Over a million acres burns across Alaska, as our government prepares to slash funding for education, social services, agriculture, the environment, public media, and the arts. (And that's the short list.) The Governor plans to gut our university system, while continuing to give oil companies major tax breaks.
Money for the powerful but not for those who need it most.
And still we wait for rain.
Officials cancelled the Junior Mt. Marathon race for the first time ever due to poor air quality from the Swan Lake Fire that burns on the other side of the Kenai Peninsula. Adult racers were given the option to defer till next year and hold their spot, cutting the number of racers down by a third.
I still ran despite the heat and smoke; and though I finished with my slowest time yet, I finished in the top 100 women and earned the chance to climb up and run down 3,022 feet again next year. Crazy as it sounds, I'm sure I'll sign up in 2020 for my fifth consecutive year.
I missed watching Olive compete in this grueling footrace but appreciated the race committee's decision to cancel the event to protect children's developing lungs. I wish all the folks in power considered what is best for our kids when they made decisions that affect the future.
Not only is our Governor drastically cutting the university system's funding, but because we don't yet have a state operating budget, scholarships for college bound students have been placed on hold. Meanwhile the oil companies made record profits in Alaska last year, as our homeless population grows, and support for the elderly, poor, and disabled gets slashed-- as if people are expendable byproducts to the rise of corporate power.
"What do you mean?" Olive asked, when she overheard me tell Nick about a "Save our State" rally we missed in Anchorage.
How do I explain to an innocent hope-filled nine-year-old our current political fiasco?
Hi, I'm glad you posted this; I was a little concerned about how you got through the race, given the heat. This weather is insane.
Posted by: Elaine | 07/11/2019 at 12:55 AM
The heat was brutal. I just didn't push 100% going up so I could keep putting one foot in front of the other. Luckily a lot of spectators hauled water up the mt. for us. One guy even found the last patch of snow and brought us snowballs. Glad its over!
Posted by: Christy | 07/11/2019 at 07:24 AM