N.C. law poses food for thought
I hear North Carolina has a new law allowing you to refuse service to people you suspect are homosexual. I wonder if the law allows young black heterosexual men to assert their religious freedom and refuse to be frisked by cops they suspect are gay.
— Geoff Kennedy
Anchorage
Flawed software distorts reality
It's no wonder we are having a crime wave in Anchorage, because the APD Crime Suppression Unit was using a flawed computer program that led them to erroneously believe that they were doing a fantastic job and crime rates were relatively flat.
I am a nurse at a local hospital and when I notice a surge in heroin and spice overdoses, I take note. But perhaps I am better suited to tackle real problems rather than virtual problems because I lack technical and computer skills.
Maybe the Crime Suppression Unit could lend its software to our Legislature and governor so they could sleep better at night feeling that they did a great job — while the rest of us install security cameras and lock our doors, as we wait for the imagined wave to pass.
— David Miller
Anchorage
Kaepernick stance shows distress
I absolutely agree with the main point of Shannyn Moore's column Sunday on freedom of speech. This is America — and that is a core value. Besides, I see people like Colin Kaepernick as showing distress, not disrespect. They are drawing attention to what they see as a problem.
Though their teams could take action against them (freedom of speech is a public right: the games are a private venue) I hope they are allowed to continue. Though in the light of either their support or opposition to Mr. Kaepernick, some people might have to reconsider their opposition to or support for Tim Tebow.
— Pam Siegfried
Anchorage
Hillary Clinton learned from and loved her Alaska experience
Like Ms. Metcalfe in "The untold story of Hillary Clinton's 1969 summer in Alaska," I attended the 1994 reception with President Clinton and first lady Clinton.
The president spoke first and noted that the very minute Air Force One passed into Alaska air space, Hillary woke him up, exclaiming "We're in Alaska! We're in Alaska!" President Clinton commented that Hillary was so excited to be returning to Alaska, a place that she had lived in, learned from, and loved.
With a sparkle in her eyes, Hillary then spoke about coming to Alaska to explore and work. She mentioned several experiences, including those that helped prepare her for politics and Washington, D.C. By all accounts, Hillary was enthusiastic, charismatic, informed, and an Alaska-phile.
As an early-baby-boom professional woman, I understand why in some settings Hillary appears to suppress her emotions. Like Hillary, when I went to law school in the '70s, only 1 in 4 students were women, and we had to prove ourselves daily. As women, throughout our early careers, we had to demonstrate constantly that we could function in a man's world — because it was a man's world then. Often you had to grow an exoskeleton to deal with bullies.
Hillary not only has the reasoned temperament and stability to do the presidency responsibly, but as demonstrated in her visit to Alaska in 1994, she also has the likability, passion, humor and charisma to do it extremely well. She will protect and enhance our rights, our dignity, our safety, our dreams, our economy, our environment, and our children's futures.
— Deborah L. Williams
Goleta, Calif.
Judge took away voters’ rights
Sometimes honest judges issue jaw-dropping decisions. That happened On Oct. 6, when a judge erased an eight-vote win by Democrat Dean Westlake, instead of counting actual votes by actual voters. None of those voters, who have a First Amendment right to cast a ballot, voted for a candidate in the August Democratic Primary more than once. They voted once in that race. But the judge took the right to vote away from these voters, in favor of a partisan opinion by a longtime Republican Party Chair Randy Ruedrich. The former party chair, and still party partisan, expectedly said that if an election worker didn't make the kind of mistakes that happen in elections through Alaska, he "thinks" the candidate he supported would have won.
The biased opinion of a party cheerleader and fundraiser is not more important than a citizen's vote. I supported the candidate whose votes were taken away. But party chairs and politicians shouldn't be allowed to erase votes they don't like.
Hopefully the Supreme Court will say real votes take precedence over a party activist's wishes.
— Rep. Les Gara
Anchorage
Congress unlikely to fix tax laws
Denise Roselle is absolutely correct in blaming our Congress for the inequities in our taxing system (Letters, Oct. 6). Congress is the only entity that has the power to change current tax laws.
Unfortunately, it is very unlikely to do so. Research will show that an unusually high percentage of senators and congress-people are themselves millionaires. Further investigation would show that relatively few were millionaires when first elected to office. Asking them to change laws that are now in their favor would be like suggesting that they scatter rocks onto their own beds.
Considering the staggering number of lobbyists, big business, and banking interests, which continually curry favor with all lawmakers, state and national, governing bodies are probably the motherlode of insider trading violations. Since current financial laws act to their benefit, I don't expect to see changes in my lifetime. A lawmaker who attempts to swim against this current will probably lose all party support, and will not remain a lawmaker.
— Don Neal
Anchorage
Intercollegiate sports must go
From its Strategic Pathways initiative, the University of Alaska worries that if it eliminates college sports, Alaska will be the only state without intercollegiate athletics. So what? Who cares? Universities are supposed to be about academics, not athletics. UAS (University of Alaska Southeast) eliminated its intercollegiate sports program in 1990, and it's doing just fine.
Athletic scholarships give students a free ride for participating in non-academic activities. They are an insult to non-athletic students who work hard to maintain their grades while putting themselves through college. The only people who want sports at the University of Alaska are the ones making a buck off it. Everyone else wants an education. Athletics should be relegated to private clubs, with no university affiliation.
Sports are about making money off the bodies of others, period.
They have no place at any university. Real universities do not have intercollegiate athletics. Their students are adults, too busy learning and living their own lives to regress back into the adolescence of sports, homecoming, etc.
Shame on the University of Alaska administration for not having the courage to eliminate intercollegiate athletics.
— Thomas H. Morse
UAA math and chemistry faculty
Anchorage
VP debate not worth all the ink
It appears the ADN used excess ink covering Monday night's vice presidential debate. The spectacle could have easily been summed up as … two stale white guys of marginal integrity disingenuously defending their disreputable running mates.
— Peter Montesano
Anchorage
Lindbeck’s ads beneath him
I have known Steve Lindbeck for more than 30 years. I have always found him to be a nice guy. So I am dismayed to see his campaign for Congress being so negative. Every ad he has run is a hit piece on Don Young. These ads distort the facts or are just not true. A campaign should be about the issues that affect us as Americans, not character assassination. I know Steve is better than this and hope he will change tactics.
— Bob Bell
Anchorage
No way Juneau road is a winner
There are several fundamental problems with Win Gruening's defense of the Juneau access road project (Commentary, Oct. 5).
The first problem is that it is not a road to Skagway but a road to a new ferry dock. Not quite a road to nowhere but close.
Second, the $574 million construction estimate is just that, an estimate. More than 50 percent of the large construction projects managed by DOT suffer from significant cost overruns. In the case of this complex project it could easily be 35 percent or more. That would make the cost of the road $775 million. I doubt the federal government will pick up the excess cost. We, as soon-to-be Alaska state taxpayers, will have to pony up this money. No thank you! We will soon be on the hook for about $4,500 per person in state deficit spending, so let's not increase that burden.
The third problem is that I object to the argument that the feds are paying for
90 percent of the cost. Wait, I pay federal taxes every year, we have trillions in national debt, and this project benefits very few people from a national perspective. Is this project a win-win? Not in my book! If you want to fill in a hole the first thing you need to do is stop digging.
— Mike McQueen
Copper Center
Lawmakers lack financial sense
I am nearly apoplectic after reading two unrelated but disturbingly similar pieces about how our state finances are handled. First is the story concerning the upcoming "fast track" decision to try to sell "Pension Obligation Bonds" to help bail out the state pension fund. This action amounts to borrowing money to pay your regular monthly bills — never a good idea and at the state level has successfully put many state and local pension plans in deep financial trouble. All that has to happen is for the bond market(now at its peak and about to tank) to drop — resulting in negative return. Prudent money managers have recommended against the issuance of pension obligation bonds for several years now.
Second is the continuing Legislative Information Office debacle. Facing a multi-million-dollar lawsuit on one overbuilt and overpriced edifice, the Legislature plunges blindly and, in my opinion, illegally ahead to buy another LIO — thereby obligating at least another $50 million in exposure. The principals of the abandoned "Taj Mahawker" may well prevail in their efforts to expose legislative malfeasance — then where are we?
I am beginning to believe that those persons responsible for either advising the decision-makers on financial matters or the decision-makers themselves attended and graduated with honors from the Clown College of Financial Management. When will it end?
— David M. Schauer
Anchorage
Right to decent choices denied, how do we moved forward?
I feel deeply betrayed by our electoral decisions and those in power.
When did it become OK to shoot unarmed black citizens? Is there some memo we failed to receive? How does that memo read, anyhow?
Dear police, due to the fact that we no longer really have a cohesive country, it's just fine to pick off the poor, the homeless, the mentally ill, and anyone who's color isn't stark raving white? Really? Really?
Seeing as how Assange has leaked tapes that implicate the Democratic Party in rigging the elections, seeing as how we, the American people, didn't ask for those two clowns to win the electorate, one might ask, who in hell is running this dog and pony show anyhow?
Police have it rough. I wouldn't touch that job for all the gold in the world. But what's been going on seems out of our hands. Looking at those tapes, that's just flat-out assassination.
I thought we were better than this, people. I don't know how you feel about it, but I feel deeply saddened. We trusted that we would work for a better country, and achieve it. That law enforcement would be those people we could look up to (I pray for their safety every day), that made us feel safe.
That our democracy wouldn't be some rigged sham. That bigots, morons, and toadies for the banks wouldn't be our choices for nomination.
I guess I mean to say, I feel like our right to decent choices has been denied. How do we move forward now?
I guess all we can do is pray and try to make our own personal choices devoid of hatred, prejudice, anger, and disputation.
Maybe we should call it the trickle-up theory. Newton and Galileo are fuming. Sorry boys: we the American people must defy gravity, and politics, to become the nation we should be.
What we need now is a new Martin Luther King. I know you're out there. Kids, hone your voices and speak out.
— Lillian K. Staats
Palmer
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