Letters to the editor (3/3/09)

Concerning Jack Coghill's "Parents' Rights" House Bill 35: It seems to me that the only parents who should be given the right to give consent before their teenage daughters can get an abortion are the ones who were involved enough in their teenage daughters' lives to have given consent for their teenage daughters to get pregnant in the first place.

Let's instead pass a "Family Values" law that states if a teenage daughter gets pregnant without her parents' consent, the parents should be arrested for neglect. If the law were made retroactive, the governor could investigate herself and find herself not guilty.

-- Ken Erbey

Palmer

State lists good stimulus projects

As head of a transportation watchdog organization, I am pleased that Gov. Sarah Palin and the Alaska Department of Transportation developed a list of projects they would like to receive stimulus money for that is consistent with the state's greatest transportation needs. These projects (see the Alaska DOT Web page) focus on upgrading roads and bridges in preparation for the gasline, fixing existing transportation infrastructure and funding transit and safety improvements. They are not bridges and roads to nowhere.

Alaska municipalities also can compete for stimulus funding for other projects. It is in the state's interest for communities to seek funding only for projects that can be strongly justified. For this reason, my organization will scrutinize requests for stimulus funding and will highlight wasteful projects.

One problematic candidate for stimulus money is the nearly $1 billion expansion of the Port of Anchorage, the size and scope of which has never been justified and which likely will not receive enough user revenue to cover operating costs. Due to its high construction cost and its projected adverse aquatic impacts, the Port of Anchorage expansion needs to be revisited and scaled back before receiving any new funding.

-- Lois N. Epstein, P.E., director

Alaska Transportation Priorities Project

Anchorage

Hey, losers: Stop sniping at Sarah

Why do our sad media and other losers out there continue to snipe at our governor? Leave her alone to get her job done.

-- Norman Griffin

Homer

Death penalty isn't Christian

As a United Methodist minister, I stand in opposition to the death penalty. In our Protestant tradition, the Social Principles of the United Methodist Church condemn the "torture of persons by governments for any purpose" and assert that it violates Christian teachings. The church, through its Social Principles, further declares, "We oppose capital punishment and urge its elimination from all criminal codes."

The United Methodist Church is convinced that the nation's leaders should give attention to the improvement of the total criminal justice system and to the elimination of social conditions that breed crime and foster a false confidence in the effectiveness of the death penalty.

This perspective is grounded in our Book of Resolutions, which speaks to the 8 million United Methodist in America.

-- Rev. Dennis B. Holway

United Methodist

Anchorage

Parental notice comes with costs

Do we really want another program that is a big slogan but doesn't give the true picture of the real cost?

We Alaskans need to challenge Gov. Palin to put her money where her mouth is as she supports the requirement for parental consent prior to a minor's abortion. If our governor really wants to bring these babies into this world, then she needs to budget the future costs to Alaska: the funding necessary to keep these families housed throughout their lives, complete with adequate food and medical care.

Many teen mothers are on welfare, and some move into situations with increased crime and with higher levels of physical, drug and alcohol abuse. Every new birth increases the probability that troubled souls will move through our days while adding to the burden of our already stressed systems.

-- Sam Glass

Anchorage

Violence just begets violence

A death penalty sentence is a primitive response to crime/murder and reflects long-standing institutional decisions that are both racist and class-biased.

Incarceration itself is burdened by a racist and class bias.

Our new Obama administration gives us hope that we may seek a kinder, less punitive, less violent culture in America that hopefully moves our society forward in addressing the causes of crime, seeking the tools of healing and reconciliation.

Violence begets violence; retribution continues the chain of violence. To kill another, to murder, is abhorrent -- even more so for a state to retaliate in kind. When a state seeks to retaliate by death, it actually condones, by example and leadership, that killing for revenge is OK.

The state of Alaska needs to continue without the death penalty. The state can continue to lead by example in seeking a less primitive, less punitive society. The state can assist in developing a more advanced society by addressing the causes of violence and crime, such as alcoholism, ignorance and racism.

-- Karen Cauble

Homer

Villages need stimulus money

"Welfare" stimulus money should be used for much-needed programs in rural villages, such as teen centers, senior transport, down payments on next winter's fuel supply and programs to save indigenous languages, which are being lost very fast nowadays.

-- Steve Nowatak

Kokhanok

Lay track, not roadway, to Nome

I saw in the news that the state is considering building a road to Nome. To me, at this time, that would make no sense. A road is so costly to build and maintain, especially in the middle of the state.

We do need access, but a railway would be much more in order. It would help people along the way get access to large household items without paying huge freight bills for air carrier service on furniture, cars, etc. We would not need the policing for crimes on a highway, or for the drivers who get lost or have to be rescued due to car problems.

I have ridden the train to Fairbanks, and it is so comfortable. I have also driven to Fairbanks, and if there were not all those towns along the way, even if they are far apart, it would be scary in the winter.

A lot could be said for both modes of transportation to Nome and other communities, but we also have to look at the cost for daily upkeep and the reality of it being a feasible thing in the long run.

-- Ann Whipple

Anchorage

Parents must be involved

I have two grown daughters. They are competent, confident, disciplined women. While going through school, they had responsibilities my wife and I assigned and privileges we granted, but very few "rights."

When my oldest was 16, she and a girlfriend decided they were going to travel to Madison, Wis., to attend a rock concert and stay in a tent with 20-year-old boys they had met over the Internet. "Not happening," I said.

She was literally in tears, mad that I exercised such "unreasonable" control over her life -- she said, quite correctly, that she had never given me reason to seriously question her judgment and she makes good decisions.

"Not happening," I said. "I was a 20-year-old boy once (as it happens, in Madison, Wis.) and I don't trust them much more than I don't trust you. In any case, it's not a matter of trust. It is a matter of decisions you are ready for."

Thinking of my daughters and the students in classes I have been a substitute teacher for, there is only one word I can think of to describe a system where, absent extraordinary circumstances, parents aren't required to be notified before inflicting the emotional and physical punishment of abortion: cruelty. How in the world did we get here?

-- Steve Pratt

School Board candidate

Anchorage