Search and Rescue Attempt

Thursday evening an acquaintance George called and said that Jason hadn't shown up the night before (Wednesday night.) Jason rents a room in George's house. Jason is an early 20's year old guy that plays in a bluegrass band as a mandolin player. He is also great on fiddle and guitar. Carol and I had that band come up in June for our folkfest, and Jason liked it so much that he came to work here since July. So the first couple weeks when Jason came back to Nome, he lived here with Carol and I. And we've played music together at parties.. he is a good friend. In fact, Tuesday night we played at a town Christmas gala event and did a couple Christmas songs for the community.

So since it was unusual that he hadn't shown up at George's I began making some calls to a couple people that I knew he knew. Found out he had rented a pickup and went for a drive Wednesday morning out toward Teller - about 80 miles away to the northwest. He was only going to go about half way. He had a 16 year old kid with him named John too. So I ended up organizing a small search and rescue operation, including myself and George in my jeep, and Roger and Kevin, another couple friends in Roger's truck. I also called the police and they called the local Search and Rescue people and State Troopers and let them know what was going on.

We finally set out at about 9pm and drove up to the Sinuk river where we were stopped by a snow drift. There were drifts behind us we could bust through, but knew they would be closing in behind us quickly due to the storm. A local Search and Rescue pickup had beat us out there. There were two guys - one set out on foot to walk to the top of the rise and shine a search light into the river valley, were a couple cabins were - to see if he got any response. We parked my jeep and started digging the drift with shovels to get Roger's truck through. The guy with the light came back and said we would never make it very far because of lots of drifts. Probably said we would be crazy for trying.

Well, we figured we wanted to save our friends and didn't have anything else to do so continued shoveling. The two S and R guys headed back to town. Turned out that that was their whole effort that night. I would have thought they would have sent out a loader and tried to bust through with a serious S and R effort. The drift was nearly 50 yards or more long but we made it through it. Then the road was pretty great from there, short of a few more easy drifts to just drive through. So we were able to go another 10 miles or more past where Jason said he was going.

But the further we got, the harder the wind blew and the worse it got with visibility. We finally had to stop, because we could no longer see the road. Kevin tried to get out of the truck to walk in front of it to try and find the road, but the wind was so strong against the door he couldn't open it. The truck windows also immediately frosted up, impairing visibility more. The snow packing into the engine compartment froze up the engine belts so they were slipping and we no longer had the battery charging - so the defrost stopped working all together. We were in a white-out (dark at night though, with some moonlight above) and problems were starting to compound. That's what gets you in trouble - usually one thing is easy to handle but things start failing all around you and that's when your life starts becoming at risk.

So we started backing up until we could see enough road gravel to turn around. We were all scraping the ice off the window (on the inside of the truck cab) so we could see something. I was using a credit card. George and I were in the back cab seat and kept our eyes on each side of the road to let Roger know if we was going to drive off the edge or not. If you rolled down a window, all hell would break loose inside the truck with the wind and sandblasting effect of the wind driven snow. It was too painful so was not an option. You couldn't survive long outside there. We managed to get turned around after a long several minutes and got headed down wind. Not long the engine belt quit slipping so we got some defrost back, since we were no longer heading into the wind. But visibility was very bad still as the wind was increasing so we had to creep back (to avoid driving off the road or into a drift we couldn't see) til we got off the hill and down into the river valley, where it seemed almost calm. We were pretty worried about our friends at that point. Roger had heard that someone had gotten stuck in a drift Sunday at mile 42, and we had made it to mile 35 before having to turn back. We figured they were stuck in that drift, but hoped that they had made it to some cabins nearby there.

When we got back to the drift that we had dug through, it was worse then the first time due to snow blowing since we had been there, so we had to shovel some more. I tried taking a picture to give you some idea:

searchandrescue

You can barely make out George and Kevin shoveling on each side of the headlights.

Anyway, we made it back to town and our friends had to spend a second night out without any proper gear or food or water. I think they had warm clothes, but no survival gear. We made it back about 2:30 am, and I couldn't sleep much thinking about them.

Next day, yesterday, I went to work. Search and Rescue said a plane would fly at first light 11:30am. But when it came time, the weather was too bad for planes to fly. They finally decided to send a loader out with a Suburban following, loaded down with gear. It was a long wait for us - they finally found the truck at 3pm or so but no Jason or John. They began searching the nearby cabins and didn't find them. So I was pretty worried. But at about 4:30pm, they found them in a cabin 7 miles away from the truck that they had walked to- probably before the weather got too bad. The funny part was there was a third kid with them that nobody knew was missing. They were all right, except for being hungry. Big relief for Carol and I, and Jason's and John's parents.

Jason is scheduled to fly back to Anchorage, his home, Monday to start working with his band on their third CD and doing some schooling, then tour all summer with the band. So he will be off on a new adventure.

Fighting the Good Fight

I love Americans that sacrifice for all of us. Those that put themselves into hardship so that we may retain what makes us American - civil liberties. Those liberties have taken a bad hit in the last few years - but some people still struggle to retain what we have left.

This case caught my attention, thanks much to Boingboing.net .
A 50 year old mother of four who lives and works in Denver, Colorado has been arrested for not showing her ID on a public bus. She was minding her own business, just trying to get to work. Read this story and please think about it. I hope I would do the same as her.

Fascism?

1. Fascism
   1. A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.
   2. A political philosophy or movement based on or advocating such a system of government.
2. Oppressive, dictatorial control.

A high school student made an anti-Bush poster for a Bill of Rights class exercise, and his school then got a visit from the Secret Service. Here is the link to the page:
http://www.alternet.org/walmart/26503/#thumbtack

Walmart turned him in when the student took film of the poster in to be printed.

A commentor on the site said this:
"Anyone still want to argue that the USA is not rapidly becoming a fascist state?"

Hunter S.

Here's a quote I found on the web attributed to Hunter S. Thompson, who recently left this world. He was an interesting author.

"We have become a Nazi monster in the eyes of the whole world--a nation of bullies and bastards who would rather kill than live peacefully. We are not just Whores for power and oil, but killer whores with hate and fear in our hearts. We are human scum, and that is how history will judge us . . . No redeeming social value. Just whores. Get out of our way, or we'll kill you.

Who does vote for these dishonest shitheads? Who among us can be happy and proud of having this innocent blood on our hands? Who are these swine? These flag-sucking half-wits who get fleeced and fooled by stupid rich kids like George Bush?

They are the same ones who wanted to have Muhammad Ali locked up for refusing to kill gooks. They speak for all that is cruel and stupid and vicious in the American character. They are the racists and hate mongers among us--they are the Ku Klux Klan. I piss down the throats of these Nazis.

And I am too old to worry about whether they like it or not. Fuck them."

--Hunter S. Thompson*

Sarah

Sarah C. Hanson, singer (the bestest), is visiting us from Fairbanks. Whoo-hoo. She stayed in the Discovery Saloon with us for a weekend - did a lot of good for the schools and put on a nice show for the denizens of Nome. She has a blog, but unable to update it recently due to some authentication problems:
http://sarahchanson.com/news/index.html

Our house

Window
Originally uploaded by hunky.

Was a bar in 1900, then a house in 1916. We've been insulating the walls, fixing windows, and residing. It was sided in aluminum in the 70's, so we're peeling that off and redoing the cedar siding.

Inauguration Day

Today the President swore to uphold the constitution. I wish the guy would read it - or have someone who knew what it was about explain it to him. Maybe then he would undo some of the damages done during his first term. I saw Unconstitutional tonight, a documentary about, well, mostly the Patriot Act. Wow. Wish everyone who loved this country could take a gander at that movie. I think it may be from the ACLU if anyone is interested. It is a bit dated, apparently.. a few things may have been rolled back by lawsuits but I'm not sure to what extent. Haven't followed it that closely. See it if you can.

On another subject.. still struggling with whether I should be doing this or not. Hmmm. I don't seem to find time for it. But we'll see.

Iraq and other

I've been completely disgusted with our government with going to war against Iraq. Namely because I never believed the Weapons of Mass Destruction lie or the al Qaeda link and couldn't believe anyone did believe that drivel. I just figured it was a way to get the administration's buddies, or base as Bush was quoted saying in the Moore movie, rich with oil and rebuilding contracts. But I just finished reading America's Secret War by George Friedman and finally I have found a plausible reason for doing what we did. Still can't say I neccessarily agree with it or that there wasn't perhaps a better way that a more talented foreign policy person/group could have pulled together. I'll have to cogitate on this one awhile.

But we are in a mess in the world, due in part to the way we behave in the global arena, and if this book is anywhere near the truth then I finally feel like the US government isn't completely bonkers. What the book says is that we were losing ground rapidly with the Saudis, Iran, and others including Syria with regard their willingness to help out with the al Qaeda problem. They thought we were militarily weak. This is big news to me, but seems to make sense when viewing our actions over the last couple decades through the eyes of warlike people. So in the book's view, we had to do something and that was a show of strength, as well as put ourselves into a position of power (bases in Iraq).

It was a good read, I finally feel I have a tenuous grasp on what the heck may be going on, and who some of the players are and what might be the reasons for some of their actions. I should read more.

Then I picked up my latest copy of Utne Reader, a "Readers Digest" of sorts of the other press - non-mainstream and non-conservative. It can be a bit out there if you're not used to some of the concepts that are floating about, but it is a good collection of stories to get an alternative view. In that there were a couple interesting snippets. One was that the top 400 income earners in the United States make more money each year than the entire population of the 20 poorest countries in Africa. This is as reported in the Guardian and the Multinational Monitor.

The next thing was about an economic hit man (John Perkins) who worked for the World Bank and World Trade Organization, and multinational corporations. He wrote a book about this titled Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. To quote from Utne's story, he "was paid to create unrealistically rosy forecasts of economic growth, which he and his colleagues would use to lure poor countries' leaders into accepting massive loans from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and other international leaders." Think what the result is: they can't pay back the loans because of forecasts were bogus, hence they are owned by these organizations and corporations. The countries are exploited and trod upon. The citizens suffer because all the cash the country may have is going towards debt service.

As long as corporations' only duty is to maximize profits for its shareholders, we have a broken system that cannot work. Corporations have no conscience. Maybe some do, or some individuals within them do, but overall, I would say not.

Mr Perkins also throws out a number saying 24,000 people die of hunger each day. I don't know - what is going on?

We want peace? There'll be no global peace as long as there is such inequity.