Letters To The Editor

SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION

Let’s have some straight answers

I am somewhat concerned by the lack of critical questioning of the upcoming Spokane School District 81 bond levy.

I don’t understand why the terms “routine” or “replacement” are so easily accepted without any media challenge. It seems to me that that anything requiring a 60 percent vote is special and requires proof of need.

District 81 may indeed need the levy to operate at acceptable educational levels, but I want to see proof. Every levy meeting I’ve attended and all the literature given out by the school district says the same thing: Extracurricular activities would have to be cut and class sizes would increase, resulting in a worse education for the children. I want the school district to show us what activities were cut, what the class size changes were and test score comparisons from the last time a levy failed in Spokane.

I don’t want scare tactics that the sky is going to fall. I want the school district to explain how they have the money to pay off building bond levies early, but need more operations money.

I have four children in Spokane schools and want to find a reason to support the district and its levies. Maybe if enough people ask for documented answers we will get sound reasons to vote for the levy. Rich Dahl Spokane

Vote down Kettle Falls school tax

Last fall, Reader’s Digest commissioned an exclusive poll to learn what Americans really think. A crucial finding of the poll is Americans’ extraordinary personal unhappiness with the amount of taxes they pay.

More than two thirds felt their tax payments were too high. Conservatives agreed with liberals. Singles agreed with married people. Americans in nearly every group across racial, economic, age, ideological, religious, educational and sexual lines were included in this poll.

In Washington, 60 percent of all our taxes go to fund our schools. The Kettle Falls School District says this isn’t enough and will ask voters to approve another tax of $390,000 on Feb. 6. School officials would have us believe this isn’t a new tax. If this isn’t a new tax, then why are we asked to approve it for another two years? This was a new tax when it was first introduced and will continue to be a new tax each time voters give their approval for tax indebtedness.

The fact that this is a duplicate of a previous two-year maintenance/operation tax doesn’t make this less of a new tax. Current outstanding bond and maintenance/ operation taxes for the Kettle Falls School District is $1,026,800.

Democrat and Republican politicians in Olympia, sensing profound dissatisfaction with the status quo, are agreeing with each other to reduce taxes. Reducing taxes has become top priority.

If you agree with the 68 percent of Americans that taxes are excessive, should you consent to adding this additional school tax to an already heavy burden? Helen Duey Rice, Wash.

SPOKANE MATTERS

Higher greens fees? ‘Big deal’

Dick Bruya’s Jan. 14 letter (“Keep golf course fees fair”) makes me wonder if he has myopic vision or just didn’t get the meaning of John McBride’s message that I thought was clear.

What McBride tried to get across is that there is unfairness in senior citizen discounts. He forgot to mention that all seniors get a break on their income tax. The amount varies, but for a married couple over 65 it amounts to $225.

Social Security has been a boon for all of us. Records show that most recipients have received what they paid in plus what their employers paid plus the interest in approximately four years. The payments made by the recipients were on a much lower base than that base upon which they have received benefits.

Mcbride’s point is that really all we did to get benefits is to live long enough to receive them. Let us all carry our share of the burden, and if it means higher greens fees, so be it. Big deal. To paraphrase President Kennedy’s inaugural speech, let us not ask what we can get from society, but ask what we can do for society. Richard B. “Dick” Hopp Spokane

Skip the one-upmanship

One additional reaction to Pat Soderquist’s letter complaining about the drivers in Spokane being reckless, rude and inconsiderate:

My reaction to driving in Spokane is that it has become individually competitive. On a one-to-one basis the attempt is to prove you are a better, faster driver, to get past you, cut in ahead of you, get out of the light change faster. This is not lawlessness or rudeness but individually showing your superiority over others. Maybe in Seattle, with the number of drivers, each has gotten beyond one-to-one competition.

My suggestion is to be less competitive in trying to bolster your ego. Drive the speed limit and do not try to prove you’re better than the guy in front of you. John Huneke Spokane

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

Large-family people most valuable

Re: Jennifer James’ Jan. 7 column, it’s a sad fact that many of the world’s children are dying of starvation. It’s not due to lack of resources, as was suggested, but rather by economic and political systems in which life has no value.

Children are the sacrifices made in the name of prosperity and power, and many in America support that same ideology by their priorities. Opting to have only one or two children sounds sympathetic to world needs, but is often rooted in selfishness. Do those resources not put into extra children go to Somalia? No! Most invest them in themselves and in improving the quality of their own lives.

I would like to suggest that maybe large families are the answer to the world’s problems. Children with many siblings learn early that they aren’t the center of the universe. They learn not only about sharing but about sacrificing wants for needs. They learn there’s a limit to available resources and how a little creativity can make them grow further. They learn that true wealth is found in their relationships. These are the people who will have something to contribute to their world and toward solving the world’s problems.

James seems not to understand that we can’t have quality of life unless life itself is of value. This state couldn’t begin to compensate for the loss of what each life would have been under a voluntary sterilization-cash incentive program. Linn Lewis Spokane

James’ points don’t compute

A reader of Jennifer James’ column wrote her to bemoan world population trends. Echoing the reader’s concern, James responded: “Every time an American has an ‘extra’ child, 30 children worldwide may die because of the amount of the Earth’s resources the average American child consumes.” (Jan. 7)

What is the support for such a statement? And where did the number 30 come from? John Allen Paulos, author of, “A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper,” says that people generally remain anchored to the first number they hear, whether accurate or not. Once accepted, that number becomes resistant to significant revision. Will that happen with James’ 30? I hope not.

To support her statement even qualitatively, James would require a long, specious argument which knowledgeable people could easily devastate. But then to quantify her assertion with the number 30 is to offend even those with modest discernment. James obviously isn’t really sure of herself or she wouldn’t have said “may die.”

Furthermore, what is an “extra” child? If what James says is true, then even a couple with a single child is robbing the Third World of 30 precious children. Of course, James - mother of one - would no doubt define as “extra” more than her one. Edwin A. Olson Spokane

Paton deserving of award

Congratulations go to Jim Paton for the “Heroes” award presented by the Manufacturers Sporting Goods Association.

His contribution to youth sports, specifically at the high school level, has done so much for the betterment of the young athletes whose lives he’s touched over the years.

Even with Parkinson’s disease and the pain he’s had to endure his personal priorities have always included working with kids. Not just enhancing their ability to be better athletes, but helping create a higher self-image and to be better people long after they’ve left the baseball field. Paton’s sphere of influence goes beyond the players and reaches us parents as well. He is more than a hero; he’s a legend and a remarkable human being. Joe Speranzi Spokane

GRASS FIELD BURNING

Summer days not growers’ to ruin

I find it ironic that we have a grass grower, Mark Lonam, who wants to set the record straight about grass burning (“Anti-burning letter mangles facts,” Letters, Jan. 10).

There is one thing I have learned after living in Spokane for 20 years: you can’t trust a grass grower to ever tell the truth about grass burning.

Of course they will defend their pryomaniacal practice. Their pocketbooks depend on it.

When are the grass growers ever going to get the message? It isn’t the grass growing anyone has a problem with. It is the smoke caused by grass burning.

Lonam states that “growers burned on only 11 days and did that really ‘rob’ everyone of their summer?” This is typical of the callous attitude of grass growers. They spew thousands of tons of smoke into the air and don’t think the smoke they are creating is causing harm, injury or discomfort to their neighbors in Spokane County.

If their smoke takes away one summer day in Spokane, that is one day too much. Grass growers do not have the right to cloud up a single summer day.

If it is against the law for me to burn a pile of garden debris in my back yard in Spokane County, then it should also be against the law for the grass growers to burn their thousands of acres. Enver Apaydin Spokane

Burning is selfish and unfair

North Idaho is beautiful. Too bad you can’t see it when they burn grass.

It is unhealthy to breathe smoke. My brother’s allergies act up whenever they burn grass. In order to breathe comfortably, he often must buy medicine. It is disgusting to me that he must buy medication just because the grass burners want to save a buck and not invest in new technology that seriously decreases smoke.

Spokane doesn’t allow them to burn when the wind blows their way; neither does Coeur d’Alene. Sandpoint should not have to put up with it, either.

Every business I see pays money to have its garbage taken away, yet grass burners dump their trash into North Idaho’s back yard.

It also hurts tourism. Nobody wants to go to the lake when you can’t see the other side of the lake. Are the grass burners’ dollars more important than tourist industry money?

On my summer vacation, when I’m in Sandpoint, I don’t want to waste precious days of freedom inside because of the smoke. I want to go sailing. Too bad they only burn when the wind blows smoke away from them, ruining great sailing weather. Dan Sheckler Moscow

If smoke’s so bad, move away

Patricia Hoffman’s letter of Jan. 5, “Growers’ no-loss record must end,” sounds to me like a tantrum in print.

I’m from the Freeman-Rockford area, where a good number of acres are burned each summer and we have perfectly wonderful summers.

A lot of our economic support comes from farmers around this area who have grass fields and I admire the one who have been persistent enough to keep the burning alive in order to improve the air and water quality around the Rock Creek area.

I wonder why it has suddenly, in the last couple of years, become a health issue? I feel that if it bothers anyone so much, they should move away. Wendy Litzkow Rockford

ROW ON GREEK ROW

Clark invents new mythology

In response to Doug Clark’s Jan 7 column on sorority life at Washington State University, I personally take offense at his remarks showing the Greek system to be full of “airheads” and “snooty clods.”

It is very easy to make judgments about a group of individuals when the accuser does not have insight on what the group stands for and why people in it are together. It is this kind of ignorance that causes prejudiced statements to arise.

Clark uses these words to define sorority rush: “Rush is that magical time when sorority and fraternity pledges are scrutinized and weighed like fresh meat by their preppy peers and are too often pickled in alcohol at rowdy Greek functions.” On behalf of the sororities at WSU, I would like to say that women going through rush are not “scrutinized and weighed like fresh meat.” Instead, they are involved in a mutual selection process along with the sorority women. Rush is a time when rushees are able to meet the sorority women and determine for themselves what sorority they feel most comfortable at, and if Greek life is really for them.

Alcohol is prohibited during sorority rush.

It is words like Doug Clark’s that produce a wrong image of sorority women and Greek rush. It is unfortunate that he chose to spread his prejudiced beliefs about sorority life. Keri Leyda, WSU Greek system member Liberty Lake

Student’s case, column both lacking

Doug Clark’s columns regarding a Washington State University sorority not only were full of erroneous statements but unfortunately show that one can write for The Spokesman-Review without any relevant information regarding the topic.

Rush week for the Greek system involves a weeklong period in which houses recruit prospective members. It is the most important week of the year for a fraternity or sorority besides finals week. Rush occurs every year at the same time. If Summer Vail could not alter her schedule to attend, she should have taken it up earlier with her former sorority sisters.

Alcohol is banned during this week and pledges are not tested for their ability to consume it.

The real issue isn’t whether Vail should have attended rush week or not. It’s whether a columnist should attack an organization he knows nothing about. It appears Clark’s only research was to rent the movie “Animal House.”

The Greek system continues to be very successful, producing well-rounded young adults on the basis of education, community service, leadership and interpersonal skills. Yes, attending college is about attaining an education, but while there it is important to learn other things that cannot be taught in a classroom. It is these aspects that organizations like the Greek system help develop. Andrew Barrett Spokane

Student right, sorority wrong

Disappointed hardly describes my feelings reading Doug Clark’s Jan. 7 column about Summer Vail, whose Tri Delta sorority at Washington State University has priorities totally out of proportion concerning getting a quality education at one of our tax-supported institutions.

Since when are serious students no longer in control of their destiny in terms of securing a quality education above all else while attending a university?

Social life has its value but never when in conflict with academics. Vail seemingly took all precautions - informing her sorority superiors in advance of her need to take a summer course, then following through with her good intentions. As soon as time permitted she demonstrated her devotion and interest to her sorority - even transporting at her own expense equipment for their enjoyment.

I have the highest regard for Vail and the values instilled by her family. I congratulate her for exposing this despicable incident.

May this serve as a lesson and promote a thorough review of rush week at all sororities and fraternities. Martha S. Hibbard Spokane