The City of Emmonak is overwhelmed by the generosity of the people who have reached out to help them.

I am going to share a small section of an e-mail that I received from a friend who has recently been in contact with some of the people in Emmonak.

This friend is a very private person and I have been very careful not to post anything which may reveal her identity to anybody reading this. And I hope she forgives me for posting this small portion but what it says seemed very important to share with all of you who donated money to Emmonak and then wondered if it had made any difference. Read this and see for yourself.

One of the women I talked to is a little bit older (not really an Elder, but close) and didn't know so much about the Internet. But since this week, she said she goes every single day to someone's house (? maybe a center? I'm not sure) and looks up all the news and posts about it. She said she had to have her son show her how to use Google ("It was a lot more easy than I thought!")

In any case, the older woman I've been talking to for the past few months because of the death of her daughter. I've literally never heard her happy before. She was so excited, and though I'm sure part of it was the help and donations, she kept saying, "So many people care!" and "They never heard of Emmo before! But they're sending us food!"

If your reaction to those two sentences was anything like mine then I need to give you a moment to wipe your eyes. Done? Okay let's proceed.

If you were one of the hundreds of people who responded to the needs of these people then I would like to thank you. If you are one of my fellow bloggers here in Alaska or around the world, then I also want to thank you. You did a wonderful thing.

However there have been a few things that have bothered me.

The first which is the reaction of our politicians, especially Sarah Palin, you already know.

But the second one is also kind of upsetting. And that is the reaction of the handful of conservative Alaskan bloggers up here and the fact that, up to this point, they have completely ignored the Emmonak story.

No, "Forget partisan differences for the time being and let's work together to help these people". No, "Oh you progressives think you are the only ones that can handle a crisis? Step aside and let us show you how it is done!" Not even a, "We don't believe in just handing people money to make their problems go away but here are some other methods that we can suggest for them to help themselves." Nothing. Not a word. Not a single peep.

CC brought this up on her radio show when I was her guest on Thursday, and I said "Well to be fair I did not have their contact information so they did not receive the same e-mail that most of the progressive bloggers did". But that was at least two days after Nick Tucker's letter was printed in the ADN, and today it is four days since the progressive bloggers fired off the internet signal flares. Surely they must know ALL about it by now.( And for the record I believe that even without my e-mail everyone of the progressive bloggers who wrote of this tragedy STILL would have written their posts.)

And yet not a word. You can check for yourself in my Alaska blogroll at the left of this page.

The two that I am most confused by are Dan Fagan's news and opinion site The Alaska Standard and Andrew Halcro's blog.

Part of the title for the Alaska Standard is the phrase "Raising the level of journalism in Alaska". Doesn't this count as an important news story? If they covered it would that not help to "raise the level of journalism"? I mean the ADN was not exactly on top of this story at first either. If Dan wants to demonstrate that he is a better source of journalism then Alaska's traditional media then how can he ignore this?

And Halcro? Andrew has done some of the best reporting I have seen in a long time. He constantly digs through the garbage dumped on the media by the Palin administration and always emerges with the truth. And it was he who had the Walt Monegan story before anybody else. He has earned the admiration of many of us who are not exactly on the same side of the political fence, which is quite a feat in and of itself.

So I guess I am just a little confused why there has been no coverage of this story. These two sites attract readers who may not come to visit my site or Mudflats, or Celtic Diva, or Progressive Alaska, or Alaska Real, or many of our other fine progressive blogs. They may have been able to elicit donations or spread the word to people who may still be in the dark about this tragedy.

None of us who posted about Emmonak did so for any glory, or praise, or even thanks. We did it because we could not have done otherwise. Once we knew what was happening we simply had to try and help. And I guess what I am saying is I just don't understand how anybody who is living in this state can remain unmoved by the story of the Emmonak people. Whether they be politicians or Alaskan citizens.

Perhaps I am naive but this really bothers me. Am I missing something?