I'm skeptical about this gathering. A couple of days ago three of our "ministers" submitted an opinion piece about this get together and also gave their resumes. The former general, the defense department under secretary and the former ambassador to NATO appeared to have no arctic background. They were picked, as an old mentor used to tell me, not on what they know but on who they know.

Meanwhile, here in Alaska, which is America's only arctic turf, we have massive resources regarding all of the subjects which bear on the subject of this ministerial. In Fairbanks there is the Rasmusen Library's Polar Regions Collections and Anchorage has the Alaska Resources Library and Information Center to name just two. Visit one of them sometime. Anyone is welcome to use them and you will probably have the collections to yourself because few even know they exist. Certainly not our ministers.

Talk is cheap. Knowledge is power. A lot is already known as you would know if you visited your libraries.