Men of Legend

MISSING! That is what appears to be the problem, this Money Brutality verses Sovereign Nation Brutality with respect to the Sioux Nation's showdown over the North Dakota "Bakken Oil" access pipeline. I am glad to see some "War Hero Veterans" heading that way to help the Native American Indian protests, as what the lawman demonstrates is a form of "peaceful protest" interference - is this a hint of the future under a Donald Trump Lunacy? Look, it really has nothing to do with Donald Trump, it's still Obama's watch. And since Trump is pigeon holed and never set foot in Alaska, I guess he believes the "Tower" is his natural beauty magnificence - in all honesty I feel sorry for the bastard child of Fred. Imagine, steel and concrete as a home, no different than a Federal penitentiary. But what is missing this fight, are "True Statesmen". We learned long ago in Alaska that if leadership is front and center of commerce verses the environment, then remedies lends itself to healing all concerns. Let me start by this. If water pollution is an issue the routing of this controversial pipeline that Trump holds an ownership, then all it takes is to have "double walled pipe" protection in sensitive areas. We do it all the time up in Alaska, for pipelines in the Arctic Ocean. Sure it adds to the cost of the infrastructure, but it's the cost of doing business. And a historic case in point, the Trans-Alaska-Pipeline cost went from $1-Billion to $9-billion due environmental issues and re-routes due "sacred" Athabaskan hunting grounds. But when the 49er had statesmen paving the way for resource development without preferential treatment to the industry and listened to the concerns of the citizens - we have a project before us with over 40-years of success with very little impact to the environment and the Native Alaskan's have benefited from this venture. OK, the EXXON Valdez was an abnormally, that was NOT part of the pipeline and was sabotage, planned sabotage by a "fake" environmental "gadfly" whistle-blower named Charles Hamel - the untold story about an oil broker that went broke trying to compete against EXXON, lost everything and sank the tanker to get even. Now two individuals that made it happen in Alaska were Senator Ted Stevens and Alaska's Governor and "Bush Rat" extraordinaire Jay Hammond. Early on it was the challenges by the environmentalist lobby that coaxed all concerned parties to sit down and negotiate. The pipeline was coming, as it was mandated by Congress, so that is when all concerned parties sat down and bargained their positions. The Alaskan Athabaskans and Inupiat Eskimos had a voice, from environmental to cultural concerns. A quote from the "Bush Rat" is testament that when we work together, we can find solutions. On the EPA's involvement on the construction of the 800-mile long Trans-Alaska-Pipeline; "And I think because of the actions of the environmentalists in asserting they would sue unless certain construction design remedies were incorporated into the project that we would have had a much less successful pipeline venture then we now have." So even though environmental issues demanded a thorough design critique and cultural trespass issues required some pipeline re-routing along with archeologists testing every inch of ground, in the end everybody walked away from the table with a victory sign. The same can be done in North Dakota, the problem stems from the fact we no longer have any leadership, no statesmen, neither at the state or Federal level. I am not damning Barack Obama, he is but for the Commander-in-Chief only, it is the "Do Nothing Congress" that is too blame for everything that is wrong today. If American business went to work with the same attitude like we see with Elijah Cummings and Nancy Pelosi, well us workers would already be in the unemployment lines, maybe suicide would suffice. But that is what we see going down in North Dakota, there are NO statesmen that travel a middle road with the realization that compromise is a good thing, it is a two-way street car called desire. But instead, we see "Brutality verses Brutality", and that is why peaceful protests are entering the "forbidden zone" - as I can see it now when Donald Trump takes office - he will kill the EPA and make peaceful demonstrations against the law - then we take down that American flag as we will then be in line with the Russian Federation. One last unsolved mystery, well Ted Stevens was assassinated, because he knew things that were about to become destructive to friends turned enemy, as that is what politics is all about today - one day friends, the next day, well you may find yourself in the sights of a sniper round. America was "Once Great", we have NOT the grace to make it that way again as "Greed" is a tough thing to "Kill".