"Alaskans have an amazing record of being forward-thinking on who could vote. In 1912, a Tlingit, Charlie Jones, voted in Wrangell. He was assisted by Tillie Paul Tamarre, and they were both arrested. A federal court granted Alaska Natives the right to vote in territorial elections and the charges were dropped. It would be two more years before Native Americans elsewhere were granted the same right.

I guess when times were tougher in Alaska, people respected each other more. If you were stuck in a snowbank or fell out of your boat, you didn't care what color or gender your rescuers were.

I heard an advertisement on the radio this week. It was former lawmaker Gail Phillips chiding Alaskans for not being civil in the Pebble Mine fight. A few years ago she told us it was "un-American" and "un-Alaskan" to not let companies who are neither Alaskan nor American go through a permitting process.

I pulled into a park and thought about what she'd said. I watched a man and his boy walk past my car with fishing poles. There has to be a nicer way; maybe she was right."

Get the Story:
Shannyn Moore: Pebble Mine backers try to silence voters (The Anchorage Daily News 8/14)

Also Today:
Pebble advertising wars heat up as sides seek support (The Anchorage Daily News 8/15)