Letters To The Editor

BUSINESS

WWP generates obfuscation

Every time Washington Water Power Co. is asked to do something about the 75,000 gallons of goo spilled under downtown Spokane, all it does is call a press conference and complain about something else.

Now a WWP spokeswoman says (Aug. 18, S-R) the lawsuit filed by the owners of the Davenport Hotel tends to “tear apart” the community.

Anyone who wants to know who’s doing what need only compare the records of the two organizations. WWP noticed the oil leak in 1982 and still hasn’t removed one ounce of its pollutant. Instead, it urges everyone to be patient.

WWP says investors should go ahead and invest millions and trust that the oil won’t be a long-term problem. (If you want to know what WWP really thinks of patience and trust, call and ask if it would be willing to wait 13 years, until kids are out of college, for your power and gas payments).

Wai-Choi Ng and Sun International purchased the Davenport Hotel in 1990. Since then, they’ve spent $12.5 million maintaining and improving it. Far from tearing the city apart, the owners of the hotel are doing perhaps the single most important thing to pull it together. A restored Davenport Hotel could lead to a restored downtown, which could draw the larger community together.

All that is asked of WWP is it not stand in the way. The comapny should show us what kind of engineering entity it is, by cleaning up its mess forthwith, and stop dickering for delays, issuing press pronounciatos and engaging in other such pointless endeavors. Bill Stimson Spokane

US West not winning friends here

I guess there is always more than one way to skin a cat.

If US West can’t get approval for rate hikes it says the company needs to maintain a competitive, affordable and consistent level of customer service, it has found at least one way to rake in a little more “needed” dough.

The day my father moved into his new home in North Spokane, US West informed him it would be “two days to two weeks” before he could get basic phone service hooked up. As of this writing, it has been three weeks and he still has no phone.

Ironically, he owns a cellular phone that he has had to use due to the lack of a regular phone service provided by none other than - surprise! - US West. And how happy they are to be providing him with his cellular service, at probably three times the rate of normal residential service. As one comedian would say, “How convenient.”

US West should write off his cellular bill for the past three weeks to compensate him and his family for the incredible and inexcusable inconvenience. And the next time you hear about how great US West’s service is and how appropriate the proposed rate hikes are, remember that this could be you. Tony Alegria Spokane

WASHINGTON STATE

Support Referendum 45

Why Referendum 45? Yes, to citizens managing natural resources. Fish and wildlife need our help.

The Legislature and governor’s office has experimented with centralized, politically driven natural resource management for the last five years. It has proven to be a categorical failure. Endangered species listing affected wildlife species and increasing numbers of fish stocks have escalated. The creatures’ recovery is mired in inevitable political rhetoric.

Decision makers in Olympia are insulated from concerned constituencies across the state and from practical solutions. Referendum 45 returns management of our fish and wildlife resources to a citizens commission representing the geographic interests of all the states citizens. This is why we need referendum 45. Pam Laycock Spokane

Vote for better management

On Nov. 7, just a few month away, it will be up to you the voters to support our state’s fish and wildlife resources by passing Referendum 45.

This measure would give the state Fish & Wildlife Commission, rather than the governor, power to appoint the director of the Fish & Wildlife Department, free from politics.

Moves are already being made to organize sportsmen, fishing groups, outdoor and wildlife recreationalists, agriculture and timber groups. Help get politics out of fish and wildlife and return professional fish and wildlife management to where it belongs, with the Fish & Wildlife Commission.

It does not matter if the governor is Democrat or Republican. Wherever a state governor has manipulated fish and wildlife resources, it has ended up in a disaster. Tony Delgado Loon Lake, Wash.

YOUTH ISSUES

What self-absorbed punks don’t know

I am troubled by the love affair our youths have with guns. Do they enjoy the horrible burning sensation of a bullet ripping through their bodies? Do they get off watching someone withering in pain on the sidewalk, watching their life flowing down the gutter, into the sewer?

Do they find pleasure in the power of taking another person’s life?

Life isn’t a video game, where you can push reset and start over again with the exact same cast of characters. Using a gun, you can’t go back. When you kill or maim another human being, you can’t push reset and start again. It’s already over.

Guns give power, pleasure and satisfaction to the user, almost like a drug. Youths are getting a powerful high off use of them. As with drugs, you do come down from the high. When you do, you have to face reality, that you’ve destroyed another human with your habit.

Perhaps wearing the wrong colors to school, riding in the wrong neighborhood or just sitting on a porch is wrong in your book. To most civilized people in this town, reacting violently to such petty things is just a sign of weakness in someone who can’t handle normal life.

Here’s some good advice: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” The next time you wield a weapon of destruction, remember, what goes around comes around.

Next time a shot is heard, it might be your life flowing down the gutter into the sewer - and you won’t be able to hit reset. M.J. Zimmerman Spokane

Fatherless boys need help now

As the single parent mother of an adolescent boy who’s showing interest in gang-related activities, I’m very disturbed by the recent murder of Kendra Grantham and Cindy Buffin.

I can understand the anger of the Champagne family, that tells us Doug was regrettably in the “wrong place at the wrong time.” I can also imagine the horror of Comeslast’s family as they must now confront the incredible burden and devastation of Kenneth’s apparent crime. I fear these outcomes, for myself and for my son, every day.

I’ve turned to The Spokesman-Review’s Roundtable for reactions to the growing problem of gang violence in our community. I was sure I would find signs of an awakening here, but I’ve found nothing.

Listen, Spokane: There are children like Kenneth growing up right under your noses. They are boys without fathers, boys without positive role models.

The juvenile criminal justice system is a Band-aid. It doesn’t address the needs of these boys and can’t ensure the safety of your family. What these boys really need is an ongoing, positive, one-on-one relationship with another male.

To the men of Spokane: Look for boys without fathers in your own neighborhoods; there they are. Become a Big Brother. My son never received one, although he was on the list for many years. There are simply not enough volunteers to fill the need. Take the time, have a heart. You’re their village and they need you desparately. Jo Ellen Garrison Spokane

Needed regulation is verboten

Here we go again. In the Aug. 22 letter by Barre McNeil I read a clear implication that if the weapon (semiautomatic! Oh, horrors) had been subject to federal regulation, the tragedy in Hillyard would have been averted.

We’re barking up the wrong tree again. It wouldn’t have made an iota of difference if the gun was semiautomatic, full automatic or single shot. Or whether it was regulated by the federal or state governments, or by the chamber of commerce.

I suggest that if the 17-year-old who allegedly did the shooting had been regulated by his parents, the shootings wouldn’t have taken place.

However, I have very little hope this will ever take place because, in light of today’s permissive philosophy of child rearing, such regulation would surely come under the realm of child abuse. Loue A. Stockwell Spokane

Maybe edcuation’s the answer

We don’t give people a driver’s license unless they pass a test. We do this to prevent people from killing, maiming, and destroying property when they get behind the wheel.

Today, children are killing, maiming and destroying property. And it’s happening on a larger scale with each passing day.

In high school, I was required to take a foreign language. Home Ec was optional. Sex Education was offered to make me aware some sexually transmitted disease were life-threatening, but I was never offered a class that explained what an abusive relationship is and how to prevent domestic violence from becoming a lifestyle.

I had to take a physical education class in order to graduate but wasn’t required to learn ways to deal with anger, fear, depression, or develop good self-esteem.

We’ve given children the right to a free education so they have a better chance of supporting themselves in adulthood. The reality is, however, a young man and woman can conceive a child even if neither of them can read, write, do simple math or hold a steady job.

We’ll fine and even jail people caught driving without a license, but we’re giving financial aid and tax credits to parents without even requiring them to, at the least, attend classes that teach methods for preventing domestic violence, child abuse, and raising non-violent children.

Could this be where some of the changes need to start? Rosalind McKinsey Spokane

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

Perhaps natural deselection?

In Darwinian evolution, those most capable of reproduction survive. The strongest are capable of passing their genes on to the next generation and assuring the continuation of dominant traits. So then, should homosexuals be allowed to have access to artificial insemination?

Moreover, should homosexuals, based on the idea homosexuality may indeed be a flawed evolutionary genetic trait, have any access to child rearing?

As a lifestyle, homosexuality means just that: one sex. With no reproduction, it’s a self-terminating human characteristic or activity. Whether or not homosexuality is caused by biological factors or is a lifestyle choice doesn’t matter because, either way, it should be susceptible to the same Darwinian principals of evolution.

This is just a question, not a hate note to homosexuals. Tod Berwyn Spokane

What about perverting the faith?

I feel grief and disappointment because of the hurtful speech and attitudes of people like Ed Hanson and Joyce Huff, who liken “homosexuality” to a “cancer.” And there’s Joe Bell, who associates his own impression of homosexual behavior with what he calls “learned perversion.”

While each of these people no doubt speaks from deeply embedded values, their hateful language and perfunctory labeling ultimately blackens the appeal of the values they espouse. Obviously, they don’t know their neighbors.

With respect to the scriptures quoted, please be assured members of the “queer” community are probably more up to date and familiar with these verses than you give us credit for being, having been privately and publicly scourged by them for most of our lives. Given the Bible’s familiar exhortation, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” none of us is in any position to issue edicts about the condition or future of another person’s soul. But we can speak words of hope.

People who castigate gay, lesbian, and bisexual experience with such vigor would do well and listen and attend to the heart of a gay, lesbian or bisexual person. Instead, they persist in being led by the clamor in their own hearts of darkness.

Those who would discharge hate in the name of Christ, consider how often the gospels make clear that to know the heart of God means to speak in the name of love and grace to another. Juanita M. Smart Albion, Wash.

‘Peaceniks’ undervalue what they prize

It’s been 50 years since I landed at Nagasaki with the first occupation troops of the 2nd Marine Division.

The Japanese learned the hard way what tyrants of any generation should know: “Never start a war with a free people - you never know what they may invent!”

During these 50 years, I’ve also watched and listened yearly to the good-hearted, peaceniks and their lightheaded symbolism-without-substance of ringing bells, flying pigeons, floating candles and sonorous chanting.

I recall again, “Peace is not a cause - it is an effect.” James F. Baxter, Sgt., USMCR, WWII and Korea West Richland, Wash.

Trouble starts and ends in the heart

“Book recalls Oval Office altercation,” “Davenport owner files lawsuit over WWP spill,” “Old animosities seethe in Kashmir,” “One arrested in Spokane County’s latest gang-related violence.” These recent headlines speak to the anger, guilt separation and attack that characterize our lives, individually and collectively.

Most of us would say, I’m surely not guilty of such gross things as this. But at the same time, our daily lives contain irritations, criticisms and judgments directed toward others. These so-called “little” thoughts of separation and attack continue to grow unless healing takes place in our minds.

Because of our essential connectedness, when we attack others, even in the smallest ways, we are attacking ourselves and everyone else at the same time.

Many are starting to say there must be a better way of living than the anger I see coming from myself and others. Those who open their hearts to such a possibility and join with at least one other person in seeking it will soon find new doors of understanding open and will begin to move in the direction of love, joy, peace and oneness.

The effort required to do this is considerable, but the rewards are great indeed. Tom Durst Spokane