Checking in and speaking out

Grace and greetings.

For the last couple of days, I have been wanting to post some more pictures of around the area, and in Barrow. But the software stopped working between my cell phone and the computer. I kept waiting for the program to kick in, so I would put off making a statement, and continue to wait.

As I sit here listening to Dixie Chicks: Taking the Long Way, in particularly the track, "Not ready to make nice", "...I am mad as hell, and don't have the time to go around and around..." So I am posting this without any pictures...

I have been keeping aware of what is happening outside of the North Slope, the flooding of Iowa, including the community that I served, Columbus Junction, and as the waters rise and eventually will fall, what is the damage left behind. I guess President Bush was in the State and telling them help is on the way, I pray so. (Isn't that what he said to New Orleans?)

One of the things I seem to be so far away from during my time in Barrow is the presidential election. First I guess it started with the candidates themselves, thinking that the three electoral votes do not matter that much to the rest of the world as far as the election is concerned. Then in the next breath, Washington D.C., deems that they are the only people to tell how Alaskans are to take care of the land that is put into the trust of the US Government and the State of Alaska. I fear the search for oil in the Arctic Ocean that I can see out my office window; that I can walk to from here in a matter of minutes. The government gives us the assurance that all is safe now, and oil is now needed more than ever before. Has everybody forgotten about the Exxon Valdez and the devastation it brought upon Prince William Sound. The Supreme Court is suppose to return a decision sometime soon. The people who lost their lively hood have been waiting for fourteen years now, I guess what is another couple of months? The longer the wait, my greatest fear is that the administration will be once again telling the court how to decide in favor of the oil companies, so they can come and rape Alaska again and again for the sake of the rich.

What happened to the idea of alternative modes of transportation, energy and other possibilities? Here in the North Slope, is fairly level throughout the size of Minnesota or larger. I am told that a wind farm, much like in throughout California and other places in the world, would be too expensive to set up here. But we can afford to explore and drill for oil? Is it that we can not tax the wind or make a profit off the sun? Is this the only source of energy that the people in Washington can consider? When will there be enough raping of the Planet Earth before the people stand up and speak out?

I was originally not planning to go anywhere near the comments I just made, but I guess they came out, and I am going to stand by them. I may be in the minority here. What I hear is that some people do want to open up the waters for the oil companies to come in. But almost everybody is concerned on how it will effect the source of life here, the whales, walrus, seals, polar bears? How many more Exxon Valdez have to happen before the rest of the world wakes up to realize that they screwed up that may effect the North Slope for decades to come?

It is time to go home and think of something else.

With prayers that God continues to give us the strength to do what is right with what God has given us to be stewards of, planet Earth and each other.

Peace and blessings.