Readers write: Letters to the editor, April 11, 2017

Steelheads showed class

To the Idaho Steelheads:

Thank you.

Thank you for being a class act during and after the Alaska Aces' final game in franchise history.

It was only fitting it would be you that they would face in their final series, since you are Alaska's oldest continuous regional and divisional rival, going back 20 years to the WCHL era.

And even though it may been have meaningless to your playoff standing, thank you for not giving the Aces a "gimme" game on Saturday night, which would have been both humiliating and insulting to the team and the fans. You played like a spot in the playoffs were on the line.

I wish you the best of luck in the Kelly Cup playoffs.

— Lance Gravely
an Alaska Aces fan
Wasilla

Eastman's comment divisive

Recent news accounts report Wasilla Republican Rep. David Eastman staged a one-person protest against a legislative resolution honoring Alaska's black soldiers who helped build the Alaska Highway. Eastman was quoted as saying that "the state should not enter into the practice of choosing winners and losers, especially on matters of race."

Eastman's actions and statement leave me almost speechless. Unless he is a white supremacist, since when is honoring our black soldiers picking winners and losers on racial issues? Why is this "representative" wasting state resources with such divisive dribble? And how does Wasilla manage to put such an unthinking, arrogant politician into office?

— Kevin Harun
Anchorage

Without Electoral College …

The benefit of the Electoral College can be seen by subtracting the state of California from the equation. Without California, Trump won by 2 million popular votes and well over a hundred electoral votes. Subtract New York as well and he won by 3 1/2 million popular votes and two to one in the Electoral College. Do we really want one or both of those states dictating policy to the whole rest of the country? As it is, just those two guaranteed blue states mean Democrats can count on almost a third of the electoral votes needed to win the presidency before the election even starts.

— Bill Tolbert
King Salmon

Lesson from another wall

During the 1930s, the French government built a formidable wall of fortifications to stop German immigrants (the kind that goose-stepped and carried Mauser rifles) from entering France. It was called the "Maginot Line."

Unfortunately for France, those diabolically clever Germans found a loophole in the system — they simply walked around it. Do you reckon that could possibly happen with the "Trump Line"?

— Don Neal
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 under 200 words 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.