Anchorage Daily News

Who's responsible for this?

Whoever decided that the way to solve a political dispute is to send uninvolved young persons out to kill each other?

-- Sylvia L. Short

Anchorage

Drunks not welcome in parks

Your recent editorial ("Let's make them safer," Oct. 17) suggests that my initiative to deal with the chronic public inebriate problem should focus on taking back our public spaces. That is exactly what the focus has been from the beginning.

As I stated many times during the mayoral campaign, in interviews with the editorial board and since being elected, I am approaching this problem as a public safety issue. Anchorage residents should not have to be fearful of using our parks, trails and other public facilities because of illegal campers who are trespassing on public lands.

We hope to find proper social agencies to deal with those who need help, but we will have a zero tolerance policy regarding illegal camping and destruction of public properties. I am pleased the Daily News concurs with this approach.

-- Mayor Dan Sullivan

Anchorage

UAA play shouldn't be missed

Recently, mostly by stumbling upon it, we attended the play "Terra Nova" by Academy Award-winning playwright and screenwriter Ted Talley ("Silence of the Lambs") at the UAA Fine Arts Center.

This play about Sir Robert Falcon Scott's attempt to beat the Norwegians to the South Pole in 1912 was absolutely awesome. These actors and actresses and the entire crew made it so real that by intermission I was feeling the cold of the Antarctic.

Maybe the word just isn't getting out, but there were very few people attending -- could just be that there were other things going on at the same time, but if anyone misses seeing this performance (at a price of only $10 general admission), they are really missing something. The performance runs through Oct. 25 so there is still time to catch it and support these performers at UAA.

-- Judy Darden

Anchorage

Story missed some targets

I'd like to correct a misstatement about myself in the Oct. 17 story about the Nike missile veterans reunion ("Veterans gather at historic Nike missile site").

Live firings from Site Summit only took place in the 1960s; there were no live firings in the mid-1970s when I was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 43rd Air Defense Artillery AADCAP at what is now Kincaid Park. So, I didn't fire any missiles over my parents' home in Eagle River! When I was a kid growing up, however, about 10 years earlier, remnants of a missile, including access doors, did damage the roof of that house.

I am now a board member of Friends of Nike Site Summit and invite readers to help us with the next steps in preserving Site Summit for future generations. FONSS has a Web site at nikesitesummit.org where readers can get more information.

-- S.E. Thomas

Eagle River

Canada deserves a mention

In his Oct. 17 column, Professor Alan Boraas stated, "The University of Alaska is the largest system of higher education in the North American subarctic and Arctic." This statement may possibly be correct if you include all campuses and all categories of students. However, his failure to mention any of the great North American universities that exist across the border in Canada demonstrates the tendency of Americans, and even Alaskans, to be completely oblivious of the rest of North America.

In contradistinction to the United States, Canada has always considered itself to be an Arctic and subarctic country. Canadian universities are in the forefront of Arctic and subarctic research.

-- Elizabeth A. Tower

Anchorage

EDITOR'S NOTE: In 2004, the writer established an endowment at UAA to support Canadian studies.

Retiree's view on health reform

I'm a retiree who is sick and tired of the lies being fed to seniors by opponents of health insurance reform.

The bills in Congress do not include death panels or big cuts in Medicare benefits. In fact, seniors would benefit greatly by some of the provisions, including phasing out the Part D doughnut hole, and free Medicare preventive services, such as cancer screenings.

Furthermore, health care reform isn't socialized medicine. Medicare would continue for seniors, with private insurance for everybody else (mostly, the same employer coverage that workers have today). A public insurance "option" would only be for people who choose it. Every day, I thank heaven for my Medicare, a public program.

I want younger people to be able to choose a public plan as well.

-- E. John Harris president, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Alaska Chapter 52

Anchorage

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