Readers write: Letters to the editor, Jan. 25, 2016

I am so tired of everyone copping to PTSD, mental illness and/or being raised in a broken family (divorced/abusive) as an excuse for doing something against the law. Just own up to your mistakes and take your consequences. Everyone wants to blame someone or something else now days, just suck it up.

I find the latest Palin episode as another case of Mommy stepping in to clean up the mess. She should step back and let her son deal with his own problems. I know some people really have PTSD and mental health issues, and they don’t try to blame their problems on those issues.

— Linda Yannikos

Palmer

Another day, another display of the difference between leadership and fantasy. Friday’s front page (Jan. 22) describes Gov. Bill Walker’s State of the State speech, which reiterates his commitment to addressing the state’s budget woes. He is specific, pulls no punches, and is willing to take the heat for his ideas. That’s called leadership, and it’s little wonder few in the Legislature or elsewhere can recognize it.

By contrast, former Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan wants Powerball. Thane Humphrey gives us trendy business slogans and vague promises of new revenue streams. Jim Crawford, a few days earlier, suggests budget cuts without bothering to list any. And Pete Kelly is annoyed that the media doesn’t give the Legislature credit for what little it has done.

Or, we can put off tough choices while we search for unicorns and hope the price of oil goes back up to save us, yet again, from our folly. Please, Alaska, resist the empty promises that have gotten us where we are today. Join the governor’s effort to find a real solution to a real problem.

— Henry Huntington

Eagle River

In attendance at our recent community council meeting was Bettye Davis, a member of the Anchorage School Board. She spoke of school district concerns regarding the budget and possible school closures, also confirming the importance of maintaining the best teaching staff possible. Adequate and excellent teachers is what we all hope for our students.

Ed Graff, our current superintendent, embodies the commitment necessary to further the achievement of this hope. Members of the public in attendance at the meeting expressed concern and confusion at the recent decision of the school board to allow Mr. Graff’s contract to lapse without renewal, and to pursue a search Outside for his successor. In the eyes of the public, which elects the School Board, this action is unwarranted. Mr. Graff should remain as superintendent of our public schools in Anchorage.

— Karen Ruud

Anchorage

The hype of football and the Super Bowl should be contrasted with their dark side — the rampant physical and verbal abuse, the drug abuse, the obsession with money and fame at the expense of players’ bodies and brains. It exemplifies the Roman “bread and circuses” mentality, of drugging the populace with welfare and brutal entertainment. It is fundamental to the psychology of political control.

Please set an example for children and rise above the brutality of watching adults pound one another silly for the amusement of leering mobs. Adults should be on their best behavior in front of children.

— Thomas H. Morse

Anchorage