Anchorage Daily News editorial - Aid from Chavez

[Blue_In_AK]

http://www.adn.com/opinion/story/605452.html

Venezuelan mischief-maker Hugo Chavez is back on the Alaska scene with another offer of discounted fuel for the state's predominantly Native communities. In the past, villages that accept the offer, made through Venezuela's national oil company Citgo, have been called unpatriotic, since Chavez is notorious for his anti-Americanism.

To which we say, "Any port in a storm."

Rural Alaska communities had to fill up their fuel tanks for the entire winter just when oil prices were peaking at about $140 a barrel. Residents are stuck with those high-cost fuel supplies for an entire six- to eight-month winter. They will not enjoy any of that $2-a-gallon decrease that Alaskans on the road system have seen in the past couple of months. In Bush Alaska, prices of $5 to even $10 a gallon are locked in until summer.

Under those circumstances, no Alaskan should fault another for taking advantage of any fuel assistance that might come their way. And the "unpatriotic" charge is especially offensive to Native villagers, who are justifiably proud of their high rates of service in the National Guard and other branches of the military.

Some villages may, on principle, spurn the help from this anti-American source. They should be lauded for that honorable and economically self-sacrificing stand.

But villages that take aid from Hugo Chavez's Citgo should not be condemned.

The U.S. government is happy to let Hugo Chavez's Citgo do business in this country. The U.S. government is happy to collect taxes from Hugo Chavez's Citgo. But if Citgo decides to pass along a little charity to U.S. residents who are struggling to pay for fuel, they're supposed to say "no" because it's an affront to their country?

Melanie Edwards of Nome put it well:

"Last time I checked, (Citgo is) paying corporate taxes to the U.S. Treasury," she said. "And we figure until such time that the U.S. government is so offended by Venezuela and Citgo that they're not accepting any more funding, then we're not being unpatriotic by accepting the same."

BOTTOM LINE: Try paying $7 a gallon for fuel before criticizing Alaskans who accept this controversial help.

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(Following up on original ADN article here http://www.adn.com/money/story/604423.html and AK Muckraker's (The Mudflats) opinion here http://mudflats.wordpress.com/2008/11/28/would-you-rather-freeze-to-death-or-be-a-socialist/ "Would You Rather Freeze to Death or be a Socialist."


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And where is the governor while this crisis unfolds? Of course, she's in Georgia campaigning for that POS Saxby Chambliss. Alaska needs a REAL governor stat.

[pinto]

1. Well said, objective editorial.

Chavez is a lightning rod for many. I like how the ADN ignored sensationalism and looked to the bottom line, across the board, for the villages.

[Arctic Dave]

2. I hope Phailin stays in Georgia.

I'm sure we can make do without her.

[Peace Patriot]

3. Chavez is NOT "anti-American"! Chavez IS an AMERICAN!

"...since Chavez is notorious for his anti-Americanism."

"Some villages may, on principle, spurn the help from this anti-American source."

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When are we arrogant assholes of the north going to get this straight? Hugo Chavez was BORN in America. He is president of an AMERICAN country. The people who elected him are AMERICANS. We are NOT the ONLY Americans in the western hemisphere. There are billions of other Americans who are not citizens of the United States. The United States is just one country of many that make up America.

I understand the use of the word "America" to mean the "United States" from a perspective of Europe or Asia or some other faraway place, where the U.S. is the outsized influence on their lives, from this hemisphere. And I understand its used when speaking strictly of issues within our borders. (I.e., 70% of the American people oposed the war on Iraq.) But when you are talking about South Americans, or Latin Americans, and calling them "anti-American," it makes no sense, and it is insulting. Hugo Chavez is ANTI-BUSH, and ANTI-U.S. CORPORATE DOMINATION of his country and other Latin American countries.

I am anti-Bush and anti-U.S. corporate domination of Latin America (and of the U.S., for that matter). Does that make me "anti-American"? I was born here. I am a native Californian. One of my ancestral lines goes back to the early French fur traders in Illinois and, indeed, I have one forbear who was a Kickapoo Native American. Also, Irish and Swedish, of more recent American vintage. Hugo Chavez is a mutt like me--and like Barack Obama. He is part indigenous, part African and part Spanish. He is an AMERICAN. And, if the truth were known in this country, he is a better American than many of our own politicians, who have sold our democracy out to transnational global corporate predators, and to tyrannical financiers in Saudi Arabia and China. Hugo Chavez believes in the sovereignty of the people--the right of the people of a country to rule their own affairs, through democratic institutions (like TRANSPARENT vote counting--something Venezuela has, and we don't). He is much more in tune with the founders of our Republic than any leader we have today, who are all much more like the Tories of the East India Company than they are like real Americans. Chavez is NOT "anti-American." He is a REAL American--America the rebellious, America the revolutionary, America the anti-cartel, anti-monopoly, anti-monarchy, self-ruling upstarts of the world.

And our traitorous national political establishment has reacted to him just as the Tories reacted to Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Tom Paine, and that scruffy lot who dared to challenge established "custom." They slander him mercilessly. And that slander gets hammered into our brains via the corpo/fascist 'news' monopolies, so that we come out with phrases like "anti-American" to describe Chavez. And they slander his allies as well, so that the FIRST 100% INDIGENOUS president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, gets called "anti-American," because he doesn't buy into the corrupt, failed, murderous US "war on drugs" or Bushwhacks destabilizing his country with fascist riots. "Anti-American," my ass. Evo Morales is the epitome of Americanism, the first tenet of which is anti-IMPERIALISM.

And that is the sad fact about us. Our government has come to resemble the British imperial tyranny that our Founders evicted from this continent. And our most cherished belief--in democracy--is now flourishing to the south of us, in the countries that our global corporate predators have long brutalized, plundered and oppressed, and it is very nearly dead here, where even the most heinous crimes of our emperor/presidents cannot be punished or even controlled. Our asshole rulers call Chavez a "tyrant." It is a lie. WE are the ones suffering tyranny, not Venezuelans.

Where are the real American patriots? They are the citizens, social movements, indigenous tribes, union leaders and members, small peasant farmers, and other leftists and government leaders of South America, in the most amazing democracy movement that the world has seen, since our own revolution. THEY are the "Americans" now. And what are we? What are we?

[Blue_In_AK]

4. I agree with you, Peace Patriot.

I imagine the editorial writer felt like he had to throw that in there to appease a certain segment of the populace who might otherwise have blown a gasket with all the Chavez love.