Why ruin a good thing?

To the editor:

Last month, Bloomberg Buisnessweek validated my recent decision to move to Alaska by featuring Palmer as one of the best places in the country to raise children. Mountains, salmon, local farms, clean water and world-class winter sports help frame a quality of life that is hard to come by in a country that has so quickly been consumed by parking lots and malls.

That is why I am alarmed to discover that the Mat-Su Borough is eagerly and heedlessly pursuing dirty open-pit coal mines just upwind from this growing community. The Usibellis don’t appear to acknowledge, or possibly they don’t understand, that there are thousands of people — thousands of children — just two miles downwind of their proposed Wishbone Hill Mine site and all along their proposed transportation route. That’s not very neighborly.

As if colonization wasn’t recent enough for the indigenous people of this state, Usibelli has built the access road for the Wishbone Hill coal mine across from Chickaloon Village Traditional Council’s Ya Ne Da Ah Tribal School, jeopardizing the health and wellbeing of innocent children. Did Bloomberg Buisnessweek consider the threat to these kids?

I’m 26 years old with no immediate plans for having children, but I am looking forward to raising a family that simply values respect for human health and wellbeing. With toxic coal mines so close, I would be critical of Bloomberg’s advocacy for Palmer as place to raise children. Why ruin a good thing?

Brandon Hill

Palmer