Letters To The Editor

PEOPLE AND ANIMALS

Make gift bunnies the toy kind

I am writing to express concern for the third-most commonly found animal at shelters nationwide: the rabbit. With Eastern Sunday there will be many rabbits purchased as gifts. Some will go to loving homes that will be well-educated on the care of rabbits. Unfortunately, many will not.

Don’t you find it interesting that the majority of pet stores that sell animals will allow anyone with money to purchase an animal? There is no interview. It would be interesting to see how many of these dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, etc., end up at animal shelters or, worse, are abandoned outdoors.

Often, employees at these stores know very little about the animals they sell. I recently visited a local pet store that was selling exotic squirrels. The employee did not know the sex, age, lifespan, special needs or care required. The only thing she knew for certain was that this little animal was extremely scared.

Rabbits are extremely sensitive to sound, cold and heat. They are very fragile. They are not stuffed toys. Before buying a rabbit and leaving it to live its life in a cage, imagine yourself living in a four-foot-square chain link cage with a metal mesh floor. Occasionally, someone sticks their hand in to feed you. Is this the kind of life you would choose for yourself or someone you care about?

Perhaps a more compassionate gift for Easter would be a stuffed toy bunny. Karin Conte Spokane

There are responsible dog breeders

The wake of the Newport-area puppy mill fiasco has no doubt had a negative impact on dog breeders. It is unfortunate such a shadow was cast because there are many positives in dealing with reputable breeders. I hope our story will help restore the faith. , We purchased a 7-week-old golden retriever from Tamarack Kennels out of Newport in October 1996. The puppy was wonderful with everyone except our 4-year-old daughter. Over a four-month period, he snapped at her a couple of times and we became concerned.

After having the dog assessed by a dog trainer, we decided he was not a good dog for small children but would be great for a family with older kids. We didn’t know where to turn so we asked the owner of Thunder Mountain Dog Supplies for help. She suggested we call the breeder and inform her of the situation.

To my absolute relief and amazement, she bought the dog back from us. After ensuring that he is suitable for placement, she will find a good home for him.

All sales are not final with conscientious breeders. They take lifelong responsibility for their dogs. Jenny Mathison Spokane

THE ENVIRONMENT

Priggee goes ‘round the eco bend

The facts are opposite of staff cartoonist Milt Priggee’s March 19 cartoon, which shows our forests gone. Forested land in the United States increased 20 percent in the last 70 years - from 600 million to 720 million acres - with most of the increase and the healthiest forests growing on private property.

Because of set-asides and other factors, forest management has been possible in only a small fraction of the Northwest’s public forests for a generation. As a result, they are now the sickest on the continent; diseased, insect-infested and overstocked. Billions of board feet of the public’s timber die in them annually. More trees die on public land in Idaho from laminated root rot alone, for instance, than from logging. These provide tinder for wildfires that destroy wildlife habitat, fisheries and watersheds as well as healthy timber. Such wildfires are increasing in size, number and intensity.

“The remedy is forest management,” says Dr. Jay O’Laughlin of the University of Idaho. Faith healing is no more an effective basis for forest health than it is for public health.

Environmental groups are rabid opponents of management, however. They oppose thinning or salvage logging to reduce even a little of the fuel buildup from 70 years of fire suppression.

Priggee is either an ignoramus or a propagandist for this special interest group. Why The Spokesman-Review allows him to use the paper for his propaganda when it is obviously untrue and against the public interest is a mystery. Edwin G. Davis Spokane

Forest policy overdue for reform

Much has been written in recent years about our supposedly failing forests and the U.S. Forest Service. My first job was working in my father’s sawmill here in Eastern Washington. I was a forestry engineer during World War II. I served my duty in New Guinea, sawing lumber and building bridges. I have run a small sawmill near the Colville National Forest for nearly the last 50 years. Though I’m not an expert, I’ve certainly been an observer.

I oppose clearcuts unless every tree is already dead. I believe in the concept of the appeals process but disagree with the way it can be so frivolously abused.

During my career, I have been a staunch critic of the U.S. Forest Service. I now feel that the problem behind the Forest Service was our Congress and its inability to make laws that can be used effectively.

If Sen. Larry Craig’s forest reform bill, the “Pubic Land Management Responsibility and Accountability Restoration Act,” is allowed, it will hopefully be able to address the numerous problems with the laws currently governing the management of national forest and Bureau of Land Management lands.

I hope that, in the end, Congress and the Clinton administration will be forced to see the need for sensible, controlled removal of some of this great nation’s valuable timber assets.

If this is not allowed, we should call it a national disgrace and the present administration should be held directly responsible. William Brauner Kettle Falls, Wash.

Media did their one-sided routine

TV coverage of Sen. Larry Craig’s workshop in Coeur d’Alene left a lot to be desired.

It was remarkable how the press was unable to see nearly 300 people who were working hard to try to solve the dilemma of forest management and yet had no difficulty spotting 150 or so preservationists who were there to raise hell and wear clown suits, and who never even tried to find out what was really going on.

I expect if we painted a Holstein cow blue and had a person dressed up like a logger with a double-bitted ax, and had a couple of other guys revving up chainsaws, the media would have come running.

So much for responsible reporting. Gary Garrison Kettle Falls

NUCLEAR WASTE

Reject Dawn Mining Co. rip-off

Thank you, Lupito Flores (“Wrong to inflict waste on tribe,” Letters, March 12). We only wish more people, including our Congress and governor, felt this way.

The little reservation is all the tribe has left. Now, they want to dump waste that no other state wants at the tribe’s doorstep. Now, they want to take away the slots at the casino, which is a big help to our economy and to relieving unemployment on and off the reservation.

Trucking the waste will ruin roads and endanger people’s lives. And what happens when you have a spilled load here and there? Payment for damages, lawsuits, etc., will be made by all taxpayers.

Please, contact your congressmen and governor before it’s too late. Do we want another Hanford in our backyards, just to help Dawn Mining Co. clean its own mess? Dawn made its big bucks and then pulled out. Now, it is crying for help at everyone else’s expense, especially the Spokane Tribe’s.

If this waste is not dangerous, then why will no one else take it? Dennis R. Denison Fruitland, Wash.

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Balance the budget, as promised

I, like the 80 percent of Americans who believe this country should balance its budget, wonder why Congress recently passed a resolution calling on President Clinton to resubmit his budget.

A quick review of Clinton’s first budget answered my question. It made no serious effort to balance the budget, despite the fact he promised us during the election that it would.

In a nutshell, the Clinton budget actually increased the deficit from 1997 through 2000, then proposed drastic cuts in 2001 and 2002 to bring the deficit to $65 billion (using nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office calculations) at the end of 2002. He also shot down the balanced budget amendment bill, just for good measure.

So the question is, why does Clinton insist on running up the debt on our kids’ future? Simple - to make sure Vice President Al Gore gets elected. By not making the hard choices on taxes and spending before 2000, nobody feels the pinch before the election. Of course, the drastic deficit cuts in 2001 and 2002 would have to be re-legislated. And life in an ocean of red ink continues as it always has.

Gore is not worth another half-trillion in government debt. Get serious, Clinton. Do what you promised us. James Dowell Liberty Lake

Clinton is quite an actor

Although we are interested in the Academy Awards and in the winners, it seems we are exceedingly giving an enormous amount of flak and unflattering criticism to Bill Clinton.

After all, he is more adept and skillful as a thespian than anyone known to man in the past three centuries. As an actor, he far surpasses any of the noted artists of the theater and motion pictures you can name.

Many have taken roles of good and evil, treacherous and pious, gangster and preacher, loving and despicable, and many have also taken the role of president of the United States. Clinton has taken the role in real life. He has been able to show pathos, grief, anger, sincerity, happiness, love and many other moods exquisitely, but unfortunately, without good judgment or acumen.

It is our duty to protect him as the president of this great nation. Hopefully, wiser and better thinking action will come from the Senate and the House of Representatives. Please write to them and advise them. Lloyd Martin Cheney

Let Congress share in austerity

Years ago, Congress brought into law a welfare program. As the years went by it got out of hand. Now, some people will suffer.

You pick up the morning newspaper and it shows young women with babies who are going to lose some of their food stamps and money. How will they survive?

So now I believe it is time for the citizens of the United States to wake up, stand up and be counted. Let your congressmen know you are tired of all the waste they are allowing to go on with our tax dollars. I believe it is time they return the $35,000 increase in wages they gave themselves and return it to these young people who really need help. In other words, tit for tat. See if they can live on less. Harry M. Davidson Spokane

OTHER TOPICS

Incursion could involve ebola risk

Reuter’s News Service reports that the United States is going to send “hundreds of troops” to West Africa to help evacuate U.S. citizens from Zaire. The report says these troops will be sent to join French troops already stationed in Gabon.

Gabon just recently had an outbreak of ebola hemorrhagic fever. Seventy-five percent of the victims died. This outbreak was only declared over as recently as March 4 and its origin is still not known.

Ebola is a deadly virus and has no known cure. It has been kept isolated until now because it kills in a matter of days and the outbreaks have been in remote regions such as Gabon. Ebola victims usually die before they can spread the disease to neighboring villages. They bleed to death from every orifice, including their eyes and ears. Their internal organs turn to mush.

What would happen if one of our troops brings ebola home on a fast plane to share with the rest of us?

Gulf War syndrome has been a good example of how quickly we would admit to such a blunder. Jeff Kocol Wauconda, Wash.

People often too judgmental

As I recently read “Dennis the Menace,” I had to laugh at how true this cartoon really is. Dennis is talking to the preacher as he and his family walk out of church.

He says, “Next Sunday, just for fun could you tell us what we are doing right?”

So often in life we come across someone who finds fault in what we do. Society is quick to jump on us for our appearance, actions and words. We don’t have the serenity of being ourselves. Some people will surely take pleasure in telling us what we do is incorrect.

We are all sinners. Do we need to be reminded of this every day? Perhaps so.

Maybe it isn’t how much we hear it but how we are told. Life is about making mistakes and learning from them. Who gave us the authority to judge others? Nobody did. Too much time and energy is spent looking for faults in others. We are far too busy criticizing everyone when we, ourselves, are imperfect.

This is why we go to church - to learn from our mistakes and to improve ourselves. We do not attend Sunday service to be condemned for our actions. “Judge not, that ye be judged.”

When you look at the person with purple hair and a tongue ring or the grandma stripping, remember - who are you to judge another?

This reminds me of a quote I once heard: “Before making criticism, think through three things. Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?” Mindy Catlett Ephrata, Wash.

Chinese cooking: No offense intended

As owners of the Thai Kitchen restaurant featured in The Spokesman-Review on March 19, we would like to clarify an unfortunate remark and extend an apology to anyone offended thereby.

In the “Chef du Jour” article titled, “A fresh taste of Thailand,” a reference was made to deep-fry cooking in Chinese restaurants. We are very much aware that Chinese cuisine is delicious and wonderfully complex cuisine in which foods are not only deep fried, but steamed, baked, boiled and stir fried.

We sincerely apologize to anyone who may have been offended by this innocently made but perhaps insensitive offhand remark. Paul and Benjamas Hall Thai Kitchen, Spokane

Let’s have parity leering guys

I see the world’s No. 1 all-male, all-muscles, sizzling Chippendales are coming to Cavanaugh’s Inn at the Park in April, presented by KZZU. (Yes, I am jealous that I don’t have a body like them).

Well, I believe in equality. I want to know when KZZU and Cavanaugh’s are going to present us with the female version. The headline could read “KZZU and Cavanaugh’s present the world’s No. 1, all-female, big-busted, titillating Chippengirls. Call …” Rick Martin Spokane