Letters To The Editor

THE MEDIA

They’re after wrong broadcasters

Television advertising has evolved over the last 40 years to become the single most effective way to get us to part with our money. Advertisers have skillfully learned to tap into the potent emotional impact of TV to exploit our most deeply rooted human fears - loss of sexual power, wealth or status, fear of aging and death, etc. We now waste large parts of our income to save ourselves from these naturally occurring processes.

I wonder how much of what we call our standard of living is really just basic needs and desires met by products whose true value is grossly inflated by advertising. I wonder how much crime in this country is caused by a person’s inability to satisfy those artificially inflated needs. Is the value of something like a bird’s song or a child’s learning experience only equal to the profit that can be made from selling it?

Rather than defund public broadcasting, why not take a real step toward solving some of our nation’s problems: defund commercial programming. This would require no laws or committee hearings; we can do it ourselves. Just stop watching all non-public TV and stop listening to non-public radio.

A small part of the money we save by not having to purchase so many Audis, VISA Gold Cards and so much Oil of Olay in order to make our lives bearable can be sent to our local public stations to more generously support the intelligent, thoughtful programming that they provide. Ray Pelland Sandpoint

Bargain CPB should go private

If Ann Starkey (Letters, Feb. 5) is correct in saying that public broadcasting costs (each taxpayer) only 80 cents per year, then it would be easy for the public to replace taxpayer funding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

If our nation is serious, as it should be, about eliminating our budget deficit and living within our means, then every part of the government’s budget is going to have to give some. If we do not make the hard choices now, sometime in the future we will be forced to make harder ones.

Public broadcasting is a valuable resource for the nation, as are many government programs. But we need to find the political will to get our spending practices in hand so we don’t force ourselves against the wall. G. Dexter Phillips Spokane

PBS oasis in `vast wasteland’

In 1967, then Federal Communications Commission Chairman Newton Minnow called commercial television a “vast wasteland.” Now, that wasteland is even more vast.

With a few exceptions, such as The Learning Channel, commercial television remains a hog wallow of pandering to low IQs.

The bitterest pill of this offensive nostrum is the fact I am forced to pay for its graceless entertainment every time I buy a bag of groceries or fill my gas tank. What do I get for my money? Commercial television takes no responsibility for programming to suit the tastes of people like me who eschew the dreary divertissement it generates for mass audiences

Radio and television channels, which are basically public property, have been assigned to private exploiters at ridiculously low prices, with few social constraints attached. If we brought justice to the broadcast industry, we would levy a 50 percent tax on the gross revenues of network income and use the proceeds to develop a wide variety of programming.

As it is, public television and radio are the only alternatives to the cultural morass of commercial media. This very frugal public service makes possible the only broadcast channels for dissemination of the fruits of our creativity, artistic talent and intellectual honesty.

Somewhere in all the billions commercial television shakes down the public for we ought to find a few dollars to finance programming for everybody.

I’m willing to help the other guy pay for his soap operas and football games. He ought to help me pay for what I want to see. Lloyd G. Everest Spokane

Junior Miss event all but ignored

The week of Jan. 30 to Feb. 4, the Washington State Junior Miss competition was held at the Performing Arts Pavilion in Pullman. The preliminaries started Feb. 2, with the finals being Feb. 4.

The young lady who was chosen as Washington’s junior miss will go to the finals, which are important enough to be televised nationally. Yet our “Good Paper” and most of the local TV stations did not consider this important enough to give it any kind of coverage.

This sends a message to our young people that anything positive is not important. Spokane news media, wake up and do your job. Chuck Way Spokane

SPOKANE MATTERS

Downtown merchants made trouble

In your haste to condemn Spokane Transit Authority and the “money pit,” you forgot to mention the hue and cry from the business owners downtown and from Dave Hamer in particular.

They whined and carried on so loudly about the “wall of buses” and their assumptions that any and all who rode them were low lifes who would certainly never buy anything. Wrong!

So it was no wonder that STA started jumping through hoops trying to placate them and change the way they were doing things. Let’s face it, those business people are so prejudiced against STA and the buses, nothing would make them happy short of the buses staying on the perimeters of downtown and having the people walk into town, young and old alike.

Frankly, I’d like to see STA boycott the downtown area for about six weeks. Then we could listen to the downtown business owners whine and cry about “where have all the shoppers gone?” That would help the drying up of the downtown core.

Its about time they recognize STA and public transportation for what it is and does to energize the downtown area. If no buses came downtown, it would be choked up with all the cars circling the block looking for a place to park.

Then again, maybe people just wouldn’t bother. Maybe they’d just go to the malls where it’s no problem. Then the Dave Hamers could look out at their nice streets, clear of those “smelly” buses and clear of cars, too. Paula Hall Spokane

New train station ugh

The new intermodal facility - train and long-distance bus station - is apparently a poor stepsister. Visitors to Spokane, who rarely if ever will see the inner-city bus station, will be greeted by the ugliest interior in Spokane. Our jail facility is beautiful by comparison.

The interior is colored beige, mauve and two shades of bilious green. No pictures, no plants, much less dozens of trees. The only bright spots are some old, leftover plastic chairs in orange and green.

Perhaps Spokane Transit Authority has some leftover or rejected amenities to donate.

The disparity between the two facilities is profound.

Even more alarming, one of the bus company employees explained that this facility is owned by city taxpayers and that the beautiful one is owned by Goodale and Barbieri. I hope most citizens realize that taxpayers own both facilities. Kathy Reid Spokane

We need more quality employers

The possibility of closing Fairchild Air Force Base has awakened the concern of many Spokane-area people who have previously taken for granted the presence of the air base.

An interesting study was done in New York State to determine the impact of Plattsburg Air Force Base on the economy. One month, all base personnel were paid in $2 bills. The result showed the base contributed more to the local economy than most area businesses.

With our ailing Spokane economy, we need to recruit manufacturing and industrial firms, create job opportunities that offer 40-hour weeks with benefits and stop relying on our more established businesses to carry the load.

If Fairchild closes, we will have to add its civilian personnel to our increasing unemployment and welfare rolls or lose them to other cities. Marion A. Potvin Spokane

Recognize our good teens

We all grow tired of hearing about teenagers who steal, rape and even kill for petty reasons. Unfortunately, many of us forget that the majority of young people do not treat their society with contempt and that some have even made positive changes in their schools and communities.

If you know of someone like this, please nominate him or her for a Chase Youth Award.

These awards are given out every year to eight individuals, ages 5-18, who have given worthwhile contributions to the Spokane area. You can pick up a nomination form at any local library, school or community center. The deadline for nominations is Feb. 17.

As a teenager myself, I ask you to please concentrate on the positive aspects of my generation.

To nominate a young person would show that you have hope for the future, because today’s young people are the only future we’ve got. Chris Jensen Spokane

Corrections officer wrong

In regard to the front page article in the Region section of the Feb. 1 Spokesman-Review:

Poor Mike Smith, the Spokane County corrections officer who cannot smoke at home because of his healthconscious wife. He wants taxpayers to make him and fellow puffers a new, cozy inside smoking room because the recently constructed $8,000 smoking room in the jail garage is a “nasty, unhealthy area.”

I thought smoking was unhealthy - or have I missed something? J.J. Jarvis Spokane

VALLEY INCORPORATION

Valley people will decide own future

Under the guise of warning the good citizens of Spokane County about the pitfalls of incorporating the Spokane Valley into a separate city, Chris Peck, managing editor of The Spokesman-Review, bangs loudly on the drum of business as usual. Unfortunately, that very drumbeat has, more than anything else, contributed to the perpetuation of the model of inefficiency we know as county government.

While it is certainly possible Valley incorporation could lead to higher taxes for citizens of the new municipality, it is also possible that incorporation, guided by skillful leadership and unencumbered by membership in the county’s good-old-boys political network, might just provide essential services without bankrupting its citizens.

Either way, the issue is not about the cost of government. It is about self-determination.

Citizens who live within the proposed incorporation area clearly have the right of choice. In the final analysis, they alone will either suffer or enjoy the benefits of their decision. That it how it should be. Scott Leyland Spokane

Don’t-incorporate item appalls

I was appalled to read (Managing Editor) Chris Peck’s feeble attempt to dissuade the residents of the Spokane Valley from voting for incorporation. As a student of local government for more than 15 years, I am surprised that Mr. Peck is unaware of the history of the Spokane Valley.

We have never been a suburb of the city of Spokane. Our townships developed independently, each with its own identity and unique characteristics. It is this same spirit of independence that now drives the Valley incorporation efforts.

We are neither naive nor feebleminded in the Spokane Valley. We know that our tax base has been supporting services throughout Spokane County for years. We do not have to “recreate government” in the Spokane Valley; we can invent it from a grass-roots base. We have advantages that the city of Spokane and Spokane County do not have. We have no bureaucracy to contend with or governmental traditions to continue to justify.

Perhaps those who will reside outside of the new city are afraid that the citizens in the Spokane Valley can create something better than that provided for by a citycounty consolidation. We deserve to have an opportunity to try to fulfill our vision. We are tired of getting the fuzzy end of the lollipop. Sue Delucchi Veradale

ENVIRONMENT/ANIMALS

Challenge is to use our heads

To all who believe nature is the best caretaker of our environment, try turning the lights and heat off in your homes for the rest of the winter.

Man can do a better job than random, extreme and often catastrophic nature. Mankind is beginning to move up on the learning curve in good management practices.

Those who are guilt-ridden because of past practices are having a hard time. Our growing awareness of our environment can also be overwhelming in its complexity. What a great challenge for mankind. Only through confronting our problems can we move ahead. Saying environmental problems don’t exist is just as wrong as wanting to go back to a seemingly better yesterday.

Recognizing the need for balance will yield answers that are at neither extreme. Extremes are brought about by manipulative people playing on our emotions. Let’s show temperance as we work in harmony with one another and with nature to resolve these complicated problems.

A society can’t be expected to change instantaneously. Transition periods are in order. Solutions to problems often require compromise. Being intolerant of those with opposing viewpoints will only lead to totalitarianism.

Urbanites, who have failed in trying to solve the violence in their cities, are turning to rural problems for gratification. Those best qualified to resolve urban problems live in cities, just as those best qualified to resolve rural problems live in the country.

Imposing our will on others only breeds resentment and accomplishes nothing. I believe in a better tomorrow for our cities and countryside. Don Guenther Newport, Wash.

Ranger right about road closing

In response to the Jan. 29 editorial on grizzlies and road closures, one important piece of information was not reported.

Industry representative Seth Diamond has a short memory or doesn’t follow the scientific literature. Just over the mountains from where he was a Forest Service biologist, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks recently concluded a 10-year study that showed that grizzly bears on the South Fork of the Flathead River not only avoided open roads but did not even use areas that had been closed for years. In particular, sow grizzlies with cubs were the most likely to avoid roads. The researchers concluded that road construction, even if the roads are subsequently closed, in effect removes much usable habitat from grizzlies. This means bears are increasingly relegated to suboptimal habitat, with long-term costs to the population. If the goal is grizzly bear recovery, seasonal road closures are no solution.

Priest Lake ranger Kent Dunstan is correct in wanting to permanently close roads, not only for grizzlies but for the good of many other species as well. Ranger Dunstan should be commended for his policies. George Wuerthner Eugene, Ore.

Investigate wolf killing

Wait a minute! How about at least one advocate for the wolf found feeding on a calf and shot - although little good that advocacy will do.

Has anyone considered that the calf might have been stillborn? Having raised cattle for 30 years, we find it hard to imagine a single wolf prevailing against a protective cow. We would be interested to know if anyone thought to check if the calf had ever breathed. Our bet is that it was born dead and mom went on about her business of being a cow, leaving an easy dinner for a very stressed and confused wolf. George and Diana Newcomer Clark Fork, Idaho

FIREARMS

Gun rights essential to security

As we commemorate the liberation of Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp where 1.6 million Jews perished, we need to reflect upon our Bill of Rights, which includes a right to bear arms.

It’s fitting that the Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership has become one of the most vocal pro-gun groups in America.

JPFO is particularly outraged at President Clinton’s ban on military pattern rifles he wrongly calls “assault rifles.” JPFO believes any law-abiding citizen should be able to own a military pattern rifle.

Ironically, while the Clinton administration tries to disarm us, the Swiss government issues true, fully automatic assault rifles and ammunition to its citizens to keep in their homes. The Swiss have a lower crime rate than does gunless Japan. JPFO points out that 50 million innocents have perished in genocides this century and, in each instance, gun control was a precursor. Also, there appears to be a worldwide effort to disarm the citizens of “democratic” nations.

Our nation’s founders gave us the Second Amendment to prevent events like the Holocaust. Clinton and the neo-Bolshevik gun ban lobby seem to regard our founding fathers as fools.

During the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, Jews, armed with only a few handguns, put up a fierce resistance. We can only surmise what might have happened to the Jews during World War II had they been well armed.

We need to be skeptical of those who continually clamor for gun bans. Their lofty rhetoric sounds appealing, but so did Hitler’s. Curtis E. Stone Colville, Wash.