Letters to the editor (3/31/11)

Regarding 32 musk oxen found dead and frozen, and the warning to people in nearby villages it is illegal to remove horns from national park lands and that this meat is likely not salvageable, etc.:

Who has more right to harvest the meat and remove horns than the Natives of villages located in the area where this catastrophe occurred? The musk ox probably froze as quickly as the time spent going to the store, buying a steak and freezing it for consumption later.

If a moose becomes road kill, a person on a designated list is called to retrieve the moose for its meat to be salvaged within a certain amount of time. Shouldn't this consideration also be extended to our rural, remote villages?

People in the villages could benefit if allowed to salvage food, fur and the horns. When did scientific study become more important than people? This is my opinion, for what it is worth.

-- Beverly Oehler

Anchorage

Before propositions let's look into where School District is spending

Before we go approving more propositions so the Anchorage School District has more money to spend, let's see some information on where the money they already have is going. Every year we get bombarded with prop this and prop that. These annual pleas for cash make it sound like they don't already have hundreds of millions of dollars to spend, which they do. I have a feeling that some of this money can be spent more wisely. And frankly, I get tired of the constant begging for more funding from an entity that already receives one of the largest pieces of the pie.

Look, the economy isn't great. Money is tight. Everyone is familiar with the expression, "Live within your means." That might just be good advice to ASD.

-- Steve Carson

Anchorage

Do we need these big projects? The answer is in mathematics

No wonder Alaska students score low in math. Some of our brightest graduates would like us to believe that $5 tolls will pay for the construction, operation and maintenance of the proposed Knik Arm Bridge. They even claim the bridge will be a money machine a few years after construction. Any sober Alaskan knows that the $700 million cost overrun -- three times the original cost estimate -- for the Port of Anchorage expansion is pocket change compared to what can be expected for the Knik Arm Bridge.

It's time for the Legislature to tell the KABATA executives to stop squandering state funds and making false representations. Parnell, Sullivan, Sheffield and the rest of the cheerleading squad would never invest their own money in such a boondoggle and neither should Alaskans who don't stand to benefit from it.

-- Mike Tumey

Anchorage

If people really want abortions to end, help Planned Parenthood

Walking around with a sign that says, "Pray to end abortion" may work. We just have no way of knowing.

Preventing unintended pregnancies through family planning services definitely prevents many abortions.

So, if the goal of the sign-wavers is to actually stop abortions, they should become volunteers for Planned Parenthood and be lobbying their representatives for increased funding.

-- Connie Faipeas

Anchorage

One way to battle child abuse is through more public awareness

My name is Sydney Tetzlaff. I'm 14 and go to Goldenview Middle School. My social studies class is participating in Project Citizen. Project Citizen is a program where we solve events or problems in our community. My class chose child abuse and neglect in Alaska as the biggest problem in our community. We feel that children should be cared for and be able to speak up for themselves in a safe environment.

So far our class has figured out a solution to spread more public awareness: We would like the schools to help spread awareness. This would be a big help to stop child abuse. Also, if parents knew what was happening and what the signs of abuse are, then they could report suspected abuse.

If a child is being abused or neglected, certainly you would want someone to know.

-- Sydney Tetzlaff

Anchorage

Statistics don't back up state's ongoing vendetta against wolves

The Board of Game and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game have a new tactic in their fanaticism to exterminate Alaska's wolves: Crying "wolf."

Suddenly villages are reporting wolves entering towns where often dogs have gotten loose and attacked people. Yet no one suggests all the dogs should be killed. Elmendorf's commander submitted to this ruse of "cry wolf," allowing nine wolves to be killed. No one had the slightest scratch but that's irrelevant. The purpose of this new "management tool" is to kill as many wolves as possible without any real justification.

While these wolves were being killed a moose attacked and injured a school child in Anchorage. Yet the base commander has not announced plans to kill moose on Elmendorf. In the past few years more people were attacked by moose in Anchorage than have been attacked by wolves in all of Alaska's written history.

But it's the wolves being killed.

A reasonable person might think some lopsided agenda was at work but we all know the Board of Game and Fish and Game would never stoop so low.

-- Art Greenwalt

Fairbanks

What would it cost to get usable radiation monitoring reports?

Regarding the March 30 story about the Dutch Harbor monitor registering the highest radiation in the U.S. on March 20: What would the story say if it was a lethal dose? Sorry, folks, you should have left 10 days ago? How many more millions will it cost for same-day notification?

-- Jim Williams

Anchorage