Letters To The Editor

Mon., April 3, 1995

IN THE SCHOOLS

Students being brainwashed

The March 29 article regarding “” delivering an environmental consciousness demonstration to school students is a case in point why I send my child to a private school. Not only is he learning fundamental knowledge, he isn’t being brainwashed by minority groups who think their cause is the only one that will save this earth.

Ten kids who have the audacity to think they can help save the planet by reaching young, impressionable minds are continuing unchecked by any parent of those students. Was there a parental review of their message? At least I have a say as to what information or misinformation my young child is subjected to. Public schools used to be that way.

By the way, I have a combined income under $30,000, pay real estate taxes to support public schools and pay for private schooling. It’s a choice. E.L. Pool Spokane

Keep left-wingers out of schools

I was shocked to read in the March 29 Region section that some of our public schools are permitting radical groups to come in and inculcate our children with their left-wing political agenda.

It is unconscionable that this group of tree-huggers can come into our schools and encourage our children to boycott Mitsubishi and become vegetarians and who knows what else - all based on pseudoscience theories created by scientists who need federal grants to stay employed.

It is interesting to note that the assembly at Lewis & Clark was defended as being optional, but the Wilson Elementary students were a captive audience without the mental capabilities to resist such demagoguery. The older kids, it appears, are not immune either. Ninthgrader Robin Davidson now wants to be a vegetarian and 10th-grader Ben Sanders was “inspired” simply because the performers were the same age as himself.

School officials, be forewarned. If my child has to endure this kind of political proselytizing you will have at least one very angry parent banging on your doors.

By the way, boycotts can work both ways. No more trips to Baskin & Robbins for our family, and the next stereo we buy will be made by Mitsubishi. Sam Cathcart Spokane

Guns, drugs don’t belong in school

Guns, drugs and school just don’t mix. Do we need to have a metal detector at the door? Do we really have to have everyone checked before they walk through the doors in the morning? Why aren’t the parents teaching their own children about how guns and drugs just don’t mix with school? Why are the schools the ones taking on the responsibility of teaching the students about guns and drugs?

In the small school I attend there have been two incidents with a gun or a knife. What is it like in larger schools? Are their problems bigger? Where are the parents? Do they know what their child is doing? In some cases, they don’t.

With all of the guns and drugs it’s only taking away from everyone’s education. What could we learn from this that will help us in the future? What is this showing younger children who see a 15-year-old bringing - or even selling - guns or drugs? They may think, “Well, if he can do that, then I must be able to.” Are the parents telling their children that is wrong? Are the parents telling them what would happen to them if they ever did that?

I think that if a child does bring a weapon or drugs to school then the child should be sent home, but only if a parent comes and gets the child. If not, then the school should have a higher authority, such as the local police, take the child from school. Christy Ely Valley, Wash.

Sex education belongs in schools

I am a junior at Mary Walker High School and I’m extremely concerned about the issue of having birth control within schools. Parents and school boards have got to realize that this is the future and it’s time to focus on the reality that teenagers are going to have sex regardless of strict and smart parenting, or being well educated on the subject. Wouldn’t it be preferred to help a teenager have safe sex than telling them no and having them get pregnant or hurt by a sexually transmitted disease?

Teenagers having abortions would decrease tremendously if birth control were available to them. The future percentages of AIDS and other lifethreatening diseases would definitely decrease if young adults were comfortable about using and discussing birth control methods with older siblings, friends or teachers.

Teenagers won’t be able to do this alone until something is done to help them and make them aware of the dangers of having unprotected sex, to lower the chances of pregnancy or STD that could affect their future forever.

Please consider birth control in schools for the young ones you love and help save possibly your son or daughter from acquiring a deadly disease, or save another child from being aborted. Cassie Kiele Elk

GOVERNMENT

Don’t let officials skirt laws

Specific laws and procedures governing the hiring of employees, the letting of contracts and the purchasing of goods are there to protect us taxpayers from fraud and private dealing.

When an effort is made to weaken or skirt such laws and procedures, such as appears to have recently happened in the creating of private non-profit corporation to run cop shops and hire a given individual and avoid the normal open and competitive process, a red flag should go up.

Without such laws and procedures, nothing exists to prevent the taking of our property through the taxing process for private gain. The way is then clear to the privatization of government at taxpayers’ expense. Organized crime through corporate fronts could easily recognize the opportunity.

We as citizens need to be alert. We need to communicate to our elected officials that we expect them to keep strong and uphold the procedures which require openness and accountability in government. We need to show that we are aware and that we do care. Jim Guyor Spokane

Serving the ‘elected’ dictators

For any issue, a politician cannot represent even two citizens who have different views, much less represent an entire constituency. They can only represent minorities or the majority. Our Constitution requires justice. Justice cannot exist without equality. And equality does not exist without majority rule.

Thomas Jefferson said that unless the government is the slave of the people, the people will be slaves of the government.

Politicians have given the majority taxation without representation. They’ve given representation without taxation to minorities and even to foreigners. They practice selective over-taxation followed by selective under-distribution.

For the majority, they approach providing infinitesimal services at infinite cost. They reject their responsibility to coin and value money and are causing the movement of the majority into ownerless poverty. They avoid basing law on religious morality, when it suits them, by claiming “separation of church and state.”

Criminals are punished with unearned total support by taking benefits from the victims and innocent majority who earned them.

They burden the majority with fighting and financing foreigners’ wars and peace for them. They arm allies, enemies and others while disarming Americans. They’ve forced the majority into second-class citizenship, at best, by dividing our house into privileged classes that are based upon personal wealth, political affiliation, ancestry, age, gender, orientation, etc.

Under minority rule, all citizens serve their “elected” dictators in a United States Socialist Republic. Under majority rule, the United States of America is a democratic republic where the only servants are politicians and the majority is their master. David L. King Coulee Dam, Wash.

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