It’s been a busy week here at Insurgent Headquarters.

     Thank you, first of all, to everyone who attended the inaugural Insurgent49 contributors meeting and party last Friday night. A special shout out goes to Fats Tunamelt, Dave Armstrong, Jaimie Pinkstaff, and Owen Cruise for your spirited musical performances. A good time was had by all, and you can count yourselves lucky that you didn’t have to clean up the mess. Fortunately, we did manage to have a productive meeting before cracking open the beers and have set I-49, I believe, on a solid path toward a bright future. It’s a team effort here and I thank you all for your hard work. 

     And now to business.

     In case you haven’t read it yet, I’d like you to stop reading this stupid column right now, go back to the main page, and read, from start to finish, Heather Baker’s article entitled “Alaska’s Dark Secret”. Go ahead ... I’ll wait.

     Finished? Good, then you feel that same empty, hollow feeling in the pit of your stomach that I felt when I first read it.

     We Alaskans ought to be ashamed of ourselves. As Heather pointed out, our state is unquestionably the rape capital of the United States. According to a 2004 study by the National Violence Against Women Prevention Research Center, 20.9% of all adult women in Alaska have been rape victims. That’s one in five. Did you know that? I didn’t. Did you know that Alaska has ranked #1 in the country in reported rapes for 19 of the last 26 years? I didn’t. Did you go out to support STAR and their demonstrators at their April 16^th ‘Take Back The Night’ rally? I didn’t. And as Heather Baker pointed out, neither did the mayor, the governor, or anyone from the local news media except Insurgent49.

     Why is the subject of rape so utterly absent from public discourse in Alaska? Is it still a shameful taboo? Does it make us too uncomfortable? Are we too busy endlessly debating issues of economics and development that there just isn’t any time left over to discuss ways we can stem this awful epidemic? If our collective priorities are so woefully misguided, it’s no wonder Alaska ranks #1 in reported rapes.

     Sexual assault isn’t our only social problem, either, if you haven’t noticed. Alaska has disturbingly high rates of alcoholism and drug abuse, homelessness, suicide, spousal abuse, child abuse, and infant mortality. It’s not that we don’t notice these problems; how could we not when the evidence of them is all around us and even creeps into our headlines every once in awhile between the governor’s new jet and how much the PFD is going to be this year? It’s not that Alaskans just don’t care.

     Is it?

     I’d like to thank Heather Baker for reminding me of Alaska’s shameful history regarding rape, and that the welfare of my fellow Alaskans will always be more important than pithy politics. When STAR holds their ‘Take Back The Night’ rally next April, I promise I’ll be there.

     Will you?