I just reread Alexander Lee’s commentary of Friday, Nov. 6. (“Stop calling a progressive agenda anti-Alaskan”). This column should be required reading for every resident of Alaska, especially our congressional delegation and state legislators.
Like professor Lee, I am not a Republican or a Democrat, and I am tired of partisan politics. And, like a number of ADN readers who have written to object to the newspaper’s endorsements of Sen. Dan Sullivan and Congressman Don Young, I too considered canceling my subscription. The assumption that only Republican politicians know what is best for Alaska is absurd and insulting to the thousands of Alaskans who have different ideas about what living here means and what matters. Many of us don’t believe that fossil fuel extraction is our only hope for the future, that we need to build access roads at public expense for the benefit of Canadian mining companies, or that it makes sense to clear-cut old growth timber in the Tongass National Forest.
Thousands of Alaskans don’t have a “D” or an “R” beside their names on their voter cards, but that doesn’t mean their votes don’t count or that they don’t care about what’s best for Alaska. Until we can manage to have respectful dialogue that acknowledges and deals with our differences we can’t possibly confront the serious issues facing Alaska.
— Connie Nuss
Wasilla
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