Anchorage Daily News

Thanks for coverage, columns

Thanks for sponsoring the Wednesday Farmer's Market at the Northway Mall. It makes locally grown food more convenient and invites non-residents to visit the neighborhood.

Also, thanks for running the photo montage of faces today (Sept. 9). It helps to remind us the fabric of America is woven from threads that reach around the world.

Most of all, thanks for featuring Elise Patkotak and other local columnists who can get a point across without resorting to name-calling. Civil discourse should be the next animal put on the endangered species list.

-- John McCormick

Anchorage

President's strength is his ability to keep his head

Many supporters and some members of the press and media are critical of President Obama for allowing those with the loudest, often most outrageous voices to define the debate on health care. Critics say the president should be tougher, crack heads in Congress, get angry, use his mojo.

I disagree. President Obama's strength is his cool head in a crisis. It is his patience, even with those who attack him ferociously and most unfairly. It is also his respect for the House and Senate, which he has encouraged to write the bills working their way through both chambers. The president provides goals and guidance but not heavy-handed dictates.

Part of change, long needed in Washington and in many state and city governments, is that the executive is not a supreme leader, that in a democracy, messy as it sometimes is, all may have their say. Still, the president has his stage and he knows how to use it, as was demonstrated yet again in Wednesday's clear-headed, inspiring speech to Congress and the American people.

-- Paul Brown

Brooklyn, NY

EDITOR'S NOTE: The writer was a founder of Alaska Repertory Theatre and lived in Alaska for many years. He is a frequent visitor to Anchorage, here this week for the Alaska Dialogue in Talkeetna.

Turn off TV and get physical

My view of health care crystallized for me a few years ago on a sunny summer morning during a short visit to Chicago. I was in the suburbs to the southwest of the city. I walked across baseball field after baseball field, freshly cut green grass in the outfields, well-groomed infields -- but all empty. No kids anywhere.

I believe I knew where they were. They were sitting at home either watching TV, playing video games or in front of computer screens. They were not only gaining weight, they were helping build an American culture of indolence. They were part of a growing population that will someday cost America billions of dollars in health care costs.

The TVs and computers and video games should be turned off. Our children, as well as their parents, should get physical, as Olivia Newton-John once sang. It's just one piece of the U.S. health care puzzle -- but it's something we can do ourselves rather than relying on government programs.

-- Frank E. Baker

Eagle River

Skimpy funding not enough for lesser-known treasures

Your take on Alaska's state parks ("State parks," Sept. 8) was right on the mark. However, you left out another 3.1 million acres of our incredibly diverse and heavily utilized state game refuges, wildlife sanctuaries and critical habitat areas. Spectacular in scope, beauty and bounty, they offer tremendous year-round recreational opportunities

The Alaska Department of Fish & Game is mandated to provide sustainable fish and wildlife management of these lesser-known treasures for all, as well as to monitor and protect them from abuse. This is no small task in a state that has demonstrated little political will to provide fair and equitable funding to carry out such mandates. A perfect example is the paltry $15,000 per year budget to manage 25 of these designated management areas, many of which are easily accessible and heavily used, on the Southcentral road system. These too have suffered the same abuses as our road-accessible state parks and are at least deserving of such basic investment as restrooms. What's needed is an administration finally receptive to a long-neglected, crumbling infrastructure.

-- Kris Abshire

Wasilla

Business continued

It was heartening to read Kirk Wickersham's Sept. 8 Compass piece on Suzan McCready ("When wrongly charged, the innocent pay").

As an investor, I have been doing business with Suzan for years and was as shocked as everyone else when the allegations against her were made public over a year ago.

My wife and I made the decision to continue to do business with her. That wasn't easy, as Kirk mentioned in his article, when Suzan could not find underwriters.

Suzan is a motivated and driven individual. She has the industry savvy required to enable those around her to succeed.

Buyers, sellers, real estate professionals and underwriters take note!

I hope that Suzan finds professional and financial success once again, to go along with the knowledge that there are those of us still in her corner.

-- Gary Peterson

Anchorage

Shame for letting politicians indoctrinate our students

I am appalled to find out that not one, but two conservative, right-wing Republican politicians from our state were permitted to speak directly to the students at the recent opening of the Anchorage School District's new downtown school for students on suspension or expulsion. I heard on the news, after the fact, that both Gov. Sean Parnell and Mayor Dan Sullivan appeared at this event and spoke to the students. I certainly trust that their remarks were provided to the parents of these students in advance so they could decide whether they wanted their children to hear them or have them engage in alternative activities.

And shame on Homer High School for allowing Gov. Parnell to make an unscheduled visit to their school to discuss the importance of education, staying in school, avoiding drugs and making plans for their future. Don't they have security guards at that school? What is this country coming to when we allow politicians such as these to indoctrinate our students with their subversive messages?

-- Bob Maloney

Chugiak

Speaking up was right thing; silence is only for cowards

Kudos to Mr. Joe Wilson for speaking back to Obama during his speech. Why shouldn't he speak up and say what he feels? Some say dissent should be in the form of silence. What does silence accomplish but to sit idly by while wrong is done? That is the way of a coward.

We are in the middle of a major recession. A huge health care overhaul at this point would bankrupt a lot of us. Yes, health care is very important to all of us and I am speaking as one who has no insurance right now because we can't afford the co-pay.

Being silent when things are not right is not the proper method of handling anything.

No one in this country deserves any respect unless they earn it.

You want to lead this country, then be a leader instead of messing up everyone's lives for the benefit of your own.

Mr. Obama's decisions have led us further into decline and our future generations will pay for these decisions as well.

-- Rhonda Hartzell

Angoon

Public option necessary

I find almost beyond comprehension the level of ignorance displayed by the people who have been so brainwashed and misled. How in the name of the Great Spirit can many of you so strongly support the dishonorable insurance companies and their stockholders that keep demanding more on their investment over the plight of the middle-class working people and their need to stay healthy and medically cared for so they can steadily contribute to the economy?

It is beyond imperative that the public option be implemented. I will do all I can to help promote something that our nation should have been doing years ago.

I live my life as I was told in Sunday school that Jesus wanted me to live my life and how to treat others. I cannot expect less from any other honorable human being.

-- Alvin Leighton

Wasilla

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