Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

Mr. Boyd

Jan. 16, 2008

To the editor:

Shame on Harlen Boyd, his letter about how the firefighters did the ‘un-correct’ thing by making a tough decision and allowed the Callaways home to burn to the ground, speaks volumes about his true Alaska spirit.

His thinking represents the ’show-me-my-money,’ post PFD crowd.

His logic shows that he’s become a seasoned mouthpiece for the, ‘Ask not what I can do for Alaska, but what can Alaska do for me’, mentality. What is obvious is that he hasn’t become a true Alaskan in all of his years living in Alaska.

All that refuse to contribute to our volunteer firefighters are unconscionable, and immoral. Any real Fairbanksan of an earlier and present day would empty their pockets of much needed funding to help their fellow Alaskans, volunteer firefighters, and at the very least their own family to ensure that a mid-winter fire doesn’t consume their home and lives as well.

Alaskans by nature are good Samaritans. Anyone who would chose to not support our volunteer firefighters and live just across the border from salvation, and truly believe they are saving a few bucks in taxes are, well, more or less, playing with fire.

Rather than being an apologist and an appeaser to all those who choose to live on the fringe of society and community and participation, and taxes, I challenge Harlen Boyd to put down his poison pen and get out there in the community and convince his neighbors that a few lousy couple of hundred bucks in taxes a year is well worth the peace of mind that help will arrive in your time of need and another completely, easily and totally avoidable tragedy might never ever happen again.

My apologies to the Callaways,

Jeffrey A. Rogers

Ester

Alaska’s gas

Jan. 24, 2008

To the editor:

“Canada My Ass — It’s Alaska’s Gas”

Remember Palin’s photo op beneath that sign on the Steese during her “people” and “Alaska First” campaign.

Now, like a politician before her, she suffers from that horrid political malady, “In Office Amnesia.” I was beginning to have hope she might be spared. Unlike a predecessor “all bets are off … Cowper” whose suffering was immediate, perhaps, being female, her political immune system was able to stave off that illness for almost a year.

Selling of our nation, and now Alaska is rampant. Palin’s only acceptable pipeline application is through Canada, by a Canadian firm.

Our state and its people have been raped, ruined, and robbed of our oil resources. Is our gas next?

Canada is a friendly nation, our neighbors, good people, friendly people. Yet, that nation must look out for Canada. That is as it should be.

When will our leaders do the same for citizens of our state and nation? America is selling our country and our resources one piece at a time. As example, the ignorance of the governor or Indiana selling a 75-year lease of a federally funded highway, including all facilities on that roadway, to a foreign enterprise.

Make no mistake, Canada is a foreign nation. Our own government will soon require we have a visa to visit our capital by road, or drive to the Lower 48. Does anyone believe that once that pipeline and our gas reach the border that Alaska will have any say in the matter?

Betty Fahrenkamp had the right solution, the Great Alaska Oil Co., with every Alaskan as shareholder. Then, like the present, money of the Big Guys spoke louder than common sense. They bought our resources and now they, not Alaskans, run the show. Their recent media blitz failed.

Now it’s threats, coercion, and possibly a little more corruption in attempts to bully us to submission. Is it too late to think “outside of the box”? Can we take back our state, without worry if the door hits them in the fanny on the way out?

Betty Rollins

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