Anchorage Daily News

'Viable' village idea is uneducated

After reading Kirk Wickersham's commentary ("Future of Bush is in small number of bigger villages," Nov. 13), I would like to invite him to come out and work in village Alaska for a year or two to get a lay of the land, so to speak.

He needs to educate himself to the realities of life out here. He certainly cannot be making major policy suggestions based on living and working in urban Alaska. He needs to talk to us who live out here and see what we really think about where we live and why we live here. It smacks of colonialism to me when a person makes statements about what is best for them.

Moving people is not a simplistic exercise. Does he think it was easy for the King Islanders to leave their home? Ask the elders sometime.

Moving people can be done by military force, as was done to many of the Native Americans in the South 48, or by exerting economic pressure through school budget cutting, providing no state police force in many of our villages, by ignoring basic life and health necessities like running water and solid waste disposal, no energy system that delivers fair and equitable costs of fuel, a substandard education system, and a hopelessly defunct justice system that cannot provide equitable justice because policymakers fail to adequately fund it.

The most serious of all of these failings, after 50 years as a state, is that we don't have an energy plan that could make all of our villages "viable." No one in our villages wants to be confined to ethnic concentration camps.

-- Nels Anderson Jr.

Dillingham

Great job on the Glenn project

I'd like to express my sincere thanks and appreciation to the Alaska DOT and the Municipality for the recent improvements to the Merrill Field-area Fifth Avenue corridor and the Bragaw-Glenn Highway intersection. The traffic flow has improved significantly, even during rush hour, and so has my attitude while commuting. You guys and gals really delivered on this one. ... thanks again!

-- Steve Wright

Eagle River

Boucher honored on perfect day

The emotion was overwhelming seeing "Red" Boucher on the list of Sports Hall of Fame inductees on Veterans Day. It was Red that our family went to visit in Fairbanks when I was a young boy, which inspired me to play baseball growing up here in Anchorage. It was Red who started the Fairbanks Goldpanners and the Alaska Baseball League, which generations of Alaskans have enjoyed during our long summer days.

Our family stayed in touch, and it wasn't until my adulthood that I understood why. Together Red and my father spent the final years of World War II on the USS Enterprise -- the most decorated warship in U.S. naval history. The service to their country eternally bonded my father and Red.

Again it was Red that stood before a standing-room-only crowd at my father's service and shared the makings of that bond that only veterans can express. Thanks to the Sports Hall of Fame for recognizing Red's sport achievement on a truly appropriate day, and thanks to all our veterans who serve and have served our great country. And above all -- thank you Red!

-- Lex Patten

Anchorage

'Real' Alaskan didn't vote for Don

In Don Young's victory statement on the radio was the line that all real Alaskans had voted for him.

I have lived my whole life in Alaska (since 1949) and I have voted in almost every election since 1968. I have never voted for Mr. Young and have seldom found myself in agreement with him on anything. However, I love Alaska and have never seriously considered living anywhere else. I want what I believe is best for Alaska, our country and the world. I am a good Alaskan. The tone of Mr. Young's comment and the general attitude that it displays of him and much of the Republican party is just the sort of philosophy that led me to vote a straight Democratic ticket for the first time. It is disappointing to think that Alaska has a representative who believes that he only represents about half of us. We all deserve better.

-- David A. Crewdson

Anchorage

Yes, Obama was born in the US

Let me put Don Smith's mind to rest about President-elect Barack Obama's citizenship and eligibility to run for President. Several lawsuits were filed demanding Obama's birth records, and these suits were ultimately dismissed. According to Hawaii Health Department Director Dr. Chiyome Fukino, she and the registrar of vital statistics, Alvin Onaka, have personally verified that the health department holds Obama's original birth certificate. This was reported by both the Associated Press and bizjournals.com on October 31, 2008.

Obviously, misinformation is a problem for both Republican and Democratic candidates. As Gov. Palin stated in response to a question about critical information about her, "... we would try to correct the record, and too many in the media chose not to make those corrections." For this reason, I suggest that in the future Mr. Smith try searching nonpartisan, mainstream media outlets to ease his troubled mind.

So take a big relaxing breath, Mr. Smith. The United States of America has overwhelmingly elected an American to lead our country for the next four years.

-- Julie C. Bhend

Anchorage

One thing left for Bush, Cheney

America is ready -- more than ready -- for new leadership, but we have some unfinished business before us. If the U.S. is really a republic, governed by the rule of law, then President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney MUST be impeached, else all we are is a lie.

To leave them unpunished for their serial crimes against U.S. and international law (35 articles, count 'em) would leave us still a laughingstock for the rest of the world, as we have been for most of these last eight years. That we impeached President Clinton for one lie about his sex life would only make failure to impeach Bush and Cheney more absurd.

-- Lars Opland

Wasilla

Stevens earned Alaskans' votes

I have noted the endless stream of Alaskans, former Alaskans, and even wanna-be Alaskans taking us to task for seemingly re-electing Ted Stevens. As a lifelong Democrat, I might well have been swayed by the guilty verdict pronounced upon our good senator and voted for our esteemed mayor of Anchorage. With no disrespect to Mayor Begich, I most certainly did not.

Ted Stevens has fought and won for Alaska during my entire adult life. I cannot remember what came before him, and I am still trying to imagine our national representation without him. When I survey his countless accomplishments spread throughout our great state, I will not send Sen. Stevens quietly into the night. I will not, even anonymously, leave his name unmarked on any ballot.

I will accept that when Sen. Stevens must yield to his fellow senators and pack up his decades of work in Washington, D.C., that we will have to elect someone to replace him. Until then, I will cast my vote of respect for a man that has earned it a thousandfold. And I will leave judgment for someone else that just doesn't get it.

-- Suzan Armstrong

Anchorage

It's time to find energy solutions

The oil companies have had their run. It's time to switch to renewable energy sources that are less harmful to the environment, don't require the spillage of blood (wars), and last for a long time. Let's face it, oil is a finite resource and is going to run out. The oil CEOs will do fine when they retire with their millions, but the planet and those dependent on it need alternatives. What bigger reason than global warming do we need to get moving on solar and wind power, hydro power and any other renewable resources? We need to change things now before drastic change is forced onto us by our inaction. Let's start creating new jobs and new energy resources within 10 years, before it's too late.

-- Katie Dawson

Homer

We get what we deserve with Ted

If and when Ted Stevens is re-elected and resumes his place in the U.S. Senate, the Alaskans who voted for him (and unfortunately those of us who didn't) will get exactly what they deserve: Nothing.

-- Annette Alleva

Anchorage

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