Some things don’t make sense

by Peter Twitchell

I didn’t want to watch the news after the multiple shootings and needless mass killings across our country in the last three years, it’s been a really sad state of our country now and has been happening for far too long in our own backyard here in our state of Alaska.

When these senseless killings occur it’s like unreal, insanity, just doesn’t make sense to the human mind. Look at the 320 mass shootings and drive by shootings in 2020, 2021, and 2022 alone. Over 40,000 senseless killings each year.

I remember in the 1950s growing up in Bethel our Elders always without fail told us to love each other to take care of each other and not hurt anyone as we went out to play lap game, hide and seek, marbles, Yankee you over, throwing the ball over the house to the other kids on the other side of the building.

The Elders instruction to us: “Ilaci kenkurluki” – love each other and take care of each other.

Now senseless killings are rampant across the state of Alaska. My best guess is alcohol and drugs and no more Elders instructing young people to grow up to respect each other and to hold each other in high regard.

Elders said, “There is no other person among us, we are all related.” All first cousins were regarded as brothers and sisters.

The word prejudice originated outside our area. The thought and the action of being prejudiced is ugly and undesirable because it is only an assumption without an adequate basis.

I’ve come to understand since Covid that some of our villagers in the AVCP/Calista region including the Kuskokwim and the Yukon Villages, villagers do not have health aides.

During these especially desperate times with a deadly virus all around us I believe being without healthcare in the village is undesirable and neglectful and not being mindful of our peoples’ welfare. Our families should feel safe under the umbrella of the United States government healthcare system.

We need adequate representation, people who care, and someone to oversee our healthcare needs on a daily basis. We cannot lose any more innocent lives by neglect not for one day.