Concerning Logistics and Alaska's Location on the planet.

I remember as a kid here in Anchorage back in the early 1970's when the first 747 came to town. Now this had been an Anchorage where all TV shows were two weeks behind the rest of the United States. It seemed like weeks before the great latest Hollywood movies would meander their way up here. Package deliveries typically seem to take 4-6 weeks.

Never the less, the Anchorage International Airport was growing as just that, International, with Anchorage as an important hub. My Uncle flew for Pan American Airlines as they were opening doors of connection to the orient (China and Russia was still uniquely closed at the time.)  The polar route to Europe was just opening up or being loudly touted and advertised for everyone to get on board. My youthful fascination with ideas about England, Germany, France opened. We wouldn't have to fly all the way south to Seattle, across to New York, then across the path that Lindbergh took so long ago in his historic journey. We had our own short direct route, we would now be the adventurers. Advertising popularized the possibilities of Anchorage's location. I new nothing then of cabotage laws of embarking and debarking, but tourists from all over were making their way here unlike before. Scores of Japanese, Swiss, Germans would come here, sometimes making this their final destination, at other times they would go on to other adventures.

But then in the 1980's and 1990's the sensationalism went silent. The hype and advertising stopped. Anchorage once again seemed to be just a hub at the end of the road for local concerns, the big fish in a small pond. I didn't track this or study this. It was just my perspective of growing up here.

Darren Prokop suggested that the "Lower '48" and other places around the Pacific Rim, Europe, and Canada have a mentality that this is true, Alaska is the frontier, the wilderness, at the end of the road. He furthered the idea that we need to change this perspective, both within ourselves and with others.

I have become concerned that Alaska is more of a place of consumption than production. Ships and trucks come up full and leave less so (except of course the oil tankers...which leave quickly with the resource extracted here).  Same old story for Alaska. Quick extraction of fur, fish, gold, coal, copper, zinc has been our history. Little added value. The baseline for Alaska's economy rests on oil.  How can we develop to diversify our economy? How can we change people's thinking that we are a hub to stop at? We are a place that is productive. We are a crossroads.

I am pleased to hear all the statistics of logistics Dr. Prokop presented that thinking is advancing. Some businesses got in early like Fed Ex, who know the logistics of transportation of trade through this area, who know our cabotage laws are favorable for trade. I am pleased to hear that the State, the Cities, and business leaders are thinking about the hub that Anchorage and Fairbanks represents in this world. Solutions? I wonder if it goes back to awakening the minds of the Alaska children to see the possibilities and that they have access to their dreams. For in many of their minds, we are at the end of the road.

I look at the sky now and watch the planes fly way over head at 30,000 feet. From Seattle or Vancouver to Seoul, Beijing, and Narita (Tokyo). I know from what Dr. Prokop said, many them land here and our airport is real busy, and our port is real busy, and our roads are real busy. But what do my students see and think about the possibilities here?



  Kevin Brownsberger