We see people staggering across the street, too drunk to walk a straight line. We see people in bars drinking until they're sick.

And those are accepted as a normal part of society.

Youths see that too and they want to drink. So we let them. We even buy them their booze.

And we see that as a normal part of society. It's not.

There isn't much outrage when a 16, 17 or 18 year old drinks. But there is when one drinks, and then dies.

Recently, a 16-year-old Fort Resolution boy took his life after drinking with his buddies. A woman was subsequently sent to jail for seven months for selling him alcohol.

The questions we should ask are how many adults sold this boy alcohol before that night? Who else provided this kid and his friends alcohol?

And why aren't they in jail?

This case is only the tip of the iceberg. Youths are getting their hands on alcohol, and adults shouldn't be helping them.

Providing alcohol to minors is against the law. This woman knows that now, and hopefully others will learn from her.

Angela Anderson is living proof that you can do anything you put your mind to, no matter how old you are.

Angela was forced to choose between music and figure skating when she was a young girl. She chose the former.

After moving to Fort Smith two years ago to take a job as a music teacher, she decided to join the skating club and learn how to figure skate.

Now, at age 26, Angela is a competitive figure skater. She trains with skaters no older than 13.

She says she's sometimes self-conscious, but Angela doesn't let that interfere with her love of the sport.

Just recently, she competed in the NWT Territorial Closed Competition, where she just missed the gold but nailed her performance in the interpretive event.

We can all learn something from Angela. Some may think it's outrageous for a 26-year-old to compete against girls under the age of 13, but Angela no longer wonders what might have been.

Her story is an inspiration to anyone who has ever regretted not following their dream.

Angela had the guts and determination to make hers come true.

And for that, we congratulate her.

Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News

The war of words is starting to heat up as the Feb. 16 election quickly approaches. One would think there is no shortage of pressing issues facing Nunavut for a would-be premier to build a platform on, even one acclaimed as MLA.

There is the ongoing deficit in the health department to be addressed, a workable vision for education to be conceived, an ever-burgeoning housing crisis to be overcome, a staggering unemployment rate to be lowered, recreational facilities and schools to be built, a decentralization policy draining more than it is giving, and a pressing need for Nunavut to set itself up for a bigger share of resource revenues when its long-hyped mines finally enter into production.

With all that to be tackled during the next four years, any challenger to Premier Paul Okalik's seat has lots to draw upon when it comes to issues that directly affect the majority of Nunavummiut. But, acclaimed Rankin Inlet North MLA Tagak Curley -- who has expressed interest in becoming Nunavut's next premier -- and Iqaluit West (the premier's riding) candidate Doug Workman seem to have different ideas about what really needs to be addressed in Nunavut.

Same bill, act two

Forget all that health, pending deficit and education stuff, let's spend more time and money reopening and further debating Nunavut's new Human Rights Act, the now infamous Bill 12.

Curley has been the more outspoken of the two on the human rights issue, and continues to be preoccupied with Nunavut's homosexual population.

While conceding the gay community deserves the same protection from discrimination as anyone else, Curley wants to revisit the act in an attempt to have marriage defined and same-sex marriages prohibited in Nunavut. Workman, on the other hand, wants to put a watch dog agency in place to ensure Nunavut is upholding the rights defined in the act.

Now, we're not saying there won't ever be a point in time when any and all of these points will warrant further discussion. But, for now, a Human Rights Act is in place that was debated in the legislature for more than a year and we have far more pressing social issues to be addressed than who really wears the pants in anyone's family.

With a deficit situation looming on the horizon, Nunavut's dwindling cash resources have to be utilized to their maximum potential. And that means better schooling for our youth, training initiatives that will lead to lower unemployment in our communities, better health-care programs, more efficient care for our elderly and more housing units for our kids to come home to -- areas that should be the real focus of the upcoming election.

Editorial Comment
Jason Unrau
Inuvik Drum

I think the rolling channel should be renamed the Bingo Advisory Network for its up-to-the-dabber broadcasts of the coming contests. At the risk of treading on the sacred cow of bingo, the following was a revelation that came to me recently.

Previous to my Northern sojourn, I had always been under the impression that bingo halls were the havens of elderly women who had lost all hope, save for the chance that today might be their lucky day.

This feeling can be traced back to when, as a boy of 10, my grandmother took me to one of her bingo sessions. Even to this day, while unable to understand the allure of this pastime, I remember marvelling at how Grandma managed to play what seemed like dozens of cards simultaneously and partake in conversation with several of her bingo pals.

Similar to other modes of gambling, playing bingo can provide a social outlet, in addition to satisfying the need to feel -- for those brief hours -- that one's ship will come in; if not this time, then there's always next week.

Psychological explanations aside, however, the sheer fundraising potential bingo can offer an organization is all the more reason to encourage staging more of them. But, before we all get carried away and march to town hall demanding an increase in the number of bingo licenses, we should take a moment for contemplation.

Sure, the proceeds from bingo in Inuvik help to pay for a lot of worthwhile activities, and this fact alone is a pretty convincing argument against the position that any form of gambling is a social ill that we could do without. But will the reservoir from which the bingo vines are nurtured ever run dry? Or will there come a time when Inuvik residents are entranced by an epic bingo contest in which all proceeds go to funding, of all things, a treatment centre?

Though quite ridiculous, my fictional bingo-for-treatment-centre scenario helps to illustrate the point that it may be time to look at other ways to raise money.

When I was in high school, if the team needed new uniforms or wanted to charter a bus for the next tournament, the team went into the community and worked for the money -- washing cars, mowing lawns. Or, the moms and dads would pony-up the cash.

There was no magical lottery-slushfund -- and even if there were, the "moral-majority" where I grew up would have done all in its power to quash such activities because gambling is a sin.

Certainly, the point of the above recollection is not to criticize how any non-profit organization in town gets their funding or to malign the bingo faithful.

However, look at it another way: take, for instance, the local economy and the theory of the "bouncing buck", whereby every dollar spent in the community stays in the community and hopefully does a bit more bouncing along the way.

Going by the figures for the last Inuvik Ice Devils bingo, a little more than 40 cents on the dollar went to the team while the rest was awarded to a few lucky people. Though a lot of money was raised, the bucks didn't bounce so much as they diminished.

When both the Ingamo Hall Society President and the Ingamo Hall Youth Council write town hall to request an extension to the Christmas Bingo Blackout -- citing the financial strain holiday bingo can have on families -- one has to wonder if the day will come when Inuvik society is divided into two classes; those that play bingo and those whose well-being depends on those that play.

Editorial Comment
Andrew Raven
Deh Cho Drum

With each passing day, the prospect of winter work for the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline gets more and more remote.

Imperial Oil and the rest of the companies involved in the project offered the Liidlii Kue First Nation a total of $12,000 in return for permission to carry out the work, which is essentially soil testing and geological surveys at this point.

Similar offers --which band council member Dennis Nelner described as an "insult"-- were made to other communities along the Mackenzie Valley.

While the $12,000 doesn't amount to much more than pocket change, Imperial Oil did offer 12 of the 14 winter work contracts to communities along the Mackenzie Valley.

Outwardly, it doesn't seem like a horrible offer but the LKFN and the Pipeline Working Group have Imperial Oil firmly strapped over a barrel and are playing hardball, multinational-corporation style.

Most of the surveying and soil testing is easier to do in the winter, so an environmental review could postpone the project until next year, to the ire of Imperial Oil.

For years, companies and governments have appropriated resources from traditional aboriginal lands, successfully out manoeuvring the local authorities.

Now the situation is reversed and the LKFN is deftly using bureaucracy to get the best deal possible for its people.

It's a tactic any major corporation would be proud of.