Letters To The Editor

IDAHO VIEWPOINTS

Expansion not needed

Many retired people, singles and families with a vision of keeping a quality place in which to live and raise children, put money into savings accounts in local banks.

But how are local banks using your money? Are banks using that money to subsidize developers who keep overcrowding schools, forcing frequent bond levies onto patrons? Are they lending on shaky grounds, foisting long-term financial commitments onto taxpayers, knowing developments could end up being half-built and abandoned if the economy goes soft? Are city officials’ poor planning decisions encouraging boom-bust cycles by their active assistance to certain developers?

Some would say the June 15 Coeur d’Alene City Council decision, initiating its first steps to annex properties south of the Spokane River, falls into that poor planning category. Blackwell Island, called a “pioneer project” by the developer’s engineer, consists of development on a toxic landfill situated in a flood plain. That should make citizens and supporting bankers nervous. However, discussions between developers and the city involve plans to annex land far beyond that section of Blackwell Island.

How is your money being used locally? Is it making this community an affordable, safe and all-around better place to live? Or is it actually being invested in developments that will place more burden on citizens and lessen the quality of life? These are questions needing honest answers. Gertie Hanson Coeur d’Alene

Home show attendance will drop

We feel the newly adopted “scattered” orientation of The Home Show is a mistake. Noting that attendance dropped by almost two-thirds in 1994 as compared with 1993, the last year of the single-site format, someone’s porch light must be out.

For those of us who live in Bonner County, the show was well worth the 200-mile round trip to enjoy a couple of fascinating hours inspecting a group of homes in a onestop experience.

Now, in addition to the 200-mile drive, we face another 90 to 100 extra miles and two to three hours of stop-andgo city driving to 19 far-flung, separate locations.

Sorry to miss the show; it’s not worth it. Robert Domes Hope

As American as apple pie

On June 14, the Corporation for National Service flew two Coeur d’Alene AmeriCorps-VISTA volunteers Debbie Johannson, literacy coordinator for the North Idaho College Learning Center, and me, volunteer coordinator and public relations spokesman for the homeless from St. Vincent de Paul - to Washington, D.C., along with 300 other VISTAs from across the country. We went for a three-day training conference and celebration.

The purpose of the trip was to be trained in various classes to better our skills in our jobs, and to celebrate VISTA’s 30th anniversary in service to America.

When we arrived to the conference site at Georgetown University, we were received by Vice President Al Gore, who singled many of us out for our accomplishments.

The trip was an incredible experience for us, beginning with our plane trip, in which Debbie and I sat with Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., to the final reception at the Capitol in our honor with Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W. Va., Sen. Paul Simon, D-Ill., and Sargent Shriver greeting and speaking to us.

Our training was well put together and we learned a great deal. The special treatment we received gave us a real sense of pride that we are working in service to our country.

What a wonderful opportunity to be held in such high regard by the many bipartisan supporters we have in Washington, D.C., and nationwide. It makes me very proud to be an American. Ali Ward Coeur d’Alene

SPOKANE MATTERS

Eugster should go far soon

Perhaps the good citizens of Spokane County would join with me in contributing to a fund to buy a one-way ticket for Steve Eugster, our local “againster.”

Eugster is a one-man committee opposing any improvement in downtown Spokane. I applaud city leaders for their foresight in saving/improving our downtown area.

Eugster would probably be more content in a less urban surrounding, maybe rural Arkansas. Cal Modisett Spokane

Any bailout, taxpayers do bailing

In her (June 16) story, staff writer Kristina Johnson stated opponents of the RiverPark Square project were concerned the failure of that project could result in a taxpayer bailout. So far so good.

She went on to tell us that the worst-case scenario might require use of community development block grant money or that the Department of Housing and Urban Development might have to pay off the loan guarantees. That’s the point! Block grants and HUD money come from taxpayers, to be repaid by taxpayers. ‘Nuff said? Jon J. Tuning Spokane

Keep an eye on Hasson, Harris

I was appalled to read recently that John Mercer, a county planner, had been so abruptly discharged. Unfortunately, this is yet another example of throwing the baby out with the bath water.

John represented what was good about county planning. He provided balance, offered intelligence and was very service oriented. Over the years, I have always heard favorable comments about his professionalism and willingness to provide excellent service.

County Commissioners Steve Hasson and Phil Harris really pulled a fast one while the guard was changing. I encourage anyone interested in good government and balance to watch these commissioners closely. This situation indicates that they lack the qualities of professionalism, balance and intelligence. Pat Gorton Spokane

OUR CHILDREN, THEIR SAFETY

We have obligation to all children

What happened to Rachel Carver is a tragedy. What occurs to hundreds of other children in Spokane is also a tragedy.

Child abuse occurs in many homes throughout our city. We who work in social services are all too aware of the pain and sadness many young people deal with minute-tominute, daily. We constantly ask ourselves, “Why?” and “What can I do about it?”

Increased awareness of the problem is needed. Remember, children aren’t things. They don’t deserve to be brutalized and harmed. They are beautiful creatures, spiritual beings filled with love and joy. They are our future.

Let us also ponder what happened to adult abusers when when they were children. We are too quick to point fingers and blame. Revenge is for the Dark Ages.

Let’s speak to the abusive parent in the grocery store. Parents don’t own children. Parents don’t have the right to abuse their children. We all have the obligation to protect all children.

I challenge The Spokesman-Review to run an article about child abuse on the front page of the paper every day for a year. Let’s come together as a community, led by our local paper, and do whatever we can to raise awareness about this horrible problem. It won’t just go away.

As I write this, children in Spokane are being hit, beaten, spanked, raped, yelled at, kicked, fondled, pushed and pulled.

Enough is enough! Lindy EW Haunschild, MA, CDC, LMP, social worker II Spokane County Health District

Let tragedy serve as a lesson

The case of Rachel Carver brings several concerns to the fore that we all need to be aware of and work to correct.

Jason Wickenhagen - the child’s uncle/guardian/ convicted sex offender, became the girl’s guardian after he had been charged with attempting to rape a teenager at gunpoint. How did this happen? Weren’t there terms and conditions set upon his release on bail/personal recognizance? If not, why not?

Why wasn’t the father of this child “kept in the loop?” We hear a lot about absentee fathers. Why didn’t someone ask this parent if he wished his children to live with him if their mother wasn’t able to care for them? At the least, why wasn’t he informed they no longer lived in California with their mother, but close to him in Spokane?

Of greater concern is whether or not this will make people become involved. How many people know how many “registered” sex offenders you have in your neighborhood? Did you know that by contacting your local law enforcement agency you will know?

While this case is extremely visible, there are many sex offenders in our neighborhoods who aren’t as visible.

We as a community must take control. We owe it to all the Rachels, all the children we’ve let down by trusting the supposedly law-abiding sex offender to do what is required by law. Consider: did they get to be sex offenders by following the rules? Vickie Denman Valley, Wash.

Low esteem come by honestly

Saturday’s Review was certainly a sign of the times. Headlines shouted the abuse and death of an innocent child, Rachel Carver.

Known perpetrators are released on technicalities, left free to harm, maim and kill. No wonder much of the judicial system is held in such low esteem!

The full-page advertisement from Focus on the Family gave documentation pertaining to the failure of “safe sex” campaigns after the expenditure of billions of citizens’ tax dollars. Featured is the dramatic increase of sexually transmitted diseases, many of them resistant to penicillin. This affects not only the carriers, but newborns delivered through the birth canal.

These cases were validated by a Southern California specialist in this field who spoke recently to a group of Spokane community leaders. No wonder much of federal, state and local government is held in such low esteem!

Also mentioned in the same article was Spokane’s own Teen-Aid - as a positive, abstinence-based program. The Review featured a recent article on local parents’ support of this program. Our state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction has condemned Teen-Aid’s curriculum for “sex bias” for such statements as “nursing mother,” and drawings containing “boys bicycles.” Pretty dangerous stuff! No wonder many education bureaucrats are held in such low esteem!

An ancient Semitic proverb says, “Some people think they are doing right, but in the end it leads to death.”(Proverbs 14:12) How true! Donna Kuhn Spokane

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

Lifestyle being promoted not gays’

Someone ought to inform Dick McInerney (“Paper promoted homosexuality,” Letters, June 15) that wearing a wedding ring is flaunting his heterosexuality. Someone ought to remind him that asking his son, “Do you have a girlfriend yet?” is promoting heterosexuality.

He ought to read the paper thoroughly, noticing advertisements, and do some channel flipping. The heterosexual agenda is flaunted in public and promoted every hour of every day. In The Spokesman-Review there is only one gay-related article per day, and it is as likely to be negative as positive.

He ought to look at history. The nuclear family of father, mother and children existed only after World War I. Prior to that, communities and extended families raised children. Does he wish to imply the U.S. wasn’t a good white, Christian, heterosexual, vanilla, mundane mold - not for lack of trying, because persecution can hurt so bad you want to die - but simply because we can’t?

Mr. McInerney doesn’t want people in general to keep their “sexual conduct” private. He wants gays to go back into the closet and shut up.

We take one day out of the year to declare ourselves as a community, and he insists we’re promoting a “lifestyle.”

I guess this makes the heterosexuality I’m bombarded with every day outright propaganda. Rebecca Mckinley Spokane

Stereotypes don’t raise, love kids

I’m responding to a letter in the June 16 SpokesmanReview, in which Dick McInerney wrote “that a stable, wholesome family of mom, dad and the kids is the backbone of a good society.”

By saying this, Mr. McInerney seems to insinuate that families of any other kind are causing the unraveling of the American social fabric. In other words, it is every American’s patriotic duty to remain married, even if all parties concerned are miserable, lest they be responsible for the decline of the Western civilization.

As the product of a single-parent family, I am getting sick of people blaming the downfall of morality on people who weren’t fortunate enough to make all the right choices in life. A family is simply a support system which provides nurturing and love for its kids.

Speaking from personal experience, I wouldn’t trade the relationship my mom and I have for anybody else’s idea of what the right family is.

Mr. McInerney, next time you want to get up on your soap box and tell everyone what is right, ask someone who was born this century to help you write the letter. Adam Torgison Coeur d’Alene

Vandals could learn something

This is to the individuals who vandalized the red Corvette the rainy Saturday night of June 10.

The car is as defenseless as a baby. Of course, you won’t see it out and about so much. So if you and your friends actually like seeing old chrome-bumpered muscle cars rumble by once in a while, that will become just a little bit rarer of a sight.

I try not to show off. I hope I’m preserving a bit of history, having fun and living out a high school fantasy. Next time, leave a polite note and we’ll get together, go for a ride and talk about cars and life a bit. Leonard Butters Spokane

PRIGGEE

‘Best thing you’ve got going’

Contrary to many of the opinions presented in the June 15 Roundtable regarding (staff cartoonist) Milt Priggee, I think he’s the best thing you’ve got going.

I’m proud to send many of his cartoons around the country for others to enjoy. Kate Grinde Moscow

Critics should ‘lighten up’

After reading the June 15 letters, I want to say I love Milt Priggee’s cartoons.

Although, I don’t always agree with his subject material, he certainly gets people’s danders up.

What is wrong with having your opinions questioned? To all those people who complained, lighten up, and try to agree to disagree. Anita Stallinga Spokane

Priggee tops the list

The more I’ve thought about it, the more I’m compelled to expose your cover.

The Spokesman-Review staff must delight with glee when Milt Priggee brings the wrath of the readers. Without exception, Milt is an expert. He is the best I’ve ever seen at getting the exact response he wants from his political cartoons. The cartoon in Roundtable complaints, by Priggee, gave you all away.

To be a political cartoonist, you might see the artist work, but never know his mind. Besides, most people are so busy worrying about secondhand cigarette smoke, they never stop to consider that Hanford has filled them so full of zoomies their brains are probably at critical mass.

Milt Priggee is a living treasure to the Inland Northwest. I was a student of political cartoons and had to do a thesis on them. In my book, Milt Priggee is at the top of the list. Larry Persons Endicott

OTHER TOPICS

We must preserve and protect

As a person who is aware of how we treat our environment, I would like to bring to your attention that our behavior toward nature is destroying it.

Destroying the ecosystem where we live is bad enough, but we shouldn’t forget that we are also destroying it for future generations that have the right to live in a functioning environment.

We need to change our way of life in order to ensure that future generations will be able to live. Every citizen should participate in a more environmentally aware lifestyle.

This requires more than just recycling cans, paper and plastic. It requires that people give up certain goods they take for granted, i.e. driving their own cars instead of joining a car pool or using buses. The state and the city need to be willing to stand up for nature and make changes for easy and safe use of the bus system.

Everyone finds it difficult to change their way of life. Doing so is something we should be willing to do for future generations. We need to limit our lifestyles and not live with so many comforts. Martin Hoesl Cheney

Extend survival training effort

Having lived through Vietnam, I agree with Col. W.L. Brooks (“Bogus hero media contrivance,” Letter, June 14), in that Capt. Scott O’Grady’s fame is the result of “a slow news period.”

However, as both my brother and my son have been through the survival school at Fairchild, I would like to suggest that they be allowed to give training to kids, seventh grade on up, in our public schools.

Every year, kids get lost, hunters misjudge where camp is and motorists get stranded. Some of them die because they don’t know what to do. I think having some survival training would not only save lives but also keep a few people from getting lost in the first place. J.M. Jones Spokane