Letters To The Editor
SPOKANE MATTERS
New STA plaza ‘splendid addition’
Congratulations, Spokane, for doing something right. And this time, doing it right from the start. The downtown Spokane Transit Authority bus plaza is a splendid addition to the city and region. I commend the STA board for pressing on, in spite of attacks from carpers, fault finders, naysayers and cheapskates. Walking into the new plaza, this bus user was darned proud and felt like a citizen. Bruce Bray Spokane
Spokane’s most wanted? Sunbathers!
Recently, the Spokane Police Department has been ticketing and harassing nude sunbathers at People’s Park. Ironically, nude sun worshipers are the only element in the park to clean the area of debris and garbage left by clothed peeping Toms and partiers.
It’s the clothed people who are violating the law by littering, camping, turning dogs loose and creating disturbances. Yet the police decline to focus on these people.
Currently, there are six to eight people camping in the park, defecating in the bushes (instead of the portable toilets), and creating piles of trash that the sunbathers, not the park department, clean up.
Also, it’s the clothed people breaking into cars in the parking lot.
Shouldn’t the police department focus on the real crime in this city and put their bicycle officers on the street, not on the beaches? S. Jesper Spokane
Event ticket policy unfair
Please, tell me who owns the Opera House and the new arena. An article in the Review stated “Les Miserables’ will be here in June ‘96, but if you don’t belong to a certain group, you have to wait until that group has its tickets. If this was an event for a season package, I could understand.
Are the taxpayers second-class citizens and relegated to the back of the bus? I understand this procedure is also happening for events in the new arena. Is it time to look for a new ticket company? Dick Ripley Spokane
IN THE PUBLIC EYE
Lowry accuser compensated well
Poor Susanne Albright! She says there “is no amount of money to compensate (her) for what (she) went through.”
It seems to me that there is, indeed, enough money to compensate her for her “suffering”; $97,500 seems to have assuaged her wounds quite beautifully, according to your July 15 article (“Lowry settles with accuser for $97,500”). Still, this leaves me with a question or two in my mind.
First, if this “unsolicited touching” actually occurred, why is Ms. Albright willing to allow it to perhaps befall some other innocent who crosses Gov. Lowry’s path? If I were her, I would certainly feel some responsibility to protect those who would follow after me in associating with the governor.
Secondly, if Ms. Albright truly feels what was done to her was so awful, perhaps her “honor” should preclude her accepting an obviously (in her opinion) inadequate monetary propitiation.
Witch hunts are witch hunts, and it seems to me a 37-year-old woman should be capable of stating diplomatically to her boss that she feels uncomfortable with any touching whatsoever. Ms. Albright must bear some responsibility for whatever happened, if anything actually happened at all.
She might like the public to forget this but the fact remains that none of her allegations were proven. Unfortunately, in the current political climate, allegations can prove far more damaging than facts. Isn’t it a pity? Dawn J. Shaw-Sands Spokane
Bad spin put to good works
After seeing the story of a mining magnate and his demand for the return of his nude photo collection (“Millionaire seeks return of nude photo collection,” July 2) I found the situation poignant on several levels.
I suppose it’s noble of him to want the photos back in order to protect the privacy of his subjects. But I wonder why some such expressed fear of retaliation, if there was no question of his motives? Perhaps they fail to appreciate his good intentions as much as they should.
After all, in these times when welfare mothers are seen as the chief drag on the nation’s economy, he extended a helping hand to one or more. Critics might try to say he sets a bad moral example to the masses and expects them to conform to a code of morality from which he exempts himself, because money and power have their privileges.
They may even try to minimize his overall contribution to society by complaining about general industry practices which have left taxpayers bearing the cost of environmental cleanup in Kellogg and at other Superfund sites. But would such critics really know this man on balance? After all, no less a luminary than Shakespeare said: “The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together: our virtues would be proud if our faults whipped them not; and our crimes would despair if they were not cherished by our own virtues.” Philip J. Mulligan Spokane
U.S. and the world
Unprincipled greed behind act With his decision to officially recognize the government of Vietnam for the murder of 58,000 Americans and the exile of more than a million of their countrymen, President Clinton shows himself, as if any additional proof were needed, to be utterly bankrupt of any moral convictions whatsoever.
Those who, like Opinion editor John Webster, congratulate Clinton on this craven act should ponder the names and acts of Chamberlain, Quisling and the Rosenbergs. Surrendering to the forces of brutality and totalitarianism doesn’t work. Ask Henry Wu. Ask the people of Tibet. Ask the hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese-Americans, whom I assume Mr. Clinton and Mr. Webster believe came here for the climate.
Offering Nike the opportunity to employ Vietnamese, at pennies a day, to make purple running shoes for Bloomsday yuppies to buy for $150 doesn’t represent peace or progress. As has been the case with this president from his inauguration, it represents the triumph of greed over any semblance of principal, of the strong over the weak.
As we wring our hands over the wanton cruelty of the Serbs, as they continue their “cleansing” of the Bosnian people, don’t forget this happened before, In 1975. In Vietnam.
Perhaps, one day, another president will have the stomach to reward the Serbs, as Clinton has rewarded the butchers of Hanoi. Ray Fadeley Spokane
Get U.N. out of Bosnia, fast
The U.N. is swiftly becoming like the old dysfunctional League of Nations. We continue to see blatant disregard for all the U.N. peacekeepers and civilians involved in the brutal ethnic cleansing in Bosnia.
The U.N. was decisive against Sadam Hussein and we all know the results of that conflict. The Bosnian Serbs are going to continue to run roughshod over everyone in their path. The only solution is to get the peacekeepers out and arm the Muslims so they will at least have a fighting chance.
What the U.N. is doing now is fruitless and is costing needless lives, with no victory or solution in sight. Shouldn’t we learn from our past mistakes and solve this problem? Withdraw now! James A. Nelson Spokane
THE ECONOMY
Worker prosperity won’t just happen
Pay for a 40-hour week should at a minimum enable an 18-year-old or older worker to rise above the poverty level. It’s a disgrace that so many working people in our rich country have to rely on welfare, food stamps and other assistance to get by. It’s also costly for taxpayers, who pick up the slack.
Fast food restaurants, farms, some stores and light production line manufacturing plants are examples of low-wage businesses. This writer is a senior citizen who experienced the Great Depression of the 1930s as a teenager. The low pay of many workers now compares with the situation of the ‘30s. Wages were extremely low back then for many classes of workers, just as the situation is now.
Workers decided to do something about that and organized into labor unions. Workers who organized began to improve their living conditions. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the new Democratic Congress encouraged the labor movement’s organizing efforts and passed labor laws to protect wage earners.
Wages have not kept up with the rising cost of living. For many, in fact, wages are declining. To improve the situation, it will take a strong effort for workers to organize and sound off. Voters must elect officials who want to improve the welfare of the downtrodden.
Individuals must also help themselves by seeking more education and work training. James W. Galloway Spokane