Cast your homeland security greenback vote for local

Go past the old Uminski's, past where Proctor's used to be. It's right across from where Myhill had his drug store. (Oh, you remember him. He was an older guy, his hands shook and he was the only place in town to get your ears pierced. He had a nut case in the front of the store. No, a real nut case, with a heat lamp for selling warm salty nuts!) Anyway, turn by the old bank covered in blue bathroom tile, keep going until you pass the old Wallace's bakery. (Their donuts were so tasty and addicting they must have put crack in the icing.) Turn left at the eagle nest. (No, a real one. The chicks just hatched.)

I realized while giving the route that no one who had moved to Homer since 1985 would know where to go. It wasn't to show off my localness; I can still talk to Doc Eneboe -- he delivered me -- for that.

The changes aren't unique to Homer, or Alaska. Wherever you moved from, the story is the same. Local is being steadily replaced with stores we once thought we'd see only in TV commercials.

It doesn't matter the wares; from coffee, troughs of pasta to hardware, we're being homogenized.

Recently I was driving through San Francisco. Between the Best Buy, Walmart, Starbucks and Bed Bath and Beyond, I wouldn't have known where I was except for the Golden Gate Bridge looming in the distance.

I realize most people living in our state moved here from somewhere else. I know some things are missed, and having those big box stores is comforting and civilized for some.

I cherish local.

I recently spent five minutes listening to a KGOP radio host get ecstatic about a box Italian restaurant coming to Alaska. Two things came to mind. One, I'll wish I could have those five minutes back when I'm on my death bed, and two, he obviously has never dined at our local Italian eateries.

One of my earliest memories is being in a hardware store on Bishop's Beach. I remember I had some candy and my Pop was holding me when a woman who looked like a fireplug stormed in to find a spark plug for an outboard. That hardware store is now an incredible art gallery.

Another memory was buying boots at a local mercantile establishment from a woman who looked like she could have been my grandmother's mother. She pinched my toes to make sure my boots fit. It's now a beautiful home furnishings store.

I realize I may sound like a get-off-my-lawn old fogey, but I'm nostalgic for the time when local meant neighbors doing business.

Every dollar you spend is a referendum. That green-backed vote is more important than most any other. It's your true homeland security. We wear hoodies that say Alaska Grown. We have made-in-Alaska fairs. Heck, the state's Department of Economic Development even has a Made in Alaska (MIA) program with a permitting process that allows local manufacturers to use the coveted MIA logo. With all the emphasis on local, it may surprise you to know that Alaska's emergency food storage bank is in Portland, Ore. Read that again.

Portland, Ore.

Are you kidding me? People there can subsist on lattes and scones. We're different. In a crisis, we'll need food that's a bazillion miles away.

Better get to know your local sources.

Our food security should be with local farmers in the Valley, Delta and on the Peninsula. Farmers like my friends Jan, Chris and Arthur. They wake up earlier than most of us to tend crops and feed cows and chickens. They put food on their neighbors' tables. The farmers' markets, egg traders and local butchers who process your moose are the folks who really have a vested interest in what your family eats.

Our food security also lies in maintaining healthy waters, wetlands and habitats. It lies in renewable fish and game populations. The ability to hunt, fish and gather healthy, huntable, harvestable populations of wild, pure, near-perfect protein is now more important than ever, given that our emergency food storage is so far over the horizon. Yeah, hunting and fishing is a little more work than gorging on the bottomless all-you-can-eat pasta bowl, but it's nice to know that your food comes from somewhere you'd consider living.

We all should make the effort to support local. We've always been a state where people didn't care what stickers were on your bumper when your car needed to be hauled out of a ditch. We knew the names of the kids of the lady who cut our hair, strung our nets and made the best pasta in town.

Let's remember who we are -- we're a bunch of people who either picked Alaska or never left.

So vote local when casting your dollars. We're a long way from Portland, and everywhere else.

Shannyn Moore is host of "The Shannyn Moore Show" on KOAN 1020 AM and 95.5 FM radio, and the television show "Moore Up North" on KYES Channel 5.