Editorial missed the big picture

To the editor,

On first reading the Friday, Sept. 4 editorial (“President missed the big picture”), I thought clearly this editorial writer had to be out of town when Obama was here. His piece reads like third party hearsay picked up at the local coffee shop absent any pertinent details of fact causing him to get it all wrong. He must have missed Sen. Dan Sullivan’s comment: “Denali belongs to Alaska and its residents. The naming rights already went to ancestors of the Alaska Native people. For decades, Alaskans and members of our congressional delegation have been fighting for Denali to be recognized by the federal government by its true name. I’m gratified that the president respected this.” Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s impassioned pleas from the floor of the U.S. Senate to allow Alaska its states rights to name its own mountain also seem not to have registered. Like an Alaskan newbie he doesn’t seem to know the decades long fight waged by Sen. Stevens against the Ohio delegation’s obstruction or the State of Alaska’s official petition to the U.S. government for this right in 1975. Contrary to this editor’s contention, the state has been clamoring loudly for this name restitution for 40 long years. This wasn’t Obama overreach. The real result is that the state of Alaska finally won its battle to exercise its states rights and got the government to concede.

Along with not getting the name change issue correct, the writer also missed the other things Obama put in motion, claiming that all he did was rename a mountain. What about the decision to accelerate construction of ice breaker capacity to facilitate commerce in the Arctic or his reinvigorating the Denali Commission, a policy long sought by Sen. Murkowski, to address villagers needs for plumbing infrastructure and affordable energy? Obama provided funding for both along with aid to villages needing to move before being washed into the sea. As to the tourist businesses that may have to paint new signs, I’ll wager they are not complaining about the over 100 percent increase in tourist inquiries due to Obama’s visit.

I hope going forward we are not going to be subjected to this kind of poorly disguised editorial spin that insults the intelligence of its readers by ignoring any pertinent fact that makes the truth inconvenient.

It isn’t the President that missed the big picture as this writer claims but the writer himself.

Marian Elliott

Wasilla