Letters To The Editor

CORRECTION: Monday, January 1, 1996; B5 The third paragraph of Robert H. Ruby’s Dec. 28 letter about Nez Perce artifacts should have read: The items were acquired legally from the Nez Perce.

IN THE PUBLIC EYE

Must be scandal there somewhere

How dark is their darkness? Poor Hillary Clinton, just a little mistake. Poor baby!

The Dec. 26 editorial, “‘Can of worms threatening Clintons” makes me laugh, except for one thing: Vince Foster’s death. And the anonymous witness who first discovered the body in a far different position (with no gun) and dried blood around his mouth and nose, and no dust on his shoes, and on and on and on.

Why, oh why, all the lying? And Hillary ordering the files removed and hampering the investigation, if there were just worms there? Surely, she is smarter than to cover worms.

Thank you, Andrew Glass, for reminding us with a most comprehensive list of Hillary’s feverish attempts to hide something. You want us to believe she only had a tiny, tiny role in the savings and loan $65 million theft from the American people?

May Sen. Al D’Amato, R-N.Y., have the strength and persistence to try and uncover those little worms, because underneath their rottenness is a long, slithering snake and people like you helping her keep it well-hidden. Barbara Miller Chattaroy

GOVERNMENT AND WELFARE

Working single moms paying, too

In response to Lori Belnap’s letter, “Somehow, I’m being shorted,” I’m tired of welfare moms complaining about how hard they have it.

I’m a single mom and I’ve managed to raise my children without one penny of welfare money or food stamps. Motherhood is not a profession; it is a responsibility that is shared by the mother and the father. I made sure the father of my children paid child support. It wasn’t much but it helped.

I work 40 hours a week to support myself and my children. I didn’t have the time or the finances to attend college myself. But, with a lot of hard work, I have managed to buy a home and help finance my oldest son’s college expenses. In a few years I will do the same for my youngest child.

I understand that some people need assistance to get on their feet, and that welfare is needed to help such people. But my hard-earned tax dollars are helping to send them to college, paying for their health care, their food stamps and their rent. So when they complain that it is just not enough, I ask them to think about people like me who work hard to support our families as well as theirs. Barbara Williams Spokane

Calculations not realistic

Lori Belnap’s Dec. 22 letter assailed Opinion editor John Webster’s editorial regarding relative pay per hour for welfare recipients. Belnap reports she only makes $1.12 per hour in contrast with $9.75 suggested by Webster.

However, Belnap’s computations run awry as she indicates “motherhood is a 24-hour-a-day job.”

Aside from the fact most people don’t get paid 24 hours a day, seven days a week, as calculated by Belnap, or to raise their own children, Belnap’s days also include sleep, college attendance, studies and leisure time. Additionally, in the reality known to most of us, none of these activities ever results in income.

Not only are her computations for “welfare earnings” flawed, but Belnap also fails to consider the other readily available sources of funding and benefits. How about food stamps, housing and heating allowances, full-family medical, education, child care and access to food banks and charities?

I also omitted another minor inconvenience most of us grapple with: taxes. While Belnap fortunately pays little, most of us receive a brutal bite of 50 percent-plus out of our gross income through local, state and national taxes.

Like many, I look forward to significant reform in welfare and related entitlements. Under the present system we can’t seem to spend money fast enough. I hope many of the current comforts will be substantially reduced or eliminated. This should create ample incentive for those entrenched to work out of their present situation and into a more responsible lifestyle. From that perspective, I applaud Belnap. Todd Pollock Spokane

Charity: It’s how you do it

Is it good to give money to charity?

If you answer no, you must be as lacking in compassion as the media would have us believe Republicans are.

Is it good to borrow money to give to charity?

If you anwer yes, your generosity must far exceed your wisdom.

Is it good to borrow more money than you can ever repay, which will have to be repaid from the future earnings of your children, to give to charity?

If you answer yes, you must be a Democrat. Jonathan H. Lundquist Spokane

THE ENVIRONMENT

Faulty premise is pseudoscience

In his Roundtable letter of Dec. 19, Leonard M. Melman calls the global warming theory “pseudoscience,” then uses pseudoscience in his effort to disprove it.

As evidence against the theory, Melman writes, “The highest temperature ever recorded on Earth was in Libya at 136 degrees over 70 years ago. The highest American temperature was in Death Valley at 134 degrees in 1913 … When examining the highest temperatures … state by state, we find the most highs were in the 1910s, 1920s and 1930s - long before the age of enormous petroleum usage.”

One needn’t have enrolled in Meteorology 101 to understand that extreme temperatures, high and low, in specific localities have nothing to do with the presence or absence of global warming. Temperature records are broken somewhere in the world nearly every day.

Evidence of global warming from temperature readings may be scientifically derived only by gathering daily air and water temperatures in all seasons, in all parts of the world, and comparing them over a long period of time.

Global warming may eventually be proved or disproved beyond doubt. In either case, the dates of temperature extremes in specific locations will have no bearing on that proof. Harry E. Missildine Moscow, Idaho

Don’t parrot warming propaganda

Good journalism would question why a small, well-organized group of atmospheric scientists who share a minority theory regarding global warming should have such a huge impact on government policies. The most recent article to appear in The Spokesman-Review (“Global warming bad for ski industry,” Dec. 13) is one more example of opinion printed as fact.

The vast majority of atmospheric researchers agree that Earth’s atmosphere has warmed a minuscule onehalf of one degree centigrade over the last 100 years. They do not blame refrigerators and automobiles.

Ninety percent of this warming occurred before 1940, with the most noticeable increase occurring between 1917 and 1921. There is overwhelming evidence that any global climate change is a direct result of natural causes, and there is no evidence to suggest that this natural warming is a threat to mankind. Indeed, some global warming is expected to improve agricultural conditions.

Volcanoes as well as ocean plankton emit huge volumes of sulfates and dust into the atmosphere, dwarfing anything man could produce. Yet the global environmentalists insist that it is man’s activities that ought to be curtailed. And, as stated in the article, they are “outlining policies governments could adopt to fight global warming.”

This is scary stuff, yet your paper swallows it as if it were nothing. When government policies are founded on pseudoscientific theories and the beliefs of an environmental elite, it is up to the press to live up to its constitutional responsibility and dig at least a little below the surface. Steve Busch Spokane

IN THE PAPER

‘Nutcracker’ review excellent

Weekend editor Susan English gave a precise and excellent review of the recent production of “The Nutcracker” held at the Opera House. The Spokesman Review should be thanked for its fair and well-rounded critiques, not criticized. I think it does a good service to the community. Tessa Williams Spokane

Graph great; let’s have more

My husband and I congratulate you on the graphs that appeared in the Friday Spokseman-Review in regards to Spokane’s snowfall vs. precipitation. We feel the graph was informative and a very valuable addition to the information being presented.

We would like to see more graphs in the future, as well as some other information. For example, you presented that the average snowfall is 50.1 inches. What is the standard deviation?

Also, could you show us a graph of what the snow on the ground level was on Christmas Day for Spokane for the past 20 years or so? Jeanne Small Spokane

HEALTH AND SAFETY Helmets essential for horse riders

After reading “Tradition wins; horse helmet idea dropped” (Dec. 15) I was very angry. It states in the article, “Longtime 4-H leader Sheila Tibbitts says Western way of life is dying out and they are trying desperately to keep hold of that.”

I believe Western ways and traditions should be learned, studied, preserved and respected, but not at the expense of a child’s life. Tibbitts saying that a good, sturdy old-fashioned felt cowboy hat serves as a mild form of a helmet is just plain ridiculous. Maybe she should fall from a horse, six feet up in the air, and see which protective headgear she would wear.

There are no guarantees in life, so why take such dangerous chances with someone else’s children? A fall from a horse - running, walking or standing - can mean death to any rider, experienced or not. To not protect yourself or someone else is stupidity.

I would give anything in the world if someone had told me about helmets. My 12-year-old daughter, Polly, died from a fall from a horse. My life will never be the same again.

Sheila Tibbitts, you can prevent tragedy. You can spare other parents the heartbreak that I feel, and many other families, too.

I encourage all parents to watch a 20-minute educational video, “Every Time, Every Ride,” on horseback-riding helmet safety. It includes personal stories and gives the correct facts and statistics regarding helmet safety. It could save the life of someone you know. Debbie Lenius Spokane

Compromise solution would serve all

While I firmly believe that an individual’s right to a healthful environment precedes any alleged smoker’s rights, I also object to the government inventing wholesale new rules that impact small businesses and personal freedom. Since having smoking and nonsmoking areas together doesn’t work very well, I suggest the following:

Any restaurant that wishes to continue to allow smoking shall conspicuously post on its door that it is a “smoking only” restaurant. Since non-smoking is increasingly the choice of those who care about their own health and the health rights of others, smoking-only restaurants would be in a small minority. They would employ only people who smoke and would serve only those non-smokers who have no objection to being exposed to carcinogens and who have been adequately warned.

This approach would serve to avoid friction between patrons and, more importantly, diffuse the opposition to the proposed blanket ban.

Restaurant owners and smokers would have a choice preserved, and there would be plenty of 100 percent smoke-free restaurants to choose from - all without invoking a heavy-handed Big Brother. Dave Johnson Elk

RELIGION

Critic can’t hack authority

Maurice B. Cauchon has been cited for a “Golden Pen” letter of the week (of Dec. 6) for his attack on the College of Cardinals and call for the formation of a new schismatic sect. I confess I’m unable to fathom what criteria your editorial board used in making this decision.

As with any debatable topic, there are good arguments on both sides of the question of the ordination of women. Cauchon has chosen to ignore every one of them.

The age and gender of the cardinals is as irrelevant as it would be for justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. Each of these bodies is given by law the authority to be the final arbiter of that law.

Women in the Catholic Church have the same rights as do men. As a Catholic who once studied for the priesthood, I’m proof that no human has the right to demand ordination. Those who call others to ordination have the clear authority to do so.

While I believe that the church would be well-served by seriously considering ordaining women, I have no authority. Neither does Cauchon.

While professing his esteem for Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Cauchon offers her the ultimate insult by nominating her to be anti-pope of his new sect. The lady herself would be outraged. Her loyalty to the church and the Vatican are beyond question. Edward B. Keeley Spokane

Church exalts women

In a recent letter, the writer accused the Catholic Church of not treating women as equals of men. As a matter of fact, the Catholic Church exalts women in the person of the blessed Virgin, “our tainted nature’s solitary boast” (Longfellow).

God has also exalted womanhood by making the blessed Virgin the mother of his son, Christ.

As for some women wanting to be priests (priestesses?), this is an old heresy that was condemned, along with other things, in the 17th century as Quietism.

The “tired old men” who are denying women equal rights, are well-educated, dedicated men who are trying to preserve the Roman church against the onslaught of modernism.

Don’t these radical women who want to become priests realize they’re an embarrassment to other women? Adell Cook Spokane

PROPERTY

Artifacts: Think of the precedent

The Nez Perce artifacts to which editor Chris Peck addressed his column on Dec. 3 don’t belong to the Nez Perce just because they crafted them.

It would be nice if the artifacts were to stay with the park service outside Lapwai. However, the legal owner isn’t obligated to part with them unless the Ohio Historical Society board decides to sell them.

The items were acquired legally for the Nez Perce. Had the Rev. Henry Spaulding not purchased them, they’d most certainly not be existent today.

Museums in this country are crowded with items from around the world - items crafted by other cultures. Should these be returned to those cultures if they should decide to come for them?

The Smithsonian Institution, our national museum, had its origin with artifacts purchased from primitive cultures as well as from civilized peoples around the world by Navy Lt. Charles Wilkes in 1838-1842. A few were on display at the Washington State Historical Society in Tacoma in 1987.

If some of the island and continental cultures want those items returned, is the Smithsonian obligated to return them under the guise of a spirituality about them? Robert H. Ruby Moses Lake