ALASKA TODAY; ARE THE LOWER 48 NEXT?
By Julie Kay Smithson
London, OH.
July 6, 2002
Five elected and appointed (non-elected) people in Alaska are in the process of crafting the certain demise of three Alaskan communities. These five are: the Governor of Alaska, Tony Knowles; Alaska Lieutenant Governor Fran Ulmer; Alaska State Budget Director Annalee McConnell; Alaska DOT Commissioner Joseph Perkins; and Alaska DOT Northern Region Director Ralph Swarthout. These five have decided that 'the most efficient way to balance the budget' is to close 18 community airfields and stop maintenance -- either year-round or in the winter months -- on 70 roads leading to remote communities. This arbitrary and capricious action, an act of terrorism by five individuals against their fellow citizens, includes the ONLY highway, the Steese Highway, that connects Central, Circle City and Circle Hot Springs to Fairbanks, Alaska, 135 miles from Central. The website for more on this is:
http://open-the-steese.org/ At this website you may send a single letter to the editor/editorial to many publications at once. Also, a single email may be sent at once to ALL the Alaska Legislature:
http://open-the-steese.org/representatives.asp Alaska Has At Least $7.70 Billion In Potential Surpluses of the Taxpayers Money it is not using. This analysis does not, repeat does not, include the $26+ billion in the Permanent Fund, which is approximately $41,000 per capita: http://cafrman.com/Articles/Art-AK-S1.htm
As usual, those in power never mention the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report -- CAFR -- of which 'the budget' is only a fraction. All the posturing about 'balancing the budget,' when mega-billions are stashed -- hidden -- within the CAFR, is criminal, nothing less. There is plenty of money to keep roads and airfields open and maintained; if the light can be shone on this FACT, many lives will be spared this winter, and our fellow human beings will not be reduced to being FORCED to move into a large city against their will.
No matter where we live in America or the world, we simply MUST help our neighbors in the north before they are left to die by their elected/appointed 'officials.' This is America! This MUST NOT HAPPEN -- and yet, it WILL happen, if you and I and many, many more don't rise to this challenge. There is no time for saying "I'm too busy." Winter is serious business in Alaska -- please, help these folks with your emails, phone calls, faxes, letters -- and by sending/delivering guest editorials to your local papers, worldwide, letting the world know about this horrific act being committed by those in power! As of July 6, 2002, just 86 days remain in which to stop a juggernaut from leveling hundreds of lives and three communities, their custom and culture and very existence. What if it were you, your home and community? If these actions in rural areas are not stopped NOW, soon the time will come when it WILL be you!
Julie Kay Smithson is an Ohioan with a 'working woman's PhD,' having adiverse background including 3.1 million safe driving miles and 27 years as a truck driver, 23 years as a breeder of fine Arabian horses and 3 1/2 years involved in property rights research and activism. This current effort led to her relinquishing her horses and her employment in favor of 'helping others' by traveling over 45,000 miles in 2001 alone, attending the Klamath Falls Rally and others in nine states. Her website, www.propertyrightsresearch.org contains Articles representing all fifty states, and 25+ foreign countries have their property rights stories told at the International Articles button. She is a tireless worker on behalf of those with land/water use issues. Julie has compiled a HUGE book on property rights terms/definitions/treaty and case law summaries, oen thousand pages of help for those seeking to understand the unfamiliar terminology in play today that is wreaking havoc with land/water rights.
The book may be ordered through propertyrights1@aol.com