Letters to the editor (3/21/10)

The McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945 (state regulation) must be nullified by federal regulation of insurance. We see what lack of financial industry regulation has done.

Arguments against insurance reform are by those who work for them, get campaign donations or are under delusions your insurance will protect you. Don't count on your insurance to abide by the law. They'll spend thousands to fight because actuaries say there's a high percentage you'll give up.

I was hit by an uninsured driver who ran a stop sign (was cited), totaled my vehicle and gave me injuries I'll suffer with for life. After paying thousands for insurance, I began a never-ending nightmare. They offered to settle for $5,000, which we rejected and after almost three years agreed to arbitration, which they lost.

Call Congress urging support of insurance reform.

If you've not had a challenge with insurance, you will. If you think mine will pay what I'm entitled, I've got a baseball field in Seattle named after them to sell you.

-- Sam Combs

Anchorage

Push for Google to choose us

Anchorage is preparing a proposal for the Google Fiber for Communities project.

Google's selection of Anchorage would have a huge positive impact on our economy.

Fiber to our homes would provide us with the best Internet connectivity anywhere and would allow us to utilize and lead in the development of the next generation of online services.

Please visit GoogifiAK.com, and use some (or all) of the tools we have put online to help us show Google the tremendous community support for this project.

-- Lance Ahern

founder, Internet Alaska

Anchorage

Those who aim at a dog could kill a child instead

I was saddened and angered to read that Lowell Mueller felt justified in shooting from his window and killing a neighborhood Chihuahua. I was even more saddened and angered by the overwhelming support Mueller received in the comments section on adn.com.

There has long been a proven link between cruelty to animals and cruelty to human beings (see americanhumane.org for more information). I shudder to think what might happen if a noisy kid wanders by the yard of some of those posters on adn.com -- or happens to be in the line of fire while they're taking potshots at poodles.

I am constantly annoyed and/or harassed by cats, right-wing Republicans and Yankees fans but it never occurred to me to take a shot at any of them.

Folks, you can call animal control, call the dog's owner or even scoop up the furball and take him to the pound yourself. A nuisance dog is just that: a nuisance. He doesn't deserve to die.

-- Ed Brandt

Anchorage

Keep culture in education

UAA has decided to cut the Tlingit language from their upcoming fall class availability schedule. Alaska is uniquely its own state, with Alaska Native studies departments in its colleges, and the schools are rapidly failing them. It should be the prerogative of the academic community to make Alaska Native studies a well-known and understood discipline; instead, the university is allowing these departments to fade. With them, entire cultures lose strength in this society.

The university ought to reconsider, taking a proactive stance on helping citizens learn about those who existed here first, allowing them to grasp and cherish traditions they may never have known existed. A well-rounded education absolutely requires cultural knowledge and the university should be supporting this without hesitation.

-- Catherine Helle

Anchorage

EDITOR NOTE: Catherine Helle is a 49th State Fellow and a senator in the Union of Students of the University of Alaska Anchorage.