Clueless on cold Coastal Trail
Today while skiing on a very remote stretch of the Coastal Trail I ran into a couple of misguided lads from the Jehovah's Witness church who were not only poorly dressed for this weather, but were clueless that they were walking straight down the classic track which is a huge no-no. They stopped me while waving a Bible (really, honest to … Well, you know.) and began their message. I said it was too cold to discuss religion and scolded them for walking on the classic ski, groomed path. They readily apologized and continued on their quest to save other multiuse souls. Religious freedom. Ya gotta love it.
— Pete Eberhardt
Anchorage
Obama exits, time for plan B
Goodbye Barack and your lovely family. Keep yourself and your family safe. For me, I am going to open up my 1950s nuclear bomb shelter and see if I can find my suicide pills.
— Phil Weber
Cooper Landing
Changing populations deserve to be heard by Board of Game
With regards to Lynn Mitchell's commentary (ADN, Jan. 16), maybe one day our governing bodies will realize that perhaps trapping and nontrapping activities are simply incompatible and therefore must be simply separated. There should be no reason agreeable plans cannot be formulated for large and conveniently located no-trapping areas to be established along with vastly larger areas allowing trapping. What holds up such negotiations — even at the only "talking-about-it" concept stage or when discussing setback regulations in a reasonable manner? To discuss conflicts on state multiuse land is difficult when the state Board of Game and the Alaska Trappers Association invariably simply shut the door and walk away from any and all such discussion.
Elected and representative decision-makers need to become more knowledgeable about the subject, treat it more conscientiously and need to represent all of Alaska, not just the hunter-trapper group. This is repeated over and over, year after year but is mostly ignored by state government, all the way up to the governor.
Meanwhile, folks get less and less worried about breaking the law concerning confiscating traps. No one condones this illegal practice, of course, but who can blame the 99.6 percent for reacting in this way when a 0.4 percent rides roughshod over their multiuse privileges? Changing population demographics in Alaska should really not be ignored forever.
— Ken Green
Cooper Landing
Comics dumb down America
I know Alaska Dispatch News is trying to save money by discontinuing the Saturday paper.
I would like to suggest ADN discontinue its numerous color pictures and daily comics.
We need more hard news and save the "fluff" stories for the Sunday paper. These color pictures, comics and President Trump's tweets just contribute to the "dumbing down" of America.
— Susan Dabelsteen
Anchorage
Trump's not anti-establishment; his rich Cabinet proves it
Think again. He "who denies intelligence" has a ruling class billionaire Cabinet, record-setting inauguration contributions from ruling class corporations, and now a group of ruling class billionaire "prosperity preachers" who anointed the "lyin' king" at his inauguration. Not surprisingly, Donald Trump is drawn to those preachers who say one's wealth is a sign of God's approval. This is all for our un-President, a known pathological liar, who also has the lowest approval rating of any incoming president in U.S. history. Go figure.
— Wayne C. Jones
Palmer
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