Letters To The Editor

BUSINESS AND LABOR

Say no to goods made in China

Retailers again lamented their holiday sales. I have an answer to their cries: Stop buying and selling foreign-made goods, especially those made in China.

Retailers say they must sell these goods because consumers demand low prices. This type of mentality perpetuates a vicious cycle.

The reason consumers demand cheap China-made goods is simple. There are millions and millions of jobs lost in our country to the Chinese in the making of these goods.

The reality in this country is that to find a job you must be educated at least at the junior college level. Holding even the highest-level degree is no insurance of finding any kind of a job. The end of the American dream? I think not.

The problem is that not everyone wants or is able to be educated. Because of the lack of blue collar and labor jobs lost to China there are not enough regular, good-paying jobs with benefits in this country for our work force. This is causing even more severe division between upper and middle classes.

We can change this if we stop buying from China.

It is sickening to me that almost all children’s clothing and toys are made in China, a country that practices forced abortions and sterilization. A country that commits infanticide. Think about that next time you give your child something made in China.

By not buying Chinese-made goods we can help change what’s wrong in our beloved country and have a clean conscience.

Please, stop helping further communism and start spending your money on freedom. We must say no to China. Kimber L.A. Bruck Spokane

What NAFTA wants, NAFTA gets

In regard to the front page story of Jan. 7, “NAFTA puts pressure on state’s roads.”

If Ken Casavant, a fan of NAFTA, hasn’t been able to hear the giant sucking sound of jobs flying south to Mexico, he must be severely hearing impaired.

He has observed that Washington is a “bridge state,” with a road system that must support heavy commercial traffic to and from Canada. Most of these shipments do not originate or terminate in our state, yet Casavant’s solution to the road destruction problem is to rebuild the roads with tax money. As an economist, he only has to make the numbers come out right, not be concerned with what’s fair and equitable.

Why should U.S. and Washington taxpayers subsidize commercial ventures that should pay their own way?

Casavant has discovered that a fully loaded 18-wheeler does as much damage to the road as 9,600 cars. On that basis, I suggest that Highway 395 be turned into a toll road, with cars using it for 10 cents and 18-wheelers paying about $1,000 a trip.

But, of course, NAFTA would promptly attack and claim that this constitutes a non-tariff trade barrier. And we surely wouldn’t want to do anything to interrupt NAFTA in its rape of the U.S. people, would we? Richard T. Brown Spokane

Self-sufficiency gaining here, too

The Daileys of Port Angeles, Wash., (“Couple laud self-sufficiency program,” Jan. 1) are only two people among thousands who are moving from welfare to work across the United States through the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) program.

Here in Spokane, the Spokane Housing Authority and Career Path Services have teamed up to assist nearly 200 housing clients to develop FSS plans designed to help them become economically self-reliant. Plans include enrolling in training or one- to two-year education programs, engaging in job-readiness programs and actively seeking work.

As FSS participants increase their earned income, they are able to pay higher rent and require less housing assistance. The housing subsidy “savings” are placed in an escrow account. Money in the escrow account can be collected by FSS participants who attain and maintain freedom from welfare assistance.

The escrow account is a tremendous incentive and it provides participants an opportunity to develop an asset that they would otherwise not be able to amass.

Less than a year and a half into the program, 43 of Spokane’s FSS participants are working 23 full time and 20 part time. One family, like the Daileys, has graduated from the program. The family collected a check for over $3,000. The family hopes to use that money to purchase its own home.

Moving from subsidized housing to home ownership - now that’s a plan! Cindy Algeo, FSS coordinator Spokane Housing Authority

LAW ENFORCEMENT

Good to see law applied, reported

I am not fully familiar with all the details of the Jan. 4 article, “Cop: Missing leg not proof of disability,” however, I do agree with Chief Jerome Gardner.

As a retired deputy sheriff with a son who was crushed by a box of 10,000 pounds of steel pipe many years ago, I have a handicap decal. There are many times that we can’t park in the handicapped slot because a vehicle is parked there illegally.

It’s time someone brings this subject to light and makes the public aware. The Review did this, and we thank you. We also need more citations issued. Hal Robinson Spokane

Ticket recipient can thank himself

Your Jan. 4 article, “Cop: Missing leg not proof of disability,” stated two points of interest. One, Joe Fitzpatrick admits his permit wasn’t hanging on the rearview mirror. Two, Fitzpatrick approached Chief Jerry Gardner and tried to prove disability.

The issue was parking in a zone for the handicapped without a permit. Fitzpatrick should have presented his permit to Gardner. Proof of disability is not proof of a permit, as permits are not granted for all disabilities.

Given Fitzpatrick’s lack of proof of a permit, Gardner advised him to take the matter to the judge. That’s advice Fitzpatrick seems to agree with, as your article states he is going to contest the ticket. Fitzpatrick embarrassed himself. Lois Bremner Cheney

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

Love is the answer

I have read with interest and pain recent letters to the editor regarding homosexuality. No letter will cool this ongoing hot button but I can shed light for people who view homosexuality from a fundamentalist or conservative Christian perspective.

I spent several years involved in a Bible-type church that sincerely tries to apply its scriptural interpretation to moral issues, facing the issues head on - an admirable task. Many churches shy away from exploring difficult issues. Still, as a young man who spent years trying in faith to adhere to this church’s sincere teachings about homosexuality, I eventually left.

Judgmental attitudes do not foster an atmosphere of honesty or spiritual growth.

Our differences about the rightness and wrongness of homosexual activity will never be resolved by Bible verses. When we use Scripture to justify hatred and exclusion, we are misusing it.

God calls us to seek honesty, integrity, openness and authenticity. At the center of human nature are the strong desires to be loved, known and understood.

Many people around us are gay - co-workers, friends, even members of our own family. We may hold our own beliefs regarding the morality of homosexual activity, but stereotypes and fear will not bring us closer to God, each other or the truth. Such attitudes only widen the chasm between us.

Open your heart. Open your life. Open yourself. Someday, you will face yourself and ask, who have I loved? This is the ultimate question. It is the heart of life and the question that Jesus calls us to answer - and act upon. Samuel Francis Spokane

You can’t implant fairness

The very definition of “equity facilitator” is a bogus philosophy of today’s educators and employers cramming diversity down our throats, as if equality were an event rather than the process of individual growth that it is. Each of us has the right and responsibility to strive for equality for the good of all mankind.

It is a process that government on any level has yet been able to legislate. Lois Watts Spokane