Letters to the Editor

Readers write: Letters to the editor, September 10, 2017

Bears and mountain bikes

Bulldoze forests and parks to build soccer pitches or baseball fields, and nobody in Anchorage bats an eye. But move some dirt to build a mountain bike trail that winds through the trees, and Rick Sinnott and Bill Sherwonit lose their minds.
Despite Sinnott's and Sherwonit's criticism and predictions of doom, every mountain biker I know loves and values our bears and moose, and accepts — as most Alaskans do — a modicum of risk in the pursuit of outdoor recreation such as hunting, fishing, hiking and mountain biking.

Countless mountain bikers have safely ridden trails in Far North Bicentennial Park for decades, and it is disingenuous of Sinnott and Sherwonit to exploit every negative bear/human encounter to advance their anti-bike agenda.
Since they're so adamant that mountain bikers not ride in bear habitat, perhaps they can tell us where to find a location in Southcentral Alaska that is free of bears.

— Tim Woody
Anchorage

This place is going to pot

This town stinks … because everywhere you go there's the stench of pot!

— Rolf L. Bilet
Anchorage

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Grad rate data misleading

Re: "Four-year graduation rate creeps up at Anchorage School District" by Tegan Hanlon.

I am disappointed that the ASD would release such misleading data about four-year graduation rates, and equally disappointed that ADN staff would let it pass by unchallenged.

The four-year graduation rate should be calculated like this: Take all the people who started high school four years ago and see what percent have graduated on time. That is the true four-year graduation rate. Students who don't graduate on time lower the rate.

The data discussed in this article are misleading: The article looks at all the students who graduated in 2017 and shows the percentage of this year's graduates who started four years ago. Students who don't graduate are never counted in this phony measurement. The only students who are counted are the ones who graduated this year (regardless of how long it took), and what lowers this "four-year graduation rate" is students who actually graduate but take longer than four years.

If we are going to have a meaningful discussion on graduation rates and education, perhaps both ASD and ADN need to start with a good statistics class.

— Bruce Welkovich
Anchorage

Why not revile Cook, Seward?

I'm not surprised at Elise Patkotak's most recent piece on why Christopher Columbus is not a significant historical figure worthy of recognition, as she denigrates white men, Christians and those who still hold to traditional thoughts and values in almost every opinion piece. But since there are no monuments to Columbus in Alaska, why didn't she look to the prominent monuments in Anchorage of Capt. James Cook and William Seward. Cook discovered and introduced the evils of European society to the South Pacific and Hawaii. And Seward, through his illegitimate purchase of Alaska from Russia, continues to inflict injustice upon Alaska Natives. Or possibly does she recognize that, on the whole, these great men positively influenced our society more significantly than others?

If she was intellectually honest, she would also acknowledge that Columbus positively influenced world history as few have. Vilifying pillars of history doesn't elevate others.

— Stephen Manwiller
Anchorage

Mr. President, don't settle
for fake tax reform

Mr. President, there is already a bill in Congress that meets your four principles for tax reform. Have Congress get it out of committee and send it over to your desk.

In Springfield, Missouri, you first called for a tax code that is simple, fair and easy to understand. The FairTax ­— HR 25, S 18 — is simple and easy to understand because taxpayers "do their taxes" at the cash register. There is nothing to do on April 15. The FairTax is fair because it provides a refund from the Social Security Administration (there is no more IRS) to every U.S. household with lawful residents. This refund reimburses that household for tax the household pays on essentials.

Second, you called for a competitive tax code that creates more jobs and higher wages for Americans. The FairTax is competitive because it stops taxing the two ingredients needed to grow an economy: labor and capital.

Third, you called for tax relief to middle-class families. The FairTax helps middle-class families by ending the payroll tax. The FairTax also lowers pre-tax consumer prices by removing tax costs from every service and every tangible good.

Finally, you called for repatriation of trillions of dollars in wealth that is parked offshore. The FairTax brings back over
$10 trillion in months because it removes tax on business.

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Mr. President, turn away from fake tax reform. Make Congress discharge the FairTax from committee; get the bill to the floor and then over to your desk.

— Wiley Brooks
Alaska state director
Americans for Fair Taxation
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.

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