Save landfills, and bring your own bags to the store
Single-use plastic grocery bags require hundreds of years to degrade. Think about it: Every bag ever produced still exists. How many of these bags do you use in a week? What happens to them? A small percentage are recycled, but most are disposed in landfills, or have blown out of landfills, garbage bins or our hands to pollute our land and water.
Plastic bags in landfills do not readily decompose; they just take up space. Plastic bag litter breaks up into microplastics and can enter the food chains of land and ocean-based animals. This litter also reduces enjoyment of our state's natural beauty and is detrimental to tourism.
Several jurisdictions in Alaska have banned the use of these bags and the Wasilla City Council is considering such an ordinance. In the Mat-Su, a group of us have been active in encouraging residents to BYOB or Bring Your Own Bag to the store when you go shopping. BYOB is a simple means of reducing the number of plastic grocery bags requiring disposal. For more information, check out our Facebook Page: Mat-Su Zero Waste Coalition, Plastic Bag Committee.
— Annemieke Powers
Palmer
Thank Trump for Christmas?
Well just when you think Donald Trump alone has shown how narcissistic he can be, along comes a commercial praising him for bringing back Christmas.
All this time I believed Christmas was brought to us as a longstanding celebration for hundreds of years from around a world with many different beliefs. A celebration with both religious and cultural differences illustrating far more than the works of a single politician. A child proclaiming his thanks to Trump for bringing back Christmas told me of this great accomplishment. Now I know without Trump there would have been no Christmas this year.
I await a Trump tweet accepting the credit for his accomplishment.
— John A Parker
Kodiak
Murkowski sells out the middle class
If anyone wondered who are the constituents of Sen. Lisa Murkowski, now, after her wholehearted support of the Republican tax bill of 2017, there should be no doubt.
They are not middle and working class Alaskans, as this tax bill has a little for them. Some will see a small reduction that is scheduled to expire in 2025. By far most of the reductions will benefit corporations and rich Americans.
They are not thousands of Alaskans (and many millions of Americans) who buy health insurance, as price increases due to eliminating the individual mandate will make these policies unaffordable.
They are not children. Sen. Murkowski has had an opportunity to lead Congress to reinstate funding for CHIP the Children's Health Insurance Program but she has not done so. Many Alaska families and millions of American families depend on the program to obtain health care for their children.
They are not the elderly and poor as Medicaid and Medicare budgets will be reduced to pay for this bill.
They are not even her conservative supporters who believe in budgetary discipline as this bill adds at least $1.5 trillion to the deficit to an already bloated deficit.
Her unwavering support for this bill shows that her only constituents are the oil companies and her rich Republican donors. She has sold out most Alaskans for the opening of ANWR, which could deliver less money to the treasury than the tax break this bill will give to President Donald Trump.
— Hal Smith
Homer
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