Letters To The Editor

HEALTH AND SAFETY

Immunization education needed

When I was growing up, I was given the common advice that one should refrain from entering into conversation that revolves around religion, politics or taxes. Immunizations could almost be added to that list.

I was always baffled when patients, who were willing to take my advice on serious medical conditions, would balk at having the family properly immunized. It seemed inevitable that some tale would be brought up that related to a death or serious complication that came from the shots. The story would always be vague and unfounded.

Thank goodness that most of us see the value in proper immunizations, for they allow us to have an excellent general state of health. Education has to be the key to changing the attitudes in these pockets of resistance. It will be a challenge, but one worth the effort. Vernon J. Nelson, M.D. Spokane

Don’t overreact to seizures

I am writing in an effort to help epileptics having seizures to avoid the debts I am still paying off.

Lack of knowledge is responsible for those ambulance rides and emergency room visits. Seizures for me meant nothing more than turning to the left, staring and a brief loss of consciousness, but the public didn’t realize that.

Please, do call an ambulance if the person is shaking violently with convulsions. If it is the seizure I described above, just turn them on their side and be there to tell them where they are when they come to because they will be disoriented at first.

I praise God for the brain surgery in August 1993 that freed me of seizures, because I have been working from March 1994 to this day. I have saved the money I’ve earned at Old Country Buffet and paid off those medical bills, which are almost all gone. It would just be so much better if that money was there to put toward our new home. Pam M. Billington Spokane

CO2 cartridges not sold willy-nilly

Regarding the April 13 article, “Explosives were easy to make”: Contrary to the report regarding the use of carbon dioxide cartridges in bomb production, the General Store in Spokane does not sell CO2 cartridges to 8-year-olds, or even 18-year-olds.

We have maintained, for years, a strict policy of qualifying our buyers of CO2 cartridges, gunpowder, firearms ammunition, BBs and pellet gun ammunition.

Our policy regarding these types of purchases, in some instances, goes above and beyond those mandated by state and federal laws. Bruce R. Barany, general manager General Store, Spokane

IN THE PAPER

Some story, some reminder

The Spokesman-Review’s coverage of Saturday night’s leadership gathering in Coeur d’Alene was perhaps the most slanted piece of journalism I have ever seen.

According to The Spokesman-Review, 350 people (including me) gathered inside the hotel to affirm the rights of all people to live and work in the Inland Empire. “Outside … was a reminder of just how much work remains,” says your ace journalist, filling us with dread at the thought of the forces of evil massing outside the hotel, filling the air with their hate and bigotry.

Let’s examine the facts: The Aryan movement called on all of its followers to gather Saturday night and the grand total of people who answered the call was nine! It looks to me like “just how much work remains” is almost none.

Three-hundred and fifty people came to support human rights and only nine people bothered to represent the opposing view.

Of course, bigotry is still rampant in our community and can be easily located in the pages of The Spokesman-Review, where staff cartoonist Milt Priggee proudly proclaims that all children who live in Idaho are members of the Ku Klux Klan.

At Saturday night’s gathering, leaders from Spokane faced the serious issue of racist hate mail on the Gonzaga campus, recognizing that the challenges facing our communities do not recognize state lines. I’m sure that it takes a lot less brain power to simply label people from another state as Nazis than it does to work toward a constructive solution to problems all of us share. Tom J. Richards Coeur d’Alene

I was misquoted

In regard to Virginia de Leon’s article on Indian boarding schools, “Hard lessons,” I am saddened at the false quotation attributed to me. She quotes me as saying the Indian children were made to feel like “savages.” This statement is false. Just the opposite was true. I was impressed with the love and dedication of our staff through my many years at St. Mary’s.

Also, for well over 100 years, parents brought their children freely to the mission school. No one forced them. Rev. Joseph L. Obersinner, S.J. DeSmet, Idaho

Editor’s note: The Spokesman-Review stands by its story.

Blame government, not Catholics

Regarding the article on the Indians’ culture being taken away from the children in the boarding schools (“Hard Lessons” April 13), let’s rethink and put the blame where blame is due.

The United States government could not tolerate a culture that takes wide open spaces in the order of 500 acres per person. It had to go, and go it did, with no holds barred. Kill them, divide them, massacre them, get them drunk on bad liquor or trap them in a bad treaty - whatever it takes.

So, this sets the true background. An unjustly beaten people, divided and conquered with their land stolen from them. Now, the blame for the loss of their culture is put on nuns and priests who practiced charity in picking up the pieces, and clothing, feeding and teaching these Indian children, who in many cases had no family left to care for them.

The Spokesman-Review more and more has resigned from the ethical code of objectivity in its reporting, but has lowered itself to creating dissension between the good citizens. George B. Valentine, Jr. Rathdrum

Staffers need attitude adjustment

The attitudes of Milt Priggee, Doug Clark and D.F. Oliveria, singly and collectively, constitute good and sufficient reason for cancellation of our subscription to what may be very loosely referred to as a newspaper.

We mistakenly assumed that The Spokesman-Review, after establishing offices in Coeur d’Alene, would support the community. But it has become apparent that the paper’s goal is to harass.

Your feud with the Coeur d’Alene Press is obvious, but why shouldn’t common decency prevail? Your Idaho subscribers are, in effect, funding your feud and the abuse of our community.

We will renew our subscription when you change your focus - if we should live that long. Kenneth S. Kirking Coeur d’Alene

Follow that story

Reading Karen Dorn Steele’s front page story of April 12, “Grass growers threaten WSU over study,” put me in mind of a vintage true story sometimes told about Albert Einstein.

Einstein settled at Princeton University after he left Germany for good in the early 1930s. One day the great physicist and mathematician was visited by a former scientific colleague from Germany.

Einstein thought to open the conversation courteously by asking his old friend, “How is German physics?” The colleague abruptly replied, “There is no German physics.”

I do hope Steele will keep a close eye on the main subjects and the significant action of the unfolding events in the curious drama she has related. Leo J. Mahoney Spokane

Priggee should apologize

The April 13 Opinion page cartoon needs to be addressed and challenged. It is extremely distressing to see staff cartoonist Milt Priggee envelop and mindlessly categorize people I consider innocents into the purported racist attitude of our region. I simply cannot see any intellectual value in attacking North Idaho children this inciteful way. It’s unconscionable. At a minimum, Priggee owes the children an apology. Don V. Howell Spokane