Public Service Academy would be boon for Alaska

Join me in supporting the bi-partisan legislation for the United States Public Service Academy. USPSA would be a university modeled after our military academies to develop outstanding future civilian leaders. The USPSA will accept the same number of incoming students from each state, meaning that Alaska will have guaranteed equal representation.

The idea behind the Academy is simple -- four years of tuition-free education in exchange for five years of public service. Graduates will be placed where there is the most need -- meaning this is great for all rural areas needing more teachers, nurses, police, fire fighters -- and that means it is great for us.

Over the next five years 44 percent of federal workers will become eligible to retire. If you think our classroom sizes are too big, social workers are overloaded, or that we need more nurses and police officers ... imagine what it will be like when the baby boomers retire. I'm contacting our congressional delegation to let them know I support the academy, and I urge you to do so as well.

-- Candace Lewis

Wasilla

Recidivist complainers should be put on a pay-per-carp plan

So now we have the odd occurrence of the most popular governor in the history of Alaska resigning, elected on a reform platform yet driven from office (at least in part) by relentless ethics complaints. The vast majority of these have been dismissed as groundless.

Regardless of my politics or yours, it's cause for concern when the governor has to spend more time dealing with sniping attacks than actually governing.

The ethics statute was intended as a way to make public officials more accountable, yet in Palin's case ended up being used as a political weapon by unelected malcontents who have no accountability whatsoever.

I suggest that every registered voter in the state be allowed to make one ethics complaint free of charge per public official per term of office. The next complaint about the same official should cost the complainer $100, the one after that $1,000, and so forth, the cost increasing by a factor of 10 with each complaint.

This would force these self-appointed gadflies to choose their fights a lot more carefully.

-- Wade Hampton Miller

Chugiak

Patrols would boost safety

I am a business owner who lives in Seward and makes regular trips to Anchorage during the summer. I think the safety corridor was very effective when it was first implemented because it was heavily patrolled. However, I have yet to see a trooper's car this summer, as I travel to and from Seward in one day. I think they need to beef up their patrols.

-- Cindy Ranta

Seward

Web site should match reality

Sarah. You quit. Please amend your Web site.

Excerpts from SarahPAC, taken on Wednesday, July 29, a full three days into the Parnell Administration.

"Visit The Alaska Fund Trust at www.thealaskafundtrust.com, the official legal defense fund for Governor Sarah Palin and family."

"Please note: There are many websites claiming to support Sarah Palin. SarahPAC.com is the ONLY political action committee authorized by Sarah Palin."

-- Jeffrey Bannish

Anchorage

Think before ditching clunker

I am the product of the public education system of Northern California and as such, there is much I do not understand. However, I think we have been told that the current financial crisis was caused by sub-prime lending: a feeling that everyone should own a home regardless of the income that they make.

Now the federal government has instituted a clunker program, or as known by those who sell cars, everyone should have the right to a new fuel-efficient car. It makes no difference that if they could afford car payments on a new car, they would not be driving a clunker. Let us just give them the down payment and let the chips fall where they may.

Does the phrase "Stupid is as stupid does" ring a bell for anybody?

-- Jack E. Miller

Wasilla

Thanks to volunteers who cleaned up park

We want to thank the municipal coordinators at Parks and Rec, plus all those neighborhood volunteers, who helped clean up the Pamela Joy Lowry Memorial Park on July 17-18. Our family can't express enough how touching it was to have over 100 participants, many whom we don't even know, turn out for this worthwhile project.

We lived in Anchorage over 28 years, part of that time just two houses from the Pamela Joy Lowry Memorial Park. With help from our community and various government entities, I proposed and coordinated efforts to obtain the park through the park improvement process. We lost our eighth-grade daughter, Pamela Joy, in a sudden auto-pedestrian accident in 1983. Once completed, the park was named in her memory.

Sadly, park vandalism has escalated in recent years; curtailing it has become a daunting task. So we all the more appreciate those of you who stepped forward to restore the park.

A hearty thank you!

-- Christy and Paul Lowry

Boise, ID

Israeli health care exemplary

Re: America's health-care debate. A longtime Alaskan, I now reside in Israel. There are a lot of pressures here because of the political situation, but worrying about health care isn't one of them. Israel has had virtually free national health care for decades.

Recently I had surgery for a complicated fracture. The surgery would have been free but I requested a specific orthopedic surgeon, which cost $600. Two nights in the hospital, all operating room expenses and 10 follow-up physiotherapy sessions cost nothing. Occupational therapy is $4 per visit.

Hadassah Hospital was clean and medically efficient. I was in a seven-bed room meant for six and had to wait several hours to be admitted and discharged.

By the way, my surgeon was an Israeli Arab, as were many nurses and two roommates.

All physician-requested drug prescriptions here are subsidized.

My health plan costs me, now retired, $40 a month. There are four private national health organizations to choose from. All compete for subscribers. Services are government-reimbursed.

I don't hear many complaints about health care here.

-- Evey Ruskin

Jerusalem

Failed gadflies should get bill

We need a law regarding frivolous lawsuits or ethics violation charges against our elected officials.

Write up a law that says "anyone bringing charges against one of our elected officials and it turns out the charges are false, the person bringing the charges must pay the entire cost and attorney's fees." Then you may get my vote next time and I might just give you a few bucks for your campaign fund.

What has been going on in this wonderful state of Alaska is just wrong, and I think there is a whole lot of jealousy going around. For you who have pulled this, what goes around usually comes around.

-- Jay Wiokham

Palmer

French have a word for it

We in Alaska are indebted to the French for encapsulating a bit of wisdom in a word that is now part of the English language, parvenue: a female who has suddenly acquired wealth and power, especially one who is not fully accepted socially by the class associated with the higher position; upstart. (From Webster's 4th college dictionary.)

-- Jim Woolever

Anchorage

Politicos use free health care

I take offense at politicians who think "we the people" don't deserve medical care in this country. The same people whose medical care is paid for by "we the people." Socialized medical care? We already have it. I guess taxpayer-paid health care is OK as long as the politicians are the ones benefiting.

Bottom line is, I have never met a Canadian who came to this country to get better health care.

-- Bob Weber

Wasilla

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