Letters to the editor (4/11/09)

The other week I took a cab to the Anchorage airport. The cabbie's cell phone rang and she continued driving while holding the phone to her left ear. Next time I looked up from the back seat she was scribbling a message with a pen in her right hand while still holding the cell phone in her left hand. A quick calculation told me that left no hands for the steering wheel.

This is crazy, reckless, dangerous! Cell phone use should be banned while behind the wheel, but let's at least start with taxis and other commercial vehicles.

-- William M. Cox

Nome

Stevens in position to run again

Ted Stevens should run. The homemade princess' term will soon be up; besides, that will get that murky taste out of our mouths. I'll vote for you and send a campaign donation. Just give us the word.

-- William P. Johnson

Dillingham

Resignation calls just sour grapes

I'm neither surprised nor upset by Randy Ruedrich's ludicrous demand for Sen. Begich's resignation and a subsequent special election. What spews from Mr. Ruedrich is such Limbaugh-esque blather that it is pretty easy to ignore.

What I can't ignore is the same divisive call from public figures whom I respect and admire. I had hoped that politics and politicians in our state were moving toward productive bipartisanship, but this is partisan politics at its dismaying worst.

Ted Stevens' conviction certainly influenced and may have decided last November's election, but anyone who believes that the current uproar has anything to do with fairness to Mr. Stevens should consider this: What if Mr. Stevens had heeded Gov. Palin's suggestion that he resign prior to the election? What if the Republican party had mounted a vigorous write-in campaign for Sean Parnell, Johnny Binkley, Dave Cuddy, or some other prominent figure? What if that candidate had defeated Mr. Begich in a straightforward, head-to-head contest based on the candidates' qualifications and their positions on issues? Would Gov. Palin and the Republican party now be calling for a duly elected Republican to resign so Mr. Stevens could have another chance for election?

Calling for Sen. Begich's resignation is simply partisan sour grapes. It has nothing to do with fairness.

-- Ron Roper

Palmer

Enlightened OCS program good

Americans will benefit more from an enlightened Outer Continental Shelf program than with any single initiative that President Obama and Interior Secretary Salazar could undertake this year.

Unshackling OCS oil and natural gas reserves will: 1) support several hundred thousand direct, high-paying positions and millions of support industry and manufacturing jobs; 2) create huge and sustainable royalty and tax cash streams to federal and state governments (especially when the feds share production royalties with all adjacent states that bear the impact of and provide critical support to OCS economic activity); 3) eliminate trillions of dollars from the national debt, over time; 4) reverse the downward pressure on the value of American currency; 5) increase downward pressure on the world and domestic price of energy by increasing supply, and; 6) assure that as more and more electricity is produced from natural gas, we minimize imported LNG fuel for which, otherwise, we will dearly pay.

Imagine Gov. Schwarzenegger not issuing IOUs to state workers or increasing taxes that drive citizens closer to insolvency or out of state. Imagine Florida's Gov. Crist with a declining home forfeiture rate. Imagine Gov. Palin, unconcerned with budget cuts that could soon begin to haunt our 7 percent annual decline in trans-Alaska pipeline oil throughput. A good OCS policy could quickly produce those happier realities.

-- Dave Harbour

Anchorage

The nation voted for Obama

Last November's election for president took place at a time of crisis. When we went to the polls we knew that the banking system was near collapse, that the U.S. auto industry was on the verge of bankruptcy, and that the nation was in deep recession. Americans weighed the merits of both candidates, then decisively selected Barack Obama to lead the nation back to recovery.

At such times in our nation's past politics has generally been set aside while responsible government leaders, Republicans and Democrats, work together for the greater good of the nation. That was true most recently after 9/11.

But that's not happening now. Every time the president offers an initiative it immediately becomes a political issue. Many Republicans and many Democrats have gone into full campaign mode to resist the president's leadership.

For many, it's as if the election campaign of 2008 never ended.

People voted for change. They expect their leaders to work together with the single-minded goal of restoring economic order, setting our financial system straight, getting jobs back into the workplace and making the changes the country clearly needs.

The election of 2008 is over. President Obama won. It's time for members of Congress to shift gears from election politics to governing, and give the public hope and confidence that our form of democracy still works.

-- Larry Carr

Anchorage

We should be attacking pirates

Over the past months of pirate activity off the coast of Somalia, I've been amazed that the U.S. and its allies have not taken aggressive action to send a strong message to these thugs. Thinking they could get away with anything, the pirates finally went after a U.S. cargo ship and kidnapped its captain.

With advanced satellite surveillance and extremely accurate guided missile systems, we should be reading about pirate ships being quickly reduced to floating debris that contain no pieces larger than kindling.

-- Frank E. Baker

Eagle River

Augustine named on saint's day

Mr. Jim Wilson's thoughtful response ("Volcano doesn't merit sainthood," April 8) to my letter to the editor of last Sunday ("Cook Inlet's fifth volcano is too quiet to get much news coverage," April 5) stated the correct name for the volcano in Lower Cook Inlet is not St. Augustine, but "simply Augustine." When I worked on the island in the early 1970s helping install car batteries to power seismic transmitters on various sites on the island for volcanologist Dr. Juergen Kienle of the Alaska Geophysical Institute, he referred to the volcano as St. Augustine.

The "Dictionary of Alaska Place Names," which I am in the process of republishing, says "it was discovered and named 'Saint Augustine Island' in 1778 by Capt. James Cook." That is because it was first seen on May 26, St. Augustine's Day (James K. Barnett, "Captain Cook in Alaska and the North Pacific"). Perhaps common usage has shortened the name to Augustine, but it was named by Cook as St. Augustine, a term many still use.

-- Flip Todd

Anchorage

Stop feeding salmon to the bears

Summer is coming, and the Anchorage bear problem won't fix itself. Last summer as almost all Anchorage citizens know, two people were mauled in Far North Bicentennial Park. As far as I know, Anchorage has no official plan to solve the bear problem.

The best plan to deal with the bears is to discontinue stocking Campbell Creek with salmon. If Fish & Game were to stop stocking Campbell Creek, this would decrease the salmon population drastically, and in a few years the salmon population would be null. After all the salmon are gone, the bears would migrate to a new food source. People all around Anchorage want an urban fishery, but would they be willing to lose their lives for fish that don't return naturally each year?

-- Erik Klosiewski

Anchorage

Patkotak wrong about consent

Elise Patkotak's April 1 column ("Consent from an abusive family leaves a lot to be desired") advising us to vote away our children's right to be parented is no joke, although her argument that parental consent for a minor's abortion may imply a parent's right to command an abortion is truly ridiculous.

After reading the column, I dropped off my niece at her high school, and wondered how many parents, if Ms. Patkotak has her way, will unknowingly drop their daughters off at school not for a day's education, but for an abortion facilitated by the school nurse. I for one will carefully note the legislators who vote to make that possible, whether they are successful or not, and do whatever I can to see they're never re-elected.

-- Therese Syren

Anchorage