Human spirit will prevail

The Alaska economy, like much of the world, seems headed for interesting times.

And “interesting times” is supposedly an ancient Chinese curse, though historians can find nothing of the kind in Chinese history. But the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus seems to fit the description of what people think interesting times might be.

In any case, with widespread unemployment and the tourism, fishing and oil industries seemingly heading for the tank, the months and years ahead will be interesting for sure. The cruise ships are canceling voyages, airlines are dropping flights and the oil industry is reducing investments as the price of crude oil sinks to lows unseen in recent years.

The good news is that Alaskans traditionally pull together when the going gets tough. And there are ample signs that is already happening. For one thing, neighbors are checking with neighbors to see if they need anything.

Trying to help each other while remaining isolated is a challenge. And it remains to be seen how we will overcome that complication. But if past experience is an indicator, and surely it is, we will find a way.

When my wife and I arrived here in 1967 the Great Alaskan Earthquake was just three years past. And though the damage was still visible everywhere, and those who lived through it were still honing their stories of how they survived, Southcentral Alaska was booming.

We came here as reporters for The Anchorage Times. I had a job before we left Massachusetts and Marnie was hired as soon as the newspaper realized that she was equally able, if not more so, in the journalism field. She became a columnist and eventually women’s editor.

One of the first earthquake stories I heard was from Bill Tobin, who was managing editor of The Times and later my colleague at the Voice of Times. That was after The Times stopped publishing and became a half-page of opinion in The Anchorage Daily News and later online. Bill was pulling up in front of the JC Penney store on Fourth Avenue when the ground started shaking. He got out of his car and ran into the middle of the street where a terrified woman ran up and gave him a fierce hug.

The front of the JC Penney building collapsed onto Bill’s abandoned car, which sat there with its turn indicator blinking for days after the disaster. The recovery began shortly after the earthquake, though it wasn’t recognized as such for a while.

I started at The Times in August of 1967 and in December of that year a small item appeared in the paper noting that bush pilots were reporting that Richfield Oil was flaring gas at its drilling site near the mouth of the Sagavanirktok River on the North Slope. Three months later Richfield announced the Prudhoe Bay oil discovery, the event that became the foundation of the state’s economy for decades afterward.

Richfield soon merged with Atlantic Refining to become ARCO and in 1969, when I was the oil beat reporter, the company offered me a job as manager of public affairs for Alaska. Marnie went on to a successful career in telecommunications.

Alaska may or may not have a new Prudhoe Bay in its future but its greatest resource is its people and that is unlikely to change. The difficult days that seem likely to be on the way will presumably be worldwide, since the pandemic is now virtually everywhere except the Antarctic.

But I think we will see that the optimism based on experience is justified for the world just as much as it is for Alaska. The Alaska spirit is essentially the human spirit.

We have a lot to look forward to.