A roadside tour of cold, dreary, beautiful Wasilla on a day of national tragedy and mourning - starting with a school bus

I begin the tour with the school children, as school children have been lying heavily upon the minds, conscience and in the sorrow-laden heart of our nation today. The children must must be protected. As an Alaskan and gun owner who carries his camera on a fair number of hunting trips and who eats a lot of wild food, even if shot by others who survive on wild food, I know the right of American citizens to own guns must be protected - but I do not believe that this right must be twisted into dogma that allows the tormented and the evil to easily acquire and carry guns capable of rapidly firing dozens of rounds of ammunition anywhere, let alone into school buildings.

Let's drop the extremist positions, be they of the belligerant far right who show up at political rallies carrying guns, or the radical far left, who would take away the guns of everybody, including the hunters who live by them. Let's have a good, national, rational (!!!!!!!????!!!!!!) discussion about this issue, about how we might put an end to this plague of pointless gun violence that kills so many of our parents, our brothers and sisters, our children and grandchildren.

I don't know what the answer is. It is not going to be an easy answer to come by. It will take a lot of discussion and argument, but we've got to talk about it. We've got to make an honest, painful, effort to find the answer. We just can't stand behind dogma while people murder our children - nor can we equate honest, responsible gun owners with murderers, just because they own and use guns.

This is a discussion we must have.

The children above passed by going in the opposite direction as I sat with Margie at a stoplight, waiting for red to turn to green. The following images where all shot on the same drive.

...by Wasilla lake...

...the other end of Wasilla Lake...

...Sunrise Road...

...man with snow shovel, Sunrise Road...

...Sunrise Road...

...Seldon cut banks, Seldon Road.

Regular readers are well familiar with the Seldon cut bank, but not the fence that now both protects it. I documented the process that led to this fence in October, but I was too busy working on my Barrow fall whaling series to post it.

I might post it yet, before the year ends.

Comments

[Marilyn]

OMG, Bill. Your photos are always good--for one reason or another--but that third Sunrise Road photo is breathtaking......

Thank you

[Rocksee]

I think yours is the most sensible position I've read yet on the guns situation. I believe a discussion needs to be had. People aren't going to like it. But we can not have anymore of these unspeakable, horrendous crimes. I like a good shot gun killed moose, just as much as the next girl. But something has to change..