Letters To The Editor
PEOPLE AND SOCIETY
Show some gratitude; leave a tip
I’m your manicurist who just spent my lunch break filing and painting your nails so that you look just right at your dinner date. I’m the pizza delivery person who did everything within reason to get your order to you piping hot. I’m your waiter/waitress who brought you everything you asked for and then cleaned up the mess left by your 2-year-old.
Get the idea? We’re talking about tipping - a subject a lot of people in Spokane need to learn about. The rest of the country tips an average of 15 percent. I’d be happy to see the people of Spokane follow the old rule of just 10 percent.
All the jobs mentioned above, plus hundreds of others, rely on tips. The businesses that you patronize keep their costs artificially low by paying their employees minimum wage and expecting the customers to make up the difference in tips.
I work in one of these jobs and I can tell you from experience that you people really fall short. And we’re not talking economics only. By not tipping you are, in effect, saying that my work or service was inferior. In short, you left as a dissatisfied customer. Keep that in mind the next time you “stiff” someone. John W. Heple Spokane
Reunion story was disgraceful
As I read the May 28 Spokesman-Review articles regarding Memorial Day and the meaning of the day, I was elated to see the headline of Darin Z. Krogh’s “All in the family.” I thought how appropriate for a day when many people are thinking of loved ones who live far and near, and especially those who were the cause of our being.
Then I continued to read the article and became quite livid of the disrespect shown for the people who, at one time, participated in your birthdays, wedding and graduation, with great love for you.
If I were to feel that my children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren had the same opinion expressed in this article I do not feel I ever would want to call them on the telephone, attend another concert, graduation or ball game, or write them letters. I would become a hermit.
We have been having family reunions since 1961, and the younger families are still attending the reunions with great anticipation, as they should be. We have often wondered how many cousins would pass each other on the street and never know they are cousins if these reunions were not held.
What a disgrace! Please, Darin Z. Krogh, think again about your own family. They may some day be the only friends you will have. Do you think they would be your friends just because they are your family? I don’t think so! Edith L. Dixon Spokane
PRAYERS AND SCHOOLS
Separation easily arranged
On the subject of Doug Floyd’s editorial, wherein he states that formal prayer has no place in a public high school commencement program, I heartily concur.
According to my Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, a baccalaureate service is a service at which such a sermon is delivered to a graduating class.
In the high school that I graduated from in California, the baccalaureate services were separate. Nobody was obligated to attend. A simple solution to a complex problem. Judy Maibie Spokane
Prayer, protest quite different
D.F. Oliveria is smart enough to know he is comparing apples and oranges (Opinion, June 2).
War protesters, inner-city rioters, aggressive panhandlers, Ku Klux Klan members and students on school grounds are individuals expressing their personal opinions allowed under the First Amendment’s freespeech provision. Prayers at a public school commencement are given authority by the school board, a governmental agency.
It is my understanding that once a Christian has accepted Jesus as his or her savior, the salvation is locked in for eternity. So why the insistence on public demonstration? Why don’t they follow Jesus’ directive to go into a closet to pray, individually and silently? And render unto Caesar by relinquishing these illicit opportunities to witness and evangelize? Kay Hayes Greenacres
THE MEDIA
That duck needs to go
How many letters to the editor does it take to get Mallard Fillmore moved to the opinion pages? Do you only print letters to the editor and then ignore them? You have asked for input in the past on ways to improve what I consider to be “our” community newspaper. Why are you not responsive?
Who decides to put an opinionated duck on the comics page and to discontinue the Pulitzer Prize-winning Shoe?
Check your demographics. I’ll bet 30-50-year-olds are a large part of your readership. Please don’t ignore us in your chase for 20-somethings and young Republicans. Jack O’Dea Colville, Wash.
PBS presented a gem
The National Endowment for the Arts helped to bring a lovely, talented young lady into my living room on the evening of May 24. Sarah Chang played with the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center. Thanks to public television for making this available. Mary Alice Conlin Spokane
OTHER TOPICS
Poor will bear burden for wealthy
While everyone would like the government to live within its means, I wonder if those who voted for the current mode of solving that problem realize that the budget deficit would be solved on the backs of the poor and those cultural institutions that characterize our civilizations.
There is a reason why the Republican Party has had only brief periods of control during the past 50 years: they cut programs for the poor and cozy up to the wealthy. News reports listing those who would bear the pain of the recently passed budget cuts mention that the wealthy alone escaped the budget knife.
Even more amazing in the current political scene is the heavy support for these cuts by a clearly defined religious segment. That this is political is supported by the media event announcing their “Contracts with the Family” attended by Republican leaders. What would the public response have been if John F. Kennedy had attended such an event held by the Catholic bishops in the 1960s?
The founder of the predominant religion in our culture, Christianity, said volumes about the way his followers are to treat the poor. His statements about sexual, personal morality are outnumbered by statements on how we treat the poor 100-1. Maybe those American Christians who cheer the current scene, expressing grave concern about sexual morality, have actually been seduced by the lure of greed and power.
The American public have no one to blame but themselves for the current state of affairs. Only 38 percent voted in the past election. Richard Evans Spokane
Quail raisers, get new line of work
On Memorial Day, my parents came to Coeur d’Alene to visit. Being bird lovers, they feed, watch and talk about all their feathery friends that visit their backyard on the South Hill. Mom’s bird story of the day was about having recently watched a family of quail, and how the babies hopped, fluffed and struggled to keep up with their mother.
That night, I opened the paper and was treated to another bird story. This one was about the St. Joe Quail Co., where Scott and Cheryl Walker raise quail by the thousands to sell to hunting preserves, ranchers and dog clubs.
Well now, isn’t that a nice way to make a living - raising birds for others to kill? But, as Mr. Walker says, “When you raise 5,000 at once, you don’t get attached to them. Besides, they all look the same.”
I believe that hunting for sport is immoral, but to raise and sell the creatures that will become future victims of guns, dogs and men is far more immoral.
I hope the Walkers will find a more kind and humane way to earn their living. Christi Hunt Coeur d’Alene