Groups oppose death penalty
The Interfaith Council of Anchorage joins other faith communities, among them the Alaska Christian Conference, the American Jewish Committee, the U.S. Catholic Conference and the Anchorage Friends Meeting, in expressing our opposition to the death penalty. In a world in which violence creates such devastation and sorrow we cannot condone additional violence as a remedy. We also have grave concerns about execution of the innocent, discriminatory practices and the efficacy of capital punishment as a deterrent. If we are truly to speak out for human rights and decency we must, in good conscience, oppose the death penalty.
-- Candace K. Bell, president
Interfaith Council of Anchorage
Think about fund, not dividend
Whether you've lived here four decades or four days, listen to Gregg Erickson.
In the early 1980s I worked with Gregg in the governor's Strategic Planning Division and received the best post-grad education in Alaska economics anyone could get. He was a great advocate for the dividend (and still is), and I couldn't quite reconcile the logic behind it (still can't), but look at this weekend's column: He is not a dividend-at-any-cost advocate.
Like me Gregg believed his vote to create the fund would ensure savings for an Alaska after oil. He also believed (which I did get) that after seeing us blow the $900 million in initial Prudhoe Bay lease sales, some kind of mechanism was needed to keep Alaskans "invested" in their savings account.
Now that the population has turned over 100 times, and dividends can make up a third or more of a family's disposable income, people have forgotten what the saving was for.
Alaska was dirt poor when Gregg grew up here, and it was just getting rich when I showed up, which was before the state gave money away.
Look at your schools, your roads, your bridges, your social support programs, and think about that fund, not about the dividend. Listen to Gregg: Don't take the money just to take the money; remember who it was meant for.
-- Ernest W. Piper III
Anchorage
Training facility a bad idea
Upon reading Thursday's article regarding the Alaska State Fair board's plan to sell 40 acres of land for use as a training complex, I felt compelled to write and suggest a major problem with the plan.
The fact that NIT, a "for profit" training provider, is asking for $16 million in state funding and $8 million in federal funding (while suggesting that they will "shoulder some of the cost") is nothing short of ludicrous.
There is already a great deal of construction training being done in this state by union-based apprentice programs.
As the training director for the IBEW/NECA training program, Alaska's largest apprentice program, I can attest to the fact that we are currently training more than 400 young Alaska men and women. We are doing this training utilizing only private funding. No government money is solicited or used for our training budget.
The numerous contractors and utilities that see the wisdom and business sense in using the most highly skilled workers in the electrical industry pay a fixed contribution to participate in our Training Trust. Accordingly, we run a multi-million-dollar program that turns out the majority of the journey-level electrical workers in this state. The use of taxpayer dollars to subsidize a private training program would simply be wrong.
-- Dave McAllen
Anchorage
Case screams for death penalty
I listened to the radio this morning as they talked about the guy who chopped up his dad, Christopher Erin Rogers Jr.
Now they are selecting a jury to try him for all the other crimes he committed around that day.
What a waste of money and time. He has been convicted of a crime.
A case like this just screams for the death penalty. This guy could live 60 years or more on our dime.
-- Thomas Laird
Anchorage