Letters To The Editor

Wed., Aug. 9, 1995

SPOKANE COUNTY JAIL

Facts don’t support rhetoric

Spokane County Commissioners Phil Harris and Steve Hasson, stop the political showboating and get the facts right!

Spokane County Jail is not a public-sponsored Club Med, as you’ve previously tried to lead taxpayers to believe. There is no equipped gymnasium. There is no cable television, but rather two very basic televisions per 92 inmates. These TVs have only rabbit ears. They were paid for by profits from high-priced commissary items sold to non-indignant inmates. In fact, all jailhouse “extras” are paid for this way.

Our food is marginal in quality and slight in amount. Inmates are often doubled-up for days on end in a one man cell that’s about the size of a half-bathroom. This happens because of overcrowding and understaffing. Staff and inmates are often exposed to very dangerous conditions because of inadequate funding for proper staffing levels.

Most inmates are being held on charges and aren’t convicted of any crimes. I know because I’ve been “housed” in Spokane County Jail since last January, held on federal hold only to have been found not guilty of most of my charges.

The voters of Spokane County aren’t as dumb as you two seem to think. They just made an honest mistake in electing both of you. It’s a mistake I doubt they’ll make again. Steven W. Hell Spokane

I suspect mismanagement

As I read about the overcrowding in our jail, I have a question: How many of the so-called guests are from Spokane County?

We were confronted by the juvenile system a few months ago with an outcry about overcrowding, only to find out they had rooms for rent. We were supposed to smile and pay $11 million to make the little rascals comfy.

Are all those in the jail ours or are they from surrounding counties?

It was said the sheriff might ask the judges to be more lenient when sentencing. I thought we had state-mandated guidelines. Don’t they count anymore? Are we truly being told the truth?

I further noticed the sheriff doesn’t even patrol parts of the county. Will people in areas not patrolled get a tax break? Why should they have to pay for something they aren’t getting?

The state is going to study the assessor’s office for efficiency, why not have it also look at the sheriff’s office?

Seems funny that the two commissioners and the sheriff attended a get-tough conference and then a few days later we have this discovery. Kind of makes you wonder. Charles E. McCollim Spokane

SPOKANE MATTERS

At least Marlton gets it right

In reference to the Aug. 3 article, “Health chief assails county takeover bid”: Good for you, George! It sounds to me as if County Commissioner George Marlton has his head on straight and he’s for the citizens of this county.

I wonder how many of us know just what the health district does? I didn’t, so I made some calls and found out that its is in charge of inspections for clean water, oversees public health services, administers nutrition programs and is the general watchdog to maintain a clean and healthy environment. This district is also part of the statewide computer system that monitors disease control.

Why do Commissioners Phil Harris and Steve Hasson think the limited county government could handle all that? If it’s not broken, don’t fix it!

It seems to me George Marlton said a mouthful when he said, “We can’t manage what we’re managing right now,” but rest assured, he’s in there working on it! Virginia Goldman Spokane

Headin’ for the last roundup

This is regarding the proposed takeover of the Spokane County Health District by Commissioners Phil Harris and Steve Hasson. I guess old Butch and Sundance have their minds made up. Perhaps along about election time we’ll be asking, “Who were those guys?” Raymond Dickelman Spokane

Learn about charter change, vote

Having just completed a thorough reading of the proposed Spokane city-county charter, it seems appropriate to commend the freeholders for a job very well done. The charter is comprehensive, well researched and seems to “cover all the bases.”

If you haven’t read through this document, it seems very important to do so, and soon. We’ll begin to see much publicity, both pro and con, at an early date. We’ll then be asked to vote this proposal up or down. The only fair way to approach an important decision such as this is to be well informed. Only then will each of us be able to make a wise decision when we go to the polls.

Since this is a revolutionary change in how we govern ourselves, let’s make sure we vote. This decision is far too important to let someone else do it. Maury Hickey Spokane

LAW AND JUSTICE

Dead unlikely to get justice

After watching much of the Waco hearings on C-Span recently, I was interested in The Spokesman-Review’s write-up on August 2.

For much of the 51-day siege, recordings of rabbits being killed, along with Tibetan chants, were accompanied with harsh glaring lights aimed at the compound. This was done to break down the resistance of the occupants due to sleep deprivation, and was to “encourage them to leave the compound.”

The administration so concerned about the effects of secondhand smoke on young children believed it was OK to force dangerous CS gas into the Branch Davidians’ residence by using a boom on a 42-ton tank. The FBI leadership did have the “courtesy” to shout the message “this is not an assault” on loudspeakers as huge holes were created “so the residents could escape.” I wonder why they didn’t rush right out? This gives new meaning to the phrase, “We’re from the government, and we’re here to help you.”

I thought citizens in this country were innocent until proven guilty and entitled to a trial by a jury of their peers. Pretty difficult once your dead! Donna Kuhn Spokane

Verdict reactions reflect divisions

Our nation is torn emotionally with the Susan Smith case verdict. Many were happy with the jury’s decision, as they feel the death penalty is always wrong. Others feel she was shown favoritism and should have received the death penalty because what she did was premeditated.

Let’s hope that as a result all the discussion taking place we can establish criminal laws that will be of equal justice for males and females alike.

Many feel “Thou shall not kill” applies to law officials as well as to perpetrators of crime. But common sense tells us that if someone kills, there has to be someone with authority to see justice is done, otherwise the nation will wind up with more criminals than law-abiding citizens.

As to the death penalty: The giving up of one’s own life for the taking of someone else’s may be the only way possible of ever receiving forgiveness from a higher power for the act of murder. D. Knoles Spokane

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Buck up, liberals, you can take it

Paul Tanners’ Aug. 5 letter (“Please, deposit offal elsewhere”) reflects far weaker intestinal fortitude than those of us of more conservative bent have. He rails against the Mallard Fillmore comic strip and threatens to cancel his subscription if it’s not removed.

Most of us who are of conservative bent have the Doonesbury comic strip, Milt Priggee’s incessant idiotic inkings and the general liberal philosophy of the paper assailing our common good sense and reason.

Yet most of us don’t threaten to cancel our subscription, even though Priggee’s recent depiction of a group of Republican elephants as Klansmen came close to driving me to that decision. We conservatives know, understand and appreciate the meaning and purpose of the Bill of Rights, demonstrated in this case by the freedom of press guaranteed in Article I.

If you want to be silenced, Mr. Tanners, keep talking. When we conservatives lose our freedom of speech, yours won’t be far behind. Jack Ranck Loon Lake

GOP presses attack on workers

I hope this latest appropriations bill will show the American people the true Republican agenda: to destroy the quality of life for the working people and turn the U.S. into a corporate monarchy.

Not satisfied to merely gut the budgets of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and National Labor Relations Board, the Republicans threw in restrictions designed to keep these agencies from doing the important job of protecting workers. The Republicans limited the agencies’ ability to litigate and set standards in the workplace. Workers won’t have any recourse to curb the abuse of corporate power.

Environmental laws and the Environmental Protection Agency have already been sacrificed. Republicans say they are burdensome regulations. To complete the assault, the next items on their agenda will be laws limiting the rights of workers to organize, and the trashing of unemployment insurance and workers compensation.

In short, Republicans won’t stop until they erase every bit of hard-earned progress workers have made in the past 65 years. They’ll take us back to the ‘30s with Calvin Coolidge. Their own little Utopia. Gregory P. Hande Spokane

Nethercutt let the people down

I’ve always felt ousting Tom Foley for George Nethercutt was a big mistake on the part of Washington voters. I couldn’t help but feel vindicated when I read the (Aug. 3) article about proposed cuts to EPA’s budget that would threaten efforts to protect our drinking water and jeopardize the Superfund cleanup of Hanford.

Rep. Nethercutt claimed the Environmental Protection Agency was just using scare tactics and that the money isn’t really necessary. He voted to cut the budget, exhibiting an obvious disregard for his constituents.

Does he think cleaning up nuclear waste is cheap?

I’m sure the EPA isn’t a perfect organization. It probably needs to reexamine its programs and evaluate how best to operate in the future. Slashing its budget is not the best way to do this.

Nethercutt should have recognized the importance of a well-preserved environment to our agriculture, recreation, health and lifestyle here in Washington. He should be opposing the current trend to relax environmental protections, not supporting it. He should be serving those he was elected to represent, not endangering them.

He won the election because he promised change, but I don’t think I like these changes. Katie Bagley Spokane

Thank God for the radical right

Sandra L. Meicher, executive director of Planned Parenthood, complains the “radical right” is responsible for the dismantling of Title X, which supplies funding to Planned Parenthood and other groups with taxpayer dollars (Guest column, Aug. 3).

If that’s true, I thank God for the radical right. However, the facts will reveal mainstream America fully supports the defunding of Title X. It was Title X funding that paid Virginia Uribe, a self-described lesbian in the Los Angeles school district, to teach students the joys and blessings of being homosexual.

Planned Parenthood has provided contraceptives to students and even performed abortions on minors without parental consent or notification.

No, it’s not the radical right we need to be concerned about but rather the pagan left and the other liberal trough-suckers who are bleeding our nation dry.

George Nethercutt voted right when he voted to defund Title X. Esther Trusler Colville