Letters

Government help appreciated

I want to say two things for our government:

First, last fall I booked a flight to attend my sister’s funeral. When I arrived to board the flight on Oct. 6, we were told that all flights were canceled due to tarmac construction. I spent the next five and a half months trying to get a refund, only to be stonewalled by corporate America. I finally contacted the FAA, which contacted the airline, and I got my refund within a week.

Second, the antitrust division of our Justice Department, along with 16 state attorneys general, has filed suit charging five publishing houses with conspiring to drive up the price of e-books by $3 to $5, in order to guarantee Apple a 30 percent commission on each e-book sold, costing consumers tens of millions over the past two years.

As reported by Sharis Pozen of the Justice Department, Apple Chairman Steve Jobs told the publishers: “Sure, the customer pays a little more, but that’s what you want anyway.”

If Justice prevails, e-books will cost $9.99 tops. I’m not talking ideology here; I’m talking my wallet, which is where most of us live. As for the knee-jerk, government-hating tea partyers, bah, humbug!

Bill Leong

Spokane

Ad critics, chill out

For the past four years, the owners of Ritters Florist and Nursery have been open for business, selling all types of gardening products and floral arrangements. However, in a recent advertisement, they seemed to fall short of success among customers deeply disturbed by the slogan, “Pot dealer ahead.” They said it was a bad influence on young teens.

How can such a humorous ad turn into a conflict like this? What those agitated customers don’t realize is that this ad isn’t doing any harm to the community. Also, being a teenager, I know that other teenagers won’t be influenced in any way by the advertisement because it is only an ad.

In no way, shape or form does this ad push teenagers (or adults) to go out and be involved with pot, or any drugs for that matter. I say kudos to Ritters’ creative advertising idea, and the ability they have to make people laugh. Therefore, this ad shouldn’t affect people from shopping there as it has to some.

Ashlyn Haught

Colbert

Applause for GU’s decision

I applaud Gonzaga University’s decision to honor Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu as a commencement speaker, and as a recipient of an honorary doctoral degree. Actions on behalf of social justice and peace are an essential dimension of the Christian Gospel. Tutu certainly is one of the most recognizable representatives of such faith-based dedication to the causes of justice, nonviolence and human rights.

Since Archbishop Tutu is an Anglican, not a Catholic, some of his views differ from the pope’s. No surprise there, but no problem either. Labeling Tutu as a “pro-abortionist” is simplistic and mean, since he approves of abortion only in exceptional circumstances such as rape and incest. With regard to homosexuality, both Tutu and the Catholic Church “recognize the dignity of all people and do not define or label them in terms of their sexual orientation,” as the late Cardinal Basil Hume put it.

Opponents of Tutu’s invitation to Gonzaga ought to be reminded of what the eminent Catholic monk Thomas Merton, highly regarded by both John XXIII and Paul VI, said about Catholic bigotry: “The Catholic who is the aggressive specimen of a ghetto Catholic culture, limited, rigid, prejudiced, negative, is precisely a non-Catholic.”

Kurt Remele

Visiting Associate Professor

Gonzaga University