In their words
A selection of quotations from people in recent news stories, big and small
“It’s not something that’s going to happen. The parks commission has to get the public’s attention and the Legislature’s attention.”
– President Cris Currie of Friends of Mount Spokane State Park, after the state Parks and Recreation Commission included the Spokane County park on a list of state parks that could face temporary closure to meet budget-cut targets.
“We don’t like to lose, and we wanted to send a message.”
– Spokane Chiefs hockey player Tyler Johnson, following the Chiefs’ lopsided loss to the Tri-City Americans, in which two third-period brawls generated 21 game misconducts and most of the game’s 342 penalty minutes, ultimately resulting in a 10-game suspension for Chief Ryan Letts, the main instigator.
“They felt bad about laying us off, but that’s what companies do. I got laid off twice in two years. I’d been working steady since I was 17 years old.”
– Tom Seim, 50, of Spokane, a single father who is among this region’s victims of a faltering economy and a sour job market.
“Next to getting my hand back, this is the best thing they can do.”
– Vermont musician Diana Levine, after the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed a $7 million verdict in her case against a drug maker whose product, although approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration, caused her to lose her arm.
“It’s pretty cool to get to really see her. She walked on two legs like us.”
– Chief Moses Middle School sixth-grader Mercedez Cloninger, one of the Moses Lake students who raised money for a trip to the Pacific Science Center in Seattle to see the 3.2-million-year-old fossil known as “Lucy.”
“I don’t know if crime will go up after these guys leave. But I know a lot more of us will be packing our own pieces now to make sure we’re protected.”
– New Orleans restaurant owner Calvin Stewart, expressing his anxiety over who will maintain law and order following the departure of National Guard troops, who have been on duty in that city since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
“Dad is 98 years old and we believe that signing his name for hours on end on a daily basis is not in his best interest.”
– Nan Muehlhausen, daughter of legendary collegiate basketball coach John Wooden, in a statement from the family asking fans not to send her father, who recently had pneumonia, items to autograph.
“I either report and bring the children with me or don’t report and face dishonorable discharge and possibly being arrested.”
– Army reservist Lisa Pagan, of Davidson, N.C., who was recalled to active duty at Ft. Benning, Ga., and is being discharged after telling military authorities no one else was available to care for her two children.
“Sometimes it’s common-sense things and having to legislate them that drives me crazy.”
Washington state Rep. Mike Armstrong, R-Wenatchee, speaking on the House floor in support of a bill to assure women the right to breast-feed their babies in public.
“I couldn’t believe it. Then I went into shock, and then I felt numb.”
– Washington State University professor George Mount, who had spent six years on a climate-research project that ended when the satellite carrying it crashed into the Indian Ocean.