Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

Parks: Commissioners must listen

Dan Hansen’s Aug. 7 article, “County parks teeter on financial edge,” and Rebecca Nappi’s Aug. 8 editorial, “Parks in peril need your vocal support,” offer good starting points for the people of Spokane County to examine the issues confronting county parks. But citizens must be provided with a means to get to the finish line, a long-term solution for county parks.

The problem is that the county commissioners - both past and present - have seemed reluctant, for whatever reason, to listen to solutions proposed by citizens. Five years ago, for instance, Spokane County citizens and other stakeholders engaged in a process to develop a comprehensive, long-range plan for parks and recreation.

“Spokane County Parks and Recreation Plan, 1989” clearly identifies, among other things, that:

1. Citizens believe a parks system to be just as important as other county services.

2. The preferred distribution of expenditures is to maintain existing parks.

Deteriorating pools and playground equipment are obvious indicators that the comprehensive plan has been largely ignored by the county commissioners.

It is time for our county commissioners to listen. Citizens must be given every opportunity to understand the facts, options and consequences of those options regarding county parks. Based on that information, they must be permitted to decide its future. That future, then, must be implemented! Cindy Algeo Spokane

Allocate 2 percent to parks

In regards to the Aug. 7 article about the Spokane County Parks Department, I believe that Director Sam Angove does a very good job with the funds that he is allocated. I believe that the blame for the demise of the county park system should be put on the shoulders of the commissioners.

Why don’t they take, say, 2 percent of the county budget and dedicate that to the Parks Department? People in everyday life have to make decisions on their spending priorities, so why can’t the county do the same?

I am personally opposed to a bond issue for park maintenance and operation. I believe that we need good parks, but I believe that the county should dedicate a percentage of its budget to the parks system for maintenance and operation. I believe that Sam could do wonders with 2 percent of the county budget.

I would support a bond issue to build new parks. Edgecliff Park is one of the most heavily used in the county parks system, and the County Parks Department has several acres across the road from the present park; the development of that would be a good use for bond funds for the building of new parks.

I’m certain there are other locations that new parks could be built in also. Edwin O. Weilep Spokane

Golf courses prosper as parks wither

I feel sad for the children who live in the county and are not thought of enough by the county fathers to make certain there is sufficient funding and employees to maintain the parks and swimming pools in the same manner the golf courses of the county are kept.

The Monday evening news showed a park that was weed infested and brown from lack of watering. Will county residents ever see a golf course that is weed infested and brown from lack of watering? I think not.

As long as there are people like Sam Angove and Marshall Farnell - avid golfers - running our park fund, there will always be abandoned parks and beautiful golf courses.

If there truly is a shortage of funds to properly maintain the parks in the county, would it be advantageous to close a golf course? Is the cost of maintaining the parks so exorbitant that it’s cheaper to continue peppering the countryside with an abundance of golf courses? I guess it all depends on who’s looking at the budget. Linda Becker Veradale

Treppiedi is doing hard job well

I am a victim in the Gypsy case. I can positively identify as my own some of the jewelry the police seized from the Marks’ home in June 1986. I am one of several “real people” who can prove that the Gypsies were in fact fencing our stolen property.

Rocky Treppiedi should be allowed to remain on the case so we can get this situation properly resolved in the immediate future. I have worked with Mr. Treppiedi over the past eight years trying to get my jewelry released. He has always been very thorough and very professional in his actions and his advice.

Mr. Treppiedi is one of the very few people who really cares about the outcome of this trial and wants to see true justice served. He has continually worked very hard and long hours on this case.

If he were removed from this difficult case, we would lose all the experience and knowledge he has gained and it would be very unjust - especially to those of us who want our property returned.

I also support Treppiedi’s decision to seize the CBS tape. If I had been brutally beaten and there was a chance to identify those responsible, I would expect nothing less than what they did. The city did nothing to be embarrassed about.

This city needs to have unbiased reporting for a change, so people can know the truth. The real issue before the courts should be why should the city pay the Gypsies for fencing stolen property? Debbie McIsaac Spokane

GOVERNMENT

Crime bill is a crime itself

President Clinton tells us that his federal crime bill is the “toughest and smartest” we’ve ever had. If that description is accepted by the people of this country, justice is in trouble. The federal crime bill is tough on the budget and on the people - and smart politics for elected officials who have been unable to come up with any real solutions for our increasingly dangerous society. Beyond that, the bill is relentlessly pathetic.

Death penalty expansion and the three-strikes provision are enough to ensure there is not enough money outside the Pentagon budget to pay for it. Record executions and incarceration are doing nothing to stem crime, but have effectively clogged the court system.

Having excluded the proposed racial justice (provisions regarding death sentence appeals), Congress will keep federal enforcement efforts directed at desperate minority people instead of the corporate criminals who fecundate pockets of criminal inclination by exploiting the polarization of rich and poor.

This bill is a crime, and it should be defeated. Rusty Nelson Spokane

Keep Social Security funds apart

I sure am tired of Social Security being called an “entitlement.” Social Security is funded by a specific Social Security tax. None of our Social Security taxes are to be used to pay other government expenses.

We pay for all our other government programs with other money in the government’s general fund. Social Security money has not always been used correctly, so I think it would be best if Social Security funds were to be taken out of the general fund. People would then remember that Social Security taxes are only to be spent for Social Security.

Two or three years ago we were paying $1 billion a week in excess Social Security taxes. One Senator even wanted to lower our Social Security taxes, since we were paying so much extra tax.

Entitlements do cost the government too much money. Welfare, Medicaid and veterans’ benefits are all entitlements and something needs to be done to cut costs.

Let’s not let Congress use our Social Security money to pay other government expenses by calling it an entitlement. Let’s tell our congressmen to keep their hands out of the Social Security cookie jar. Lora Lee Pernick Walla Walla

Gorton no friend of timber workers

We who care about both our local economy and the environment have a bone to pick with Sen. Slade Gorton.

Sen. Gorton has played a grandstand role in the debate over environmental conservation and the need for economic stability. While Gorton sends letters to Eastern Washington voters railing against those who’d take away “family wage” jobs, he quietly supports the likes of Weyerhaeuser and its raw log export extremism. This means if you can make more money be exporting raw logs, rather than by hiring U.S. workers at a “family wage,” he’ll support you.

Gorton is simply another rich politician with a milliondollar re-election war chest of primarily out-of-state contributions. He has voted consistently against campaign reform.

Slade is the Pied Piper of demagoguery. He rails against restrictive laws but does nothing to improve present conditions. He is unable to pass a piece of legislation that would assist the timber workers. Instead of seeking solutions he seeks divisions, which of course helps generate political contributions.

Gorton uses small local mills for his political grandstanding while at the same time propping up a system that favors big multinational timber companies at the small mills’ expense.

Not only does Gorton fail at finding solutions to the region’s timber supply problem, he also votes against safe drinking water and clean air. Slade spends too much time in the artificial environment of his Washington, D.C., office.

Slade Gorton has promised us solutions, but has provided only disagreement. It’s time for him to go. T.J. Coleman Republic, Wash.

Can we rent liquor stores out, too?

I have been following the articles in your paper regarding the privatization of the state-owned monopoly: liquor sales. I have seen all the rhetoric about the loss of some 645 employees. If Boeing takes a “dip,” that many are lost each week.

One thing I have not seen mentioned is the rent that is paid for the buildings. If, by chance, the state owns them outright, we could rent them out and have increased revenue. Maybe we could lease them to another state agency, for their usual above-market rates, and really show a surplus in income. Charles E. McCollim Spokane

HEALTH CARE REFORM

Take the time to do it right

The debate is heating up on the health plans now being written up in Congress. I have questions concerning the plans now being offered:

1. Will Medicare be repealed if one of the proposed plans passes in Congress?

2. Will the health plans now in use by retired civil service employees be ended?

3. Should a plan pass in Congress, would our congressmen be required to join the plan the same as everyone else?

I, like many others, am quite happy with the health plan(s) I now pay premiums to. I hope our congressmen will take more time in passing a new health plan, and work on it for at least two or three more years. They should write a plan that the majority of the voters would approve. John A. Skok Spokane

Clinton goes forth, armed with pork

The battles of health care rage and on Capitol Hill the betrayal continues. The Associated Press reported that President Clinton met one-on-one with five senators, “beginning a private lobbying effort that will continue through the floor vote.”

What’s been said in those meetings isn’t known but emerging senators are telling colleagues that wondrous possibilities have been discussed.

In a nutshell, your president is buying, with your money, something you most likely don’t want. Yes, deals are being cut to buy votes by some who represent the people in this country, in order to pass the health care legislation. These deals are in the mega-millions of dollars.

We all deserve a better government and president. Bill Clinton has been draping a lot of morally superior rhetoric on his health care initiative recently. The emerging reality is that he is going to stand at the trough ladling out extraneous pork to win the bill’s final passage. He just might make it to the history books as Benedict Arnold II.

In the upcoming elections we all have the right and duty to vote these pork barrel politicians out. Don’t let the opportunity pass by. Vote for those who have a conscience and whose hand won’t disgrace you. Tim Teich Spokane

Paper falls short of informing well

A recent letter-writer asked a series of hypothetical questions about health care reform; he didn’t want “socialized medicine.” He didn’t know that only Rep. Jim McDermott’s proposal asks for federal insurance. President Clinton’s does not, nor do any of the other politically more viable proposals. Another fellow suggested we assess a health care reform proposal by reading a few pages and asking, “What’s in it for me?” He suggests this is the concept of liberty in action. I wonder if he’d want me to read a few random pages from medical texts to decide on my patients’ treatments.

The Spokesman-Review ran a nice feature on the uninsured, but stopped well short of fulfilling its mission to provide honest and unbiased information. For instance, what percentage of emergency room patients are uninsured? Underinsured? How much do they eventually pay? How much do we pay for them?

Are most of the uninsured working, or not? Do the 10 or 15 percent of the uninsured people cost more than their share of the total cost, i.e. are they somehow sicker than average?

Most people are extremely uninformed about the issues surrounding health care reform. Much of the public debate is being conducted by folks who are ignorant of - or deliberately obfuscate - the facts. The debate is tragically skewed by this ignorance and misinformation. The issue is complicated and controversial enough when all are informed.

I implore The Spokesman-Review to do your job. Present the facts. Try to help people understand this issue, so they may be informed and engaged citizens. Keith Kadel, M.D. Spokane

SALMON

Situation is disheartening

It is very sad to read the article by staff writer Jess Walker regarding the lack of enough salmon to supply a feast at the Indian encampment and powwow at Riverfront Park Aug. 26-28.

What is being used for decorations? Possibly a gill net and a copy of the treaty rights that allow its use? Previous generations have abused fishing rights. We now see the consequences.

I fish also but under a different set of rules which were made to protect and enhance the future fishing for my descendants.

Every one of the salmon taken contains the potential of thousands of eggs to assure the continuing supply for generations to come. Thank God that our ancestors didn’t have the potential to kill so much of the spawning run. If they had, salmon would have long ago been extinct as they are becoming during our lifetimes.

Incidentally, I too am a native American, because I was born here - as were my parents and grandparents. Prior to that, some may have come from Alaska or across the Bering Strait, but that doesn’t make them Russians. Others came from France. One of the Shabinaws was the son of Sacagawea. Gene Shabinaw Moscow, Idaho

Water measure cost really deferral

Both the July 24 article and the July 31 editorial in The Spokesman-Review involving the kokanee on Pend Oreille Lake state that raising the lake five feet will cost $5 million to $10 million per year.

Someone help this farm boy understand. Adding five feet to the lake, for a farm boy, is like having grain in the tank. It is not lost (cost) but is delayed (stored). It can still flow downstream.

And where does the per year cost come from? When the five feet is met, everything else still flows downstream.

So the real cost of this proposed three-year experiment is a $5 million to $10 million delay or deferral. Once. If it works it will be a $5 million to $10 million cost - once. If it doesn’t work, pull the plug and let the water flow. George Davidson Sandpoint

SMOKING

Don’t let up on smokers

Regarding Katherine Emerson’s letter of Aug. 8, “Anti-smokers go too far”:

Yes, the attitude of most people who aren’t addicted to tobacco is that we wouldn’t do what they do and choose to be separated from the ever-decreasing minority that engages in this socially unacceptable behavior. You see, Ms. Emerson, we the majority believe what the surgeon general says, believe the EPA and the latest FDA report that cigarettes are an addictive, deadly drug.

You stated that most smokers you know are very considerate about smoking around you. Well, what about me? I’m a stranger, so I’d better get ready for a confrontation, right? Not exactly what I had in mind when trying to enjoy a restaurant meal. You are right. If we ease up on them, which is exactly what you and R.J. Reynolds would like, the 53,000-plus secondhand smoke victims will quickly escalate. Is this how they will repay us in kind?

Lung cancer is a communicable disease, and we don’t want it in our restaurants. Donald G. Wallace Spokane