Letters To The Editor
IDAHO VIEWPOINTS
It’s a festival of wrongdoing
Another festival season is upon us and once again the Festival at Sandpoint has turned Memorial Field into a combination bar and campground.
A bar depends on the sale of alcoholic beverages to survive. Members of the festival committee have stated that the festival’s survival depends on the sale of alcoholic beverages. This makes the festival no different from any other bar in town, other than their exorbitant cover charge.
The sale of alcoholic beverages at Memorial Field violates the city’s ordinance prohibiting alcoholic beverages in its public parks.
When the festival began, it was intended to culturally enlighten those attending. The festival no longer serves that purpose. It now exists solely to make a profit by any means available, including the illegal sale of alcoholic beverages in a public park.
The city has a policy of no overnight camping in its public parks. Yet the festival sets a campground up at Memorial Field each year during the festival. I guess if you have influential friends in high places, you’re above the law. The festival still hasn’t developed a workable solution to the traffic and parking problems created by holding the festival at Memorial Field. I have serious doubts it ever will if the plan costs it anything to implement.
It’s a shame Memorial Field is monopolized during the best part of summer by a commercial function. This deprives area youths use of the best athletic field in Bonner County. A.B. Kellogg Sandpoint
Youth Help Line grateful
The Youth Help Line Inc. would like to thank Mike Smith, territory manager with US West Cellular in Coeur d’Alene, for the generous donation of a cellular phone, payment of the activation fee and for 10 months of free service. The cellular phone will be a tremendous help in our attempt to service our community’s youth.
Youth Help Line, a United Way agency, is a 24-hour crisis intervention/referral telephone service for teens, young adults and families. We have been available to the youth in Kootenai County for about 10 years and are constantly striving to improve our availability.
The number of calls received each year is increasing. Last year we had over 1,000 calls, varying on issues from family conflict to pregnancy.
We currently have volunteers who receive Youth Help Line calls at their homes or offices and this appears to be very effective. Our volunteers can be available without having to leave their home or workplace.
The cellular phone will be used as a backup line for our central dispatch. If an on-call volunteer is temporarily unavailable, dispatch can always reach a volunteer on the cellular phone. This addition will enhance our ability to be available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Laura Sferra Watkins, executive director Youth Help Line, Coeur d’Alene
Bureaucrats hindered firefighting
D.E. “Sam” Sears’ letter of Aug. 9 (“Think of fire costs and let it be”) demonstrates either his ignorance of the facts or an extreme bias in favor of big government and federal bureaucracy.
Last year, when Idaho was ravaged by forest fires, Gov. Andrus was quick and right to point out that all the fires were on federally owned and managed land, not on state or private lands. Fires on federal land could have been controlled in the early stages were it not for layer upon layer of the micromanaging federal bureaucrats.
Hang in there, Rep. Helen Chenoweth, we’re with you. You’re doing a great job for us all in Idaho. Ron Rankin, president Idaho State Property Owners Association
SPOKANE MATTERS
Send plant to nose-nothing pair
Re: the Aug. 12 story, “For some, compost plant will never wash”: I say it stinks in Colbert.
How can Councilmen Joel Crosby and Chris Anderson say there was no odor at the compost facility on Aug. 8? Odors were detected that same week at the facility. Where were their noses on the Memorial Day weekend, when the facility was cited, when the smell was unbearable?
Why not move the facility to your own backyards, Joel and Chris? Get your facts right and quit playing politics with citizens’ lives. Delfina Rutledge Colbert
Mall indifferent to local artists
As a member of a local art club, I’ve noticed the members’ frustration in attempting to be included in art shows at NorthTown Mall.
Various club representatives are constantly put off and our phone messages are ignored. Yet it seems out-of-town art promoters are welcomed with frequent shows. Some of those bring artists from out of state, even from as far away as Texas. Recently, with only a week’s notice, our club was invited to participate with one of these promoters, but the rules were impossible for any member to meet. Yet those who did show didn’t follow the same rules. We feel there’s a great deal of talent among our local artists, but they aren’t given a chance to be shown. We hope we’ll no longer be ignored. Gene Clark, president Palette and Brush Art Association
THE ENVIRONMENT
Relief must come from court
Allowing John Pointner to build a machine shop above the Rathdrum aquifer without requiring a sewer hookup, in violation of the comprehensive plan, was one of the most unsound and irrational decisions the Kootenai County commissioners could ever have made.
Refusing to reconsider, Commissioner Dick Compton said, “This deal is a done deal.” What really is a done deal is that our aquifer is polluted.
The article by Ken Olsen, “Pollution Spreading in Aquifer” (Aug. 13), shows exactly why Pointner’s request should have been denied. The Environmental Protection Agency and Division of Environmental Quality knew of the TCE contamination years ago. TCE is commonly used by machine shops.
Using knowledge gleaned from EPA and DEQ, the comprehensive plan was written to protect the aquifer. Yet Commissioners Compton and Dick Panabaker chose to ignore science, fact and experience.
They say hindsight is 20/20. But this time it doesn’t have to be. District Court is our last chance. Let’s hope the judge hearing the appeal of the commissioner’s decision has 20/20 vision. Linda Payne, Idaho Conservation League Coeur d’Alene Watershed Project
Sip wreckers’ and exploiters’ whine
I was thoroughly appalled at the editorial by D.F. Oliveria in the Sept. 8 Spokesman-Review about environmentalists engaging in overkill and being activists who don’t care about the human consequences of protecting trees and critters.
Shame on Mr. Oliveria and shame on The Spokesman-Review for condoning such views. If we don’t protect the animals and trees, the consequences for humans will surely be devastating.
He also referred to environmentalists as “whiners.” Let’s clarify the description of a whiner. When one is engaged in physically, spiritually and verbally defending those who cannot defend themselves, such as animals, trees, plants and streams, it is usually referred to as philanthropy, unselfishness or personal sacrifice, not whining.
Here are examples of whining: I can’t graze enough cattle on public land. I can’t fill in this boggy wetland and build condos. I can’t log every last weed in the forest so I can make a bunch of money. And the icon of all whines is, My daddy did it, my granddaddy did it and that gives me a God-given right to do it.
Thankfully, The Spokesman-Review has offsetting views of the more-enlightened, such as Rich Landers and Milt Priggee. Merlyn Nelson Coeur d’Alene
Profit must not be our only purpose
With respect to the proposed Selway-Bitterroot grizzly reintroduction, I firmly believe man must share this planet with all other living creatures, rather than continue doing his best to wipe them - and even his fellow man - out.
We know grizzlies once roamed freely through the Selway-Bitterroots from the “Journals of Lewis and Clark,” in which they mentioned killing eight grizzlies around what is today Kamiah, Idaho. And when we reintroduce the grizzlies, we shall have to protect them fully as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.
I have been a citizen of Coeur d’Alene for many, many years. I, like most people who have chosen to live in the West, feel a thrill of delight when a deer, elk or bear crosses in front of me. It gives me great pleasure to spot a moose in a creek, feasting on willows, or a mother wild turkey calling to her brood of half-grown chicks that run by me in my pasture to catch up to their mother.
We cannot have the timber industry as a local management committee controlling the reintroduction of the grizzly bear to the Selway-Bitterroot, for these people are already trying to take away as much habitat for all of the wild animals as they possibly can in the interest of industry profits. Annette Bignall Coeur d’Alene
PEOPLE IN SOCIETY
Get a clue from Ghandi
Mahatma Ghandi once listed his version of the Seven Deadly Sins of Christianity. They were: wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, worship without sacrifice and politics without principal.
Hmm, he must have been thinking of our country. Neil Kenney Sandpoint
Angry white males at it again
Rebecca Nappi’s Aug. 11 editorial (“A Chance for Women to Share Power”) is completely accurate when she says that fear is behind the opposition some people (like D.F. Oliveria) have to the United States participating in the United Nations Conference on Women.
Those opposed are indeed trying to paint the delegations as some kind of rabid, anti-family feminists. I’m pleased that Ms. Nappi recognizes a backlash when she sees one. Whenever women have been on the verge of making yet another significant step toward true equality, however small, the fear and discomfort of the ruling class (white males) becomes more evident. We may take comfort in the fact that their cries of outrage and their visible squirming is a sure sign of progress. Sandy Mongelli Osburn
Men aren’t always culprits
I’m writing about women who work with men and claim they’ve been sexually harassed.
Well, what about the men?
I’ve worked 50 years with the public and have seen women go after the men. When they were turned down or ignored, they were furious.
Yes, I believe there’s some abuse, but it’s certainly not always the men. When women are scorned, they get back at the men. The public always believes the women. Ruby Muzzy Spokane
GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
Taxes: The die is cast
Invitations to attend budget deliberation sessions open to the public are like free tickets for a theater performance, for that’s all they are.
Those who imply there’s any meaningful and effective possibility for ordinary citizens to control public budgets are either firm believers in the tooth fairy or assume a dragon can be tamed with a short piece of soft wool thread.
Lack of access to necessary data and a shortage of time, money and power doom such ventures. Even well-documented research fails to get results. Readings of recent years’ budget increases will quickly confirm this.
These budget shows are only put on to maintain the (false) image of public influence. A faint semblance of constitutionality is still needed, and these displays will allow interested parties to blame now, and later, everything on the rather helpless, disabled citizen.
The unpleasant reality is, of course, quite different. Property tax money is an open treasure chest of public cash, freshly filled by the latest assessments. State authorized officials determine the percentage of assessed values needed to satisfy the monetary demands of governmental agencies. Taxpayers are forced to pay ever-increasing bills.
Many years of citizen efforts to obtain a reasonable solution have failed miserably. An initiative to cap property tax at absolute 1990 levels appears to be the only answer, until a better voter-approved way is found. G. Milow Coeur d’Alene
Water act amendments beneficial
I’m writing in strong support of Congressman George Nethercutt’s vote in favor of the Clean Water Act amendments that recently passed the House of Representatives. As a Realtor, I’m very supportive of the act’s wetland provisions.
Passage of these amendments balances environmental protection and private property rights, and includes important compensation provisions for property owners who suffer devaluation as a result of wetland status.
The current Clean Water Act doesn’t even contain the word “wetlands” and doesn’t define which wetlands are to be regulated by the government. For the first time, the House bill defines those wetlands to be regulated. The House bill will allow the federal government to regulate those wetlands that are wet on the surface three weeks a year. Currently, the Federal government is regulating land saturated to the surface two weeks a year which may never be wet on the surface.
Wetlands are the only type of ecosystem the federal government regulates, and over 75 million acres of privately owned land are being regulated as wetlands. Normally, no economic activity can occur on this land without federal permission, which is hard to obtain. The federal government hasn’t mapped these areas, so most landowners aren’t aware this program exists until they’re informed by the federal government. Terry Sullivan Spokane
Nethercutt affair not as portrayed
Staff writer Jim Camden’s article on Rep. George Nethercutt fund-raising breakfast made it sound like a high priced gala for Spokane’s elite.
In reality, it was a function attended by “well-dressed” and “well-coifed” people, most of whom were then going on to their jobs: clean, well-groomed working people who were willing to pay $25 out of their hard-earned paychecks to support a candidate they believe is trying to move our country in the right direction.
Most of those attending couldn’t, and didn’t, have their picture taken at the $250 photo-op. Only four or five people could afford to offer a bid on the footballs auctioned off. I suggest everyone attending was paying his fair share of taxes - contrary to the impression given by Adelina Gonzales’ statement.
Rep. Nethercutt has always been willing to meet with all his constituents. It should be noted that instead of avoiding the protesters, as he easily could have done, he walked in among them, speaking to and shaking hands with all people who approached him before he entered the front door of the Opera House. I wish all our public officials were so approachable. Marlyn M. Lisaius Colbert
There was worse than McCarthy
During a recent session of the Whitewater investigation committee, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) called the Republican-led proceedings “McCarthyite.”
The ignorant applying of a term which itself failed to encompass the facts it purports to reference concerns me. The popular view of the McCarthy era involves a witch hunt that cost hundreds their jobs and reputations.
Do the facts support this conception? Did McCarthy’s witch-hunting cost a single person a job or reputation? If so, the record doesn’t show it. It shows boorishness and irresponsibility aplenty. Those who suffered any real loss had, with very few minor exceptions, already been indicted by the investigations of others.
I refer to the Truman loyalty program made permanent by executive order some three years before the justly infamous speech by then-Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-Wis. The activities of loyalty review boards constituted gross denials of due process and resulted in 1,200 improperly examined dismissals and some 6,000 resignations. Fifteen hundred were dismissed and an almost equal number of resignations occurred under the security program Eisenhower continued.
Neither program provided any semblance of fair procedure. Surely, McCarthy’s assault did less personal injustice than did those of the two presidents.
One need not defend McCarthy to recognize his ultimate impotence, nor accept either Truman or Ike as great defenders of our civil liberties. The term “McCarthy era” implies a guilt in which both presidents should share. Isn’t the greater responsibility that of the presidents who lent their powers to witch hunts disguised as loyalty and security programs? Donald M. Barnes Spokane
FIREARMS
Killings cast doubt on NRA
I’ve been a member of the NRA since 1950. I became a life member while serving in an infantry with the Second Infantry Division in Korea. I’ve become increasingly disenchanted with its leadership, its stand on gun control and its blatant attempt to intimidate or buy legislators of both parties.
The recent murder of two teenage girls in Spokane, by a 15-year-old in possession of an assault rifle, brought me to the realization I could no longer remain a member. I have today submitted my resignation. Fred J. Meyer Coulee Dam, Wash.
Priority check: We lose
Isn’t it paradoxical, we live in a society that piously decries use of cigarettes as a health hazard and yet enacts gun control laws so ineffective that a 15-year-old boy can apparently come into possession of a semiautomatic rifle and subsequently murder two of his peers? Robert and Carol Bordeaux Medical Lake