Letters To The Editor

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

Thanks to the un-bigoted majority

Thank you for the excellent article (Dec. 16) on the failure of anti-gay initiatives 166 and 167 to collect enough signatures to be on the ballot.

Thank you, citizens of Washington, for not moving the state toward neo-Nazism. And many thanks to the 250 Spokane-area churches that didn’t see fit to support initiatives attacking their gay members, relatives and friends.

Backers of these anti-gay initiatives seem willing to blame anything but reality for their failure. The reality is simply that most heterosexuals are comfortable with their sexuality and don’t feel the slightest threat from homosexuals, nor should they.

Nevertheless, the fascination some have for other people’s sex lives is apparently unlimited. I suggest these people mind their own business. The world has enough real problems without having you sit around and make up new ones. Instead, why not get involved in a nice initiative campaign against ignorance? You’re likely to find substantial backing there and plenty of signatures, including mine.

A favorite slogan of the hatemongers who dabble in the legalization of bigotry is “God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.” Someone should point out that evidence of one’s God-given senses shows this tired old blasphemy to be completely untrue, for here we are. Do they suppose we create ourselves in some parallel universe whose God is almost, but not quite, omnipotent? Jim McDonald Spokane

GROUPS AND INTERESTS

Group promotes fairness for all

I was pleased to read your article on how the two anti-gay initiatives, 166 and 167, appear to be falling short of the required signatures. I am sorry, however, that your reporter failed to point out that Hands Off Washington (HOW), the anti- discrimination group opposing the initiatives, has an active chapter here in Spokane.

This group is made up of concerned citizens who oppose all discriminatory practices that divide our neighborhoods and devalue the individual. Members of HOW do not seek special rights for homosexuals, as sponsors of these initiatives like to suggest. Instead, we seek to ensure that these individuals are accorded the same legal protections against discrimination to which all Americans are entitled.

I expect most straight individuals would be outraged at the suggestion that a potential employer or landlord could ask them about their private, sexual relationships and use that information as a basis for denying them employment or housing. Gay members of our community have the right to feel that same outrage and to seek protection from such treatment under the law.

Members of HOW pledge to work to end discrimination and bigotry against all our neighbors, not to sign any initiative which promotes discrimination and to live by the principle of basic rights for all people.

I believe that the majority of citizens in Spokane endorse these principles and will continue to refuse to support attempts to compromise these basic rights. Florence R. Brassier Spokane

Item on Christian group all wrong

If Spokesman-Review editors are still wondering why they continue to be criticized for their liberal bias, they need only consider the headline “Christian Coalition preaches prejudice” (Dec. 16).

The editors have drawn a conclusion that’s simply not stated in the column. They’re also using the kind of inflammatory rhetoric that conservatives and Christians are often falsely accused of using.

I must also take issue with assumptions of the writer, E.J. Dionne Jr., about the Christian Coalition. It has never claimed to speak for all Christians, nor does it speak for God. However, it does speak for those who support their views on various pro-family issues. In fact, one doesn’t even have to be a Christian to support many of the coalition’s views.

Conservative Christians have been trying to speak out on political issues for years. Now, they finally have a major voice through what has become the best organized and most effective grass roots political organization in America. It’s largely because of their success that the Christian Coalition is singled out for ridicule.

There are many Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish organizations that voice opinions about political issues. The National Council of Churches has been pushing its liberal “religious left” agenda for years, yet no one would claim it speaks for all churches. But, as Abraham Lincoln stated so eloquently, “the issue is not whether God is on our side, but whether we are on the side of God.” Ed Dennis Spokane

Klan history misstated

Spokesman-Review staff writer Jim Kershner quotes Professor Philip Jenkins in his “Roots of resentment” article (Dec. 11) as stating that the Ku Klux Klan was responsible for over 3,000 lynchings between 1890 and 1930, averaging 100 per year. This would be a tough act for an organization that was dormant from 1872, when it was disbanded, until the 1915 release of the first full-length motion picture: “The Birth of a Nation.” It was not until th early 1920s that the Klan resurfaced as an organization.

In the interim, black suffrage was denied through Jim Crow laws, poll taxes and literacy tests in most parts of the deep South. Most of those lynched were not victims of political persecution so much as of vigilantism, which seems to have reached epidemic proportions in the post-bellum south and often targeted whites as well as blacks.

This is basically acknowledged historical fact. An astute student of history should have the intellectual initiative to research any “history” which they suspect to be fabricated, slanted or purposefully selective, especially as alleged by a war victor. Jim McCurdy Otis Orchards

Values hustlers basically hypocrites

We’re being subjected to another blizzard of moral preaching by people, all too many of whom have clay feet.

A few years ago it was the TV preachers, ie. the Jimmies. One of those raised fraud to a new level and another purchased the services of ladies of the night.

Now it’s our newly elected Republican freshman congresspersons and our ultraconservative, fundamentalist religious friends, ie. Rep. Enid Greene Waldholtz, R-Utah, and Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed.

In Waldholtz’ case it’s all her husband’s fault, never mind that she’s a well-educated corporate lawyer. She knew absolutely nothing of what her husband was doing, She is either a liar or is too stupid to be a congresswoman.

Lets consider Reed’s qualifications to preach moral values to us. In the ‘94 elections, he not only supported, but campaigned for a convicted felon, Oliver North.

I guess they are living by the old adage, “Do as I say, not as I do.”

My father, who is a wise man with only an eighth grade education, taught me that your worth will be judged by your deeds, your treatment and tolerance of your fellow man, your work, your family and your contribution to the community. I know he was right, and that these moral values preachers, be they religious or politicians, aren’t only wrong but are hypocrites. Gail Parke, Jr. Post Falls

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Fairness an endangered concept

What best describes what government should be?

Fair.

Governments should be fair in how it treats citizens and in how it collects funds from them.

How are the Republican majorities doing relative to fairness? Here are examples of their program:

The richest 1 percent would receive over 1.4 times as much in tax breaks as all families earning less than $50,000 a year (that’s more than 61 percent of American families).

The poorest 20 percent of families with children would each lose an average of more than $1,500 in income and nearly $1,700 in health coverage. The $500 child tax credit, which many families will not get, cannot come close to undoing the damage.

How fair is our government today? Here is an example:

In 1991-92, Chase Manhattan Bank paid U.S. income tax on its before-tax income of $1.5 billion at a rate of 1.7 percent.

Individuals and families with incomes between $13,000 and $15,000 paid income taxes at a rate of 7.2 percent.

Government has the responsibility and power to regulate our economic system for the public’s benefit. Congresspeople have to raise lots of money to get re-elected, and special interests get special help when they make big donations to congresspeople.

Campaign finance reform is the only way our system will revert from special interest money being in control to citizens being fairly represented.

What does a congressperson say while pocketing a donation? Perhaps it’s “I’ve got mine.” Julian Powers Spokane

No work, no pay - big savings

We can’t balance the budget so let’s have our nonessential employees stay home - approximately 250,000 of them.

Many companies use this practice in slow times to help maintain their profits or just to furnish jobs when their marketplace replenishes itself. In the construction trade, weather has put many workers out of work temporarily, given a week off at no pay in order to qualify for government-funded unemployment.

If the average government employee laid off makes $10 per hour, not counting benefits, the savings is $20 million per day. And if one of those employees needs income, I suggest that he or she draw vacation pay.

It seems stupid to put these people on the couch and then come back and pay them 100 percent for time lost. I guess the government’s only good accountants work for the IRS, taking our money.

It’s about time government employees wear the blue collar worker’s shoes. Rick Kubesh Colville, Wash.

‘Analysis’ a liberal hatchet job

I was appalled to see the analysis article, “Republican revolution grinds to a halt” on the front page Dec. 17.

I won’t ask why this editorial wasn’t relegated to the Opinion section because I already know the answer. It was on the front page because of The Spokesman-Review’s liberal bias.

Your newspaper, and the liberal press in general, would love to convince the public that the Republican-dominated Congress is falling apart. In reality, the Republicans have done everything they said they would do in their “Contract with America.”

It’s the Presidential veto (or threat thereof) that has prevented the signing of most of the planks of the contract into law, not failure on the part of the Republican Congress.

Balancing the federal budget was a clear mandate from the voters in the last election. Clinton is thwarting the will of the American people by refusing to accept the balanced budget proposed by Congress.

I hope he continues in this vein. His actions will assure that our next president will be a Republican. Then we can make some real progress in digging ourselves out of the hole Democrats have dug for us over the past 40 years. Meanwhile, how about putting “analysis” articles in the Opinion section where they belong? Jim Dishon Spokane

Changes are still needed

The Dec. 17 front page article “Republican revolution grinds to a halt” is most inadequately researched. A more appropriate article would be headlined Clinton adopts the Republican agenda.

There can be no doubt that the present budget stalemate is over details, not fundamentals. Equally, there can be no doubt these fundamentals find their source in the “Republican revolution.”

Yet, the details are important. The Medicare-Medicaid cuts and tax cut differences reflect fundamental differences in both philosophy and vision. Both parties wish to advance the interests of their constituencies. These constituencies, in turn, will be served by the outcomes of the present controversies.

As for vision differences, it’s difficult not to conclude that the Clinton vision extends no farther than the next election. No sensible person disputes the necessity for cuts that will inevitably fall more heavily on the Clinton voters than on Republican voters, whereas the Republicans’ cuts, while serving their constituency, are designed more to save programs for future generations.

Clinton may be winning the public relations battle. The headline you used is one small bit of evidence of that. But anyone who values the country’s future more than election of a particular candidate will surely hope that details of the revolution will reflect more permanent change than exhibited by the Clinton agenda. Donald M. Barnes Spokane

Medicaid: Mind how money’s spent

I just finished reading the editorial this morning in which Opinion editor John Webster makes argument for maintaining Medicaid to protect all of us (Dec. 20).

The majority of what he says is true, but I did find fault with one aspect of his opinion. “… it’s both cheaper and better to keep some elderly folks at home or in an apartment by hiring a visiting nurse.” This is true only if that nurse needs to be there for a very short time.

In any situation that requires 24-hour supervision or assistance, it will most certainly be less expensive to provide the service in a nursing home. (The preferred term is “long-term care facility,” or LTC).

Medicaid reimburses LTC facilities an average of $100/day. This then becomes and average of $3000 a month. Home health agencies in general charge $10/hour (for an unlicensed worker). This works out to $240/day and $7,200 a month. Many agencies will offer a reduced rate for this amount of usage.

Furthermore, it’s current practice at most LTC facilities to find alternative care sites for those who do not require 24-hour nursing supervision. Jeff Frater, RN, BSN, Medicare case manager Regency Care Center, Spokane

Override or deal; Just do it

I’ve always believed that national interest should come before partisanship. If the two-thirds of members of both houses of Congress necessary to override a presidential veto are not convinced, they should agree to the proposal put forward by the president.

Here we have some disagreement regarding the growth assumptions. They can agree on a number and have a formula in the bill to adjust the budget each year, either plus or minus, depending on the actual number.

Some of the cuts I feel necessary are:

Retroactively stop paying monthly Social Security to all who, either self or spouse, haven’t paid into the system for 40 quarters.

Rules for welfare should be tightened and rigidly enforced. I’ve known people to qualify for welfare just by saying they are separated.

Put off all tax cuts unless a very rosy economic picture develops.

Further, we have to remember that it’s easy to reduce welfare, however, the consequences like homelessness and hunger lead to crime and we may have to pay for more prisons and police. Mallur R. Nandagopal Spokane

‘THE RAGGED EDGE’

Series clear off my radar screen

Re: your series, “the ragged edge”:

As a Ferry County resident, I appreciate the rural community’s divergent views. People’s fear of government intrusion, loss of constitutional liberties, home and individualism are understandable. What gripes me is the award of such interview and analysis to the upper crust of society, like wealthy landowners.

Your expose of the deprived rancher just trying to make a simple living off his 3,500 acres is a case in point. How can the public believe some guy with that much land, and 18,000 acres of public grazing land to boot, is somehow a symbol of liberty crushed under the boot of authoritarian rule?

These are the very people who run rural county governments and force their thinking into every law. As a rural landowner, I must fence out the cows that mow down my private grass and garden.

What really sends my temperature through the roof is the symbolism that portrays rural residents of northeast Washington as reactionaries arming themselves against repression. Most folks I know don’t come close to the personalities displayed in your articles.

Where are the simple-living, log cabin dwelling conservationists who live in these communities? They fight government abuse and provide necessary oversight on your public lands. T.J. Coleman Republic, Wash.