Greetings from "The Furry Woman" of Kotzebue, Alaska
Today I went to the Post Office to check for mail. Since the temperature was originally only 13 degrees early this morning (already) I decided to take my new lynx hat and furry gloves (hand-made by yours truly) for a "test drive" to see how they perform in the cold weather.
The local Post office is directly on the waterfront of Kotzebue Sound, making it extremely windy. Across the Sound in the distance, one can clearly see the snow already on the higher elevations here in northern Alaska.
As I stepped into the Post Office, my interesting mountain trapper-style lynx hat immediately caught the attention of one local Inupiat native. He immediately froze, stared at my wild gloves reminiscent of two polar bear paws, and my lynx sitting atop my head, and finally said: "Wow! I never see anything like this ever...CAN I TAKE YOUR PICTURE???"
I remember feeling confused, thinking, "Huh? Don't I look NORMAL? Don't all the people here make nice furry hats and parkas and gloves to stay warm in the winter...?"
He then proceeded to take an enormous professional camera out of his backpack, and then had me pose for the camera as he took several pictures. He showed me one pic, thanked me, and left the Post Office.
What he did not know was, I was chuckling inside as he took the pics. Why?
I thought this was a hilarious reversal of roles. I remember traveling across America on summer vacations. Often we would see a tipi next to a tourist trap souvenir store, with a Native person in full headdress, ready to pose with children for a fee. "Oh, LOOK! Look at the headdress! Look at the real Indian! Let's take his picture..." everyone would exclaim as we got out of the car. Click!
I'll bet he has fun as he shows all his friends this strange white woman in a lynx hat and wild furry gloves! I had the strangest feeling that maybe this time around, I was the wild white woman and he was the civilized tourist fascinated by my headgear...
Ha-ha-ha.........(sigh)
Seems like there's never a dull moment here in LIFE IN THE ARCTIC CIRCLE!
Bye for now.
-Pamela Rae Schuffert reporting from Kotzebue, Alaska
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hello pamela, I dont know if the post office is so funny anymore, I am a USPS/USMC widow and just found your blog, about the new world order, and many do not realize what is going on in the usps, but here is what has happened, up until 2006 , the USPS was okay, but now it is not good and being used as a poltical tool. Here is one background link for information since the post office was created by benjamin franklin and sam adams for the purpose of communitcation for continental congress to win the revolutionary war and predates the forming of the nation and the ocnstitution to win the war . Look for free google book online called The Post Office, its past record, its present condition and its potential relation to the new world era, Daniel Calhoun Roper , chairperson of the United States Tarriff Commision and First Assistant Post Master General of the United States Post Office, 1913-1917. During those years congess was ignoring the working conditions of postal workers, but collective bargaining was formed and unionization allowed in 1935 , from there we get our labor laws, in which children are protected from overwork not adults ( but are protected somewhat under union contracts in the post service) social security, medicade, health benifits, fair labor standards act, minimum wage, hours, and retirment benifits. In 1970 once again congress was not listening to the postal workers condiitons and the great postal strike too place, and collectiver bargaining was firmly established along with a no strike law. In 2000, 2001, postal workers were made to pay in an extra 15 percent to their retirment systems, fers and csrs, both, after having taken cuts in pay, health benifits and retirement from 1970 until then of worth of about 200 billion, this was under the 1997 budget reconcilation act, and they were thanked for their sacrifice by the President and congress. The increase was removed from the Presidents buget in 2002, and new legislation ensued. Then in 2003 congess was informed of the overpayment in to the federal retirement systems by postal workers, fers by 15 billion and csrs by 140 billion. Congress then passed a new law called the postal accountiiblity and enhancement act in 2006 by voice vote, to take another 5 billion out of the profits of the USPS, for retirment with 2 fully funded and overfunded accounts. The law also gave bonues to the top 12 in the USPS, with an act of making the pmg make twice what the president does at 800,000 a year and pmg potter then retired in 2010 with 5.5 million anually. Meanwhile a standard of ingnoring health and safety on the job by the US Labor department which is over the USPS in mangment for craft workers occured of non replacement of people who had retired, or attrtition due to overpayment of two federal retirement systens and now a 3rd for people not born or working for the USPS for the next 75 years for 2006 through 2015 for payments from the profits making a false manafactured crises for the USPS for the american public . you can go to the following websites for more information how this came about: www. postalmag.com/joygoldberguspsstress.pdf or AWPU 3800 first area tricounty local PA, library stress in the workplace articals, 'how the ongoing violation of the guiding principles of the USPS is creating a toxic work environment." www.billburrasjounral.org-misc, ( go to goggle to search will not automatically load) go to elevator page, scroll down read, 'phoney excuses for diverting usps revenues." and ' myths versus facts', go to google search , ALEC/Koch Cabal The Privitization of USPS for Ups and FedEx, bob sloan, vltp, ( april, 2012) , go to examiner.com Tim Mccown, june 10, 2012, " behind all the schemes and lies of the privitization of the USPS", go to sribd( net) The battle for democracy and the USPS, go to www.savethepostoffice.com, go to mpu.com/post_office_in_crisis.htm , understand if this continues the constitution will be broken and new world order will usher in.
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