Letters To The Editor
IN IDAHO
State workers can manage bears
It is gratifying to hear that the U.S. Forest Service has decided to let individual states manage at least part of their resources, the bear.
Management of bear, or any other wildlife, is best handled by trained professionals, such as Idaho Fish and Game personnel. They have the expertise to establish methods of take and seasons to properly maintain a thriving population of all species.
The statements of the Humane Society and Fund for Animals all carry the same overtones. They try to bring emotions and deception into the management of wildlife. The interference of these national organizations has no place in the state of Idaho. The system we are using to guarantee the future of all wildlife is working and will be adjusted as needed to keep it that way.
Our state Department of Fish and Game has addressed concerns on past problems with baiting. Each person who baits bear must acquire a baiting permit. They are issued three bait station tags with numbers on them connecting the tags to the baiters’ hunting license number. These tags must be displayed at each station. Baiting regulations describe what kind of bait can or cannot be used.
Some regional foresters oppose baiting because of littering and monitoring problems. With the regulations in place in Idaho, this should not be a problem as offenders can be identified. Ed Lehman, chairman, Idaho Wildlife Council Region 1 Laclede, Idaho
Hard work going into library
As someone who actually attends East Bonner County Library Board meetings, I’d like to compliment the trustees for all the work and investigation they’re doing to find cost-efficient means of financing our new library building. Over the last few years, I’ve seen a positive change in the attitude of the board. They’re working together and accomplishing things. As library users, we all benefit from their spirit of community and foresight.
The effort and careful thought which has gone into the design and concept of the new library is a tribute to the board and their determination that residents of the county enjoy the advantages of a library for many years to come.
They have the resolve to accomplish this goal with a careful eye on the bottom line, our tax dollars. If you’re interested in learning more about what’s going on, rather than take the word of those who criticize but don’t lift a finger to help, come to the next board meeting at 5:30 p.m. Monday in room 51 of the library. Or visit the library and ask to read the mission statement, long range goals and plans for the new building. Form your own opinion based on the facts. Nancy Lea, secretary Friends of the Library
Principal deserves award
I must congratulate Pam Pratt of Dalton Elementary School for being the recipient of the National Distinguished Principal Award for Idaho. She is most deserving of this honor.
Fortunately for our family, when we relocated we were assigned to Dalton Elementary. The staff at Dalton reinforces the values of honesty and responsibility that we have taught our children at home and we are delighted that academic achievement is a top priority.
The Coeur d’Alene School District is fortunate to have such a highly regarded principal. Hopefully, her success can be replicated throughout our district. Eileen Cox Coeur d’Alene
The anti-annexation heroes
Many thanks to a woman I have never met, Virginia Johnson, and all the people who presented testimony Tuesday evening at the Coeur d’Alene City Council meeting. I am truly grateful for the hours of research, study and preparation put into their presentations. Without dedicated people who feel passionately about the wellbeing of our city, and took the time to speak out, the council members could very well have approved the annexation and development of Blackwell Island.
A former unmonitored landfill, below the 100-year flood plain, on the Spokane River is a highly volatile environmental threat that must be treated with great care and concern. It is shocking that any intelligent person would ever consider such a project.
Ms. Johnson’s detailed research provided evidence that for the past year council members had been meeting with the Hall family, owners of Blackwell Island, and other developers who stood to gain tremendously if the annexation was voted in. This is information the average citizen was unaware of.
Thank you for bringing this to light, Ms. Johnson. Shirley Thagard Coeur d’Alene
Class makes fine contribution
I would like to inform the community of the outstanding service that Lori Blessing’s Adult Living Class, from Coeur d’Alene High School, performed for us.
They took an idea and made it a reality. The class came to the Multi-Service Center, Kootenai Food Bank, took food that our clients receive and made a cookbook.
This book is very informative and has excellent recipes. I know that the clients will have a valuable tool to help them now and in the future.
This service is one of the many ways our organization is trying to help the needy to overcome their obstacles. Douglas H. Gabel, director CSBG/USDA Program
CHUCK E. CHEESE PROGRAM
Restaurant didn’t deserve attack
Doug Clark’s column of March 30, in which he belittles Chuck E. Cheese for having a children’s ID program, is absolutely unbelievable. Several months ago a local TV station did a news piece on the ID program applauding Chuck E. Cheese for being so innovative in caring for our children.
His comments that no children have ever been kidnapped from Chuck E. Cheese are typical of someone who would vote against more police protection right up until the day their home is burglarized. Then they would complain about poor police response and delayed investigation.
I can almost guarantee that had one of Michelle Lowell’s children been abducted from Chuck E. Cheese she would have complained just as loudly that their ID program wasn’t stringent enough.
I am a new grandfather and I’m willing to bet that most parents and grandparents are most appreciative that Chuck E. Cheese deems our children important enough to warrant an additional effort on their part to protect our children and grandchildren while at the restaurant. Chuck E. Cheese is designed to allow children free roam of the toy land. It’s quite difficult for a parent with a party of children to keep an eye on all of the children at once. This ID program adds to the parents’ peace of mind that their children and their friends can play safely at Chuck E. Cheese.
I’m sorry you saw fit to belittle a local business that really cares about the safety of its most valued customers - our children. Larry Montague Spokane
Clark column utterly offensive
Finally there is a restaurant that takes the security of our children seriously. What does it get in return? Ridicule. (“Pizza parlor ID policy caters to the paranoid,” Doug Clark column, March 30)
Chuck E. Cheese is a nightmare without the number stamp. I think I can speak for a lot of parents when I say it is virtually impossible to keep track of children happily running from one game to another.
For being overly concerned about kidnapping and being called “paranoid,” I find it utterly offensive and I expect an apology.
For the unconcerned super-mother, why doesn’t she go for pizza at any of the local pizza restaurants that don’t have play areas? What could her motivation possibly been to refuse the number stamp? It does not hurt and it cannot be seen.
After being mentioned on page 1 (Region section), she should turn to page 3 and read the story about the child that was found in a shallow grave. Conny Niland Spokane
GOVERNMENT
Contract measures have down side
In response to Larry Bernbaum’s March 24 letter (“No subsidies for the affluent”), allow me to clarify the statement that nearly every child in day care is in a small, licensed, in-home family day care. Some centers also participate, but only those that qualify by showing a certain percentage of their clients are low-income families.
Only one of the families in my day care has the option of not working. Most families using family day-care homes are of lower income. In these homes you will find small groups of varied economic, racial and ethnic backgrounds. These groupings are family-style, blending ages, gender and children with disabilities. These children grow up side by side, establishing strong relationships free of prejudice.
Loss of entitlement status, the food program, will directly impact these homes and families. Many homes would be forced to close.
Basing assistance on family income means children will be segregated at the lunch table to eat rich-kid or poorkid lunches. Income-based qualifications by neighborhood would further segregate children.
In a country as rich in diversity as ours, family child care providers furnish a sound base in which children can grow up free of bias, respecting and valuing one another. The food programs represent valuable sources of assistance that enable day care providers that typically operate on a shoestring to survive. Nancy Gerber Spokane
Get to the meet of the matter
I’m sure everyone agrees that the liberal bureaucracy at all levels is a marvel of efficiency and concern for the taxpaying citizen, due mainly to all the meetings these folks attend. Many are held in faraway places, in hoitytoity surroundings where complex issues such as political correctness, sexual orientation awareness, anti-smoking crusade planning, government worker burnout, etc., are addressed.
The worth of the thousands of meetings conducted by thousands of government-paid experts is evident in the wondrous results produced by our schools, city halls, county courthouses, state offices and the puzzle palace on the Potomac.
In fact, such meetings are so important that it is rumored Gov. Mike Lowry will soon be attending meetings on how not to exceed highway speed limits or sexually abuse state office workers.
Therefore, I suggest our new conservative majority everywhere immediately instruct the bureaucracy to make daily morning workplace meetings mandatory, so government workers can learn to: live with budget cuts, stop whining about it, do their jobs. Jerry Bell Valley, Wash.
OTHER TOPICS
AIDS is a disease, not a punishment
The attitude expressed by Edward B. Hanson, “We ignore wages of sin” (Letters, March 28), is totally destructive.
These stars with AIDS aren’t being made saints. They are trying to educate a public who are afraid of this horrible disease that claims the lives of innocent children, young adults in their prime and people who have been “saved” by tainted transfusions, as well as people who have acquired the disease through unsafe sex.
Hanson almost made it sound like these people are bad, and that they deserve the fate they have been dealt.
No one deserves to live with whispers, stares and social avoidance while they are dying. People with cancer or emphysema are not shunned. And cancer is an ailment that people with AIDS die of, too.
The two famous men Hanson seems to like to hate did make money off their books, but has he any idea if they donated money to the fight against AIDS?
Please think hard before you judge people with AIDS. It is not a gay disease. It is not a punishment for being bad. It is a disease that your child, grandchild, mother, sister or friend could have right now or may have in the future. No one is too good to get AIDS, only too naive.
One last correction: Magic Johnson acquired AIDS before his marriage.
I am not gay, a drug user or sexually irresponsible, nor do I have AIDS. I do, however, have something Hanson lacks: compassion, empathy and common sense. Lisa Thulon Spokane
Custodial parents not all virtuous
I have an idea. Why don’t we revoke the driver’s licenses of custodial parents who, years after their divorces, are still not working or supporting their children.
Instead, they are taking the child support intended for their children’s needs and using it for their monthly living expenses, which they would have even if the child didn’t live with them. No wonder so many fathers are so upset.
The financial support schedule was set up to ensure the children the same quality of life they would have had if the parents stayed together. The father is obligated to pay that amount, yet the receiving parent is not obligated to see that the child has the same quality of life. Doesn’t seem quite right to me.
When a child is born, it is a joint venture. Both parties are equally responsible for raising the child, financially and emotionally. I know many a father who would be a much better custodial parent than the mother, but the courts haven’t opened their eyes to that fact yet. The “poor little woman” syndrome still exists.
In my opinion, these women who are literally “stealing” from their children are every bit as despicable as the noncustodial parent who is not paying child support. Shouldn’t they be punished in the same fashion as the nonpaying fathers? After all, equal rights for all! Laura Roberson Spokane
Smokejumpers lying or don’t know
Regarding staff writer J. Todd Foster’s March 27 article about smokejumpers and their fear of jumping fires in logged areas:
Smokejumping was developed to deliver firefighters to remote areas. Obviously, if areas are logged they have roads to them and jumpers, generally, shouldn’t be performing initial attack in logged areas in the first place. If the Forest Service is using jumpers to fight fires in logged areas, perhaps it should examine its initial attack policy.
Except for the method of being transported to a fire, smokejumpers are about the same as any other firefighter; perhaps not as good as some organized crews. Generally, jumpers take the easy fires - two- and fourman fires in remote areas are the rule, rather than the exception. The “eliteness” of the jumpers is that they parachute, not that they are super firefighters.
Logged areas are not heavily loaded with fuel. By law, all logged areas, federal, state and private, must meet minimum fuel hazard reduction standards after they are logged and before they are closed out. Generally, logged areas have significantly less fuel than unlogged areas.
These so-called experts don’t know what they are talking about. Or perhaps they do and simply prefer to lie about it to advance their preservationist agenda. Jim Rathbun Libby, Mont.
Check those smoke detectors
Each year, thousands of people die or suffer serious injuries in house fires. Even more tragic is that many of these fires could have been prevented with a working smoke detector.
Although 88 percent of American homes have smoke detectors, nearly one-third of those smoke detectors don’t work because of dead or missing batteries.
With the early warning that a smoke detector can provide, residents stand a much greater chance of escaping to safety. In fact, a working smoke detector cuts the risk of dying in a home fire by nearly half.
So this April 2, when you turn your clocks forward one hour, take an extra minute to install fresh batteries in your smoke detectors. Then, push the test button to make sure the devices work. We recommend that families also plan two escape routes from their home and regularly practice using them.
A smoke detector is a family’s best defense against fire. Keeping it in top working condition by changing the battery in the fall and spring when you change the time on your clocks will help ensure that it’s working when you need it most. Ramona L. Baker, fire prevention education specialist Post Falls
Commissioners wrong about zoo
Could the Spokane County commissioners please explain to my 2-year-old son why he won’t be able to visit his friends at Walk in the Wild any more?
Personally, I would also like to ask why your paper has such a vendetta against this wonderful family organization? Most of my friends who have a “bad impression” of the zoo have never been there. Without exception, they have formulated these opinions through the reporting in your paper. Congratulations, on playing a major role in bringing about the likely closure of this park.
As a veterinarian and environmentalist, I have enjoyed Walk in the Wild almost as much as my son has enjoyed it. I encourage you to visit the zoo - if you haven’t - and lend a hand to this organization. Make it the nontaxpayer-financed hand our county commissioners aren’t willing to offer. J.E. Ellington Spokane