Letters To The Editor

GOVERNMENT

County buys ads, shows indifference

The county has done an advertising blitz to encourage its citizens to drive slowly on dirt roads to minimize PM10 air pollution. PM10 dust particles are a problem in Spokane County, not only as a nuisance but as a proven health hazard. For this reason, residents of Lee Street, Gage Road and Third Avenue in Liberty Lake have formed a road improvement district to pave these three roads at a cost of thousands of dollars for each homeowner.

That was two and a half years ago, and all we have gotten from the county is excuses.

Now we are being told that the road won’t get paved until next year. It took less time to put the first man into space.

The truth is that the county is too busy “greasing the skids” for developers to care about the health and happiness of the citizens.

It is time for the county to do its part to reduce air pollution if it expects us to mark boxes marked “incumbent” in the next election. Mark Johnson Liberty Lake

Emissions testing just rigamarole

Jim Kershner’s “fun-filled day at the emissions test station” (IN Life, July 30) prompts me to write in with my experience.

I failed the first test at the Valley test station. I took my truck to the repair shop expecting the worst but, according to the computer readout there, nothing was wrong.

Back to the Valley test station; fail.

Back to the repair shop; nothing wrong.

Then to the Hamilton test station to see if there might be a difference; pass.

Now, for the kick in the pants: Nothing was touched on the truck - no adjustments, no new parts. The only thing I changed was test stations.

When you fail the first test you are given a list of state-approved emissions specialists. If you take your rig to one of these specialists and pass on their machine before or after repairs, why do you have to go back for a retest? Don’t they trust the specialist?

Why do some ZIP codes have to be tested and others are exempt?

How long are we, the public, going to put up with this inconvenient, inadequate, inconsiderate test-double-test system?

There has got to be a better and fairer way. C.W. Esveld Spokane

IN THE PUBLIC EYE

Policy-wise, Hasson appears schizoid

I really try to be open-minded about public figures because I know how much hearsay and innuendo dominates the media. Hence, I have reserved serious judgment about County Commissioner Steve Hasson’s recent antics; harassment, fleeing from the press, etc. But the comment, “I’d rather see a northsouth freeway before light transit” cannot go unchallenged.

Commissioner Hasson, I have a copy of the county’s Commute Trip Reduction Ordinance in my hand and your signature adorns it. What kind of hypocrisy is this? We need government officials to walk the talk.

If you want citizens to reduce their dependence on cars, then we need viable alternatives. The light rail system was a step in the right direction, more roads are not. Taryn Mulvey Spokane

Suppose you detail outlays, duties?

(Parks Department Director Sam) Angove talks really good and has the same solution to his problems that all bureaucrats have, like bigger and better bureaucracy (“County parks teeter on financial edge,” Aug. 7). Before I could stomach any more of his propaganda I would have to hear from him again, on page 1.

Maybe we can help him with his money problems.

We taxpayers would like to see, on page 1, a list of all employees, by job title, on the Parks Department payroll, their salaries and their duties. Next, we would like to see in detail how the rest of his miserable pittance is allocated.

But we don’t expect to see that because we suspect that he, like all bureaucrats, does not want the taxpayers to know how their money is being spent. K.D. Bryant Spokane

Suspension has hiatus ring to it

So, Police Chief Terry Mangan suspended himself for two days last week. Was that with pay? Sounds to me like he just wanted a couple of days off. Cindy Peterson Spokane

Story unfair to Proctor

As much as I would prefer to remain above the fray about gays and their perception of rights, your recent article about Bill Proctor being named head of Idaho Citizens Alliance was a bit much.

The slant of the article paints Mr. Proctor as somewhat of a hypocrite for opposing gay rights while having served time for dealing drugs. Having met Mr. Proctor personally and having heard him speak on several occasions, I feel the real story is how God was able to turn someone steeped in crime and drugs into a productive, responsible Christian.

Every time I’ve heard Bill speak he has prefaced his comments with a quick biography, outlining his past and God’s power to change him. The question Mr. Bergquist should be asking is: Who and what is this God who can work such a transformation in a person’s life? Another question might be about eternal values.

It is very disappointing to see the press constantly picking up the gay rights strategy of painting those who oppose them as hatemongers and homophobes when the real emotion is sadness at the moral decline of this once great land.

Bill Proctor is to be admired for his willingness to expose his life for public scrutiny. It would be nice if the press would print some of his achievements since his conversion, rather than the gay advocates’ version of him. Scott F. Burpee St. Maries

POLITICS

Nethercutts `will make us proud’

Over the years I have found lawyer George Nethercutt to be honest, fair, super helpful, reasonable and wholly reliable. He is indeed one of the good ones.

Some say we want no more lawyers in Washington, D.C. I say that with the “slick cats” there his legal expertise will be a definite plus for George and for us.

As a candidate, he has already experienced the Washington scene and the Republican county chairmanship. I urge those who do not know his stance on issues to attend one of his public gatherings or drop by his Riverside office.

As co-founder of the Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery, he demonstrates just one of his various civic interests.

Satisfy yourselves that this is the year and this is the candidate most likely to give us a respite from far too many years of “Foleyism.” George Nethercutt and his wife, Mary Beth, will make us proud. Let’s not blow it. Dodie Brubaker Spokane

Goldman alone is fully qualified

The Spokane County sheriff must be a person who has a broad base of involvement and knowledge. Candidate John A. Goldman meets the standard that exemplifies my belief and principle for this significant community leadership position. I have known John for 25 years. John has lived in Spokane County most of his life. He has involved himself in all aspects of his community and his career in law enforcement.

John Goldman has the management experience to direct the Spokane County Sheriff’s Department - the second-largest law enforcement agency in Eastern Washington. The sheriff’s department has 200 employees and a $10 million budget on the law enforcement side of the department. Additionally, the sheriff is responsible for a jail housing over 500 prisoners. This job requires leadership with experience.

John Goldman’s vision goes beyond self-interest. He will represent all the people in this county as their advocate. He has already developed programs to serve and protect this community. I know and have worked with the other candidates. John Goldman is the only fully qualified candidate for Spokane County sheriff. Ron Dashiell Spokane

Bamonte best choice for sheriff

Is this any way to run a police department? Ill-advised, early morning searches, preferential treatment of local government officials and employees, and now the chief of this department is endorsing one of his employees to be our next sheriff!

I’m sure that Sgt. Mark Sterk is a nice fellow and probably a good policeman. But sheriff? I don’t think so!

I should think that the discriminating voter of Spokane County - that is, one who can read the newspaper and watch the evening news on television, one who can understand what the chief is trying to do, one who can compare records and experience - will have no trouble in realizing that Tony Bamonte is the man who should be sheriff of Spokane County. After all, he’s been there. Claude Brewer Spokane

IN IDAHO Tune out and unchecked growth wins

Are you apathetic to the increased traffic in Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene, to overcrowded classrooms, increased taxes, rising crime statistics in Kootenai County and wild animals wandering into residential areas because their habitat has been reduced due to rural development? All these problems are the result of rapid growth.

If we are apathetic, nothing will change. Home sales this May were up 64 percent over last May. If growth continues at this rate, our problems will multiply accordingly.

Decisions on vital issues are made too swiftly. We don’t want our actions to cause greater problems and expense for our children, i.e. the incorrect building placement at the Coeur d’Alene Airport, costing taxpayers $350,000.

Shortly after we moved to this area we noticed, to our amazement, that our street had been renamed and new signs had been installed. A very vocal protest occurred. Post Falls road officials, forced to give us a hearing, were astounded at the turnout. Apparently, this was the way they had always made decisions: arbitrarily. Our original streets signs were restored.

The point is, it pays to organize. If your cause is just, keep the pressure on where it will do the most good and try to wake people out of their apathy.

Unfortunately, decisions are still being made arbitrarily before thorough investigation takes place. Only when the community is united in a common protest will we gain an audience. The developers and big business have the money to influence decisions, but we the people outnumber them. Only our apathy stands in the way. Elva Jeffries Beeks Coeur d’Alene

Initiative gives employer carte blanche

A recent Spokesman-Review story about Proposition 1 is shocking. It would legalize discrimination against everyone in Idaho. Public employers could consider “non-job factors” when hiring or firing.

What are non-job factors? These are traits or abilities of a person that have no impact on getting the job done, like being a person of color, a woman or a Christian - little things like that.

Bosses could hire and fire based on how they like a person’s “private sexual behavior.” Notice, this doesn’t refer to homosexuality. You could be fired because you’re married, not married, dating, celibate or gay.

How dare they propose to judge private sexual behavior? Talk about government intrusion in our lives!

On Nov. 8, I plan to vote no on Proposition 1. Lynn Brown Coeur d’Alene

LaRocco idea worse than mugging

Is it a greater threat to be mugged on the street corner or to be mugged by a politician? The street corner type is more dangerous physically, but the latter type is harder on the bank statement.

This week my wife and I received a letter from Congressman Larry LaRocco to the electorate encouraging a cleanup of heavy metals apparently on the bottom of the Coeur d’Alene Basin. An enclosed article estimates the costs to be $1 billion. If one takes the $1 billion and divides it by 70,000 Kootenai County residents, the result is over $14,000 per man, woman and child in the county. That’s quite a mugging indeed!

Doesn’t that make a $50 street mugging seem insignificant?

Of course, we’ll be told it won’t cost county residents $56,000 for a family of four to do this. The cost will be spread nationally! Then all across the nation other political geniuses will add in their pork and the future obligation for our children will rise again.

Rep. LaRocco, like many of his colleagues in Congress, is working to bankrupt us in response to a situation that hasn’t even been documented to be causing significant harm to the people in our region. That to me constitutes a massive mugging of the tax-and-spend variety. Rod Schobert Hayden Lake, Idaho

OTHER TOPICS

Writer unwittingly revealed problem

Regarding Jan Polek’s guest column of Aug. 8 - wow. Jan Polek, “gender equity program manager” for the Community Colleges of Spokane.

What happened? Community colleges were founded for two purposes: To respond to community needs for training, education and instruction in the local work place; and to prepare for a four-year college kids who couldn’t go because they were academically disqualified, lacked funds or wanted to see if college was for them.

Now the Woodstock crowd, the politically correct, have created more and more administrative positions which do neither.

We are the politically correct, the accent on ethnic diversity, not on education. Multiculturalism courses. Wow. Gender equity program manager.

Academic psychobabble. Michael Cady Spokane

Priggee cartoon not hate crime

Regarding the Aug. 8 letter from Tom Frisque:

The (Aug. 2) cartoon by Milt Priggee did not condemn all Christians for the actions of one. Furthermore, it is not a hate crime. A hate crime is murdering people. What Mr. Priggee did is exercise his First Amendment rights. Larry Martin Spokane

Peace, freedom don’t come cheap

Patrick Copeland-Malone (“Glimpse of the past provides warning for the future,” Aug. 3) must have had his head in the Nevada sand for a long time.

I would like to point out:

Atomic weapons were developed during World War II to defend the United States and its allies against Germany and Japan. Otherwise, a million American soldiers would have died in the invasion of Japan.

From the late 1940s until about two years ago, we were waging the Cold War against communism and the Soviet Union.

A nuclear warhead requires testing to maintain its safety and reliability.

Because of the demise of the Soviet Union, thanks to our military strength and national resolve, great reductions in nuclear weapons are occurring.

We have a little problem called North Korea.

Mr. Copeland-Malone writes about “the cries of the spirits of native peoples burning on their land, the screams of the victims and survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the moans of the radiated, cancerous `downwinders’ surrounding the test site.”

Listen also for the cries of 6 million Jews, the sailors aboard the U.S.S. Arizona, and thousands of American servicemen who died on Pacific islands. The moans of family members of American soldiers killed in World War II also are voices to listen for.

The loss of any human life in war or in preparation for war is tragic and a failure of the human experience. However, peace at any price is not peace but subjugation. William A. Davidson Spokane

Farmers’ smoke begets hot air

To those who think the grass growers should pay the medical bills of those who get sick from smoke or dust I must ask, who is going to pay the farmers’ bills if the farmers cannot raise grass seed? There is a demand for seed, just as there is for food.

The smoke and dust is only for a short time.

There is too much bellyaching against the farmers, regardless of what they raise. They chose that kind of life to feed the world and raise seed to plant. Maybe those so determined to find fault should be willing to pay the farmers’ bills. That would be fair.

There is an old saying: “What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.” Myrtle Melhus Cheney