First, just let me say that I hate to even say or write the name of Rush Limbaugh. I heard him on the radio ONCE more than ten years ago and made it a point to never be within earshot of the spewage that comes forth from his facial orifice.
That said, I am compelled to write a few lines about a brave young Yup'ik girl from Western Alaska. You may ask, why is she brave and where does Rush fit into this diary?
Take the leap....
Cheryl Charlee Lockwood is an 18 year old Yup'ik girl from the coastal village of St. Michaels, on the Bering Sea coast of western Alaska. Ms. Lockwood is a member of Alaska Youth for Environmental Action. She was in Washington this week with 5000 other young people to lobby Congress on global warming issues. This group holds a place dear in my heart as my daughter was the chair of the local chapter when she was in high school
Cherly and four other young people were invited to address Rep. Markey's House Select Committee on Global Warming and Energy Independence. I heard her testimony on Alaska News Nightly and was nearly moved to tears. This young woman from an isolated (No roads to the outside) village of 330 people was brave enough to sit before a committee of Congress and tell of the devastation that is being wreaked on the Alaska coast and coastal villages by a changing climate.
This is but an example of her emotional testimony, go to the APRN link and listen to the story,
Just through my lifetime, I have seen so many changes in our community that it just hurts to not be able to have our -- it's really scary to live -- lose our tradition, our culture, and we've been living here for thousands of years.
How important can this really be, you may ask? In much of rural Alaska subsistence is a major part of the economy. People still hunt, fish and gather much of their food. Without subsistence food there is little protein in the diet. Subsistence food harvests are the glue that helps hold a tattered culture together. Subsistence is the link to preserving languages. One could do an entire diary on the importance of tradition in maintaining language and culture. The cash economy is virtually nonexistent, unless you have a government job. From Wikipedia article on St. Michaels,
The St. Michael economy is based on subsistence food harvests (hunting, fishing and gardening) supplemented by part-time wage earning. Most wage-earning positions are in city government, the IRA council and village corporation, schools and local stores. Some residents hold commercial fishing permits, primarily for the herring fishery.
So where does Rush fit in to this story of youthful bravery and political action? Well, just like with the SCHIP issue, the Repubs haven't seen a kid delivering a message they disagree with that they can't help attacking. Rush made headlines here in Alaska with his attack on this young woman.
First he said her testimony made him "want to puke". Since he is a puke I guess it would come naturally. But that wasn't all he had to spew,
The Republicans are going to cut my school lunch money, too. I don't know what to do, Congressman Markey. Wah, wah, wah, wah.
And this one that if heard from another mouth would be a call to action, almost.
Nobody wants a child to cry. It's just an attempt here to tug at people's heartstrings. And, you know, to do whatever we can to make sure the child stops crying. And what do we gotta do? Well, we gotta stop global warming so the child's spiritual connection to her homeland and her communities and so forth doesn't melt away into the Arctic.
This young woman is not a prop in some absurd political theater, Rush notwithstanding. This brave, young Yup'ik woman was speaking for her people, for the First Nation peoples of the United States.
Cheryl's graceful response to the blowhard? She said that in her village she was taught "about respect and treating people they way you wanted to be treated". That is class, something Limbaugh will never understand.
Senator "Tubes" Stevens apparently was asked by the Anchorage Daily News if he had any comment on how a youthful constituent was treated by you know who. "No comment", says Ted.