Letters To The Editor
ANIMAL TREATMENT
Maybe it’s time to close track
The Coeur d’Alene Greyhound Park is a bleeding, diseased limb of the greyhound racing industry. For years, track management has used the efforts of well-meaning greyhound adoption advocates as a free public relations Band-Aid.
They claim they have no control over kennel tenants who rent space at the park. The reality is, that they have chosen to take no control over what happens on their property.
The members of the Idaho Racing Commission are more interested in tourist draw than greyhound welfare and look the other way.
In light of recent investigations, I think the greyhound track requires major surgery, or even amputation. Linda Crider Spokane
Treatment of dogs deplorable
In reference to your articles on the treatment of greyhounds in Sunday’s paper Sept. 17, it make me utterly sick to see people treating animals as if their only purpose is to serve them.
Killing greyhounds after they are of no use to the racing facilities is bad enough, but to torture them as they are being killed is deplorable.
Animals deserve respect just as much as we do; after all, we are animals, too. We have no more right to live than they do. If we taught all our children this, the world would be a much better place. Deborah L. Silver Moses Lake, Wash.
A callous indifference to suffering
I read with horror the report on the dreadful conditions at the Greyhound Park in Post Falls.
When mankind has such callous indifference to the suffering of helpless animals and subjects them to such unspeakable cruelties as mentioned in the report, is it any wonder that we’re still dealing with man’s inhumanity to man in its many tragic forms?
I’m grateful for the publishing of this article. May it be the impetus for correcting the conditions at the greyhound track, and be a shameful but forceful prod to those who have perpetuated such conditions, to change their ways. Patricia M. Williams Spokane
Elephants don’t belong in circus
Last summer, an elephant named Flora crushed the skull of a Moscow Circus interpreter minutes before a planned appearance on the “Live with Regis and Kathy Lee” show. In Honolulu, a 21-year-old African elephant named Tyke deliberately trampled her trainer to death and injured a dozen spectators before being shot dead in the street. In 1993, Janet, an old elephant who had been kept on repeated doses of drugs to calm her down, tore out of a Great American Circus ring in Florida, carrying a box full of children on her back. She was shot 47 times before she died. These spectacularly hideous attacks made headlines; many did not. Elephant rebellions are becoming routine.
Elephants have the largest brains of any mammals on Earth. They are creative, altruistic and kind, and live up to 70 years in their homelands. They are highly social beings who enjoy extended family relationships. Under the big top, their life span is cut in half by stress, constant travel, loneliness and disease. Behaviorists tell us that elephants can and do cry from loss of social interaction and physical abuse. If you wonder how these magnificent beings keep from going mad, perhaps the answer is, they don’t.
How much human blood and misery must mingle with that of the elephants before their struggle for freedom is successful? As a society which prides itself on being civilized, we must demand an end to this injustice. Join me in boycotting circuses that exploit elephants. Anne Sciortino, president Animal Advocates of the Inland Northwest, Spokane
RELIGION
God and science can coexist
I agree with your endorsement of the science center; it is money prudently spent.
Those who oppose it on religious grounds are fighting a battle that ended 70 years ago during the Scopes Monkey Trial. To paraphrase John T. Scopes, science shows that creation is the result of a multi-million-year miracle, instead of a seven-day one.
Contemporary mainstream Christian theology incorporates the fact of evolution quite easily with both a belief in God and an adherence to a traditional moral code. They are not exclusive.
There is even a point of view that says God created at once these many evolutionary clues to give us matter to study to sharpen our intellect.
The study of science offers to those with open minds and religious inclinations a story more astounding in its breadth and more dramatic in its sweep and detail than can be imagined by those who don’t investigate it. Fred Glienna Coeur d’Alene
Don’t blame God for suicide
Regarding the article in The Spokesman-Review of Saturday, Sept. 16, titled “Shaking a fist”: Mrs. Foster expresses her anger at God “for doing this to me.” Her anger is misdirected. She is neglecting the fact that God allows our free will. The choice was Vincent Foster’s, not God’s. Ethel Hurst Athol
Search for truth must continue
Regarding “Shaking a fist,” (Religion, Sept. 16): Lisa Foster wonders how she can praise the Almighty after her husband’s suicide. I’d like to give the human race a little credit.
For thousands of years, people have been questioning religion, searching for answers to our human origins, our past, our purpose and the afterlife. Understanding this, the forefathers of our country and creators of the Constitution embraced freedom of religion. However, references to a Christian God in the Declaration of Independence, national creed and even our currency displayed definite favoritism to Christianity and Catholic beliefs. This favoritism grew for years throughout our nation.
Today, as we draw closer to the turn of the century, we’ve begun to question our fundamental Christian beliefs and the Holy Bible, turning inward for answers to difficult questions (“Where was Jesus when I needed Him? I don’t know why God would do something painful to me. I wouldn’t do it to somebody I loved.”).
No one has come up with a reasonable, satisfactory answer to this and many other difficult questions while staying within the bounds of Christian beliefs. Many Americans are exploring new religions and beliefs, discovering Eastern philosophy such as Zen and Buddhism, delving into New Age ideas and researching scientific data on extraterrestrial life forms.
It’s my hope we, as sentient beings, will continue to search for answers. Perhaps we’ll have to let go of our fundamentalist Christian beliefs and explore a new age and new era of religion. If the Bible can’t answer our questions about God, then perhaps God has put the answers elsewhere. Our traditions as a nation shouldn’t hold us back, they should give a strong footing to propel us down the future path of love, light, righteousness and unquestionable knowledge. Shel Bailey Spokane
Article didn’t tell whole story
Once again you have failed to print the whole truth. You always succeed in printing half-truths when it suits your evil intentions. The front-page article on Sept. 16 contains only half-truths from the pastoral letter from the three bishops from the state of Washington, dated Sept. 7, 1995.
The last paragraph on page two of this pastoral letter, quoting the Catechism of the Catholic Church, states, “Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Our tradition has always declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.’ They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.”
Furthermore, the pope in 1994 commanded the bishops to teach that not only is homosexuality a disorder, it is immoral. Oh, yes, one more thing. Anal intercourse causes AIDs. James Mertens Spokane
God is watching what we do
Regarding the article on Sept 17, the bishops neutrality on anti-gay rights, I-166 and I-167: the bishops having barred signature-gathering on church grounds is not as important as taking a moral stand on political issues to prevent gays and lesbians from adopting children or becoming foster parents.
I wonder if they were overwhelmed with sanctifying grace and aware that God and his angels were watching, and of their deliberations? The trouble and turmoil in the world today is this: God isn’t failing us, we are failing God, because we don’t trust in him. Angela Eudaley Spokane
Timber ‘Science-based’ stump production
I had to comment on the idiotic, misleading and propagandistic advertisements by Boise Cascade which have been running in The Spokesman-Review the past couple of weeks. Boise Cascade must take the majority of residents in the greater Spokane area for morons. Who are they trying to kid when they talk about “science-based management?”
If you’ve ever driven along I-90 toward Seattle, or other places in the Northwest where timber companies do their business, you’ll see evidence of their idea of “science-based management.”
“Science-based management” and “thinning overcrowded stands of dead and dying trees” involves cutting down every last tree the timber company can get their hands on.
They won’t be happy until their “science-based management” turns our beautiful Northwest into a land of stumps. Letting the timber companies use their “science-based” techniques to “manage” our forests is like letting a fox watch the henhouse. Don’t be fooled by Boise’s slick advertisements complete with endorsements from politicians, lawyers, and fellow stump producers.
I can agree with only one statement in Boise’s slick piece of propaganda: Now is the time to act. They’re right, people, now is the time to act, to save what little remains of our virgin timber stands in the Northwest. If we don’t act now, our children and our children’s children will have stumps rather than forests to gaze upon. Peter Arnett Pullman
Timber campaign not truthful
The timber industry’s recent media campaign on the condition of our national forests needs to be addressed. The advertisements on the radio and in the newspaper state that the forests are unhealthy. The forests can be restored, industry claims, through science-based management. Now the truth.
The ads are to publicly justify the industry’s attempt to gain more access to timber in national forests, because they have depleted their own timber held on private lands. Industry’s position on forest health is nonsense. First, many years of poor logging practices and little forest management have created the so-called “disastrous” conditions in our forests. Second, natural conditions, including fires, ultimately restore the health of the forests.
The industry’s scientific solution is unsupported. As an engineer, I’m aware of how science can be utilized and twisted to support a position. In this case, industry doesn’t twist scientific data, it only uses the term “science” to convince the public and our legislators that their position is correct. Visions of credibility, assurance and goodness shouldn’t be automatically attached to the term “science.”
No documented science indicates that increased logging in national forests will enhance the health of the forests. Management practices of logging will only disrupt the natural ecosystem of the forest. Logging will increase roads, erosion, degradation of soil quality, and prevent the forest from ever regaining a balanced state by reaching its natural cycle.
Don’t be fooled by this expensive ad campaign. Don’t allow increased logging in our national forests. This is your land, not industry’s. Joe Dawley Spokane
OTHER TOPICS
An apology is in order
Just a suggestion: The next time John Blanchette and your other so-called journalists have a sore throat they had better show up for work.
I’m really tired of you people being childish and judgmental. John Michael Montgomery has been hospitalized because of his sore throat. According to several people who saw his performance at the Puyallup Fair, he could hardly talk by the time he finished the concert.
Yes, he was the opening act for the Arena, but I would have been more disappointed if he had tried to put on a show without his voice being 100 percent.
The article on Sept. 17 and again on Sept 18, both implied he was in the same class as No Show Jones and resorted to name-calling (John Michael Whatsizname) which was totally uncalled for.
This was not a case of low ticket sales (there were over 9,000 out of 10,000 sold) or of him skipping out on us (since the show is rescheduled for Feb. 16).
I think you owe John Michael Montgomery an apology, and you owe over 9,000 ticket holders and country music fans an apology. Sandra Lynn Spokane
Abortion is never the right choice
In response to Susanne Croft (Sept. 18), I would like to say that abortion is never the right policy anywhere.
Since choice is not an option in China, a better solution could be sterilization, not abortion. At least, then, no life is lost and population would be better controlled.
It would seem from a logical point of view that if China continues their present policy of aborting all babies after the first child, as well as killing all girl babies, they are destined for extinction.
If killing is about protecting human rights, may God have mercy on us. Linda Reed Spokane
Wright should run for president
Let me congratulate the Spokesman on the variety of syndicated columnists appearing on the editorial pages. The pictures of black faces, feminine faces, Hispanic names as well as white males, does more to prove to troubled members of minority groups that “you can make it” and “the melting pot can be a reality.” These are really talented people. I don’t always agree but certainly appreciate their varied points of view. There is one who hits me straight-on in almost all his columns - Jim Wright of the Dallas Morning News.
I know Jim Wright is the deposed (not disgraced) exspeaker of the House. I wasn’t sorry to see him go because our Tom Foley was waiting in the wings. I don’t pardon him for his creative bookkeeping for one moment. He’s tough, smart, articulate with common sense and he’s precisely the leader our country needs to complete its revival.
He knows Washington (D.C.) politics, has been its leader and has the reputation of getting things done. More importantly, he does more than return to lobby the “power in D.C.” (for the moneyed few) after leaving Congress. For me, it’s “Wright for President.” You know where he stands because he’s written it for all to read. Harry Merrick Chattaroy, Wash.
Give credit where it’s due
I’m writing in response to your Sept. 10 front page article entitled “B.C. stops spewing slag into Columbia.” The focus of the article suggests one individual, Professor Ed Brock of WSU, was largely responsible for initiating actions which forced Cominco to decrease contaminant discharge into the Columbia River.
While Professor Borck did play a role, his efforts were far overshadowed by the years of work and the accomplishments of groups such as the Citizens for a Clean Columbia and the Lake Roosevelt Water Quality Council. The council consists of members representing the Colville and Spokane tribes, federal and state agency representatives from industry, local governments and citizen groups. Ad hoc to the council are representives of Cominco and the B.C. Ministry of Environment.
This group has met with the objective of creating a Lake Roosevelt Water Quality Management Plan. Through a continuous dialogue with Canadian representation, specific actions were accomplished to greatly improve water quality. Ceasing the dumping of slag was a very important issue. Also achieved was the elimination of phosphorus (nutrient loading) and decreasing levels of dioxins.
Canadian industry responded to the council’s challenge. The Celgar Pulp Mill modified its industrial process, greatly decreasing levels of dioxins moving into the river system. Cominco discontinued the dumping of phosphorus from its fertilizer plant.
The efforts of the Lake Roosevelt Water Quality Council and B.C. industry should be applauded. We should encourage other groups working on similar environmental issues to continue to build trust and maintain an open consensus building process. Lawrence R. Goodrow, executive director Spokane Tribe of Indians