There appears to be a deliberate and concerted effort underway to prove that everyone from Wasilla is, for lack of a better term… a raging idiot. Let’s examine but a small part of the growing body of evidence...Jeanne Devon, writing as AK Muckraker, goes on to make some good observations about pathetic State Representative Wes Keller's bizarre statements before the legislature regarding the Girl Scouts, an organization my wife and daughter were parts of - in Wasilla. Along with a lot of other people from Wasilla who are NOT "raging idiots," thank you.
Anchorage bloggers sometimes get as careless as former Alaska Senator Ben Stevens, when he wrote to a local resident "Your [sic] just more valley trash."
This happens a lot. Some Anchorage people look down on just about everyone else in the state in one way or another. People who don't live in Anchorage probably notice it more than those who live in that city.
A while back, I was upset enough by this statement by Jesse Griffin at The Immoral Minority, that I wrote a column about it. Here's the inimitable Gryph:
What? You would like to see more of Sutton? Well you my friend are out of luck because, besides the fire station where we were standing when we took this picture, this IS Sutton, Alaska.
You see in Alaska the difference between "town" and "smattering of buildings built fairly close together" is virtually non-existent.
I do believe the founding of most towns goes something like this:
"Hey Frank, did you notice that somebody went and built a bait shop next to the gas station/house of ill repute?"
"Yeah I did."
"Well daggumit, I think we got ourselves a town here Frank! Whatchyou wanna call it?"
"Hell, let's name it something purdy, like Chlamydia."
"Nah, don't be ignorant, that sounds too French! Let's call it something that will always demand respect, like Wasilla!"
"Perfect!"
At the time, I wrote:
Both The Immoral Minority and Politicalgates have tried to keep readership up by covering the marriage of one of Sarah Palin's kids to the daughter of a longtime friend of mine in ways that I find disgusting. Though both blogs pretended to only publish stuff like what they put up today as "newsworthy," the comment streams accompanying the articles could have only brought heartbreak to the family of the young woman whose picture they published. The blog administrators should have known that before they put up the posts.
In the case of The Immoral Minority, last week Jesse compared the town that was most instrumental in defeating the coal bed methane scam in the Valley seven years ago to a sexually transmitted disease.
If that isn't tacky, I don't know what is. Sutton is a real town, with an intensely interesting history. [Jesse Griffin] lives in a subdivision where every fucking house could be mistaken for the one next to it, like in Las Vegas or Phoenix.
I was fortunate that my first fulltime employer in the real Alaska - the Cordova fishing fleet - was Pete Isleib. He was south central Alaska's pre-eminent ornithologist, a big-game hunting guide, commercial fisher and serious ecologist.
One theme he reiterated to me and others was that the most unfortunate thing to have happened to Alaska had been that Anchorage was too big. He felt it was big enough to be the kingpin in statewide decisions made through the legislature and through business lobbyists. Pete felt that Anchorage's dominance of so many aspects of Alaska policy, politics, economy and other areas would hold the state back, particularly Alaska's First People.
He was the first person to point out to me that Anchorage wouldn't exist but for the contributions made to the state economy everywhere but Anchorage itself. Not that Wasilla contributes much either, but people here don't go around knocking just about every other community in the state like many Anchoragoneans do.
Meanwhile - even if you live in Wasilla - please consider helping Ron Devon in his quest for a seat in the Alaska Senate.
1 comment:
For an Alaskan blogger Jesse is woefully ignorant of Alaskan History; he must have slept through that portion of his education. I also find his tabloid fascination with Britta and Track abhorrent as those two have not sold their souls (and child) to the tabloids, as have the rest of the grifter clan.
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