Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

Worried resident won’t be done in

In response to Sharon Armstrong’s (April 28) letter regarding the formation of a parking and business improvement area (PBIA) in downtown Spokane, I would like to set the record straight.

Sharon Armstrong’s home is not within the proposed district and she will not be assessed. Considerable effort by hundreds of downtown business leaders produced a plan to revitalize downtown. This plan does not assess individual homeowners. On the contrary, one of the critical areas the PBIA will address is the lack of housing within the downtown neighborhood.

Over the last 12 months we have contacted either in person or by mail every business and property owner affected by the PBIA. Armstrong’s home has never been in our database and she has thus never been contacted. It is unfortunate that Sharon’s well-intended but misleading letter was published.

The spirit of this operational plan is to keep downtown a vibrant, clean, safe and growing neighborhood. The plan is participatory and its success is dependent on the involvement both business and property owners are willing to undertake to address such matters as housing, security, beautification and transportation. As of this date, 70 percent of the combined business and property owners are in favor of maintaining downtown for the benefit of all, including Sharon Armstrong. Maryellen Johnson, coordinator Downtown Action Committee petition drive

Penalize delinquent taxpayers

I was appalled to learn in Dan Hansen’s “Aquifer tax collections stagnant” (April 24) that property owners in Spokane County owe nearly $1.2 million in overdue taxes to protect drinking water created by the aquifer. I was also upset to learn that the county can do very little to collect the money from these people who choose not to pay as long as they own the land being taxed.

These delinquent taxpayers need to wake up and understand that this tax was created to build a sewer system that will significantly cut down on the pollution of our aquifer.

The aquifer should not be taken for granted; it provides Spokane with a clean, natural water supply. If funding for the sewer system is not granted from taxpayers, we are only hurting ourselves in the long run. The longer the sewer system takes to build because of these uninformed taxpayers, the more polluted our aquifer will become.

The aquifer tax only costs Spokane property owners $15 to $30 per year, which is a small price to pay for pure and clean water.

As long as the state law that prohibits the county from passing on the costs involved in filing a lien on to the property owners who do not choose to pay this tax, an alternative needs to be found immediately. I propose cutting off utilities service to residents who don’t pay this tax. Maybe that would wake up those delinquent taxpayers and the rest of Spokane. After all, the longer we wait, the sooner we will suffer. Brent Howard Spokane

Improve our good recycling effort

I am impressed with the way people in our state are recycling. I read recently that last year Washington recycled 80 percent of its aluminum cans. Since becoming a student at Eastern Washington University, I’ve been made aware of how important it is to conserve our resources.

However, I have one suggestion.

Many businesses in town have not adapted to recycling their used office paper. It’s actually very easy to recycle paper nowadays because the recyclers take just about every kind of paper product. We are all doing wonderfully, but a little more awareness couldn’t hurt.

Keep up the good work, Spokane! Todd A. Ekstrom Spokane

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

Daughters day example all wrong

No doubt you will receive some heat, as well you should, for running a photo of a boy at his father’s office on Take Our Daughters to Work Day.

More disturbing is the comment from the father in the story that he had to take his son to work because the boy complained that his sister was going to work that day with grandma at Lamonts.

Why didn’t the father take his daughter to work with him? Or do girls just get to see work experiences at clothing stores while boys get to tag along with dad to the office?

I’m afraid that both the boy and the girl mentioned in the story learned the wrong thing on Take Our Daughters to Work Day. Stefanie Pettit Spokane

‘Rich’ is not a dirty word

Betty Randall (“U.S. a land of, by and for the rich,” Letters, April 22) uses the word “rich” as if it was a vulgarity.

When did rich become a dirty word? Last I knew, in a capitalist society like the United States, having money usually means having achieved. If being rich means going out, working hard and getting paid, sign me up! As a young, poor white girl, I am quit willing to join the evil masses of men and women who have had the gall to go out and make a lot of money - even if I have to work to do it. Pamela Bergin Spokane

Do turn to God, but not just for now

The recent bombing in Oklahoma has been a definite tragedy. One which causes people to need comfort and hope for the future.

This is a time when people should and need to lean on God. The people in Oklahoma and around the country have obviously done that, as seen through President Clinton’s speeches and the memorial service, in which Billy Graham was a featured speaker.

This new look to God in the face of tragedy leaves me with a bittersweet feeling. I think it is great that people are looking to God for support, but it is sad that it takes a tragedy of this magnitude to open people’s eyes. Americans take things such as life for granted somuch that, until it is gone, we don’t look at the consequences. Thanks to the grace of God, he will not abandon his people. But we need to take a serious look at what life is all about, not only in times of tragedy but every day of our lives. Chris Martin Spokane

TERRORISM

‘Mental cases’ retard own cause

In response to Bill Quinn’s and Bill Anglin’s letters of April 27:

As for Waco, those people knew what was going down and they had the opportunity to bail out but chose not to.

The bombing victims in Oklahoma City had no warning or choice. They were surprise-attacked by mental cases who were unable to think rationally.

On the subject of “government is us,” a grammatical error was made. It should read “government was us.” The government has steadily gone in the direction of special interests and self servers. The will of the majority has been ignored for a long time.

Even so, no one has the right to kill people to make a point. By doing so, their cause is not promoted but instead loses momentum due to heinous and unnecessary acts.

Do as the National Rifle Association does. Use the system as was the intention of our founding fathers. Do it the right way or don’t do it at all. Steve Morse Spokane

It’s bad guys, not bad implements

For a few days after the Oklahoma City bombing, everyone was stunned beyond words by this horrible, unbelievable, inhuman act. Now it seems that some Spokesman-Review columnists and letter writers are placing the blame for this tragedy on Republican rightwingers who are not delighted with the current administration loaded with liberal Democrats. Liberals lying about radical Republicans who do not support gun control laws, not assault weapons bans, they cry.

As a low-income, 70-year-old Republican who has never had a gun in his hands since World War II, I would like to point out that fertilizer was used in this horrible crime, not assault weapons. Also, that crimes are committed by villainous people, not by automobiles, fertilizer, guns, knives, poison, etc.

Incidentally, I never listen to talk radio. My dial is permanently tuned to beautiful music. I get all of my news from The Spokesman-Review and the “MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour.”

According to Friday’s paper, cartoonist Milt Priggee and columnist David Broder indicate they know who committed this terrible crime. The case is closed. Call off the feds. Electrocute talk radio. Don Morrison Spokane

Don’t give in to killers’ madness

Tolerance, trust, faith and forgiveness are at the base of the Constitution and the religious convictions upon which this nation was built. We must not allow the Oklahoma City bombing, the handiwork of madmen, to undermine that foundation.

Our officials should adopt a synergistic approach to dealing with the so-called radical right wing, rather than assume a cause sinister. Open, honest, public intercourse would help allay the fears of all participants. The increased surveillance and infiltration suggested by President Clinton will only increase fear and suspicion.

Franklin D. Roosevelt once noted “the lunatic fringe in all reform movements.” We must be mindful of the fringes, but we must not judge groups by the actions of individuals. That’s how prejudices begin.

The most evil that can come from terrorism is for good people to believe that terrorists are fair representatives of the groups they purport to represent. The groups that the terrorists claim to represent are intermingled, helping one another in Oklahoma City.

The people of America rallied around Oklahoma City. “People who think Americans are mean and selfish ought to come to Oklahoma” has been repeated frequently over the past week, and from what we saw on television, it’s true. All Americans believe it is precisely that spirit that will carry the whole country past the unspeakable carnage caused by this cowardly act.

The most important step we can take in the healing process is forgiveness. We should engrave “We forgive you” on the tombstone of each individual involved in the bombing. Soon. Raymond Louis Meyers Richland

Clinton should check own record

Everyone should stop, take a deep breath and consider several facts:

Janet Reno has admitted to the media that President Bill Clinton’s anti-terrorism bill would not have prevented the tragedy in Oklahoma City.

The U.S. government has been successful in identifying and apprehending suspects who pulled off this criminal act with our existing laws and law enforcement manpower.

The U.S. government will sentence to death suspects convicted of carrying out this evil, cowardly crime against the United States of America.

In the meanwhile, our present laws and manpower probably could be improved without sacrificing our human rights and liberties. We should, however, review the U.S. Constitution, especially the part about using the U.S. Armed Forces against U.S. citizens, before going forward with President Clinton’s anti-terrorism legislation.

Clinton should consider whether his speech about the United States or the Johnson administration’s Vietnam War policy while he was in the territories of North Vietnam’s allies during the Vietnam War would constitute terrorism or treason in the United States today. Patrick Geiger Spokane

IN THE PAPER

Holocaust story an ‘excellent job’

I would like to thank (staff writer) Jim Camden for his April 24 article, “Recalling Holocaust horrors.” I have also met people who do not believe that the Holocaust took place. If they would read Camden’s article they might think differently.

Camden has done an excellent job of reminding us of exactly what happened so many years ago. I will not soon forget the article’s powerful message. I will look for more of his work in future additions. Laura Avery Cheney

Time for Priggee to back off

In response to Milt Priggee’s “North Idaho dopes” cartoon (April 23), may I say, please! Enough is enough!

Sandpoint has long suffered from the malady of drug abuse, sometimes being referred to as the “cocaine capital of Idaho.” Don’t think that that fact missed Sandpoint’s school administrators and trustees.

Sure, they have weathered their share of school crisis. But to deny they’re doing their duty - providing a safe and secure environment in which to learn - is too much.

Look, Milt, would you want your kids being exposed to drugs at school? Or would you prefer a staff that took this nonsense and their positions of trust seriously? Bob Spaulding Post Falls

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Government cuts boosted poverty

The giant increase in the poor has been caused more by what the government took away than by what it distributed to the poor. Also, the government doesn’t enforce its own laws on legislated school attendance requirements to lift people out of poverty. Our state has a 26 percent high school dropout rate.

The welfare increase began in 1980, when Congress gave the rich a big tax break and took away five years of SSA benefits from children in school whose working parents had died. The states quickly followed and reduced child support by three years for a still-dependent, full-time student.

In the 1990s, the military was drastically cut. The military is where most of my generation say they grew up, and where a young girl was paid by the government to marry a soldier or sailor and paid more for each child. All medical was free. There were no job layoffs, and she could get government-subsidized prices on everything at the commissary.

WPA and CCC camps have been gone so long most young people don’t even know that these were a last resort for the poor to earn a living.

College tuitions continue to rise, while college loans and grants are being threatened.

Now some politicians want welfare through the churches, so the poor must belong to a rich church or go hungry. Sounds altogether too much like Herbert Hoover, who sent his generals out to burn possessions of, and shoot if necessary, the thousands of poor who begged across the river from the White House. Mary L. Keeney Ephrata, Wash.

We can move on, deal with poverty

I believe that much of the opposition to affirmative action has been misdiagnosed and incorrectly shrouded in accusations of sexism and racism.

Affirmative action isn’t a race issue or a woman’s issue; it’s an issue of class. Whatever your skin color or gender, poverty is the common denominator among those discriminated against. If you are poor, discrimination takes a range of forms: bad schools, food and shelter. These inequities breed an unequal distribution of wealth and with it a decline of social graces.

If, as it would appear, affirmative action has reached old age, let it die. But meanwhile, we can give birth to new ideas and to new questions of the ever-shifting problem of discrimination. Tyson Mauermann Cheney

OTHER TOPICS

Gadget serves Kentucky farmers

In regard to farmers having to install gates on their property and how inconvenient it is to get out of the car to open and close them, etc., why don’t they have gates like they do in the Kentucky bluegrass?

There, the driver reaches out his window and grabs a long, skinny wooden stick and pulls on it to open the gate. The driver goes through the gate then does the same thing; it has a counterweight so he can close the gate easily. June Curd Kilpatrick Spokane

A-bomb apology uncalled for

In response to Irvin H. Smith’s letter of April 25:

I also resent Silvia Blackbourn’s apology. I’m only 41, so I did not see the devastation at Pearl Harbor. But I believe that many, many more lives would have been lost had we not had the courage to drop those bombs. M.J. Jones Spokane