 By F. David J. Jacob November 09, 2009
Now onto the matter of the unnecessary vitriol that you posted. It must be awfully comforting to have a single group of people to blame all of your woes on. Sometimes I wish I had the same! How easy life would be if I could just shove the blame onto a single demographic and continue on as the victim. When I was a kid I liked to blame everything on corporations, the government and conservatives. Now I am 24 years old and, being a man, realize that almost all of my shortcomings are self-made and, conversely, are self correctable. I was put on this good Earth with two hands and a brain and as long as both of those are working that's all I'll ever need. Admittedly, we are all sometimes victims of 'the times' but 'the times are a-changing' my fellow citizen and we must change with them or resign ourselves to the past. Human adaptability starts with ourselves and culminates in the furthering of our race. This fact, unlike the times, does not change. Indeed the loss of the pulp mill was regrettable for Ketchikan but we're pushing on towards two decades since this event. We can no longer dwell on this loss but must build on the ruins of it. Also, I am really interested in how the environmentalists and only the environmentalists were responsible for its closure. I have never talked to an environmentalist who praised Louisiana Pacific's decision to close the mill, only ones who disagreed with the way it was run and LP's disregard for environmental laws. The closure of the mill affected every man, woman and child on this island in a negative way and even our much loathed environmentalist friends did not escape unscathed. The closure turned our community against them and environmentalists need community support more than anything to further their agendas. To this day Ketchikan remains one of the most hostile environments for environmentalists to operate in. Did Louisiana Pacific treat our town and its workers so well that they should receive no credit for their part in the closure? There are many facts in this case, sir and you have mentioned none of them. To blame the deaths of your friends and your current woes on one demographic is incredibly short sighted and in the end will only limit you. Good luck with that job hunt. Be thankful that we live in
Alaska where it's still possible to get a job. Received November 07, 2009 - Published November 09, 2009
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