Letters To The Editor

LAW ENFORCEMENT

Police wrong to shoot

Blaine Dalrymple’s death was unjustified. The man I knew and loved was a gentle, kind man who had a great love for God and his country, and I must admit that I am appalled at the tactics they must be teaching at our police academy. It seems it must be always shoot to kill.

Why didn’t the police await a mental health worker?

Why wasn’t an officer trained in talking to upset people brought in?

I have known Blaine for six years and he literally gave me the shirt off his back. I could name 20 or more people who could have talked him out of that bathroom. Instead, they shot him six times. He was cornered with nowhere to go.

I have yet to see a picture that shows Blaine’s size. He was a big but gentle man whose size intimidated people.

He was a loving man who was concerned with everyone in his life, especially his mother. On March 3, the last time I saw him, he told me he was heading up to his mother’s to give her some money and that he had a new girlfriend. He wrote her phone number down on a “Daily Bread” Christian devotional.

I bet that rookie policeman was traumatized by such unjustified violence. It will be interesting to see if he gives testimony in the investigation that should ensue. Tim Carr Spokane

Police right to shoot

In response to the shooting of Blaine Dalrymple by police officers, I personally support them 100 percent.

The article in the newspaper makes it sound as though the police were the bad guys and the victim blameless.

If anyone is thinking he should have been wounded, imagine yourself in a situation in which someone is charging you with a nine-inch piece of broken mirror. What would you do?

I would attempt to stop them with all I had, just as the police did. Especially after spraying him with pepper spray apparently did not hinder him.

It just seems so in vogue these days to blame and condemn the police, and The Spokesman-Review has certainly fallen into that category. Bob Harmon Spokane

Nonlethal responses possible

The men responsible for protecting us called it an “officer-assisted suicide.” I call it murder.

How hard would it have been for three physically fit officers to tackle the late Blaine Dalrymple, who may have been intoxicated or under the influence of drugs?

Police Chief Terry Mangan commented that it would have been irresponsible for police not to kick in the door when they thought Dalrymple would commit suicide.

The question is, how responsible was it for them to blow him away?

Mangan also said officer Glenn Bartlett is so new they want to make sure there is no emotional trauma. But what about Blaine’s mom? She called the police because she was afraid that her mentally ill son might hurt himself. They obviously didn’t do much to help calm her fears.

I personally will not feel safe in this city if the officers who slaughtered Mr. Dalrymple are allowed to continue wearing a badge. Andrew E. Brown Spokane

CONTRIBUTORS

McMillan’s service invaluable

The Community Colleges of Spokane have lost a very dedicated trustee. Dee McMillan represented the community of Colville and all of the surrounding areas in the north of our wide community college area.

This job isn’t salaried. Financially, it is a losing proposition. The satisfaction of giving back to our communities is what drives us to accept these positions. Dee drove in all kinds of weather to attend monthly board meetings and many meetings in between. She missed very, very few meetings.

Dee McMillan has unselfishly served her community with integrity and hard work for the last 12 years. You in Colville know how hard she worked to make the dream come true of your community college in Colville.

I couldn’t count the many meetings this lady attended and instigated in the past year to accomplish what around the state is said to be the impossible. It’s not every day that the city, K-12 school district, CCS Foundation, CCS, county, state and private enterprise can work together for the same goal and accomplish it. Because of Dee’s dedication and can-do attitude, the dream came true.

She had lots of help, but she never gave up hope, even when the obstacles seemed overwhelming.

The trustees of Community Colleges of Spokane, and myself in particular, are thankful we had a trustee of Dee’s caliber in the Colville area at the time we needed to expand in the north. She worked hard for the betterment of the entire system.

We will miss her and we wish her well. Dorothy M. Knechtel, trustee Community Colleges of Spokane

Government and politics

Leave doctors in charge?

Beware House Speaker Newt Gingrich and several of his colleagues recently said that perhaps it would be best for us to leave the national health care plan to those who know it best, the doctors, as they are more aware of the problems and solutions. This would be akin to putting the fox in the hen house to protect the chickens. According to the latest investigative reports of Medicare fraud, the most numerous perpetrators are members of the medical profession themselves.

Do Mr. Gingrich and fellow GOP members feel they have found a perfect way to reward one of their biggest PAC contributors, the American Medical Association, by letting it have one of the biggest hands in the government’s cookie jar?

The latest issue of Mother Jones Magazine highlights many areas of Medicare fraud presently involving doctors:

Doctors who defrauded Medicare out of over $30 million in orthopedic shoes alone.

Doctors, in conjunction with devious pharmacists, who have defrauded both the public and Medicare of millions in prescription scams.

Doctors who made multimillions via overbilling, “errors,” billing for services not performed, kickbacks, etc.

Doctors who kite wheelchair, walker, orthopedic aids. etc., prices a thousand percent.

Doctors who own inpatient clinics, rehabilitation centers, private hospitals and, via grossly inflated billing, steal millions each year, bilk the insurance companies and skyrocket insurance rates.

The list goes on as these so-called caretakers of the public’s health, who own expensive retreats in the Bahamas and other offshore areas, are now in line for special keys to Medicare’s purse. Andy Kelly Spokane

Snow wrong about Social Security

Once again, we are being handed misinformation. This time it’s in Tony Snow’s March 8 column, “Let’s totally revise Social Security.”

Contrary to Mr. Snow’s claim, the Social Security trust fund does exist. It has not been plundered for years to finance ongoing federal operations, as he claims. The facts are these:

Social Security “contributions” from workers and employers constantly flow into the U.S. Treasury.

Payments to Social Security beneficiaries constantly flow out of the U.S. Treasury.

Right now, and for years yet to come, inflow exceeds outflow. The overage is placed in a special trust fund and can only be used for payouts to beneficiaries when needed in the future.

This money in trust has to be invested. The only things it can by law be invested in are U.S. government securities. The trust fund is a customer. The treasury is happy to have such a customer, since it is continually looking for buyers of its paper.

In this manner, the treasury gets the use of the money for “ongoing federal operations.” It also gets the money I spend to buy a U.S. Savings Bond from my local bank. So what? It is hardly “plunder.”

The securities the Social Security trust fund holds are income-producing assets to the fund. At the end of January 1995, these assets amounted to over $417 billion, including a portion for disability insurance. Annual income to the trust is over $30 billion, which is reinvested in more securities for the trust. Richard T. Brown Spokane

Trouble with welfare is slackers

Let us quit wasting time with the federal government’s welfare reform shuffle and get straight to the heart of the matter: able-bodied people not working.

Shouldn’t we screen these individuals for physical abilities and work skills, rather than just asking applicants for the number of dependent children in the household, signing the forms and calling for the next person in line?

This is not an attack on those who are attempting to better themselves and their families by attending school. This is an endeavor to identify those who stay on the dole as a way of life. Many of these people are capable of sustaining employment, but the ease of obtaining welfare benefits, as well as the fact that there is little follow-up on the work eligibility status of these individuals, may entice them to not make an honest attempt to seek employment.

Yes, they do have kids who require care and nurturing. However, is it the fault of taxpayers? Should an individual receive an income for wanting to stay home and be a mother or father? Chances are, these people will still be a parent when they come home from work, and possibly feel good about earning a living rather than running to the mailbox once a month. Don Harrison Spokane

Solution’s up to Congress

About 20 years ago the sky opened up, there was a bolt of lightning and a voice (my wife’s) said, “If we didn’t have all this interest to pay, we would have enough money.”

We paid our debts, and she was right. Now we have money in the bank which is paying us interest and we are much more secure in our lifestyle.

What Congress needs is a bolt of lightning, to tell those fellows to pay the bills and get solvent, but to still remember their past promises to the people they represent. Changing the Constitution won’t do that. The Constitution doesn’t spend money, Congress does.

We need representatives and senators with guts, who will do the job they are paid to do and represent the people. But sorry, my wife says she doesn’t want to run. Richard F. Bronson Spokane

Republicans, what’s the rush?

Many have angrily lashed out at anyone who opposed the Republicans’ balanced budget amendment.

Why do we need to tinker with the Constitution in order to make Congress do what its members were elected to do? Why do today’s taxpayers have to pick up the whole tab for 40 years of government spending?

Everyone agrees the deficit needs to be reduced, but

how to do it is up for debate. These methods were not addressed by amendment supporters.

Now, because President Clinton and many in Congress didn’t blindly go along, we’re hearing this wait until the next election garbage.

In fact, the next election may not turn out as most Republicans hope. Congress’ current break-neck pace shows panic by the majority to get all their dirty work done quickly. The current slash and burn of many worthwhile government programs has left many wondering what they bought into. Bills introduced for tort reform, changing the Davis-Bacon Act, the attack on public broadcasting and others have left many people scratching their heads. And what happened to term limits?

This agenda just shows Republicans are the lapdogs of corporate America. Not that Democrats have anything to brag about. Middle class America has no political party but, hopefully, one could emerge. Robert Krebs St. Maries, Idaho

Hatfield has my respect

I agree with pollster David Elton’s opinion in support of Sen. Mark Hatfield (Letters, March 9). Furthermore, I think that if more of our representatives would vote their conscience instead of outside influences, like special interest groups or even internal party pressures; if they would vote more on their integrity and less on political factors, this nation would be in a lot better shape than it is.

I would like to have seen the balanced budget amendment pass, but I respect Sen. Hatfield’s actions. Kenneth Reynolds Spokane

THE ENVIRONMENT

Officials’ backing called for

If preserving our salmon, open public lands, clean water supplies, outdoor recreation, wildlife habitat and local natural history aren’t reasons enough to save the Hanford Reach and Wahluke Slope, then add economic diversity to the list.

This winter, a rare Ross’ gull visited our area and attracted birders from all over North America within days. But the Wahluke Slope and Hanford reach harbor over 48 rare species with more being discovered.

Now, consider that wildlife-oriented recreation contributed $2.3 billion to Washington state’s economy in 1991 alone and it becomes obvious that designating the Wahluke Slope a national wildlife refuge and the Hanford Reach a recreational river would help diversify our economy while simultaneously protecting our quality of life.

But we can’t save the reach without preserving the neighboring lands of the Wahluke Slope. This basic scientific fact seems to elude the Benton, Franklin and Grant county commissioners.

The county commissioners should wholeheartedly endorse the wildlife refuge and recreational river proposal. When you think about it, why don’t they? Bob Wilson Richland

View from the field is different

Clark Chambers’ editorial attempt (Letters, March 3) laments a minor bit of legislation that would legalize killing coyotes without a license. Here’s another view.

I’ve hunted pheasant off the breaks of the Snake River since the early 1970s. The hunting down there used to be consistently good. In 1979 there were so many birds that they literally could not all fit into the existing cover.

I finally asked one of three brothers who were kind enough to let me hunt their property every year what had happened to cause such a population explosion. He replied that during the spring seeding, they had found dead coyotes everywhere. Apparently, the canine parvo disease had swept through the area and killed almost every coyote in existence.

A few years later, the anti-fur coat people began throwing paint at anyone with a fur collar on their coat. The market for coyote pelts went south and trappers quit hunting them. Now, I can’t take 50 steps up a draw without stepping in coyote scat.

The consequences to the pheasant population have been enormous. In an area that I used to take limits every time I hunted, I feel fortunate to just see a pheasant now. There are so few birds that I have decided to quit hunting.

I don’t think this proposed legislation will cause “the stench of native flesh” that Mr. Clark predicts. But if it does, that’s OK with me. Hal Dixon Spokane

Fuhrman 180 degrees off course

In “Bills die as Legislative deadline passes” (March 2), I was relieved to read that Rep. Steve Fuhrman’s bills to weaken state protection of threatened species expired in committee.

While he says his bills were “trying to educate people there is a problem,” it is Fuhrman himself who desperately needs educating.

Endangered species laws keep us healthy by safeguarding many of the species we rely on for life-saving medicines. The drug taxol, which comes from the Pacific yew tree, gives renewed hope to thousands of Americans who suffer from breast and ovarian cancer. The Houston toad produces alkaloids that may prevent heart attacks.

Yet the pharmaceutical treasury of nature is quickly disappearing. Due to our reckless misuse of our planet’s limited natural resources, Harvard scientist E.O. Wilson estimates that the current rate of extinction is up to 10,000 times its natural rate. One in five plant and animal species living today is in danger of going extinct in the next 30 years.

There is no way to predict which diseases will haunt the human race in the future, no way to know which medicines will provide the cure. There is no way to know which animals or plants we should save.

The message is clear: If we protect nature, nature will protect us.

I strongly urge Rep. Fuhrman to stop his efforts to weaken our environmental laws and to instead work to strengthen them for us and for our children’s children. Clark A. Reed Spokane

CONGRATULATIONS

Cheers for Jantsch High

I’m excited. Super elated! Congratulations to Jantsch High School for winning the state of Washington’s first alternative high school basketball tournament.

The front page story (Region section, March 9) by Gita Sitaramiah was truly a great story and it made my day.

I was a teacher, counselor and ASB advisor at Jantsch High School for 17 years and it was for me, at that time, the greatest alternative high school in America. It was the students and staff who made this possible.

Jantsch High School basketball team and coaches, you are all awesome. Keep up the exciting hard work and enthusiasm. And remember, too, your school work is equally important when it comes to making it in life. Tony Antonucci Spokane

Correction Cindy Omlin’s letter of March 10 contained a typographical error. The affected sentence should conclude, ” … it would eventually bring down the illegitimacy rate though increasing abortion in the short term.”