Letters To The Editor

HEALTH AND SAFETY

States better keep speed limits sane

Now that Congress has decided to return highway speed limit authority entirely to the states, I hope state legislatures will give serious consideration to the warnings of the American Insurance Association about relaxing related safety laws.

Reports on the congressional action cite the estimates of David Snyder of the AIA. Snyder predicts that 6,000 additional highway deaths and $20 billion in additional costs for taxpayers and insurance policyholders annually will result from adoption by states of higher speed limits.

While I’m not a big fan of the insurance industry’s practices, I see no selfish agenda in this troubling warning.

Personal freedoms are worth promoting when the public good isn’t significantly endangered, but this level of fatalities and cost is significant. My 30 years of experience on the road has led me to believe many of us drivers don’t consider safety our highest priority, if we consider it a priority at all, when we head out on the road. So, I value traffic safety research and the advice that comes from it.

Federal mandates will continue regarding driver sobriety laws, but I’ve personally experienced dreadful acts of safety negligence by absolutely sober drivers. When these acts occur at 70 mph or 80 mph instead of at 55 or 65 mph, the danger is greater.

Please, let your state legislators know that just because they have the opportunity to raise speed limits, they don’t have to and should not do it. Nick Frazer Pullman

Put the hammer down duh

Faster, faster! Drive 70 mph, not 55 mph. Its’ safer, too.

Why conserve 200,000 barrels of oil per day? Use it now; the supply is infinite. Mary Jokela Deer Park, Wash.

Rotary behind world war on polio

Re: the Nov. 24 Associated Press story, “India begins immunization drive to gain control of spread of polio.

I must add a postscript to the article, which explains how oral vaccine will be available to children under 3 years of age at more than 500,000 centers. The article also states how polio has been eradicated in the West and in most developed nations. The goal stated in the article was to completely eradicate polio by the year 2000.

What the article fails to mention is: Rotary International is primarily responsible for all of the past success and any of the future successes. In the late 1980s, Rotary International made a decision to eradicate polio worldwide. Rotary International estimated it would take $120 million to accomplish this exceptional task.

Each Rotary Club and each Rotarian in the world was asked to provide the funding. The Rotarians didn’t stop at $120 million; they raised $246 million. The most current date to eradicate polio in the world is 2005, the year of Rotary’s 100th anniversary.

I believe the world needs to know how this great accomplishment was started and funded. Wm. J. Hiatt Spokane

Restaurant smoking ban is right

As a former cigarette smoker who was diagnosed with lung cancer five years ago, I would like to address the people bitching about the upcoming smoking ban in restaurants.

Now it’s your turn; you stay home and smoke your lungs out in your own space and allow me and others to go out and enjoy dinner and drinks in the freedom of a smoke-free environment and without smelly clothes and hair upon returning home.

Cigarette smoking kills. Thanks to those of you out there trying to save our lives. Marilyn L. Dugger Greenacres

Fix it so this doctor’s not in

I agree with Dr. Dennis W. Biggs in that health rights are more important than constitutional rights. Just knowing how narrow-minded, intolerant and socialistic he is gives me high blood pressure, which as an M.D. he knows is a serious threat to my health.

I hope we could pass a city ordinance forbidding the existence of Dr. Biggs, and others who share his views, in our community.

When they all leave, I hope the exhaust from their cars doesn’t damage anyone’s lungs. Barton W. Harman Spokane

DARE prevention effort invaluable

This is in response to J.J. Jarvis, who wrote in about getting the DARE program out of our schools on Nov. 27.

Jarvis, do you have children in school? I do. I say keep the program. DARE educates our children on the effect drugs and alcohol have in their lives.

On Halloween night the house next door was raided for drugs. My kindergartener wanted to know what was wrong. I tried to explain it to him and when I couldn’t, I turned to law enforcement.

I would rather my children get the correct information from people who know what they are talking about than haven them find out on their own. With me and the help of the DARE program, I hope my children never have to learn firsthand what the effects and consequences of drug and alcohol can cause.

Has J.J. Jarvis been outside lately? This world today doesn’t keep our children sheltered or innocent anymore; it doesn’t care. The best way to keep our children safe is to educate them before they find out on their own.

I give the DARE people this authority because, unlike you, these officers care. Live on, DARE. M.S. Sicafoose Spokane

Look at our youth, good and troubled

We’re appalled by a letter sent to you by J.J. Jarvis, “Get DARE out of schools.” We would like to make a few observations of our own on the subject of DARE. As the parents of an 11-year-old child, currently enrolled in the DARE program, we feel somewhat qualified to comment.

Our family firmly believes in this program and its benefits . Contrary to Jarvis’ belief, education offered in DARE does not teach children how to find and use drugs and alcohol. DARE’s purpose is to educate our children on the dangers of drugs and alcohol while building self-confidence and strengthening their ability to withstand peer pressure.

Does Jarvis have a clue as to what it’s like to live in a city where not all parents teach their children the difference between right and wrong? What about educating children to deal with everyday stress such as peer pressure to use drugs? This is what our children now face - yes, even in Spokane. While growing up we didn’t have to worry about who was going to get messed up and shoot someone on the playground. Gangs were nonexistent in Spokane.

Jarvis ought to take a walk around downtown Spokane before sounding off with any more comments. Or just visit any Spokane-area high school. Jarvis would learn that not all of our youth are troublemakers, but a few are in severe need of further life education. Darryl and Kathy Hammonds Spokane

DARE critic knows too little

Regarding J.J. Jarvis’ letter about getting DARE out of schools: I’m 13 years old and this is my second year of DARE. This program doesn’t promote alcoholism or drug addiction. In fact, it does just the opposite.

DARE teaches teens what terrible things drugs and alcohol can do to the body. Do you even know what DARE stands for? It’s Drug Abuse Resistance Education.

Obviously, you’ve never been through the program. It teaches kids about the consequences of drugs, alcohol and crime. DARE helps decrease the number of teen-committed crimes. Would you rather kids not know about what bad things drugs can do, so when they’re confronted with drugs or alcohol, they try it? Would that please you?

The bottom line really is that people like you need to be more educated about DARE. Julie Murphy Lakeland Jr. High School, Coeur d’Alene

IN THE PAPER

Wrong to belittle O’Grady

In Doug Clark’s column on Nov. 26, he said that Capt. Scott O’Grady is no hero in the classical definition. “He didn’t risk his own neck to save someone else. He was shot down doing his job. He survived because of good fortune, courage, good training and the heroics of others,”

By this “classical” definition, all those who went in to rescue him were heroes, but not O’Grady himself. That’s a little ridiculous.

Leave it to Clark to ask him if he feels worthy of all the hero worship or does he feel like a bit of a fraud. Is that an example of a deep, provocative question or is it obstinate and disrespectful?

You know, almost all returning servicemen and servicewomen were once considered heroes. From Medal of Honor winners down, one thing was common among them. Every one of them would tell you, “I’m no hero,” as O’Grady does. But let them say it.

There are all sorts of service risks. A third of those killed in war are killed by accidents and illnesses. Every time O’Grady got in his jet, he did risk his neck. And the last time it was to help stop the killing in Bosnia, whether you agree with the methods or not.

O’Grady could have panicked, ignored his training, immediately surrendered or done various things that would have jeopardized the safety of his rescuers. He did none of these. He saved his own life and the lives of others.

O’Grady is a true hero and the nation knows it. Ron Sanders Spokane