Buccaneer is not well liked by some community members.  

 I sensed at the recent Bidarka Inn public information meeting a definite hostility, a visceral hatred, even, that rolled like successive crashing waves threatening to engulf and sweep-away the hapless Mr. Landt, Buccaneer’s spokesman, had he not, figuratively, been lashed to his lectern.  

That attitude disturbs me. Buccaneer isn’t the enemy, it’s not a fearsome pirate ship appearing suddenly out of the morning fog to wantonly lay waste this quaint little sea-faring community.

Lawless pirate activity has long since been harnessed by society and regulatory bodies. But the spirit remains.  Buccaneer’s quest for gold — profit — has, paradoxically, been emblematic of a driving force in civilization’s advance; that spirit of “endeavor,” that ancient human compulsion to explore, use, and transform the earth’s bounty in order to promote and advance human life, has been absolutely crucial to mankind’s existence.  Minerals, oil and gas extracted from the ground compose the clothes you wear, the fertilizer that grows your food, the heat to keep you warm on cold winter nights and the gas to drive your car into town to attend  public meetings. If the world’s Buccaneers suddenly ceased functioning then most of humanity would perish.

Buccaneer is, in fact, your brother; the spirited, energetic, occasionally reckless one; the one whose dynamism provides the energy to make physical life tolerable and hospitable.

I think that your job, as stewards of Kachemak Bay, is to contain and direct his dynamism, not suppress it.  

Larry Slone