Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

Contentiousness is not vision

Doesn’t it give you a real sense of security going to sleep at night knowing there are those who unselfishly give of their time and talents protecting our future?

Steve Eugster and others who stand foursquare against any sort of progress for Spokane and it’s environs come to mind.

No Lincoln Street Bridge, they say. It would sully the view of our river. No downtown improvement district. It’s unlawful use of tax dollars.

Personal friends of Eugster tell me he is quite rational, one on one, but when he appears before the City Council or is quoted in the daily paper, his good judgment seems to vanish into thin air.

Mr. Eugster, progress usually involves change. It’s not always what we like, but it’s hard to understand why you oppose every plan of action for our community no matter what the facts indicate.

We need occasional dissent but not continual and constant lawsuits that serve only to block and delay progress while raising the costs of such projects. Maury Hickey Spokane

Attorney should cease and desist

Here we go again with another money-grabbing, selfabsorbed, opportunistic attorney attempting to grab the limelight. I’m referring to Steve Eugster’s lawsuit aimed at “reckless government.”

First, a taxing district is not unconstitutional, illegal or unfair. Second, those within the district are all for the taxing, to promote downtown business. And third, they have been used in other major cities like Seattle and Portland. Get this: it usually worked! Imagine that.

Of course, Eugster doesn’t care about potential downtown improvements that would, in the long run, benefit us all. He would rather waste valuable time, line his pockets and smile for the camera and other nonsense such as “whether it’s right or wrong.” Anyone with a reasonable amount of intelligence can see that it is right.

This downtown project is vital to the economic growth and longevity of Spokane. As everybody knows, if you lose your downtown, you lose your city. It’s the domino effect.

As usual, shortsighted, greedy attorneys and the like can’t grasp that simple but important concept and they continue to delay much needed improvements. Pretty soon, if things like this keep popping up, there won’t be a city left to sue. Travis Coletti Spokane

I prefer to go downtown

There is a lot of talk about improving downtown Spokane. I like to go downtown and walk the skywalks. I am in my eighties and don’t drive a car, so I take a bus downtown.

The Bon and Nordstrom have remained downtown, and I used to shop and Penney’s, Montgomery Ward and Sears but haven’t been in them for a long time.

It’s hard for me to go to the malls because I feel like I’m imposing if I need to ask someone to take me and wait for me. I don’t like to go there anyway.

Malls are for people who drive cars. The buses have schedules and run on time. It’s also a real treat for my grandchildren to ride downtown on the bus with me. Edna Silver Spokane

Join hands to fight drug scourge

Congratulations to the west Maxwell neighborhood for its efforts against drug suspects.

Last year my neighborhood used the same tactics against a drug house. We were dealing with known drug people and were told by the detectives that license numbers helped them keep track of these characters.

I want to reinforce the message that, working together, neighbors can empower themselves and make a difference. Don’t let the drug people control you and your neighborhood. Diane L. Jones Spokane

Commissioners served themselves

Residents of Spokane County and especially Commissioner District No. 1 are getting duped again.

First it was County Commissioner Skip Chilberg’s suspect pickup camper residence at Newman Lake. Now it’s George Marlton’s quick move two months ago from Medical lake. What is it, the water?

Commissioner District No. 1 deserves better representation than whatever “carpetbagger” comes along. There are competent, long-time residents in our district who have the integrity to do the job of county commissioner.

Maybe that’s the problem. The county commissioners now holding office don’t want anyone with integrity showing them up. If that’s the case, they’ve made the right choice. Darlene Fredrick Spokane

Then there’s the other Flaherty

This is concerning an article published in your paper (“Proud to be gay,” Region, June 12).

The Jim Flaherty I know is not the one interviewed in the article. The Jim Flaherty I know has a father who practiced medicine in Spokane for 42 years. His uncle is the late Ray Flaherty, the legendary NFL Hall of Famer. The Jim Flaherty I know is the past owner of Flaherty’s Restaurant and numerous other restaurants. I want to clarify this for Jim’s sake and his many friends. Dick Maher Spokane

RESCUE IN BOSNIA

Realize value of military training

What a wonderful rescue of Capt. Scott O’Grady. I’m so thankful for his training and the Marines’ training for his rescue.

Last month, my son-in-law was here from Las Vegas. He was helping to command his crew in a military training mission. He directs the training of survival and rescue in Las Vegas. All the people in the area complained about the noise of the helicopters disturbing them and their cattle. Please, stop and be thankful for this training and the schools which we have just like the one at Fairchild Air Force Base. They saved Scott O’Grady’s life. Donna Glanville Spokane

Survival school a source of pride

I am grateful that Capt. O’Grady was successfully rescued from Bosnia. Obviously, his determination played a major part in his rescue. He credited the training he received at the survival school at Fairchild Air Force Base for his success.

I would like to expand on the personnel at the survival school. Having the privilege to know the past three commanders, including the current commander, most of the junior officers and a fair number of the enlisted people, I have never been more impressed than I was with the dedication, determination and knowledge the organization has from top to bottom.

As at any military base, people are transferred in and out. It doesn’t matter. There doesn’t seem to be any change in the “heartbeat” of their mission.

In addition, most of the Spokane area would be astounded to know how much the school does in volunteer work in our area. I am a member of a service club whose members are proud of what they do to help our area. The survival school personnel could teach us a thing or two about getting involved in the community.

Capt. O’Grady is a classic example of what can be done if you pay attention in school and get an opportunity to put what you’ve learned into practice.

We in the Spokane area should have even more to be proud of and thankful for because of what the survival school does and because we have the privilege of having it right here in our area. W.J. Hiatt Spokane

Bogus hero a media contrivance<

This is regarding the heroics and subsequent accolades by the media for Capt. O’Grady after his screw-up in Bosnia.

This junior officer attributes his miraculous survival to his love of God and God’s love of him. This man’s God is probably a buck sergeant at Fairchild who taught him how to survive. His actions and the events do not warrant the attention afforded by the media. He was even on the television with the President of the United States. I would suggest a safe place for him would be a land job, possibly as a chaplain’s assistant. He is no hero.

I was shot down three times in Vietnam and my family didn’t even know about it. It must be a slow news period. Col. W.L. Brooks, Air Force, retired Spokane

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

Racism serves no good purpose

This is in response to the guest column of June 11 (“Welfare not only helps the poor but protects society”), with which I agree.

As an additional point, I would like to mention that racism has been and continues to be a strong negative force in our society. Fighting racism is also a means of helping not only the minorities but also all of society. The past practice of telling a portion of our population that they are inferior, should not receive an equal education, should not have equal job opportunities and must ride in the back of the bus should be seen as a surefire way to create an underclass with a high potential for social unrest and criminal tendencies.

As the Sunday column states, all of the social engineering done in the past has not been successful, but we cannot afford to turn back to the extreme negatives which we have had in our history. We must build upon the strengths and continue to improve.

Hate groups that support racism are bad for all of society, not just for the minorities. Roger Christensen Coeur d’Alene

Indians, allow the kids a fantasy

I must respond to the June 12 article, “Indians plan ‘Pocahontas’ protest.”

First, we must keep in mind that Disney is fantasy, not necessarily fact. I’m sure most Disney fans realize that with respect to such movies as “Mary Poppins,” “The Little Mermaid,” “Aladdin,” etc.

Our three daughters are excited to see this beautiful Indian heroine portrayed on the silver screen. Sorry, but I’m not about to take the magic away and tell them she is not really in her twenties, that she was 14 years old when she got married to a chief in her tribe whose age we do not know, that she died of smallpox.

Mr. Whelshula, I implore you to not fight fantasy. How uplifting would the real story be to small children? That’s what’s wrong with today’s society. We are forcing our children to grow up too fast and accept the cold, hard truth of the mistakes of our forefathers. Disney just wants to preserve some of the innocence for our children. Perhaps if only to allow them a sweet dream or two. Lori Michels Spokane

Don’t impose bias on those in pain

Euthanasia is an issue of choice, not anyone’s morality.

When you have walked in the shoes of a terminally ill, pain-wracked person, then you may inflict your opinion on me. Until then, frankly, you don’t know what you are talking about. Words are cheap!

If you are terminally ill and choose to continue your suffering until death occurs, then that is your right. But please, do not impose your self-righteous views on someone else who elects to terminate their life with some sense of dignity while there is still some dignity left.

It’s not your place to deny me the right to decide how and when to end my life when the time comes. Not all of us answer to your God! Valerie M. Snipes Spokane

How society has declined

Re: “Who would stoop so low as to steal in the cemetery?” by Aimee Walters (Your Turn, June 3): I, too, was a victim of an unscrupulous theft of my purse from my car while parked in the Pines Cemetery in Opportunity during the Memorial Day weekend. I was decorating the graves of my deceased husband’s parents about 100 feet from my car and was only away for a matter of a few minutes.

Personnel at the cemetery were very sympathetic and assisted me in every way. The theft was immediately reported to the police and my insurance company. Bank accounts and credit cards were cancelled that day and the locks to everything I own were changed within hours.

I had hoped the person who stole my purse would just keep the money and when he or she realized I am a senior citizen, would have a tinge of remorse and return the contents.

More than a week has passed and I’ve heard nothing. I would gladly pay the cost of having the personal items returned. The last picture I had of my husband was in my billfold, along with many sentimental mementoes that are irreplaceable but of no value to anyone other than myself.

I guess I learned a lesson in a very hard way: Our way of living isn’t like it used to be. We can trust no one and there is no such thing as a safe or sacred place anymore. Isn’t is a shame? Kathryn M. Dyer Worley, Idaho

FIREARMS

Defense, safe use both important

Because of current and growing crime conditions here and all over the U.S. there are more handguns owned by ordinary people than ever before. How many of these new owners have been instructed in the use and safety of their handguns?

I think a class in handgun safety should be mandatory for every owner. This class, at Spokane Community College, really stresses safety.

I’ll admit I have had some of the same thoughts as Holly Kirschke (“We don’t need guns for protection,” Letters, June 9), but it would be impossible to retrieve all handguns. Even if it were illegal to buy them, the bad guys would have them anyway.

The best defense for ordinary people is education. A gun is not for everybody, as our instructor cautioned. But it is possible to secure them from children, visitors and neighbors. It is possible to prevent accidents, and they do provide protection in some circumstances. Judy McEwen Spokane

Consider it high-caliber life insurance

Regarding “We don’t need guns for protection?” (Letters, June 9): Come on, Holly Kirschke, tell that to the victims of the O.J. Simpson murder case. I’ll stick with the ol’ equalizer. John Hodde Colville

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Our IRS experience still stings

This is in response to Ted and Mary Shepard’s June 10 letter (“Chenoweth ignorant of Swiss history”) concerning Rep. Helen Chenoweth’s idea on abolishing the IRS.

There is a woman in the Spokane office who has mistreated many people, not just us. One man described to me how his wife had broken down in tears after a phone conversation with her, and she is still working.

The IRS has had eight years since our last audit to do something about the situation and has chosen to keep her on in a position of power over people like me and you. When the IRS says you are in the wrong, you are guilty until you can show yourself innocent. They possess no humanity.

As we are being audited again this year, the stress is overwhelming. You don’t have to have done anything wrong to be demoralized and intimidated and judged guilty by an IRS audit. During the last audit, I tried to argue with this particular woman. To shut me up, she threatened, saying they might just have to go back over several previous tax years and audit them, too.

This kind of treatment should be illegal. It’s immoral. It’s extortion. It’s painful. If we were treated with more kindness by our government agencies, as though we are people they are supposed to serve, instead of the other way around, people would have more respect. Becky A. McPherson Valley, Wash.

GOP right is radically wrong

Those foolish people who voted for the Contract with America were real suckers for the vicious anti-government propaganda by the neo-fascists of the radical right. While blaming the federal government for all the troubles that beset us, they are very careful to avoid mentioning their true agenda for America.

They plan to gut or severely limit all environmental regulation, the Endangered Species Act for example; eliminate all national parks except Yellowstone and Yosemite; gut the clean air and clean water acts; abolish the minimum wage, as House Majority Leader Dick Armey favors; and turn all public lands and most federal property back to the states. This is deja vu in its most quintessential form.

Their plans also include dramatically decreasing medicare benefits and increasing out-of-pocket payments for the elderly; significantly cutting taxes for corporations and the wealthy; dumbing-down education to where only wealthy students will attend our colleges; reducing or eliminating payments to states for health and welfare programs; dramatically increasing military spending; eliminating foreign aid; and eliminating or cutting some research grants to colleges.

These are just a few of the sinister plans these radicals have in store for the American people. Contract with America is a misnomer. Contract for Disaster is more appropriate. A.K. Stirling Spokane

Correction

The word “not” was inadvertently omitted from the second paragraph of James Gordon Perkins’ June 9 letter. He wrote in response to a May 29 letter from Jean T. Soliz of the state Department of Social and Health Services, in which Soliz took issue with a cartoon that had appeared earlier. Here is Perkins’ paragraph in full:

There is nothing amusing about endangering the lives of hard-working and committed state employees and currently one is reminded of the efforts of Chief Joseph to protect the futures of women and children against an opponent who would not negotiate and whose goal fortunately did not succeed - the termination of a tribal people who should have been left alone to enjoy the land of their ancestors.