Thank you for being the light in the darkness of grief
How to thank people who helped you through the darkest days?
Thank-you notes can't express my appreciation for their love and care for my mother, who passed away shortly before Christmas.
• Dr. S. Watkins (Alaska Heart Institute) who saved mom years ago.
• Dr. J. Logan (Alaska Urological Institute) for his compassion. His nurses Teresa, Katya, Casey and Gina for their hugs.
• Susan Merrick for holding my heart.
• Providence Hospice, Dr. Snyder, Debrah, Colleen and Nathan who were there 24 hours a day.
• Carol Greenway, RN, for taking midnight calls.
• 911 for the speedy response and skills.
• Providence emergency room, fourth and fifth nurses, who do an unbelievable job with such love.
• Dr. Lundebye and nurses who always made my mom feel so special.
• Dr. Linda Smith for her gentle soul.
• My sweet Dr. Susan Heverly and nurses.
• Dr. S. Ingles (Anchorage) for getting my mom into Virginia Mason Hospital (Seattle).
• Michele (beautician) for coming to our home.
• Friends and coworkers.
I must be forgetting someone. As it's been said, "It takes a village." I am more than grateful for all the help and support.
Bless you all.
P.S.: TubaChristmas, a free musical event in the lobby of the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts, was heartwarming. Just what the doctors would have ordered.
— Barb Tompkins
Margie's daughter
Anchorage
Add tasty multicultural vendors
I would encourage the Anchorage Market & Festival in its search for food vendors for 2016 (ADN, Jan. 1) to consider the foods of many of our cultures in Anchorage, such as Hmong, Laotian, Samoan, Mexican, Hawaiian and Vietnamese. Anchorage is a multicultural city and these cultures have wonderful foods that residents and visitors should experience.
— Thomas Eley
Anchorage
Muslims could participate more
In 1953, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, a Jewish couple, were sent to the electric chair for spying for the Soviets. The trial judge was Jewish, the prosecutor was Jewish, six out of 12 jurors were Jewish (I could have been among those six). Regrettably today Muslims do not participate in the legal process, like trials for Islamic terrorists, despite the fact that Muslims have lived in the West for decades.
How to explain this?
— Rudy Budesky
Anchorage
Gas price rises despite crude's fall, so let's boycott to protest
Watching the change in Alaska gasoline prices vis-a-vis the price of crude oil should tell us something important. It took a request from Sen. Bill Wielechowski to get the gasoline price to drop about 30 cents a gallon after the initial crude drop to $40 a barrel. As crude continued to drop, I noticed that gas prices remained constant for awhile, and then slowly began to rise. Immediately after our governor decided not to pursue an inquiry into oil company price-gouging, the price of gas rose by close to 10 cents. Now that crude has dropped another $3, the price of gas has dropped by 2 cents. Considering the gasoline tax in Alaska is very low, we really should be paying less than $2 per gallon.
To show the oil companies that we "get it," let's all boycott the gas stations for one day. And if the price doesn't come down to reality, park your car and only make absolutely necessary combined trips. I'll let the news media select the day, unless they refuse. Continuing to get ripped off like this is not a funny matter.
— Jon Sharpe
Anchorage
D.C. lack of productivity due to shortage of statesmanship
Whenever I hear about how some legislator or member of Congress has acted or spoken disrespectfully toward another legislator or member of Congress, I am reminded of the first sentence of our nation's Declaration of Independence, in which our founders made clear that one of the reasons for publishing the declaration was because they embraced "a decent respect for the opinions of mankind." Personally, I think it's remarkable that one of the very first concepts expressed by our founders in the declaration was that the people's representatives have a responsibility to foster "a decent respect for the opinions of mankind" in order to properly conduct their state's or nation's business.
Carrying this concept forward to today, I submit that if our legislators and members of Congress could embrace "a decent respect for the opinions of" other legislators and members of Congress — including representatives of other political parties — then our state's Legislature and our nation's Congress could get much more work done.
— Stephan Paliwoda
Anchorage
Terrorists are idiots to think guns can solve a problem
A good friend who lives in rural Washington state wrote to me Wednesday morning saying the cowboy-hat-adventurists occupying the Malhuer refuge in Oregon are not even terrorists.
She says "they are idiots."
My response to that is, "yes they are terrorists." Terrorists are idiots.
Not all idiots are terrorists however, but in our republic any idiot can become a terrorist simply by buying and using a gun to solve problems that frustrate or confuse them. Or confound them.
Following this same line of thinking I would have to say that there are degrees of idiocy. For instance: Your car won't start so you shoot the car. Your toilet backs up: you shoot the toilet. Overwhelmingly shortsighted and with only the result you now have a bigger and messier problem.
As far as guns go, is buying one, or another one, going to solve the problem of your neighbor not following the same holiday customs as you do? Or fix your discomfort with having to drive under the speed limit? Or mend your hurt feelings over a neighbor who has gotten a windfall of cash and they can go to Hawaii and you can't afford it, thereby casting a deeper shadow on your winter?
Maybe we all need an extra gun to go out and shoot the clouds that have brought us such icy streets. The weather has been irritating and very threatening of late so maybe we ought to shoot the weather.
Will a gun fix your irritability over so many things that confuse you? It seems to me that consideration of this might be the best test of who ought to be buying a gun. What problem does your owning or buying a gun solve?
If you feel like a polite society is too much for you perhaps you ought to take your gun and head off to another country where bloodlust rules the day.
Please consider it.
— Gwenn Jester-Haslett
Anchorage
Carbon fee provides dividends
In his response to my recent communication in support of the EPA's action plan to limit carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants, Sen. Sullivan asserted, among other things, that the expense involved would increase the cost of electricity for consumers and middle-class families.
It should not be necessary to point out that failure to limit pollution caused by the burning of fossil fuels is creating a burden far more onerous than an increase in fuel bills. To permit with impunity the uncontrolled emission of pollutants by power plants is an invitation to disaster. A case in point is the catastrophe already inflicted on the unfortunate communities of Western Alaska, such as Newtok, Kivalina and Shishmaref.
A viable answer to the problem of consumer expense would be the adoption of the carbon fee and dividend method. Under such a program, fossil fuels would be subject to a fee that creates a dividend for all American families, inspired by the Alaska Permanent Fund.
— Judith Stoll
Anchorage
Unintended effects on fishery
I appreciate Craig Medred putting into perspective the recent Alaska Supreme Court decision denying the ballot initiative to eliminate setnets in urban areas of Alaska (ADN, Jan. 6).
I believe the decision may have opened up an undesirable can of worms for the halibut fishery, maybe not. When the halibut charter industry was forced to accept limited entry, no one had any idea where it would lead to. The industry has been bombarded with useless regulations, designed specifically to put many out of business.
So, my question is if we are to go by the decision of the court, does this mean that limited entry halibut permit holders will now have a priority over the commercial IFQ holders? Remember, IFQ is not limited entry. Perhaps the priority would be for Alaska waters only, but why stop there. Perhaps the Supreme Court would like to revisit their decision. I think there are some far-reaching unintended consequences.
— Rod Berg
Soldotna
The views expressed here are the writers' own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a letter under 200 words for consideration, email letters@alaskadispatch.com, or click here to submit via any web browser. Submitting a letter to the editor constitutes granting permission for it to be edited for clarity, accuracy and brevity. Send longer works of opinion to commentary@alaskadispatch.com.