EPA doing its job; Pebble mine is not a hypothetical project
The Pebble Mine project is no "hypothetical large-scale mining project in the Bristol Bay area" as Michael Geraghty, Alaska attorney general, would like Alaskans to believe. Geraghty cites the Environmental Protection Agency's recent draft assessment of potential mining impacts on Bristol Bay salmon as "premature" and a "cause for concern."
The real cause for concern is the administration's persistence in pitching fantasies, like the state is not "for" or "against" the mine development and the Pebble Project is only a "proposal."
Meanwhile, the EPA is chastised by columnists like Paul Jenkins for doing its job while the state allowed, without adequate public input, the Pebble Partnership to explore and drill on state lands for decades. How do I know this? Unsolicited, the partnership sent me a brochure recently stating it spent nearly $500 million in preliminary research, study and assessment, and 80.6 billion pounds of copper ... (plus gold, molybdenum and silver) ... " is ready to be mined."
This is no hypothetical project. State officials should grasp the real bigger picture.
-- Ann McPeck Gabler
Anchorage
While rich purchase elections, others left out in the cold
Legislators and candidates who drink Mother Oil's Kool-Aid partied when news about an Alaska Public Offices Commission ruling hit our paper: "Opinion opens way for no-limit spending." The Roberts court was and is very generous to big money. Oil will no longer have to slip money to people like Bill Allen to buy influence with booze and cash. They can do it all with promises of a parallel campaign in each race to demean candidates who will stand up for Alaskans and praise those who will shovel money to the richest corporations in the world. Conoco Phillips reported, in its annual report, more earnings coming out of Alaska than Texas and North Dakota combined; for every dollar they invest here they get more than two back. So logical to demand two billion more a year, right?
Those needs in our state without big political money behind them will be left behind. It's a cold victory for some.
-- Rod McCoy
Anchorage
Role of fatherhood in society under-valued, not appreciated
Thank you Daily News for featuring fathers in the lives of their children in honor of Father's Day. Statistics prove fatherless homes contribute to a wealth of social problems, which I don't have enough space for here.
Men are given little social support in what it means to be an honorable provider to their family, therefore often err in the process. Yet women intuitively understand what it takes to being a mother through gestation. Couple this with being well-educated, and mom may compare seemingly invincible to dad. However, mothers also need rest and security, which is difficult to do alone.
Women often emasculate or use men for money and pleasures. Conversely men don't do well mentoring or encouraging each other as husbands and fathers. As the numbers of single mothers are increasing, we are losing a generation of fathers which will result in social tragedy.
Our culture needs a regenerated paradigm on how it views and values fathers in family life. Fathers must accept being indispensable instead of written off as dispensable dispensaries.
-- Rhonda A. Hubbard
Seward
Teacher has seen the waste
In regards to "Occupy ASD," I have to wonder if any of the "occupiers" have ever examined the budgets of the district, in detail. I wonder if they know that state and federal dollars pay for student breakfasts. I wonder if they know of all the state and federal money thrown at schools for programs for this and that to cure the ills of society, including parents just not parenting. (With that said, I have met so many incredible parents of all income levels and hold them in high regard.)
So, in the end, it comes to the simplicity of teacher or staff jobs being eliminated. It sickens me all the waste of money I have seen in 16 years of teaching. We need real managers of money allocated to schools. We can't have all the special programs, etc. without something having to give.
-- Linda Compton
Wasilla