One Small Valley Social inJustice

Fair warning: There will be an individual named here, who does exist here in the Valley. 

First, social injustice.  

This is perpetrated upon all of us by our own government, and perpetuated by a combination of civil restraint and the inability of the governed to effect meaningful, rapid, common sense change.  Most readers will be painfully aware of the consequences of SB91, and their partial "fixes" as attempted by the Legislature in the last session. This feel good legislation, meant to keep habitual offenders from lengthy jail sentences has failed utterly and completely.  Originally proposed to go hand in hand with a massive increase in drug and mental health services (which likely would not have been effective anyway, if you look into the reports of this system in other states) the legislature, in its stupidity, did one without the other.  So, criminals are let loose, given citations at best, and are seldom incarcerated or successfully prosecuted. Even felonies get less than a slap on the wrist (as evidenced by the release of the felon who sexually assaulted a woman in broad daylight, was convicted, and gets off with time served.....in his own home, with an ankle monitor)  and lesser crimes? Most residents already know how futile it is to report pretty much anything. Not enough Troopers for our area, and so on.

This situation will not be rectified for many years to come, and in the meantime, crime has skyrocketed across the Valley. Just as the Troopers are not given enough tools to be effective in stemming this in any significant way, the laws as they exist, do not give the public the means to respond effectively either. 

Just make a noise about an informal community patrol, or making a citizen's arrest, or tracking down a thief on your own, or serve a little payback-and watch the law enforcement community stand shoulder to shoulder and cry out: You may not do that! That's our job. In fact, there are literally hundreds of cases where private citizens have handed the AST a solid, air tight case and absolutely nothing is accepted. Period end. Photos, videos, caught red handed, does not matter-none of it is ever prosecuted and for that, lay some blame at the feet of the DA-who prefers a high conviction rate (as a means to a seat on the bench) and who will plead out anything and everything to get the right magic numbers. So just to be clear: If you have been made a victim of criminal behavior, you have to literally work it through the AST hierarchy, then over to the DAs office. If you are very fortunate, you will get the ADAs to persuade the DA, and they'll get their cases assigned. Which is not the same thing as having a Trooper call you back with a case #, hours or days after you have been victimized by some lowlife who likely has numerous warrants already.

On to the specifics of the topic.....

There is a woman here in the Valley, Brandi Slover.  Not quite sure how old Brandi is, but she is definitely an adult, and according to her own family, has made poor life choices and has a history of drug abuse.  If you drive between, say, the Meadowlakes area and Talkeetna, you stand a pretty good chance of seeing her, live and in person. This is the nutjob that literally darts into traffic moving at highway speeds. She dances and spins along the roadways, has thrown rocks and other debris at passing cars...and is not afraid to be topless, or to literally flash her genitals at traffic. She is completely impulsive and a driver has no idea the woman might very likely, step right into the lane. She has caused dozens and dozens of people brake hard and take evasive action, and one day, she will not beat the odds and that will be the end of Brandi Slover. 

She is well known to the AST, and has been to API numerous times in the past. In their 72 hour hold, she passes the psych eval and is released into the unsuspecting public again...and it all starts over. Her family cannot commit her, she has to commit herself. (Although seeking legal guardianship might be an answer, don't know) The thing is this: Brandi may not be a danger to herself in the clinical sense, but she is a clear and present danger to the community. Period end. And nothing can be done. If family cannot get her committed to API long enough for effective treatment, the courts surely don't act to protect the public either. They know her history, they know she'll be released and so....nothing happens. 

One day, this little facet of social injustice is going to cause a mentally unstable woman to be killed, and the operator (and passengers, if any) of the vehicle that takes her out to be traumatized, thanks to your government. 

However, if it had been a man flashing his genitals at dozens of vehicles on the highway?  Well, you can bet his butt would be in jail. For a very long time. And you know it's true.   And that is also a social injustice. 

All the leaves are brown.....

and the sky is blue........

(apologies to the music fans)


For some reason, the current state of things, has prompted that snippet of song into an ear worm of major proportions. Think this through:

In May this year, we had roughly six weeks of very cool, dark, and cloudy weather.

When did the bees show up in earnest at your place?  If you are like me, they never really did. Had no pollinators whatsoever except for the occasional bumble bee, lost from a local beekeeper. But native bees? None until August.

Had plenty of robins early on, but they took off in early June. Where did they go?

Gardening reports have the season as mixed, at best.  Some were fortunate and had a great year, but many folks, like myself, had a marginally productive year-despite added amendments and care.  Even my raspberry patch, reliable for 5 to 7 gallons of great berries every season-produced only a fraction of normal.

And then there are the trees.  Didn't it seem like things were turning color a little too soon?  But if you take a really close look at those birch trees.....well, I think we have a problem. Maybe a big problem, on the heels of the huge spruce bark beetle kill off of our local spruce. 

Our local birch trees have been subject to attacks by a pest known as "birch leaf miner" for some years now. This is what produced the bare tree tops in a wide swath of the Valley.  In some areas, the entire tops of the trees are dead-including, seemingly, a portion of the main trunk. On my own property, I have some that appear dead for the upper ten feet or so and looking around my travels, I see many birch showing the same effects of "whatever it is". 

And there is something else. The trees are not the bright and cheerful sunny yellow and vibrant orange that a combination of a good frost and dropping sap provides.  Nope, if you check closely, you will see some have leaves that are browning at the *branch*. At the stem where they attach to the limb. In fact. some of the leaves affected appear nearly singed. 

At first I thought it had to be something specific to our several birch species...but nope, the same thing shows on my own well tended lilac shrubs.  The leaves are browning from the stem outwards. There is no other symptom of disease or distress that I can identify. These shrubs are well watered, pruned every two years, and get at least some fertilizer from being planted in the lawn.

All the leaves are brown....and the sky is blue.......

.........??