Letters

Something as anonymous as a flier, cowardly distributed by night, leaves everyone in the dark as to what the activist's motives are. Some people wish to create the sense of a well-organized white-supremacist presence in our area. Let's caution ourselves to generalize and point fingers from any side, for any reason.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that city leaders were finally doing something to help small-business owners in the downtown core combat the effects of the transient population. I applauded the initiative to put down basalt rock under I-90 to make it uncomfortable for the transients to set up camp. The same initiative that was expedited through the council by Ben Stuckart.

Sprague Avenue, a major arterial was closed for months, millions spent, and to do what? To ease traffic? Nope, the polar opposite, to reduce four lanes to two, the so-called "road diet" that has become the mantra of our City Council.

The moral fiber of our country rots from the acid of greed, fear, and insecure egos. We fear our neighbor, strong women, transgender people, gay people, foreign people and, simply, most people. We place our faith in guns not God.

I live downtown. Homeless people camp on my property. They steal, vandalize, leave their waste. I know of low-income housing that is a nightmare to live in because these and other problems abound.

A passage from George Orwell's "1984" is timely:

A passage from George Orwell's "1984" is timely:

A passage from George Orwell's "1984" is timely:

President Trump has three problems with being able to live up to his campaign promises: 1) DACA; 2) our crumbling infrastructure; 3) media focus on his frankness. Spokane has three problems too: 1) potholes; 2) the lack of attention to the construction Highway 395 - the fabled North-South Freeway - to Canada or California; 3) the lack of jobs in construction for those who are able bodied and/or in college.

Regarding Lori Taylor's Dec. 10 letter ("What do Democrats want"):

I am an 89-year-old retired Spokane schooteacher, a Democrat loyal to everything our country represents in its past and, hopefully, eventually in its future. Rachel Maddow's program on Wednesday night left me in tears. She showed us how money and the grasp for power seems to have corrupted many people at the top level of our national government. I am still having trouble controlling my tears. All who love America need to come together perhaps in silent prayer to help bring back our hope and trust.

This letter is a short tribute to my dear friend, Spokane native Capt. Paul Ashley. Paul passed away on Sept. 6 after a quarter-century battle with heart disease. I met Paul in 1994 in the USAF, and we became lifelong friends. Paul was an outstanding officer, leader, patriot, and the epitome of a father and grandfather. Everything he ever did was first-class, humble, and honorable.

A Sept. 11 letter (DACA falsehoods) criticized a national news service's (NPR) website for misuse of the word "law" in reference to President Obama's executive order regarding DACA. The author's premise was that an executive order isn't a law as described in our Constitution.

In response to the Sept. 8 article, "Whitman instructor threatens lawsuit against McMorris Rodgers over response to Facebook posts":

In 1991, Congress unanimously passed a law acknowledging herbicides sprayed over the Vietnamese countryside caused major health problems for all veterans of that war.

Disclaimer: I have a chemistry doctorate and computer science master's.

I have to agree with the last two paragraph's of Mr. Dixon's Sept. 8 letter, "Services attract homeless."

Steve Bannon is threatening GOP politicians for thwarting the president's agenda. One must be 100 percent loyal to the president (gee, sounds like some banana republic pronouncement). Shouldn't loyalty to and concern for the welfare of the nation take precedence over taking a knee to any president? Bannon also accuses these same politicians of trying thereby to nullify the election and thwart the will of the people.

Here's a bit of history and some current news for you The U.S. Post Office, now the U.S. Postal Service, was created by the Second Continental Congress on July 26, 1775. It is an independent agency of the United States federal government. It also was federally funded until 1971. Since then, Congress has tried, and in some cases, succeeded in using the USPS as a cash cow to fund various government projects.