Cruise Ships
Dear Editor: Going downtown today to do a few errands, I noted a whole lot of new faces. Oh, yikes. Must be the season has started already.
Now it’s true, I myself love to travel. I’ve probably travelled more hundreds or thousands of miles than you’ve had hot dinners. My style of travel is rather different than the cruise ship fandango, however.
I tend to roam around by train or local bus, or by foot or by hitchhiking. I go in order to participate in something local – tree planting, giving puppet shows, visiting friends, music festivals. I walk the side streets, flâneur around in out-of-the-way neighborhoods, and get lost. You meet local people that way, which for me is a delight, one of the reasons one goes out into furrin lands with all their possible discomforts and dangers. Yeah, of course I love stunning architecture in historic ancient sites. Gorgeous scenery ain’t bad, and exciting vibrant cities with cultural riches, delicious food, and fabulous music are pretty enriching.
But it’s also the people.
So I enjoy interacting with some of the summer visitors to Sitka. It’s nice to pay back and help make their stay here pleasant and even perhaps memorable.
But swarming crowds make this much more implausible, and I fear they cannot really have that great a time here on a short, jam-packed, port-of-call whistle stop, elbowing through congested streets.
So, while not being ‘‘anti-tourist,’’ I am much troubled by the huge numbers of folks coming by cruise ship.
The woes and dangers that are being inflicted on Sitkans are fairly well expressed by others.
I’d just like to point out that cruise ships, by their very nature, are injurious to the natural world and the ‘‘pristine’’ waters they travel through to get here.
Go to https://foe.org/cruise-report-card/. Friends of the Earth has put out report cards for the various lines. Grades range from C to D- to F.
Cruise ships are out to make money, not to protect the ‘‘pristine’’ waters they travel through.
I’m not a member of Friends of the Earth, but I think they are pretty skookum with their research. And I’d call myself an actual friend of the earth – I love this old planet, and the glories and marvels that make up our home. It is only planet we have.
So I’d rather not see it trashed.
I liked visitors to Sitka when they came the old way, by ferry. Stayed a while. Dropped more money because they were here longer, and left with sweeter memories.
Memories are, after all, what make up a life that will have been worth living.
Nancy Metashvili, Sitka
