Opening Acts

   From the outside looking inward to Anchorage, many rural people get a good laugh out of what goes on within that municipality. For many years now I have heard the adulterated slang Anchuragua used to describe it, especially out in the Mat-Su Valley. It seemed to me at the time that most of it was payback for being called valley trash. However, I would then caution people not to laugh, my experience has been that whatever happened in Anchorage, unlike Vegas, soon enough spreads throughout this entire state. Now, most of the folks in this valley live rural because they like it that way, but you can be sure that living rural presents different challenges that residents in a first class city like Anchorage could not imagine. I also know that many valley residents shy away from the public processes that go on around them. We must stop looking at everything as politics and look at it as you are stepping up for your friends that can't do so for themselves. It is up to us, as a borough, to fight for ourselves to bring our rural perspectives to the forefront of the discussions that will eventually affect all Alaskans.

   I might add, that if you think you know state politics because you closely keep up with the Legislative sessions, you know not. It was not in Juneau that I learned that the building they gutted for the new Legislative Information Office in Anchorage had been available for sale only two years earlier for a million and change. If you truly care for this state, keep an close eye on Anchorage. There lie the opening acts of whatever politics are to come for the rest of us, scattered throughout this great state as we are.