J McDowell March 30, 2008 - About two hundred and thirty years ago, a colonial patriot named Thomas Paine wrote a pamphlet concerning freedom, sovereignty, and the right of a people to determine their own destiny. Alaska lies at a similar juncture. Only now we are subjugated by a huge powerful world industry that has only profit as it`s motive. The name of the pamphlet was "Common Sense". We lie at a crossroads as a sovereign state. Either we take control of our own destiny, or we continue to stay bound by the yoke of that industry. By committing our own savings and wealth to a main leg of infrastructure, we will co-opt that industry`s strangle-hold on our ability to promote the general welfare of our state and it`s citizens. I would gladly profer my permanent fund dividend in return for shares in a line that would carry LNG and gas liquids south at least to Fairbanks to the road and rail systems. We will have become masters of our own fate, and our children`s futures here in Alaska.