Hope for the Future

By Mark W. Danielson

You can find interesting people everywhere.  Airports, trains, walking on crowded streets.  All have unique stories to tell, but we’ll rarely hear them because of our busy lives.  Recently I had the privilege of hearing a heartwarming story from a perfect stranger, and thanks to her, I realized our upcoming generations are not as lost as we have been led to believe.

On a recent ride from the Memphis airport to my hotel, I found myself the lone passenger in the van.  My driver began by saying she normally doesn’t work more than three days a week, but recently they had been calling her in for overtime.  She was fine with that because her husband is going to trucking school and her sixteen year old daughter is very independent.  Pondering a typical sixteen-year-old’s behavior, I casually mentioned how some girls actually benefit from supervision at that age.  Thus began her story about her daughter’s love affair  -- with BOOKS!

 

The more she spoke of her daughter, the more impressed I became.  Imagine a teenager who must be told to put her book down and go to sleep!  Not surprisingly, she is a straight A student who wants to study journalism in New York and then wander the streets of Paris.  When I asked what kind of books she enjoyed, the driver said suspense and mystery.  Since that’s my genre, I couldn’t help mentioning that I wrote.

By my story isn’t important here.  What matters is there are plenty of ambitious, quiet teens who study hard, and these kids will become tomorrow’s leaders.  Forget about the drunken, pregnant and tattooed teens who gain attention in the social media, television and movies.  Hopefully, in time they will turn themselves around and be equally productive.  Thankfully, kids like my driver’s help break the mindless, self-absorbed stereotype and give us hope for the future.  

Coincidentally, the next day I had the same driver.  Shortly after climbing in, I told her about this blog that I was writing about her daughter.  She was so thrilled, I feared she would burst with pride.  At the end of my ride, I wished her daughter well, but honestly her work ethic and eagerness to learn will certainly make her successful. 

For those of us with gray hair, it helps to know there are kids like this one shadowing the background, studying, learning, determined to make something of their lives.  So ignore what you see on TV and embrace our youth.  Thanks to them our future is bright.

Our Greatest Frontier

By Mark W. Danielson

I love Alaska. Over twice the size of Texas, it’s by far our greatest frontier. Everything is different there. Accessibility. Climate. Auroras. Most of all, attitude. Certainly, its remoteness contributes to that. Being a half a continent away makes it difficult for Washington to enforce their rules. And since most locations are only accessible by air, even the FAA has a milder policy toward Alaskan pilots.

Perhaps the thing I like most about Alaska is the Anchorage newspaper, which brims with local news. And why shouldn’t it? Who cares about events in other states? Its proximity warrants attention to Russian events, but immigration on the southern US borders carries little interest. To understand what I’m saying, I thought I’d share a few examples of actual headlines from the Anchorage Daily News.

Mountain Bikers Fend Off Grizzly Attack Near Hope. Now, this is an interesting headline because in most states, a “grizzly attack” would mean someone got knifed in a dark alley, in which case they might be closer to death than Hope. This biker’s problems began when he came across a grizzly bear with cubs. Like most moms, bears will stop at nothing to protect their young. In spite of being pounced on and bitten, this biker managed to fend off the bear with determination and bear spray, which I presume is standard equipment, comparable to carrying an American Express Card in LA.

Poor Run Shuts Down Nushagak King Fishery. Don’t you just love these Alaskan names? Actually, Nushagak is a river, and the king salmon have been so over-fished that the Alaskan Department of Fish and Game ended all king salmon fishing – even on catch-and-release. How about that? Alaska has a proactive state agency. What a concept.

Bear Grabs Bunny; Owner Gives Chase. Hey, I’m not making this up! The story goes: “A black bear snatched up a partially paralyzed pet rabbit from the owner’s yard and the rabbit’s owner gave chase. But she couldn’t rescue her bunny, named George, from the teeth of the bear.” Is this person nuts? My thought was God was calling this bunny home and the bear was his messenger. Kind of a win-win situation. And for some reason, the bear ignored the bunny owner’s cries to, “Stop! Stop! Give me him!” Now, if I were to write that into a story, no one would ever publish my work again.

Landing Jetliner’s Wing Hits Passenger Bridge. Okay, here’s one for the exaggeration-with-little-content category. “The United Airlines 757 struck a passenger bridge [meaning the off-loading bridge that extends from the terminal] after landing in Anchorage.” Please . . . It’s not like this 757 struck the Bay Bridge while attempting to land in Oakland. Amazingly, “Those on board were able to safely exit the plane.” Duh. The plane wasn’t going more than five miles per hour when it hit. Good old sensationalism at its best. Keep that in mind when you write. It may initially draw the reader in, but ultimately it will backfire.

Commercial Fishermen Report Strong Returns of Bristol Bay Sockeye. In keeping with the newspaper’s sensationalist policy, this article was posted on the back page while the one about the Nushagak fishery closing down was on the front page. Interesting, isn’t it?

So, there you go. One day’s worth of local news direct from Anchorage, only delayed by a few weeks. You can learn a lot from papers like this, like how locals interact, and what they are engaged in. If you’re writing about a particular location, newspapers can be a good source of understanding. It’s also interesting to note Alaska’s wilderness connection. The news may offer a different perspective from the ones on travel agency videos. The bottom line is know what you’re writing about before you ever touch the keyboard. If you don’t, it can bite like a bear.