Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

What next, a Capt. Queeg?

Events during the past several weeks seem to illustrate that City Hall is indeed a ship of fools.

Who but fools could now propose to give at least $700,000 of taxpayer money to preserve a view that the City Council voted to give away several years ago? Councilwoman Bev Numbers was one of those who ignored public protest and voted to let the Ronalds build a condo that would block the river view from the new library.

Numbers is now telling the taxpayers to buy the property back at a terribly inflated price.

City Manager Roger Crum and his staff are paid well to give advice and direction to the City Council in such matters. Crum made a statement in The Spokesman-Review recently that people who are rational understand huge property tax increases. He further insulted us by stating we had a free ride for about a four-year period.

Crum no doubt considers his lack of management in not acquiring the Ronalds’ property when it was financially feasible a free ride for the taxpayers.

Will it now be rational to pay the inflated 1995 price?

To add insult to injury, Numbers is proposing to again ignore the wishes of the taxpayers and restrict a citizens forum during council meetings and not allow it to be televised.

Tell Mayor Geraghty before the Monday night council meeting to televise the citizens forum. The taxpayers must be the anchor on this ship of fools. Let us be heard. Pete Powell Spokane

Crosby ideas, approach all wrong

Councilman Joel Crosby’s name calling is inappropriate and undignified, by my standards.

Stating that Steve and Leslie Ronald are greedy smacks of libel, and I hope they prevail in their lawsuit against the city of Spokane.

I do not know the Ronalds but I’m beginning to know the intentions of Crosby quite well. If he wants the Ronalds’ property, then pay the price or shut up about it. I imagine the Ronalds would be willing to sell the property, but at a price that reflects their investment of money, time and expected return.

Crosby apparently thinks he should be able to buy the property - to save the library patrons’ view of the falls - at some reduced price that he thinks is fair.

We do not need another park, especially a weedcovered, rocky hillside that only marmots inhabit. We would be better off to reap tax dollars from condominium purchasers.

If I want to see the falls, I’ll walk out on the bridge(s) and look down.

As a county resident, my $100 a year to use the city’s library is apparently going to be used to buy a rock pile. Daryl Way Spokane

Crosby keeps on keeping on

The April 27 Spokesman-Review quoted City Councilman Joel Crosby as stating, “The shortage of critics of the new Citizens Review Commission is a sign the plan has wide support.”

Councilman Crosby, one definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result. We have told you many times what an effective citizen police conduct review commission needs and you have ignored us every time.

If you need the obvious pointed out to you again: The old review panel lacked any authority and Police Chief Terry Mangan could decide which complaints could be reviewed by declaring a complaint a procedural review or, as in my case, as a “case closed” before the police department’s internal investigation unit talked to me.

The new commission still has no real authority. Chief Mangan can still decide which complaints can be reviewed and now, two police officers are on the commission. Talk about dumb and dumber!

Councilman Crosby, it is insane to keep sending the same message over and over to the same people, only to be ignored. The only sane solution is to send the message to different people, and this can be accomplished during the November election. James Mac Pherson Spokane

Don’t sell river vistas, ambiance

How is it that no one has objected to the building of a condominium on the north bank of our river for reasons other than the view from the library?

What about the view from the bridges and from the opposite bank and from the east?

The prospect of the river running through a canyon of man-made palisades filled with the more-than-well-to-do is chilling. The present structures along the banks are somewhat mellowed by age and do not crowd the banks in the way that the proposed building would.

Increasing the tax base at the expense of our environment is an altogether too common practice in our society. Let’s be more farsighted than past generations have been.

And let’s remember that the beauty of the river is for all God’s creatures, not just those who can afford fancy digs. Anne J. Kluckhohn Spokane

Downtown plan has pork aroma

So Stacey Cowles thinks the time is here for downtown. He doesn’t seem to pay much attention to the rest of the city. While his group of downtowners has been working in collaboration with City Hall to invest tax money in downtown, our neighborhoods have been falling apart.

Now he wants all of us good little citizens to follow the leader and invest more of our tax money into downtown. He makes it sound like only the private property owners downtown will be paying for the improvement district. Not true. He and his City Hall cohorts have decided that each city-owned building will also pay into this scheme as well as contribute the money from the soon-to-beinstalled parking meters. Talk about corporate pork!

Unless the people answer the wake-up call, this is going to happen. Of course, our mayor’s public relations company, headed up by a very close friend of his and our sterling group of Realtors on the City Council, Bev Numbers, Orville Barnes and Joel Crosby, are backing it. This puts the science center conflict of interest charges to shame.

What’s the real intent here? To draw customers downtown to shop. Where did they go before? To neighborhood shopping areas. Now they want us to leave those shopping areas and watch the merchants who invested, without taxpayer assistance, go belly up and the buildings deteriorate into slums.

It’s time to decide, like other cities across America have, what is to be the future for downtown. I don’t think it’s retail sales. John J. Talbott Spokane

Sexual violence is event focus

Just this week, two women were sexually mutilated and murdered in the Wenatchee area. This tragic event serves as a reminder of how sexual abuse and rape impact our communities.

For the last 18 years I have been dealing with clients and the issue of sexual assault. As director of the Spokane Sexual Assault Center, I see young children, women and men who have been victims.

Sexual Assault and its Connections to Other Oppressions is the theme for Sexual Assault Awareness Week, April 16-22. This time has been set aside by Gov. Mike Lowry for all of us in the state to focus on increasing our awareness of and efforts toward ending sexual violence in Washington.

National studies indicate that one in three women will be assaulted during their lifetime and that one in four girls and one in seven boys will be sexually victimized by the age of 18. At the Spokane Sexual Assault Center, 70 percent of our clients have incomes below $12,000 and 64 percent of our clients are children.

To generate more awareness of sexual assault, the Spokane Sexual Assault Center and COPS Northeast are holding a candlelight vigil tonight at at 7:30 p.m. at Harmon Park in Hillyard. The public is encouraged to attend this event in remembrance of sexual assault victims.

Sexual Assault Awareness Week provides a forum for recognizing all our contributions and to continue to intensify public awareness of sexual violence and the profound effect it has on all of us. Susan Fabrikant, director Spokane Sexual Assault Center

Ex-cop deserves nothing more

I find the idea of giving former Spokane police Sgt. William Gentry psychiatric disability and enabling him to get $11,500 more a year than regular retirement absurd.

If this is taken to its fullest, then all police officers looking to make more money in their retirement can simply go out and commit some sort of crime.

The man was convicted of raping someone, and now we want to go ahead and allow him to have more money? It takes three votes to turn this down?

I can’t believe what we are thinking of. It is paramount to rewarding him for his crime and it is absurd. Linda Ward Spokane

TERRORISM

Make buildings, day cares secure

My heart goes out to the families of the victims, the men, women and innocent children who were killed or hurt in the bomb blast in Oklahoma City Wednesday morning. I was proud of and encouraged by the many people who rushed to help, overriding fear of loss of their own lives.

I would remind the perpetrators of this heinous crime that the world is not large enough, nor is there a rock large enough to hide under.

Perhaps we can all learn from this tragedy. Our municipal and federal buildings need better security. And for the love of God, get the day cares out of harm’s way. Put these day cares in other than potentially targeted buildings. Ken Withey Spokane

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

Keep day at work for girls only

I am dismayed that some people miss the point of the third annual Take Our Daughters to Work Day on April 27. This is not something “special” for girls; it is not a holiday. It is one way of helping girls realize their future in the work force.

How many times have you heard girls encouraged to follow in their father’s footsteps? Not many! This is what we traditionally tell our sons. Yet we know that our daughters will be entering the work force in record numbers and they need to see role models and understand that their futures are not limited.

Broadening the day to include boys preserves the status quo and sends the same old message.

Let’s welcome girls into the work force on April 27. It is where most of them will spend at least 34 years of their lives. Help them get the encouragement they need to make smart choices. Jan Polek Spokane

Abuse, no; Discipline, absolutely

Apprently, Frank Steiner crawled out from one cave and buried his head in the sand with his views on punishing children (“Beating kids a non-starter,” Letters, April 19).

Beating anyone or anything is certainly not acceptable and has never accomplished anything except hostility. But children must be raised with a firm hand. They need rules and regulations strictly enforced all the time to prepare them for strict rules and regulations in the school system to follow through with healthy discipline that parents are using at home. Eventually, when they become adults, they will already have a sense of what is accepted and what isn’t; a basis of self-discipline to stay with them all through their lives.

Schools have no controls today. Defiant youngsters challenge teachers and principals every day, and the children win. Why? Because of the fear of being accused of abuse.

If parents don’t take back the control that is their responsibility, if schools aren’t allowed to discipline, then we are going to continue to have uncontrollable crime among our school children. We have allowed them to become the controllers in the homes and schools. And look what’s happened.

Abuse, no. Discipline, yes. There is a huge difference, and any reasonable person knows the difference. Arlene Wilson Spokane

Home, society must mind the kids

I agree that the idea of corporal punishment in schools would not help to improve school discipline, but Frank Steiner (“Beating kids a non-starter,” Letters, April 19) offers no solution to this monumental crisis that seems to exist in today’s schools.

Our society in general today suffers from a crisis in basic morality and accountability of the individual is practically non-existent. The lack of a properly developed conscience, along with the fact that few are ever held accountable for their actions, is a basis of the problem. The solution lies in the home and in the messages that society sends to our youths. Dick McInerney Spokane

OTHER TOPICS

President shows he doesn’t get it

Your April 15 article, “Clinton says book vindicates war protestors,” shows me the disdain our president has for veterans.

Our president and others like him cloak themselves in Robert McNamara’s book of guilt. The men and women who gave of themselves for their country are being betrayed again.

A look back in time will show the horrendous burden Vietnam veterans carried on their shoulders: A line company out on patrol engages in a firefight with the enemy. The lieutenant reports back enemy body counts. Two men were killed today from the line company. Morale is down and the lieutenant tells one of his men he is going home in two days. Two days later, this man arrives in the U.S., his mind is still in Vietnam. He walks down the street, still in uniform. Protestors are yelling at him and he walks off, confused and bitter.

This is the burden Vietnam veterans carry.

Now, Mr. McNamara wants to absolve his guilt of the war and give our president vindication for his actions during the war. People wonder why there is no respect for our president. His head of Health and Social Services, Donna Shalala stated “that the best and brightest stayed home from the war.” This tells me the Clinton Cabinet has no concept of the sacrifice veterans made for their country.

The silent majority understands the sacrifices Vietnam veterans have made and our admiration and prayers go out to each and everyone of you. Kirk Koefod Moscow

Better weeds than wonks

Our great land has a problem all right but it’s bureaucracy, not knapweed (“We must eradicate knapweed,” Letters, April 18).

Knapweed doesn’t tax me or regulate me, and if I really want to, I can get rid of it.

Not so the bureaucrat.

I’ll take knapweed any day. John Hodde Colville, Wash.

Shalala must go

Donna Shalala should be fired. Her remarks on the “Capital Gang” TV show on April 15 are grossly insulting.

The group was discussing the new Robert McNamara book and his admission that the Vietnam War was a mistake. Shalala said we “didn’t sent our best and brightest” but that the men who went were from rural America and from the inner cities.

She insults the men who fought and died. She insults those of us who sent our sons, husbands, fathers and friends. We could only pray for their safety in the mess that McNamara was creating. She insults all of us who ever wore the uniform of one of the services.

She intimated that somehow the men who went were lesser men than those who found a way of getting out of serving.

Regardless of whether the war was right or wrong, it was not the men on the front lines who lost the war. It was the men who sat behind desks in Washington, D.C., to micromanage a shooting war 10,000 miles away. It was the men who deferred to the United Nations and its U.N. Security Council. Remember, that council includes both Russia and China, and each member has veto power. Both those countries were involved in various ways that aided the other side and both had - and have - their own agendas, not particularly world peace. E.H. Springer Spokane

Tobacco industry tries smokescreen

I’ve had it with their smoke and mirrors. The tobacco companies are warning that increased tobacco taxes will cost this state thousands of jobs.

The truth is, higher taxes make tobacco products less affordable. Less affordable products means more smokers will quit and fewer teens will start. Less tobacco use means former smokers and kids have more money to spend in other ways. And greater spending means more profit and more jobs for those in industries not selling deadly products.

It appears to me that jobs are not the issue here. This is just another misguided attempt by the tobacco industry to increase their profits at the expense of our community. Sharlynn Rima Deer Park

Pit bulls hold on, all right

Your (April 12) photo of “Buddy,” the 1-year-old pit bull terrier swinging from a rope clenched in his teeth, spoke volumes. That “friendly, kid-loving” dog at 1 year will most likely be a totally different animal at maturity, and that’s not until 2 to 3 years of age usually.

Imagine if that rope were a human or another animal’s body part? Pit bulls are notorious for their tenacious ability to hold on. Sharon Grunwald Spokane