Conversation June 28, 2006

Yesterday, I had my first face-to-face conversation about the idea of forming a new political party and moving the capitol. The person shall be un-named. He told me with striking straighforwardness that it's mainly the oil companies that can afford to fly lobbyists to Juneau and influence the lawmakers. We also discussed road building to rural communities. His point of view is that it is getting way too expensive to live in a rural community, and with another conversation he had with a rural resident who moved to the "road system" said it was just too expensive to live in a rural community. Also very expensive to travel to other communities, which he most certainly enjoyed doing. My take on it is the same, and I also mentioned that a significant number of rural residents have been migrating out of the rural communities and into the cities. I should know, since I have done the same. How can urban leaders and students say that we need to find a way to build sustaining economies in rural Alaska without talking about building roads? This is all talk and no action for too many years.