Opinions

Alaskans need to be wiser than cats in a bag

Picture a ramshackle New Mexico ranch town during the Great Depression. Feeding your family was all you could do and there was never food to spare. My grandpa thought everyone was asleep when he put the two stray cats in a tow sack, tied the top and pushed the sack underwater with a stick. In the time it took to smoke a cigarette, the cats were dead. He pulled the sack from the wash tub and threw it into the burn barrel for Saturday's fire.

My mother was watching. After grandpa went to work, mom pulled the sack out of the burn barrel to see if either of the cats was still alive. They weren't but she noticed that both cats had vicious wounds about their heads and necks. While drowning, the cats savaged each other.

Life is getting tough and someone is to blame. In a recent Facebook meme, liberals were mocking a tea party woman because she had misspelled the word "imbecile" on her protest poster. In a local business, I saw a T-shirt on display. "F--- Obama and His Liberal Friends."

Always willing to give us what we ask for, our media dishes up continuous servings of venom and bile -- a cafeteria of hatred and filth. Whether you're on the left or the right, if there is a particular group you fear or hate, chances are good you can find a media outlet that will lambaste, scourge and crucify that group 24/7. And the clever, mean-spirited "gotcha" phrases are repeated often, so you can memorize them and use them in conversations with friends.

The result of this toxic political discourse is that Alaskans feel like they have to take sides, and many are literally prepared for a fight to the death.

Over the last few years, I've gotten to know two men who I thought were my enemies. These were men I was told to stay away from because their ideas were different. One of them reached out to me, and I reached out to the other one. The amazing thing I discovered was that when it comes down to it, we all three want the same things -- friends and family, a place to call our own, a clean environment, peace, privacy, respect and opportunities for everyone. When possible, we like people to work for what they receive. We believe that government should serve the people, not corporations. We believe in the sanctity of life, and although the ways we express that belief differ, between the three of us, we paint a complete picture of what it means to respect life, from conception to death.

Sometimes the three of us call these things we value by different names and those names often carry strong emotional baggage, but essentially our dreams are the same. Though I still don't completely agree with these men, I respect them and care about them very much. We are far more alike than we are different, and on most issues we can move forward together.

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So I'm thinking about those cats again. What lessons can we learn from this? In their final moments, who did they believe was their enemy? And who was their real enemy? As we're trapped in this tow sack together, shredding each other as we drown, who is really responsible for what's happening to us? Are we wise enough to identify our true adversaries, and do we have the strength and maturity to quit quarreling so that we can work toward our common goals? Is it possible that our real enemies actually help fuel conflict to draw our attention away from what they are trying to do to all of us? Do we have the courage to seek the truth and take on the powers that exploit us, or is it just easier to take our anger out on the other cats in the sack?

Let's come together. In Alaska, there's no "us" and "them." It's just us.

Eric Treider is a semi-retired oilfield worker who lives in Soldotna with his wife Nelma. He is an independent candidate for state Senate District O.

The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, e-mail commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com

Eric Treider

Eric Treider is running for Alaska Senate, District O. He's a semi-retired oilfield worker and gold miner. He and his wife Nelma live in Soldotna.

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