Let's produce the gas we have
Rolling blackouts, no drilling, no bridges, no bypass. What happened to Alaskans? It appears the land of the Last Frontier has caved in to the land of the Let's Do Nothing.
Looking across the Inlet, one can't help but see the potential for natural gas right at our doorstep. Why don't we produce it? Because a select few don't favor offshore drilling rigs because they might obstruct their view or inflict some unknown pain on fish or whales? How ignorant that is.
Those who complain about coming blackouts will be the same ones who do not favor gas production from Cook Inlet or offshore drilling. Personally, it serves them right. Face it, to get you have to give.
The view of the mountains and the Inlet from our home is fantastic, but given a choice, I would rather see a lit-up drill rig producing gas than to sit in my home wondering if the gas will come back on.
-- Johnny Rusch
Anchorage
When it comes to health plan, Murkowski causing more harm
Recently I wrote to Sen. Lisa Murkowski, asking her to take a bipartisan approach to health-care legislation and work with Democrats in Congress and the Obama administration for meaningful reform.
She wrote back that she wants a bill that will provide an opportunity for all Americans to obtain quality health care, including preventive care that reduces costs and adequately reimburses health-care providers. Furthermore, the reform must not come with a trillion-dollar-plus price tag (the cost over 10 years). She said the current proposal before Congress does not meet these goals.
Fine, Lisa, then you and your Republican colleagues should offer a bill that meets your goals. Saying you want all these expensive things without a high price tag is like saying I want new granite countertops in my kitchen, but only if they cost the same as Formica. It's really just an excuse for doing nothing.
Senator, put your plan out there and tell how you plan to pay for it. Make a positive contribution instead of being an obstructionist.
-- Tom Bucceri
Anchorage
School buses are safest form of transportation for children
Breanna Cooper questioned how the new child restraint law impacts the young children who ride the bus to school in her Sept 25 letter ("How do school buses fit into the new child restraint law?").
Child restraints are required only in small buses that are required to have seat belts. Only six of the more than 300 buses in service in the Anchorage School District fit into this category. The district also uses a four-point restraint system that meets federal requirements for preschool students as recommended by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Large school buses are exempt from the requirements in the new law.
School buses are the safest form of transportation on the road in the United States, and although most school buses do not have seat belts, they do have a built-in system of passenger protection, commonly called "compartmentalization." This system, which consists of securely anchored, closely spaced, high-backed, well-padded seats, protects a child like an egg in an egg carton. It is a "passive restraint system," which means that it has been integrated into the design of the school bus. In contrast to active restraint (which requires a passenger to do something to activate the vehicle's crash protection, like buckling a seat belt), passive restraint offers automatic crash protection. This means that every child who is properly seated sits in a "compartment of safety" that has been designed to minimize the trauma of a crash.
There is more information about seat belts in school buses on the ASD Web site: www.asdk12.org/Depts/transportation/safety/SeatBelts_Buses.pdf.
-- Steven Kalmes, CDPT
Director of Transportation Services
Anchorage School District
Republicans aren't dumb hicks
I just read Garrison Keillor's article and thought he had a wonderful idea. I vote Republican and would love for my family to be left out of the federal health-care boondoggle. Let us keep our money and provide for our own health needs. I am sure that lots of responsible people would jump at the chance to be opted out of a failing and cumbersome bureaucracy. Look at how many people need to buy supplemental insurance because Medicare is a disaster. While you are at it, Mr. Keillor, "cut" every family that home-schools or sends their children to private schools out of the floundering public education system and let them keep their money. This nation lives off the sweat of hard-working Republicans, and it is ridiculous to treat us like we are dumb hicks and the cause of the national deficit.
-- Heather Mathias
Anchorage
Thank you for ML&P plant, former Mayor Sullivan
A lot has been mentioned of the projects former Mayor George Sullivan was instrumental in creating. He was also instrumental in the development of Municipal Light and Power's Plant 2, known as the George M. Sullivan Power Plant located on Oilwell Road alongside the Glenn Highway.
ML&P's Plant 2 was engineered in the early '70s during some difficult times in the city and nation. I am sure some remember the electrical outages and the oil embargo. ML&P faced an ever-growing population that was overloading the electrical equipment at that time. Through his leadership, the city of Anchorage was able to construct a power plant during some diverse conditions like labor shortages due to construction of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline and changing environmental concerns. The ever-present shortfall of funds was also an issue.
For 30-plus years the George M. Sullivan Plant has provided Anchorage with reliable and economical power.
The power generation system in Southcentral Alaska is again faced with similar difficulties like higher cost of fuel, old equipment and a shrinking budget. This time it will be new people that will set the stage for the future of Anchorage. We all can learn from the past.
-- Kurt Julsen
Operator/mechanic, IBEW 1547
Anchorage
Benefits for Territorial Guard: a matter of fairness, justice
As a member of the Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Alaska (our church's governing body), I want to let readers know that our group passed a resolution of support for renewed benefits for the remaining members of Alaska's Territorial Guard on April 7.
We support the work of Sens. Begich and Murkowski to add language into the funding bill for the Department of Defense and were dismayed to learn that administration budget reviewers are recommending its deletion.
We encourage Alaskans to contact Sens. Begich and Murkowski if you support the continuation of these benefits, so that they will know that many Alaskans are behind them. Also, I encourage Alaskans to contact friends in other states and ask that they contact their own senators to support ours in making sure the funding language stays in the bill.
These individuals are elders, many not in the best of health, who defended our land for a country that did not even include Alaska as a state at that time. This is an issue of fairness and justice.
-- Rev. Connie Jones
Anchorage
Health care is a basic right, not a privilege or good luck
I continue to fight for health-care reform here in Anchorage. I do not believe that in a country as rich and developed as ours, we can still have 46 million uninsured individuals.
As a young woman who has health insurance, I cannot comprehend the discrimination of my own health insurance company that requires I pay up to 45 percent more for coverage than a young adult male my age.
I do not think it is fair for a single mother who has to work two part-time jobs just to support her family to not be able to be insured or have health insurance for her children.
I do not think it is fair for individuals with pre-existing conditions to be dropped from their health insurance plan or to be denied coverage when they need it most.
I am standing up for everyone, because I believe that health care is not a privilege or a stroke of good luck for those who have it, but a basic right that everyone is entitled to.
-- Karolina Bednarska
Anchorage
Four A's appreciates king-size fundraiser
Thank you to members of the cast and crew of "The Lion King" who hosted a benefit on Sept. 28 that raised more than $15,000 for the Alaskan AIDS Assistance Association (Four A's) and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. This sold-out event would not have been possible without the talented cast and crew of "The Lion King," the support of everyone at Mad Myrna's and the generosity of the Anchorage community who opened their hearts to raise money and awareness for individuals living with HIV/AIDS in Alaska.
It was an incredible night for an incredible cause, and the Four A's expresses appreciation for everyone who was a part of it.
-- Chrissy Bell
Alaskan AIDS Assistance Association
Anchorage