We’re Destroying the Places That Can Bring Us Back From War

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When I returned from deployment in 2013, I wanted to get as far away from people as possible. I wanted nothing to do with traffic, crowds, societal courtesies — or really anyone.

My dream was, and still is, to move to a very remote location so far off any main roads that I couldn’t hear a neighbor’s dog bark and no one would come to visit me.

Permanently Protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

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In 1980 I lived in Henderson, Kentucky. While I was serving as the Naturalist for John James Audubon State Park and was engaged in several local environmental battles during my time in Kentucky, I was also asked to become a Regional Coordinator of the Alaska Coalition. 

Wild Silence

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I first spotted the tracks as our chartered bush plane circled to land in the snow-covered foothills of the Brooks Range. Polar bears.

Land as Home

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We are all indigenous to somewhere. Wherever we might have come from originally—our community, our neighborhood, our village, our barrio—we call that home.

The Sacred Nature of Land

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As if looking through the eyes of God, I have seen the beauty of the Arctic Refuge from the vantage of a small airplane. More importantly, I came to know this place from the Gwich’in way of life on what they call the Sacred Place Where Life Begins.

My Arctic Wild

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Just over a year ago, I unpacked my waterproof bag, which was filled with all the gear essential for the spectrum of summer conditions in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

A Soldier’s Dream

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“As soon as you free yourself, you’ll have a better day,” our guide Don Murch said. He was speaking to a group of five veterans, including me, who had spent time in Iraq or Afghanistan. 

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