Letters to the Editor

Readers write: Letters to the editor, Oct. 12, 2016

Trump bragged about a felony

I was born in Fairbanks in 1945, so Donald Trump and I are the same age. I graduated from high school and started college at the University of Alaska during the 1960s, the "Mad Men" era, and spent a lot of time in locker rooms before and after basketball practice. I lived through the pipeline era in Anchorage as a trial lawyer, and spent many hours in the sauna at the Men's Athletic Club at the Captain Cook Hotel. I spent a lot of time in Juneau around politicians.

Over the years in those private male enclaves I never, ever, heard a male brag about a sexual assault. In my lifetime, the only time I have heard that kind of bragging is from someone who was already behind bars. Donald Trump bragged about conduct that is a felony in this state. Men my age need to step up here and denounce the apologists that "every man" talks or acts like that and that it was just "locker room" banter.

— Doug Pope
Hope

Who is Trump fooling?

I'd like to say a word about this Trump. "You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time."

So the question is: What time is this?

Vote!

— Gary Gantz
Anchorage

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GOP elite the reason why party got stuck with Trump

Wow, what courage! Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan announced that they are not going to support Trump. Truth is, they and their ilk are the reason the Grand Old Party got stuck with candidate Trump in the first place. The party's elite, including Sens. Lisa and Dan, lacked the integrity to speak up forcefully in opposition to a man whom they surely knew to be a self-absorbed clown with absolutely no qualifications to lead any government.

Think what you will about our senators, these are not stupid people. Any reasonably well-informed person on the national political scene, and that category would include Lisa and Dan, knew enough about Trump long ago to see that selecting him as the party's standard-bearer would bring dishonor upon the Grand Old Party. The party has been severely wounded by the cowardly failure of its elite to object to this man earlier, at the right time, when there was still an opportunity to avoid this fiasco. And yet, these same cowards try to cast themselves as courageous leaders by turning against him, finally, when the timing seems opportune in the context of their personal political careers.

To steal a line from poet Carl Sandburg, they deserve a statue carved in butter or a bouquet of turnips.

— Jim Reeves
Anchorage

Trump’s words are those of a sexual predator

There has been much furor about a recently discovered videotape, recording presidential candidate Donald Trump bragging about casually placing his hands on women's private parts, "because when you're rich, they let you do that!" Trump has dismissed complaints about those words, claiming that they were merely "locker-room talk." For my part, I must say that when I was young, I participated in high school and college athletics, spent five years in a college fraternity, two years on active duty in the Army and three years in the Army Reserve, and never, during all that time, did I ever hear quite such disgusting talk as Trump produces in that videotape.

I would submit that Trump's words about sexually abusing women are not "locker-room" talk at all but are the words of a sexual predator. To make things worse, Trump's words are not those of a hormone-ridden young man but come from a fully grown, 60-year-old married man with children. In other words, those words of his are indicative of a fully implanted personal attitude that is not likely to change over time. Ye gods, the very thought of his sexual predator-like speech, and how he might carry that attitude into the White House if he is elected president, makes my skin crawl and makes me want to go take a shower.

— Stephan Paliwoda
Anchorage

Presidential imperfection is nothing new, folks

I checked my computer records for the number of presidents that have had mistresses while in office. I found 14 since George Washington who have had female companions other than their wives. We all know two in our lifetime who were womanizers. To have a presidential candidate be accused of pandering and lewd language does not compare to the infidelity of the
14 presidents.

I am a believer that America needs a change from the elite group of professional politicians and consider someone who believes in American values and our great country. Vote your conscience on Nov. 8.

— Roger D. Bon Sr.
Palmer

Juneau Access road should be easiest cut for Walker to make

I was shocked to read that the governor is still considering constructing the Juneau Access road.

To review, the half-billion-dollar road would be carved into the side of the continent's deepest, steepest fjord. The 50 miles of fresh pavement would cross dozens of avalanche chutes before ending at a new ferry terminal. In other words, you still won't be able to drive to Juneau.

What's worse, the road is expected to cost the state nearly $200 million more over the life of the project than just sticking with the current ferry system. (The whole idea was to save the state money; the Department of Transportation's own data clearly shows the road is not the answer.) Of the three communities directly impacted by this project, Haines and Skagway don't want it and Juneau is split at best.

This should be the easiest cut for Gov. Walker to make. Certainly his transition team — a remarkable amalgamation of Alaskans from across the spectrum — thought the project should be axed. Why is the Juneau road extension even up for debate right now? If the governor is going to cut my PFD, he better also cut this boondoggle.

— John Hudson
Juneau

Alaska senators sell us out

I could not believe the headlines in the paper Sunday morning. Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Sen. Dan Sullivan call for Trump to drop out. Well, both of them will be replaced. Just lost three votes from our house. They are selling America out.

Why aren't they calling for Hillary to drop out, as corrupt as she is. Republicans are killing their own party.

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— Darlene Buttolph
Anchorage

Newspapers aren’t what they used to be — but all’s not lost

Reading is vital to education and participation in a democratic society. However, the idea that it doesn't matter what students read, as long as they start reading, assumes that the quality of the reading material will ascend to higher standards — a questionable assumption.

But the world turns on its axis. Trends reverse. Journalism, newspapers, have suffered decline, as seen occasionally in the past — witness the past decades of ADN's admirable struggle against being dragged down into the mire of cultural collapse and electronic effluvium.

Wading past TRUMPTRUMPTRUMPTRUMPTRUMP, through pages of juvenile lovelorn tragedies, faux pas agony of lunch invites, haute and not-so-haute cuisine, and the proper etiquette of when to wear a bra, I was rewarded with changing a bird cage's odorless poop lining, popping bubble-wrap, cat fetishes.
All was not lost. I now know that wombats have buns of steel, poop in cubes (revamp Rubik's puzzle, anyone?) and can be taught to tinkle when their tushes are tickled — it's almost poetic. And ironic. Anthropogenic climate change is going to hammer them along with the rest of us.

Satire aside, Dilbert, Pickles, Zits, Doonesbury, Peanuts (RIP), Baby Blues and their page mates restored some sense of equilibrium: the best collection of comics of all the newspapers I have seen.

Pogo once proclaimed, "We have met the enemy, and he is us." Hold the higher standard, ADN; I'm with you.

— George Harbeson
Homer

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 tocommentary@alaskadispatch.com.

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