Letters To The Editor

GOVERNMENT/POLITICS

Our leader a pitiful excuse

Only in today’s America can veterans of its armed forces who served their country with honor go homeless, while a calculating draft dodger lives in luxury at the Whitehouse.

What else can be expected from one who evaded his own service obligation, wrote of his loathing for the American military, and now exploits it at every opportunity for personal political benefit.

What a pitiful excuse for a commander-in-chief!

Ken D. Weber Colville, Wash.

Shame on you, Bill Clinton

It’s become a very sad day when the population of the United States has to put up with a President who in not a Christian.

He couldn’t be a Christian and promise a crusade on behalf of equal rights for homosexuals.

Yes, a very sad day. Shame, shame on you Bill Clinton. Warren L. Barry Spokane

SPOKANE TRANSIT AUTHORITY

STA’s goal should be better service

Change the bus routes to run only arterial streets and in the space of one hour a bus can travel faster, farther, pick up more riders and therefore generate greater revenue. That’s the goal of STA with their new route proposal. No matter that elderly and disabled will have to walk, if their able, many blocks farther. Not to forget inclement weather and dark of night.

Why can’t the existing routes be left in place, which typically run every thirty minutes, and run the proposed new routes between the existing times. That would allow for fifteen minute service within many areas and extend service to others. It would give riders a greater choice of times and routes. Perhaps not as easy as it sounds, but, something to think about.

Service on weekends must be improved. Why in the world is there a fee to use the shuttle? That’s a no-brainer. Get rid of the 25 cent fee!

The goal of STA, the city and county, should be able to make bus service attractive enough that people will begin to leave their vehicles home and ride the bus to work, school and shopping. Unfortunately, it appears the city has no interest in less vehicles in the downtown area.

Encourage rather that discourage continued use of service and bring new riders on board. George Britton Spokane

STA should respond to public input

The day of reckoning has come. The STA Board of Directors is about to meet. They have determined that no further public input is necessary. That being the case, there is only one decision they can make.

The mandate is clear, the action is obvious, 96 percent of the speakers at the public hearing oppose the COA Service Plan. Based on the input of the people who participated in the process, COA must be DOA! To act in any other way would be to make a mockery of public input.

We praise God that the STA Board is composed of caring, responsible public officials who listen and respond to public input! John K. Billington Spokane

SPOKANE CONCERNS

What’s happened to our morals?

I think Mr. Doug Clark missed the point of what the commissioners achieved last week when they voted to ban some of the lewd practices in strip joints and adult book stores.

The decent people of Spokane County must start some place in the fight against pornography and sexual abuse. Certainly, one must be over 18 to get into places like Deja Vu, but they can buy pornographic material in stores and find sex on the Internet. We are fighting on all those fronts to keep decency alive and well.

Would Mr. Clark want his daughter working as a lap dancer? Where have our morals gone when a banker says it didn’t look so bad to him? Where have we gone when voting for decency is to be considered a waste of time? Jean L. Sullivan Spokane

Was study really compromised?

There’s an ugly mix of prurience and self-righteousness in Karen Dorn-Steele’s coverage of the Phil Williams’ situation.

Aside from titillating readers, I fail to see how exploring Mr. Williams’ telephone logs does anything to substantiate the assumption that his relationship with the lead scientist has somehow compromised the credibility of the study. In fact, despite the thousands of words dedicated to “informing” the public about Mr. Williams’ personal life, no light has been shed on how the study was, in fact, compromised.

The fact that some people never did like the incinerator, or Mr. Williams for that matter, is not adequate to justify this spectacle in the newspaper. These studies are very quantitative. Does 2 2 not equal 4 somewhere in its conclusions? Is it a matter of scope, too narrow or too broad? Just what is the problem with the study that would plausibly be caused by this personal relationship?

That’s the only relevant question, and the only one which justifies this prying into his life. Unless it can be answered, without hypocritical and vicious meddling, I suggest the press and the public get control of their appetites for things which are none of our business. Randy L. Schafer Lind, Wash.

CARING FOR CHILDREN

Kids need parents full-time

Re: The Au Pair trial.

First, I was amazed the jury found her guilty. I’m not saying she was or was not guilty, but I’m hard pressed to understand how the jury could agree “beyond the shadow of a doubt.” Second, I agree with the judge reducing the charge to manslaughter with time spent as adequate punishment. If the folks in Massachusetts don’t like a judge to have that authority, change the law. Don’t shoot the messenger. Third, I never heard any closure explaining the 3-4 week old broken wrist on the baby. Both sides seemed to agree that was true, but who, or how, did it happen? Is it a coincidence that it happened about the same time the defense claimed the head injury happened?

Lastly, the point of discussion that has now surfaced on two parents working when they have small children at home. No single statement will cover this situation. I know of families where both parents work and have small children at home. Many of them work because they have gotten themselves in a corner with a lifestyle which leaves them no choice; the boat, the lake cabin, the two cars in the garage, the camper, a house beyond their means; the list goes on. I think it’s called “not living within your means.”

Again, this is not the case in all families with small children at home, however, with all the problems small children and teenagers face today, they need the presence of parents on a full-time basis, if at all possible. Wm. J. Hiatt Spokane

IN THE PAPER

Give space to church youth groups

I’ve noticed a great and lively aspect of our community that has been overlooked. While I see some articles on what churchs do around the holidays I would appreciate an article on the church’s youth groups. A fair amount of our cities youth get plugged into these programs and are impacted in positive ways. They’re a safe place for teenagers to be instead of alternative destinations.

They teach morals from the Bible. They help teens deal with issues normally not talked about and they help them get through difficult situations and show them ways to deal with the pain.

Youth groups are great at having fun and doing wacky, off the wall games and activities. There’s a wealth that youth groups offer and while all this is good, the greatest by far is that the kids get the chance to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. In all ages and times people need to hear of Jesus truthfully and find out for themselves what faith means and what it can do in their lives.

While writing on youth groups from many churches would advertise them, it would also serve to show people what they are about, and what they are really like, so that people can consider them. Paul A. Spangler Spokane

John Talbott man of principle

Poor losers, cry babies and whiners, now The Spokesman-Review gives advice to Mayor Talbott and calls Sabey, Talbott’s patron. Again the ax grinds, the knife is in and The Spokesman-Review’s agenda is again preached for the downtown two and one half blocks.

Talbott is in no ones back pocket. He will be mayor for all of Spokane. If Peck and Webster were just half the leader, half the father, half the warrior, and half the Christian, we would have a more balanced and less elitist paper.

Talbott is a man of principle, integrity and ethics. I’d follow him any where, any time. As for The Spokesman-Review, I line my cat box and bird cage with it, editorial page up. Michael P. Cady Spokane