love to share my faith.
I want to try to be a light to the world. I try to bring a little joy, whenever we strike up a conversation, whether I’m working or out on the street, walking.
Restaurant Review
McDonald’s
By Crystal Hutchens and Geoff Bederson
Reviewed by Crystal Hutchens
If Morgan Spurlock didn’t change the face of McDonald’s with his documentary, Super Size Me, he made a profound impact to say the least. Like countless others, I’m sure, I didn’t eat there for months after I saw the film. More notably, McDonald’s dropped the up-selling phrase, “Would you like to super size that?” and added a selection of healthier choices, including salads, grilled chicken sandwiches and options other than fries for kids meals.
Eventually, I succumbed to its beckoning convenience; I decided that since I eat a very healthy diet, once or twice a month of indulging in greasy comfort food probably wouldn’t affect my health. That, and I was in a real time crunch. McDonald’s was right inside Walmart, where I was shopping with my daughter when the overwhelming hunger that comes with pregnancy kicked in. Walmart and McDonald’s, hand in hand, is the picture of American “culture.” We want it fast and we want it cheap.
So what is it, besides the convenience, that keeps us going back to a place we know isn’t the best choice for our bodies? The price sure is nice. The way they whip out your order as soon as you get to the window in the drive-through, or mere minutes after you order at the counter helps. The cheap plastic toys based on the cartoon character of the moment can occupy a kid for a glorious reprieve in a long, stressful day of parenting, and most locations have a fun park that kids love. In Alaska, this is a big deal during the winter, since our outdoor parks are rendered useless by the weather.
During my first pregnancy, I developed an insane craving for Sausage McMuffins. Pregnancy inspires an intense desire for comfort food from my childhood. My parents both worked, and we ate a lot of cheap greasy foods--Hamburger Helper, fried frozen things, fast food. When I was old enough to choose my meals I tried to make healthier choices. I worked in the service industry quite a bit and picked up a lot of interesting cooking tips and flavor combinations. So when it came to the Sausage McMuffin craving, I tried like the dickens to fight it. I attempted to concoct a healthier version at home, but it was no use. The greasy, cheesy, squishy original, with it’s crunchy, oily hash brown counterpart had some unexplainable power over me, and the craving persisted.
The only other item at McDonald’s that I really like is the Chicken McNugget. Its crunchy batter with moist, soft chicken inside dipped in sweet BBQ sauce does the trick. I don’t mind sometimes finishing my daughter’s cheeseburger, or munching a few fries, but generally a trip to McDonald’s is a trip of convenience. To venture outside my comfort zone, I recently tried the Big and Tasty. I was not impressed. The burger itself tasted bland and fried. Mayonnaise was obviously applied in large globs. I found myself wishing it was a Whopper, which is what it looked like on the picture menu.
The biggest drawback to the food itself is the half-life of anything deep fried. The french fries, especially, begin to decompose as soon as they are served. So short is the time between its delicious crunchy treat phase and the moment it transforms into a soggy, boring mess that you have to gobble your meal almost immediately in order to fully enjoy it. And don’t even bother trying to reheat french fries for later. Once they are dead, they are gone. Salvaging leftovers is a waste of time here. But for the price, I suppose it hardly matters.
By Geoff Bederson
Like most American children, I loved McDonald’s. One of my happiest childhood memories is the night I challenged my brothers to a contest over who could eat the most McDonald’s french fries. Ten large size servings were poured into a huge wooden bowl in our living room, and I ate them all. To me they were the most delicious food in the whole world.
I still eat at McDonald’s, though I try to limit myself to limit myself to times when I am in a huge rush. I also sometimes try to choose healthier items. But when I found out that Chicken McNuggets have thirty ingredients, including the anti-foaming agent dimethylpolysiloxane (quite delicious, by the way), I gave up on that approach. I have to admit that I love McDonald’s desserts, especially the chocolate dipped cones. The dessert selection at McDonald’s is far better than at any other fast food restaurant.
McDonald’s is a representation of American culture (and has been a significant force in creating it): speed, efficiency, cleanliness, abundance, on one hand; and sterility, lack of quality, and a controlled environment, on the other. Those who despise American culture usually hate McDonald’s, too. Every year there is a Worldwide Anti-McDonald’s Day on October 16th (also the UN World Food Day). In 1999 there were 425 protests and pickets in 345 towns in 23 countries.
It is possible to have fast food that is also delicious and healthy, as is demonstrated by stores like Au Bon Pan (widely available on the East Coast). In the meantime, in Alaska we are stuck with mediocre fast food choices.
Here is a summary of the broad range of criticisms typically leveled at this company. Some of these problems (those concerning the origin of the food) apply equally to local, independent restaurants, but McDonald’s is in the spotlight, and it should be.
Most of the information below was culled from mcspotlight.org. Visit the website for more details:
Unhealthy food
McDonald’s advertises that their food is nutritious, but most of it is processed junk food: high in fat, sugar and salt, and low in fiber and vitamins. This kind of diet is linked with a greater risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and other diseases. The food also contains many chemical additives, some of which may cause illness, as well as hyperactivity in children.
The carrot sticks in its Happy Meals are dipped in hydrogen peroxide (commonly used in the past as hair bleach). The chemical is mixed with acetic acid and sprayed on the carrots. This keeps them looking fresh, and it has been shown to be safe and non-carcinogenic.
Damage to the environment
McDonald’s has admitted to using beef reared on ex-rainforest land, preventing its regeneration. Forests throughout the world are being destroyed at a high rate by multinational companies. In addition, the use of farmland by multinationals and their suppliers forces local people to move on to other areas and cut down further trees. The intense use of chemicals in modern agriculture destroys wildlife, plants and the soil. Every year McDonald’s use over a million tons of unnecessary plastic and paper packaging.
Cruelty to animals
McDonald’s claims that “humane treatment of animals is an integral part of a world class supplier system.” But it is unclear about the extent to which this is actually occurring. According to mcspotlight.org, “The menus of the burger chains are based on the torture and murder of millions of animals. Most are intensively farmed, with no access to fresh air and sunshine, and no freedom of movement. Their short lives are cruel and their deaths are barbaric.”
Harassment of free speech rights
In a notorious fifteen-year battle, McDonald’s sued London Greenpeace activists for distributing a brochure criticizing the company. The “McLibel” case was finally thrown out of court this year by the European Court of Human Rights.
Exploitation of the poor and of workers
Sweatshop workers in China produce McDonald’s Happy Meals toys. Demand for cheap food results in the exploitation of agricultural workers throughout the world. Great areas of land in poor countries are used for cash crops or for cattle ranching, or to grow grain to feed animals to be eaten in the West. This occurs at the expense of local food needs.
The majority of McDonald’s employees are people who have few job options and so have no alternative to being bossed around and exploited--and they’re compelled to “smile” too! Staff turnover at McDonald’s is high, making it virtually impossible to unionize and fight for a better deal.
Rating:
The norm: 2 eggs
Spirit: 0 eggs
Justice: 1 egg
Community: 0 eggs
Movie Review
Lord of War
Reviewed by Diana DeFazio and Jamey Bradbury
We commend Nicolas Cage for producing and starring in Lord of War, a thought-provoking film written and directed by Andrew Niccol (Gattaca, The Truman Show) about the uncontrolled international arms trade. The film traces the life of Russian immigrant Yuri Orlov (Nicolas Cage) through his ascension from small-time gun dealer to one of the world’s most powerful black-market arms dealers. Along the way, we learn about the worldwide arms trade.
Lord of War opens with a striking film sequence tracing a bullet from the factory to its resting place in the skull of an African child. Yuri explains that “there are over 550 million firearms in worldwide circulation. That’s one firearm for every twelve people on the planet.” Just when the viewer is considering that statistic, Yuri declares, “The only question is: How do we arm the other eleven?”
This sets the tone for what is to follow. Throughout the film, the viewer is presented with disturbing insights into the arms trade, but filtered through the eyes of one who sees in each violent conflict an opportunity for profit. Yuri is depressed at the thought of peace, which would spell an end to his immense wealth and power.
It is not often that the protagonist in a film is so unredeemable. But this is what makes the film important: It feels like an honest portrayal of someone who is at the top of his game and does not believe that he has any moral responsibility to stop what he is doing.
Yuri views people as consumers, and these consumers kill objects (other people). While it is revealed that Yuri is repulsed by the gore of killing, it is also clear that he detaches himself from what he sells and what is done with what he sells. Yuri subscribes to the if-I-stop-selling-arms-someone-else-will-take-my-place argument.
One of the most unusual things about this film is that you will be hard-pressed to find a character that you can identify with, let alone like. Even Yuri’s younger brother, Vitaly (played by Jared Leo), who may strike a moral chord with you, is crippled by his addiction to cocaine. Ian Holm adds to the unsettling mix as an older, “moral” arms dealer in competition with Yuri (Holm sells weapons to rebels rather than dictators).
Lord of War is graphically violent, but we felt the violence was warranted and important to conveying the effects of these weapons on real human beings.
Lord of War is an engaging film, with quality cinematography and entertaining dark humor moments. However, we were less engaged by two of the film’s subplots--Yuri’s relationship with his trophy wife, Ava, (played by Bridget Moynahan) and his conflict with Interpol agent Jack Valentine (played by Ethan Hawke). Both felt contrived, the latter seeming more like a made-for-television government procedural than a subplot worthy of a film like this one. In a few places we found ourselves predicting what would happen next, and even worse, guessing exactly what would be said next.
Conveying documentary content in a cinematic drama is hard to pull off, but the makers of Lord of War did a pretty good job, unengaging subplots aside.
Lord of War has received the support of Amnesty International, a worldwide human rights organization. Amnesty International’s Control Arms campaign aims to establish strict controls and vigilant monitoring and to expose the role of governments in facilitating human rights abuses through the trade in arms. http://www.amnestyusa.org/lordofwar/.
Entertainment Value: 2 1/2 stars
Meaning: 3 stars
Emotional Impact: 3 stars
Lack of Gratuitous
Violence or Sex: 2 1/2 stars
Lack of Advertising: 2 stars
Overall Quality: 3 stars
(out of 4 stars)
Additional elements of centers in poor countries
Practical projects that respond to tangible needs
Such as for health, education, shelter, food, etc.
‘Reality travel’
Similar to Global Exchange ‘reality tours,’ but for independent travelers. Helping travelers learn about the region by encouraging visits to non-profits and other organizations, and experience of political, economic and cultural life.
Resource and help center
Tools to connect travelers and residents with opportunities for learning, experiencing and helping. A place where those seeking help and those with resources and the desire to help can find each other.
Sister communities
Forming ties between communities in different regions. Break down barriers that seem impenetrable, to achieve communication on a personal level that addresses core personal issues. Provide a forum for communications between those of different backgrounds, education, language, race, ethnicity, culture, religion, and nation. True sisters are equals.
Network of centers
A network of Humanity Centers could support and strengthen each local group. There would be educational exchanges, perhaps classes taking place simultaneously in distant parts of the world, and many other shared projects. For instance, the centers could coordinate sister-community relationships, and facilitate true fair trade. Members would have the opportunity to travel between communities.
Personal growth is an essential first step. Local action is a good second step. But we don’t need to stop there. When several communities of understanding in distant parts link up, a synergy could awaken a new vital force: a beating heart circulating our group-spirit in the world.
Help centers – Connecting diverse people and cultures
To provide a forum for communications between those of different backgrounds, education, language, race, ethnicity, culture, religion, and nation. Break down barriers that seem impenetrable. To make use of the power of the Internet to achieve communication on a personal level that addresses core personal issues. To learn about each other, act together, and help each other.
Connecting people in distant places in ways that help them learn about each other and act upon what they learn. Connecting those in need with those who want to help. In ways that respond to their true interests and needs.
Cities might adopt several diverse communities, such as some very poor villages in a variety of continents, plus a larger town or city. When a person becomes a member they choose or are assigned a single person or family in each sister community. The duty of those linked in this way is to get to know each other, and to respond in some way to each other’s needs and hopes.
In addition, there could be a forum where those in need could announce themselves to members of the sister community. This would be an opportunity for those in need to be recognized and discovered by those who seek to help. Available on a website, or displayed in a public area, the public could view these announcements; or there could be a committee which reviewed the requests and asked or assigned participants to respond. (More thoughts on this subject is at the Huzanity website.)
Reinventing the institutions of industrial society
What is ‘Elemental society’? It is whatever we must do to build a society based on care and understanding,
and of course it is founded on a vision of the nature of that society.
Economics—True riches. Instead of scarcity and consumerism, the seeking of real wealth, true riches, and quality.
Government—Vitality & Implicity. Instead of policy, control, and power, inspiration and humanity, bringing institutions to life.
Culture—Culture of care. Instead of the regime of the crude and hard-heartedness, understanding and love.
Click here for our exploration of these ideas and possibilities in our Huzanity website.
What is elemental society?
Go to our Huzanity website for more thoughts about the nature of Elemental Society:
Reformulation of Institutions: Building the world we envision
Vitality: Bringing social institutions to life
Implicity: The full range of our interconnections
IMPLICITY
A stitch is broken, a sleeve is torn. A thread is hanging loose. We must mend our complicity and sew our implicity. The purpose should not be only to remove what is injurious, but to weave a world in which every part is made with care: where no one prospers by making another suffer, where the small and hidden origins of everything that impacts us – though the cause is far away and unknowable – is beneficial.
This great interaction of events, of one caring, insightful creation on top of another, could produce beauty that is unimaginable to us now. Implicity is complicity in the good. It heals fractured relationships, and produces spiritual joy.
Implicity is also an alternative to political action: instead of turning to structures, we assume the full scope of action we actually have that ‘lives into being’ the world we envision. It is the means and method of bringing the spiritual reality we comprehend into life in society....
The moral commons
We are planning on holding meetings to explore these topics and prepare for action (hopefully challenging, healing action) in the near future. No meetings are scheduled at the moment, but please send a brief message indicating your possible interest to news@huzanity.org, and we’ll contact your soon.
The moral commons
Protecting a little known human right: Whatever is essential for self-knowledge and spiritual vitality.
Spiritual direct action
Fighting aggression, superficiality, and degradation. Protecting authenticity, understanding, and care.
Combating complicity
Reclaiming the scope of action which we have in daily life. Our complicity in everything we do and participate in.
Beautiful books
Creating a self that would live elemental society into being
The goal of ‘reformulation of self’ is to become a person for whom friendship, beauty, the good, truth and the sacred are possible.
The great longing
The original human condition: full awareness of the vulnerability and freedom of being separate.
The great no
Renunciation of superficiality. We refuse natural or cultural determinism, superficiality and banality, psychic and spiritual numbing.
Challenge to identity
Senses of reality
There is an aperture which closes or opens, shutting out or letting in the true light. It is a fearless, exquisite aptitude that may be rarely achieved, but which is the universla birthright of humanity. Dimensions of reality we have the capacity to perceive: Truth, Beauty, Love, the Good, and the Sacred.
Cosmic passion
The goal of reformulation of self.
Commitment and Declaration of sovereignty
Instead of seeking change in institutions, let us generate it through who we become and who we are. In all our active life – in what we do, make, feel, think, and care about – we will bring into being the culture and society that we envision.
Living into being
Instead of political action, we assume the full scope of action we actually have that ‘lives into being’ the world we envision. It resolves conflicts spontaneously and directly, by simply being the response. We can reclaim the institutions which diminish our humanity, but this depends on our capacity to perceive transcendental qualities in static forms. This state of mind will naturally produce a corresponding state of society.
What are true relations?
A distinctive kind of relation is at the center of visionary, elemental society. There is no word for it, but it exists, or at least it has the possibility of existence.
There is an eternal quality, which transcends gender, race, age, appearance, and special interests. Do you find happiness in the context of a person? Or do you actually sense and hold the eternal quality of the relationship, and is this primary?
When you go as a human being, you will find a human being. We want to cultivate this rare, wonderful faculty for perceiving true relation. It’s the difference between embarking on peace, and a thunderous reunion.
We want to become a person for whom true friendship is possible. And we want to join in reciprocal action to reformulate society on this basis.
For explorations and reflections about the nature of True Relations, go to our Huzanity Center website.
Possible future issues
Alaska Mountain and Wilderness Huts Association
alaskahuts.org
Executive director, John Wolfe
279-4663
So newsletter in file folder
“Our mission: Include Alaska’s back country in a worldwide tradition of places in which hikers and skiers can travel hut to hut, and provide warm comfortable huts i ninspiring settings to foster camaraderie and promote wilderness education and stewardship.”
Features of Alaska Humanity News
Unheard voices
Challenges
Alternatives
News of the real
Organizations we support
True riches
Room for improvement
Movie reviews
Restaurant reviews
Art reviews
Events pages: Inspire, transform, expand
Huzanity Center projects
Challenges
One of the goals of Alaska Humanity News is to explore everyday events and situations that escape attention because they are omnipresent. CHALLENGES is one of these features. Look through this edition to find other unusual features.
Send us news about perplexing contradictions, about unexamined assaults on everyday life, and we will take a look inside the news, and outside the box, and publicize it. See page 6 for a look at last month’s Challenge: the Hummer at the Airport.
A goal of Alaska Humanity News is to explore the ways that debilitating situations are imposed on us by bureaucracies and corporations. It often seems that we have little control of these small but omnipresent influences. But we do have control, if only we step up to the monoliths, and challenge them to justify their decisions (in ways other than pure economics)
Challenges is a key element of the paper, and in general a final part of the process of understanding and action. There are external and internal challenges.
Humanity Movement
We are all united by our shared humanity. But we are divided by our individuality. Their are innumerable beneficial organizations, in religion and spirituality, politics, social movements, culture, etc. How can we actually come together without sacrificing our separate identities and individual truths? What are the universal principles of our shared humanity? How can we link organizations of different kinds together?
Humanity Movement is a way of exploring our shared humanity, to see past differences and focus on what is good and beautiful in each particular effort. It is a non-ideological, non-partisan process of finding shared truths in the multitude of independent, creative voices. It is not meant to be a new way to subsume others under ourselves. Just the contrary: It is we humans linking arms across ideologies. We want to join hands with any person or group that has a living sense of our shared humanity.
Go to our Huzanity website for explorations of these ideas.
Agenda of our April, 2005 meeting:
What is shared humanity? (Meditative exploration)
Principles that unify us.
Readings, discussion and possibly video selection of our spotlight this month.
Possible project: Linking Up of Organizations.
We are seeking contributions for these features....
Alternatives
Room for improvement and True riches
News of the real
Government corruption
Challenges
See FEATURES for details about these pages.
AND we are seeking ideas for investigative news articles on Alaskan themes.
Just register and login and you will be ready to post entries.
Contribute your own news articles or essays
Readers Write
Our new feature ‘Readers Write’ is available for anyone to write an article on any Alaskan subject, to be published in Alaska Humanity News! Please keep your submissions to 500 words. All we ask is that you review our explanation of what we are trying to accomplish in our paper: what we mean by ‘deep news,’ and what the difference is between this and political news. We don’t expect you to follow our vision—but please keep in mind that readers will be striving to understand your topic from as human, total, and transcendent a perspective as possible!
Link to site on potential news articles
Click here to go to a page with ideas about potential primary and secondary news articles for Alaska Humanity News.
In addition to the news subjects, at the huzanity.org website you will find links to explorations on principal social institutions. These pages are meant to help us frame the questions we want to ask on each specific investigative topic. These pages are organized according to the Huzanity School process for understanding:
Present condition (’Conventional paradigm’)
Fundamental questions
Vision (’new paradigm’)
Alternatives
Challenges
The core of religions
a project of Humanity Movement
Humanity movement is an attempt to find common ground, to see past differences and focus on what is good and beautiful in each particular effort. It is a non-ideological, non-partisan process of exploring our shared humanity. It is not meant to be a new way to subsume others under ourselves. Just the contrary. It is we human beings linking arms across ideologies.
What are universal principles, which can bind together opposing groups? What are divisive principles, which limit the possibility of reconciliation? And what should we ask of social, political and religious organizations, which would make it possible for them to unite with others?
This month’s focus is understanding the core of religions. What are universal spiritual principles and laws? How do specific religions achieve these kinds of insights, and how do they limit or prevent the reconciliation of mankind on the basis of what is most important?
At the meeting: (From May, 2005, Alaska Humanity News)
What is the core of religions? (Discussion & meditative exploration).
Exploration: Universal spiritual laws
Discussion of project: Challenging religions to achieve respect for differences
Greybeard
News article: Supermarkets squeeze out local farmers
Regulations favor industrial farms
By: Jamey Bradbury
New requirements in insurance and packaging have made it increasingly difficult for local farmers to market their products in national supermarket chains like Carrs/Safeway and Fred Meyers.
“National markets require stiffer insurance coverage rates that keep smaller farmers from marketing with them,” according to local farmer and Director of the Alaskan Division of Agriculture Larry De Vilbiss.
Alaskan farmers, like De Vilbiss and Palmer potato farmer Bob Greig, are expected to have from $2 - $3 million in liability coverage for the food they produce and market through national chains. While larger industrial farms must also adhere to similar criteria, it is the local growers that suffer, says Greig.
Government regulations “come out of good intentions, good agricultural practices,” says Greig. “But it hurts the small guy more than the big corporations.” Industrial farms, he points out, are able to alleviate the burden of keeping large insurance policies by bringing in more revenue through advertising. “But I don’t have that option.”
Packaging regulations also play a part in making the price of local farmers’ goods less competitive.
Greig, an organic farmer who grows red potatoes and markets them to both Carrs and Fred Meyers, has made a practice of recycling clean apple boxes, provided by Carrs, to ship his potatoes. Now, however, new regulations in packaging make this kind of reuse illegal.
“If I bought boxes from a co-op, it’s cost me up to $400 for 200 boxes,” says Greig. Currently, regulations are not strictly enforced, so “I still get my boxes from Carrs,” Greig adds.
The bags in which Greig’s potatoes are sold, however, cannot be procured from an alternate source. Greig buys his bags from the same companies that sell to industrial farms and must purchase a minimum of 50,000 bags when he places an order. He points out that he typically produces 5 - 8 thousand bales each year, on average.
“A large corporation will buy a million of these bags for two cents apiece,” Greig explains. “I buy 50,000 for five cents apiece. [Small growers] pay more for everything this way.”
The money farmers like Greig spend to meet government standards is reflected in the price of their product. This is where the problem of competing against larger farms arises. Stores like Carrs/Safeway and Fred Meyers “look at the local growers and the growers outside, and they’ll say, “Wait, for us to meet these standards, it’s costing us more to buy these products here,’” explains Greig. “If they can save a penny, they will.”
Chris Greig, who helps her husband run their farm, believes that having to negotiate with non-local administrations of chain stores also plays a part in making it difficult for area farmers to market their goods.
“Box stores are corporate and their interest is more on bottom line and not to catering to the local market,” she says.
There are some stores, she adds, that believe in supporting local farms. “We prefer New Sagaya and Shoprite because they are more friendly. Alaska Premium Food Source […] Those are the ones I’d like to see people support.”
Both De Vilbiss and the Greigs point out that Alaskan farmers do have the option of selling their fruits and vegetables at Saturday Market and the Sunday farmer’s market. However, “it isn’t practical,” says Chris Greig. De Vilbiss adds that to make goods available to a larger area, without the chain stores “we’d be hard-pressed to market all our produce. [Chain stores] have made the delivery system more efficient.”
“I don’t want to make a case against the box stores,” says Greig. “They’re needed just like the little stores are needed.” Just, Chris adds, as local growers are needed.
“Someday, we may come to a place where we can’t get goods from the lower forty-eight. We need these local farmers, but we may lose them.”
Contact Jamey Bradbury at jamey@qupq.com