August 29: Bad driving, bad camping

Don’t drive impaired, in any way at all

In light of recent events of all the tragedies occuring on the road, I want to remind everyone about something addressed heavily in the last few months of high school the previous year. Especially in these perilous conditions of construction, wetter weather and the infamous Seward highway tragedies, do everyone a favor and stay smart about impaired driving.

Whether illegally texting or taking a swig of alcohol, I beg you, if you pick the phone or bottle up: PUT. DOWN. THE. KEYS. The life you take may not be your own. It could be mine, it could my little brother's, it could be my parents' or friends'- it could be the baby in the carseat in the car in the next lane.

Stay safe Alaska. Take driving seriously.

- Nicole Warner

Eagle River

Accused driver is just human, like the rest of us

I am a Girdwood resident and drive the Seward highway two times a day no less than 5 days a week. I cannot recall the number of times I have seen speeding cars, reckless 18 wheelers, ignorant and oblivious drivers sharing the road within hours of a fatal accident. This is a serious issue and warrants in-depth investigations, stronger trooper presence, and most importantly citizen acknowledgment and acceptance of their own INDIVIDUAL actions.

I don’t know how many times I have heard someone complaining about the speeds, the wildlife onlookers, and even the slow drivers because each of us have been or are one of these drivers. If you read this and claim to have never been or would never be, then please share your secrets. We as a community and state need to recognize that we are not perfect and most of the people driving this road are not worried about the other cars, just getting home and seeing their families, making the tunnel, or just getting to wherever it is they are traveling.

But what we need to accept is that we are all human, and what we strive to be is very different then who we are. It takes years of experience to gain the knowledge to make the “right” decision and years after that to implement those teachings.

In the case of Danielle Jennett, I hope that we as people can remember the days when we were not yet perfect and still trying to figure it all out. Danielle did take the lives of several individuals, cause turmoil within families, and made some bad choices but do we really have to persecute her as well?

Two speeding tickets and an underage drinking conviction do not make her a hardened criminal; they makes her an imperfect young woman who made some wrong decision like many of us who drive each and every day. At any moment that very accident could happen to my loved one, my brother, your sister, our city council member… bottom line is we are all human and we all make bad choices, some of us just get away with it.

- Leah Stiebing

Girdwood

I would like to express my shock at some Alaskan campers during the week end. You stayed in your 20 k campers and for a couple of days you watched a black bear in the camp ground and said “oh how cute” as he was sniffing through your gear.

And when he was shot Saturday morning a couple of you said the cop had no right to shoot it. Well HELLO - the cute bear went through the front of the campgrounds and not a single person put up the alarm. He pounced on a couple of tents and no one sent up an alarm. He went to the back of grounds and got bolder and clawed through a tent and pawed a lady’s leg then clawed one of our tents and slapped my friend’s ear.

We started yelling bear in park , made a phone call to the authorities and drove around to warn people. What I saw left me speechless. You were standing next to or in your big campers watching the bear, some with fear and some with awe but all doing the same thing - NOTHING !!

You didn’t think about the tents, you didn’t think about the children. And to the officer - Thank you !! I know after talking to you that you hated doing it but had no choice. I hope you and all the rest of the campers will keep in mind that if you hadn’t, it may have been a child he ran into next and not just pawed him or her.

So campers, let the authorities know what’s going on so they have a chance to discourage the bear before he hurts someone - hit your horns, stretch your lungs and bellow but do something to protect your neighbor that’s sleeping in that little piece of nylon.

- Michele Tridle

Wasilla