Letters To The Editor

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

New revolutionaries have old ways

Welcome home, Rep. George Nethercutt. The media have been calling you and your fellow freshmen Republican congressmen the new American revolutionaries.

You’ve taken on the job of eliminating the huge budget deficit run up during Ronald Reagan’s successful effort to end the Cold War. Yet your party’s rhetoric blames the huge debt on Franklin Roosevelt’s social engineering. Nice spin, George. A man who can chuck it so well deserves to be in the big show.

It’s an American revolutionary tradition, however, for the wealthy to avoid paying for the wars fought to protect their wealth. Remember the Boston Tea Party? King George had the unmitigated gall to charge the American colonies the expense of the French and Indian War.

This may lead one to ask about the expense of the first American Revolution. Why run up a bill to avoid a bill? Good old Alexander Hamilton passed out promissory notes to cover the debt. I’ve heard that idea passed around lately by some of the new revolutionaries, too. Joe Ficalora Spokane

Men good enough for rejoicing

Marlyn M. Lisalus’ letter about the “breakfast of champions” with Reps. George Nethercutt Jr. and Steve Largent is right on.

Due to the generosity of a friend, I was able to have my Wheaties and enjoy the company of some fine people. I even enjoyed talking to the protesters!

The Nethercutt family’s graciousness was especially impressive. They have sacrificed much by serving the people of Eastern Washington.

My pocketbook does not allow $1,000 for a football signed by a member of the Hall of Fame or $250 for a photo op, but my two grandsons do have signatures of two champions humbly given on an unopened cereal box.

Steve Largent made three succinct points:

Pray for our country.

Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.

Return George to the House of Representatives; he is a man of character and integrity.

If a man is known by the company he keeps, that says a lot for Reps. Nethercutt and Largent, both true statesmen.

An ancient saying from the Book of Wisdom says, “With good men in authority, the people rejoice.” So let it be written, so let it be done. Donna Kuhn Spokane

Republicans not new on the scene

Republicans should get their facts straight. Stephen A. Taylor, vice chairman of the Spokane Area Young Republicans (Letters, Aug. 16) writes, “Help keep the momentum going so we can take back the future which was stolen from us during 40 years of Democratic control.

What years is he writing about?

From 1956 to 1996 we have had 24 years of Republican presidents: Bush, Reagan, Nixon, Ford and Eisenhower. During Reagan’s eight years, Republicans controlled the Senate for six years. During President Clinton’s term, we’re getting two years of a Republican Senate and House.

If we take years 1952 to 1992, we have had 28 years of Republican presidents. From 1932 to 1952 we had Roosevelt and then Truman, whom Republicans now consider their hero. Truman had a Republican Congress. From 1920 to 1932, we had Republican presidents Harding, Coolidge and Hoover, and the terrible Great Depression. Scott Rohwer Spokane

GOP, or Grand Old Payoff

Apparently Young Republican Stephen Taylor (Letters, Aug. 16) isn’t familiar with the history of the GOP.

Who, after World War I, via successive Republican administrations serving big business, created the Great Depression of 1929? Franklin D. Roosevelt came to their rescue with all of the present standards of business that made us into the greatest superpower in the world: the WPA that rebuilt the nation’s dams, highways, roads, national parks; rural electrification, the Federal Reserve Act, the 40-hour work week, Social Security, Medicare and school programs.

That big national debt originated in President Reagan’s first six years. He, with a Republican Senate, almost quadrupled the deficit he inherited from Jimmy Carter, mainly by eliminating the country’s tax base. He lowered the top 10 percent’s taxes from over 73 percent (marginal rate) to 38 percent while raising the middle and lower brackets’ taxes.

Social Security would be self-supporting today if Eisenhower hadn’t borrowed funds that weren’t repaid.

How did the nation’s top 7 percent get to own 93 percent of the wealth - the same ones Dole, Gramm, Nethercutt, Gingrich, etc., are cutting taxes for? The same industry owners for whom these members of Congress are eliminating pollution controls, food inspections and OSHA controls that protect the workers who remain after shipping our industries overseas, making us a service rather than a manufacturing nation?

Mr. Taylor, if you or any of your fellow GOP dreamers are making less than $200,000 a year and vote Republican, you have champagne tastes with beer pocketbooks. You’re just one of us 93 percent who own only the other 7 percent. Jim Halterman Spokane

Many rich folks among

Democrats Democrats for many years have stridently claimed theirs is the party of the poor, with sympathy, compassion, understanding and love for all people; “I feel your pain.”

Republicans are depicted as the mean-spirited party of the rich who take from the poor and give to the rich.

The facts are that the Democrats have also become the party of the rich.

President Clinton’s cabinet has had more millionaires in it than any cabinet in the history of this country.

Nine of the 14 richest members of Congress are Democrats. This includes Sen. Bob Kerry, who just married a woman worth $700 million.

The largest group of super-rich millionaires in this country is 80 percent Democrats. This is the entertainment industry and includes movie and television actors and actresses, rock stars, movie and TV producers, financiers of the above, professional athletes and limousine liberals. Their incomes range from $1 million a year to $140 million for Bill Cosby.

I have heard Republicans on the floor of Congress called mean-spirited, sadistic and vultures.

Is this the true voice of the compassionate Democrat? John Stuecker Wallace, Idaho

Keep people’s land federal

For millions of ordinary citizens and families, camping, hiking, fishing and other forms of recreation in our national lands form the most memorable and pleasant days of our lives. I have always found the government employees associated therewith to be very courteous, helpful and conscientious.

Now, some with devious, selfish motives would destroy this invaluable resource of all the people by inducing the federal government to give our lands to the individual states to do with as they like - to exploit, sell off and set up 50 different sets of regulations. It’s difficult to imagine anything more divisive and destructive to national unity.

A major objective of the states’ righters and those of the so-called sagebrush rebellion is, of course, to gain private ownership of the most desirable - and most valuable - federal lands. That can be most easily accomplished under state ownership. It’s a land grab with enormous possibilities for easy wealth.

To be sure, under private ownership there would be a considerable charge for entry for camping, fishing, hunting, etc., if such were allowed at all. Money would be paid to the private owners. The average guy, the hardworking peon, would be kept out for all time to come from these lands of his and her birthright and heritage. Charles M. Wolfe Coeur d’Alene

Alarms, yes; false, no

Environmentalists were dealt a low blow when President Clinton signed the salvage logging bill. While they were down, David Oliveria’s editorial of Sept. 8 added a lower blow when he described environmentalists as “quick to cry wolf” and sounding “false alarms.”

With cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, watchdogs will definitely be required to scrutinize the effects of the weakened and toothless logging laws. But who will do this? Doesn’t he know that when laws protecting fish, wildlife and clear streams are eliminated, we all lose?

Would David Oliveria say that Rachel Carson was sending out false alarms and crying wolf in her book, “Silent Spring,” when she fought the large chemical companies to protect us from their deadly pesticides and herbicides? This is exactly what she was criticized for at the time by self-serving business interests who had no regard for the effects of their activities upon the environment.

On another subject, I want to applaud Frank Bartel’s column of Aug. 13 (“Anti-business backlash could hurt GOP”) for telling it like it is under the Republican majority in Congress. The whole country is whining, but here is a man who is not wearing blinders.

It behooves all of us, especially responsible editorial writers, to keep an open mind and to understand what is actually happening in the real world. Emanuel Scherr Coeur d’Alene

Oligarchy, anyone?

It seems that lately our “new” Congress can only think in terms of sell this, sell that, privatize this and privatize that. Down with the federal government; give everything back to the states.

I’d like to dismantle it a step further. Let’s divide the United States into six voting zones, with one member of each party in each zone. With these 12 members our new Congress would be formed. Give all the other Congress people pink slips.

Think of the money saved on salaries, perks and retirements. Sounds like good sense to me. Who needs ‘em? Delores McLendon Spokane > GUNS AND POLITICS

Has next election in the crosshairs

No doubt the chilling irony is lost on him. I refer to our congressional representative, George Nethercutt, the National Rifle Association’s semi-official spokesman, who shows up in town for his re-election campaign kickoff folderol at the exact time two local girls are murdered by a teenager who slays his victims with a semiautomatic weapon.

This weapon, argues our congressman in behalf of his politically-critical, gun-toting constituency, should not be subject to federal regulation.

But here’s the rub: Congressman Nethercutt is doing no less than he promised. Remember, he said we didn’t need a speaker, just a listener. He is proving to be that - in spades.

Just ask the NRA. Barre McNeil Spokane

Gun rights on edge of slippery slope

I was surprised and gratified to see Francis Mancini’s commentary, “Anti-gun physicians just propagandists,” (Aug. 6).

Mancini makes the very valid point that gun control advocates do not hesitate to use dishonest statistics to further their agenda.

Those who favor controlling or eliminating guns in private hands, however, don’t limit themselves to the use of bogus numbers. They also assert that the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution refers to a right of the states to maintain the national guard, rather than to an individual right vested in each citizen. That this is not the case is easily shown by consulting the words of the founding fathers:

“Americans (have) the right and advantage of being armed - unlike citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.” - James Madison

“The great object is that every man be armed.” - Patrick Henry

“Horrid mischief would ensue were one half the world deprived of the use of them (arms) … the weak will become a prey to the strong.” - Thomas Paine

There are those who believe that even if the Second Amendment does refer to an individual right, it is an anachronism in today’s world. They are naive.

If we eviscerate one of the first 10 amendments to the Constitution, none of them is immune to tampering. We will sooner or later find ourselves in a world where searches and seizures can be done whimsically, where we have no right to avoid self-incrimination, where we are guilty until proven innocent and where freedom of speech is only a memory. Bruce Thomas Ephrata, Wash.

CONFERENCE ON WOMEN

China is the wrong venue

From Aug. 30 to Sept. 15, the Fourth United Nations World Conference on Women will be held in Beijing, China. The United States will send delegates and support a share of the costs.

It seems ironic the same nation that forces women to have abortions if they have more than one child and also murders tens of thousands of female infants would have a conference on the betterment of women. The Chinese communists also reportedly execute young prisoners and “harvest” their organs at black market prices to Westerners desperate for them.

I wonder why we in the U.S. support this conference. When you look at who our delegates are, you can understand some of it. Hillary Clinton may be the chairperson to lead the American delegation, along with Bella Abzug and her cronies, liberal feminists (including Planned Parenthood), homosexual activists and politicians who would spend our tax dollars on such garbage.

These people don’t represent me, nor do they represent the majority of Americans. I hope we’re waking up to what these people are doing, If we don’t, we’ll become another China. We ‘re on our way. Diane Blume Colville

Writer wrong about conference

What a narrow-minded view of the Republican opposition to attending the U.N. World Conference on Women in China (“Be honest about right-wing meddling,” Region, commentary, Aug. 5 ). Glenda Holste would have us believe the only reason for objections is the infringement of rights of a man named Harry Wu. Not so.

Do you know what goes on in China? This is the country that kills its infant girls and drags women to have forced abortions because the pregnancy wasn’t approved by the Chinese government; the country which harvests and sells the organs of executed prisoners; the country that cannibalizes human fetuses.

Ms. Holste didn’t tell us about the U.N. documentation to be discussed in Beijing. (No surprise there.) In this documentation, marriage is the evil stalking women of the world. In this document there’s absolutely no difference between men and women; that’s an “idea” which has been “taught” to us by culture and religion.

Maybe Ms. Holste should be honest about left-wing meddling! Rebecca Bishop Mead

OTHER TOPICS

War heroes still doing their best

Your Aug. 13 story “Freedom Fighters” reminded us all this great nation of ours still represents a diverse blend of ordinary people - neighbors, friends and family - forced to endure great misery, but persevering and making great sacrifices.

My father was a communications officer in the Army in the war. I’ve worked with several veterans of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the most highly decorated unit in the U.S. military. Each man is a hero. Even after demonstrating courage in battle, they faced tremendous odds after the war, at home.

Even today, they demonstrate tremendous devotion to their families, their communities and this nation. At a time when so few are willing to assume personal responsibility, these Japanese Americans continue to represent the best of what this nation represents. John K. Iki Spokane

Keller had Suicide Race first

Over the years I’ve heard about the great Suicide Race held each year at Omak. They were not the first to prove how racing down a mountain is a good way to get you and your horse’s neck broken.

There used to be a big celebration held each year at Keller, Wash. I believe they called it Salmon Days. It was two or three days of rodeos, bar fights and the suicide race. This was straight down the mountain into a river and I believe it must have been passed on to Omak when they raised the Columbia River. To a 9-year-old boy it was an exciting time in a town that lived it up during Salmon Days. But Keller had it first. Bill McDonald Spokane