Letters To The Editor
SPOKANE MATTERS
Information officer? Just say no
Spokane City Manager Bill Pupo needs to wake up and smell the coffee.
The citizens of Spokane want roads repaired, not a public information officer hired to the tune of $28,081. I doubt this amount will fully fund this position as I am certain it does not include benefits, etc. I am sure that city management personnel are eager for a public information officer who will shield them from the pesky public.
Just what we need - another layer of bureaucracy. Just say no.
Robert L. Crouch Spokane
Watch out for jumping cars
The freeway resurfacing never seems to end. The Department of Transportation says the ruts are caused by studded tires and added traffic count. I have another culprit in mind.
Today, I surveyed the ruts between the Sprague Avenue overpass and Pines Road. They are all 43 inches apart from center to center. There are no cars that narrow. When I asked the DOT about it, they said what happens is one side of the car gets stuck, or tracks, in one of the ruts and it gets deeper. If that were the case, the other side of the car would be out of the other ruts and it gets deeper. If that were the case the other side of the car would be on the other rut and make the rut track wider.
If you go look, the ruts come to an abrupt end, both of them exactly at the same point, then start in the next lane over, at exactly the same point. How can a car jump from one lane to another like that?
This strange occurrence happens several times in that stretch of freeway. Don’t you suppose that the machinery that laid down the surface could have had anything to do with this flaw?
DOT also told me that it is caused by increased traffic count. So that would mean that even more cars are jumping from one lane to another on a dime. If it were studs, why are ruts only in one lane at a time? It doesn’t add up. We blame it on the studs, but there has to be another factor.
If anyone knows the answer to this riddle that costs all of us millions of dollars, I sure would like to see it in this paper. In the meantime, keep your eyes peeled for jumping cars. They are costing us all big bucks! Charles Schmidt Sr. Spokane
THE ENVIRONMENT
Columnist’s take on Butte unrealistic
Re: the Oct. 26 commentary by syndicated columnist Ellen Goodman, “Butte refuses to bury past in cleanup.”
While Goodman is no doubt an expert at the attentiongetting quip, her statement that there are no natural wonders in Butte and that Butte is the quintessential unnatural wonder reveals a gross ignorance of nature and what’s really natural.
Unfortunately, many of nature’s creations are not beautiful to the average human perspective. And geology is not everyone’s favorite subject.
Before any human ever dug a hole at Butte, “the richest hill on Earth” was a center of deep magmatic and hydrothermal activity.
It dispersed in the rock, to great depth and over monstrous area, highly anomalous base and precious metals and associated toxins. Had man never touched this area, natural erosion accompanied by oxidation would have caused every rivulet coming off this hill and every resulting pond and drainage below it to be highly toxic by present Environmental Protection Agency standards.
So what would EPA have done if its people had been the first humans on the scene? Maybe they would have mined the highest concentrations of heavy metals and tried to place them somewhere else.
I would certainly not try to defend every past mining practice. Nor do I condemn EPA’s efforts to clean up Butte. But some respect is due the hard-working people who produced and do produce the vital metals from this site.
Perhaps rather that deriding this activity as nothing but evil humanity and corporate greed, Goodman might stop to think about what her life might be like without metals produced from such ugly natural occurrences. M.A. Kaufman Spokane
Eco crowd the real spoilers
Re: The letter from Lewis R. Higgins, “Preservation being made pointless,” Nov. 3.
Right on! We are slowly but surely being denied our rights as taxpaying owners of this land by the politically correct, Earth!First, ICBEMP and others too numerous to mention, all in the name of “for our children.” At the rate they are going, our children won’t be able to enjoy much of anything. It will all still be here, but the children won’t be able to access it for any enjoyment. Patricia J. Magner Spirit Lake, Idaho
OTHER TOPICS
Doctor doesn’t deserve bashing
The Spokesman-Review was too quick to bash Dr. Mark Frazier.
Nephrology is not an easy way to make a buck. That’s why there are so few doctors in that specialty. Physicians, like Frazier commonly work 60-80 hours per week and also are on call. This is lifesaving work.
It’s those with no understanding and no experience with kidney dialysis who are criticizing Frazier. Perhaps he is somewhat burned out after years of service.
Physicians should not be expected to walk on water. He has admitted himself to a hospital. Why don’t you let him have a chance to heal, as he has healed so many others? Greg J. Works Spokane
President flunks the course
President Clinton was elected to represent the interests of all the people, not to spend time raising money for the Democratic Party. But, that’s what he’s doing between scandals.
Last Week he was on the West Coast and then he and the Gores were in Florida playing with Democrats who could afford $50,000 for an invitation. Taxpayers pay at least partly for them to go to these activities, which aren’t government business. We even paid for his daughter’s trip to college and probably for her surprise visit for her mother’s birthday.
The president shouldn’t be allowed to spend his time raising money for his own political party. He’s proving he isn’t interested in anyone’s views but his own. That’s not what our government is about. He doesn’t represent anything our young people can admire.
People in high places should be good examples of morality, belief in God and honesty. Sorry, Clinton. You flunked government. V.V. Brady Spokane
Kow-towing to China’s leader wrong
In a recent speech, President Clinton said that on many issues, “China is on the right side of history,” but concerning the Tiananmen Square massacre, “China is on the wrong side of history.”
I’m a little bit confused.
Has the sale of weapons of mass destruction to terrorist nations placed China on “the right side of history?” Is China’s program of compulsory sterilization, forced abortions, and female infanticide right? Should the Chinese government be congratulated for its imprisonment and execution of political prisoners? Is its fanatic intolerance of religion something worthy of praise? Is Clinton saying that China’s slave labor system is historically correct?
Americans know how Clinton feels about Vietnam, but does he seriously expect anyone to acknowledge that the United States was on the wrong side during the Korean War?
The People’s Republic of China is systematically replacing its communist form of government with a more practical and ruthless fascism. Such a government has never been on the right side of anything. Clinton’s groundless praise of China was meant to appease the tyrants in Beijing while his toothless criticism of the Tiananmen Square massacre was destined to help him save face here at home. Again, it’s business as usual. Steve M. Busch Spokane