Letters to the Editor

Readers write: Letters to the editor, September 26, 2017

Please, Lisa, save the ACA

Please Sen. Murkowski, help your constituents!

Vote no to repeal ACA. Once again we are worried about the future of the ACA. Please protect us from those who want to take away our health care. I beg you to vote against repeal. I am a Democrat and you have made me proud to be an Alaskan. I will vote for you if you protect our families, our health care, and our lives. Please make me proud to be American again.

— Jessica Audrey Barnes
Anchorage

'Roadless rule' benefits us all

As the Dispatch News reported Friday, a federal judge has thrown out all of the state's challenges to the landmark "roadless rule" protecting undeveloped wildlands in national forests. That's very good news for Alaskans, especially in the Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska.

Those "roadless area" watersheds, scientists say, are key to sustaining healthy salmon runs. They also harbor some of the region's best deer habitat, making them important for subsistence users and sport hunters alike. And they furnish great recreational opportunities for commercial outfitters as well as residents — making them places we all enjoy, and benefit from keeping roadless and wild.

ADVERTISEMENT

Southeast Alaskans in particular have moved on from the days of ripping up our forests and shipping out the logs: today, fishing and tourism are overwhelmingly where it's at for Southeast's economy. The roadless rule the judge upheld allows for connector roads between communities and to hydro sites, as well as utility interties. The rest of the country and the public at large have long since bought into the roadless rule and are enjoying its benefits — including lots less conflict over logging.

Hopefully Gov. Walker — who didn't initiate the case — will see where the state's best interests lie and accept the judge's very well-reasoned verdict as it stands. It's time to put this controversy behind us once and for all.

— Meredith Trainor
Juneau

Choose ANWR over oil

What makes Alaska special is undoubtedly the rare and unspoiled wilderness that remains to support our connection to this earth's fragile and crumbling ecosystem. To read that we are still in this decades-old arm wrestle over drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is distressing. It blows my mind to think that we would want to tarnish one of the last great wilderness areas of our world, when it is home to some of our most beloved wildlife and a lifeline to the indigenous people. There is no other place like this in the world and I hope to one day be able to visit. More importantly, I hope that future generations will be able to see the refuge with the same awe and wonder that people of today are able to experience.

Sen. Murkowski needs to recognize that Alaskans value our nature and renewable resources. Rather than causing irreversible damage to our land for the limited and short-term gains of a phasing-out resource, we need to plan for the long term and look at the bigger picture. I believe that Alaska has the ability to be innovative and break the cycle of dependence on oil. Choosing oil is settling. Choosing oil is a cop out. We can do better.

— Su Chon
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@alaskadisp.atch.com.

ADVERTISEMENT