Editorial by Jeff Jones

It would appear obvious, as the insipid details have been bandied about for months now, that Alaska has cultivated a fine bevy of corrupted politicians, lobbyist and business folks.

Undoubtedly more of the sordid details will come to light as more miscreants from all levels of the food chain are under investigation. Not to be outdone by our local yokels, even the heavy hitters are getting some action as Senator Ted and Brother Don are both under clouds of suspicion with grand jury investigations. Even poor Lisa, not wanting to be left out, returned a home recently to a longtime friend after having bought a splendid Kenai river property for a song.

Most recently, our former chief of staff pleaded guilty to taking illegal money and will be dining with fellow felons Pete Kott and Tom Anderson down at the Sheraton Hotel.

Sure, we wring our hands and listen to talk radio or read the newspaper, naively wondering why or how all of this could have gone on for so long and been so blatant as to attract every FBI agent this side of the Yukon River.

Water cooler submissions blame everyone from Adolph Hitler to Osama bin Laden, but the real culprits can be easily found. If you want to find blame, take a real good, long, hard look in the mirror.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, a man who was no stranger to prisons, though for dissident reasons rather than narcissistic, gave a commencement address in 1978 at Harvard University, and what he had to say wasn't very attractive. After being imprisoned for years, he immigrated to the United States and found something very alarming. Remember, this was 30 years ago, but what struck him so violently was something he defined as a lack of civic courage.

This revelation, along with others, was not well received by the intelligentsia of Harvard anymore than it is today in Alaska.

I remember the summer of 2006, after a complaint had been filed against Senate President Ben Stevens questioning his taking of hundreds of thousands of dollars from industry with no explanation, his response given to a TV reporter on a beautiful summer day at Town Square.

With the tape running and the camera fixed, Senate President Stevens was asked point blank if he would inform us plebeians what he had done to earn that money. His response, “None of your business.”

Our collective response? Silence.

Sure, our country was founded on some very principled ideals. We just don't seem to hold them in high regard in our enlightened post-modern state of denial.

For if Sen. Ben Stevens could benefit us, then let him do as he pleases. As long as you show Alaska the money, you get a hall pass.

I don't mean to pick on former State Senate President Stevens. You could insert a long array of names into the proposition, but we shrug our shoulders and head for the house, not wanting or caring to involve ourselves.

Ben Franklin said that only a virtuous people could remain free. I think he is right. If we want the world to be decent and just, true and free, then we must model that same behavior. “Rights” are a big buzzword of late, but another word of equal importance is seldom heard; “Responsibility.”

For decades Alaskans have held out their hands to the highest bidder, not caring where the money came from, as long as it was doled out in colossal proportions. This state has become known as the greatest welfare state of those 50, nifty United States.

We promised Uncle Sam decades ago that if he would give us a monetary boost, we would become self-sufficient. We haven't. We've become arrogant and precocious, tyrannical in our pursuit of other peoples' money. Our midst is filled with corrupt politicians while seemingly not a noble statesman to be found in the lot.

Our current administration and Legislature soothes our conscience by heralding a shiny new ethics package to explain how this will cure our ills.

It won't.

As long as we look to the Capitol or the administration or the lawyer or whoever - anyone but ourselves - the issue will not diminish, it will only go deeper underground for a period, and then again rear its grotesque and distorted figure sometime in the future.

For you see, this solution begins and ends with us, not them.

Jeff Jones is the publisher of the Alaska Journal of Commerce. He may be reached at jeff.jones@alaskajournal.com.