Letters To The Editor

THE QUICK AND THE DEAD

People should share in blame

In Myrna L. Peterson’s letter, “Killer will face gentler justice,” she relates the death of this wild animal as “faulty judgment” on the cougar’s part. I question whether the faulty judgment is actually that of people who continue to encroach upon the animals’ habitat.

When deer, moose and cougar are commonplace in outlying areas of your community, your own trespassing can be considered faulty judgment.

Granted, the destruction of this particular animal could have been avoided. However, rather than point the finger solely at the Department of Fish and Wildlife, maybe we should all accept some blame.

The reaction to this cougar’s death must be the result of this animal’s life having greater meaning than other animals in this community. Seldom have I observed such outrage when it comes to the daily destruction of stray animals in the Spokane Valley. Unfortunately, the Humane Society must eradicate these unwanted cats and dogs because the community cares little for the animals. I guess they are not exotic or cute enough to pique people’s interest. Jeffery J. Dreewes Pullman

Cougars represent growing threat

I have read the pros and cons on the recent cougar kill. The bottom line is what side of the fence you are on.

The wildlife department made a mistake by lying to the public, but most people can’t handle the truth. The truth is that these animals are becoming a problem.

I, too, love to see them in the wild. Being a mail carrier in a rural area, I see more of them every day.

Two weeks ago, a cougar came onto our porch in the afternoon and killed our little Pomeranian. It ran and dropped the dog when my husband ran out. Our 7-year-old grandson had been playing on that very spot 10 minutes before. It could easily have been him.

My daughter was stalked by one while she was walking. Most people will tell you they won’t bother humans. You can tell that to the family of the woman in California who was killed and eaten while hiking. Or tell it to the family of the 4-year-old who was recently killed.

We have lost two Pomeranians and three Persian cats, as well as geese and ducks. If that cougar had been left on his own or released, he would have killed someone’s pet or possibly a child.

It’s easy to blame someone, but unless you’ve been a victim, you don’t know how you’d feel. Darlene Manwill Cusick, Wash.

Cougar had to be removed

It’s unfortunate that the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife had to resort to deception regarding the tranquilizing of a cougar.

Lies aside, what were the department’s options? The cat had to be removed as expeditiously as possible.

There are a lot of cougars out there. I would venture a quick guess that none of those chastising the department have ever lost a calf, colt, family pet or, for that matter, have even been stalked by one.

The next time a cougar attacks a human or kills livestock, will there be any concern for how far it will fall or the dosage of the tranquilizer? Reg E. Morgan Coulee Dam

HEALTH AND SAFETY

Chemical sensitivity provable

Columnist Michelle Malkin is right when she knocks politicized science concerning multiple chemical sensitivity. Her one-sided May 10 column fails to acknowledge it’s found on both sides of the issue.

Malkin derides MCS victims by writing of their “alleged ills.” She implies their “bewildering variety of symptoms” means they cannot be taken seriously. But because many symptom words mean about the same thing, they boil down to depression, hyperactivity or interference with thinking ability or physical coordination. These all relate to the central nervous system, which we know can be affected by chemicals.

Contrary to Malkin’s article, there is a scientific way to establish chemical sensitivity. It’s the comprehensive environmental control unit developed by the late Dr. Theron Randolph in Chicago decades ago. Patients live in a chemical-free unit while being tested. Testing can be double-blind, so neither patient nor tester know the substance being tested. Inert materials (a placebo) can be included to check accuracy.

Why aren’t CECUs being used? Most medical insurers refused to pay for CECU diagnosis because it was “experimental.” Higher hospital costs reduced the number of patients who could pay on their own, so CECUs around the country closed. Establishing one, not necessarily in a hospital, would be a worthy project for the state, at least to ascertain whether MCS is a real illness.

Thus, there is a scientific means to test for MCS but nobody is using it. Instead, we get politicized science and disparagement of those who claim to suffer from MCS. Robert E. Forman Colville, Wash.

MCS criticism raises questions

Ironically, Michelle Malkin’s Roundtable commentary (May 10) about chemical sensitivity asks that science not be politicized. Then, she appears to do exactly that.

Instead of describing the physical symptoms of MCS - including nausea, vomiting, migraines, muscle weakness, possible coma - Malkin came up with a list of emotional affliction’s I’ve never seen in my MCS readings: enraged, talkative, emotionally unstable, etc. This could be an attempt to discredit those with a life-threatening illness. Many with MCS don’t have the energy to feel enraged or chatty.

Malkin failed to invest even surface research into the subject. There is indication that MCS can be genetic or caused by chemical overexposure. Like any “new” illness, it can take decades to determine causes.

It could be proven that food from our depleted soils is connected to depleted bodies, which have a difficult time battling society’s ever-increasing chemical onslaught.

Some people with MCS can regain quality of life. After dragging around my own MCS-sickened carcass, I found a good doctor. Restoring my health has been a long-term process of reducing toxic exposures and fine-tuning my diet. I can still be sickened by chemicals, but the reaction is less severe.

What is the motivation for pooh-poohing an illness Malkin has such limited experience with? More pointedly, what would become of today’s chemical-dependent economy if harmful chemicals were no longer available in abundance?

Fortunately, there are healthier alternatives, and they are the wave of the future. Lorraine Marie Colville, Wash.

AIDS fight wrongly favored

On May 22, 1955, my son John was born. He was a delightful child, a wonderful son, a loving husband and a fantastic father to his two children.

On Sept. 30, 1990, he died after his second bout with cancer. He, like the 550,000 people who died of cancer last year, died because his immune system was unable to fight off the cancer cells, much like the AIDS patient who dies because his immune system cannot kill the AIDS virus.

Recently, President Clinton decided the country must take up the challenge of developing a vaccination against AIDS. This action is proposed after the federal government has spent billions of dollars subsidizing AIDS research that has resulted in treatments that are supposedly extending the lives of AIDS patients. We’ve never had a similar crash program for treating cancer, a disease that can attack anyone.

Yet the government has within its grasp a means to offer a cure for many forms of cancers. I refer to the Department of Energy program for the production of radioisotopes. This effort is hobbling along with an annual budget of $20 million. Part of this program involves the treatment of life-threatening cancers using radioactive isotopes combined with monoclonal antibodies. This treatment has already cured patients with cancers that didn’t respond to conventional cancer treatment.

Since Clinton has stated he’s interested in saving millions of lives from the life-threatening disease AIDS, would it not be appropriate that he also use his power to accelerate the use of radioactive isotopes in the treatment of cancer? Wilbert A. Kalk Richland

Fluoride mostly just ineffective

It is unfortunate that fluoride, which is a highly unstable, toxic element, carries “communist plot” baggage. I see flouridation as brilliant industrial-capitalist marketing and antiquated science that appeals to people’s desire for easy solutions to complex, real problems.

Perhaps it’s fluoride’s unstable, toxic nature that attracts calcium to it. That gives the appearance of strengthening. There’s more to calcium uptake and utilization, and perhaps little of that was known when fluoride became popular.

Fluoride has been used as a pesticide far longer than it has been an answer to dental caries. For a questionable trace element, fluoride has done a remarkable job of insinuating itself into modern life.

Why mandate flouridation? There are nutritive substances with high thresholds of toxicity that contribute to strong teeth without fluoride’s attendant health problems. Why not mandate the addition of electrolytes and vitamin C to public water? Why not add calcium to give the fluoride something to work with?

Plenty of fluoride is available in pollution, pesticides, food and beverages from already fluoridated water supplies, medications, industrial waste and from pharmacies. There is no way to control dosage and bioaccumulation. There is no easy way to protect Gulf War vets, pesticide-toxic-sensitive, immune compromised or vulnerable populations from the further burden of fluoride toxicity.

It’s embarrassing that those who saw commies in every threat were right about this. I thought they didn’t care about children’s dental health before I really checked out the literature. I was living in fluoridated areas and had many cavities back then. Peggy L. Winkel Spokane

We’re not making much sense

News in the May 25, Region section was ironic.

On page 1, we learned the Spokane County Commissioners are considering raising gas and vehicle registration taxes to fix our roads. On page 8 we were informed that the state Legislature decreased the tax on beer, which will reduce the state general fund by approximately the same amount raised with the county’s gas tax.

Where are we headed when our leaders choose to increase the cost of essentials, such as basic transportation, while decreasing the cost of alcoholic beverages known to endanger us. Bob C. Branch Spokane

Implant story headline wrong

It might be nice to find a headline writer who understands the articles for which the headlines are written.

A case in point: the headline “Breast implants worsen other problems, study implies” (May 28) sits above a story on a new scientific report which makes exactly the opposite point. Namely, that other (lifestyle) factors besides breast implants may he partially or wholly responsible for diseases that those in the implantlitigation industry attribute to the implants themselves.

That is, there is no way to do a proper study of diseases possibly associated with breast implants without taking into consideration that women with implants differ from the general population by drinking more, getting pregnant younger, using birth control pills more and several other factors.

One might hope that the press could avoid contributing to the already sordid history of breast implant litigation, with its willful misrepresentation of what the scientific evidence has to say. Steven N. Austad Viola, Idaho

BELIEFS

Soul not as many believe

Forrest R. Fichthorn (Letters, May 17) addressed abortion and compared people’s outrage at the treatment of animals with their apparent lack of concern for babies. The majority of people have as much or more concern for babies as they do for animals.

I agree with Fichthorn’s view that abortion is wrong and against God. But Fichthorn thinks abortion prevents a person from ever coming into existence. God will never allow man the power to prevent a person’s existence. God puts a person’s consciousness into a baby’s body shortly before birth.

I don’t know why some people believe humans have an eternal soul. The word “soul” as used in the Bible means body (Adam “became” a living soul, not “was given” a soul). The word “soul” is a translation of the word “nephesh,” which means flesh.

He might be thinking of the word “spirit,” but that just means the mind or consciousness. Nowhere in the Bible will you find the term “eternal soul.” We don’t even have an eternal spirit, as God does, for it says in the Bible, “on the day that a man dies his thoughts do cease.” Also, in Corinthians, “The living know that they will die but the dead know nothing.”

The dead are temporarily out of existence until God resurrects them. The idea that people will go to heaven or hell as soon as they die came from paganism, as did a lot of other ideas that people think are Christian. Tracy A. Jenson Spokane

Keep man’s place in proportion

Forrest Fichthorn is entitled to his opinion of man’s place in the universe (Letters, May 17), but he doesn’t speak for me. I’ve never felt that the earth and sea “‘and all that is in them” were made for the human race. Specifically not for me are cockroaches, killer bees, rattlesnakes, man-eating sharks or the AIDS virus.

At best, and taken all together, creation is a wonder beyond wonders. But for humankind to consider itself the object of the universe seems to me to be a bit presumptuous. Ruth Anne Forman Colville, Wash.

Uniforms don’t make the person

Three cheers for Jim Kershner’s May 24, column concerning uniforms.

I attended parochial school as a child and uniforms made no difference. Bullies were still bullies, snobs were still snobs and serious students were serious students. The cost of the uniforms were a hardship to the low income families.

The bottom line is, clothes don’t make the man or student. Carol A. Shaw Spokane

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

Stronger father protects boy

Re: “Boy goes home without father,” news, May 21:

How in the world does something as graphic as this happen in the life of one little boy? How does he travel thousands of miles and get his whole life turned upside down? This close to Memorial Day - does it slap you in the face, or what?

Hopefully, as small things aggravate you in life, try keeping them in perspective and learn other methods to vent your anger. A child’s heritage could depend on it.

Thank God for a resilient spirit. Will the child be haunted? Who knows. As each terrible thing happens to people you gain a stronger awareness that life is pretty fragile and not to be taken lightly.

This little boy will have an advocate in his corner stronger than the human eye can see. Effectively from yesterday he has a guarantee that a stronger father now walks on the same path acting as a comforter and a protector.

Don’t cause these children pain. There can always be hell to pay when your wrath goes unchecked.

God be with you, little Dylan. Mike K. Craddock Elk