Sequestration prevents Arctic action
Sens. Murkowski and Sullivan seem to mention the Arctic every chance they get. However, both of them forget to mention the single policy that stands in the way of the U.S. becoming a real leader in the Arctic: sequestration.
This policy is the tea party's gift that keeps on giving. Born out of the debt-ceiling debacles, sequestration set rigid spending limits on government agencies. Like it or not, Alaska has always had strong ties to the federal government and its money. These spending limits, and the disappearance of earmarks, have left Alaska in a precarious place. Murkowski is afraid to stand up to the tea party because of her impending Republican primary, and Sullivan is too busy talking on Fox News to realize the impact sequestration is causing in Alaska. Alaskans lost an icebreaker to sequestration because Murkowski couldn't break with her party, and now we are talking about renting one? That doesn't sound like an Arctic leader to me.
— Anita Thorne
Anchorage
The public won on Medicaid expansion
In the future, before Arthur Solvang begins another letter to the editor, he should check some facts. First, Gov. Walker was elected on a platform that included Medicaid expansion. Second, polls, including those of the Republican-led state House, indicated at least 60 percent of Alaskans support Medicaid expansion. Third, a majority of the Alaska Legislature would have voted in favor of Medicaid expansion, as stated by state Sen. Coghill.
This is how democracy works. Solvang may disagree with the majority. That is one of the great things about a democracy. But the other thing about a democracy, is that the majority rules, unless its position violates a constitutional provision.
The only reason why the Legislature did not enact Medicaid expansion this year is because a minority of the Legislature, those who are committee chairs and leaders of the majority caucus, decided to not hold an up-or-down vote, which undoubtedly would have favored Medicaid expansion. The only reason why Walker bypassed the Legislature on this issue, is because the leaders of the Legislature were acting in a very undemocratic manner.
Why? It is not because they were representing a majority of their constituents. A poll showed Medicaid expansion was supported in every Alaskan region, even in the most conservative areas of Fairbanks and the Mat-Su.
— Tom Brooks
Anchorage
Slur against Israel not taken lightly
It is a sad day when the Alaska News Dispatch allows the use of the abhorrent slur, the "Zionist entity," to be used in a letter to the editor as was printed on July 21, written by Al Hajj Minshall. Let's review the groups that use this verbiage and have always had problems with the existence of the Jewish state and review the company this writer syncs with: Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Qaida, ISIS, The ayatollah of Iran, the president of Iran, the government of Iran and so on.
Let's also be clear on several other points:
• Israel was created by a vote of the UN on Nov. 29, 1947
• One of the principal causes of the 1967 war was the result of Egypt throwing out UN peacekeepers from the Sinai on May 16, 1967 and when they closed the straits of Tiran on May 29, 1967.
• The use of the words "deliberate attack" on the U.S. Navy Ship Liberty is truly a fallacious stretch. This was an awful mistake similar to friendly fire mistakes that occur in all conflicts. In fact, it was reported on July 21 this year that a U.S. helicopter fired on and killed 7 Afghani soldiers in a terrible friendly fire mistake. Would these actions constitute a "deliberate attack"?
What we are seeing here is, Minshall, and all the others described above, have never accepted and will never accept that the state of Israel has a right to exist. They can never accept that Israel is the only, yes ONLY, country in the Middle East that is a democracy that respects women's rights, gay rights and holds free and fair elections.
— Mark Bloch
Anchorage
Need Bragaw extension to save lives
I have one point to make regarding the Bragaw Street extension: How many lives would be saved with such an extension? Don't medical professionals say the first five minutes in saving someone's life are the most crucial? I'm not admitting anything, but I can rush going south on North Bragaw Street, and take off east or west on Northern Lights Boulevard, but that won't get me to the hospital in less than three minutes. A siren may help, but it still would take at least 3 minutes, on a good day, to cut in either direction; with east being the worst direction to take. How many minutes to unload the patient? Wheel the gurney into the ER? By the way, my car is faster than an ambulance.
— Neil Beltz
Anchorage
Political change takes time, dedication
I just ended a seven-year job in public service. I was a school teacher. For seven years I fought to change things. I testified at the state Senate. I went to school board meetings. After seven years of fighting, my district cut millions and millions of dollars, and good teachers went by the wayside as shiny curriculum replaced the human being.
This letter is not about education. I recognize the hook is misleading, but please bear with me. The point is after seven years of fighting to create political change, I lost. All of my efforts, all of the nasty phone calls, all of the character-assassinating emails, an ethics investigation, my efforts came out entirely without political reward.
This brings me to the real point: Public servants are regularly abused, underpaid, and underappreciated. Public servants are bound by their responsibility to take the worst of society and like it. I can think of no better scenario to prove my point than the political topic of marijuana.
Let's compare the political progress of education to the political progress of marijuana. Education, in the seven years I was in it, was never improved upon. Instead, in Juneau at least, cut after cut occurred with nearly zero reaction from the public. Meanwhile, the progress of marijuana, in a political sense, has improved drastically over months or year. Let's admit the obvious that some people don't find so obvious, the pro-marijuana crowd has won in nearly every way, shape, and form. Where in other areas of government our entire political body seems helpless to create change (education comes to mind) a sweeping change is happening in regards to marijuana.
Is every bit of legislation perfect? No. Do I want to see other changes? Sure. Do I think that Gov. Walker, his staff, and the Marijuana Control Board deserve public shaming? Hell no! We have emerged from infancy in the lawmaking progress, and groups of intelligent and dedicated individuals are trying to create an atmosphere that works for cannabis consumers, cannabis companies, and noncannabis using citizens of Alaska. That task will not be easy, and even though it won't be easy, people from all sides of life continue to meet and continue to work for change which is speedy but not drastic.
In Juneau that means that Chief Price of the Juneau Police Department, our little Marijuana Committee Board, and few other intelligent and civic-minded individuals come together, talk, and hash out our personal narratives of how life ought to be. From the collection of those narratives we create policy.
I thank every single public servant working in Alaska, including but not limited to those working within the creation of marijuana laws. Again, I thank Walker, whether I agree with him on every issue or not, for not taking the easy road and hiding from the issue of marijuana. I thank Walker's staff, whom I have personally taken up small amounts of time from, for being patient and, more importantly, transparent. I thank the Marijuana Control Board and Alcoholic Beverage Control Board for making a future of legal cannabis entrepreneurship a possibility.
I will be waiting patiently as these rules and regulations are drafted so I can, hopefully, join the ranks of legal cannabis entrepreneurs. I'm experienced enough now to know that waiting two years for a political change is a very small amount of time in the grand scheme of government. To complain otherwise shows a lack of political nuance.
— Adam Berkey
Juneau
Kings thwarted by special harvest area
I'm sitting here in Ninilchik again this year looking out my cabin window and watching sockeye salmon jumping two at a time on their way to the Kasilof special harvest district. One of the giant problems I have with this new era of management is the question of what we are possibly doing to the Kasilof River king salmon run.
Evidently the King Conservation Alliance couldn't give a rat's tail about this species. The biologist don't even count the kings headed up the Kasilof and certainly 90 plus percent of them are getting cut off by the special harvest district. Maybe we should all take a minute to review Sir Isaac Newton's third law that simply states "for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
— Paton Blough
Greenville, S.C.
Arm's clay won't support Knik bridge
Regarding the never-ending issue of the Knik Arm Bridge: As an architect, I remember hearing from a structural engineer acquaintance back in the 1970s that the Knik Arm is underlain by "bottomless" layers of the liquefaction-prone "Bootlegger's Clay" formation that caused so much destruction here in Anchorage during the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake.
This being the case, I think until a professional engineering report is produced which conclusively proves the earth material at the bottom of the Knik Arm is capable of supporting bridge foundations, the whole issue of the Knik Arm project will continue to be little more than a political boondoggle (i.e., a corporate structure with a board of directors consisting of unemployed political cronies who are paid big annual salaries to do nothing).
— Stephan Paliwoda
Anchorage
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