Letters

AIPAC power overstated

Perhaps Michael Poulin’s anti-Israel bias prevents him from seeing the facts. His letter (Sept. 10) asserts “that Congress is Israeli-occupied territory inciting muddled loyalty, and that the American-Israeli Political Action Committee (sic) is the most powerful in the land.” The specific reference is to the large effort AIPAC has made to oppose the nuclear pact with Iran.

The facts are that the pact is going forward. As Dana Milbank states in his column on the same page, “The Washington Post called this the largest defeat for AIPAC in more than two decades.” So much for being the most powerful in the land.

And was the misstatement of AIPAC’s name an honest error? It is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. It is not a political action committee.

Howard Glass

Spokane

Debate off the mainstream

The mainstream media – i.e. ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS plus Fox (28) – are supposed to be our window into the news and events that will affect us or help us to be informed about important issues. Obviously, the joke’s on us.

If you are one who only has the basic free TV channels, 2, 4, 6, 7, 22, 28 and 32, and not cable or satellite, you are not important enough to get programs that can help determine your future. You can get many reruns of reruns, 10 minutes of ads for every five minutes of program, but nothing so insignificant as the debates, which may help determine who the next leader of the free world will be.

We can see who the next Big Brother might be or who’s got talent, but not who might determine the direction our country will go for the next four years or more. Wouldn’t it be nice if the mainstream media actually took their mandate to inform seriously? More actual news and less garbage.

Dennis Gullett

Elk

GOP fires up wedge issue

Well, it’s election time again and the extreme right has dusted off its favorite wedge issue. Even with income inequality devastating our local economy and global warming causing our region to heat up, dry up and burn up, they would rather attack an organization that has long promoted women’s health, family planning, birth control and reproductive rights.

It also happens that every dollar invested in Planned Parenthood returns seven back to our community. We also know an HIV epidemic occurred as the direct result of defunding and shutting down Planned Parenthood offices in Indiana last year.

All the hyped-up rhetoric against this organization and its vital services is also likely to have fueled the flames of the domestic terrorists who attempted to burn down the clinic in Pullman a couple weeks ago. With all of this in mind, the Spokane community simply cannot afford for the government to defund Planned Parenthood.

Rev. Dr. Todd Eklof

Unitarian Universalist Church of Spokane

Spokane

Accept more refugees

There is a refugee crisis happening right now, and the United States needs to show leadership and kindness by accepting these refugees from Syria and elsewhere. Germany is accepting 800,000 refugees while we are only accepting in the few thousands.

It is our heritage. We are a nation of immigrants and refugees. For those of us who follow Christ’s teachings, it is a direct order.

Amber Joplin

Spokane

Valley spending too much

It is nice to see that Spokane Valley is so flush with money that it can pay millions for a lot to build a library, spend more millions on a new city hall and build a nice weed trail to Liberty Lake. Is there nothing Spokane Valley won’t spend our money on?

I thought the idea of local government was to provide basic services and manage growth, but it appears our Spokane Valley wants to be the growth engine all by itself. The people voted down the library expansion, but I bet anything they will keep pushing it until we have a monument to the past.

Libraries have their place and should be maintained, but that’s not good enough. Let’s all get behind expanding the libraries, the two-trail option and a fancy office for bureaucrats. There may be a few cents left for gum after that.

Gary Foster

Spokane Valley

Persuasion may be better

People involved in the abortion controversy may be cheered or depressed as Congress and campaigners weigh in on the issue, and that is understandable. I suggest the support of politicians may be viewed with caution.

When someone has a deeply felt commitment to an issue, they should be jealous of it; and just as the Constitution keeps an arm’s length between governance and faith, the intrusion of politics into such a commitment can be disadvantageous.

It is easy to say, “There oughta be a law,” but some things are better accomplished through moral persuasion than through the law. Ask the temperance forces how well a law worked for them. In some ways, once the issue is in the hands of legislatures and lawyers it is out of your control, and no one can easily forecast its final form.

Gregory Chipps

Spokane

Ovarian cancer not silent killer

As a stage 3 ovarian cancer survivor and an advocate for the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance trying to get the word out on this silent killer disease, it was dismaying to read the headline “IBS often responsible for bloat” (Sept. 19). Ovarian cancer is not silent. There are definitive symptoms.

The most common symptom is bloated abdomen. Dr. Anthony Komaroff is right in that the first thing doctors check is IBS. By the time doctors treat it as IBS and months or years later actually hear the patient’s other symptoms – persistent pressure or pain in the abdomen or pelvis, difficulty eating or feeling full quickly, urinary urgency, constipation and diarrhea – the ovarian cancer is usually diagnosed as stage 3 or 4. And called the “silent” killer because of misdiagnosis.

It is not silent.

When ovarian cancer is detected early, the five-year survival rate is 92 percent. But only 20 percent of cases are caught before patients are diagnosed at the advanced stages. One in 78 women will be diagnosed. There is no test for this cancer (Pap smears test cervical cancer); women can get it even with a complete hysterectomy.

Getting the word out will break that silence.

Mary Pegg

Spokane

Education goes deeper

The adage “Honesty is the best policy” applies to education. Sometimes education is misrepresented as just a way to find a good job, but actually it is far deeper and broader than that.

Whether it is done alone or in a group, education is an endeavor to separate what is true and what is false. Conversely, olden-times pedagogical misnomers of superstition and its cousin, mythologies, continue to interfere with educational progress. Fantasies can appeal to many on a psychological level but flunk reality testings.

Likewise, in earnest education, long gone are tales of sprites and fairies granting favors and gods above Earth watching to see who is naughty and nice. Humans can figure out right from wrong, and most who initiate good study practices are at least capable of separating myth from truth.

Occasionally, I ponder as to how much further ahead humankind would be if less time were spent on mythologies and more time on probing deeper into actualities. Would it be just years or centuries?

Gordon Sanders

Spokane