"Alaska is a state of mind."
-- Someone famous
Alaska is also a state of the union.
-- Geography 101
But what it is not, is 50 years old.
(To all those who keep saying that it is ... what was here 51 years ago??? :-)
We are celebrating this year!!!
It is the 50th anniversary of Alaska's statehood ... sort of its marriage to the Union after a long engagement (~92 years give or take ... about the length of time I suggest to my daughter would be appropriate in her life :-)
It is amazing to me that we've been a state for 50 years. If I did my math right ... let's see, add the addendums, subtract the mistatements, carry the burdens, divide the sheep and goats ... yep ... that's almost a half of a century! :-)
I remember it well. Well, I remember it. I guess there is a difference. I was a bit young to be aware of all the issues. But I certainly remember spirited debates as to whether we should join up or not.
But this is an anniversary celebration, not a birthday party as (too) many people have called it. This isn't Alaska's 50th birthday.
The village I grew up in had a sign at the edge of town that said "Founded in 1791". We've been around awhile. Just took us some time to decide to formalize things. We'd been living together since Seward's folly. In any event, it was time to get hitched.
We'll be spending some time this year looking back ... over the last 50 and earlier. It is a great excuse to introduce many of you to Alaska through the eyes of those who live here now ... and as best we can, through the eyes of those who built the State, many of whom are still kickin'!
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1 comment:
'Bout time you got this moving again! The financial system is burning and you're fiddling! I don't have much. and lots less now that Exxon isn't going to pay. I wish you could get the Supreme court to read your series on that. Better job than the fishermans lawyers did. But that's gone.
And then what little $$ I do/did have is in a co. retirement investment account thing and I got the report that I'd lost half of my "wealth"-hah- in the last quarter! My son-in-law has been faithfully saving for years and BOOM - gone - been better off under his mattress. So WHERE DID IT ALL GO? Who has the other half of my "wealth"? How can it just go poof? It was real money I put in. Explain the world financial system would you? I know nobody else can either. But I just don't get it. What makde oil shoot so high then crash? The Republicans and conservatives are dipping into the till and throwing money they don't have around like they was liberals. Worse! And what about Obama? You haven't said a hoot about him since he swore in. So there's work to be done here, Nero. Put that fiddle away and solve the worlds problems.
Glaed your back in the saddle.
Alaska Joe
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