Care packages from home greatly appreciated by U.S. soldiers in Iraq

Some of our soldiers' families at home are living in near-poverty conditions and are on food stamps. Veterans are panhandling for money on the streets of America while fat-cat war profiteers reap billions of dollars. Send our troops home now.

Until then, if you know any soldiers in Iraq, send them food, beverages, baby wipes and non-aerosol bug spray. They have been there nearly six months and are still eating those horrendous MREs. There are no stores or commissaries there. Send your packages in small boxes that will fit into a mail bag and itemize for customs. The soldiers will greatly appreciate your care packages. If you can afford to, send disposable cameras, plastic bags, tobacco and pain relief cream.

It cost me $80 to mail three small boxes.

-- Daniel Wilson

Anchorage

Let's avoid Permanent Fund raids, state taxes with legalized gambling

Everyone who wants a state sales tax, raise your hand. Everyone who wants a state income tax, raise your hand. Everyone who wants the Permanent Fund raided to support state government, raise your hand.

My guess is that you won't see a whole bunch of hands in the air. And the fact of the matter is that there is an alternative to these punitive measures. Legalized gambling is an entirely voluntary method of supporting our state. Nobody is forced to gamble. The moral objection to legalized gambling is debatable since there already exists some state-sanctioned gambling (pull-tabs, bingo) and easily accessed Internet site gambling. You will not stop anyone from gambling by keeping a legal lottery or legal electronic gambling out of this state.

As far as addiction is concerned, the state taxes alcohol and tobacco sales, and these substances result in physical addictions far worse and far more numerous than the mental addiction to gambling of a small percentage of the population. I would suggest that if our state legislators want to stand on high moral ground, they get out of the tobacco and alcohol business.

Legalized gambling will bring much needed revenue into state government without punishing the general population, and that is the bottom line.

-- Joe D'Elia

Kodiak

Media reports aside, U.S. efforts in Iraq are going reasonably well

To hear the media, the war in Iraq is going horribly, with Iraq's population in near riot. Certainly there are problems that we all pray discontinue, but there are numerous signs that the war objectives are being met and things are going well. Saddam is powerless to intimidate and harm his people and threaten neighbors. Saddam is no longer in power to develop weapons programs that he has used, admits that he had and never accounted for. He can no longer harbor terrorist groups and sponsor suicide bombers that kill innocent women and children at cafés, in buses and at weddings.

Polls show nearly 80 percent of Iraq's population is glad that coalition forces arrived. Iraqi infrastructure is being rapidly rebuilt, with schools, hospitals and utilities. A marketplace is beginning to thrive. After a fact-finding trip to Iraq, House Democrat Jim Marshall of Georgia felt the reconstruction was going "much better than the media portrays."

While lives lost are painful, the war in Iraq has cost far less than a thousand American lives, which is remarkable considering the tasks at hand. The opportunity to help a free nation develop in the region will not be easy, but if successful it will be invaluable.

-- Nick Smith

Anchorage

Grower of the great pumpkin ought to lighten up on cabbage contestant

I would like to address comments made by Mr. Schroer concerning the "travesty" of the cabbage contest, "That 340-pound pumpkin was no mutant; cabbage contest a charade," (Sept. 24). While not mentioning names, clearly he is speaking of the Dinkel family. Living next to the property on which Seth Dinkel raises his cabbages, I am in a position to set the facts straight.

Seth works hard all summer on the family farm. When growing a giant cabbage, he plants the seeds and cares for the plants in the greenhouse. When the ground is ready, his father tills the ground with the tractor and together they lay plastic. Seth then takes care of transplanting, watering, fertilizing and caring for the plants until the big day. He and his father cut the cabbages and bring them in for weighing. He is doing the same tasks that I am sure Mr. Schroer is doing for his pumpkins, except for those that are too heavy or dangerous for a kid Seth's size.

Mr. Schroer is understandably upset if the reporter had disparaging remarks about his truly impressive pumpkin. However, that's no excuse for discrediting this family and, more specifically, these kids.

If Mr. Schroer chooses not to participate in the contests, that is his choice, but calling them a "charade" is a "travesty" of his own making.

-- Michael Foster

Wasilla

State and municipal government spending doesn't reflect deficits

I refuse to believe that there is a deficit in either the state of Alaska or the Municipality of Anchorage budgets.

Why would I not believe that there is a shortage? Two reasons:

First, the state continues to support two capital cities. The capital is in Anchorage. If you don't believe it, look in the blue pages of the phone book and you will find many state agencies have offices in Anchorage, including offices of the Legislature.

Second, the municipality recently spent a considerable sum in labor and equipment to clear-cut many trees in Bicentennial Park for, of all things, a sporting facility. What will they build next, a bowling alley, a skating rink?

When the politicians quit wasting the money they have taken from us, I will believe that we have a budget deficit.

However, politicians now want to increase taxes and raid the Permanent Fund. There is no end to their desire for your money and mine. Let us now resolve to elect only politicians who pledge to refrain from spending the people's money on issues other than to protect the lives and property from harm by another.

Where do we find such people? They are the members of the Libertarian Party who are pledged to protect your person and property from theft by government.

-- Michael K. Mitchell

Anchorage

It's time to get off the entitlement mentality and phase out dividend

We know the state needs more revenue. For me, it is economic nonsense to have one group of state employees paying out Permanent Fund dividends while another group of state employees collects future taxes (sales or state income or other).

Let's get off this entitlement mentality and get rid of the dividend. If we have to phase it out, fine. Next year $250 sounds like a good number, and the following year it could be zero.

For those who promote the Permanent Fund as a desirable component of social engineering, or fairness, I believe the state of Alaska already has enough vehicles for that.

-- Rob Lapham

Anchorage

Is war in Iraq worth cost? Depends on how you tally price of freedom

In response to Mr. Felton's letter "Iraq war will cost every U.S. citizen $568 -- were the results worth it?" (Sept. 18). Well, I ask, can you really put a price on freedom? Should Congress not allocate $87 billion for the rebuilding of Iraq and ongoing war effort because our freedom isn't worth it? I, for one, think that they should.

I am a military spouse. When my husband goes overseas to fight and protect the rights of every person in America and everything America stands for, is that worth it? The men and women who have been wounded and others who have died fighting the war, are they worth it? If we give up now, if we back down, were some crippled for nothing? Did some die for nothing? Shouldn't we carry things through?

War costs money. We all know that. You have to pay for the might, you have to pay for the fight and you have to pay for the plight in rebuilding what has been destroyed.

So yes, I will gladly pay the $568 you allocated with your aged calculator. I will gladly pay for the freedom that our government is trying to preserve.

-- Lori Hall

Anchorage

Permanent Fund dividend program isn't broken, so let's leave it alone

The new plan to let the state get its hands on your Permanent Fund dividend is very slick. They make it sound like they are protecting the fund. But ask yourself this: Why should they need this money? They already get the better part of our oil money now.

This is to get their hands on the rest of it.

Once they get this endowment they can keep using more and more for state spending until none is left for your Permanent Fund dividend. The way the fund is set up now has worked very well.

If it is not broke, don't fix it; leave it alone.

-- Murry Gasque