Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

Christmas Fund makes a difference

Re: Beverly Vorpahl’s article “Businesses help ensure holiday joy.” I think its great so many companies and people of Spokane are generously contributing to the Christmas Fund.

Jones & Mitchell Insurance & Risk Management contributed a huge amount of $2,000, which was very generous. Having a total of about $9,000 already is great and will provide for many less fortunate kids to have a wonderful Christmas.

I’m a student from Hawaii attending Whitworth College. Back home a Christmas fund also exists. I have a friend back home whose family is on the poor side, yet the Christmas fund allowed his younger brother and sister to have presents last Christmas. Having been there to see their expressions upon actually having presents was a gift to me. It showed me how fortunate I am to be able to live decently.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not even close to rich. Yet my family has just enough to get by and I should be thankful for that. For this very reason, everyone, even those who aren’t rich, should reach into their pockets and help Spokane’s children experience that awesome feeling of waking up that gleaming Christmas morning to presents that will warm their hearts.

I plan on sending in half my next paycheck. Let’s go Spokane! Julian Nakanishi Spokane

Support Marines’ Christmas effort

First in protecting freedom and first in the hearts of millions of children each Christmas. Yes, the U.S. Marine Corps continues to make each American proud of its traditions.

Since 1776, when Gen. George Washington used his ragged new recruits to form the bravest military organization in the world, the Marines have always been at the forefront of American Department of Defense strategies. For this they deserve our salute and thoughts, especially with U.S. mobilization in the Balkan war.

Yet, my strongest feelings for the corps arises each December when the Marines reach out across our country to bring a holiday smile to some less fortunate child. Spokane, as highlighted in the recent PACE report, has too much poverty, too many children in need.

Last year, the local Marine Reserve Center serviced the needs of over 10,000 area children. The need this year is even greater.

Let us show them we care and join in giving some Christmas cheer to our community’s kids. C. Michael Archer, military affairs manger Spokane Chamber of Commerce

Don’t hobble community centers

I have a deep concern about the proposed cuts for the community centers and wonder how far this will go. If you realize all the wonderful things the community centers supply, this wouldn’t even be a consideration.

I know firsthand about the Hillyard Community Center. Many people wouldn’t have daily nutritious meals if it weren’t for the lunch program, in addition to the social needs it meets for the elderly. The truth is that it allows seniors to live a quality life in their own homes with the community center’s help. If these older people must be forced to go to a nursing home, how much more will it cost the government? Why can’t those in government see this?

Also, the community centers have programs for the young, health care and much more. Please think these things over carefully before you wield the ax. Myrene Mindermann, president Hillyard Senior Center, Spokane

Claypool good help to Girl Scouts

Joyce Claypool has been a valuable resource to the Girl Scouts Inland Empire Council.

In 1990, Claypool made her first educational presentation to a Girl Scout troop about HIV/AIDS. From that point on, she has always been there for us when we needed a speaker to educate youth and adult groups about AIDS. In 1991, she addressed our adult membership at our annual meeting. In 1992, she helped us to educate a group of Girl Scout executive staff members from Montana, Idaho and Washington.

She has traveled our council’s 52,000 square miles to educate Girl Scouts and adults about HIV/AIDS. No town was too small, no request was turned down. When her daughter, Kara, was to become our council’s first known Daisy Girl Scout with AIDS, Claypool helped us educate parents and volunteers.

We proudly nominated her in 1994 for Spokane County’s Volunteer of the year Award. This honor included her being the recipient of the National J.C. Penney Spire Award. She has also received the Thanks Badge, which is the highest honor a Girl Scout Council can bestow upon a volunteer.

With her inner strength, Claypool found many ways to ensure that her life helped those around her. Claypool has had a tremendous, positive impact on many of our councils’ Girl Scouts, their families and their lives. She helped us learn we could love, hug and care for someone with AIDS. We cannot thank her enough. Elaine Linscott, president Girl Scout Inland Empire Council, Spokane

LAW ENFORCEMENT

We should appreciate our good police

I’m tired of all the verbal attacks made on the Spokane Police Department. As in any large city, there will always be a few bad apples in the barrel. However, I feel Spokane is lucky to have the kind of dedicated police personnel who protect this city.

How many of you remember when Spokane’s chief of police, Terry Mangan, told all of Spokane that gangs were moving into Spokane and crime was on the rise? This remark was taken lightly by the City Council. Before long, it has proven to be true.

It’s time to look at the reasons behind crime increases and focus on the good accomplished by the SPD. These things are rarely mentioned. In the case of the police chief, yes, his judgment could have been better when being flipped off. However, the young person should be thankful he didn’t do this to someone with a loaded revolver in the car.

I wonder what size city Kenneth Swanner (“Cops off course for some time now,” Letters, Nov. 21) came from, where the police department was so perfect. Sheila O’Neil Nine Mile Falls

ABORTION

Abortion foes selectively concerned

Responding to Mary Ellan Moe (Letters, Nov.22):

Moe doesn’t make much of a case about abortion. Women know that when they terminate a pregnancy, they kill a “pre-born child.” They do it anyway. The question is, why?

Moe is so certain of her views, the question never crosses her mind. That’s why any laws or edicts against abortion ultimately fail. Such laws never address why a woman aborts a pregnancy in order to seek a solution. Moe doesn’t seek solutions either. Her letter becomes the old rehash of condemnation without thought.

I issue a two-part challenge. What is the percentage of 30 million abortions since 1973 compared to live births? Anti-abortionists claim one in four. That still is three live births to one abortion - 90 million live births since 1973.

Total abortions over 20 years represent only a fraction of pregnancies. Hardly an abortion free-for-all. What also is not mentioned is the reduced number of pregnancies through the birth control pill. Abortion becomes an even lower percentage yet out of a total population of fertile women.

Secondly, 9 percent of born babies die in their infancy. One in five lives in poverty. More than 2 million face abandonment, neglect or abuse; more than 50,000 do not survive this. Men and women routinely kill the flesh of their flesh, a helpless child.

But this has yet to become part of the anti-abortion rhetoric. Because the anti-abortionists are more concerned with making a procedure illegal than addressing the child’s future. Joan Harman Coeur d’Alene

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

What kind of diversity qualifies?

V.J. Zimmerman (“Jettison this Reich-wing zealot,” Letters, Nov. 29) dislikes Spokane County Coroner Dr. Dexter Amend’s “way of thinking” and wants him recalled. Then, Zimmerman says, “We need to celebrate diversity.”

Does diversity mean only those kinds that Zimmerman approves of? Why doesn’t Dr. Amend count as a diverse individual for Zimmerman to celebrate?

With his view of diversity and eagerness to get rid of those he doesn’t like, Zimmerman would have been a great asset to Hitler’s propaganda ministry. John M. Michels Gonzaga University

O’Grady’s a hero in my book

Regarding Michael Millhollin’s Nov. 29 letter concerning the obsession with Capt. Scott O’Grady: I believe Capt. O’Grady is one of the better heroes for today.

If I had children, I would rather have them admire O’Grady than Charles Barkley. I agree O’Grady made a mistake in the cockpit of the jet. But when you have a missile coming up your tail, there’s not a whole lot to do.

On a personal level, O’Grady was a member of my brother-in-law’s wing. When that plane went down my brother-in-law lost one of his men. When O’Grady was rescued and brought back to Aviano, Italy, that was a most wonderful day, and gave us even more of a moral purpose to be there.

So, to Millhollin and all others, I would like to say that I find O’Grady admirable and one of America’s better people to look up to. Gregory Loew Spokane

In all our hues, we are family

When I was in grade school, a teacher told me there were colored people in the world. I was excited at the prospect of seeing and possibly meeting a green, orange or purple person.

What I had thought of as people of color was really a misnomer, and people actually were varying shades of brown. From the darker ebony brown to a more yellowish brown that sometimes seems reddish to a brown that’s really a mixture of all people’s colors, then to my own alabaster brown. The only truly white folks are albinos and they can fit into any race or culture.

Everyone is a part of the human race and is beautiful in their own way.

It’s a shame that humans, as far as we know the only reasoning species on this planet, place so much emphasis on a person’s skin color and so little on the content of their character. Wallace Baucom Colville, Wash.

RELIGION

Catholic Church unfair to women

We just finished reading page 9, of the Nov. 30 Spokane Catholic Inland Register. One headline was, “Vatican: No More Debate About Gender of Priests;” and another was, “Two American Cardinals Weigh in on Women’s Ordination Issue.”

Apparently, these senile, tired old men who make up the self-perpetuating College of Cardinals don’t realize this is 1995.

In 1775 our patriots told King George of England what he could do with his monarchy. Then they drew up a constitution guaranteeing every American the right of freedom of speech.

In my 78 years, we haven’t seen any person in the Catholic Church more admired and respected than a woman, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, India. She doesn’t live in a castle (the Vatican) or ride in a bubble machine. She labors among the poor and disadvantaged people of the world. She has gained more respect for the Catholic Church than anyone living today.

Where would any of these tired old men be if it wasn’t for the labor and pain their mothers went though to bring them into this world.

Women are entitled to equal rights in the Catholic Church. If they don’t obtain them, it may be time to create a new church, The Catholic Church of The Americans. Then they might make Mother Teresa their first pope. Maurice B. Cauchon Spokane

HEALTH AND SAFETY

Restaurants should be smoke-free

In response to Sam Cathcart’s Nov. 24 letter (“Smoking ban treads on rights”), I can only ask, are restaurants private property?

Restaurants by their nature exist as businesses trying to attract customers and invite the public to come in to eat and drink. That invitation should imply safe surroundings. If the American Medical Association, the American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association and the American Heart Association think secondhand smoke is dangerous, there’s good evidence that it’s dangerous. In fact, secondhand smoke has been rated by the Environmental Protection Agency as a class “A” carcinogen just like radon and asbestos.

It’s not the so-called elite who are making sure that our children’s health is guaranteed while eating out. It’s a health revolution that’s taking place everywhere in the Western world, recognizing that secondhand tobacco smoke isn’t a good thing to breathe - especially not for our children or the restaurant employees who spend eight hours or more a day in smoke-filled rooms.

It seems the folks with anti-health, anti-government feelings have worked themselves into a frenzy. Their logic would also lead to a repeal of helmet and seatbelt laws. This agenda won’t wash with members of a community who actually care about health and safety.

The next time he eats out, would Cathcart like to be seated in the radon section or the asbestos section? Chris Fenlon Spokane

Ban smokes, ban fragrances, too

I’m so tired of people crying about smokers and secondhand smoke. Yes, I agree that it’s bad for your health, but that should be the rights of the person, not some government taking that right from them.

I’ve been an ex-smoker for 21 years. I can feel for both sides, but there’s another problem. If they’re going to ban smoking, then they should ban all perfume and aftershave lotion, because they’re also bad for people’s health. For someone who has asthma, lung problems and allergies, that stuff causes breathing difficulties.

So come on, everyone, ban all smoking and then ban all fragrances. S.L. Gibson Spokane

THE MEDIA

Sorry, but NPR tilts wrong way

I respectfully remind Dick Kunkel (KPBX general manager and Nov. 27 guest columnist) that the issue in the “public” broadcasting funding debate isn’t which source of public money is tapped but whether any should be.

In offering to substitute proceeds from an auction of the broadcasting spectrum for the current direct subsidies as a source of funding, I believe he’s sincere in presenting an innovative solution to the problem as he perceives it.

I remind Kunkel and his supporters that the issue is the rightness of requiring any public funds or resources to support politically biased reportage, since “public” broadcasting currently represents the political views of an elitist, privileged minority.

Many Americans sincerely believe National Public Radio serves as a political weapon of groups we disagree with. Why should our tax money be used directly or indirectly to support the efforts of those trying to bring about changes we believe are harmful?

If Kunkel and the Friends of Public Radio wish to use their own private resources to support political broadcasting stations, they’re within their rights to do so. I wish to reserve the right to not join them, and resent being coerced into supporting them with my taxes, directly or indirectly.

With deep apologies to Voltaire, I assert that “I disagree with what you say, and I defend to the death my right not to pay you to say it!”

Speaking for myself and many others, public radio ceased to represent our views quite some time ago. Raymond Fadeley Spokane