Letters To The Editor

IN WASHINGTON STATE

Thompson right for high court

With the announcement of Washington Supreme Court Justice Robert Utter’s retirement, Gov. Mike Lowry has an opportunity to appoint a top-notch candidate and, at the same time, serve the interests of Eastern Washington voters. That candidate is Judge Philip Thompson of the Washington state Court of Appeals.

For the past 22 years, Judge Thompson has served Spokane and Eastern Washington as judge of the District Court, Municipal Court, Juvenile Court, Superior Court and the Court of Appeals. Judge Thompson’s experience as a trial lawyer, trial judge and an appellate court judge makes him uniquely qualified to take his place on our state’s highest court.

I regularly appear before the Court of Appeals and am the chairman of the appellate liaison committee of the Spokane Bar Association. I’ve always been impressed with Judge Thompson’s ability to quickly get to the heart of complex legal issues. He also enjoys a well-deserved reputation for his courtroom temperament and demeanor.

Outside the courtroom, Judge Thompson is involved in civic and community events and is always willing to work with the Bar Association to help improve our legal system.

Historically, three of the nine Supreme Court justices have been from east of the mountains. Judge Richard Guy is the only justice from outside the I-5 corridor. The appointment of Judge Thompson to the Supreme Court will ensure that the decisions come from a court with geographic roots from across the state.

The entire state will benefit by having Judge Thompson as a member of the Supreme Court. Carl E. Hueber Spokane

Property taxes are out of control

I’ll soon write a check for $781 to pay the first half of my 1995 property taxes. The total for this year is $1,563. In 1986, the first full year we lived here, the property taxes were $764. In 10 years, our property taxes have more than doubled, while my gross income has increased less than 10 percent.

When living in California in 1977, our Los Angeles County property taxes were $1,361. That year, Howard Jarvis secured enough signatures on a petition to bring the deplorable tax situation to a vote of the people. This initiative became known as Proposition 13

The proposition passed and my property taxes were reduced to $449 in 1978. When we sold our home in 1984, our property taxes were $481.

The tax included the cost of picking up all our trash. In Spokane, I pay $205 a year to have two cans of trash picked up.

I’d sure like to know where all this money is going.

It’s time for our elected officials to put a stop to all unnecessary spending and come in next year with a sensible budget that doesn’t increase our taxes for a change.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Proposition 13-type initiative on our ballot in the not too distant future if our elected officials don’t get this astronomical yearly increase in spending under control.

I hope and pray property taxes don’t double again in the next 10 years.

Don’t expect me to vote for anything that will increase my property taxes. Tom Jamison Spokane

I appreciate Moyer’s efforts

We have a powerful voice in Olympia, a person who’s standing tall for the needs of the citizens of Eastern Washington.

Sen. John Moyer deserves our gratitude for his hard work in keeping funds for the state office complex in the budget. We are feeling the money pinch these days, and a good project like this makes good money sense.

How refreshing it will be to go to one place to do our state business instead of driving all over town. Anne Ashley Spokane

Give them a stake, not dough

Instead of a money envelope, let us give some college students a gift - the gift of ownership in their education.

Would we have overflowing enrollments if students contributed more financially to their own education? Beer, videos, compact discs and computer games consume students’ time and whose money? Work consumes time, but at least returns money. I would not want to deprive students of all the fun that the unique college experience affords. But as a taxpayer and parent of two college students, I do not wish to pay more if I am not invited to the party.

Let us ask just whose needs are being met and just who is paying, when young people are deprived of owning their own dream. It’s our responsibility to give some responsibility. Imagine the feeling on graduation day! Jo LeVan Liberty Lake

RELIGION

Fanciful views about mass incorrect

May one offer words of fraternal correction to Brian Kasbar on his criticism of Bishop William Skylstad? (Letters, April 16.) He shows a serious lack of understanding of church history and teaching, as well as of the fields of psychology and sociology.

The argument here is not over the mass, which is always the same, but over the liturgy (prayers and rituals) which are used in saying the mass. The saints he names did indeed love the mass, but none ever lived to see the Tridentine liturgy. That dates, as the name indicates, only from the 16th century Council of Trent. Over two millennia, many liturgies and languages have been used for the mass.

The church rules on liturgy promulgated by Trent and St. Pius V in the 16th century have now been altered by the Second Vatican Council and recent popes. For a dissident to deny their authority to do so is to claim that he is more Catholic than the church.

No evidence whatever exists that the turmoil and defections suffered by the church after 1960 were caused by the change of liturgy. They simply mirror the tumult in all society at the time, and support belief in the theory of the conflict of rising expectations held by sociologists. Edward B. Keeley Spokane

Baptism story included errors

As humans, we are all subject to incompetence and, as the saying goes, “lack of awareness borders on incompetence.” So it was with was some information in Kelly McBride’s article on Easter Sunday, “Water of life.”

Although I appreciated the news story and the effort put forth, its author grossly misquoted Matthew 28:19 by omission and lack of knowledge. McBride stated, “While the Bible instructs, ‘Go forth and baptize all nations,’ it doesn’t say how.” This is not correct.

Matthew 28:19 of the King James version reads, “Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, and of the son and of the holy ghost.” And verse 20 continues, “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you …”

Also, the Bible is clear about the word “baptism.” The Greek word is “baptizo,” meaning immersed, plunged into or put into. “Rantizo” in Greek means sprinkle, while Greek for pour is “cheo.” However, only the Greek word “baptizo” was used in the New Testament for this act.

As for the small children or those unable to be taught first, Christ was clear on this. He instructed and showed (Matthew 19:13-15, Mark 10:13-16) how they can receive God’s blessing by the laying on of hands until such time, if ever, they are able to be taught and know the meaning and responsibility of baptism. Ken A. Frejlach Coeur d’Alene

No strings on baptism, please

In regard to the article on baptism in the Easter Sunday Spokesman-Review:

How can any church or religious leader of any kind turn away anyone seeking baptism? I don’t think our savior Jesus Christ would agree to having any clergy pass judgment on a right or wrong reason for baptism. When did loving the Lord become conditional?

I pray economics isn’t a part of this ridiculous decision. I believe anyone should have the right to be baptized, and all you would need to know is that God is love. Linda Reilly Spokane

Terrify a kid for Jesus - not

Random things often catch one’s attention, throw open doors into life’s little torture chambers. Occasionally, I listen to a religious radio station to get an inoculation against catching the fundamentalist plague.

Some magazine of the religious right is advertising itself with the story of a 7-year-old child who comes running home to his mama, crying hysterically because his little friend is going to burn in hell since he doesn’t believe in Jesus. The teaser goes on to hint that the reader will be uplifted by this miraculous story of the wonderworking power of a little boy’s faith.

Yeah, wonderful. But what’s really going on here is another tale of child abuse in the fundamentalist churches of America: an impressionable child crying hysterically, obviously traumatized by the stories of hell he’s been told. He’s been told these stories at an age when his whole world is a world of magic. He literally believes hell is all around him, in his basement, right under his feet. He might fall into hell at any moment. Monsters there. It will burn painfully, just like when he accidentally touched the burner of the stove, only it will burn him all over his body like that. Terrorized!

Does anybody remember being terrorized as a child by this abusive claptrap like I do? Does anybody remember the little Baptist or Catholic or nondenomination church basement Sunday school class where frightened, naive adults permanently murdered your soul, destroyed your freedom to choose forever? George Thomas Spokane

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Tax filing cost cause for reform

I came across a book printed way back in 1983 called “The Tyranny of the Status Quo” by Professor Milton Friedman. In this book, Friedman estimated that in 1970, the time spent by us in preparing our income tax returns amounted to 300 million man hours or the equivalent of 150,000 men working 40 hours a week for 50 weeks a year. That did not include lawyers, accountants or government employees within the Internal Revenue Service.

Then, in 1977, the Treasury Department came out with an estimate that the public spent 613 million hours during that year filling out some 260 different tax forms. Actually, this is twice the amount Friedman guessed and, according to our local IRS informants, we now have over 3,000 different forms.

What this really means, when factored into Friedman’s estimate, is that there were some 300,000 people working 40 hours a week for 52 weeks during 1977 to complete their tax returns.

Look at 1995. Using even antiquated figures from 1977 and allowing $10 an hour for our efforts, the total cost today would top $600 million.

Should we not try to eliminate our tax preparation procedures and institute some form of flat tax? Lee C. Barton Colville, Wash.

Get in step with Quayle

Hail! Hail! Chalk one up for our side. The April 13 review of the address at Gonzaga by Marilyn Quayle, wife of former vice president Dan Quayle, was an encouragement to all us conservatives in this mostly dead, liberal community. Her positive message of virtue and family values is a lost concept in our land. They have safely gotten us this far.

Our American culture is falling apart at the seams with the advent of individualism and humanism above social mores. Let’s stand and herald anybody who is willing to fight for unity and conformity - “paddle upstream,” if you will.

It’s a shame Dan Quayle isn’t running for president, but maybe Mrs. Quayle will. She’s got my vote. Larry Pool Spokane

THE MEDIA

Talk show incident marks new low

We tend to forget that politics, and those even remotely associated with politics, have never been a subject for polite conversation. An adage that I grew up with was that the best way to start an argument is to discuss politics or religion. Forty years later, this is more true than ever.

I heard the telephone call that (KXLY talk show host) Jim Bickel received during the call-in session with Spokane Schools Superintendent Gary Livingston. I was aghast, but rude calls on talk radio, even on KXLY, have become increasingly common, especially since liberal causes have begun to be painted in tints of red.

I am hardly the first to say it, but there is a degree of mean-spiritedness in this country that I cannot remember ever seeing before. Even in the midst of the Vietnam debacle, we did not see this nasty, self-serving attitude.

It is impossible to verify the content of the callers’ claim. The disturbing part of the whole sordid affair is that it further opened the door for the right to smell blood. A telling factor was the caller from Hayden Lake who accused Bickel of being a pedophile.

This event bears a startling resemblance to (KGA talk show host) Richard Clear’s question as to Tom Foley’s sexual preference during the last campaign.

If this is the beginning of a war of words and deeds aimed at discrediting one’s opponent with the lowest common denominator, heaven protect us from the vitriol that is bound to flow during the 1996 presidential season. Larry Henderson Spokane

In O.J. case, media are guilty

So how about that O.J. Simpson case? The grueling trial that has everyone on the edge of their seats?

Let’s face reality here. I know I’m not alone in saying that I am thoroughly fed up with this whole incident and wish it would disappear from the airwaves.

During a recent bout with mono, I was restricted to my bed and counted on TV to keep me occupied because I couldn’t do much of anything else without difficulty. Throughout the course of my illness, I became very informed about the case. I now know more than I ever wanted to know about O.J., Nicole and Goldman. All in all, I am disgusted with the media for sensationalizing every aspect of this event. The American public deserves better.

I surveyed one English class at Nine Mile Middle School. When I asked how many thought the case was getting too much publicity, 92 percent said yes, 4 percent said no and another 4 percent didn’t care.

I believe the trial itself is way too long. Any normal person would have been convicted or acquitted by now.

Another thing that bugs me is the lawyers. Backstabbing has been going on in court since the beginning of time, but Marcia Clark and F. Lee Bailey have taken shallowness to an all-new low.

I call upon the citizens of this country to please turn off your TV sets when a report about O.J. Simpson comes on. If there are no ratings, the TV stations will gradually take the hint. Kari Minor Nine Mile Falls

Travel columnist’s work missed

My friends and I certainly miss Royce Gorseth’s columns. Inasmuch as Royce has traveled to nearly every nook and cranny of the world, his travel column was packed with interesting places to visit, tips on how to get there inexpensively, as well as deluxe and unusual adventures.

We also miss his Action Corner column, which was most informative and helpful.

We do hope to read Royce’s columns again soon, especially the one on travel. Jean N. Rickman Spokane

When it’s over, you still go on

Two weeks ago, I was happy to read your front page news story that our governor was publicly exonerated. But then, only days later, you published two derogatory cartoons about Gov. Mike Lowry. Was this bad timing accidental? Or does your newspaper specialize in swinging after the bell? Janet L. Forsman Spokane

Print media all brainwashed leftists

With publications such as The Spokesman-Review claiming to be objective and unbiased in your reporting, why do we continually read references to the right wing, the religious right, the extreme right, the radical right, right-wing extremists, etc.

Yet we never in print see references to the left wing, left-wing extremists, the atheistic left or the radical left? The only time those descriptions appear in major newspapers is when applied to political groups in other parts of the world.

Could it be the media don’t recognize the existence of a left wing in this country? Are the Ed Kennedys, the Howard Metzenbaums or the Tom Daschles of the world considered moderates by media standards? If so, then it stands to reason that the media are far enough to the left as to allow for those considerations.

On the television show, ” Crossfire,” there is at least enough honesty for the airing of these words: “From the left, I’m Michael Kinsley.” Obviously, in the newspaper business, the brainwashed graduates of our liberal journalism schools don’t even recognize that their brilliant, objective reasoning died upon their first day of journalism class. Lowell J. Torkelson Walla Walla