Letters

End interstate banking

The headline looked good: $25 billion dollars paid by the big banks into a settlement fund. Let’s see. That is nearly $300 for every home in America! Think of it!

This paltry sum does not begin to cover the losses suffered by the average American homeowner that are attributable to fraudulent and faulty lending and loan service policies at these big banks. So what is it, really?

It is a “victory” for a group of elected officials who the public has clamored after to do something. It is a pittance to these big banks – all funded with shareholder funds – and eliminates the possibility that any real human being ever pays a personal price.

There is too much disconnect between banks and the communities they serve. There is no consciousness at policy levels of good citizenship. Management decisions are made in the rarefied, competitive atmosphere of Wall Street.

It all worked much better for the public before the advent of interstate banking. It is past time to let these big banks fail and return banking to community banks and credit unions.

Don Endresen

Spokane

Stop district waste

So the Spokane Public Schools district is looking for an innovator. A trustee of Spokane Community Colleges said, “Someone who realizes that we are at a crisis, and that we can’t keep spending money on a system that is broken.”

Well, that isn’t exactly what all the school district levy publicity information that has been sent (wasting paper) to us says. And the district is spending thousands of dollars for a national search. More waste. They need to look within our local educational institutions. Perhaps like the Ferris teacher whose innovation created a forum, whether biased or not, to teach her students.

I voted for the levy, but I wish your news story had appeared two or more weeks ago.

Pamela Small

Spokane

Americans just want fair deal

Randall Babin states in his Feb. 10 letter, “The real American dream should be to work smart and get your name in the upper left corner (of your paycheck)” rather than grouse about how much wealthier your employer is than you.

It is a myth that all one has to do is work smart to get one’s name in the upper left corner of a paycheck. How many people would believe that smart work is all it takes to be a doctor or a rocket scientist? Just as successful doctors and rocket scientists have the aptitude for that sort of career, so, too, do businesspeople have a particular aptitude for business.

Why should people who don’t have an aptitude for business, i.e., employees, be paid so much less than those people who do? The 99 percent don’t want to bring down the extremely wealthy. Rather, they simply want to see some of that greatly amassed wealth trickle down to the employees as they were told it would.

If employees cannot earn enough from their jobs to allow them to have what constitutes a decent living in this country, then how else can they get it?

Debra Miller

Coeur d’Alene

Directly aid mammograms

Planned Parenthood does not do mammograms as part of its breast cancer screening. The breast cancer screening is a breast exam and referral for mammograms, just like all other women’s health providers. Women between 40 and 85 years old are referred for mammograms because that age group is at higher risk for breast cancer.

About 80 percent of Planned Parenthood’s clients are under 35 years old. I could not find any information on the number of women 40 years old and over that was seen by Planned Parenthood in 2009-2010. Planned Parenthood did breast exams for approximately 25 percent of all people seen in 2009-’10. (Planned Parenthood Federation of America Annual Report 2009-’10).

Why did Planned Parenthood accept $1.25 million in grant funding for doing the same breast exam during a physical that everyone else does? How many women did Planned Parenthood refer for mammograms in 2009-’10? Did Planned Parenthood use the grant money to reimburse the facility for the women’s mammograms?

I agree that Susan G. Komen for the Cure needs to honor their current grants, but hope they choose to use their future dollars to fund more nonprofit agencies, such as Access Spokane, and facilities that directly offer mammograms.

Ruth Isaac

Cheney