Are billionaires buying up Alaska public lands also? Idaho made The New York Times’ front page Sunday in the article “Who Gets to Own the West?” It addresses billionaires buying up public land across Idaho and New Mexico, installing signs and gates while guarding their new property with armed security guards; citing God and conservancy, while requiring applicants seeking permission to use their land to read their conservative website. Who else could the band The Five Man Electrical Band have had in mind in their song “Signs?” “And the sign says ‘long-haired freaky people need not apply’ … And the sign says ‘anybody caught trespassing will be shot on sight;’ So I jumped the fence and I yelled at the house, ‘Hey! What gives you the right; to put up a fence and keep me out or to keep mother nature in; If God was here, he’d tell it to your face, man, you’re some kind of sinner.’ ”
— Chris Deile
Anchorage
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