Relieve congestion with transit
Former Assembly member Heather Flynn's "Historic Decision is Welcome" (ADN, Dec. 10) thanks our mayor for deciding not to fund the proposed Bragaw Street-Elmore Road extension. In 1972, along with Heather, I was among the 700 citizens at the AMATS hearing on the proposed Tidewater Freeway, now the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail. Even Barrie White, business leader and my dad's friend, testified against this freeway: "Cynthia, I'm usually a developer, but this is going too far!" he told me.
The proposed Bragaw-Elmore extension also goes too far. It is the opposite of what we need to be a progressive, transit-oriented North American city. The University of British Columbia in Vancouver has torn up its parking lots in the middle of campus.
Both at UBC and at the University of Washington in Seattle, several buses operate every 10 minutes to and from downtown. If Anchorage did something similar, we'd reduce the road congestion that area hospitals say is impeding emergency vehicles. We'd also eliminate the need for more roads and parking lots in the U-Med District.
— Cynthia Wentworth
Anchorage
Fear stimulates gun sales
In the aftermath of mass shooting like the one in San Bernardino, California, gun supporters say no law would have prevented it. No law will prevent a determined criminal from obtaining a gun.
While this "logic" doesn't hold water, it's time we make big changes to end the carnage.
Here's a radical solution. Let's try the thing we haven't tried yet; let's get rid of the guns by:
• Repeal of the Second Amendment
• Passage of strict gun control laws
• Require every gun to be registered and insured
• Ban private gun manufacturers
• Set goals to get rid of most privately owned guns.
Gun regulation is a tool of violence reduction. Look at England and Australia, among other countries, that have strong gun laws and very little gun violence. Maybe we should do likewise. Maybe it's not democracy that drives us to buy guns but fear!
— John Turner
Anchorage
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain
It has suddenly become abundantly clear to me that the run-up to next year's presidential election is little more than an extended promo for Mr. Trump's next television show, "The Wizard of Odds."
Blustering behind a curtain he manipulates the levers of power; spewing vitriol, steam and flames as his many minions and mendicants wait anxiously for the Wizard to give them a brain.
— Ken Flynn
Anchorage
Forcing ferry passengers to go through Canada is not solution
Deputy Commissioner Mike Neussl of the state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, which operates the Alaska Marine Highway System, announced at a meeting in Kodiak last week that DOT is considering eliminating ferry service between Haines and Skagway. The decision to end the service is based on the existence of roads between the two communities.
Now that might sound reasonable, until one realizes Alaskans would have to make the drive by leaving the U.S. and entering Canada. Alaska DOT apparently does not realize that U.S. citizens entering Canada for the drive would be prohibited from transporting some firearms, bear spray, Tasers, certain game and an assortment of other items legal in Alaska but not legal in Canada. Some Alaskans are barred from entering Canada because of a DUI, among other reasons.
Perhaps the DOT should propose limiting the amount of ferry service between these two locations and not simply eliminating all service. A decision to simply end ferry service and force Alaskans to travel through Canada is simply not in the spirit of Alaska.
— John A. Parker
Kodiak
All gun violence is terrorism; just ask the survivors
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
— George Santayana
Thirty thousand Algerians marched peacefully in Paris in 1961 to protest the French colonial war in their country. They were set upon by riot police who murdered somewhere between 40 and 200 (exact numbers are not known) and threw the bodies into the Seine River. Some were still alive and unconscious, left to drown.
It is an unfortunate reminder of past colonial atrocities that the attackers in Paris, and many of their victims, were of Algerian parentage or origin (The Nation, Dec. 7).
Perhaps Terry L. Chambers (ADN, Dec. 11) would've been a little less "vitriolic" if the original letter writer describing this historic event had signed his name Frederick Minshall minus his first name Al-Hajj.
Santayana is credited with another poignant quote, "Only the dead have seen the end of war." Please remember all gun violence is an act of terrorism, you need only ask the survivors.
— Brian MacMillan
Anchorage
The views expressed here are the writers' own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a letter for consideration, email letters@alaskadispatch.com, or click here to submit via any web browser. Submitting a letter to the editor constitutes granting permission for it to be edited for clarity, accuracy and brevity. Send longer works of opinion to commentary@alaskadispatch.com.