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Deven Mitchell: Alaska’s remarkable decision in 1976 to create the Permanent Fund stands test of time

Suzanne Downing
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Deven Mitchell: Alaska’s remarkable decision in 1976 to create the Permanent Fund stands test of time

By DEVEN MITCHELL

This October, I was provided the opportunity to serve as the executive director of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. As a lifelong Alaskan, leading APFC is my childhood dream come true. From meeting with Gov. Jay Hammond with my third-grade class in 1976, to receiving the benefits of the fund’s existence throughout my life, to now having the experience to manage the corporation is truly special.

To tell a little about myself, I was born in Cordova and raised in Yakutat and Juneau, where my wife Erin and I reside and raised our two sons. For several decades, I served as Alaska’s debt manager and executive director of the Alaska Municipal Bond Bank Authority.

In my career, I often explained and highlighted the strengths of the Permanent Fund and the talented staff of the corporation. I am pleased to report that during my first month on the job, my long-standing belief in an organization composed of top-notch talent and a culture of outperformance has been validated.

As we count down to 2023, I encourage you to pause and reflect on what a remarkable decision Alaskans made in 1976 when they voted to set aside money that they could have spent then to ensure future generations of Alaskans would also benefit from the state’s resource wealth. Think about that, every year since the fund was established, the people of Alaska have made do with less to ensure the Permanent Fund would be able to benefit future generations. That intergenerational foresight for saving and investing a portion of the state’s revenue has helped Alaskans in the past, is supporting us today, and is being managed to continue providing in the future.

Just 13 years after the fund’s creation, one of its earliest supporters, Lt. Gov. Red Boucher, wrote: “The Permanent Fund is something wonderful we have done for ourselves. It offers real hope for the future and security for today. It represents the wisest use of our one-time oil wealth to date. We have designed it well, we have invested it wisely, we have consistently added to it, and we have ceaselessly protected it with great vigor.”

Almost half a century later, those words still ring true.

To maintain its long-term value, the Permanent Fund relies on a well-designed system of rules that define spending and savings policies. Since inception, the investment of the fund has generated $81.1 billion in realized earnings that have been appropriated to maintain the buying power of the principal through inflation-proofing, to pay the Permanent Fund dividend, and since 2018 to provide the state with predictable revenue.

Those earnings come from an increasingly sophisticated and diversified portfolio that now includes eight asset classes. Realized income from the investment activity is deposited in the Earnings Reserve Account, which is available for legislative appropriation. The annual percent of market value, or POMV, draw now provides more than $3 billion annually, an essential source of state revenue. This return is a true testament to the vision of Alaskans in the creation of an enduring intergenerational financial resource from a portion of the state’s royalties.

In 2022, APFC’s investment management again outperformed benchmarks while navigating through a year of challenging investment conditions. This performance is a testament to the savvy of our team of investment specialists and the prudent policies and asset allocation parameters set by the Board of Trustees.

As we look towards the new year, I look forward to working with the Board of Trustees: Chair Ethan Schutt, Vice-Chair Steve Rieger, Craig Richards, Gabrielle Rubenstein, and Commissioners Jason Brune, Department of Environmental Conservation, and Adam Crum, Department of Revenue in ensuring ongoing fund stewardship based on governing mandates and strategic vision.

As an independent public corporation, we hold ourselves to the highest standards of accountability for the work we do together on behalf of the Alaska Permanent Fund.

To learn more about the corporation and the fund, please visit our website at apfc.org or attend our upcoming board meeting on Dec. 7-8.

I also take this opportunity to wish all Alaskans happy holidays and a safe and prosperous new year.

Deven Mitchell is executive director of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp.

Twitter Files: How the social media giant suppressed the story of Hunter Biden’s laptop just before 2020 election

Suzanne Downing
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Twitter Files: How the social media giant suppressed the story of Hunter Biden’s laptop just before 2020 election

An independent journalist was given the scoop of a lifetime: Actual documents showing Twitter executives meddled in the 2020 presidential election.

Matt Taibbi released on Twitter what Elon Musk has called “The Twitter Files” on Friday, showing how Twitter suppressed a major story by the New York Post in 2020, which connected now-President Joe Biden with officials from a Ukrainian gas company. The executive of the gas company Burisma thanked Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, for “giving me the opportunity to meet your father.” The meeting was arranged when Biden was still vice president to Barack Obama.

Taibbi on Friday evening wrote on Twitter about an email that shows Twitter’s trust and safety team decided to suppress the story before the election because it violated the company’s policy for sharing “hacked material.”

Yet there was no basis for determining the material actually qualified as hacked. It was simply the decision of a small group of executives who shared similar partisan political viewpoints and who, it can be now proven, were intentionally interfering in the 2020 election by suppressing damaging material on the Biden connection to Ukraine and influence peddling by Hunter Biden, who was paid about $11 million by the Ukrainian company, as he served as a “board member” of the company.

Twitter’s former head of legal, policy, and trust, Viyaja Gadde, is said to have played a key role in suppressing the story. Twitter founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey is, so far, cleared of involvement.

The New York Post, in writing about the revelation, said that Twitter executives “just freelanced their baseless decision to censor The Post’s bombshell Hunter Biden laptop scoop in the run up to the 2020 election — with top-level workers at the social media giant agreeing that controversial decision was “f–ked,” damning insider communications released by CEO Elon Musk Friday reveal.” 

Musk tweeted a link to the account of Taibbi, who had started tweeting a series of proofs that Twitter executives had interfered in the elections by suppressing news.

Emails and comments from former Twitter employees showed that “everyone knew”  the social media giant’s suppression of The Post’s scoops about Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop, The New York Post wrote.

It was a story that, in 2020, other mainstream newspapers such as the New York Times and Washington Post discredited and called “Russian disinformation.” But earlier this year, both newspapers changed their tune and admitted that the Hunter Biden laptop story was legitimate. By then, Joe Biden had been president for more than a year.

In the weeks leading up to the election, the New York Times was especially dismissive.

“President Trump’s allies have promoted claims of corruption aimed at the former vice president’s son in an effort to damage the Biden campaign,” the New York Times wrote in October of 2020.

“President Trump’s allies have long promoted claims of corruption about Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s son Hunter in a bid to damage Mr. Biden’s presidential campaign. The accusations intensified in recent days when some of Mr. Trump’s associates, including his personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, provided material for a New York Post article detailing some of the allegations. The Post reported that the F.B.I. had seized a computer that purportedly belonged to Hunter Biden,” the New York Times wrote.

“The Biden campaign has rejected the accusations. Many questions remain about the origins of the allegations themselves, the laptop and what, if anything, agents are investigating,” the newspaper continued.

“The Post article relied on documents purportedly taken from the computer to try to buttress an unsubstantiated argument peddled by Mr. Giuliani and other Trump supporters: that as vice president, Mr. Biden had shaped American foreign policy in Ukraine to benefit his son. The events are the latest chapter in a more than two-year effort by the president and his allies to uncover damning information about the Bidens, a pursuit that also helped prompt Mr. Trump’s impeachment,” the New York Times printed, in an effort to discredit the damaging information.

“Mr. Biden has long said he knew nothing about his son’s business activities in Ukraine. But the article suggested that the former vice president met with an adviser to a Ukrainian energy company whose board Hunter Biden sat on, Burisma Holdings. The article referred to an email that the adviser, Vadym Pozharskyi, sent to Hunter Biden thanking him for ‘giving an opportunity to meet your father’”’ and to spend ‘“’some time together.'”

Between the New York Times and Washington Post, a concerted effort to discredit the story ramped up, and Twitter suppressed the story at the request of Democrat operatives.

Twitter even resorted to a seldom-used tactic of blocking the sharing of links to the New York Post story via direct message, a tool usually only used in “extreme cases,” such as to stop the distribution of child pornography, according to Taibbi.

More about this story at the New York Post.

Dunleavy poised to sue EPA over Pebble preemptive veto

Suzanne Downing
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Dunleavy poised to sue EPA over Pebble preemptive veto

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy earlier this year called on EPA Region 10 to withdraw its proposed action to prohibit the development of the Pebble deposit in the Bristol Bay area.

EPA Region 10’s administrator Casey Sixkiller didn’t listen.

Instead, he recommended that Environmental Protection Agency put a nail in mining’s coffin in Alaska by vetoing a permit before it is even issued. EPA now has 60 days to make a final decision, and Dunleavy is indicating that he will sue because this is state-owned land, not federal property.

If finalized, this action sets a dangerous precedent, Dunleavy’s officials said. If EPA can preemptively veto one project, it can do it to any project.

“It vetoes a permit that has not been issued and imposes a blanket prohibition on development over 309 square miles of Alaska-owned land. It lays the foundation to stop any development project, mining or nonmining, in any area of Alaska with wetlands and fish-bearing streams,” his office said.

“The State of Alaska has the duty, under our constitution, to develop its resources to the maximum in order to provide for itself and its people, so it’s important that any and all opportunities be explored in furtherance of this idea,” said Governor Dunleavy. “The recent decision on the Pebble mine, which is solely located on State land, is the wrong decision. The State of Alaska does resource development better than any other place on the planet and I challenge others to prove that wrong. Our opportunities to show the world a better way to develop our resources should not be unfairly pre-empted by the Biden administration under a solely political act. This sets a very troubling precedent for the State and the country. If this goes unchallenged, this issue will become precedent-setting, potentially for other states as well.”

“This is an incredible power for a federal agency—staffed by unelected officials, unaccountable to Alaskans—to have,” said Jason Brune, Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. 

The governor pointed out flaws in the agency’s supporting documents. 

One is that the veto is acting on a permit that has not been granted. At this juncture, Alaska’s State agencies—the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, and the Alaska Department of Natural Resources—have not yet weighed in; through the State permitting process, the State’s 401 certification process, or through State input as a landowner. 

The veto also disregards the Alaska Statehood Act, violates the Clean Water Act, and departs from basic scientific methodology. Of particular concern is EPA’s failure to demonstrate why the Army Corps of Engineers was wrong when it reviewed the same scientific data but arrived at the opposite conclusion—that the proposed mine plan “would not be expected to have a measurable effect on fish numbers or result in long-term changes to the health of the commercial fisheries in Bristol Bay.”

The State of Alaska was joined by Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming in a letter of opposition filed concurrently with the governor’s. 

“Decisions like these,” the Governor’s Office wrote, “throw a wild card into the entire 404 permitting process.” 

Gov. Dunleavy to be sworn in Monday at Alaska Airlines Center on UAA campus

Suzanne Downing
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Gov. Dunleavy to be sworn in Monday at Alaska Airlines Center on UAA campus

Gov. Mike Dunleavy and Lt. Gov.-elect Nancy Dahlstrom will be sworn in at 1 pm on Monday, Dec. 5, at the University of Alaska Anchorage’s Alaska Airlines Center.

The event, open to the public, will be enhanced with performances from the Alaska Native Heritage Center Dancers, the 11th Airborne Division Band, Stephen Holmstock, and members of the Pipeline Vocal Project. The swearing in will be ceremonial, as by law the new governor must be sworn in at noon, which means there will be a private ceremony before noon in order to follow the letter of the Constitution, which mandates the swearing must occur at noon on the first Monday of December. The event will be live-streamed on Youtube at this link.

For his first term, Dunleavy and Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer were sworn in at Kotzebue’s high school gymnasium. The plan was to be sworn in at Rose Dunleavy’s hometown of Noorvik, but foggy weather prevented the planes from reaching Noorvik in time for the noon deadline. Instead, when the weather cleared, the Dunleavy family went to Noorvik for the first inaugural party of many that were held around the state in subsequent weeks.

Dunleavy won with over 50% of the vote on the first round of the ballot counting on Nov. 8. He was not subject to the ranked choice voting process after handily dispatching both the Democrat in the race, Les Gara, and the no-party candidate Bill Walker, who got 24% and 21% respectively.

Biden’s nuke official who advised Anchorage on ‘Don’t Say Straight’ counseling ban gave kink-spanking seminar last week, even after being charged with luggage theft

Suzanne Downing
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Biden’s nuke official who advised Anchorage on ‘Don’t Say Straight’ counseling ban gave kink-spanking seminar last week, even after being charged with luggage theft

Sam Brinton, who secretly consulted to members of the Anchorage Assembly as they drafted their 2020 “Don’t Say Straight” ordinance banning counselors from helping teens troubled by sexual confusion, did not let the felony charge against him stop him from delivering at the gay “Leather Getaway” conference last week.

View the agenda for the conference here. Warning: Not for children. And remember, the internet remembers what you click on.

Presenting under the pseudonym “NuclearNerd,” Brinton delivered a seminar called “Spanking: From Calculus To Chemistry.” It was under the heading of SM, for sado-masochism. There were other categories with seminars on things like “Fisting with a Passion,” and “Fisting Fundamentals,” an activity evidently popular with gay men.

The Energy Department now refuses to tell reporters whether Brinton, who holds a “Q” level top-secret clearance pertaining to national security, continues to be paid after being charged with felony theft of a Vera Bradley brand suitcase with women’s clothing, valued at $2,325.

That theft happened in at the Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport in September, and Brinton has confessed to stealing the suitcase. Security cameras show that he tore the luggage tag off the bag before wheeling it away quickly as though it was his own. Security cameras also show him using the bag for various travel after the theft. Brinton’s next court date is Dec. 19.

Two years earlier, when former Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz had locked the city down due to the Covid pandemic, the Anchorage Assembly’s gay caucus got busy and passed an ordinance that bans counselors from engaging in what is called “conversion therapy,” which is aimed at helping people with sexual dysphoria or sexual impulse problems. The Assembly passed the ordinance while prohibiting the public from attending Assembly meetings.

‘Tom Sconce’ scandal: Assembly covers up 590 pages of email trails to a fake person, a secretive blog, and the Anchorage Press

During that lockdown period, some Assembly members also set up a fake email account belonging to fictitious “Tom Sconce,” so that they could illegally communicate with each other about the controversial ordinance. To this day, the Assembly has refused the public access to those emails and that fake email account, despite numerous requests. They have claimed attorney-client privilege, even though they had no contract with Brinton’s group, the Trevor Project and its attorney.

Tom Sconce affair: Biden’s gender-fluid nuke waste officer on leave from Dept. of Energy; charged for theft of luggage

Brinton advised the Anchorage Assembly and other jurisdictions on the conversion therapy ban topic before he was hired by the Biden administration. His group, the Trevor Project, also grooms teens to adopt the sexual choices it promotes through its secretive online counseling program, which advises teens to avoid parental oversight.

Trevor Project, which advised Anchorage Assembly on banning conversion therapy, is grooming children online

Sen. John Barrasso, the senior Republican on the Senate Energy Committee, wants Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to fire Brinton.

“Sam Brinton is on leave from DOE, and Dr. Kim Petry is performing the duties of Deputy Assistant Secretary of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition,” a DOE spokesperson told Fox News Digital this week.

The State of Minnesota complaint against Brinton includes that his gender is “UNKNOWN”:

mcro-27-cr-22-21567-e-filed-comp-summons-2022-10-27-20221128135812Download

Brinton appears to be using his federal position to continue to build his own personal brand as an advocate for the highly sexualized, gender-fluid lifestyle for which he advocates.

In the world of fetish sex, he is also known as a pup handler, who role plays with other men who pretend to be dogs. He is featured in this Metro Weekly story on the world of “pup play,” a subset of leather and bondage sex play. His role in the Biden administration has given him worldwide notoriety as a representative of the government both at home and abroad.

Document: Biden’s new nuclear waste expert helped craft Anchorage’s 2020 ban on gay ‘conversion therapy’

Uh-oh: Artificial intelligence can now write a complex essay on an obscure academic topic in 10 seconds

Suzanne Downing
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Uh-oh: Artificial intelligence can now write a complex essay on an obscure academic topic in 10 seconds

A new “chatbot” created by artificial intelligence company OpenAI Inc. is roaring onto the internet scene after being in stealth mode, as robot intelligence has grown more sophisticated behind the scenes for years.

OpenAI released ChatGPT, a bot that converses easily with humans via artificial intelligence. The bot can help humans write computer code, write essays and poems, and strategize.

Here’s an example of an academic essay that ChatGPT produced within 10 seconds of being asked:

It’s not just high school composition teachers that should worry. The rise of artificial intelligence has grave possibilities for humanity, and may be as dangerous as nuclear war, some futurists are warning. The bots are so sophisticated that what humans interact with on social media may or may no longer be a real human.

The website, thispersondoesnotexist.com shows just how far the deception can go. Every time a user refreshes the page a new face is shown, completely made up by artificial intelligence but appearing 100% human and believable.

A chatbot can now create a persona, access Twitter or Facebook, and start convincing people that a political candidate or ballot measure is good, bad, or even criminal. The voters would never know they are being interacted with by a programmed bot.

A chatbot can now go into a Facebook group, (think Juneau Community Collective, Bethel, Spenard, or Save Anchorage) and create dozens of online personas. Then the chat bot could start conversations, and persuade people to behave in a certain way or believe something is going to happen.

Facebook has also recently unveiled an online AI bot called CICERO, which has reached “human-level performance” in the board game called Diplomacy. This is a game built on human interactions, rather than moves and maneuvers as you would find in chess or checkers. The bots learned about human behavior by playing against thousands of humans and learning the complexities of how humans approach the game, in which the goal is to take over the world.

The bots learned about ways that humans use strategy or act impetuously. They learned about when humans get fatigued and how that affects their decisions. At this point, the CICERO bot is winning all the time, and continues to learn about humans by playing the game with those who probably don’t realize they are training a chatbot.

What is OpenAI? It’s a research lab founded by Elon Musk and Sam Altman, among others, in 2015. The group collectively pledged $1 billion to the project. Musk has resigned from the board in 2018, citing “a potential future conflict (of interest)” with Tesla AI, which he was developing for self-driving cars. He remained a donor, and in 2019, OpenAI received a $1 billion investment from Microsoft, which is now the company’s official preferred vendor.

Scientists such as Stephen Hawking have expressed concern that if AI gains the ability to re-design itself at an ever-increasing rate, “an unstoppable “intelligence explosion” could lead to human extinction.”

Even Musk says that AI is humanity’s “biggest existential threat.”

The rise of these technologies points to the need in Congress and in the White House for people who understand how complex these artificial intelligence matters are.

For now, Alaska is represented by “Fish, Family, Freedom” Congresswoman Mary Peltola, who does not express the capacity to understand the threats posed by AI, nor the interest in resolving the ethical, moral, and legal issues. Whether Sen. Lisa Murkowski or Sen. Dan Sullivan have the capacity — or the courage — to take on this growing threat is yet to be seen.

Which group of registered Alaska voters didn’t show up in 2022? A look at the participation drop-off by party

Suzanne Downing
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Which group of registered Alaska voters didn’t show up in 2022? A look at the participation drop-off by party

The general election had a noticeable drop in voter participation in Alaska in 2022, but the drop-off in voter interest wasn’t the same in all groups of registered voters.

Just 266,573 of Alaska’s 601,795 registered voters cast ballots, a 44.30% turnout. That means 26% fewer voters participated than in 2020, and 6% fewer voters participated than in 2018, the last midterm general election.

We compare the 2022 to the 2018 election because they are midterm elections and were not interfered with by Covid policies across the country. The breakdown by party shows that Democrats and Republicans in Alaska dropped out of voting this year at different rates.

Republicans: About 3,200 fewer Republicans voted in 2022 than in 2018, or a 2.2% drop-off.

Democrats: About 3,200 fewer Democrats voted in 2022 than in 2018, a 4.1% drop-off. (Democrats represent only about 12.5% of the total voter file).

Nonpartisans: About 4,500 fewer nonpartisan voters showed up at the polls, compared to 2018, with the largest percent drop-off percentage at 5.4%

Undeclareds: Undeclared voters are the largest group of registered voters and although 6,900 fewer of them voted than in 2018, it represents a drop-off of 2.6%. Undeclareds include many people who were automatically registered to vote when they applied for their Permanent Fund dividend.

The number of registered voters in Alaska as of Nov. 3 divides into these main groups (with several other minor parties with small memberships):

  • Undeclared: 266,085
  • Nonpartisan: 83,576
  • Republican: 144,542
  • Democrat: 77,137
  • Alaskan Independence Party: 19,277
  • Libertarian: 7,009
By the numbers: Modest turnout for ’22 general election, and Peltola comes up short compared to Don Young in ’20

Bethel police release video images of pot robber

Suzanne Downing
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Bethel police release video images of pot robber

Bethel Police Department has released images from a in-store video camera that show the armed robber of the AlaskaBud cannabis store in Bethel, which may give Bethel residents a clue as to the suspect’s identity.

The suspect is wearing a “Res Alaska” jacket. Res Alaska is a renewable energy company out of Fairbanks. The suspect also has on a “AK” beanie style hat. The suspect has a distinct gait, police said, possibly due to a limp. The duffle bag he carried has a camouflage pattern on it.

Update: Police say the man is left-handed. Only 10% of the population is left-handed.

In the original press release, police speculated that the jerky movements of the man made it appear he may have been intoxicated.

The store was hit on Monday night by a lone gunman with an M-16-style firearm, who fired several shots. One shot ricocheted off the floor and hit the counter, after which two employees at the counter fled, as the man shot at them several times, but missed. One of the shots went through the wall and hit a third employee hiding behind the wall.

The robber fled the store in an unknown direction on a snow machine.

The Bethel Police Department is looking for help from the community in establishing the identity of the suspect. Those with any information may call: 907-543-3781.

Gone to pot: Man on loose after Bethel bud shop robbed at gunpoint, shots fired, employee injured

Alexander Dolitsky: Conversation with a progressive activist on the matter of gender identity

SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
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Alexander Dolitsky: Conversation with a progressive activist on the matter of gender identity

By ALEXANDER DOLITSKY

Rebecca, a young American in her late 20s, seemed restless; she anxiously wandered around the room in all directions of the compass. Then, she asked me, “Alexander, do you believe in death?” 

I was somewhat astounded by the question but answered cautiously and without hesitation, “Yes, I do.” 

“Everlasting?” she followed up. 

“Of course, everlasting. Why do you ask such a trivial question? Eventually, we all will biologically vanish, forever,” I responded.

“Well, do you ever think about your legacy?” she continued.

 “Not on a daily basis; but, yes, I do from time-to-time,” I answered.

“Please don’t be offended; take my question in the friendly spirit with which it is intended. I’d like to propose two versions of your hypothetical obituary and ask which one you’d prefer. Is that OK?” she asked sheepishly, looking straight to my eyes. 

“Okay, shoot,” I smiled and answered with an expression of friendliness.

“Thanks. Here is the first version: “Alexander D. was born and raised in such-and-such place, he was educated in such-and-such institutions, he was accomplished in many areas of his life, including achievements in many academic fields. In death, he preceded his ideologically progressive, far-left child who, as an adult, considered themselves to be non-binary and requested to be referred to as ‘they/them.’ This was an identity and ideology that Alexander D. reluctantly accepted.”

Certainly, Rebecca’s first hypothetical version of my legacy/obituary got my attention. “And what is the second version?” I asked, with obvious curiosity.

“The second version is this: “Alexander D. was born and raised in a such-and-such place, he was educated in such-and-such institutions, he was accomplished in many areas of his life, including achievements in many academic fields. In death, he preceded his ideologically progressive, far-left child who, as an adult, considered themselves to be non-binary and requested to be referred to as ‘they/them.’ This was an identity and ideology that Alexander D. sadly rejected.”

I was puzzled by Rebecca’s questions and the direction she was headed. 

“So, what version of your hypothetical legacy/obituary would appeal to you?” Rebecca asked with a smirky smile. 

I looked directly into Rebecca’s smirky eyes, which were radiating signals of distorted compliments, and replied, “Rebecca, I understand your implication of and reference to my child’s decision to begin using plural pronoun “them/they” in reference to themself. You know that this has been a difficult transition for our family. 

“Keep in mind, Rebecca, that social anthropologists define kinship terminology systems as a set of words (e.g., mother, father, sister, brother, aunt, etc.) used in various languages ​​and cultures to describe or label specific relationships between relatives. Societies in different parts of the world use more or less the same terminological patterns of kinship. Indeed, kinship terminology is fundamental for the preservation of the nuclear family.” 

Rebecca objected with an accusatory voice, “But this traditional kinship terminology, both nouns and pronouns, does not adequately describe some peoples’ gender identity.  They are not masculine or feminine; they are something in between. It is a science, you know.” 

“Rebecca, don’t confuse the word science with the practice of scientific inquiries. Science is not a subject like math, physics, astronomy, anthropology, and so on. Science is a method and methodology. It’s a procedure, a process used by scientists for the scientific inquiries of the natural world. Scientists ask logical questions, propose  logical hypotheses, testproposed hypotheses, collect and analyze data, prove or disprove proposed and tested hypotheses, derive to logical conclusions, and, finally, propose explanations based on the evidence derived from their research,”  I said.

“Alexander, it is a proven fact that peoples’ gender identity may evolve and change in the course of their life. A child may be born as a girl (feminine) and gradually evolve into a boy (masculine). My 3-year old niece is convinced that she is a boy. She always yells to my aunt: ‘Mom, mom, I am a boy,’” Rebecca argued. 

“Rebecca,” I countered, “an innocent 3-year old child dressed as an elephant during a Halloween or his/her birthday party will also innocently believe in being an elephant. Don’t you think so?

“More importantly, Rebecca, it is a proven biological fact that peoples’ hormones—the chemical substances that act like messenger molecules in the body—will definitely change in the course of their life. This is evidenced by the changes people experience in metabolism, appetite, growth and development, mood, stress, and body temperatures as they age. 

“Additionally, it is an undeniable biological fact that peoples’ chromosomes (masculine or feminine) will not change in the course of their life. The X and Y chromosomes, also known as the sex chromosomes, determine the biological sex of an individual. Females inherit an X chromosome from the father for a XX genotype, while males inherit a Y chromosome from the father for a XY genotype (mothers only pass on X chromosomes).”

“Well, fine,” Rebecca reacted angrily. “So, what version of your hypothetical legacy would appeal to you, the first or the second?” she asked abruptly.

“Each of us has ownership of our life, identity, and ideologies. We can choose to vehemently disagree with the gender identity decisions that our friends and loved ones make,” I said. “Yet, it’s important to recognize that in spite of genetics or our personal ideologies, each person has the freedom to determine the course of their life and the decisions made there-in. 

“Our freedom, however, can be used for good or ill. Ultimately, we are given freedom that we might freely choose the good—not like robots, but like humans. That is really the only purpose of free will—to choose the good. When it is misused to choose that which is hurtful or harmful or delusional, then it is misappropriated.

“We must certainly make every effort to love and respect every human as children of God, but without fostering or enabling a harmful fantasy that ultimately changes the course of their life.

“My life and my identity belong only to me, and to nobody else. I cannot and will not compromise my life, my beliefs, faith, ideology and factual truth. So, in regard to your question, and from the Judeo-Christian values and perspectives, my legacy ought to be the second version that: 

“Alexander D. was born and raised in a such-and-such place, he was educated in such-and-such institutions, he was accomplished in many areas of his life, including achievements in many academic fields. In death, he preceded his ideologically progressive, far-left child who, as an adult, considered themselves to be non-binary and requested to be referred to as ‘they/them.’ This was an identity and ideology that Alexander D. sadly rejected.”

Alexander B. Dolitsky was born and raised in Kiev in the former Soviet Union. He received an M.A. in history from Kiev Pedagogical Institute, Ukraine, in 1976; an M.A. in anthropology and archaeology from Brown University in 1983; and was enroled in the Ph.D. program in Anthropology at Bryn Mawr College from 1983 to 1985, where he was also a lecturer in the Russian Center. In the U.S.S.R., he was a social studies teacher for three years, and an archaeologist for five years for the Ukranian Academy of Sciences. In 1978, he settled in the United States. Dolitsky visited Alaska for the first time in 1981, while conducting field research for graduate school at Brown. He lived first in Sitka in 1985 and then settled in Juneau in 1986. From 1985 to 1987, he was a U.S. Forest Service archaeologist and social scientist. He was an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Russian Studies at the University of Alaska Southeast from 1985 to 1999; Social Studies Instructor at the Alyeska Central School, Alaska Department of Education from 1988 to 2006; and has been the Director of the Alaska-Siberia Research Center (see www.aksrc.homestead.com) from 1990 to present. He has conducted about 30 field studies in various areas of the former Soviet Union (including Siberia), Central Asia, South America, Eastern Europe and the United States (including Alaska). Dolitsky has been a lecturer on the World Discoverer, Spirit of Oceanus, andClipper Odyssey vessels in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions. He was the Project Manager for the WWII Alaska-Siberia Lend Lease Memorial, which was erected in Fairbanks in 2006. He has published extensively in the fields of anthropology, history, archaeology, and ethnography. His more recent publications include Fairy Tales and Myths of the Bering Strait Chukchi, Ancient Tales of Kamchatka; Tales and Legends of the Yupik Eskimos of Siberia; Old Russia in Modern America: Russian Old Believers in Alaska; Allies in Wartime: The Alaska-Siberia Airway During WWII; Spirit of the Siberian Tiger: Folktales of the Russian Far East; Living Wisdom of the Far North: Tales and Legends from Chukotka and Alaska; Pipeline to Russia; The Alaska-Siberia Air Route in WWII; and Old Russia in Modern America: Living Traditions of the Russian Old Believers; Ancient Tales of Chukotka, and Ancient Tales of Kamchatka.

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