Legislators: Serve all Alaskans
The House has passed its version of the state budget. Assuming the Senate doesn't accept it as is, the budget will be negotiated by a joint conference committee. For Alaskans to end up with a decent state government, the committee members will need to listen to each other and find a common-sense solution to our fiscal gap.
I know what you're thinking — we've been here before. But I am hopeful today for several reasons. The recent election of progressives in Anchorage and the successes of the bipartisan coalition in the House indicate people are tired of the same old rants from Senate majority Republicans. The threat of a drop in our credit rating may prod some business-oriented legislators to act this year. Polls show many, perhaps most, residents support an income tax. A growing group of Alaskans care about our neighbors and want a sustainable future for our state. May they prevail in the joint committee and create a budget that will serve students, seniors and people who need health care, social services, and public safety — in other words, all of us.
Republican legislators would do well to see the handwriting on the wall and move toward the center now. We will remember the names of those who refused to help their fellow human beings next year at election time.
— Cheryl Lovegreen
Anchorage
PFD cuts are pure thievery
The Permanent Fund dividend was set up to give the people of Alaska a portion of oil profits. That means the money taken to pay for the government for the overspending in our state, is actually theft. There are so many families that use that money to survive in Alaska. Low income, the laid-off, old people, etc. I don't remember any state official asking me if they could have my PFD. They didn't. That's theft, period.
— James Christenson
Willow
Legislature has fiddled enough
State Sen. Natasha von Imhof (ADN, April 8) raises some interesting points in her column on our fiscal crisis. As I consider what steps the state should take to fix this, I look for transparency from all parties: legislators, the governor, oil companies, state government officials — all of them. As usual, I see very little. So, I rely on what I have observed living and working in Alaska most of my life.
First, I never assume our elected officials have the best interests of Alaskans at heart. So often it appears to be pure political influence wielding and the power of those with the most lobbyists.
Second, many of our elected officials don't have a clue how business works and what contributes to a growing economy. They have been at the public trough for way too long, both in their "public service" and many in their "regular" jobs.
Third, they will dither while the economy continues to shrink … because they are feeding out of the public trough.
So listen up: the responsibility for every percent of decline in our economy will be assigned to the current Legislature and governor. Period. You have fiddled around enough. Get started, and don't sell out your state. For once, put self-interest aside, and do the right thing. Surprise us.
— Colleen Hickey
Anchorage
History is just field trip away
The military has shaped the state of Alaska into what we know it as today. Past wars have left tons of remains from many military posts and bases scattered across the state. Yet in school, I hardly, if ever, heard of these places.
I can remember many field trips around the Kenai Peninsula and across many years for biology: trips to Homer, Seward and the Wildlife Conservation Center near Girdwood. For history, I don't recall having ever taken a field trip, not even in a state so ridden with remains.
There are many places within reach that I could have gone on a field trip to further my learning about our state's purpose in wars. Fort McGilvray at Seward, or one of the forts at Kodiak. There are other abandoned military posts scattered across Southcentral Alaska, all waiting to provide adventure and education to a group of school-aged kids.
— Caleb Frederickson
Soldotna
Youths turn to e-cigarettes, lured by industry's candy flavoring
As a leader in an Alaskan Native youth dance group that promotes positive and healthy choices, I'm excited about all the progress our state has made in reducing youth cigarette smoking. Unfortunately, tobacco companies are finding new ways to target kids. Their latest tactic is to market candy-flavored products like e-cigarettes and cigars that come in flavors like Mountain Dew, Orange Creamsicle, and Banana Smash. It's obvious kids are the target.
Their efforts are working. More Alaska high school students now use e-cigarettes than regular cigarettes (18 percent to 11 per-cent). Nationwide, more high school boys smoke cigars than cigarettes.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration took an important step to protect kids and public health last year when it issued new rules for these products. However, some members of Congress have introduced legislation to weaken these rules and make it easier for tobacco companies to keep marketing candy-flavored products to kids. They're trying to attach these proposals to a must-pass appropriations bill.
I urge Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who is a member of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, to help defeat these harmful proposals. Murkowski has long fought the tobacco industry's efforts to target kids, and I hope we can count on her again.
— Alyssa Madrid, Alaska Tobacco Control Alliance Youth Leaders
Kodiak
Thanks, ADN, for Arctic coverage
I thank you for the republication of Nunatslaqu News, "Nunavik teacher's prize shines spotlight on northern education," an article about Nunavik, Canada, teacher, Maggie MacDonnell, an Inuit communities teacher. According to the article, "MacDonnell is swept up in a tornado of events and media interviews since she returned from Dubai in late March, following a March 19th presentation award, where she was selected among 20,000 applicants and 10 finalists to win the $1 million Varkey Foundation's Global Teacher Prize for 2017."
"I was really reticent to take on this nomination," MacDonnell said. "Going for something called the global teaching prize … I am not that arrogant that I could call myself the world's best teacher. That's a huge title."
"Anyone who works in the north, in teaching, is constantly humbled by the challenges we face."
I greatly appreciate the Alaska Dispatch for having published the article about this extraordinary educator within the midst of the Arctic group of countries. She could be an inspiration to a new generation of aspiring students in Alaska. I only wish the article could have been published on the front page of ADN. Thank you.
— Sandra Hanson,
Anchorage School District, retired teacher
Anchorage
President sides with predator
Imagine for a moment you have a daughter trying to establish her career in her chosen field and that she has a rich, famous boss thrice her age who baits her with promises
of advancement and "career advice" to be delivered exclusively in his hotel room. So
rich and so famous in fact, that payments of
$13 million were made on his behalf to five other women he similarly stalked, abused and attempted to debase. And imagine we have a president of the United States who offers his effusive support of such a predator saying the predator "shouldn't have settled," but rather "should have taken it all the way," and "I don't think he did anything wrong." Imagine if you can, lending the power of the office of the U.S. presidency to that end.
But then again Trump is the first president in U.S. history to be elected after bragging on audiotape about how effortlessly he could sexually assault women, and that's quite a "first" to be proud of for Republicans. This is what we have been reduced to. If you have daughters as I do, you get it. Or at least you should.
— Bob Lacher
Wasilla
Mankind's biggest misconception
is that Jesus existed at all
Virtually everything we think we know about Jesus comes from the Gospels, yet contrary to popular belief we don't know who wrote them. In simple terms, they are essentially copies of the so-called Mark, written late in the first century. However, the earliest, pre-Gospel Christian epistles corroborate none of our Gospel assumptions: No Nativity, family, disciples, miracles, teachings, itinerary, friends, enemies, betrayal, trial, etc. They do not even mention Pilate as the agent nor Jerusalem as the site of the crucifixion.
No contemporary Jewish historians mention Jesus either (disregarding the acknowledged forgery in Josephus). So, if neither the earliest Christian writers like Paul nor any Jewish chronicles noticed the Gospel Jesus how can we believe He ever even existed?
It seems very likely the vast edifice of Christianity is founded on a fallacy and merely amounts to mankind's most monumental misconception.
— David H. Lewis
Anchorage
ANWR is treasure worth keeping
The oil industry's allies in Congress are once again attempting to turn over our public lands to the highest bidder for drilling the fragile coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
This refuge is one of America's last pristine landscapes, and has stood for decades as a symbol of our public lands heritage. Drilling and the related industrial infrastructure would have devastating effects on the coastal plain, which is the very heart of the refuge. This area provides denning habitat for polar bears, and serves as calving grounds for the Porcupine Caribou Herd.
Drilling in ANWR would pollute the clean air and water of a national treasure that is also home to wolves, musk oxen, and hundreds of species of birds that migrate to all 50 states and six continents.
ANWR is unique and we have a moral responsibility to preserve and protect it for future generations. I oppose all congressional and executive actions to open the refuge to oil and gas development, and urge Sens. Murkowski and Sullivan to do the same.
— Bhree Roumagoux
Anchorage
Wildlife policy based on fallacy
Charles Wohlforth's column on predator control, (ADN, April 13), unfortunately repeats the erroneous mantra that the Alaska Constitution requires "the maximum sustained yield" of wildlife for the benefit of the people.
That is definitely not what Article 8, Section 4 states. It requires the state's natural resources to be "utilized, developed and maintained on the sustained yield principle, subject to preferences among beneficial uses." Nothing about "maximum sustained yield" here.
Section 1 ("Statement of Policy") states: "It is the policy of the state to encourage the settlement of its land and the development of its resources by making them available for maximum use consistent with the public interest." Here, any "maximum use" requirement is limited by the requirement to achieve the "public interest." This mandate controls the application of any claimed "maximum" sustained yield requirement under Section 4. Achieving the broad "public interest" in wildlife does not always mean "yielding" killed (or "harvested") animals.
Section 2 of the Article 8 ("General Authority") states: "The Legislature shall provide for the utilization, development and conservation of all natural resources belonging to the state, including land and waters, for the maximum benefit of the people." Here again, the requirement is to achieve the maximum benefit of the people, not "maximum sustained yield."
The oft-repeated fallacy comes from erroneously adding the word "maximum" to the "sustained yield" language. This fallacy then implicitly assumes the "maximum sustained yield" of wildlife must automatically and directly result in achieving the "maximum benefit" of the people.
Many thinking Alaskans deplore this error, and reject this automatic assumption that "maximum" sustained yield will equal the "maximum benefit" to all Alaskans — we (not just the 20 percent among us who are hunters) all own our natural resources under the "Common Use" clause of section 3 of article 8 of our Constitution.
— Thomas E. Meacham
Anchorage
Taxpayer supports pay for public servants, but not legislators
I have no problem with using the Permanent Fund to help keep our state safe and in business. I support our police, state troopers, firemen, EMTs; the people who keep our roads clear and safe and our teachers.
But not one penny should go to the yahoos who couldn't do their job last year and had to be called back to work again and again and again, and they still didn't do their jobs. Not one penny should go to those who are blackmailing us into giving them an unearned raise so they won't accept illegal bribes from lobbyists. Not one penny to politicians who do not deserve it. NOT. ONE. PENNY.
— Amy Murrell-Haunold
Kenai
Expect nothing from D.C. where no one wants to do the work
I see what PGA stands for now. After all these years I've been confused! What's with all of the presidents spending so much time at the golf course? They must be so used to America being in the hole they don't want to stray far when they have time off. Of course I think they have a harder time putting the ball in the hole than they do fixing America.
And now Congress will go on a two-week vacation. You better step it up, American workers, quit being so lazy and work a little harder and put in some overtime … maybe get a second and third job so you can pay your fair share of taxes.
By the looks of it I don't think we have to worry about any foreign country becoming the demise of America. We will implode from the inside unfortunately.
We need to be patient though, maybe if we give House Speaker Paul Ryan and the rest of the Republicans another seven years I'm sure we will have a good health care plan. Talk, talk, talk, lie, lie, lie, oh, but wait, I need immunity, I misspoke, I plead the 5th, this is an ongoing investigation.
Forget it, America, Washington, D.C., is untouchable. Expect nothing, therefore you won't be disappointed. I need to hear another eloquent speech; then I will feel better.
— Rolf L. Bilet
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.