It started on Facebook and has taken off like an arctic hare!
Here is the link to the petition: Change "Pioneer Park Back To ALASKALAND!
If you are an Alaskan, ex-Pat Alaskan, and agree, go sign it! Please be sure to note that you are Alaskan if you have a non-Alaskan address. The petition will be presented to the Fairbanks Northstar Borough and the City Council.If you are not Alaskan and have never been here, please do NOT sign it. We appreciate your concern but this is a local, Alaskan issue and the Borough only wants to know what the Alaskans think.
Why go back to using that name? If you even have to ask, go read my funny Ole story, below this instead!
Reasons most often cited:
1. There are hundreds, if not thousands of Pioneer Parks all over the US and Canada. It's a very generic name. I searched Google and found 3 MILLION hits on "Pioneer Park." The first five pages list park after park after park in town after town after town. All of them "Pioneer Park."
2. It sounds like it celebrates White pioneers, instead of our whole population.
3. Fairbanskians grew up going to Alaskaland, it's the name we love for the good times we have had there!
4. Almost no one ever calls it Pioneer Park! We all call it Alaskaland!
May 13, 2010
I'm still amazed at the outpouring of agreement that we really should change the name of our park back to Alaskaland. My office neighbor just dropped in to tell me she's proud of me and that she is so glad that people are getting together over this. I'm finding that it cuts across all boundaries: politics, religion, money. It doesn't matter who you are,or what you do: every person I run into says they want the name of the park returned to Alaskaland. And now they all stop and tell me about it!
I started the Facebook Page some time ago, and it now has 1, 772 members and counting. Then on May 11 at 2:03 am, having had too much coffee that day, I decided it was time to write the petition and get going on this issue. By 3:30pm the same day there were 189 signatures, by 6:30pm there were 207. We are now nearly to 300 and still adding folks. I'd like to hit 1,000 by Sunday. Tell your friends and neighbors about the petition.
My brief spot on Channel 13 took the most inflammatory thing I said and put that on TV, which is what news organizations sometimes do. The announcers thought the twist to the story was that the petition is online. Well, maybe they haven't been online for four or five years? There are oodles of petitions on the internet and have been for years. But that's okay, because I am glad they thought it was important enough to cover.
Inflammatory? What I said was the "r" word. I said the sign is racist, in that it celebrates the white pioneers but not our whole community, which is diverse.
In simple terms, what bothers me about the name "Pioneer Park" is that we went from having a name, Alaskaland, that included everyone, to a name that only included a select set. I think this was not intended to be racist by the FNSB, but in essence, that's the way it worked out. I don't think the Borough thought this through but I don't think the intent was anything but well-meaning.
Our community takes care of each other. We are all in this together. If you see someone walking on the side of the road in the winter you stop and ask if they need help, same thing if you see a stalled vehicle. Until recently. we rural folks left our cabins unlocked in case a hiker or snow machiner needed shelter from the cold. It's a small town in a harsh climate and we need each other.
The name Alaskaland reflects our community spirit, our caring and cooperation with each other.
I strongly suspect they did not do a search to find out how many Pioneer Parks exist already. Perhaps if they'd done so a different name would have been chosen or Alaskaland would have kept its name.
