Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

No rocket scientists at City Hall

Regarding staff writer Alison Boggs’ Jan. 23 article, “Spokane casts doubt on restaurant’s move”: It’s hard for me to comprehend the level of intelligence being exhibited by the city’s so-called leaders.

Let me think about their thought process. Let’s take probably the most desirable location in Spokane for a restaurant with a view. One which, if occupied by a good business, would generate a substantial amount of tax revenues that undoubtedly would end up in the city coffers. Then, put that property in a nontaxpaying category.

We could use this added revenue to pave our streets, pay our city employees and really upgrade Spokane. What’s wrong with the logic here? Joseph Reger Spokane

Is any downtown business safe?

There goes the city government of Spokane, acting like a spoiled bully on the playground.

It’s grabbing the ground right out from under one of downtown Spokane’s best assets, Clinkerdagger’s, then will tell us spending our tax dollars to throw the business out is a good idea.

RUI took quite a chance back in 1974 by building a restaurant on the “wrong side of the river,” but proved it wanted to stay here by giving us some of the best food and service in town. Now the company may lose its new location and the old location.

Look out, downtown store owners. If you have something the Spokane city government wants, it will just knock you down and take it from you. Gary Hartford Cheney

Quality paving would hold up

You turn on your TV, what do you hear? Potholes, potholes, potholes.

I have been writing letters to the mayor, City Council and city manager about this subject for a long time, ever since I read in Popular Mechanics magazine about Holland’s autobahn.

The Dutch put latex in the asphalt mix and during World War II, German tiger tanks ran up and down it and twisted around on it and never fazed it. Also, they never took the lowest bid, but the bid of the best contractor for the job. He had to guarantee his work for so many years.

So what’s wrong with this city street department doing the same, so we can get our tax money’s worth of not having potholes for 20 to 30 years? I was taught if you cannot do the job right the first time, don’t do it at all.

Wake up, Spokane. Demand the street department do our streets right the first time, so they won’t break up in two or three years. Harry M. Davidson Spokane

Come on, Spokane - go whole hog

Regarding your Jan 21 article, “City to Raise fines on overdue parking tickets,” why doesn’t the city just up the fine to $50 right off the bat? Think how much more money the city could collect in a year from the fines.

And they wonder why shoppers don’t want to shop downtown. Lucinda L. Carroll Spokane

Chester Creek is a safety hazard

You overlooked the safety issue in your story about Chester Creek (“Citizens angry at lack of flood prevention,” News, Jan. 18).

Ponderosa Fire station, serving the Chester area, is increasingly concerned about delayed or impossible response to emergencies. The Jan. 1 flooding closed many private driveways and three major roads. Thorpe Road has been closed for four of the last 12 months. Bowdish and Mohawk were threatened and if closed would have closed all access to Painted Hills.

Flood water over the highway froze, causing seven automobile accidents in the first 13 days after the flood.

Homes had flood water back-washing through drainfields, septic tanks and then into basements. Raw sewage isn’t safe, in a basement or being pumped out into storm ditches.

The Jan. 1 flood nearly washed out the railroad tracks. Railroad repairs Jan. 9 closed an overflow channel that allowed 20 percent to 50 percent of the creek water to escape into a landfill. More of the next flood would go downstream.

The railroad track is still threatened by seepage that could cause a derailment into the nearby highway, homes, a day care or the landfill.

I and several others who continue to witness all this could not calmly go back to the Chester creek committee process, now in its eighth year. We took action, gathering hundreds of petition signatures and dozens of letters. We went directly to the county commissioners.

Chester creek repairs will rearrange the environment only temporarily while the creek is dry this summer. Benefits will last for years.

Happily , it appears it may be possible to accomplish these corrections with a mixture of private and federal funds and few if any local tax dollars. Sylvia Riddle Spokane

YOUTH

Recognize outstanding young people

Teens are very much in the news these days. Unfortunately, all anyone ever hears about are the teens who steal, do drugs and commit various other crimes. Many people tend to forget all the good things teenagers do. Luckily, these teens can be recognized through the annual Chase Youth Awards.

Anyone can nominate a student for any of the nine awards. There are two divisions: a youth division for kids in grades kindergarten through sixth and a teen division for those in grades seven through 12. The nine categories are citizenship, community service, courage, creativity, entrepreneurship, environmental concern, leadership, personal achievement and “the spirit of Jim Chase” group award.

There is also a new category this year, the Jim Chase Memorial Award, to honor adults who make a difference in the lives of youths in our community.

As a teenager myself, I know how important it is to recognize the positive things teens do, rather than focus on the negative. Please nominate a youth you feel deserves acknowledgment for his or her work in any of the nine categories. Nomination forms can be picked up at local libraries, schools and community centers. The deadline for nominations is Feb. 19.

Please show the youths in this community that we are aware of all the great things they are accomplishing. Devon Van Dyne Spokane

Relating to pageants not so bad

After reading so many negative articles about beauty pageants, dance costumes, etc., I have to respond.

I have a very pretty 10-year-old daughter who loves dancing school and fancies herself becoming a model when she grows up. I’m glad. Even in elementary school now, kids are being individuals, supposedly, by all dressing the same - male or female - in pants where the crotch is at the knee and so baggy they have to walk like penguins. The more holes pierced in their bodies the better, and metal safety pins on everything. I’d much prefer to have a child want to look pretty.

The Ramseys’ mistake with a beautiful daughter like JonBenet was to have parties in their home and invite people they didn’t know very well, all for the sake of a holiday. And of course there was alcohol. I feel that was their mistake.

I don’t have the money they did but I understand the mother’s desire to let her daughter experience pageants and such. I have a feeling the little girl loved it all. Carla Squire Greenacres

SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION

Physical education needed more now

The Jan. 17 editorials were very insightful - staff writer D.F. Oliveria and Opinion editor John Webster facing off regarding high school physical education. in the high schools. I’m in Oliveria’s corner.

Physical education was a mainstay during the ‘60s. It was required in order to graduate. We participated in swimming, basketball, tennis, softball, field hockey, gymnastics, volleyball. You name it, we did it. In our junior year, we had one quarter dedicated to health. President John F. Kennedy was adamant about implementing more physical education for all young people.

Extracurricular sports aren’t for everyone. They are extremely costly for the participant and not everyone is chosen to participate.

What has happened to the good old days, when a whole neighborhood of kids would walk to the park and play softball, basketball, football, etc., and have a good time? We had television but weren’t allowed to watch it until the weekends. All four of us are extremely educated, articulate and physically well. We love sports and understand the rules from the education we had while in high school physical education.

In contrast, our young people of this era park themselves in front of the television or computer and veg out. Is this our future generation, young people unable to tear themselves away from the computer or television for a pick-up game of basketball or rollerskating?

Physical education is a mainstay in the schools. For the government to intercede and say otherwise is wrong. Fifty minutes per day, granted, will not make a Michael Jordan or Joe Montana, but it makes you feel good about yourself. Suzann O’Sullivan Embury Hayden, Idaho

More to it than games and foolishness

Re: The Jan. 17, From Both Sides editorial on mandated physical education in the schools. Physical education needs a clear definition before we start doing away with it.

Real physical education is just as basic to student performance as reading, writing and arithmetic. Real physical education includes nutrition, teaching exercise, recreation and sports skills that will carry into adulthood for healthy living. It includes recognition of needs and maintenance of the human body, what constitutes a healthy lifestyle, and a host of other interrelated subjects.

Real physical education is not just sports and shower room high jinx. If it is, that is what should be changed. Isabelle W. Green Cheney

Support clampdown on smoking

It is very disappointing to note that public school administrators in Washington are blatantly violating state law by establishing smoking areas for students on public school property. True, the law does allow exemptions for alternative educational programs, but these areas are not confined to such programs. Students not in alternative programs are being allowed to use school smoking areas. This practice also condones the violation of the Washington law that prohibits those under age 18 from obtaining tobacco products.

This action by public school administrators sends the message to kids that it’s OK to use tobacco and violate state law. House Bill 1081, now making its way through the legislative process in Olympia, would attempt to correct the problem. The bill was heard by the House Committee on Education on Jan. 23. I encourage all citizens to contact their legislators and urge them to support HB 1081. Dennis W. Biggs, Jr., M.D. Spokane Unit of the American Cancer Society

Big thanks from our small school

Thank you for the recent Spokesman-Review article that showcased Garden Springs Elementary School. We appreciate the time you invested in capturing the spirit of our small school. At a time when bigger and newer is often considered fiscally more efficient, the concept of a small school has many of its own advantages.

While many of these advantages are recognized, others are less apparent. We have had the opportunity to observe that when boys and girls spend their primary years in a small, close learning environment, they seem to naturally develop confidence in themselves as learners and as members of a community. This may be a result of the consistency of friends and adults from year to year.

The positive tone of your article was refreshing. Not only did it reflect well on our school but on education as a whole.

We appreciate the opportunity the Cheney School District has given us to be part of this special community at Garden Springs Elementary School. Joe Mirich, principal, and staff Garden Springs Elementary School

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Nethercutt, a down-home kind of guy

A couple of articles in the past few weeks have caught my eye.

One was about Rep. George Nethercutt’s support for and voting for Newt Gingrich to be retained as speaker of the House.

The next week, Nethercutt could not find the time to join and sign a bipartisan letter requesting emergency heating assistance for the frigid northern-tier states.

Makes one wonder. Maybe cold weather is not that big of a problem for the people Nethercutt represents in the 5th Congressional District - of Georgia. Kurt Matter Kettle Falls, Wash.

Reform campaign financing

Regarding campaign finance reform, The Spokesman-Review printed an article in reference to various people funding elections. I doubt that anyone will change the format, even though it needs to be brought under control.

Each candidate should receive funds within certain dollar limits but only from within the borders of the territory they are seeking office in.

I have no problem with private firms contributing to the cause of their choice, except monopolistic companies such as public utilities like Washington Water Power Co.

As a ratepayer with no choice, I feel WWP uses my funds to help candidates not of my choosing. Nathan Narrance Colbert

Libertarians have the answer

Even a Democrat, Sen. Tom Daschle, has admitted the truth: There is no Social Security trust fund. Today’s surplus of payroll taxes is converted into treasury bills. In other words, we have a pile of IOU’s.

When the time comes that more money is being paid out of Social Security than is coming in, the truth will be clear. The only solution at that point, of course, will be to raise taxes.

Judging by some of the comments I hear, it seems some elderly folks don’t mind if their children and grandchildren are burdened with a total 70 percent tax rate in the future, just so we preserve the system as it is. I’d like to believe older Americans do care about the future for younger people, beyond the older people’s own lives and benefits.

Three recent proposals by a government panel are flawed. All involve massive Social Security investments in the stock market (whether through government purchase, government-mandated IRA’s or government-managed accounts) and/or reducing benefits, raising retirement ages or increasing taxation.

Libertarian presidential candidate Harry Browne proposed that the government should buy from a private insurance company annuities for Social Security recipients who rely upon that income and fund those annuities by selling trillions of dollars of federal assets. Younger people should be free from the 15 percent Social Security tax and could save their own money for their own future.

It’s time to tell the politicians - in case they don’t already know it - that the system is busted. It’s time for a real solution. Janice Moerschel, chairwoman Spokane County Libertarian Party

A few good men? Not in these parts

In the 1770s, Thomas Jefferson wrote about “governments deriving their power from the consent of the governed.”

In the 1860s, Abraham Lincoln said, “government of the people, by the people, for the people.”

In the 1990s, our state Supreme Court dictated that county commissioners and city councils may take any action they choose, even spending millions, billions, trillions - and the public has nothing to say about it. All that is left for the stupid public is to shut up and pay the bill.

I suppose America has great men still. Too bad that none of them live in our state. C.F. Brenton Spokane