Would You Take $5 from Rep. Fred Dyson? - The Mudflats

[Blue_In_AK]

So, what would you do if the school bully who’d been stealing your lunch money all year, came up to you in the playground and said, “Come here, I want to show you something!” Yes, that’s a rhetorical question. What about if he handed you a $5 bill? You’d look around, maybe, to see if anyone was in the immediate area….any co-conspirators lurking in the bushes? You might shuffle around a little. You’d wonder, “What’s the catch?” No catch, insists the bully. He hands you the $5 bill.

Is it counterfeit? Dusted with some crazy skin itching powder? Is it going to turn your fingers black? Is he going to take it back, and then beat you up? Is he going to tell someone you stole it? Is he going to wait for you to take it and snatch it back at the last moment making you look like an idiot? Are you going to be framed? What???

This is how I felt when I saw the compass piece in the Daily News titled “Alaska Natives Thrived Before the Coming of the White Man” by Eagle River Senator Fred Dyson. My blood ran cold. What was he going to say NOW. This is the guy that wrote to concerned citizens from Alaskans for Truth who were asking that Sarah Palin, recently resigned AG Talis Colberg, and witnesses who ignored subpoenas be held accountable for their actions, and started his letter:

I am in receipt of your e-mail concerning your recommendation that I investigate, impeach or lynch Governor Palin.

It then went on to say that the writers of these letters had come to the conclusion that Sarah Palin was EVIL (all caps) and that the letter writers had come up with NO NEW FACTS (all caps and underlined). So, said Senator Dyson, these letters of concern have “had NO positive effect on me.” Way to encourage citizen participation in government. This correspondence earned Dyson the Mudflats Moose Nugget award.

All that said, I was expecting something awful from the curmudgeonly bully from north of Anchorage. I started reading. After the first sentence, I thought, “OK, what’s the catch?” I thought the same thing after the first paragraph. And the second. And the third. Instead of finding the catch, I was treated to an informative, interesting, and fascinating read. Really. I’m not being sarcastic. He handed us $5 and walked away. And that was it. How ’bout that?
I’m not letting my guard down for a second, but here’s a link to the compass piece that ends with:

I trust my observations here are largely accurate and not offensive. We non-Natives are unfair to not acknowledge that we are latecomers to this great land and that we are standing on the shoulders of giants who learned to live in this magnificent land over 10,000 years ago. Let us acknowledge our debts and sins and go forward with respect, justice and dignity.

I encourage you to read the piece, take the $5, enjoy Senator Dyson’s moment of lucidity, but please watch your back on the way home from school.

Do read the entire Compass piece here http://www.adn.com/opinion/compass/story/691657.html It's really quite good. I have no problem giving credit where credit is due - even to someone like Fred Dyson, with whom I have never agreed in my memory. :rofl: