No, this is not a tabloid Palin diary. This isn't about the job she auditioned for and thankfully didn't get. It is about the job she has and isn't doing. If this has already been diaried, I will run the risk of putting up another one because this story breaks my heart. I know this community rallies around these kind of situations and trust me, reading this, you will want to do something. Follow me over the fold.
Four days ago, a cry for help went out from rural Alaska via the Bristol Bay Times. Many of us have known that residents of Alaska's rural villages are having a hard winter. The weather has been unusually cold this year, and prices of heating oil and gasoline have been astronomical. Add to that a disastrous collapsing salmon fishery in Bristol Bay that left residents in that area heading in to winter with less than usual, and you have the makings for a humanitarian crisis.
Note the sad irony of the name of the paper where this was published. The Bristol Bay Times. Bristol Bay you may recall was the inspiration for naming one of Palin's children. What's not so inspiring is the Governor's response to this story, which is that people are foregoing food and risk starving, because they are having to buy fuel oil making the unenviable choice of freezing to death or starving.
G. & K. F.: Young couple with family of five. Wife is unable to sleep and stressed out not knowing when they will be able get their next heating fuel. A 100-lb. bottle of propane gas that usually lasts four months is now lasting only two months because they use it to heat water. This costs them $200 every two weeks. They do not have hot water heater. Wife has very little income and uses $375, the one-half of her gross income every two weeks, to get heating fuel. She has no food for her family sometimes, because, she has to split the rest of what little is left for water/sewer and electricity. Gasoline for her 4-wheeler is very expensive. Her parents help her with food and firewood. They cannot afford a snowmachine or a boat to get logs. Heating fuel and propane is taking her food money away. Her added worry is that the village native corporation is running out of heating fuel and is being airlifted in. New cost is expected to be near $9 - $11 per gallon or higher.
That's just one example. Sadly there are more.
Now the Governor has a busy job right? I mean more important than the safety and well being of your state's citizens, are media tours where you can complain about liberal bloggers.
Nick Tucker, from the village of Emmonak, describes the severity of the situation in a far more compelling and first hand manner than I ever could: http://thebristolbaytimes.com/...
Surely, something like this would yield a response from the State of Alaska? Emmonak is but one of many rural villages and areas. Surely, the Governor would seek to ensure that the Red Cross, National Guard, someone would assess the situation, declare a state of emergency, something? Anything?
AKMuckracker asked that question:
A question. Where is our Governor? What are her priorities? I have heard her concerns about anonymous bloggers, about media coverage, about the legislature, and the gas line. I have seen a press release come out saying "There you go again" to the Anchorage Daily News. I haves seen lots of time and energy focused on how Sarah Palin feels mistreated by the media. But I have not heard one, single, solitary word about Emmonak. I have seen no press releases about what my state's government is doing to help its people in harm's way who are cold and hungry. I have heard big talk about a Rural Subcabinet headed up by our Attorney General, Talis Colberg, and I've heard that they're busy evaluating.
Well that's helpful. Maybe by the time they're done evaluating, they'll have fewer families to worry about. Of course then they'll have to delay further doing more evaluating based on a reduced number of people.
So, since Sarah Palin is too busy because we liberal bloggers are taking all of her time, what can we do? And what better way to show her exactly what liberal bloggers are really capable of than to do what she apparently will not?
To help, please call:
City of Emmonak, (907) 949-1227/1249 (They will take donations by credit card. Please specify the donation is for heating oil!)
Emmonak Tribal Council, (907) 949-1720
or send a check to:
Emmonak Tribal Council
P.O. Box 126
Emmonak, AK 99581
Attn: Christine Alexie
As is stated in this article, also on this sad subject:
The answer lies, where many answers lie, with us.
A Cry for Help from Rural Alaska. Is Anyone Listening?
UPDATE: Please also see tristan57's diary on this subject: http://www.dailykos.com/...