Letters To The Editor

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Retain Davis-Bacon Act

Sen. Nancy Kassebaum, R-Kan., has introduced a bill (S141) to repeal the federal Davis-Bacon Act. She has 14 co-sponsors to this bill, all Republicans, including Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho.

The Federal Davis-Bacon Act was enacted in 1931 to protect the rights of workers on all federally funded jobs. One of those rights is the prevailing wage law. This law takes wages out of the bidding process and helps maintain a livable hourly wage for all construction workers.

I’ve always been proud to tell people I’m a carpenter, but it gets tougher every year for us craftsmen to support our families. Construction workers had more purchasing power 10 years ago than they do today, while working the same amount of hours.

I strongly urge all construction workers in Eastern Washington and North Idaho, union and nonunion, to contact their U.S. senators and representatives to Congress and mandate they vote against any repeal of the Federal Davis-Bacon Act. Thomas J. Flynn Spokane

Weapons ban protesters shabby

This voter thought President Clinton’s speech to be a very good one. A little lengthy, maybe, but what would you cut? Health care?

But the real reason I write is to ask, what elected representatives would dare to walk out of the middle of the State of the Union Address as our elected chief executive explained his views on the assault weapons ban?

Those people were making a deliberate and wellorchestrated statement. The TV cameras should have zoomed in on each one of them as they walked out of the chamber. I want to know who these people are, who are sworn to uphold the laws of the land - these lawbreakers, not lawmakers. M.H. Fowler Spokane

Here’s who to thank, folks

Regarding Fairchild Air Force Base: I remind the voters of the 5th Congressional District that they shot themselves in the foot when they failed to re-elect Tom Foley. Henry J. Procter Spokane

Privatizing CPB would be mistake

Over the years, public television and radio have enriched my life and the lives of my children and students in countless ways. These few words cannot adequately express how I would miss public broadcasting.

Although it has been claimed that privatization would step in and life would continue for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting unchanged, I fear that wouldn’t be so.

I recently visited the Barnes & Noble book store in Seattle, a lovely business in which I have spent some pleasant time and some money. I can afford to do that occasionally to add literature to my private library. Many of my students cannot. I encourage them to use the public library where they can access books, music, films and art.

For though Barnes & Noble looks and feels like a public library, it doesn’t provide the same service and it expects commercial compensation.

So it would be should our CPB services be lost. No longer would radio and television programs be available to all over cost-free broadcast waves. Such a loss couldn’t easily be replaced.

I hope this financial belt-tightening effort will be discarded. I pray that congressional decision makers will not move so hastily to satisfy the more predatory portions of our society who level claims against CPB as a propaganda machine pandering to some mythical elite.

It’s been my experience that public broadcasting is balanced and deep. These media aren’t constrained by superficial sound bite parameters the way commercial broadcasters are.

If this public service is sacrificed, can public libraries, museums, hospitals and even schools be far behind? Sigrid A. Brannan, principle Otis Orchards Elementary School

THE MEDIA

Not just another pretty sound

This is in response to Jim Kershner’s piece on the Spokane radio market, “Velvet-voiced crooners give talk radio a licking” (Entertainment, Jan. 29).

While I agree that the music we play on Q59 is its major calling card, I would like to point out that this radio station does more than be just a big jukebox for older folks. We make more than just a surface effort to give people the news of the day.

I am the recipient of five Associated Press broadcast news awards in the past two years. Two of those were national recognition awards for outstanding contributions to the AP news report. The people at this radio station, program director and morning man Barry Watkins, myself, farm reporter Wey Simpson and afternoon guy Gary Charles, all make concerted efforts to relate to our audience in a way that makes them feel like they’re participating in what we do. They identify with us as friends, not just talkers who come across as know-it-all journalists who have to spoon-feed their audience so that they, too, can join the enlightened elite.

Radio is still primarily an entertainment medium. Our success should put a dent in AM radio station managers who long ago gave up on music formats because they felt they couldn’t compete against FM. Put a quality product on the air and the people will tune in.

Thanks to all the great people of the Inland Northwest who listen every day to our station. You are the reason for our success. Steve Nelson, news director KAQQ Radio, Spokane

Kershner piece earns him no stripes

Many of the observations that Jim Kershner makes in his weekly Bottom Lines column are quite good and he has found some interesting and humorous absurdities in our government.

But his cute handling of the Enola Gay exhibit controversy was offensive to me and I would expect it was also offensive to practically every other veteran.

Before Kershner ever engages in any further news on World War II, hopefully, he will learn true history, which the American Legion could ably provide. The rewritten history which his employer is known to profess is an insult to those who know and those who need to be taught about history.

By the way, on Dec. 7, The Spokesman-Review was careful to avoid any stories about some events that happened on that day a few years back. Fortunately, we had courageous and decisive leadership, together with military might in 1945 and the Enola Gay safely and successfully flew her mission. At that time, Americans knew the horrible price that was paid at such places as Iwo Jima, and that cannot be underestimated or forgotten.

Kershner sarcastically suggests that the exhibit should be titled, “The day they got what they deserved.” He would really be surprised at how popular his suggestion would be among loyal patriotic Americans. Gordon Landberg Spokane

Photographs were not biased

I am commenting on a letter of Jan. 29 about pictures subverting fairness of (coverage of) the abortion marches. The person said the words were balanced but the pictures were not.

I did not read the words but I saw the pictures. I couldn’t tell from them which side they were on. The pictures did not slant the articles. Julie Rosenoff Spokane

Good cartoon but unfair to actors

I would like to congratulate Milt Priggee on his Dumb & Dumber cartoon of Jan. 28. I found it to be very accurate and quite entertaining.

The only problem that I had with it is that I don’t think Jim Carrey or Jeff Daniels deserve to be insulted that way. They were just acting the part, not living it. Michael E. Tobin Spokane

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

Abortion foes, adopt those babies

Aren’t we all sick to the max of the abortion conflict? I offer a reasonable solution.

For women who would prefer birth over abortion but who can’t afford the pregnancy for any number of reasons, I suggest that the anti-abortion camp become a pool of adoptive parents. It is high time the antiabortionists put their money, lives and substance as humanity where their mouths are. Here’s how it would work:

1. Anti-abortionists enroll their membership as adoptive parents for pregnant women who choose birth over abortion.

2. A pregnant woman becomes an anonymous number to a corresponding anti-abortionist, who will pay for all loss of wages, housing, medical expenses, etc., as needed for that woman through delivery.

3. At birth, the sponsored child, regardless of sex, race or physical condition, will be taken home by the new parent and raised to adulthood. No reneging, no picking or choosing. Remember, it was important to you to save an unborn life and you refused another woman’s right of choice. You interfered with another soul’s primary right to personal linear destiny.

You now have the responsibility to take on the burden that belonged to another, be it good or ill. Here’s your chance to save a life, which I understand is the thrust of your movement, and you won’t have to murder medical personnel. You won’t have murder on your collective conscience. Since a human life has been “saved,” it is, therefore, a perfect moral solution.

Any takers? Claire Barron Coeur d’Alene

No single answer is always right

I am writing on the abortion issue raised in the Jan. 23 Spokesman-Review.

To those narrow-minded anti-abortionists: Please open your eyes and see that not every woman in this society is turning to abortion as a form of birth control. Do you men and women who are against abortions have a steady income and a steady home? Are you also against those on welfare?

If abortion becomes illegal, unwanted pregnancies will result in an increase in welfare population. What are you going to say when the welfare population increases?

Put yourself in the position of someone who has become pregnant as a result of being raped, or even a child who is still supported by her parents. In many cases, the girl is not even old enough to get a part-time job to support her baby, let alone support herself.

For the women who abort every time they get pregnant, let’s educate them to alternative forms of birth control. But don’t deprive women of their right to make the choice of not only their well-being but also for the wellbeing of their unborn fetus. Lorraina Smith Spokane

Convenience killing terrible trend

Abortion is the ultimate form of violence because it takes life from those who are absolutely defenseless.

So I was greatly dismayed to read those letters from so many women who’d had abortions and didn’t have the slightest regret (Perspective, Jan. 22). I hope and pray that their family members don’t write similar letters about them in the future that read something like this:

I was in my late 40s when my mother became very ill. I was a top performer in my company and my career meant a lot to me. I worked hard to get to that point. I never wanted to take care of my ailing mother and I am not a good caregiver. To be quite frank, having to take care of her would have been a terrible imposition. The timing was absolutely horrible, besides which I believe there is no such thing as right and wrong, only what feels right to me. So I killed her. I did not and have not since shed one tear.

My mother used to say, “As the woman goes, so goes the nation.” If we can kill babies without so much as a tear, we can kill other people when they’re too old or disabled or ugly or nonproductive. Oregon has already passed a law that allows it, and this is not a good sign for the future of this country. Marilyn Hunt Post Falls

MAN AND THE ANIMALS

Rodeos abusive to animals

The rodeo is coming to town. Here are a few facts you should know:

Animals used in rodeos are not aggressive by nature. They are physically provoked into displaying wild behavior. Electric prods, sharp picks, caustic ointments and other painful devises are used on them. Bulls and horses are made to buck by using a tight bucking strap that squeezes the abdomen or pinches the groin and genitals.

Animals in rodeos are treated so roughly that serious injuries such as broken legs and internal organ bruising are common. In calf roping, the young animals, running up to 27 mph, often sustain neck and back injuries, bruising and internal bleeding.

The few laws that regulate rodeos are designed to protect human participants and do not prevent injuries to the animals.

When their bodies are so damaged they can no longer perform, rodeo animals are sent to the slaughterhouse.

We can certainly find a less cruel way to entertain ourselves. Join me in boycotting rodeo. Deanna Knudsen Spokane

Wolf introduction experts aren’t

The (Jan. 14) “Calvin and Hobbes” strip appearing, coincidentally, with the report of the introduction of wolves to the Northwest was very appropriate.

When Calvin states, “I’ll dedicate my life to the proposition that man can reshape the universe according to his own whims,” and Hobbes replies, “You want to play God?” it epitomizes the elitist attitude displayed by Renee Askins (founder of The Wolf Fund) and all those other citified “environmentalists”’ supporting the introduction of wolves.

Regardless of the preponderance of evidence to the contrary by genuine experts whose careers are dedicated to the study of wolves - men such as L. David Mech, a wildlife research biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who has devoted the past 20 years to full-time study of wolves; and Stanley P. Young and E.A. Goldman, former senior biologists of that service who collaborated on the seminal book “The Wolves of North America,” and whose experiences indicate the fallacy of introducing wolves into a man-made environment - such evidence is simply dismissed as irrelevant by Askins and other soi-disant “authorities” like her. They apparently are afflicted with acute Bambi-ism, giving the animals cutesy-pie names like Moonstar Shadow.

Mech said all that needs saying about the misguided introduction of predators when he saw its result: “Every time I fly over my Minnesota study area and look at lakeshores that were speckled with deer and wolves … and that now lie empty.” Charles C. Starr Coeur d’Alene

Having zoo involves commitment

What is a community without a zoo?

My husband and I have visited many zoos in different parts of the country. Always, we come away feeling refreshed from the experience.

A zoo is a place where people of different races, walks of life and interests come together in a communal way. One’s interest in going to a zoo is to relax and enjoy the antics of its inhabitants.

We have been very fortunate in being allowed to visit our friends in a unique setting. However, we have been aware of the hours of labor and materials that zoo lovers have donated in order to protect people and make the environment more accessible to their needs.

It would be well for all of us in Spokane to realize that having a zoo is a commitment to the animals to preserve their right to a permanent home. We cannot view it as a whim of the moment; they depend on all of us. It is a community responsibility. Donna Ostlin Spokane

IN IDAHO

Why is lake fouling being ignored?

The sewer lagoon at Cocolalla Lake just had an overflow that went into Cocolalla. The sewer lagoon is built on the banks of Johnson Creek and the banks of the lagoon burst, causing it to dump into the creek then flow down to the lake.

Idaho Division of Environmental Quality and Panhandle Health were contacted on Dec. 30 that it was spilling. A sample was taken from Johnson Creek that flows into the lake, and there was fecal coliform in that.

This lagoon has been turned into DEQ and Panhandle Health for overflows since 1982.

The owner of the lagoon has expanded his operation, according to records, but no one required him to expand his lagoon. Why?

The owner of the lagoon didn’t do a land application, as required by his permit this summer (as documented by DEQ). Now, the lagoon is overflowing again. Still no enforcement action is taken. Why?

Thousands of dollars have been spent to study Cocolalla, yet this lagoon continues to overflow every year. Why?

If no one cares about Cocolalla, then maybe they should be concerned about Round Lake. Cocolalla flows into Round Lake, which has a state park. From there it flows into the Pend Oreille River.

How much sewage will be dumped into the lake during the rainy season?

Our tax dollars pay for the Division of Environmental Quality. This certainly seems like an environmental issue to me - not only environmental, but health, too. Does anybody care? Duane Wentz Cocolalla