Readers write: Letters to the editor, September 8, 2016

Warming can’t be stopped, and efforts to halt it are scams

My letter of Aug. 28 regarding global warming received several responses agreeing that the event has been a repetitive process but insist that this time, it is an anthropocene epoch event. Basically meaning, if it were no for human activity, it would not be happening this time and this fast. It is a statement made without reason or explanation offered.

I maintain the primary cause of the rate of warming accelerating is because of the synergistic effect of the warming. The rate of increase will continue until the cause of the event ceases as it has in the past and again the trend reverses. Past episodes indicate 10 to 15,000 years.

We should be placing effort to understand and predict the impacts of this event and best as we can, plan for them. It is a total scam and useless effort to stop it. Al Gore scared everyone with dire forecasts that have produced nothing but huge monetary rewards for him.

These schemes, such as carbon tax, are only for the purpose of transferring more power to governments.

I suggest the writer who said I should trust he experts, go to school and read books should start to think for herself and believe what is in front of her.

In direct response to her, I believe the experts when they make sense and can explain it. I went to school and read books while getting a post-graduate degree and completing studies at one of our nation highest level institutions.

What about you, thee of blind faith in government experts?

— Robert Harris
Wasilla

Songs to heal maternal bonds create wonder at Hiland Center

I am writing this letter because it is not often we hear about positive and uplifting messages related to life in prison. I have been witness to an amazing, inspiring happening that culminates on Sept. 24, when Hiland Correctional Center holds an unprecedented event: the Lullaby Project.

Women who are incarcerated have written lullabies to their children who they seldom or never get to see. Over the past two months, Anchorage musicians have worked with 16 women at Hiland. The women wrote letters and poems that told of their hopes and dreams for their children, and the musicians helped them put them to music. In the process, the women told of pain and suffering they had caused, spoke of forgiveness, and expressed a wide range of emotions.

This project was led by Shirley Staten, who discovered the program developed by Carnegie Hall. This is the first of its kind in Alaska, although it has been replicated at 24 other U.S. sites. Hiland Superintendent Gloria Johnson gave the program the go-ahead, and social worker Carla Hicks has shepherded it at Hiland.

The musicians describe their experience as life-changing, touching and heart-wrenching. This is more than a lullaby, this project has helped to reconnect mothers with their children. The women shared their guilt and shame, and their lullabies have helped them share their love and concern. This is beyond a lullaby, it is healing.

This has been an amazing journey for everyone involved. The women and their musician collaborators look forward to presenting their lullabies at the celebration at 11 a.m. Sept. 24. A CD of all the lullabies will be unveiled there. The public is invited to attend and can order Tickets and CDs at KeystoLife.org.

— Carol Waters
Anchorage

Mayor not tough enough

I recently commented it appeared the mayor's "tough on crime" platform was not working as anticipated. What we do have in Anchorage, in fact, is a record number of homicides in a year (and it is only September), and a warning from the Anchorage Police Department to not go out alone at night. So that is what it has come to — shelter in place while the ne'er-do-wells have the run of the city after dark. When the police tell residents it's best to stay inside or travel in pairs, guess who has won? It is not the APD or citizens — it is the "bad guys." We are hearing from APD that the homicides are not related but as far as I know dead is still dead. Change the tactics and change the results. An old adage defines insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Take a new approach Mr. Mayor and APD — Mark Mew didn't have this problem and he didn't have us hide in our own homes or travel in packs.

— David M. Schauer
Anchorage

Mental Health Trust has no soul

Alaska State Mental Health Trust has no ethical standard or moral compass.

This organization uses the excuse of helping mentally disabled people to justify poor decisions for the communities that border the lands it has been given. It extracts resources without regard for the environment or people who it effects. The trust would care about the effect of its decisions, but it is just not in its charter, their people say.

I live in Chickaloon and will never forget the complete disregard for reality I saw when the Mental Health Trust tried to extract coal from Castle Mountain above my peaceful community. Thanks to the low price of coal and geological luck they did not destroy our quiet valley.

This organization and the people who work for it enable it to recklessly take away what hardworking Alaskans have earned. I have no respect for the Mental Health Trust.

— Kienan Corbus
Chickaloon

Delegation fails on ACA rates

Interesting development with the U.S. Senate race. However, I was more interested in Charles Wohlforth's column (ADN. Sept. 5) on the cost of health care in Alaska. Just as many of us in small and midsize businesses predicted during the debate and passage of the Affordable Care Act, it is becoming an expense that is crushing businesses in Alaska. It is a federal mandate, and yet, other than political yammering, the silence from our congressional delegation is deafening.

Of course, they don't have to worry about affordable health insurance … ever.

As a business owner who has provided health insurance for myself and my employees for years, I object to the lack of real solutions for Alaskan residents who are trying to cope with this situation. Alaska has a problem here, with essentially one insurer in the market. Exceptions and waivers are always being obtained for all kinds of special interests on all kinds of issues, and yet our congressional delegation has basically just hung us out to dry. So my vote is up for grabs. I'm not a member of your special interest group, Sen. Murkowski, however honorable some of those groups may be. I'm just a constituent who is getting the screws put to her … oh, and I always vote.

— Colleen Hickey
Anchorage

Good reporting in pauper state

Wonderful reporting by Nathaniel Herz in Saturday's (Aug. 27) paper.

The state of Alaska has no money so we are going to cut funding for the Alaska State Troopers by $9 million. Sorry Girdwood, the Municipality of Anchorage has no money either.

The state has no money, so we are going to cut funding for the VPSOs by $3.9 million (in villages where everyone has a gun for subsistence and/or protection and yet the Legislature is still contemplating whether VPSOs should be armed or not.)

The Legislature is so afraid that the sky is falling on them they authorized $1.5 million for new video surveillance upgrades.

Kodiak Sen. Gary Stevens says, "I think that it's important that we protect the people that are in that building, yourself included."

I hope Nathaniel doesn't have to risk life and limb the next time he has to interview a legislator.

I guess the rest of us will just fend for ourselves.

— Grant Hedman
Anchorage

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