Frozen Beast!

Short clip taken from our friend and coworker, who has tons of clips of life in Kasigluk.  And Germany, Australia, you name it, that guy gets around.  He even sets up our annual oktoberfests, the luaus, he is a unique man.  Aaaaanyway ’nuff about him, this video he took I liked because its short and gives a little perspective on life here.  Our school food is pretty typical:  pizza, corn dogs, egg rolls, and….

While it may seem odd to you lower 48ers, you see this (especially birds) all the time here, but usually in people’s entryway, not the school freezer.

more alcohol

So on Tuesday I addressed the Bethel City council.  I urged them to officially support SB 85, the measure to cut the importation limits in half for damp communities.  I explained how this would mean people would be “limited” to only 10 drinks per day every day, or 70 drinks on the weekends if you prefer to binge.  Here is the math:

Current Limits on hard alcohol are 10.5L or 14 fifths, 24 L/32 fifths of wine, and 12 gallons/127 cans of beer.  Using the guidelines from these guys, 1 serving of alcohol is 1.25 oz of 80-proof liquor, 4 oz of wine, or 1 can (12 oz) of beer.  A fifth is 25.6 oz, so 14 fifths of hard alcohol is roughly 358 oz or so of hard liquor, which divided by 1.25 oz comes to around 286 servings.  Per month.  Add on to that your 32 fifths of wine, which = 819 oz, divided by 4 oz = about 205 servings.  Per month.  Add on to that 127 cans of beer, and you have a total of…618 servings?  Per month.  So basically 20 drinks per day, or 140 on the weekend binge.  Using that same link,  you can see that 10 drinks is enough to get anyone drunk, or even fatally poison a smaller person (once your BAC is that high you’re at huge risk).  So obviously, 20 drinks every day is beyond excessive.

SB 85 would cut it all in half, limiting you to an average of 10 legal drinks per day, or just over 300 per month.  I told the council the only reason you should oppose this measure is if you really think you need that 11th, 15th, and 20th drink.  Every day.  Or that 71st, 120th, 140th drink on the weekend binge.  I also reminded them of the March 10 meeting when a representative from the ABC spoke with them about the possible implications of the bill.  The council wanted to know about possible tax revenue if they go wet (there is currently an initiative to go wet circulating in Bethel, apparently in response to this onerous, egregious intrusion on our personal liberties).  We learned that the amount of additional tax revenue would come to roughly…diddly squat.  The revenue would be limited to what could be raised through a sales tax.  I believe the exception to this would be if the city were to use the “alcohol delivery site” model where one building controls the flow of alcohol for the whole region (the city could help run it and have a special tax on it), but the pro-alcohol side didn’t go for that in a recent election.

I went on to mention the proven trend in Alaska that when a community moves from dry to damp or damp to wet, crime shoots up (this is common knowledge here).  I also pointed out that since every village in the entire area is dry, going wet and/or opposing this measure is really offensive to the region.  Bethel has very low voter turnout, and the election is swung by those who do come out, which is a lot of people from outside who don’t grasp the impact of bootlegged alcohol on the dry villages.  But if they try and go wet I don’t think it would pass.  That’s when people pour into the polls to vote who don’t normally show up, and they vote it down.  Anyway, I summed it up by saying that if you oppose this measure, you’re saying you need that 11th to 20th drink per day, and if you want to go wet, you’re saying 20 every day isn’t enough for you, and the city won’t get hardly any additional revenue, but lots more arrests and prosecutions required, not to mention the heartache and violence from house to house.  To me it’s a slam dunk.  A no-brainer.  I ended by saying I have no problem with people drinking responsibly, that I follow Jesus, who seemed to drink on a regular basis, but I think we should respect the villages’ stated desire to make alcohol as expensive and hard to come by as possible.  The truth is that this measure only impinges on 3 things:  bootleggers, people who don’t want to have to fax in their order twice as often to the Anchorage liquor stores, and people’s sense of independence – government stay the heck out of our lives, which is a proud and powerful Alaska tradition.  But as I mentioned to the council, occasionally government has a good idea, and this is one of them.

So I was done.  And then they tell me that they already officially voted at a previous meeting to oppose the measure.  And the senate stopped taking public input on the issue, though the house still has it in committee.  Which is why I should have written this 2 months ago, when I wrote most of it in my head.  I’m a busy guy, it’s after 1 am and I have to work tomorrow morning but I figured now or never, and maybe just maybe some good could come out of this.  Oh, by the way, I emailed several council members and asked them what their rationale was for opposing it.  I’ve only gotten one reply so far, which said that they opposed it because it is a “hot button issue” and councilmembers will lose their positions if they are on the wrong side.  Hmmm.   I don’t know what the vote was (7-0?).  Sad.

***Update – I forgot to address some stuff from the paper.  Our Juneau representative wrote in the Delta Discovery (scroll down to 2/11/09) that he had multiple problems with the bill and that it was a “drastic reduction.”  He also said he fears it will push damp communities to go wet (which makes no sense – as I stated above – 10 drinks every day isn’t enough for you?), and cause the price of bootlegged alcohol to rise “exponentially.”  If it went up exponentially, then after a little while Bill Gates couldn’t buy a drink.  But I know what he meant.  And I think if a fifth of vodka goes from $100+ where it is now to $200 or whatever, what is wrong with that?  Great!  The more it costs, the less people can buy it, and the less likely that kids will get as much to try.  Studies show that when cigarettes are taxed, kids are less likely to spend the money to get them (through someone else).  Wouldn’t the same thing apply here?  I know I’m on a big soapbox here, but every reason I can think of for opposing SB85 is a bad one.  Selfishness, greed, lack of compassion, disrespect toward tribal sovereignty, etc.

Peter Twitchell also wrote about the issue in the same paper, scroll down to 2/12/09.  In general I like both of these guys and what they write and contribute to the delta.  I won’t rake Peter over the coals here, not now anyway.  Of course SB85 won’t magically fix anything.  Nothing will.  But that isn’t an excuse to do nothing!  To quibble over this bill that has zero affect on a responsible drinker, while communities are drowning in the pain and misery of alcoholism (and quite often literally drowning, or killing themselves, or beating up their families, or…), gets me riled up enough that I would do something dumb like stay up to 2 am to write this post.

postage increase

Now is that a snappy title or what?!?  This is the sort of hard-hitting, action-packed investigative journalism that you come here for.  Shocking revelations!  Buckle your seatbelt, brace yourself, and throw in your own cliche, here we go.  The ol’ USPS, bringer of most everything to our part of the world, is raising the price of a first class stamp all the way up to 44 cents, on May 11.  That is the only thing most folks around the country will really notice.  Us bushies however will see the cost of mailing our groceries home skyrocket.  And of course also the cost of buying locally will go up since everything local was mailed in by someone and we absorb the cost.  Let me qualify the term ’skyrocket.’  Here are some examples:

Weight                       Old Price                       New Price

30                                  $11.81                             $15.37

40                                  $12.65                            $17.70

50                                  $13.41                            $19.26

60                                  $14.09                            $20.83

70                                  $14.70                            $22.39

So about now you’re thinking “OK, so you spend a few more bucks.”  Duuuuuuuuuuude.  You know how many boxes we mail in to ourselves?  Think of all the “stuff” in your life.  Food.   Toilet paper.  Furniture.  Anything we can fit in a small enough box and that can be broken down to 70# or less units gets mailed.  Our school’s “student store” brings in about 60 heavy boxes a month, so a cost increase overnight of around $400/month.  When my wife and I shop in anchorage for the next 5 months of groceries and supplies, we regularly mail around 30-something boxes.  So at around an extra $6 per box, it adds up.  The sky isn’t falling, but our purchase power is.

alcohol postscript

An added note, the following is an email exchange between myself and the head of the state alcohol beverage control board on the subject, back when I wrote that piece on alcohol. I’m only putting a snippet of it in here.   I tried to leave it as a comment on the last post, but wordpress was being moody.

From: Peter Schneidler [mailto:schneidler@yahoo.com]

Sent: Monday, October 01, 2007 2:00 PM

To: DPS ABC WEB

Subject: questions for the ABC

I heard you on KYUK radio from when you had a representative speak before the Bethel City Council about the new law that creates a database to track what people order into damp communities. They were blasting you and generally behaving like selfish 7 year olds, as usual. I wanted to express my support of you all and your ongoing effort to support those villages that have decided on their own to try and regulate or stamp out alcohol from their community. Thank you for what you do, please keep it up, and bust those bootleggers who bring so much pain and trouble to the villages!!!! Peter Schneidler Kasigluk, AK

—————————————————————————–

I appreciate your support regarding my performance before the Bethel City Council. I understand where the City Council is coming from; their constituents are Bethel residents, many of whom feel put upon by all of the hassles and intrusions government imposes on them. The focus of the Commission on Rural Justice and Law Enforcement and the new state legislation is on trying to protect the villages that are trying to help themselves by adopting local options to control access to alcohol. This involves coming up with a regional approach which involves addressing a major “hole in the dike”, the written order process of getting alcohol through Bethel . The whole effort to deal with alcohol abuse in rural Alaska is frustrating. I believe in personal responsibility, but the problem is so great we are placed in the position of protecting people from themselves. We also must, of course, protect the children who are the innocent victims of alcohol abuse and the next in line to suffer the cycle of misery brought on by this social epidemic of addiction. Along the way the people who obtain and use alcohol responsibly are forced to jump through hoops that they feel are unfair. What is the alternative? I hope this information helps and thank you for your interest in your village and dedication as an educator. – Doug Griffin, Director, ABC Board

alcohol in bush Alaska

Or “An open letter to Bethel drinkers.”  Booze are obviously a big problem in this part of the world, as they are in many other first nations communities.  Below is something I wrote back in the fall of ‘07 and somehow never posted until now.  It came up for me again because of the news that the governor is trying to push through a bill that would reduce the monthly amounts each resident can legally import into a damp community.  I know Gov Palin is a lightning rod these days, but I’m behind her all the way on this issue.  If you disagree with me (and I know many do), leave a meaningful comment.  Dialogue, not “you ——.”

Thoughts on alcohol, rights, and responsibility

10/1/07

The state of Alaska has “local option laws” that allow communities to decide if they want to allow alcohol to be sold locally (wet), only imported with monthly limits (damp), or not imported/possessed at all (dry).  Most (or maybe all?) villages in the YK Delta area where I live voted to go dry.  Bethel, the only major city in the area and hub community for all 56 delta villages, is damp.

Alaska law allows people in “damp” communities to import up to:

10.5* liters of Distilled Spirits (vodka, gin, whisky, etc, max would be 14 fifths (750 ml bottle) per month); and

24 liters of wine (usually 750 ml or 1.5 L, max would be 32 fifths per month); and

12 gallons of malt beverages (beer, wine coolers, zima, etc, sold in 12, 16, 20, 40 oz, and gallons & kegs.  Max would be about 127 12-oz cans.)

So that is a max of 14 fifths of hard alcohol, 32 fifths of wine, and 127 cans of beer, every month.  What the heck are we thinking?  So I could have a fifth of wine, a half of a fifth of hard booze, and 4 cans of beer every day, and still have some left over at the end of every month!  And this is per person, not household, so my wife and other adults in my home could all do the same.  RIDICULOUS!!!

The pivotal issue of course is that drinking is viewed as a right.  The argument is “It’s not my problem if that guy can’t handle it or if that other guy is selling it illegally, I have a right to drink and I haven’t done anything wrong.”  Ahhhh yes, your rights.  I was listening to Bethel radio station KYUK broadcasting the city council meeting where the council members were blasting a representative from the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board (Doug Griffin) because of the new law that sets up a database to track people’s monthly imports so they don’t go over the “limit” by ordering the max from multiple vendors each month.  One guy complained that they were cutting this and cutting that, basically saying the limits were coming down too low (although the limits to my knowledge haven’t changed one iota). Another said the law will likely be overturned by litigation because it is too intrusive.  Never mind that this poor sap was just charged with enforcing the law, and didn’t create it himself.

As I listened to their arguments, I got upset (I mean, more than the usual anger I feel when I listen to those meetings—the Bethel City Council generally behaves like children in need of spankings).  Why?  The alcohol is destroying lives out here right and left, and all you can see is your RIGHTS.  Yes, it’s your legal right.  I don’t deny that.  But why is it so hard to surrender that right to make such an enormous difference in other people’s lives?  I can only think of two reasons.  Logically, you must be either (1) so addicted or (2) so selfish that you don’t care what the consequences to your neighbors are.  Am I making you mad now?  GOOD!  Join the club!  Feel free to respond and let me know how I’m wrong!  You can make all kinds of arguments and attempts at justification and talk about how you can’t control other’s actions, they’d get it from somewhere anyway, they need to be responsible for what they do, etc etc but at the core of it, you are supporting something that allows terrible things to happen out here, over and over.  Period.  The stats (from other village case studies) say if Bethel went dry, or even just got an alcohol delivery site, the crime and heartache would go down, and you are resisting.  How do you justify that? You’re resisting even being limited to the absurd amounts listed above!  Remember in the movie Braveheart how that king “Longshanks” had the right to take daughters of Scotland away with him for sex, and then discard them?  Having a legal “right” does not make you RIGHT.

Imagine I moved to a foreign land where the majority of the populace struggled with obesity, compulsively binging and putting themselves at huge risk of heart attack (or wait, that’s the U.S.).  In passing it should be noted that these people used to only eat healthily until ancestors from my race introduced chocolate to them, which they have a hard time resisting.  Suppose I insisted on my right, and everyone else’s right who lives there, to order 200 snickers, 500 twix, and 1,200 bags of M&M’s from my homeland every month.  I’m a skinny guy, its not my problem they can’t handle it, they’re weak, etc etc.  So I fight any attempt to lower those limits, even though tons of people are eating themselves to death on candy, and slimebags next door are selling the stuff to them at every opportunity for a 1000% profit.  How can you come to any conclusion but that person is selfish, even if they are within their rights?  And/or they’re addicted themselves.  So that was a clumsy analogy – you know what I mean.

I’m all for personal responsibility.  We all make choices, and we have to live with the consequences of those actions.  I’m also not very into legislating morality.  People need to do the right thing out of the strength of their character, not because they’re being forced to. And there are lots of people in this area making lots of crappy choices with respect to alcohol (and other stuff, which is why we lead the world in horrendous statistics).  I don’t deny it.

However, since moving here and seeing nothing from alcohol but pain and suffering, it’s moved me to consider more drastic measures.  There are statistics from nearly every village that goes from wet to damp, or damp to dry, that show a reduction in drinking and all of the crime that goes with it.  There are no stats for “heartache” but you can bet that goes down with the crime.  Similarly, when a village goes from dry to damp, or damp to wet, the trouble shoots up.  This is not open to debate, it’s the Truth.

If your desire to cling to your “right” to import ludicrous amounts of booze every month is so much stronger than your compassion at the state of your fellow man (even if they have made many crappy choices), then you have a serious problem.  The villages have spoken, and they want to be alcohol free, but it keeps pouring into the damp towns, and from there to the dry villages.

Your neighbors have a drinking problem.  Your problem is worse. You’ve chosen a beverage over people – your neighbors and maybe even your own family.  I invite you to change your way of thinking.

Emmonak, Nunam Iqua, hard times, and publicity

In case you haven’t heard, its been a hard winter here in Western Alaska.  I don’t have time to delve deeply into this issue, but wanted to at least mention it and put up the relevant links involved because it is getting some national attention.  I feel personally unresolved on the whole thing.  Obviously my sympathies are generally with my neighbors, who we love, and who are the reason we live here.  So I resent a lot of the mindless oversimplified criticism they receive all the time, and especially during times of crises like this.  However, to me it seems like the other side is oversimplifying things too, painting everyone as helpless victims.  A little bit of the “natives are pure, innocent children who must be left untouched” vibe seems to come into play in their tone at times too.  This is all (obviously) quite volative, explosive stuff.  And like I say I’m somewhere in the middle and haven’t personally processed or figured out where I stand on a lot of it.  I need to pray.  But at this point I’m darn sure that the issue is complex.  Far moreso than the neophytes posting on these various message boards believe.  Issues of cultures colliding, differing values, and other big stuff that is really unknowable from the outside.   Now all that said, I think it is fantastic that people want to send cold/hungry eskimos help in the way of food and money, pretty much without any questions and sight unseen.  That is amazing!  And its cool that some of them are using the super-duper flat-rate priority boxes from the USPS to do it.  That is a huuuuge $$ saver shipping to AK.  OK, I have work to do and have been reading some of these links for hours now and HAVE to stop.  Here is all the hullabaloo:

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-rural-alaska25-2009jan25,0,2236427.story?page=1

——————————————————–

http://www.themudflats.net/2009/01/25/shopping-day-in-nunam-iqua-alaska/

I have to say that this website mostly annoys me because he is such an unabashed Palin-hater.   She could sell all her posessions and give them to a leper colony in India and he would find a way to see evil in it.  I feel the dude, and 90% of the commenters, have lost perspective.  Between that and the woeful ignorance that comes from those from outside who try and speak with authority on alaska issues, I don’t even try and counter them on that site.  Pearls before swine.  I’m not a Palin fanboy, but remember my formative years in Alaska politics were under Frank Murkowski and the astoundingly arrogant and corrupt GOP establishment in Alaska.  And they ALL hate Palin with a passion, and she kicked their butts and helped get most of them out of places of power.  For this she has some measure of undying goodwill in my book.  And no, I didn’t vote for her, in the primary or the general election.  But these guys just go too far in demonizing her.

——————————————————————————————

http://anonymousbloggers.wordpress.com/2009/01/23/hello-world/

This one is devoted to the issue, the blog serves no other purpose, and it is run by a nice travel agent from Florida (who has actually even visited my blog, making her 1 of a very select few…)

———————————————————

Then there is a facebook page, of course, already with hundreds of members:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=45538795204#/group.php?gid=45538795204

———————————————————–

And finally the most popular site of the bunch, by far, is the amusing and offensive octogenarian writing found at:

http://margaretandhelen.wordpress.com/

specifically, this post is where they mention it:  http://margaretandhelen.wordpress.com/2009/01/27/apparently-ann-coulters-feet-are-as-big-as-an-emus/

————————————————————

Obviously, the latter site’s occupants are huge Palin fans as well.  Ha ha ha.  I don’t mind dissent.  What annoys me is that a lot of these people seem to be expressing concern for my neighbors only out of a desire to shame and criticize Palin, who they perceive as slow to respond to the issue.   Just like Hugo Chavez giving oil to our villages to shame George Bush’s lack of care for first nations people.  We willingly take the help because we need it (using “we” in the broad sense.  My family doesn’t qualify, nor does it need it), but at the same time its not exactly a pure love gift, is it, when politics are the driving force for many of the givers.  Actually, by setting herself up as a national punching bag for the left, Palin has provided for us, just not in the normal way…heh heh.  Palin haters are giving until it hurts!  : – )

I know my tone here is of a Palin defender.  But its only because of the irrational diatribe filling the ‘net on those other sites, its like I have to swing the other way a little bit.  Its my site.  Deal with it.  Sure, rural Alaskans have it tough.  Yes, there is a double standard.  But it has largely been this way since….forever.  This is indeed an unusually tough winter, but its not unheard of, and its the same stuff as always, just a little worse this time.  The story told by the woman from Nunam Iqua about what she has to do to go shopping, that would have been largely the same story last year or 1o years ago.

The response I always have for those who say we should all just move out of the bush because of the lack of services is “What do you think Anchorage was like 60 years ago?  Or any big city – they all started out as a frontier town at one point.  Does that mean they should never have gotten indoor plumbing?  By that logic the pilgrims should have gone back to England and never stayed here.”  Stupid.  There are colonists and people who choose to live on the frontiers of civilization, and they accept that it will be hard.  However, it is only natural for them to want to improve their situation, and appeal to the centers of power and finance for help in that regard.  This was the case when this place was “Russian America” and they besieged the czars for funding and help colonizing the territory and it remains true today.   I suppose some Russians in Moscow begrudged the royal coffers going to help the territory and probably used the same line (”if you don’t like it you should just move back to civilization”).  So I suppose the criticism is inevitable, but I believe its short-sighted and selfish.

Not to say that every citizen in Western Alaska is a shrewd money manager or makes all the right choices.  Of course not.  OK, I’m stopping.  Time to get some real work done.  The kind I get paid for, I mean.

Grizzly Volleyball

Our high school mixed-6 (boys and girls) volleyball team is playing at state this week.  We’re obviously excited and so proud of them.  Our school has never sent any team to state, to my knowledge.  Although Akula (the new side of Kasigluk) has sent teams before, at least in basketball.  Anyway, its fantastic.  They were the shortest team they saw all season but it didn’t stop them.  And I’m probably more proud of them all being eligible than I am of their victories, silly as that might seem to them.  They worked their butts off doing extra reading and whatever it took to catch up and stay eligible.  The good news?  Staying caught up is a lot easier than digging out of the hole!  You can track their progress here (for a little while anyway – scroll down).  Thanks BSSD!

We’re #3! We’re #3!

You think Illinois is bad?  Hah!  It has NUTHIN on Alaska or especially North Dakota, that legendarily sordid den of iniquity.  USA Today put out a seriously flawed study that proves Illinois hasn’t caught us yet.  And as soon as Weyrauch and maybe Don Young and a couple more after that are added to the list we’ll be #1.  As Napoleon would say:  “Yessssss.”  Here is the view from Ketchikan.

recycling in the bush – is it worth it?

Another new change is some recycling is happening right now.  There are a couple of people in our village who work on recycling, collecting used batteries, pop cans, bottles, etc.  It must be grant funded.  They drive over to our school from Akula by boat or snowgo (1.5 miles each way), sort out the tons of nasty candy wrappers, spit cans, and other trash that gets placed in the recycling container, put the recyclables in huge plastic alpar bags, drive them back over to akula, later drive them to the runway and put them on a Hageland Aviation plane, which takes it 25 miles to Northern Air Cargo in Bethel, which flies it 400+ miles to Anchorage, where it is picked up by a Smurfit-Stone recycling company truck (the people who run the recycling center behind napa auto parts on Dowling).   I think it gets crushed and semi-processed there, and then a lot of it gets barged over 1,000 miles to Seattle or somewhere for further processing.  Now, all of these planes and barges are carrying the stuff for free or at a steep discount because it is all “back haul,” going the direction in which the vehicle is usually empty (NAC planes fly from ANC to BET stuffed full, and fly back nearly empty, so prices to send freight from BET-ANC is cheap), and because it is a “good cause” and because it is usually light (bags of pop cans are light).  Finally, we actually get a check from the Anchorage recycling people for $.35 per pound of cans we sent in.

SO.  My question is, can it possibly be worth it to go through all of those steps?  What is the benefit from a single recycled aluminum can or plastic juice bottle?  In terms of CO2 emissions and global warming, can this process be mathematically justified? I doubt it, but I really don’t know.  I do know that shipping is expensive out here, and each pop can is going through a lot of shipping.  Now, I’m all for recycling.  I want it to continue in our village just to raise the awareness level, as more of a social consciousness exercise than for the practical feasability.   And I like the idea of less trash in the landfill and on the ground outside the school (see my old entry on the styrofoam lunch trays we use).  In fact, I’ve been pushing for our student store to start accepting used cans in exchange for a 5 cent credit at the student store (which would only really cost us like 2 or 3 cents per can).  The staff member running the store is concerned that we would be inundated with cans from people all over, cans not sold from our store.  I kind of doubt it, but even if so, great we’re recycling even more!  It’s ok, we’ll just agree to disagree on that one.  : – )  Of course the best recycling is just reusing something locally.  Like in Anchorage they use the crushed glass in some local factory.   Anyway, I just had to bring up that whole recycling issue.

cell phones in the bush

The times they are a channnnngin’.  Did you know we have cell phone service now??!!??  Crazy!  I heard that my village was signing up more people than any other village on the delta.  People are signing up in droves, almost all of them getting the $54.99 unlimited plan and not cancelling their regular land line.  No idea where all that $$ is coming from.  I think its a little nuts because the $30.00 plan would probably do it just fine.  Oh well.  I’d like to sign up and cancel our land line (horrrrible service,  but won’t go into that now), but I’m holding out for now, hoping for a pay as you go thing.  The current plans don’t work for us because of the $.15 per minute to call outside of alaska.  But its perfect for my neighbors.  Although now that I look at it…nationwide 500 minutes for $40 isn’t too bad…hmm…  The idea of a cell phone for possible use while out in a boat or snowgo between Kasigluk and Atmau or Napakiak or whatever is verrrry appealing.  It is not intended to work between villages, but because the tundra around KUK is flat as a pancake it does work for several miles, so I’ve heard.   Pretty cool.