Wilson is plain cruel or needs courage to talk to ASD officials
I read Tuesday morning that some women in Anchorage are working towards overturning the recently passed LGBT rights ordinance in our city. I literally, literally burst into tears. Will this fearmongering — this uneducated, uninformed, inexperienced demonizing of our LGBT neighbors never end? Where is the joy in knowingly, intentionally bringing pain to families who love and support and worry so much for the safety of their LGBT children, grandchildren, parents, siblings, cousins?
Does Bernadette Wilson understand how many LGBT youth live and attend school and try to navigate social lives in Anchorage? If she does, and still she would work to overturn this ordinance, she is just plain cruel. If she does not, I suggest she have the courage to talk with ASD officials who can educate her. She says she is concerned about the safety of children. As a retired ASD educator, a mother, a grandmother and an active participant in the Anchorage community, I too, am concerned about the safety of our children, all of them … straight, gay and transgender.
And if anyone thinks that children cannot possibly be gay or transgender, they really, truly have been living under a rock.
— Jeanne Ashcraft
Anchorage
Josephson cherry-picked; Finnish system entirely different
In his Nov. 17 letter to the editor, state Rep. Andy Josephson commented, "If we want to perform like the Finns, we need to act like them (No fun — I know)," referring to his bill to enhance standardized test scores by extending the school year.
However it is rather disingenuous of Rep. Josephson to cherry-pick one single aspect of the Finnish school system and so completely disregard the other fundamental differences between it and the U.S. I fail to see him noting that Finland does not start formal elementary education until the age of 7, or how their elementary students spend an average of five times longer per day playing at recess than the U.S., or how Finland does not give homework until high school. He also fails to mention that Finland does not use yearly standardized tests; in fact a Finnish student will only take one national "high-stakes" test at the age of 16 to determine high school placement.
Forty years ago when facing a failing education system, the Finns chose to prioritize training, supporting and paying teachers as professionals. Conversely, in 1983, when facing "A Nation at Risk" findings, the U.S. chose to prioritize national standards and testing with ever-increasing zeal. Today we can see which priorities worked. The U.S. results have essentially remained stagnant; the Finns have risen to international fame.
— Cathy Broker
Anchorage
Some unsettling similarities
There was this guy with a big mouth, a big ego and a big comb-over. He made wild claims about the dangers to his country from certain groups of people. He had a little black mustache and lived in Germany.
— Elliott Barske
Anchorage
Back to elementary logic, let's use single-user bathrooms
I find it ridiculous that supposedly thinking adults can focus on who uses what bathroom and turn the issue into an unsolvable problem. Perhaps the easiest solution is bathrooms similar to those found on an airplane or unisex bathrooms in every imaginable business. Everybody uses these same units with no regard to who did or might use it next. Many elementary school classrooms have bathrooms that allow a student to use it as necessary with no concern what gender the student is. Are adults not as capable as children when it comes to selecting a bathroom?
I remember the days when locker rooms used by boys only were the valid reason girls could not play contact sports. The imaginary problem was easily solved and now additional locker rooms no longer prevent any student being barred from participation. The solution to the "dangers" of bathroom use by one sex or another is easily solved by having multiple single-user bathrooms in all the schools.
— John A. Parker
Kodiak
Sales tax will just shift burden
The proposed sales tax will burden shift, giving a tax break to people wealthy enough to afford a home and increase the tax burden on lower-income renters. Very few landlords will decrease their rent rates, thus the proposal by Mr. Evans on the Assembly needs to be re-worked.
The city is faced with an income shortage and if the sales tax is proposed it needs to be shared equally, not giving a benefit to one portion of our citizens.
— Gail Boerwinkle
Anchorage
Disgusting Dec. 2 political cartoon feeds misunderstanding
The political cartoon on the opinion page Dec. 2 that compares the mass killer at the Planned Parenthood clinic to the medical staff at the clinic is the most dishonest, disgusting and utterly revolting attempt at humor you have ever printed. Who decided to go with that image that feeds the "baby parts" narrative that sent the killer over the top?
I have to imagine that the staff at ADN know that 97 percent of PP's work involves contraceptive advice and administration that precludes unwanted pregnancies and thus unwanted abortions, sexually transmitted disease prevention and screenings for cancers that women cannot afford to get anywhere else. Even the very few abortions that are performed at PP as well as other unaffiliated clinics across the nation are done almost exclusively in the first trimester when the clump of fetal cells could hardly be called a fetus, let alone a "baby." The less than 1 percent of abortions performed later in pregnancy are done for the sake of the women's life or the fact that the fetus is so damaged as to not be capable of living once birthed.
Feeding into the narrative that Planned Parenthood is a group of murderous malcontents with cartoons like this only further reinforces the unjustified hatred and misunderstanding of how important Planned Parenthood is to millions of women and men across America. Shame on you ADN for participating in such vile slander with the publication of that cartoon.
— Robert Atkinson
Seward
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