General observation # 2 about Alaskans

The southern senators who objected to Alaska's statehood in 1959 may have had a point. People here aren't all that bound to the rest of the country.

Alaskans speak of the Lower 48 as "The States" or “Outside” and it sounds just as far away to them as it does to Americans I'd met who were working in another country.

People here feel themselves to be a breed apart with a distinct culture and distinct capabilities. One where the harshness of the Arctic climate with the extremes of cold & darkness make one ready to handle about anything not found elsewhere.

I wouldn't call us unpatriotic, but I get the impression sometimes that if the ‘Lower 48’ was to sink into the ocean tomorrow, it would make the front page of the Anchorage Daily News for a day and then life would go back to normal.

After all . . . we have the oil and the natural resources . . . one day when gasoline hits six bucks a gallon people ‘Outside’ will demand that we open up ANWAR and not worry about the “trees” and the caribou. (By the way . . . there is only tundra up there and the caribou use the Alaska pipeline for shade as there are no “trees” for hundreds of miles.)

Ice

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