The Term "Alaskan" (Anchorage, Kodiak: crime, big house, subdivision)

[DreamChasers8]

And that has brought all of this to the table...WOW!

[Metlakatla]

Please at least make an attempt to explain how I have "threatened" you. I really don't appreciate you trying to involve me in your blind hysteria. If you want to "bring it on", as you said, at least do so with the truth.

Both you and Stalite seem to make things up out of very thin air ... why is that?

[starlite9]

Originally Posted by Metlakatla

I didn't see CC mentioning anything about Ted Stevens not having a fair trial. In fact, he posted that the trial wouldn't be taking place in Anchorage. That seems more than fair to me.

Nothing he said to you warranted this little outburst:





You aren't wrong. You pretty much sealed your own fate there. People who mess with my friends get to deal with me in a way they may not like.

Both you and Starlite would do well to look at the example set by quite a few of the more established posters here. I can't think of a thing politically that Classic Satch and I would agree about, except for perhaps the pro life issue, but we don't screech obscenities at one another and actually get along quite well.

You have sadly proved my point... You aren't "Alaskan" in spirit, the fact that you left a "Tea set" here is too bad. You are clearly where you need to be in life, and that is not here.

The fact that you got a lot of rep points does what for you? I wasn't making a statement in some kind of contest, I was pointing out a fact that you don't claim to be an "Alaskan", which is sad since you spent so much time here and never realized what you had.

Sorry to hear that family needs your presence because of health, but you clearly stated you are an "Oregonian", which is fine. You make no bones about being gone and that is fine too.

The thread is about the Term "Alaskan" and you have shown what an "Alaskan" isn't, someone who didn't want to be here in the first place. There are people that are born here and don't qualify for that honor of being an "Alaskan", they are just jerks that waste people's time and hurt others.

[Metlakatla]

Once again, you're drawing erroneous pictures out of thin air.

You seem to want to draw me into a personal discussion here; but I'm not comfortable doing that with someone such as yourself. Let's just say that I wouldn't have spent nearly the amount of time in the North had I not wanted to have been there. I've had more choices than most in life about where to live. And of course I'll be back when the time is right.

The fact that you got a lot of rep points does what for you? I wasn't making a statement in some kind of contest, I was pointing out a fact that you don't claim to be an "Alaskan", which is sad since you spent so much time here and never realized what you had.

I don't claim to be an Alaskan because I am a legal resident of Oregon. It really is as simple as that.

[starlite9]

Originally Posted by Metlakatla

Once again, you're drawing erroneous pictures out of thin air.

You seem to want to draw me into a personal discussion here; but I'm not comfortable doing that with someone such as yourself. Let's just say that I wouldn't have spent nearly the amount of time in the North had I not wanted to have been there. And of course I'll be back when the time is right.

No, I was quoting what you had said. Nowhere did you say you wanted to return or even considered yourself "Alaskan", which is more of a state of mind than what the year long residency requirements are.

You did say you left "Stuff" here, that isn't what I was referring to.

The Thread was about the "Term Alaskan", not residency. There is a big difference in people that want to be here, those that had to leave but want to be here and those that want to come here, verses those that can't wait to leave, or stay and don't want to be here.

If my parents were ill "Outside" and I went to help, I would be an "Alaska" until I am planted in the ground... it isn't an insult not to be an "Alaskan" either, it is just a badge of honor that people have, you wish to wear one that states you are an "Oregonian", that is fine, but we weren't talking residency status. I have no problems with that, I just wish those that are here that carry that banner of someplace else would go back to where ever their heart is at. Too many people are here that don't want to be or are here only for the money a job gives them, that basically makes them a W*o*e of some kind for the money, not the joy of doing what they want.

[Metlakatla]

No, I was quoting what you had said. Nowhere did you say you wanted to return or even considered yourself "Alaskan", which is more of a state of mind than what the year long residency requirements are.

Really? I thought what I said was that I really don't get the people who've lived in the north a short period of time and become so fervent about calling themselves "Alaskans". It just doesn't ring true to me.

I think that, as what stated before, the North attracts a fair amount of people who are looking for something to fix their lives, and I've noticed that they tend to be the most adamant about defining themselves as "Alaskan". Everyone else seems to just take it matter of factly. People who are secure in themselves don't really have the need to define themselves geographically.

The Thread was about the "Term Alaskan", not residency. There is a big difference in people that want to be here, those that had to leave but want to be here and those that want to come here, verses those that can't wait to leave, or stay and don't want to be here.

Funny, I don't recall saying that I didn't want to be there.

Nowhere did you say you wanted to return or even considered yourself "Alaskan",

So it's because I'm not all over the board pining and whining to return that you come up with this latest batch of bs which is just about as delusional as your claims that Floyd didn't live in Barrow?

I think it should be obvious that anyone who owns land and a vehicle up as well as generations of family members is probably going to return at some point.

I find it flat out weird that you're trying to say that I never wanted to be there, blah blah blah.

If my parents were ill "Outside" and I went to help, I would be an "Alaska" until I am planted in the ground...

So? Personally, I'd make the best of things and enjoy where I'm at. Oh, that's what I'm doing. And it's been great. But don't even try to cheapen my experience of living in the North with your allusions and delusions, because that's something that you can never do.

Get a grip.

[karibear]

Originally Posted by starlite9

You have sadly proved my point... You aren't "Alaskan" in spirit, the fact that you left a "Tea set" here is too bad. You are clearly where you need to be in life, and that is not here.

The fact that you got a lot of rep points does what for you? I wasn't making a statement in some kind of contest, I was pointing out a fact that you don't claim to be an "Alaskan", which is sad since you spent so much time here and never realized what you had.

Sorry to hear that family needs your presence because of health, but you clearly stated you are an "Oregonian", which is fine. You make no bones about being gone and that is fine too.

The thread is about the Term "Alaskan" and you have shown what an "Alaskan" isn't, someone who didn't want to be here in the first place. There are people that are born here and don't qualify for that honor of being an "Alaskan", they are just jerks that waste people's time and hurt others.

You've been in Alaska how long now?

[Metlakatla]

I think that he said that he's been there all of his life except for military obligations. But to me he sounds more like a transplant with the "I'm an Alaskan" syndrome. I've seen way too much of that in my time. But I really have no reason to disbelieve that he's spent most of his life in the state; I'm certainly not going to begin trying to say that he really lives on the east coast the way he did when he couldn't hang in a debate with Floyd.

Back to the original question, it's my belief that it takes more than simply proclaiming that you are an "Alaskan" to really be one. It takes more than living in Wasilla or Anchorage for a year or two, which are more like the lower 48 these days than certain parts of the lower 48. I met someone last year who insisted on calling herself an "Alaskan" even though she'd never spent so much as one winter month in the North. She'd been there a few summers, and said that she qualified as an Alaskan because she spent a couple of winters in Maine when she was a child. Uh huh.

Another poster said it very well...nightphoenix I think. That person said something about a "Northern gene" that you either have or don't have. But in some people, it's a recessive gene.

I think it might have something to do with being absolutely enthralled with the alpenglow at forty below when the sun is rising and setting at the same time, or with driving your truck across the Susitna river to the lights of the aurora.

Maybe it has something to do with loving it enough to hate what it is becoming, and to leave it in the dust.

Don't twist my words here, Starlite, if you can at all help doing so. I'm not referencing myself with that last statement.

[karibear]

Originally Posted by Metlakatla

I think that he said that he's been there all of his life except for military obligations. But to me he sounds more like a transplant with the "I'm an Alaskan" syndrome. I've seen way too much of that in my time. But I really have no reason to disbelieve that he's spent most of his life in the state.

Back to the original question, it's my belief that it takes more than simply proclaiming that you are an "Alaskan" to really be one. It takes more than living in Wasilla or Anchorage, which are more like the lower 48 these days than certain parts of the lower 48.

I think it might have something to do with being absolutely enthralled with the alpenglow at forty below when the sun is rising and setting at the same time, or with driving your truck across the Susitna river to the lights of the aurora.

Maybe it has something to do with loving it enough to hate what it is becoming, and to leave it in the dust.

Don't twist my words here, Starlite, if you can at all help doing so. I'm not referencing myself with that last statement.

I've seen a lot of that rabid "I'm an Alaskan now, and don't you forget it" too. It always seemed kind of pathetic - Jack London wannabees, gotta have a White Fang of their own, too.

The first time I got off the plane, I felt like I'd finally come home. Big leap for a city-bred person from the midwest. I can also remember a lot of nights laying on the snow-covered ice on the lake in front of our place, just staring at the stars, they were so bright! I'd never seen them like that in the Lower 48.

I've only been gone 8 years, but my son - who still lives and fishes there - and various of my friends back in Kodiak all tell me not to even think of coming back, not even for a visit. I'd hate what's been done there, and it's not the same place I remember. I hear the same thing from friends in Anchorage.

[Metlakatla]

I've seen a lot of that rabid "I'm an Alaskan now, and don't you forget it" too. It always seemed kind of pathetic - Jack London wannabees, gotta have a White Fang of their own, too.

Exactly!

Maybe part of being a "real Alaskan" is feeling secure enough not to have to broadcast it everywhere or beat it into everyone's heads...geez...what a bore that can be.