How can Alaska reclaim its legacy of freedom? How to respond to its high rates of violence and dysfunction? How can we encourage younger and older people to stay? What is freedom? How can we make Alaska beautiful?

It is said that if you wait long enough at the wailing wall in Jerusulem any Jew will appear. We can say the same about Alaska: if you wait long enough any free-spirited person will arrive. Alaskans call the rest of the world ‘Outside.’ We came here for freedom, exhausted by civilization. But we settled too easy, becoming drifters and deadbeats, or shopkeepers and professionals.

Alaska is more than personal satisfaction. Alaska means possibility, still in the making. Let’s find out what wilderness is, beauty, freedom. Not as mere ideas, but in the actual life we lead. Alaska is a choice. The greatest danger is not to aim high enough. Instead of beauty and pleasure, set forth into the great unexplored lands – the wilderness of the soul.