Opinion

By Matthew Hollon, MD

In 2018, Spokane voters approved a $31 million bond to rebuild Joe Albi Stadium. Because downtown interests didn't get their way, I feel the events of this past spring were choreographed to make it seem like "we the people" agreed with them. "We the people" had already spoken, by vote, to keep the existing site!

Every time I read another article ("Windows smashed at Valley Planned Parenthood," July 6) about the antics of The Church at Planned Parenthood or a vandal, I wonder at their lack of faith in God and quiet prayer. Why don't they just be still and know that God will take care of the problem, if they're really believers?

Special thanks to Toni Lodge and the NATIVE Project for taking initiative and setting an example of how to reach communities of color with vaccinations for COVID. ("Answering the ‘spiritual call to action’: How the NATIVE Project brought vaccines to Spokane’s communities of color" by Arielle Dreher, The Spokesman-Review, July 11, 2021)

When I met Naghmana Sherazi at the Women’s March in 2019, I was captivated by her story: a single mom originally from Pakistan who would find her way to Spokane and lay roots in our city. Since then, I’ve not only been fortunate to befriend Naghmana, but to witness the ways in which she shows up for our community, over and over again.

As a community, Spokane needs to find real, long-lasting solutions to support child care businesses and the families who need them.

The world is celebrating great medical triumphs: the successful development of multiple highly effective coronavirus vaccines as well as an unprecedented global effort to enable countries to vaccinate their populations.

As a graduate of Spokane Public Schools, I am concerned that several candidates for school board, including Daryl Geffken, Kata Dean and Jake Leadingham, have all expressed fear of “critical race theory” (or CRT) influencing Spokane schools and the district's proposed equity policy.

In response to "Thank our white forefathers" (Letters, July 9), white male history is almost all of the history taught in our schools. Think about what Black Americans have invented:

Ms. Madsen seeks for Juneteenth be a positive, upbeat holiday ("What will we do with Juneteenth's opportunity?," June 24). I believe that emphasis is at the expense of addressing the less-savory aspects of our history, sometimes called “America’s original sin.” We who have never experienced enslavement find it difficult to comprehend the joy Blacks felt that first Juneteenth 1865. They celebrated realized hope in the light of centuries of horror and violence of that “peculiar institution” we know as slavery.

We live in ignorant times.

As we near the next Olympics, how many people pay attention to the U.S. Olympic symbol? How many times a day do we see the Olympics advertised on TV? Did you notice the 13-star flag on the symbol?