At one of the increasingly rambunctious "town hall" meetings, yesterday, a lady said words to the effect of "You have to let us complain, otherwise there will be a revolution."
Given the prevailing sentiment at many of these meetings, it's obvious that the conservatives (of both parties, and of neither party) are fed up, and growing more frustrated by the hour. It's also apparent that many (most?) of the elected officials are contemptuous of the voters.
(Everyone knows, of course, that being elected to office instantly makes one superior in every way. Not. Gag me with a Smurf.)
Looking at the raw footage made available on-line, the people are very close to the breaking point. The protests grow more angry, and pockets of violence have begun to crop up.
The self-styled patricians of D.C. ignore this at their peril.
I've been casually speaking about the issues of the day and the town hall meetings with various people over the last several days. Every single one of them, without exception, wants Alaska to secede. All but one of them mentioned it without any prompting from me. I mentioned the word to the other one, and received an earful about how "fed up" she is with the "unconstitutional and criminal behavior of the U.S. Congress."
I haven't heard any of the elected folk say anything at all about it. That silence alone is telling.
The next few months are going to be very, very interesting.
* Author's note: None of this is to encourage the concept of secession. I simply find it fascinating that so many Alaskans are talking about it. P.
1 comment:
While I'm inclined to agree on the matter of secession (hey, comes with being a Southerner by birth) - I can't help but think it's as much a matter of the folk we each associate with than of the population as a whole. Assuming even a goodly proportion of the comments at that ADN article come from people who actually - you know - live here there's plenty of folk who are actually happy with this mess.
More to the point on the matter of secession... if it's something that even is going to get talked about, Alaskans need to be putting some serious thought into the practicalities of independence - more local power generation and greenhouses or the like - because cutting off from the US would almost certainly mean some long dark years without ships from Seattle bringing up stuff for the grocery.
I wonder how those pocket reactors they were talking about for the villages could work closer to home? :)
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