Take a deep breath, think before you judge

In the dark early morning hours Saturday as two mushers in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race moved along the Yukon River trail heading for Nulato, someone driving a snowmachine took aim at them. He slammed into the first team injuring a dog and scaring the hell out of the driver. Then he pulled away and waited and when the second team came along he drove his machine into that outfit too, this time killing a dog and injuring at least one other. Then he roared off into the darkness leaving the second team also to limp into Nulato.
As the day dawned, reports were sketchy. Troopers had been called, injured dogs attended to, the mushers were unhurt, but no one as yet had reported how or why or who had perpetrated this attack.
As we waited for details the blame game started. You would have thought Fox news was covering the Iditarod. One online poster blamed the attack on the atmosphere of violence generated by presidential candidate Donald Trump in the way he and his followers dealt with protesters. Really.
Then an Internet wag started ranting about how the Iditarod is hated in the villages, how race rules had isolated villagers from the racers, how the race left trash in the villages and how local resources were used. Of course that boiled over into violence against the mushers.
Good grief. This is an isolated village on the Yukon River, hundreds of miles from anywhere. The race goes through every other year. How much hatred can you build up over three or four days every two years?
I waited. I had a suspcion but I wasn't going to put it out there. It's like saying a jury got it wrong based on television after not having heard one sentence of testimony. Jump to conclusions much?
In the long run I was right.  That doesn't matter. A suspect was arrested and according to reports admitted hitting the two teams with his snowmachine. He said he was blacked-out drunk and didn't remember anything, although you have to wonder how anyone would admit to doing something he says he couldn't remember anything about.
I spent a winter in Nome and while there, covered several trials. Almost every one of them involved alcohol and in almost every one the defendant claimed he was drunk. It was almost an acceptable defense: "He didn't mean it, he was drunk."
And that's what I thought at first, a drunk guy crashed into the teams, although having hit two apparently on purpose takes the possibility of an accident out of the picture.
As for the rush to judgment, the people of Nulato came out in full force to help the two mushers any way they could, with food, dog care and just welcoming arms. Not quite the picture of village hatred. And as for Trump's atmosphere of violence, no doubt it exists, however, its influence on a drunk driving a snowmachine in the dark on the Yukon River is doubtful.
We all need to wait for the facts before we rush to judgment.

Driver charged the whole story (ADN)

Below is a facebook post by my friend Joe May on how he was treated in Nulato the year he won the Iditarod:
I drove into Nulato in 1980 on a winning run to find my dog food had been lost or sent to the wrong place. When it was discovered I had no food locals scattered in all directions only to be back within minutes with little bags of kibble, dried salmon, and even bits of moose. Enough to get me to Kaltag. Probably stuff they could ill afford to give away. The compassion and empathy in their eyes is one of the lasting memories I have of the race. The rest of the people of Nulato must be devastated. Sad for Jeff and Aliy.

Nulato unites behind mushers