Letters To The Editor

WASHINGTON STATE

A sweet deal - for Allen

Paul Allen’s television commercial states he will not purchase the Seattle Seahawks without the taxpayers. It’s a partnership, he states.

How considerate he is to include the taxpayers. He has a dream of mega riches at the taxpayers’ expense.

If it’s a sweet deal, why didn’t Seattle or the state legislators grab it and run with it? Why does Eastern Washington have to co-sign the mortgage with votes for a stadium with new taxes? Why are millions being spent by Allen on consultants, lobbyists, television commercials and other media coverage?

Could Allen be trying to sell Eastern Washington on backing the cost of the stadium and the Seahawks while holding Seattle hostage for a pro team?

How much profit will Allen make on the 10 or fewer games the Seahawks will play in the new stadium each year? How much additional money will he earn from expanded corporate executive suites, corporate season passes, ticket sales concessions and other fees from events held in the stadium?

Allen’s new corporation gets all the profits from the new stadium. He’ll more than recoup his expenses. What a sweat deal. Riches to riches by taxation.

The state will receive none of the profits from the stadium and we still need schools, highways, welfare and time to pay off other bonds.

More than 30 other major football teams want to move. Maybe they would like Seattle and offer us a better deal. Herschel A. Stoops Spokane

Speedways don’t tap public trough

I read with alarm one of your editorial writer’s views on the proposed new football and soccer (ha, ha!) stadium. He’s correct about it being a no-brainer. That’s what a yes vote for the stadium would be.

I also read in The Spokesman-Review a full page on stadiums around the country and what fools people are to sell themselves and their children into debt for these modern-day robber barons, the team owners. Look at cities around the nation that have been duped by team owners who had the sweet deal and, five years later, took the team and left for a sweeter deal somewhere else.

The editorial writer forgot to mention all the new auto racing facilities being constructed around the country. Guess what? They are doing it without going to the public trough.

The new 220,000-seat Dallas-Forth Worth speedway is second in size only to Indianapolis. Another new super speedway is opening this month in California, one in St. Louis, Pikes Peak in Colorado, the Las Vegas Motor Speedway - the list goes on and on. But the great part is that it’s being done with private funds.

Yes, some of these companies have gone public, which is great. If there is a demand, private capital will fund these enterprises. If not, let them fail. If they own the team and the facility, they’ll make sure that it’s successful.

Let’s not sell our souls to the devil for a billionaire owner and millionaire players. Norm W. Ellefson Cheney

Opponents know not, won’t believe

Now that Paul Allen’s organization has started putting out factual information regarding the impact of Referendum 48, the voting pendulum has started swinging toward the yes side.

I spent considerable time listening to the information from (Stop Stadium Madness leader) Chris Van Dyk and Spokane’s own king of the lawsuit. All I got out of their statements was that they really have no argument against the referendum so they spend their time tying to compare apples and oranges.

It even appears that none of those people really understand much about the budget process and where the funding comes from for roads, education and children. Pro Hawks Northwest finally had to explain to them that roads, education and children’s programs come from dedicated general taxation and that Referendum 48 has no part in the general fund.

Then there was the statement by another fellow in the Legislature that the Seahawks would not leave Seattle if Allen doesn’t buy the team. What planet has he been living on? Ken Behring did not spend $2 million hauling the Seahawks to California and back because the had nothing to do that week. The city of Anaheim promised Behring a new stadium, total control and keys to the city if he would move the franchise.

If Allen does not buy the franchise, it’s goodbye Seattle Seahawks, welcome Anaheim Blackhawks.

When the opposition had no answers it resorted to camouflage. Pro Hawks Northwest pulled the camouflage down with the truth. The opposition tried an old political trick that backfired. John H. McGregor Spokane

Ballot is not rocket science

Spokesman-Review editorial board members must think their readers are so stupid they can’t understand the simple instructions for the mail-in ballot.

I agree that C.H.A.D. is silly and that mentioning the tab on the back of the piece punched out may have been easier to understand. Please, give your readers credit for intelligence. Helen M. Bowlin Spokane

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

Honor Colvilles’ polite request

The Colville Tribal Business Council and tribe elders have made a polite request: The Colville High School teams’ name, the Indians, is offensive to the real Indians and they ask that it be replaced.

The council and elders may have acquiesced to this name in the past, but they obviously no longer do. Simple politeness calls for an affirmative response to this request. Julie L. Jordan, member Upper Columbia Human Rights Coalition, Gifford, Wash.

‘American’ will do; No origin needed

The June 6 Roundtable included Aaron N. Berne’s letter, “Racism begins at home,” regarding a Confederate flag decorating a street in Spokane. Berne made some very valid points about racism and hatred being so prevalent in this country.

He also hit the nail on the head with his comments on the militia and hate groups that spread their pathetic and ill-informed beliefs about what constitutes a real American and why we should hate anyone who does not fit their ideals.

While I applaud Berne for what he said, I am bothered by how he said it. Berne began his letter by identifying himself as an African-American and ended it by saying we need to stand up as Americans and protect our communities and families, and teach our children to love and respect each other.

People, we are never going to break down the racial barriers that plague this country as long as we continue to be a society of hyphenated Americans. After all, If you were born in America, you are an American, plain and simple. We can’t expect our children to not see race or color as long as we adults continue to segregate ourselves into these groups.

Why do we feel this incessant need to label ourselves as African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Irish-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, etc.? We are all members of the human race. Can’t we just be content teaching our children that? Richard T. Morton Spokane

THE ENVIRONMENT

Attend hearing on Hanford Reach

If you think the Hanford Reach, our salmon fisheries and our public open spaces should be saved for our future, then attend the congressional public hearing on the Hanford Reach in support of Sen. Patty Murray’s bill to designate the reach as America’s next recreational river.

The hearing will be held in Mattawa on June 21, from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., in the Saddle Mountain Intermediate School gymnasium.

The Benton, Franklin and Grant county commissioners, along with Rep. Richard “Doc” Hastings, have cobbled together a counterproposal to Sen. Murray’s Reach bill. Their proposal paints the thinnest veneer of protection for the Hanford Reach to cover their true intent: privatizing your public lands for profit by a privileged few.

They try to mislead you by saying our public lands would be “locked up” under Murray’s proposal. Yet, when the “private property, no trespassing” signs go up on our public lands, you will see what locked up really means.

Under Murray’s bill, the Hanford Reach’s incredibly important fisheries, natural resources and open space would be preserved for all Americans, not squandered to benefit a few.

Remember, when your public lands are lost, some of your freedom is lost with them. Bob W. Wilson Richland

Sierra Club so wrong it squeaks

In response to the June 5 article, “Sierra Club stumping for the Panhandle,” I would like to point out a few facts. It’s obvious to me that their report, “Stewardship or Stumps,” is nothing more than inflammatory rhetoric based on flawed science designed to incite people all over the nation to an emotional response to problems that do not exist.

Flooding in the Pend Oreille, Coeur d’Alene, Palouse and many other rivers in our area is not due to overlogging or road building on our public lands. It is caused by large snowpacks in the mountains and abundant rainfall.

If the Sierra Club could view rivers and weather patterns on a geologic time scale instead of through their myopic, self-perpetuating agenda, they would be able to understand the Mother Earth they claim to protect. You just can’t stop erosion. It took an estimated 4.5 billion years of weather and erosion to create all the land forms we see and hold dear.

It’s high time that groups like the Sierra Club quit bashing the Forest Service. The club wastes our tax dollars litigating every move in the forest.

If John Leary of the Sierra Club wants to change our economy into one dependent on tourism, he and the club should join hands with groups like the Blue Ribbon Coalition in asking Congress to restore funding to local ranger districts, with more attention given to recreation. Eric J. McDonald Spokane

LAW AND JUSTICE

Judo ruling big loss for everyone

U.S. District Court Judge Carolyn R. Dimmick’s ruling that competitors at judo tournaments do not have to bow before approaching the mat is a disgrace (“Judo bows out,” Spokesman-Review, June 4).

The 10- and 12-year-old plaintiffs in the Seattle case who declared that the traditional Japanese bow violates their religious rights were sadly misled by their parents and lawyers.

Judo officials are correct in their claim that the bow is a nonreligious sign of respect similar to the American tradition of shaking hands. Judo competitors are taught to bow toward their opponents, teachers and tournament officials. Can any sane person say that showing respect and/or gratitude toward others violates one’s religious beliefs?

Sportsmanship is disappearing from American sports. Our role models are football players who wiggle parts of their anatomy in celebration after scoring a touchdown. Dennis Rodman-like antics are being played out on basketball courts all across America. Not one federal judge has ruled that these public acts of indecency violate anyone’s religious rights.

Dimmick’s ruling sets a dangerous precedent in saying that private clubs, athletic organizations and even churches do not have the right to teach traditional values or ask participants to conform to standards of behavior. Steve M. Busch Spokane

Pro-drugs writer’s rights violated

I am extremely disturbed by the May 31 article, “Poppy seed case ends happily, but that’s not the end of it.”

It seems that Jim Hogshire was the victim of police powers gone terribly out of control. A police force whose abuse of power is equaled by the Nazi Gestapo!

Hogshire was arrested for having dried poppy seed pods that “could be bought in most any florist’s shop or craft store, where they are sold for dried flower arrangements.”

Hogshire wrote a book titled “Opium for the masses” and publishes a magazine called Pills-a-Go-Go.

Police based their search warrant in part on those writings. According to Hogshire, one officer asked him, “With what you write, weren’t you expecting this?”

Gary Ernsdorf, the King County deputy prosecuting attorney, said Hogshire’s writings did influence prosecutors.

Hogshire’s constitutional right of free speech was blatantly disregarded in order to procure the search warrant

Citizens’ rights are constantly under attack by tyrannical police, from reduction of Miranda rights to the misapplication of civil forfeiture laws. We all should be terrified of such persecutory abuses of the Constitution and civil rights by despotic forces of the law. Ronald D. Stewart Cheney

Don’t let tobacco firms off light

No single effort would more positively impact our community’s health than preventing new tobacco use, especially by youths.

We should all heed Spokane’s Teens Against Tobacco, supported by Tobacco Free Washington and the American Cancer Society, whose open letter to the citizens of Eastern Washington in the June 8 Spokesman-Review warned against tobacco deals that protect big tobacco rather than our health.

If the tobacco industry reaches a settlement with the state attorneys general who are suing to recover the medical costs of tobacco-caused diseases, there must be minimum criteria that Spokane’s youth advocates delineate in their letter: Big tobacco stops targeting our kids. The Food and Drug Administration regulates nicotine as the addictive drug it is. Tobacco companies fund anti-tobacco education. And no immunity for tobacco companies from future litigation.

Advocate for health. Join Spokane’s Teens Against Tobacco in their effort to ensure tobacco deals that protect our health. Kim Marie Thorburn, M.D. health officer, Spokane Regional Health District

HEALTH AND SAFETY

U.S. wages phony war on cancer

A simple, cheap remedy for cancer would be anathema to the medical industry. Pharmaceutical companies would lose sales and hospitals would be deprived of income derived from chemotherapy, radiation, surgery and other services. Many hospitals and medical schools would suffer dire financial reversal.

Not surprisingly, safe, lower-cost remedies are often ignored.

Although a 1988 British Columbia study of 200 cancer patients who experienced “spontaneous regressions” noted that 88 percent used dietary therapy, nutritional science requirements for most medical degrees continue to be minimal.

The mycotherapies, especially certain mushroom extracts approved for use in Japan, have been credited with reducing or eliminating tumors. One extract alleviates the effects of chemotherapy while enhancing the effectiveness of lower dosages of drugs.

Case studies of various oxygen therapies have demonstrated highly successful results. Yet, a doctor found practicing unconventional treatment would likely risk censure or loss of license.

Something is wrong when conscientious physicians who get good results are persecuted for practicing “nonstandard” medicine.

For decades, government has spent an obscene amounts to finance the war on cancer. Yet mortality has not declined significantly. Words are carefully chosen and statistics manipulated to make it appear there’s much progress. One must ask if standard treatments really prolong life or merely prolong dying. Norene F. Wedam cancer survivor, Somers, Mont.

Try elevated crosswalks again

In an era of tight budgets for road work and even less money for concessions to bicyclists, this suggestion might seem laughable. Conscience makes me raise it anyway.

Unlike much of Europe, we set aside little funding to even paint and enforce observance of pedestrian crosswalks, much less build elevated pedestrian crosswalks. We should do the latter as funds become available, at least over the busiest pedestrian-crossed streets.

These needn’t be as elaborate as one over I-90, complete with spiral staircases, in the Valley. I recall the ill-fated downtown auto race, when crossings were temporarily set up over Spokane Falls Boulevard. They were made of train boxcar bodies and portable staircases.

If these rigs can be reasonably acquired to help protect pedestrians, I’m all for them. Maybe they could be offered through a bond issue? Philip J. Mulligan Spokane