In the news lately is some local crazies from Ely terrorizing people in the Boundary Waters see here:http://www.timberjay.com/current.php?article=3695

Originally being from the area, and having lived, worked in and then left it, I suppose I could put my two cents in. People constantly question why young people leave the area. Of course the answer is usually the economy, which is true. There are entire other groups of people who leave for other purposes, however. Some of it is just wanting to go someplace else, or to a larger city, or just plain ambition that cannot be followed through on in the area. Then there are many others who leave because they cannot stand social isolation, usually people who are somewhat different, whether racially, culturally, in sexual preference or just plain don't wish to be surrounded by a world of insular locals, whom having never left and seen the larger world, assume they are somehow better than anyone else, and only their thoughts and habits matter.

Their ignorance, never confronted, becomes part of the community thought. It gains the power of myth.

Somehow, a small minority in the area has continued its myth of oppression, that their rights were and are being violated, and that they should decide how public land is used. They classify themselves as being oppressed, yet they aren't actually treated differently than anyone else. They just wish they could motor around,rather than paddle, or ride their snowmobiles or atv's anywhere they choose, because doggone it, that is how things are supposed to be. In short, it is let me and my friends do what we want. And don't you dare question it.

It is one of the reason's I left. Insular ignorance. Moronic beliefs. Never having had ambition to learn beyond their own desires, they howl at the world, then wonder why people look at them for what they are; close minded idiots. I love the woods; I hate gravel pits. The two do not go together. Neither does a half drunk yokel tearing ass down the road on an atv with a pistol; He is what he is, a half drunk yokel. Somehow, they have become some mythical rebel, rather than just a scary halfwit you want to keep away from your kids.

It is why I left. It is why many will continue to, never to come back, and why nothing will ever grow there. You can't grow a garden on wasteland.