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

Give reasons to stay home

It seems to me that being in favor of strong border security and against free trade are at cross purposes. The long-term answer to illegal immigration is not making it less desirable to come here. It's making it more desirable to stay home.

— Jack Morris
Wasilla

Why didn't we bridge the Arm?

I recently read the July 13 article on traffic problems on the New Seward Highway, and wanted to give everyone a bit of a heads-up on this ever-growing problem of constant traffic increases. So here is my 411 on the problem as I see it:

Decades ago, when Alaska was flush with oil money, they (basically, our legislators at the time), lacked the vision to build a causeway or a bridge across Turnagain Arm that would serve to move the majority of Peninsula traffic across the arm to connect up to the Sterling Highway.

So, today, after spending hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars in road improvements, we still have an overcrowded Seward Highway, and always will. This is what happens when state planners and visionless legislators are in charge.

How many more hundreds of millions of our dollars will be spent over the next 20 years trying to fix something that obviously cannot be fixed without another road to the Peninsula? Even a blind person has better vision than those who would not see.

— Randy Brandon
Girdwood

Water pipe could be deadly

Who needs to die before the water pipe on the Seward Highway is shut down?

— Patricia McLoughlin
Anchorage

He should have stayed in jail

The article of July 13 about the man who died after a fight in Juneau got my attention. The 51-year-old man accused of murder had 33 prior criminal convictions, according to the story. That's one conviction for every year of his adult life. No telling how many other charges were dismissed. Every judge who released him back on the street should be sent a copy of this article. After the third conviction he should have been sentenced to life without parole. That would have prevented at least 31 other crimes, including this alleged murder.

Our liberal bleeding-heart judges and judicial system make a mockery of justice.

— Jerry P. Jones
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.