Open letter to Dawson City residents:
To all those Dawson residents who are opposed to mining activity on the Dome or within city limits, why did you choose to make your home in an area surrounded by active mining claims?
Why did you choose to make your home in a town where gold mining is the only nongovernment-subsidized industry?
Whether you care to admit it or not, every day of your life is totally dependent on products that came from a mine, and those products came from somebody’s backyard.
I have just returned from touring the battlefields of Cambodia, a poverty stricken, desperate, disease-ridden, war-torn Third World country.
After seeing firsthand what 30 years of brutal warfare can do to a residential neighbourhood, as well as the rest of the country, I can say that I would much rather live next to somebody’s goldfield than somebody’s battlefield.
And every Cambodian war veteran and genocide survivor I’ve talked to about this feels the same.
We in the Yukon keep forgetting how lucky we are to live here until we go to a country that has not had much luck.
To all those Dawsonites who oppose mining in town limits, I suggest you go to a war-torn Third World country for a while, like I just did.
Upon your return you might find that there are far greater concerns in your life than people digging for gold in residential neighbourhoods. Such as being thankful you only have to worry about the possibility of a Caterpillar bulldozer and not a Russian manufactured T-72 battle tank in your backyard.
Jon Wilkie
Dawson City