Readers write: Letters to the editor, May 4, 2016

Nathaniel Herz’s article about Juneau politicians and the lobbyists they share meals with was interesting — in a People magazine/ gossip column sort of way. Herz said the idea that lawmakers should pay for their own meals seemed to “perplex” Senate President Kevin Meyer. While not perplexed, I would agree that shared meals, drinks or meetings in public do not constitute a “smoking gun” of impropriety or as Meyer put it “if you look at dinners and votes, there is no correlation.”

Meyer was probably taken aback by the softball questions concerning his dining partners. There are tougher issues he could be the focus of. In 2013 Meyer voted to pass Senate Bill 21, a bill that benefited his employer ConocoPhillips. When the bill came to the Senate floor Meyer asked to be recused. Under legislative rules, he was forced to vote by those in the majority who complained — whether his offer was political posturing or a heartfelt ethical dilemma makes little difference, the outcome was fixed by the rules. Rules designed by corrupted lawmakers.

The 2007 “ethical reform” seems to have increased the accuracy of meal reporting but did little to curb our lawmakers’ propensity to vote or create laws in the best interests of their employers or their own aggrandizement.

— Ron Hedge

Anchorage

Prior to Alaska politics being corrupted by oil industry influences, we had a sane state of affairs up here. The frontier wisdom of our leaders and elders guided us in the direction of democracy: Bill Egan, Vic Fischer, Willie Hensley, Jay Hammond, Julie Kitka, Ted Stevens, Tony Knowles.

Why are these oil-industry influenced, social extremists in the Legislature being permitted to ruin The Great Land? Sadly, from the governor on down, a move is in play to “fix” state finances with Permanent Fund earnings. This regressive tax will be carried on the backs of the disempowered: Alaska’s young, old, disabled and rural who rely on their constitutional share of state resources for survival.

Let the wealthy pay their share: a progressive income tax and an end to oil industry subsidies!

— Marty Decker

Anchorage

Why is Sen. Mike Dunleavy still trying to ram through his politically motivated legislation to gut sex education in our schools? His obsession is out of control, and I resent his interference in local school issues. We don’t need Dunleavy dictating what is best for our children.

House Bill 156 — which has been rejected twice because it’s bad legislation — has now been assigned to a conference committee in a desperate attempt to keep it alive. And of course Dunleavy sits on the conference committee.

Why is anyone wasting time on this when the Legislature has not yet solved the state’s deficit crisis? Why is this unwanted meddling in sex education more important to Dunleavy than the economic future of our state?

House Bill 156 is terrible legislation. If Dunleavy, or any other legislator, truly wants to do something to improve education, increase funding to our schools so we have a trained, educated workforce tomorrow.

— Sharon Stockard

Anchorage

Does the school board really think we are impressed that they went and spent $40,000 on an outside firm to find a new superintendent who lives 50 miles away? Who we are going to pay more than the one we had who was doing an amazing job and everyone loved, except the board. I’m not only unimpressed, I am livid that this has happened. This situation did not need to happen, the people of Anchorage will not forget when it comes time for re-election of the board members.

To Mr. Graff; I was your student many years ago and you had a huge impact in my life. I thank you for that. You have handled this situation with such class and the people of Anchorage owe you so many thanks for the job you have done. We wish you only the best on your future endeavors!

— Sheena Woodard

Anchorage

Edgar Blatchford’s Sunday commentary on Native corporations reminds me of past conversations on village life.

Alaska, especially rural Alaska, has changed tremendously in values and how life is lived in relation to resources.

Native corporations have added dollar value to the corporations. It has cost the villages more than we can imagine. Money and education left the villages migrating away to easier life and detaching people from the land.

When that happens the earth is no longer valuable? Only the bottom line.

— Fred Wemark

Anchorage

Can you see the theme in these recent articles?

After reading “Alaska is among the states most vulnerable to corruption, expert testifies,” these jumped out at me:

“Lobbyists bought $100 meal for Senate president just before vote on building.”

“Ethics crusader tells court campaign contributions swayed his votes.”

“It’s time to break the Legislature’s habit of secrecy.”

“Alaska’s political contribution limits founded on shaky ground” and so on.

We’ve got a problem, Alaska!

— L.L. Raymond

Homer

International Midwives Day is celebrated on May 5 in over 50 nations to recognize and honor midwives who work to improve health education, wellness and safety in childbirth for women throughout the world. Midwifery has always been an integral part of women’s health care, and direct-entry midwives have been licensed in Alaska since 1992.

In 2015, 620 Alaska women were served by licensed midwives in planned out-of-hospital births (birth center and home). Of those 620, over 96 percent had a vaginal delivery, and less than 2 percent of women were transferred in labor for an urgent problem. Less than 1 percent of the babies were transported to a hospital for an urgent problem. The babies averaged 8 pounds at birth, and over 96 percent of the mothers were still breast-feeding at their last postpartum visit.

The members of the Midwives Association of Alaska, consisting of CDMs and licensed apprentices, are proud of these excellent statistical outcomes. They extend appreciation and thanks to the physicians, certified nurse midwives and other health care providers with whom they collaborate and consult. Gratitude is also extended to the state lawmakers and representatives who support midwifery in Alaska, and to the women and babies they are honored to serve.

— Susan Terwilliger,

CDM, MAA president

Eagle River

This Mother’s Day, May 8, many of us will celebrate the powerful bond between mother and child. Tragically, the worldwide symbols of motherhood — dairy cows — never get to see or nurture their babies.

Newborn calves are torn from their mothers at birth, so we can seize and drink the milk that mother cows produce for them. The powerless, distraught mothers bellow for days, hoping in vain for their babies’ return. The babies are kept alive elsewhere, to soon become veal cutlets.

Dairy cows spend their lives on a concrete floor, chained, with no outdoor access. To maintain their milk flow, they are artificially impregnated each year. Around 4 years old, their milk production drops and they are turned into hamburgers.

This Sunday, let’s honor motherhood and our natural compassion by refusing to subsidize cruelties of the dairy industry. Let’s replace cow’s milk and its products, laden with fat and cholesterol, with delicious, healthful, cruelty-free nut or soy-based milk, cheese, yogurt, and ice cream offered in every grocery store. Mother cows and our own bodies will thank us.

— Alexander Durbin

Anchorage

ADN’s coverage of the Taj MaHawker in Anchorage has been well done.

But all of the coverage never mentions that the Legislature works in Juneau. In fact, millions of dollars are currently being spent on upgrading the Capitol so the legislators are properly served.

Begging the question, why spend money on the LIO? Most legislators do not live in Anchorage and will never use the LIO. So who, in fact is using this Taj Mahal? Could it be lobbyists?

— Sheila Burke

Eagle River

Advertising works. It sells product. Product placement in movies sells product. That brings us to the front page of the Alaska Dispatch News on Sunday and the attractive person holding out two handfuls of marijuana. If we sold marijuana, we would pay for that advertisement.

What comes first? Overuse of mind-altering drugs and alcohol or mental illness? Or does mental illness often lead to overuse of mind-altering drugs and alcohol? It falls on the Legislature and city and state planners to answer the question.

— Dorrance Collins and Faith Myers, mental health advocates

Anchorage

Thank you to all the volunteers who did or are pitching in and cleaning up a lot of the parks, streets and highways of Anchorage. I am honored to be among those many volunteers.

But now I have to ask: Why is there so much trash littering Anchorage? Does no one care about how our city looks? If no one cared, no one would be volunteering to pick up the trash. So my idea is for the city to challenge everyone to do their part and not throw trash on the ground. But that means we must have a few more trash bins in our parks and by our bus stops and then these need to be emptied fairly frequently, people need to put litter bags in their cars, businesses must pitch in and clean up around their establishments (some already do).

I watched a spot on Channel 2 where the person interviewed said that he wanted the city cleaned up before the tourists arrived. Well, I say, why just clean it up for tourists? Don’t the people of Anchorage deserve to have a clean city all the time? I think so. Let’s all pitch in and keep our city clean so next year we have half the tonnage of trash to be picked up by our volunteers.

— Joanne Ackerman

Anchorage

My name is Mary Goodwin. I am an eighth-grader from Gruening Middle School and my social studies class is doing Project Citizen. Project Citizen is where one class looks at a problem in our community that we think is important and do a project on that topic. Since we just had a major earthquake, our class chose the topic that the community is not well informed about: What to do when a disaster happens and what people need to have after disasters.

People and families new to Alaska are not always prepared for disasters that we have up here and they need to be informed on how to keep themselves and their family safe. The government takes about seven days to get food and other supplies up to Alaska after a major disaster and the stores only have four days worth of food for everyone. Therefore, people need to have enough food, water, and supplies for those days before the government comes.

For our project we will be researching ways to send the message out to other people in the community. By having more PSAs and pamphlets to inform families and other citizens about what they need to have to survive before the government can help. Alaska has many disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis, wildfires, ice and snowstorms. So our advice for people is to have an emergency plan for when a disaster happens. We started many social media accounts that people can follow us on. Twitter: @EmergencyPrepAK; Facebook: EmergenPrep; Instagram: @Emergency.Prep.AK.

— Mary Goodwin

Eagle River

It warms my heart to see the Alaskan Republicans working so hard to eliminate illegal high-priced contributions and bribery in our state political process. Of course, they are doing this by simply making it legal.

What’s next? Allowing payments of hundreds of thousands of dollars to a couple of legislators, who in turn get to make the deciding vote to give millions of dollars of our money to the company that pays them? Bribing our legislators has always yielded a pretty nice return on investment for those who can afford it. Making it legal helps to avoid those pesky jail sentences.

— Leif Simcox

Anchorage