Letters To The Editor

IDAHO VIEWPOINTS

Ill-mannered twits not worth tear 1

Regarding “Middle school leaves visitor close to tears” by staff writer Cynthia Taggart (Feb. 21): I was saddened by the undeserved and ungracious treatment she received at Lake Middle School in Coeur d’Alene from two adolescent girls, both seventh graders. It is one thing to be ignorant of a profession and another thing to be arrogant in their ignorance.

Taggart was invited to act as a mentor on the subject of journalism for these two bad-mannered juveniles. Taggart was at Lake to advise and answer any questions, and to give encouragement. How can any person treat an invited guest with such rudeness?

We raised two girls and a boy and I would forgive most anything but never disrespect. What do these disagreeable teens respect? Do they respect their parents? Do they respect themselves? Will they respect their own children and husbands? Do they respect the rights of others? Will they be law-abiding citizens?

These serious questions should have been addressed by some person in charge of these two ingrates.

Unless these two girls make drastic adjustments in their social attitude they will find only hostilities equal to their own.

I have a lot of respect for all the young editors of The Spokesman-Review’s Our Generation section. They work hard to do things right and with good conscience.

I have admired Taggart for her informative, interesting and compassionate articles. She has brought attention and assistance to persons who otherwise would have remained obscure. She has helped a lot of people. Ray Aleman Osburn

Hunting rules aren’t ruinous

Fair bear hunting is not anti-hunting. The advantage already is to the hunter with a rifle. The use of bait, dogs and spring hunting is unnecessary.

Other states have proven enough bears are taken each season after they adopted a ban on bait, dogs and spring hunting. Hunters and nonhunters alike are supporting this initiative to help manage Idaho’s bear population with responsible control. Caroline Mather Coeur d’Alene

Thanks for great tournament help

The Post Falls Parks and Recreation Department would like to thank the following local businesses for their support of the Third Annual A.A.U. River City Classic basketball tournament held in Post Falls on February 23-25: The Riverbend Inn, Pepsi-Cola, Post Falls Tidyman’s, the Factory Outlets, DARE, and Post Falls School District, for the use of the gymnasiums for this three-day, 57-game event.

The following people were major contributors in setting up and running this tournament: Parks and Recreation office manager Faye Johnson, Parks and Recreation Director David Fair, supervisors Shelly O’Riley, Brian Tucker, Cathy Meeks, Mike Zimmerman, Lynda Peterson, Dave Hunter, Lew McArthur, Jason Strobel, Guy Clancy and Gary Garrier with Panhandle Sports.

Also deserving of special appreciation are the officials who for the third straight year have been outstanding. The River City Classic Tournament is now considered one of the top tournaments for boys in grades six through eight in the Pacific Northwest.

We look forward to the Girls AAU River City Classic Tournament scheduled for March 8-10. Come on out and watch some of the Northwest’s finest basketball teams. You won’t be disappointed. Mark Simon, supervisor Post Falls Parks and Recreation

SPOKANE MATTERS

Trail, cemetery can coexist in peace

In response to some of the misinformation contained in recent letters concerning the proposed extension of the Spokane River Centennial Trail:

The cemetery property on which an easement has been sought lies in a 100-year flood plain, and is unsuitable for grave sites or other cemetery purposes. The area is physically separated from the cemetery by rugged terrain and 85 percent of the proposed trail route would not be visible from the cemetery. The remaining 15 percent could easily be screened off by bushes or a memorial wall overlooking the trail, which could be a profit-making venture for the cemetery.

Friends of the Centennial Trail initiated a dialogue with the Fairmont Cemetery Board in 1990. We were provided a letter from Fairmont counsel setting forth 13 conditions to be met before a trail easement could be granted. For five years volunteers from the Trail board, Gonzaga engineering students and employees of various state and local agencies worked together to ensure that virtually all of these conditions could be met.

Some of the requested items, such as installation of a security gate so that this portion of the trail could be closed off at dusk and during funeral services, exist on no other portions of the trail.

It is our sincere belief that the Centennial Trail can peacefully coexist with the cemetery at the proposed site. Many neighbors along stretches of the trail consider their proximity to the trail a valuable asset. The cemetery board needs to recognize that sometimes we all must compromise a little for the common good. Jonathan C. Rascoff, chairman Friends of the Centennial Trail

SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION

Schools are running slack

I was dismayed when I saw a photo of a student at Bryan Elementary School glorifying the 100th day of school (Feb. 25). I would think that teachers wouldn’t want people to know the sorry truth - that they only teach school 177 days a year.

Is it any wonder our children may not measure up to those in other countries that have school at least two-thirds of the year, unlike our less than half a year?

When did schools decide two days are necessary for Presidents Day? Does it always have to be three days for teachers to mark report cards and talk to parents?

Please, can anyone tell me what we as parents can do to get more education for our kids? Diane Zell Hayden

Teachers can shape up of ship out

Regarding the Bonner County teachers who support A.C. Woolnough:

I have three children who attend Bonner County schools and have talked to many young adults about Woolnough. I have encountered only a few who think he is all that you say he is.

I also have watched him work and I have serious doubts about the direction he has chosen. It is not up to me to decide whether he should continue as principal of Sandpoint High School.

I do wonder if teachers who support Woolnough would be so vocal if you were not in a union. Is this more about whether you might be next to lose your job? Maybe all teachers should be evaluated regularly and maybe we should get rid of the overweight physical education teachers and the smoking health teachers.

I know of no other business that does not have employee evaluations that result in terminations due to lack of projected performance.

You all need to remember you are in the education business and that you are working for the taxpayers who elected the school board to oversee our interests. So stop whining and get back to work. You can be replaced, too. Rick Auletta Hope

Thanks for pageant support

Coeur d’Alene High School recently held its annual Mr. CHS pageant to raise money for the upcoming senior ball. As one of the contestants I would like to thank those who helped make the event memorable.

Special thanks to the senior girls for organizing it, along with Eileen Bieber. Thanks also to the masters of ceremonies and the four judges. Mr. Tux provided tuxedos for all the contestants and many local businesses donated prizes.

To the parents, community and everyone who came out and cheered us on, thank you. Sid Smith Coeur d’Alene

IN THE PAPER

Please, hold the stogies

Why in the world would The Spokesman-Review put such an article as “Cigar sisters band together” on the front page of the Region section (Feb. 25)?

I’m sure the paper is aware of the dangers of using tobacco. Is it trying to advance a new style for our young women to follow or just short of worthwhile news? Helen Rydell Spokane

GRASS FIELD BURNING

Agencies, growers ignore the law

The Department of Ecology’s persisting blind eye (Spokesman-Review, Feb. 25) to the widespread and well-documented health problems caused by area grass burning is outrageous and embarrassing.

America is supposed to be past the days when industry is allowed to put business interests ahead of public health. Washington actually has laws against it. One, the Clean Air Act, explicitly aims “to secure and maintain levels of air quality that protect human health and safety, including the most sensitive members of the population.”

The law isn’t being enforced.

Both the Department of Ecology and the Spokane County Air Pollution Control Authority (SCAPCA) have been intimidated by growers who, for a quarter century, have pumped almost as much smoke into the political and regulatory process as they’ve spewed into our air.

Recent health studies have established an irrefutable link between high particulate air pollution levels and respiratory illnesses. This explains why the dense clouds of particulates released by grass field burning result in hundreds of annual health complaints, and why area respiratory physicians are speaking out.

DOE and SCAPCA have responsibilities to protect public health that they’re not meeting. Although DOE will invite public health presentations at its grass burning symposium next month in Spokane, there’s no health-based compliance plan in the works.

Although SCAPCA endorsed a seven-year phase-out last December, there’s no such plan. SCAPCA recently outlined a mere 30 percent reduction in burn acreage to be phased in over three years. Even this timid proposal was swiftly rejected by the growers as impractical. Tim Connor Spokane

Complainers should hush or move

I have had it with people who think they have the right to tell the rest of us how to live.

I grew up in this area. Spokane is an agricultural area. There has been grass burning and miscellaneous burning of field and farm debris since I can remember. People who have grown up here know that the majority of our Northwest farmers use burning to produce their crops.

The majority of people complaining about grass burning have nothing to do but complain. I know how important it is to burn the fields. If people don’t like farm life or the money farms bring into the Northwest, whether from fruit, animals, wheat or bluegrass, they should move and complain elsewhere, not try to ruin other people’s lives.

This issue should not even be in front of the county commissioners. There are more important issues to be dealt with, such as education, public safety, gangs and how to help the population survive on the wages paid in Spokane.

Let’s get the little piles off the table and take care of the big piles. Peggy A. Myers Spokane

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

NASA’s a too-expensive habit

The Spokesman-Review of Feb. 25 carried a headline: “Lost in space: $440 million satellite’s tether breaks.” Boy, talk about the big one that got away! Imagine, $440 million and the line breaks?

I think we should close out the space program and make those people get a new hobby. Robert C. Sprint Spokane

Lay off the so-called sin taxes

Before I left for a trip to New York there was talk about raising taxes on tobacco and alcohol to provide relief to property owners and support our schools. Now I’m back and I read about a proposed increase in the tax on pop to provide property tax relief and support our schools.

As a property owner who consumes pop, alcohol and tobacco, I don’t see a lot of relief here. Why taxers think pop-swilling, nicotine-addicted drunks have a greater interest in higher education or should carry a greater share of the burden than anyone else is beyond me. Only someone who consumes little or none of these products would think they are mighty fine for taxing.

To those who dream up all these wonderful taxes, may I suggest a tax that would be shared equally and one that would remind us all daily where our tax dollars are going: a tax on toilet paper. Hal Payne Coeur d’Alene

Buchanan will end subversive plot

The people who are saying that Pat Buchanan has the wrong ideas are the ones who have the bad ideas.

GATT and NAFTA are bankrupting our nation. Free trade is not fair trade. Our trade deficit is growing by billions of dollars.

If we have to keep borrowing money to keep our government going it will eventually collapse. Taxes have reached the saturation point, and no one will loan money to a bankrupt government.

GATT and NAFTA are steps toward making us subjects of a world government. If we allow this to happen there will be no free speech, no property rights and, among many other things we take for granted, no Social Security.

A world government will take whatever it wants from us and make cannon fodder of our young people.

The flat tax idea just exchanges one bad idea for another. We’ll still have to keep all of the records and the Internal Revenue Service will still invade our lives.

Clinton says we are a world leader, while he and his special interests are depleting our assets to put us under a world government.

Pat Buchanan understands what the people and our government need because he has spent many years talking to the people. He’s the only one who has the knowledge, the integrity and the willingness to make the changes that will save our country. Leo K. Lindenbauer Spokane

This isn’t going to be easy

I have a question that I ask every four years. The statistics involved are very rough, but you’ll get the idea.

Let’s assume the population of this country is 300 million, half of it women. We probably aren’t quite ready for a woman president, so that leaves 150 million.

You have to be at least 35 to be president and candidates over 70 have a tough time; that leaves perhaps 25 million.

A president should be smart, and that may or may not be evidenced by a college degree but let’s use that as a requirement. That leaves maybe 5 million.

Most people are in some minority group and many of those would be a problem for voters not in that group. That leaves 1 million. In this television age, a president has to be photogenic and articulate. That leaves 200,000.

He can’t be poor and shouldn’t be rich. That leaves 100,000.

Our candidate should not have any weird ideas. That leaves 10,000.

My question is, with 10,000 or so presidential candidates available, how come we usually end up having to choose between two turkeys? I see one candidate who has served his country with honor for over 50 years but should retire now; one for whom principles, honor and truth are flexible; one who wants to re-create the Great Wall of China at our borders; one who is probably too wealthy to be trusted by the electorate; and two or three about whom we know very little. God help us. Ken Prentiss Coeur d’Alene