Event wasnt front-page news due to APD officers at school
Recently something bad did indeed not happen. An Anchorage High School did not have a mass shooting. The armed person who yelled and screamed at the school staff did not shoot them for refusing to grant him access to his estranged children. Our children at West High School, my own son included, did not have to face the real terror of a person on campus shooting people simply because he was angry at the world. Nor did thousands of Anchorage parents have to wait by their phones or watch in horror as they waited to hear if their children were safe, or if they were among the dead.
None of this happened. It did not happen because we had not one, but two, Anchorage police officers working at the school. There was no delay in them getting there. There was no confusion about who the threat was, what the threat was about, and what kind of threat it was because those officers were there.
It is news those officers showed great restraint by using their verbal skills and command presence to convince the suspect to correct his poor choices. The suspect is lucky to be alive today and he is alive only because those officers were there when they were needed. The office staff is alive to hug, kiss, and love their families today because those officers were there. Every one of our kids at West High are safe and sound today because of the swift actions of APD Officers Yoon and Winborg.
Many people have argued about the value of having officers in the Anchorage schools.
The next time budgets constraints and discussions about cops in schools comes up, I ask everyone to please consider the costs of not having these officers protecting our children. Officers in our schools serve as a presence for the kids, a symbol of law and of order, and an example of the people behind the badge. School resource officers will always make a bad situation better and when necessary can, and will, neutralize any threat made toward our schools and our students.
I would rather pay to have officers in our schools then pay the costs of not having them there when we need them most.
So is it news when nothing bad happens? Yes it is. And we have Officers Yoon and Winborg, and the entire school resource officer program to thank for making sure it is good news.
— Glen Klinkhart
Retired APD detective
Anchorage
Enstar's shameful credit card charges are paid by everyone
Enstar recently sent out bills for September. The bill includes an increase of $2.74 to the customer service charge. If you pay by credit card you will note the line item for credit card fees has been removed. Make no mistake, the fee is still being charged, however, it is now hidden within the customer charge and is being collected from all customers. A call to Enstar confirmed this.
This spring Enstar sent customers a letter providing justification for the increase in the customer charge. They had received numerous questions about the card fees charged and wanted to eliminate the line item from bills. To do this they would raise the customer charge, recouping the fees by spreading them out among all customers: Those who use credit cards and those who do not.
People who do not use credit cards are now paying a greater percentage of the credit card costs than card users who actually generate these charges. Enstar should be able to recoup costs associated with credit cards, but this new billing is unfair to those who do not pay by credit card and deceptive to all customers.
Equally abhorrent is the complicity of the Alaska Regulatory Commission in this matter. It is charged with insuring utility rates are fair to consumers. It failed.
Enstar should be ashamed of its new, unfair, and deceptive billing.
— Brian West
Anchorage
Goodbye, Columbus
Despite my Italian ancestry, I spent Monday grousing, "Why are they still calling it "Columbus Day," only to find in today's paper the dedication has at last been changed.
I'm pleased by the intent, but "Indigenous Peoples Day" is a mouthful and sounds to me like a taxonomic classification. "First Peoples" is also to the point but warmer and more poetic.
I hope for a change somewhere along the line.
— Doreen Ransom
Anchorage
Student shouldn't be judged
Classic. "Buy a calculator instead of those fancy headphones." Ever been … young? Ever — whether young or older — been consumed with "keeping up with the Joneses?" "Besides, I didn't need one, so neither do you!" Besides, anyone can become president. And let's add to the mix being NONpolitically correct for the sake of political correctness. Yep, always knee-jerking against political correctness is also a form of political correctness.
A day to honor Columbus? Really? Has anyone ever cared enough about this guy to "celebrate" a day off in his honor? We've got enough trouble keeping the "Veteran" or "Memorial" in those days let alone devote a day to some accidental discoverer of something that was already there. Here's a clue — buy a vowel, namely, an "e." "E" shall stand for "Empathy." We can all use more of it.
— Keith Muschinske
Eagle River
Celebrate the First Peoples, the true discoverers of Americas
There is no doubt Columbus was an intrepid seafarer and explorer. To set out to cross the Atlantic without charts, lights, radios, radars, aids to navigation or even decent food was no small feat. Many people perished exploring the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic and Southern oceans. Just recently a larger container ship sank during a routine voyage to Puerto Rico when it lost power in a hurricane.
His voyages were a nautical accomplishment. But he was also a slaver. He saw the Carib Indians as a commodity and began a long tradition of human rights abuses that continues to this day in various parts of the Americas. You can't blame him for everything that happened but I see no reason to remember him fondly. Besides the Norse arrived in the "New World" roughly 500 years before Columbus and established a small settlement in Eastern Canada. After the settlement was abandoned the Greenland Norse continued to visit the new lands to harvest timber. So why not Indigneous Peoples Day? After all they were the true discoverers of the Americas and the first permanent settlers.
— Douglas Hope
Anchorage
Disappointed in Sinnott story
I was disappointed in Rick Sinnott's Sunday (Oct. 11) article in We Alaskans. He made no mention of the taxpayers' dollars spent on Chester Creek's stream improvements and new silver salmon habitat in residential Anchorage.
Jessy Coltrane gave Opportunities in Lifelong Education members information about green corridors and how wildlife use them. Does anyone feel that bringing lunch to bears along a major trail populated by runners, bikers, senior walkers and stroller pushers is a good idea? Do we really want the Chester Creek Trail to be closed permanently every summer because of the bear hazard?
One solution might be to remove the ill-advised fish ladder and improve the Ship Creek habitat for the salmon run. There are no ballfields and playgrounds along its banks.
— Bonnie Tisler
Anchorage
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