Letters To The Editor

IDAHO VIEWPOINTS

Flyover incident frightening

While waiting for the Fourth of July parade to start in Coeur d’Alene, I was excited to see three military jets flying westbound at 11 a.m. - a wonderful salute to kick off the festivities. Then, as they passed directly overhead, I was horrified to see them fly within 200 feet of a private helicopter, approximately 400 to 500 feet above us. This would be a narrow miss by any standard.

In an age of high technology, I am surprised that something like this happened. Surely the jets had radar that would indicate another aircraft in their path or that would pass in such close proximity.

Also, aren’t flight plans filed in advance, to warn aircraft that others would be flying in a particular area at particular times? Were air traffic controllers negligent in not informing the involved pilots?

I have always appreciated the excitement of the military flyovers for holiday parades, and especially aircraft maneuvers during air shows. But I have to question if it is worth the hundreds of lives that would have been lost if the near miss had been a collision. Bruce Tompkins Coeur d’Alene

Help save historic stacks

Time is running out for saving the Bunker Hill stack.

A meeting will be held the first part of August in which the fate of the stack will be decided. If you cannot be there to offer your support to save the one stack, you can mail a letter to us at 317 Bank Street, Wallace, Idaho 83873. We will present written letters in favor of saving the stack.

It is time to seriously think of saving our heritage, with a special dedication honoring the hard rock miners who have contributed so much to our society. On the financial end, this monument, museum, curio shops and restaurant could bring in more jobs and income from tourism to our area. That will produce a lifetime of income, rather than a five-minute blast from a stick of dynamite.

I have received a lot of letters from people telling what their grandchildren used to call the stacks when approaching grandma’s and grandpa’s house. Memories seem to fade so fast. Why should we let these memories slip away also?

And if you consider it all so bad, can we not now turn the bad into something good? Can we not become forgiving and work for preserving something good?

We need Coeur d’Alene’s and Spokane’s help! Brenda Auld Wallace

SPOKANE MATTERS

Clueless in Spokane

As the saying goes, Tim Welch, Garco Construction owner, and Jim Ray, chairman of the Public Facilities District, just don’t get it.

Mr. Welch seems to think it’s perfectly ordinary and perfectly OK to invite 600 of his closest friends to a private party in the new arena without legal consent and without paying a use fee. Anyone who complains, according to Mr. Welch, is just expressing, “sour grapes” for not being invited.

What arrogance!

Mr. Ray claims the Public Facilities District’s attorney, Linda Tompkins, approved of the event. When asked, Ms. Tompkins related no one ever told her about the event, much less asked her for approval.

The vast majority of people in Spokane could not care less about attending a birthday party thrown by a selfimportant contractor. What we do care about in such matters is equal treatment. If anyone else wanted to have a party in the arena, they would have to wait for the certificate of occupancy, fill out an application and pay a $4,000 fee.

What we care about with regard to Mr. Ray is the truth and that he fulfill his obligation to look out for Public Facilities District interests and not the interests of his buddies.

The whole affair reeks of the good-ol’-boy syndrome that permeates Spokane. The most disgusting part of it all is that Mr. Welch and Mr. Ray have no clue that what they did was wrong. Steve Anderson Spokane

WASHINGTON STATE

Party switching is a dirty deal

Dave Mastin is mad at Seattle-area liberal Democrats, but he took it out on the moderate and conservative Democrats in the 16th Legislative District when he became a Republican.

Maybe Republicans are more trusting of people who switch parties mid-term. All I can say is, if you switch from the Republican Party to the Democratic party mid-term, don’t think you will get any help from me.

I don’t approve of mid-term party switching on either side. If the going gets tough, get in there and fight for what you believe in. Don’t just go where you think you might get a better deal.

The law should be changed so that when a person switches parties mid-term, a new election would be held right away. I’ll bet this would discourage betrayal of the voters’ trust.

I also feel that Mastin should remove himself from our Democratic legislative office. He doesn’t want to be a Democrat, but he’s willing to let democrats pay for twothirds of his office space. This is a slap in the face to Democrats everywhere. Mastin needs to start considering the feelings of others for a change.

Will I vote for Dave Mastin in ‘96? Absolutely not! I will never vote for him again, for any office. Lora Lee Pernick Walla Walla

Put an end to ‘greedy land grab’

Initiative 164 (I-164), the so-called Private Property Rights Act” was bought by a coalition of special interests at $2 per signature on the petition to get it to our state Legislature.

Referendum 48, now being circulated, would restore the people’s right to vote on this important issue this November. Keep control of our government, sign the Referendum 48 petition. I-164’s intent is clear. It puts private property over the public good. I-164 says that you, Mr. Taxpayer, must pay polluters not to pollute. Under I-164, if a property owner is destroying our fisheries, we must pay him to stop.

If your water supply is threatened by an upstream property owner, too bad. You can just pay him to release your water. Ironically, the average private property owner will lose property value under I-164 because he will be powerless to prevent bad neighbors from performing acts that degrade his land.

In a democracy the public good comes before private profiteering. Reject I-164 for the greedy land grab it is. Robert Williams Richland

Support initiative to stop slaughter

A recent Associated Press story told of an experimental gill net study by the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife aimed at a reduction in the number of migratory birds killed by nets in the Puget Sound sockeye fishery.

Last summer, the 13-day, non-Indian drift gill net fishery killed 3,500 seabirds documented by the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife. The Save Our Sealife group supports any efforts to eliminate this needless slaughter, including the introduction of new, more-selective fishing gear.

We strongly object to the department’s allowing the killing to continue while the experimental drift gill nets are being tested. The National Audubon Society estimates “tens of thousands of seabirds are drowned in fishing nets in Washington marine waters each year.” It’s time to stop this. Vote yes on I-640. Jim McKillip, co-chairman Save Our Sealife, Olympia

THE MEDIA

Here’s some fan mail - not

Shame on you, Dave Oliveria. You had no cause to go and get revenge on a reader just because you didn’t like what you read in your “fan mail” (“Huckleberries, July 3). Private letters should be just that: private!

It makes me wonder if you can be trusted, should any of your readers write in. I can’t say I like your style and I don’t believe your boss showed good sense in letting you get nasty in public. From the sound of the jab you took at your reader, it looks like you read something that hit too close to the bone.

We have enough troubles in our communities without you stirring things up. I apologize to your reader, whoever it was. Sounds like the person met up with some of our community which got shortchanged in the common sense and decency department. I’ve seen worse done to outsiders than what your reader commented on, and I’m ashamed of folks for acting like coyotes packing up to run down rabbits. I can’t see where you think living here 18 years makes you one of us; you’re only a long-term visitor, in my book.

I’ve been here 71 years. Son, let me give you some good advice. If you can’t straighten up and act like you’ve been brought up right, you best go back where you came from. Maybe you’ll find someone in your big city just like you, so you can be nasty without being disagreed with. Mary May McMarz Coeur d’Alene

Waco truth at last emerging

Hallelujah! The mainstream media are apparently opening their eyes and investigations into Waco, regarding the lies of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms concerning drugs that allowed the military to be utilized on the raid on the Branch Davidian compound.

This information has been available on the G. Gordon Liddy program, which has been saying this for a long time.

This should be a warning to the American public not to allow the passage of the new anti-terrorism bill with the addition of nuclear (smoke detectors), chemical (what isn’t) and biologicals. Gary Tucker Oldtown