Letters To The Editor
THE AIR IN SPOKANE
Why further trash our polluted air?
Washington Citizens for Recycling Foundation reports the Legislature allowed the 1 percent tipping fee for litter control to expire, and the state abandoned its own 50 percent recycling goal.
The average resident produced more than 60 pounds more garbage in 1994 than in 1993, with the amount of garbage being sent to landfills each year now near one ton per resident.
Spokane continues to push in lobbying to retain the flow-control ordinance to obtain garbage both inside and outside of the county. Local efficiency in garbage pickup continues to increase in cost.
Rating eighth in the nation as polluted, Spokane wants another boiler so it can import more waste to burn.
Again, we have the urge from local government to operate an incinerator to burn 20,000 yards of contaminated soil at the URM facility in the 7500 block of North Freya. Public efforts stopped this once. All emissions that aren’t monitored and controlled are free to affect the local population.
In an attempt to recycle plastics not accepted at local recyclers, in a phone conversation with the person in charge of Spokane recycling, I was told that he would contact the North Side transfer station for me to deliver plastics there. He said these would go into the reject bin and then to Rabanco with other rejects. My attempt to deliver at both the North Side and at the incinerator was treated as a real joke.
Incinerators continue to be closed down. Why is Eastern Washington still wedded to the idea of polluting our air? Ora Mae Orton Spokane
Head off toxic waste burning plan
Why would the Spokane County Air Pollution Control Authority condone Burlington Northern/URM burning 20,000 yards of toxic waste at their yards at N7511 Freya when the city of Spokane has one of the worst air pollution conditions in the nation?
BN used this area for its roundhouses and rail yards for 100 years. Let it and URM haul the waste to a designated landfill. Don’t let them poison our air. Call or write and protest before June 21, demanding the project be stopped, or it may be too late. Nancy K. Warner Spokane
PUBLIC SAFETY
Heed WWP water safety warnings
Your June 5 editorial (“Dam’s danger must be recognized”) did an excellent job of pointing out the seasonal dangers in and around area waterways. During high flows, people should be especially cautious near dams because of strong currents and open spill gates.
In addition to installing warning signs, buoys and boater cables, Washington Water Power has long been involved in a program of safety information, education and training. We make over 300 annual safety presentations at area schools and fairs; we have developed hydro safety brochures and television public service announcements warning of the dangers of recreating immediately above and below a dam.
WWP is an active member of the Inland Northwest Drowning Prevention Coalition and continually works with other agencies and local government to increase water safety awareness.
As part of this water safety education, we ask people not to go beyond the boundaries set for them by our warning signs, markers and boater safety cables. Although these devices have been installed to protect the public, they are effective only with public cooperation.
WWP wants every individual to have an enjoyable time while engaging in water-related recreational activities; we remind each of you to be our partner in safety as well. Dave Ayres, hydro safety coordinator Washington Water Power Co., Spokane
WASHINGTON STATE
Brazier - the conservative choice
She’s a social conservative. She’s a fiscal conservative. She’s a constitutional conservative. She’s Nona Brazier, a GOP candidate for governor who won’t take a state pension when she leaves that office and who will sponsor legislation to stop pensions for our part-time legislators.
Brazier co-chaired Initiative 134, this state’s campaign finance reform law, and will lead the movement for resign-to-run legislation. That legislation would require candidates who want to run for another office to quit any current elected office first. Resign-to-run is the next step in preventing campaign finance abuses.
Brazier believes that whatever challenge we need to overcome, whatever solution we choose to implement, we must first ask whose job is it? Government has been saddled with tasks that would best be carried out by family, community and church. Government must focus on its limited functions of public safety and a court system that we all respect, maintaining infrastructure, facilitating and rewarding productivity and protecting the powers that are reserved to the states, respectively, or to the people.
Brazier understands how government should work. “Citizens are not outsiders,” she says.” It is individual people coming together and taking action that will change lives and restore a civil society.”
I believe Nona Brazier will be the governor who will bring us together. Jon J. Tuning Spokane
Patient choosing healer makes sense
I found your recent article on alternative care quite interesting.
It seems both fitting and fair that patients have the right to choose their own practitioner and that, in turn, the physician or other provider be allowed to advise or prescribe according to the scope of his or her license. Leo M. Scott, N.D. Spokane
PEOPLE IN SOCIETY
No bigotry in stating God’s will
To (letter writers) Zaza Varela, Paul Barker and Phyllis S. Heinel, C.J. House (“Gay marriage impossibility,” letters, June 1) is following the teachings of God. It is not bigotry. God created every person equal; they are given a free will and have the right to choose.
We are put here as men and women to get married and have children, to increase God’s family. This is God’s plan - something homosexuals cannot do. Homosexuals are people who go astray, misfits of society.
I do agree with the college allowing Margarethe Cammermeyer to speak, as this will avoid a discrimination suit. However, I do not believe homosexuals are entitled to any special treatment over heterosexuals. Equal treatment for all.
Varela, read the Bible. You will find several passages which clearly state homosexuals will not be allowed to enter the kingdom of heaven. God did not intend for there to be homosexuals; they are not in his divine plan. They do not bother me and I do not bother them, but don’t expect to change everyone’s way of thinking. If someone is against homosexuals, they will not change.
Barker, you are entitled to think the way you want, but don’t attempt to force your views on the rest of the population.
True Christians will never accept homosexuality as a way of life. They consider homosexuals as sick, in need of help. By God’s laws they are considered an abomination. Homosexuals were part of the reason God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. It is in the Bible. H.G. Robinson Spokane
Bible emphatic about homosexuality
I take issue with Zaza Varela’s criticism of C.J. House’s letter (“Don’t peddle bigotry as divinity,” letters, June 8).
Varela states, “If God hadn’t intended there be homosexuals, then why do they exist?” There are murderers, rapists, child molesters, wife beaters, burglars and, yes, homosexuals, but it does not mean he intended it to be. He gave man the right to govern himself and you have seen the result.
Varela further states, “You do not have the right to be the voice of God; let him speak for himself.” I submit, Varela, he already has. Leviticus 20:13, in the St. James version of the Bible, considered by Christians to be the Word of God, reads, “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.” The Living Bible reads, “The penalty for homosexual acts is death to both parties. They have brought it upon themselves.” It would then appear God does condemn homosexuals and homosexual acts.
Lest you mistake me for a Bible-pounding homophobe or a staunch, churchgoing member of the Christian right, I assure you I am neither. I have attended church no more than 30 times in my 69 years on this Earth. I have read the Bible through only once. But the way I interpret it, that reveals that God does not condone homosexuality.
Perhaps on Judgment Day, many will be told in person. Herman J. Benson Elk
Look within all you meet
I am responding to Jim Kershner’s excellent June 8 column (IN Life). I especially liked this sentence from the last paragraph: “We are shaped by our bodies, but that doesn’t mean we are our bodies.”
How true. All of us are in reality a child of God. For a number of years I have found life so much more meaningful to deliberately try not to observe the outward appearance of people that I meet and instead look for that spark of the divine that is within them. In that way, I accept everyone without judgment, including myself. Looking for the spiritual identity of others brings peace, happiness, love and joy to my life, for which I give thanks.
I recommend this way of looking at people to everyone. Give it a try for just a few days and see what it does for you. Tom Durst Spokane
LAW AND JUSTICE
Salvadorans shoot drunken drivers
Maybe it’s time we took some lessons from other countries about how to deal with drunken drivers. I think we are all sick and tired of the bad guys having all the rights and us good guys suffering for it.
I say we get rid of the drunken drivers once and for all. Following are some of the drunken driving laws of other countries.
In Australia, the names of drunken drivers are sent to local newspapers and printed under the heading, “He’s drunk and in jail.” In Malaya the driver is jailed, and if he is married, his wife is jailed, too. In Turkey, drunken drivers are taken 20 miles from town by police and forced to walk back under escort.
In Norway, drunken drivers are sentenced to jail for three weeks at hard labor with one year loss of license. If there is a second offense within five years, the license is revoked for life. In Finland and Sweden, drunken drivers receive an automatic jail sentence of one year at hard labor. In Costa Rica, police remove the license plates from the drunken driver’s car. In Russia, the license is revoked for life. In England, drunken drivers are sentenced to a one-year jail term, fined $250 and have their license suspended for one year.
In France, conviction means a three-year suspension, one year in jail and a $1,000 fine. Polish drunken drivers are jailed, fined and forced to attend political lectures.
In Bulgaria, a second conviction results in execution.
In El Salvador, the first offense is the last - execution by firing squad. Patrick Murphy Spokane
Give fetus legal rights, protection
I was appalled when I discovered that the humanist view of the fetus during pregnancy is that it is alive but secondary in importance to the mother. The mother is of primary importance, and if she decides that she does not want to be pregnant, then she can remove the fetus without any concern toward its life.
I didn’t realize any one person in our society had the power of life and death over another without due process.
Why, if the fetus is alive, is it not granted full rights as a human being and protected by the Constitution? Currently, the fetus is treated as the property of the mother to keep or dispose of as her whims dictate. I thought the idea of human beings as property was abhorrent and discarded by this country in 1865.
Is the fetus’s helplessness and need for outside food and oxygen the reason for its lack of legal recognition? Given that set of requirements, actor Christopher Reeve, being totally dependent for life, is not a human being and could be killed by his wife when she tires of him.
I reject that concept and believe fetuses should be given near full legal coverage immediately. The only caveat would be if the life of the mother were jeopardized. Then the fetus would be removed with every attempt to continue its life. Dirk Reith Spokane
Police states control guns - so?
Walter Becker (“Fanciful take on Australian attitudes,” letters, June 4) seemingly prefers socialistic, tyrannical police states to free nations where citizens own guns.
Japan, a police state, is crime-free because of its 99.9 percent criminal conviction rate and its culture, not because of its disarmed citizenry.
If Australians want gun control, like Becker says, then why are they balking at turning their guns over to the authorities?
To Becker, any nation that doesn’t ban guns outright has “weak” gun laws.
Becker has some issues with gun sales. From 1973 to 19992, handgun ownership increased 110 percent while homicides decreased by 10 percent. More guns don’t equal more crime.
Children may not legally purchase or possess guns, and millions of American sportsmen should not be blamed for the actions of a handful of fringe groups. Lu Haynes Kettle Falls, Wash.
IN THE PAPER
Lawyer item pure sensationalism
The June 3 article about former attorney Ronald Kappelman (“A Pillsbury lawyer?” in “Public Periscope”) is an excellent example of yellow journalism. It not only stresses the sensationalism and unpleasantness, but it also does so with total disregard for the truth.
At no time was Kappelman in the business of illegal drugs as suggested in your story. The sole basis of the 1994 charges against him were purchases of cocaine for the personal use of himself and his wife. For this, the Kappelmans have accepted responsibility and have worked hard to turn their lives around.
With regard to Kappelman’s hearing before the Washington State Bar Association, your suggestion that the hearing examiner’s statement regarding the constitutionality of our drug laws was the talisman of the decision to reinstate him was simply false. Had you attended Kappelman’s bar hearing, reviewed the record or read the hearing examiner’s decision, as I did, perhaps you would have realized the extensive and overwhelming reasons to support reinstatement of his license to practice law.
Your willingness to inaccurately report such serious matters is evidence of a policy of placing profit before accuracy. That’s a policy that should be reserved for publications such as the National Enquirer. Dick Ripley Spokane
Vietnam veterans besmirched again
As part of The Spokesman-Review’s Memorial Day weekend commemoration, “Your Turn” (May 25) featured another media stereotype of the Vietnam veteran.
Dawn Hatchett wrote, “While he was there, he was exposed to Agent Orange, given experimental drugs and forced to fire on innocent people. He had to haul truckloads of dead women and children in sweltering heat and was told to obey these commands without question.”
False? I’ll wager $1,000 on it.
Was he an infantryman or a truck driver? Was he there? As Hatchett stated, as long as there are descendants of Nam vets, it will be impossible to forget, and I for one will not allow the media stereotype to go unchallenged. Bill Buhl Libby, Mont.
Recognize D-Day anniversary
I think you dropped the ball on June 6, the anniversary of the D-Day invasion. There was nothing in the paper saying thank you or recognizing the veterans. I think this was a slap in the face.
The only thing in the paper was Charles Schultz (“Peanuts”) saying thank you. We need to keep these people in our memory because we owe them a lot. More than we will ever know because we weren’t there.
You don’t need a 50th anniversary or a big holiday to say thanks. It would be respectful to them, instead of a slap in the face. Eugene Lauhon Spokane