Letters To The Editor

OUR CHILDREN, THEIR SAFETY

Notification laxity a danger

I was disappointed and angered as I read your June 15 article on the missing child, Rachel Carver. A school official implied that parents were being notified if their children weren’t showing up for school. This simply isn’t true for many city schools.

My experience, as well as that of my friends and neighbors, is that we have never been notified when we kept our ill children home from various city schools. Lack of personnel was the excuse when I expressed this concern to our school officials.

I don’t have all the answers, but perhaps a volunteer program should be implemented to help ensure the safety of our children.

It’s frightening to think that our public school system has become so political that our children are put at risk by giving parents a false sense of security. Connie Dionne Spokane

For the children, get involved

Last night I attended the first meeting of the Spokane chapter of MAVIA (Mothers Against Violence in America). While the group in attendance was an impressive, eclectic mix of Spokane’s citizenry, nearly all shared a common trait in addition to the determination to curb violence. Most are already, either through vocational choices or volunteer work, devoting their time to our youth.

As fabulous as this group is, and as reluctant as I am to focus on the cup’s being half empty, I cannot help wondering why fewer than 30 people came to this meeting.

Yesterday afternoon, Jenny Wieland, a MAVIA spokeswoman, whose 17-year-old daughter died as a result of a gunshot wound, was interviewed on talk radio. A caller, suspicious and even disrespectful, asked Ms. Wieland whether she had spent enough time with her daughter when she was alive. Perhaps that call helps explain last night’s lack of attendance.

Ms. Wieland has said we just don’t want to believe that bad things can happen to good people. Surely the victim did something wrong. Surely the victim lived in the wrong neighborhood, ran with a fast crowd, lacked parental direction. Surely something about the victim is different. Otherwise, those of us whose hearts are vulnerable because there is a child in our lives would be forced to come to terms with the terrible reality about the total, blind randomness of violence. Maybe doing so is too painful.

Tragedy need not touch your own life for you to become involved. Step out. Speak up. Carolyn Jones Spokane

LAW AND JUSTICE

Court gave minorities a boost

Your headline, “Justice strikes double blow to minorities,” relating to the just-announced Supreme Court decisions which severely limit affirmative action, is shortsighted in the extreme.

Your obvious assumption is that decisions which weaken affirmative action will hurt minorities, particularly blacks. I could not disagree more.

As matters stand now, acceptance of an affirmative action benefit is a de facto admission that the individual or business is unable to perform to or above standards, that the person or business is inferior in some way and needs special advantages in order to compete. As Justice Thomas just wrote, affirmative action, by its nature, implies inferiority and is “poisonous and pernicious.”

There is absolutely nothing preventing blacks, Hispanics or women from competing in a free market. If their abilities and efforts are equal or superior, they will advance. If those efforts or abilities prove inferior and they do not progress, the obvious remedy is to work hard and strive to improve.

Should affirmative action be curtailed or abolished, nothing could better advance the cause of minorities. It will leave no alternative to advancement other than maximum use of intelligence, hard work and dedication to excellence - which is the true avenue of human progress. Leonard M. Melman, chairman Spokane County Libertarian Party

Death penalty serves public safety

For the woman who wrote the editors about abolishing the death penalty: Does she believe it’s right to let these people out to do it again to an innocent person? Does she ever read what these people have done to their victims?

The death penalty should not be considered punishment, but the removal of someone who has killed and would do it again to some innocent person. Eugene Fields Electric City, Wash.

Liddy no friend of freedom

To urge people not to obey the Constitution is anarchy. Perhaps G. Gordon Liddy should consider a few facts.

First, ours is not a free nation if we take his advice. We will be in more trouble than we are now if we do.

Second, he needs to read from some proper sources to get a better education. From the New Testament, Romans 13:1-2: “Obey the rulers who have authority over you. Only God can give authority to anyone, and He puts rulers in their places for power. People who oppose the authorities are opposing what God has done, and they will be punished.” (Contemporary English version).

Perhaps we should give Mr. Liddy a vacation, a oneway trip to China and enough money for two months’ board and room. He will probably be shot by that time for speaking out against the Chinese government. In fact, I will give the first $10 toward the ticket.

Mr. Liddy, please wise up, there are better ways than you suggest. Phil Larson Spokane

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

What punks don’t realize

In response to “Punks steal little girl’s cancer fund” (June 15).

One day a mother notices something wrong with her child and a doctor appointment is made. Soon, you hear your child has cancer and life changes.

Mothers give up their jobs and grandparents take care of siblings while long stays in the hospital, for chemotherapy, begin. There are endless trips to the hospital for clinics and a time comes when the child must be isolated, as its white blood cell count drops so low it is susceptible to any illness.

Budgets are adjusted, surgeries are scheduled and the three- to five-month stay in Seattle for bone marrow transplant arrives. Mom goes and dad stays home.

“How are we going to pay for this,” is asked. More tears are cried.

Fund raising starts. Hundreds of hours are spent. Success depends on family, friends and businesses that donate time, money and merchandise. The public contributes to the donation jars, like the ones you stole. This is most important. Still there’s no guarantee for success. We pray.

My granddaughter, Courtney, was diagnosed with neuroblastoma at the same time as Samantha Baumbauer. Samantha and Courtney are on the same chemotherapy schedule at Deaconess and will go to Seattle at the same time. Their families spend time together at the hospital.

The parents stay strong through all of this, and we, as their parents, are proud.

Punks like you only add to the heartache. Are your parents proud? Karen Hamilton Spokane

Give fantasy a fictional name

This is in response to Lori Michels’ letter, “Indians, allow the kids fantasy” (June 14).

I agree that our children are sometimes asked to grow up too soon. What we are asking is that we allow our children to grow up healthy and happy with the way the creator made them and their families. Too many of our children, especially our girls, enter young adulthood believing in the body image continuously portrayed in cartoons.

I also ask, what was wrong with the original story of a courageous 11-year-old girl taking a moral stance.

Fantasy should not be so close to reality that people begin to believe in fantasy and reject reality. Change the name of the characters and let your fantasy continue.

We all must live in a world created by us and our ancestors; there is no other choice. Renee Gralewicz Pullman

History twisted purely for profit

American Indians are justified in being angry with the latest Disney Corp. abomination, “Pocohantas.”

Any thinking person who has even a modicum of concern and respect for accurate portrayal of historical events and people should be offended.

But, as a Caucasian-Native American male, I reject totally any interference that my supposed white middle class values and attitudes toward women are responsible for Disney’s willful misportrayal of Pocohantas and the men in her life, real or fictional.

The Disney Corp. and most of the Hollywood-New York motion picture production axis has for some time been engaged in a campaign of historical revisionism, evidently motivated by an anti-Caucasian male, antiJudeo-Christian/Northern European culture, anticapitalistic, pro-radical feminist, anti-American world view. But, what the heck?! It makes money, doesn’t it?

They don’t have to like capitalism in order to exploit it. If U.S. citizens are willing to pay big bucks for the trashing of their society and their history, they are every bit as culpable as the Disney Corp. and the Hollywood left.

Incidentally, the historical record also informs us that Pocohantas, later recasting herself as Lady Rebecca Rolfe, became very much a part of upper middle class English society. I’m sure that fact wouldn’t jibe with the Disney revisionists’ view of history as it should have been. Leonard C. Johnson Troy, Idaho

Religion is a failed concept

Why does a handful of people insist that Christianity or religion will turn this country around and create morality?

We have attempted to use these theological philosophies as methods of social control since the beginning. If these methods truly were effective, would we be having this discussion? Its’ clear to me they have been complete failures on every count.

One thing this world does not need is more judgmental individuals validating their actions by citing an irrational theological concept articulated in an antiquated novel. All the evidence we have thus far emphasizes the fact that such a method of social control is ineffective. Furthermore, it serves to polarize our democratic society, in which diversity of opinion is, essentially, America’s strength.

Finally, having no state-sanctioned religion not only differentiates ours from other countries (particularly Third World nations), it has proven to be an asset, as is evidenced by our technological superiority worldwide. We did not have a fear of knowledge; we pursued it with passion. Nature as God, as it is and as our nation’s founders intended it. N.G. Hannon Spokane

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Balance tips against workers

The voice of the American work force (including those currently unemployed) is no longer being heard by the majority of our legislators in our nation’s capital or in our state capitals.

Corporate America and the new right wing of Congress are dismantling everything our parents and grandparents worked so hard to attain, such as the 40-hour work week, the Davis-Bacon Act and workplace safety and health laws.

Today, 4.5 million Americans are underemployed, part-time workers at low wages. Workers want and need good jobs, safe working conditions and livable family wages. It is time for all workers to stand up and be heard.

Call your legislators, tell them what is best for the working men and women of our Country. Thomas J. Flynn Spokane

Military spending will do us in

Our House of Representatives has voted to give the military an extra $267.3 billion.

Talk about pork barrel politics. We already spend more money on our armed forces than the rest of the world combined.

While the house debated at length about slashing minuscule PBS funds, it continues to heap money upon a military that isn’t doing much.

I was an officer in the Air Force for eight years. During this time I was the recipient of the most lavish welfare system invented: free housing, medical and dental care for my family and cushy retirement in my early 40s. The only thing I didn’t have was the feeling that I was doing something worthwhile for my country.

Let’s define what the mission of our military is, then let’s fund for that mission and perform for that mission.

Right now, Congress is only wasting our money on a welfare system that benefits our defense industry and a few members of the military.

Remember the deficit? Jesus says, whoever lives by the sword will die by the sword. Our country is suffering an economic death by our own hand. John Griffith Spokane

Sen. Murray earning her keep

It’s great to have our U.S. senator battling in D.C. for the interest of Washington businesses and their workers. I’m referring to Sen. Patty Murray’s battle to limit groundless lawsuits which spring up like weeds every time the value of a Northwest company’s stock drops in value.

There is a particularly obnoxious class of attorneys and “professional plaintiffs” (can you imagine being a plaintiff for living?) who can tie a company in knots by claiming that investors who lost money in the stock market were innocent victims who were somehow duped by the corporation.

It boils down to a “heads I win, tails I sue” investment strategy. This practice has cost Washington businesses and their legitimate investors millions of dollars. To make matters worse, they seem to prey on newly formed, hightech and biotechnology companies that hold so much promise for our future.

Sen. Murray is sponsoring a bill that may put a handful of these predatory lawyers out of business but will help save thousands of jobs and help brighten our region’s future. Like the late Sens. Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson and Warren Magnuson, Sen. Murray is out in front on the bread-and-butter issues that count. She’s being attacked by those lawyers and needs our support.

I applaud Senator Murray’s work to reform securities fraud litigation. By tackling this issue, she is going after the very thing people have in mind when they talk about “what’s wrong with America today.” She should be commended for her work on the issue. Shirley Rector Spokane

Don’t believe media, government

It’s amazing how eager and willing the media are to print any comment against the GOP or the right-winged conservatives, no matter how farfetched or idiotic the comments are. As long as their thinking is in line with the liberal media, it gets published.

The comment by A.K. Stirling (“GOP right is radically wrong,” Letters, June 14), shows that this person and others like him are real suckers. They are misinformed and believe everything the media print. Bill Quinn (“If it sounds like a Nazi …”, Letters, June 12) is also someone who should wake up and get his head out of the pickle juice.

The GOP is on its way to reforming America. The liberal way creates leeches to society, always looking for the free handout.

Some say conservatives such as Rush Limbaugh, shouldn’t be on the radio or television. I agree. There isn’t a need for him. However, since the media don’t do their job by exposing the lies of democratic government, it has caused people like him to surface.

When are you people going to learn the truth about our government? When are you going to learn that the media have been swaying the way people think with their liberal, slanted reporting, for too many years.

With regards to the media’s involvement in trying to bring about gun control, let me ask, what would the media do if their freedom of press was infringed upon? It’s different if it’s their rights! Michael Glover Veradale

Why fringers are beyond the pale

Sylvia James (“People battle government for control,” Letters, June 10) tells us people fear that elected government officials plan to use a military coup to nullify election results.

She fails to mention that these “people” are but a tiny, though loud, minority of the American populace. They are the ones who don’t know American history and didn’t notice what happened in last November’s election.

Powerful as he was, Tom Foley didn’t remain in office a single hour after his term ended, and neither has any other elected official in all American history.

Ms. James shows her scorn for our elected officials by calling them all “demagogues.” I submit that the real demagogues are Ms. James and the others who echo her argument. They seek, by creating an irrational disaffection, to win through revolution the political power they could never hope to win at the ballot box.

These people talk about the founding fathers, but they never bother to read our Constitution. The founders stood as one against treason and sedition. Edward B. Keeley Spokane