Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

Nice idea, bad implementation

On the northeast corner of Boone Avenue and Summit Boulevard sits a large home on four lots. It is licensed as a congregate care facility for 25 adults. Many of these people have been there for years and have become part of our West Central Neighborhood.

Suddenly, the neighbors within 200 feet of that house were notified of the intention of the state Department of Social and Health Services and the Youth Help Association to purchase the house and convert it into a treatment center for troubled youths. It is to house 20 kids at a time who are in crisis and can no longer live at home.

“One of the reasons for choosing the West Central area for the facility is the sense of true community that has been created there,” wrote Teresa Wright of YHA, to a neighbor.

Hello - is this how you communicate with a community?

Did you expect a welcome, with this kind of surprise?

Sure, these kids need a place, love, acceptance and a program. But if you want them to be part of our community (and we do have the heart to accept them if the place is appropriate), why couldn’t you just ask instead of using your lawyers to assert your right to be here?

We have a lot of upset and fearful neighbors. There aren’t any playground facilities for the kids to play for blocks. The yard isn’t that big. Why was this spot chosen as a good place to open a group facility for 20 children and adolescents?

We feel used. Don McCloskey Spokane

Better activists than partners

On June 27, the mayor and Spokane City Council held a breakfast for so-called community partners.

Mayor Jack Geraghty was quoted, as he went to plug his parking meter, as saying, “The group protesting could take part instead of standing outside. Why aren’t they in there listening and taking part?” Further, Mayor Geraghty referred to the protestors as the “Gang of Nine.”

The reason the people protesting were not inside was they were not invited. These same people who regularly attend City Council meetings, sponsored and collected the largest number of signatures ever gathered to reverse a council decision, attempted to sponsor a citizen’s retreat and sponsored one quite successfully earlier this year.

These people are the community activists who could tell the mayor what the people of Spokane want from government.

Mayor Geraghty would have a handpicked, blue ribbon group of good people attending his breakfast. He obviously fears and doesn’t want to hear from those who don’t always agree with him.

The citizens of Spokane should only hope that the Gang of Nine grows into a coalition of 9,000 and forces accountability and true representation of the people. Donald C. Zwanzig Spokane

Officials jeopardize quality of life

Our fine quality of life here in Spokane County is surely in jeopardy when Commissioners Phil Harris and Steve Hasson reorganize, out of employment, conscientious staff members such as county Planner John Mercer.

Apparently, the commissioners are uncomfortable with Mercer’s integrity, objectivity and high standard of professionalism.

Harris and Hasson bear watching very closely. Peggy Hoffman Spokane

OTHER TOPICS

Girl Scouts: This too shall pass

Hopefully, time will take care of the controlling executive director and November will be the end of the president of the board of (Inland Empire) Girl Scouts.

We must remember that the most important assets of the Girl Scouts are the girls and the many dedicated volunteers. We do Girl Scouting for the girls.

Two senior Girl Scouts will be returning from their Girl Scout Wider Opportunity soon. They were in Mobile, Ala., doing marine biology. Also, a Junior Girl Scout troop from Spokane will go to Our Chalet in Switzerland. (Unfortunately, their leader was fired from three volunteer positions by the council.)

These are just some examples of positive images of Girl Scouting that provide direct benefits to the girls. This is happening - why not cover it?

We will get through these bumpy times as volunteers. We will come through this with a stronger commitment to the girls and, hopefully, with a new board of directors. Wanda Metzger Pullman, Wash.

Overbearing pray-ers make trouble

It’s time for some rational thoughts on public prayer.

Many people, including some of The Spokesman-Review editorial staff, seem to have lost sight of some basic truths.

Anyone is free to pray, anytime, anywhere, to any God they choose. God will hear you, whether anyone else does or not. We need no special laws for that; it is a major premise in our country’s foundation.

However, there is likewise no reason to allow oral prayer in public schools, and there are several very good reasons not to.

Throughout history, religious wars have been more vicious, divisive and longer lasting than any other kind. The surest way to start a war is with a public proclamation that my religion is better than yours, and I can pray louder, too.

As our population continues to diversify, public school prayer becomes increasingly objectionable to more and more people.

Most people believe God knows our every thought. If that’s so, the only reason to pray aloud is to influence others - who may not welcome that thought.

Truth is, it appears increasingly obvious the push for oral prayer in public schools is nothing more than arrogance. “My God is better than your God!”

When silent prayer is so much easier and less disruptive, there is really no excuse for anything else. Paul L. Weis Spokane

Book reviewer misses point

I was disappointed with Staff writer Susan English’s book review (“Interviews a conduit for definitive voices in environmentalism,” IN Life, June 25). She gives a cursory look at one of the most powerful books I’ve read in years.

Derrick Jensen’s “Listening to the Land: Conversations About Nature, Culture and Eros” is an urgent and poetic plea for us to stop trashing the planet and start the real work of healing it and its inhabitants. Jensen and the visionaries he interviews call on us to listen to the land, to truly experience a place, and thereby bond with the sacred wholeness of creation - the mystic connection and sensuality we share with all life.

But English misses the point. She hastily calls Jensen, “Just one activist” who “adds his voice to the din,” and describes those interviewed as extreme. In doing so, she trivializes the severity of the problem and belittles those who have spent their lives working toward healing solutions.

“Listening to the Land” is a remarkable work that inspires and empowers us to truly experience a place, not just merely “wander among the trees” listening to “small voices” in nature, as English describes it.

In the book, Frederick Turner says he wants the reader to “know you are connected, whether you want to be or not, to the enormous force of life. The extent to which you can maintain that kind of awareness in your daily life … is the extent to which you are really living.” Guadalupe Flores Spokane