AK Not OK

Nastasia Wassili, Tulusak, Alaska

I think I read that today more than 11,000 people lost their jobs in this downward-spiraling economy. That's not good. I also read today that Michigan and Indiana are worse of than Wisconsin...I guess that's good news, but it's still quite cold here, and nothing very cheery is happening. Even the "Going Out of Business" sale at Circuit City could manage only a 10% discount on stuff. You KNOW things are tough when the bargains are being downsized. But, I refuse to complain. I do not live in Tuluksak or Emmonak, Alaska, or any of the other rural areas in our northernmost state. THOSE people are suffering.
In Tulusak, for example, many people like Ms Wassili (pictured above)often go days without eating or having either wood or fuel oil to HEAT THEIR HOUSE! Are you kidding me? In a town of about 500, people spend about $200 a week for heating oil...if they have the money. Ms. Wassili often does not, and recently she spent 3 days without heat because she had no firewood, either; compounding that situation, all her neighbors had run out of gas (and money for gas) for their snow machines so they couldn't get her any! Finally, the government airlifted some food, at least, to this outpost village...probably just in time.
In Emmonak, 65% of the population is out of work, according to a poll taken by resident Nicholas Tucker. Housing, typically, is small and primitive with no running water and more than an average number of people gathered together. While hunting and fishing used to help residents survive, there is a moratorium on moose sicnce its numbers are dwindling, and fishing for chinook is limited due to overfishing by large companies. Trapping animals for fur has lost any economic value, so a way of life is declining while prices for goods and service are going up:
A pound of hot dogs costs $7.39
A pound of cheese costs $8.75
A loaf of bread costs $5.85 (still less than in Zimbabwe, however!)
Gas? $6.58-$8.00 per gallon, and heating oil is $6.99 for a gallon.
PLUS They are freezing their behinds off! It just doesn't get any worse.

It's not that the government hasn't tried. Gov. Palin signed off on an emergency relief measure to ensure heating oil, but not all Alaskans are behind this aid. It seems that every citizen of Alaska already gets thousands of dollars from the government each year as part of an oil deal, and people in, say, Fairbanks, think it's unfair for the people who choose to live in outlying settlements to get even MORE money, saying that it's their choice to live there.
I doubt Nastasia Wassili has ever lived anywhere else. At 61, she's definitely not going to buy a condo in Anchorage and begin living the high life. She simply wants something to eat and a warm place to enjoy it.
That can't be asking too much; after all, this IS the United States of America.