Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

‘Bapak’ is a courtesy title

I was pleased to read your article that mentioned Spokane as the venue for the next Subud World Congress in 1997 (“Convention expected to bring $6.5 million,” July 26).

Such international conventions can help boost the local economy, allow us the opportunity to show off our beautiful, unique city and make Spokane more visible to the world.

Born an Indonesian, I feel the need to clarify a few points which I assume the general public may not know.

In your last paragraph, you explained that Subud was founded in 1924 by a Javanese man named Bapak.

I believe not too many people in Spokane are aware that a Javanese man is an Indonesian person from the island of Java, one of many thousands of islands that comprises Indonesia as a whole. (Bali is another popular island).

“Bapak” is not a name. It can either mean father or “Mr.” as in “Mr. Doe.” Out of respect, Indonesians add “Bapak” in front of a man’s name and in the case of a woman, they are referred to as “Ibu,” meaning either mother or “Miss/Ms./Mrs.” Indonesians rarely use the first name only. It’s considered disrespectful.

The pronunciation of Subud is not “soo-bid” as you had written, but should be pronounced “soo-bood.” Erna Koesoemawiria Vinje Spokane

Plaza great but clocks needed

I join those writers who have made positive statements about the Spokane Transit Authority Plaza, including Nancy Goodspeed (Aug 5).

In addition to being a daily sidewalk superintendent - my office is directly across Wall Street, I have been a daily passenger for the past several years.

The bus scheduling has always been excellent and continues to be. Throughout the day, I watch the smooth flow of arrivals and departures. Considering the short period of time the plaza has been in operation, the opening has been amazingly trouble-free.

My one suggestion … there is a real need for large, easy-to-read clocks located in a central location where they can be seen from both the main floor and skywalk levels. Reader boards are handy but incomplete without a time reference.

The plaza is in a key position in the downtown area. Come on, Spokane, be supportive! Joanne M. Jones Spokane

Foul shot on the tennis courts

According to The Spokesman-Review’s Aug. 3 North Side Voice, the public tennis courts at Shadle Park will be sacrificed for the new Shadle branch library. I feel betrayed!

I attended both public meetings at which the proposed new branch library was discussed, presenting both written and oral testimony at the January 31 meeting downtown.

At both meetings, it was stated the agreement would include some park improvements. The only example I recall hearing was improvement of the tennis courts. I seconded this both orally and in writing, because they’re in poor shape.

If it were suggested the tennis courts go in order to accommodate the library, I wouldn’t have supported this location. Tennis gets a poor shake in Spokane. It did when I was a youth and I find it still does now. If there were more (not fewer) public courts distributed throughout Spokane, they would get more family use.

The school courts where I played are nice, but they can’t be used when school is in session.

It’s clear that removal of the Shadle Park tennis courts is not necessary to provide room for the library. The parks department should certainly recognize tennis is important as a family sport for people of all ages.

I’ve asked the Park Board and library trustees to reconsider their plan to eliminate a neighborhood facility which encourages healthful recreation. It should be made more playable instead! Donald G. Doran Spokane

WASHINGTON STATE

Keep Washington brown - ugh

If you haven’t noticed while driving I-90 from Fancher to the top of Sunset Hill, all entry and exit grassy areas are turning brown. Department of Transportation has turned off the water due to the lack of funds.

Department of Transportation officials and state representatives were all sympathetic, but still no water.

Legislators say we sent the message to cut funding, period. The DOT responds by cutting off the water.

Meanwhile, our freeways are getting brown. The state of Washington isn’t green anymore. Visitors traveling I-90 must get a dim view of our state and it’s freeway system.

Next time while driving down I-90, look and see where our tax dollars aren’t being spent. Jim Orvis Spokane

Taxpayers are being scammed

Staff writer John Craig’s article, “Getting waste to Dawn is half the battle” (July 31) tells only half the story. What isn’t told is, if the Washington State Department of Health has its way taxpayers will be forking out the $50 million for road upgrades so Dawn/Newmont mining companies won’t have to use their own money to transport nuclear waste to the Dawn site at Ford.

In official documents obtained by Dawn Watch, Director of Radiation Terry Strong admitted the state was being blackmailed.

Also, in a letter to Rep. Lisa Brown, Strong answered her query regarding funding for road improvements for the Dawn/Newmont plan by stating “… road upgrades will be funded by taxes and fees generated as a result of the transportation of 11.e(2) byproduct material. Federal and states fuel taxes are disbursed to the Washington State Department of Transportation and to local government agencies for roadway maintenance programs.”

This repudiates the promise made by Secretary of Health Bruce Miyahara to the public in a state publication mailed to thousands of households, in which he said, “The new proposal would generate revenue to pay all the costs associated with the mill closure …”

By being blackmailed we’ll pay $50 million to get a nuclear dump just 23 miles from Spokane. The shameful part is it would cost only $20 million to clean up the site without imported nuclear waste. A legislative investigation into the relationship between the Department of Health and Dawn/Newmont is long overdue. Owen Berio Springdale

HIGHER EDUCATION

High pay, quality not in lockstep

The headline of August 8 reads “College officials salaries up as programs are cut and tuitions rise.” A comment of one trustee was, “How else are you going to attract good people?”

Once more it’s proven how seriously flawed the present trustee selection system is. If the trustees were truly qualified, sufficiently knowledgeable and properly motivated, they would realize you don’t solve problems by throwing money at them.

I’ve always considered the basic job of the educational system is to educate our children, be they of kindergarten or college level. It’s the responsibility of the faculty, whose salaries, though not low, are less than the administrators in many cases.

Question: Did doubling the salaries of administrators produce a like increase in the quality of education or did it merely smooth the feathers of dominating administrators?

That old saw that “you must raise salaries to attract good people” is still being used to raise the salaries of those most responsible for the present plight of today’s educational system.

If you must raise salaries to attract good people, then why not wait until you get them before you increase those salaries? The only point proven by those exhorbitant salary increases to existing staffs is that naive trustees have been conned again.

Those administrators evidently live by the golden rule that goes, “Those who have the gold rule.”

The quality of higher education won’t begin to improve until the quality of the trustees improves via changes in their selection process. Until then, higher salaries for administrative staff is a waste of taxpayer money. Andy Kelly Spokane

LAW AND JUSTICE

Attorneys play vital role in system

Regarding Russell “Big Daddy” Van Camp and Ryan Evarts’ claim against Spokane Police Chief Terry Mangan: Lawyers are apparently despised by our society - or at least by this paper.

Lawyers nonetheless serve an important function. No other means exists to ensure that wrongs by those in power are corrected. What Chief Mangan allegedly did to Ryan Evarts was no different from what happened to Rodney King, save in degree. Policemen shouldn’t be allowed to abuse their authority without accountability, any more than doctors should be allowed to commit malpractice, or dangerous conditions be left to go unremedied. The cost and inconvenience of lawsuits are what ensure these abuses are stopped.

Lawyers admittedly have the incentive of making money in bringing suits. But that’s what gets them involved when no one else can or will. It’s the free market in operation. For all the problems this may create, it also results in a safer, freer society.

Ryan Evarts and Russell Van Camp should be applauded for bringing this matter into the open. Rebecca L. Haas Spokane

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Selfish rich, illegals ruining U.S.

I couldn’t believe Jean Bell “Republicans not cutting Medicare” (Letters, Aug. 3)!

Republicans have always shorted the middle and lower classes. They only care about the wealthy, because most of them are in a higher tax bracket. They could care less if other people can feed their families, get adequate medical care or anything else. To them it’s not a problem because they don’t face it themselves.

Democrats have always approached reforms with the people in mind, not just the wealthy. I’m sick of Republicans thinking theirs is the only party in America. There are still everyday people, like me, who have to work and need medical care, etc. I also need my retirement and Medicare when I retire.

I probably won’t get Social Security with the system in so much arrears, but I know it’s not the Democrats’ fault anymore. It’s our system and the way we knowingly pay Social Security and aid to families with dependent children (AFDC) to illegal immigrants who never pay taxes or put anything back into the system. They are draining America dry and we’re the ones who suffer the consequences. Brenda Ann Rogers Spokane

Nethercutt vote makes no sense

Why would a member of Congress who espouses a philosophy of fiscal and personal responsibility vote for legislation that discourages poor women from having babies and then vote to eliminate funds for family planning problems?

Ask Rep. George Nethercutt.

Last week, Nethercutt voted against funding for the Title X family planning program. Title X is the program which has provided basic reproductive health care services and contraception to millions of low-income Americans since 1970.

Fifty-three Republican members of congress joined the majority to reinstate funding for Title X - a program that saves taxpayers $4.40 in social welfare costs for every dollar spent providing birth control.

If Rep. Nethercutt believes his hypocritical views reflect the values of his constituents, I think he may find he is mistaken. There is simply no logic in denying women the means to prevent unwanted pregnancies and then punishing them when they become pregnant. Cynthia Fine Spokane

Charity begins in home, with dad

Liberals claiming the Republican Congress is uncharitable to kids are hoping you won’t notice the record of Democrat-dominated congresses of the 35 years prior to 1995.

The Democrats controlled Congress almost exclusively between 1960 and 1990. In 1960, 6.73 percent of gross national product went to social spending, compared to 14.4 percent in 1990. Total spending on welfare went from less than $50 billion per year to about $300 billion per year.

Yet poverty has greatly increased. The reason is a vast increase in young single women on welfare keeping their babies as a source of income, rather than giving them up for adoption.

In 1960, 15 single teenage girls per 1,000 gave birth vs. 42.5 in 1990. Fatherlessness is the ultimate predictor of poverty; it’ a stronger predictor than race, education or anything else you can name.

Furthermore, it’s the strongest predictor for trouble with the law. In 1960, the arrest rate for juvenile violent crime was well under 150 per 100,000. Now, it’s approximately 450 per 100,000.

What liberals can’t recognize is the massive, irredeemable failure of their social policy. A welfare check is no substitute for a dad in the home. G.L. Nelson Spokane

WAR AND REMEMBRANCE

We should celebrate bomb use

I keep, reading in the paper about the gatherings of all the weirdo, Slick Willie act-alikes repenting for the U.S. A-bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I wonder if any of them can remember why they’re free.

I doubt any of them have the slightest inkling of what the Japanese were like in those days, or what we were up against when Pearl Harbor was attacked. Have any of them ever considered what life would have been like if the Japanese had won the war?

The Japanese atrocities give us an excellent picture of what life would have been like if they’d won. How strange these are things these people never protest against.

Do they remember the wicked sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, or the hundreds who died there on Dec. 7, 1941? Do they remember the abominable cruelty the Japanese imposed at the Bataan Death March in which 10,000 died? Or the hideous slaughter of women and children by the Japanese at Manila that numbered 100,000?

I would like to see a postage stamp with the exploding A-bomb, and also the Enola Gay restored and flown to every city in the U.S. to remind everyone this is what finally brought peace by forcing the barbaric Japanese to their knees after the A-bomb was dropped on those two cities. Without any doubt, it was justified. Bruce Shaw Chandler Newport, Wash.

What about the rest of us?

I found the front page of the Aug. 7 Spokesman-Review puzzling in that its headlines and accompanying articles somehow conclude that only veterans and historians have views regarding the use of atomic bombs to end World War II. Charles G. Cromwell Spokane

COLLEGE ATHLETICS

Critic is way off base

There have been several disturbing articles recently written in various publications regarding the future of athletics at North Idaho College. One particular statement from Mr. Bob Potter causes me concern.

Apparently, Mr. Potter thinks we should abolish team sports at NIC and replace them with intramural sports.

First, where is the big savings for local taxpayers in this plan and second, what are the “real” reasons some residents have and always will be against the sports programs and NIC?

We enjoy very successful programs which are important to the education process, and at the same time cost the average Kootenai County taxpayer less money per year than a cheap six-pack of beer. Questioning the rationale for sports at NIC and how sports fit with the education process would be similar to questioning the connection between the math book and a classroom.

As I look around our area and on a national scale, it would appear just maybe a few people see the importance of having sports as part of the education system/process.

Locally, I see Post Falls, Rathdrum, Lake City and Coeur d’Alene High for a few. Around the country, UCLA, Stanford, Nebraska, North Carolina, the University of Washington, Vandals and the Cougars. I think most would agree these are all fine institutions of learning which somehow have the wisdom to see sports are important to the process.

Some of these schools are probably happy that Mr. Potter and whoever he might represent haven’t descended upon their campus and community with his hidden agenda. Dave Thomas Otis Orchards