Every culture is different. Alaska got lucky in that every time we had a critical moment the right people had power.
Earnest Gruening and Bob Bartlett (senators) oversaw the state constitution and were intellectual lions. Gruening, one of only two people to vote against the Tonkin gulf resolution, was legendary as was Bartlett.
Alaska's constitution is among the best in the country. Louisiana could stand to make education a priority.
Jay Hammond a bush rat liberal Republican poet married to an Eskimo woman and living in Naknek, faced down the oil companies as governor, with a bunch of kid legislators, and allowed us to create the permanet fund. It now has $40,000,000,000 and we pay no taxes, have an intact social structure and get about $1,500 every year in a check from the state.
Creation of a huge government program called "The Permanent fund" did that for us.
Imagine if LA had put 25% of their oil money into a permanent fund for the kids?
During our formation, Amerian was lucky. Wahington, Jefferson and Franklin, Adams and Hamilton were the intellectual giants of the day and fighting for us.
Then we not only got Lincoln just when we needed him, but FDR.
And JFK during the Cuban missle crises. |
