Letters to the Editor

Readers write: Letters to the editor, September 17, 2017

Thank you to Alice Rogoff, staff

Sincerest thanks to you and your staff for your commitment of time, talent and dollars to the Alaska Dispatch News. Facts and figures supporting headlines will always have depth in print that broadcast news can't equal. Providing worldwide, nationwide and Alaska-specific information and opinions to subscribers remains what you all do best.

Thank you.

— Anne Masker
Eagle River

Kudos on subsistence portrayal

I wish to commend the author, Julia O'Malley, and photographer, Ash Adams, for their article and photos of Aug. 15, ("Internet threats hound teen subsistence hunter after he kills bowhead whale") about Chris Apassingok and his family and people on St. Lawrence Island.

My husband and I ministered in Gambell, Savoonga and Nome during the early 1970s and 1980s. Our family was with us.

ADVERTISEMENT

We survived with the help of the Native people, who attended their village churches and were officers in them, including the families mentioned in the article.

We ate the Native foods, which these good people shared with us. They also shared their faith, which was passed down to them by their elders, whom we loved and respected.

— Helen A. Kristiansen
Palmer

Big picture view on singletrack

Kind of like the idea that knowledgeable people are looking at urban planning with more in mind than a sportif's addiction to adrenaline. I certainly don't share the idea that being chomped by an alligator, a tiger or a bear informs my friends or myself that I've lived a great life.

If you've observed animals, you know that they dearly love a boardwalk, a road or a trail through the difficult underbrush.

Perhaps Mr. Sinnott ("New, singletrack trails spell sudden encounters with bears," Aug. 31) and Mr. Sherwonit ("Sinnott's right: New singletrack trails are an awful idea," Sept. 7) got some genes from the Greatest Generation — you know, the one that looked at the larger picture, incorporated their studies, observations and common sense and tried to prevent misery on all levels.

— Joan Daniels
Bird Creek

During highway construction, don't speed on alternate roads

To Valley/Anchorage and Palmer/ Wasilla commuters:

With Palmer/Wasilla Highway construction, Bogard/Seldon has become a high-speed highway. IT IS NOT! Traffic has greatly increased and no one slows down. Enstrom Road (by the red fire station) is a crapshoot to pull out on.

Please slow down taking your kids to and from schools, heading home or to work. It's a bad situation that the state either refuses or can't afford to fix.

Use the Parks Highway as much as you can — it IS a high-speed highway.

— Kathleen Jones
Palmer

Arctic refuge is a resource too valuable to jeopardize

I want to call attention to a maneuver by members of Congress to bypass the normal procedure for altering previously passed laws. This is relevant to Alaskans since it changes the rules for land dedicated decades ago. The authority to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is included in the 2018 fiscal budget where it might pass without the normal majority requirements.

We all should be aware that the great natural and cultural values of this refuge would be ignored while allowing an oil industry with a poor safety record to make irreversible changes and damage to the land, despite oil prices declining so low that our state is deeply in debt.

ADVERTISEMENT

My years of experience in the Arctic refuge allow a clear understanding of the value of this undisturbed ecosystem to the wildlife and to all Americans. The value of the refuge to Native Americans has greatly increased as visitors have discovered its unique values and polar bear and caribou viewing have become local industries. These wildlife values are in great jeopardy if this drilling proposal succeeds. Representatives should vote against any attempt to open the Arctic refuge for drilling if they care for a better Alaskan future.

— Tom Choate
Anchorage

Mayor shows blame-the-victim attitude in comments on crime

I am appalled at Mayor Ethan Berkowitz's comments on the recent homicides in Anchorage — blaming them on "drug trafficking" and being out "after midnight." His blame-the-victim attitude shows an elitist callousness toward crime victims and their loved ones.

Additionally, when did being out "after midnight" become a crime?

— Sharon Stockard
Anchorage

The views expressed here are the writers' own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a letter under 200 words for consideration, email letters@alaskadispatch.com, or click here to submit via any web browser. Submitting a letter to the editor constitutes granting permission for it to be edited for clarity, accuracy and brevity. Send longer works of opinion to commentary@alaskadispatch.com.

ADVERTISEMENT