Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

Appreciates firemen

Jan. 18, 2008

To the editor:

I have been a volunteer at a local fire department for the last seven years and have just recently been unable to offer my free services to the community any longer. Volunteer firefighters and EMTs are the most selfless, caring, and diverse group of people with which I have ever had the pleasure to interact.

Several people have accused the Steese volunteers of being uncaring, teases and just plain poor neighbors. Volunteer firefighters are people with ordinary jobs, families, financial obligations and time commitments who choose helping you, their neighbors, as their hobby. While you may be out boating on Harding Lake in the summer, snowmachining in the White Mountains on winter weekends or having a beer at your local watering hole, they train, study and make themselves available to be there for your emergency — for free!

It has been suggested that the volunteers that day should have disregarded direct orders and suppressed the fire despite the chief’s orders. Every one of those firefighters would have been neck-deep in that fire left to his or her own devices, but that’s not how safe and effective fire departments operate. The fire ground, much like a war zone, is no place for contesting orders. If you want change, make constructive changes to policies, fire department funding and land zoning, but don’t attack volunteers.

Do you wait for an auto accident to purchase vehicle insurance or someone to die before buying life insurance? Fire suppression comes on a pre-pay basis, too.

Thank your volunteer firefighters!

Joy Beth Moser

Fairbanks

Hard news

Jan. 18, 2008

To the editor:

In response to Nicole Valentine’s Jan. 13 letter to the editor, I would personally rather not have any “community feel-good” items in the paper. I want more articles instead.

Mark Layer

Fairbanks

Our responsibility

Jan. 19, 2008

To the editor:

I am writing in response to Dermot Cole’s column on the Anchorage case of parental, and state abuse of two kids. It was an angering read at the least. Two kids born with cocaine in their systems and released to the mother to endure a childhood of neglect.

When the mother was too incapacitated, the kids were sent to the grandmother, who had drunken parties, where the kids were treated far worse than beaten dogs. The state knew parts of this and did little, and ultimately they were placed in foster care only to face evil in its ugliest form firsthand.

I can be mad at our state, surely they bear a responsibility here. The foster-care parent, sure. But being a Native man, I would feel a bit of shame. The birth parents are responsible. These are not acts that represent our culture as it was a generation ago. When the United States came to Alaska, Native people faced immediate change, and yes, we in many ways got a raw deal. There is a phrase, “digging in the dirt, find the places we got hurt.”

It is useless to look backward and cultivate our wounds; you can only look forward and let the wounds heal. When we stand up and love our children, protect them and give them at least better than we had, we have pride. Most Indian families would never let their kids be treated like dogs. It is the disproportionate few that stain all of us. If we concentrate on hating those that mistreated foster kids, we ignore the reasons those kids got into foster care in the first place.

We as a people need to recognize this. It may be that when we want to point our finger, we might point it in the mirror, and just think for a minute. Real Indian culture, real Indian values, spirit, pride and honor is completely absent when kids are given up. These ugly things are our problems to fix, not the state’s. Those kids are our future!

Kirt Demientieff

Fairbanks

Wolf dens

Jan. 19, 2008

To the editor:

Barbaric? What do you eat for supper? I saw an article that made me cheer like the Packers won the Super Bowl. A Native organization was asking for permission to resume an age-old practice of reducing the number of wolves in the area that they reside in, like they used to, before the modern age.

Key item: “It’s been done before,” it’s proven to work and the wolves are still here. How many wolves roam on a cattle ranch, where most of us get our meat from? The only critics that aren’t hypocrites are vegetarians, and even they wouldn’t put up with a chicken or duck in the greenhouse.

I have been here for 29 years and grew up in a village but still consider myself a newcomer and would never question the wisdom of an elder. Especially when it came to the skills and respect required to live off the land. My people have been here only a couple of hundred years and we still try to impose our beliefs on people who have been here for “oh my God” forever! And yet we want these people to eat cloned meat like that isn’t barbaric.

The next thing you know, I will have a Chia cow in the living room for next month’s eating. Eeew, that sounds sick. But maybe after they get it figured out, we can do that instead. Don’t worry, of course it will be made in China; wouldn’t want to scare anyone, would I?

Roy Bryant

Fairbanks

Sensible harvest

Jan. 21, 2008

To the editor:

Moose in Unit 20A and 20B are in dire need of sensible harvest laws that provide for the utilization of the moose harvest. The cumulative effect of how the Alaska Department of Fish and Game manages this resource is flawed.

On harvesting cows or calves: When a cow is taken and the calf is as young as 90 days old, it will not survive on its own. They will quit eating and remain within a few hundred feet of where its mother was killed, waiting for her to return. Within a few days, a predator will come by, and that is the end of the calf or calves. They do not get “adopted” by other moose and it is sad to observe the rapid decline of health and energy in only a few days. The department may want to revisit their policy and adopt Delta ADFG policy: “No person may take a calf or cow accompanied by a calf.”

Depletion of moose in easily accessible areas: ADFG has decimated the moose population in areas where generations of families have traditionally hunted and forced them to hunt different areas because of a lack of game. This is wrong and could have been avoided if the department had listened to a few of the 600-plus people who have signed petitions to stop the antlerless hunts. Anterless hunts in these depleted areas should be stopped immediately.

ADFG biologist Don Young has been quoted, “It’s a use it or lose it philosophy.” Since when have predators changed their eating habits just because there were less moose? The percent of predation increases as populations decline. Makes sense!

It is irresponsible for the ADFG to pursue an accelerated harvest objective that is questionable when they aren’t able to obtain a population census every year. It is little wonder that a large number of residents in the local area are out to change the way the local Advisory Committees and the ADFG handle the issues regarding moose harvest and the public.

John Giuchici

Fairbanks

Throw-away dogs

Jan. 21, 2008

To the editor:

Reporter Chris Freiberg of the News-Miner interviewed me on the day of the fire that burned our dog shed. He quoted me as saying “There are lots of dogs from the villages that are just throw-away dogs.” What was left out of the quote was that half of our dogs come from Fairbanks and the surrounding areas.

Thistledown, our animal refuge, is not alone in the cause of rescuing and rehabilitating all breeds of dogs in this state. There are many wonderful people devoting their time and resources to this cause.

One of Thistledown’s goals is to work to alleviate the problem in Alaska of sled dogs being viewed as throw-away or second-class dogs. Many sled dogs are taken to the pound, but many more are just killed. This is a problem whispered about, but we feel it needs to be brought to the headlines in order to improve conditions for all dogs.

All the rescue groups hope that collectively we’ll be able to bring more humane treatment to all dogs and all other domesticated animals. There are many we won’t be able to save, but every life we save and make better is something worth fighting for. There are many rescue groups in Fairbanks who need funds, and foster homes. I would encourage anyone in this state with compassion toward animals, to find out how they can help.

We’ve written an applause letter in detail for all who’ve helped us after this fire, but that may not be published for a while, so for now, thanks to our wonderful friends Olaf, Garret, Donny, Pete, Susan and the remarkable Sheri and Simone and their families, and to all the businesses who donated some of what we lost, and to the customers of the Dawg Wash who have offered help.

Kiki Stirling and Matt Zukas

Thistledown Animal Refuge

Fairbanks