Letters To The Editor
SPOKANE MATTERS
Geraghty a positive force for change
Those of us fortunate enough to have lived in Spokane for a long time can look back over decades of work from Mayor Jack Geraghty on behalf of this region.
I first heard him speak in 1969, when he was working to encourage “home rule” and a chance for local citizens to take a careful look at how they govern themselves. In the early 1980s, he was a key leader in Future Spokane, which helped citizens meet in forums and groups to create a vision for Spokane.
Geraghty’s work helped build the base for the new Arena, the Centennial Trail, sewering the valley, Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute, and dozens of other worthwhile goals.
When he ran for mayor four years ago, Geraghty promised to involve citizens in working together to solve their problems as neighborhoods, with support from city government. Today, Geraghty’s consensus building leadership has created a structure for neighborhood councils as partners with city leaders.
Geraghty believes in the intelligence, commitment and goodwill of citizens as they work together for Spokane. Those who have known and worked with him for years will remember the contributions he has made to our city.
On the other hand, we don’t have to go very far back to recall the embarrassment of ex-Councilman Chris Anderson’s antics on the City Council. Imagine how destructive four years of hostile divisiveness and negativism under a mayor like John Talbott, one of Anderson’s faithful supporters, could be to Spokane. Elinor W. Magnuson Spokane
Incinerator needs state oversight
Many thanks to staff writer Karen Dorn Steele for her excellent stories on the incinerator.
It’s good to see such an accomplished journalist cover this issue and keep local readers informed.
Named a “waste-to-energy plant,” the incinerator is accepting solid waste from Canada and charging bargainbasement rates. That waste, classed as hazardous in Canada, is OK in Spokane. No wonder Canadian corporations are eager to take our trade.
Spokane is willing to burn, for a mere $131 per ton, waste that costs as much as $1,800 per ton to incinerate in Canada.
Located upwind from our city center and homes, the incinerator deserved to be cited by the Washington Department of Ecology for burning ice storm debris before it had time to dry. We homeowners, after all, were warned against burning green waste that had not had time to cure. We knew better.
The Spokane Department of Solid Waste needs the oversight of Olympia in order to stay in line. Unfortunately, we taxpayers will have to foot the bill for the errors and arrogance of our city bureaucrats. Paul J. Lindholdt Spokane
It’s a sacrifice to make willingly
How many Sabbath-keeping teenagers have been discriminated against because high school football or other sports games are on Sabbath (Friday night and Saturday)? How many one-day-only department store sales are on Sabbath? The list goes on.
But, no one thinks of religious convictions when scheduling secular activities. As Martin said, “It would be impossible to please everyone.” Do we please God, our creator, by observing the memorial to his creation (the Sabbath) that he made and sanctified and gave to mankind in the beginning before there was a Jew or a Gentile? Or do we please someone else? We have to choose, but do we have to complain? F. Sheryl Mixey Davenport
Rabbi showed lack of wisdom
Rabbi Jacob Izakson states that Yom Kippur is 10 times more important than midnight Christmas Mass and Easter sunrise combined. That seems to me to be a somewhat foolish attitude, perhaps even offensive toward all Christian religions.
To many, Yom Kippur is a day of total insignificance, yet they don’t mock it publicly as Izakson has done here to Christmas and Easter. If he wants others to respect his Jewish holy days, maybe he’d better learn to respect the holy days of others. As he gains more wisdom in life, he’ll hopefully learn that respect is a two-way street.
I wish him a happy Yom Kippur (or whatever) and maybe this will be one topic he can “focus” on while he stands before God pleading his case. Michael E. Mayeau Spokane
Choice is part of living in faith
I read with interest the Oct. 8 story concerning the scheduling of a Spokane Symphony concert on the feast of Yom Kippur.
As a practicing Orthodox Christian, I sympathize with the rabbi’s concern about the conflict of schedules for members of his congregation. I have chosen to miss performing with the Spokane Symphony Chorale on a few occasions when concerts conflicted with Orthodox Christian religious holidays (“Turandot” fell on the Feast of the Annunciation, and this year, “Carmen” will be performed on Good Friday). Representatives of the symphony have always treated me with consideration and understanding.
Today, people of faith must constantly choose between practicing their faith and “the world.” That may mean not participating in school celebrations of Halloween, not being involved in sports leagues because the practices and tournaments are on Sundays, packing a lunch because your faith’s dietary rules conflict with those of the school or workplace cafeteria, or missing the annual kosher dinner because it always falls during Orthodox Christian Lent, when meat is not consumed.
Our ancestors put their lives on the line for their faith. We are blessed with having the freedom to choose to miss a concert or a meal, and making such choices only makes our faith stronger. Irene T. Supica Spokane
Everyone can’t be accommodated
OK, so the Spokane Symphony made a mistake and scheduled a concert for the biggest day in the Jewish faith. Spokane’s Rabbi Izakson is upset because his religious calendar was not considered.
Did the Spokane Symphony make sure it didn’t offend anyone else? Don’t schedule anything for fear of upsetting someone. Check the Druid, pagan, Christian, satanic, Buddhist, Islamic and Mormon calendars first.
Where will this stop? If a day is sacred enough, you will give up one concert. After all, don’t devotion and sacrifice go hand in hand? Quit whining and stop expecting your every wish to be catered to. Life isn’t fair. You’ll miss a concert. Get over it. Erin C. Scott Athol, Idaho
SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION
Lad would do well to learn life skills
Re: Jerry Olson’s Oct. 2 letter, “Leave life skills training to parents.”
Given the statistics in today’s world and economy, Olson’s son may or may not go to college, but it’s a good bet he will become a wage earner, spouse, and parent (not necessarily in that order).
Life skills - cooking, sewing, ironing and caring for an infant - may be just as important as math or English. Olson may have a wife and mother who tends to these chores for him while he pursues more masculine endeavors, such as mowing the lawn, changing the oil and spark plugs in a car, earning a living or teaching his son to throw a curve ball, but it doesn’t work that way any more.
Until Olson’s son acquires a wife, mother and slave of his own, I hope he’s smart enough to learn skills that will allow him to eat a decent meal that doesn’t come out of a can, iron a shirt to be presentable for a job interview or care for an infant while the woman in his life does the same, as it surely takes a team effort to make a success in today’s world. Carol E. Bordeaux Medical Lake
GAMBLING
Ironic, that Review opposes casino
Opinion editor John Webster’s Oct. 5 editorial, “Gaming venue 100% sucker bait” was a typical example of the scare tactics used by those opposed to gambling. From his deceptive introductory statement to the unfounded conclusions he reached, the entire column read like a McCarthy-styled smear campaign from the ‘50s.
Webster doesn’t mention the fact that the casino was approved by Airway Heights’ city government. While Webster may be a supporter of having officials of higher levels of government override local decisions, I believe the people of Airway Heights are more than capable of deciding what’s best for themselves.
Webster can’t be entirely blamed for his opinion, as he makes the same mistake that many people do - accepting the distorted and sometimes completely false statistics that come from such anti-gaming organizations as Gambler’s Anonymous, the Council on Compulsive Gambling and the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling. If these organizations couldn’t create a perceived need for their services, they’d soon find themselves in the unemployment line.
Perhaps Webster’s “gambling is the root of all evil” attitude would be a little easier to swallow if The Spokesman-Review didn’t print lottery numbers, betting advice for Playfair Race Course, point spreads on sporting events or accept advertisements from sports advisory services. (The latter two of those only promote illegal sports betting.)
If Webster despises gambling as much as he claims, how can he continue to work for a company that generates some of its revenue from the very same “dishonest” industry he criticizes? Allen G. Moody Medical Lake
AGRICULTURE
Learn why hemp is being suppressed
Deeper we slip down the path of drug war, losing rights as we go. Which brings us to hemp.
People are learning how many products our farmers could give us with hemp. Why on Earth aren’t we growing hemp? is being asked louder and clearer.
Sen. Larry Craig’s new bill would stifle public input regarding management of public forests, going as far as allowing timber sales that lose money if done in the name of “forest health.” More networks of roads and clearcuts will never be healthy for our ravaged forest ecosystems. And now, your right to do anything to help could be snuffed. Timber barons have legendary power over Congress. Craig is not the only one sucking in heaps of timber dollars. That’s a main reason our farmers have no right to energize our economy and help our environment with hemp.
Virtually all forest products could be replaced with hemp products. Industrial hemp, which has no drug potential.
Industrial hemp’s troublesome cousin, cannabis hemp (marijuana), is all the feds want to talk about, hoping knowledge of non-drug hemp will not brighten the minds of too many voters.
Shouting, “Save our children!” tops the feds’ favorite theatrics for keeping from us our right to hemp.
Learn why so many other countries are charging ahead with hemp. Find the truth about what timber barons and their Larry Craigs are doing for their pockets, at the expense of our children. Randall G. Clifford Spokane
GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
National sales tax would be worse
Re: Dale R. LaVoie’s Oct. 6 letter, “Ultimate reform: sales tax only.”
The national sales tax shifts the tax burden to the working class and poor, who would pay much more for basic necessities. Billionaire investors would get a tax windfall while most people would see the purchasing power of their paychecks erode.
Proponents of national sales tax say it is immune to cheating and abuse. People would find ways to avoid this tax. Buying, selling and even bartering through private parties would be one way. Retailers and manufacturers would lose business, thus laying off workers, adding to numbers of the poor.
Black marketing and bootlegging would skyrocket. Bootleggers of copyrighted materials would not only avoid paying national sales tax but also royalties that are the source of copyright holders’ income.
Even the investors who would initially benefit from this tax could lose when stock prices from manufacturing, retailing and entertainment industries stock plummet. Due to decreased business, the national sales tax could even crash the stock market. Remember 1929?
Proponents of national sales tax want less government regulation. If that is so, who would enforce anti-black marketing and bootlegging laws?
People laid off from jobs who go into black marketing and bootlegging do so to support themselves. In other words, people would go from honest to dishonest work. This would greatly accelerate the moral decay we have in this country. We need the Internal Revenue Service to keep people honest.
Don’t fall for this dangerous scheme. The national sales tax would do far more harm than good to this country. Alan J. Gnehm Spokane
Lay off Escalante National Monument
How pleasant it was to receive my latest Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance newsletter. The big cover picture of Conoco’s new drill rig complex in the middle of our new Escalante National Monument made my day.
I had thought that huge piece of wild country by Lake Powell was now protected. I guess I was wrong.
Although this first rig is on a state school inholding, Conoco has plans for many more all over the monument. What a sacrilege! And for what? More profits for shareholders and big oil executives in far away cities? On our wild, public lands.
The Bureau of Land Management and the administration have really wimped out on this one, and it’s costing us all the integrity of one of our wildest places left.
Leave our Escalante, and all of Utah’s 6 million acres of proposed wilderness, alone. Tom R. Sewell Whitefish, Mont.
U.S. has large blowhard contingent
The column by Molly Ivins on global warming was great. She is also correct in pointing out the difference between Europe and the United States.
I haven’t seen any ads she mentioned, but when driving my car, I listen to talk shows. When you listen to any of those shows talking about global warming, you notice that ignorance and stupidity are not corrected, let alone opposed - they are supported and encouraged.
So, the Clinton administration wants to hit the industry right between the eyes, I learned recently. That’s the administration that made economy its top priority and was quite successful in helping to revitalize it.
A radio caller makes a connection between global warming and gun control, and is immediately understood. Another caller says that the United States expends by far the most resources and energy. The host tries to ridicule him by saying he can’t understand the point.
In Europe, most people seem to know that serious statements require serious proof and they are mostly very hesitant to lecture about things they have no clue about. They would also not patronize somebody whose constructions lack logic most of the time.
Couldn’t we give a similar attitude a try?
I know, Richard Clear could be out of business then. Peter C. Dolina Veradale