Letters to the editor (8/29/09)

I would like to know where the COLA (Cost of Living) group buy their groceries. Every time I go to the store prices have gone up, not down.

-- Rita Hatch

Anchorage

Murkowski is just wrong when it comes to health care

Sen. Lisa Murkowski complains Congress shouldn't "rush" to pass health care/health insurance reform. We don't agree: It has been 64 years since President Truman proposed universal health care for Americans; Congress should darn well be in a rush to get it done. Further, the senator's premise that no reform is possible unless the choice of existing insurance plans is preserved would be funny, if it weren't tragic. Just what is the net benefit of maintaining the existing health insurance system? It can't possibly be that the current system fosters competition to keep costs down. It can't possibly be that the current system has succeeded in providing affordable coverage to everyone.

Instead the senator supports the status quo against reform by stirring up fears about "nameless and faceless" bureaucrats making "your" health care decisions. In the same breath, she extols the benefits of her government insurance plan.

We want what she has: Real reform begins with the public option, while "single payer" would provide the most simple and efficient health care plan possible.

-- Jan and Christy Konigsberg

Anchorage

Thanks to farmers

As the growing season in Alaska is winding down to a close, I want to thank our local farmers for their dedication and hard work, and the many stores and venues where their delicious and nutritious produce are made available for us.

-- Yvonne Evans

Anchorage

Seriousness of hate crimes should not be tolerated

I am prompted to write a letter to our state's largest city's newspaper, the Anchorage Daily News, after reading Mr. Chythlook's letter ("We must unite against hate," Aug. 25) in voicing out his concerns on hate crimes that are racially motivated against Alaska Natives, and in particular the most recent one involving a homeless Alaska Native person in Anchorage.

I am all for embracing forgiveness as stated by Chythlook, but the seriousness of hate crimes should never be tolerated regardless of race. Every human regardless of race and social status has a God-given right to live, or to stay alive, for that matter. While hate crime is destructively forceful and evil, there continue to be subtle and hateful attitudes in the social justice system against minorities and including the Alaska Natives. How can you explain inequality in the courts, where majority or all-white juries decide on the accused person of a minority background?

Our leaders must continue to address issues that have become "rural and urban divide."

-- Homer Hunter Jr.

Scammon Bay

Remains were not Christians

In reference to ancient remains found in Kivalina (ADN, Aug. 26), it is interesting that they are giving a Christian burial to the three bodies that are at least 1,000 years old. I may be wrong, but I don't believe that they died Christians. I hope that if they dig me up 1,000 or 1,500 years from now, that they don't desecrate my bones with a religion that I do not believe in.

-- Joe Page

Anchorage