Letters To The Editor
RESCUE IN BOSNIA
More than Marines behind recovery
Wasn’t it refreshing to hear the recently rescued pilot, Capt. Scott O’Grady, give God credit for saving him. Wasn’t it great to hear a young man proclaim, “I wouldn’t be here if he didn’t love me and I didn’t love him.”
Most of us are not heroes and will never be. But all of us, if we are going to make it through the trials of life, need God. Young people today who are searching for someone to give them unconditional love need to give God a chance.
We are robbing them of the Christian values that made this country so great. It is not too late for us to offer hope to this nation’s young people. God is the answer.
The young pilot rescued in Bosnia was saved long ago when he put his life in God’s hands. I don’t know about you, but I am very proud of this young man and his willingness to share his faith on national television. Maybe we need to share ours.
Psalms 91:14-15 says: Because he has loved me, therefore I will deliver him. He will call upon me and I will answer, I will be with him in trouble. I will rescue him and honor him. Mrs. Ray Mueller Priest River, Idaho
Cheers for survival instructors
It wasn’t just sheer guts that helped Capt. Scott O’Grady to survive. He went through survival school, which teaches search, rescue and evasion. He wouldn’t have survived without these skills.
My husband teaches the instructors at Fairchild Air Force Base. These men take training for six long months to become an instructor to teach other students how to survive. I think they deserve some recognition in helping this man survive for six days. They deserve an overwhelming hand. Judy House Spokane
Rescuers, trainers earn gratitude
Cheers and salutes to the Marines, Navy and Air Force for rescuing Capt. Scott F. O’Grady, a Spokanite, from the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Special thanks certainly are due to the men and women of our own Air Force survival school, whose training efforts enabled Capt. O’Grady to survive his ordeal and return to his country.
It’s actions such as these that make us, who continually support all branches of the U.S. military, proud to be Americans. C. Michael Archer, director of military affairs Spokane Chamber of Commerce
SPOKANE MATTERS
Error a benign blessing
I wonder what the response from the Spokane power structure might have been if county Assessor Sadie Charlene Cooney’s error had been the opposite of what it was?
Suppose her original assessment of those properties had been less than their actual worth and a reexamination brought more money into the city’s coffers. Would there be this hue and cry that is now going on? I doubt it.
Property owners would protest but their cries would be unheard in the clamor to spend this serendipitous windfall.
In California, when a bond issue is defeated at the polls, school administrators usually can find almost exactly the same amount that had been “overlooked” in their revenues, and business can continue as planned.
If the agencies in Spokane don’t prepare for such eventualities then they are not doing their jobs properly. One can’t lose money one doesn’t have.
Assessor Cooney didn’t remove one cent from the bank accounts of the city and school district. All public agencies spend every dime of their money every year. It is the nature of the beast. If one has money left over at the end of the year, its allocated revenue is reduced by that amount for the following year. But they aren’t supposed to spend money they don’t have. That’s irresponsibility.
If this is Spokane’s problem, it is of its own making and it alone must bear the responsibility. Ed Meadows Spokane
Money should not go for raises
A recent story (“Prosecution of juveniles plummets,” May 28) told how the prosecutor’s office lacks funds to hire more attorneys to handle an increasing workload. Why isn’t there enough money?
Only weeks ago, full-time elected officials, judges to the governor, got a 2.5 percent raise. District Court judges are the lowest paid, making a mere $91,900 annually. Superior Court judges come in at a scant $96,600. (Superior Court judges are supported equally by county and state funds). Effective in September, salaries will increase to $94,197.50 and $99,015, respectively. (Annually, $1,342,852.50 goes to nineteen employees).
Salaries of all full-time elected officials should be reviewed and either capped or reformulated.
Looking at judges, I see they have court commissioners and clerks who relieve their workloads. There is also an agency that mediates cases without going before a judge. Does a judge sit on a bench 9 to 5, Monday through Friday?
With all this help, I wonder why so much money goes to judges, especially when funds are lacking for more prosecutors.
What separates elected officials from the people? If the county’s nineteen judges were to forgo this increase (an example set by former sheriff Larry Erickson) and turn it over to the county, how many attorneys could be hired with the $32,752.50 from their combined annual increase?
I won’t downplay the importance of judges or other elected officials. But, there comes a point at which an employee’s salary exceeds the employer’s resources. Are we there yet? Wendy McElroy Veradale
Downsizing is for the best>
Good move by the commissioners on saving dollars by changing the planning commission and staff.
All three of these discharged planners have been around a long time and were easy people to work with, but the bureaucracy kept expanding. The only surprise was that they didn’t start with the engineers department. Do we really need a staff that large?
Now, if the District 81 schools check out their administrative staffs, they may have room to do the same and help support the principals and staff of kindergarten through 12th grade. Nathan Narrance Mead
Our streets: Love ‘em or leave ‘em
It is unfortunate that our transplanted friends from California are upset by the way we natives drive. We don’t let other drivers merge into traffic.
An easy solution to this problem would be for these folks to go back to California, where all drivers are perfect. M.J. Sulzle Spokane
LAW AND JUSTICE
Death penalty worse than no help
So, will ours be the last country in the world to abolish the death penalty? How is it that making prisoners work is considered cruel and unusual punishment and killing them is not?
The only purpose capital punishment serves is to satisfy people’s vengefulness. I don’t believe that God punishes with a heavy hand. Are we really omniscient enough to be capable of judging who should die?
Capital punishment is more expensive than life imprisonment. It is administered with bias and it gives the message that the ultimate way to deal with problems is through violence. Does a message like that deter violent crime or cause more of it?
Let’s follow South Africa’s lead out of this spiral of violence that we are getting sucked into. Molly O’Connor Spokane
Term limits rejection right, good
Kudos to the United States Supreme Court for recently striking down state-imposed term limits for members of Congress. The court’s decision reaffirmed its belief in the intellect of the American voter.
We do indeed have the knowledge and fortitude to determine who should serve and how long a person should stay in office. Even under pressure from the GOP, the court stayed true to precedent and to the ideals set forth in the Constitution: any requirement aside from citizenship, age and residency would interfere with the political process.
At first glance, term limits do appeal. But they would have essentially taken away the voter’s right to re-elect a worthy incumbent. Mara Parker Spokane
IN WASHINGTON STATE
Understand, oppose I-164 rip-off
Our state Legislature has set July 23 as the date Washington state will be turned over to control by private industry. That is the date Initiative 164, the so-called Private Property Rights Act, becomes law.
By passing Initiative 164 instead of putting it before the people for a vote, our Legislature caved in to special interests and took away our say on an extremely important issue.
Under this law, if your neighbor is poisoning your drinking water, taxpayers would have to pay him to stop.
If an industry is destroying our fisheries, we would have to pay it to stop.
This private property act turns upside down our constitutional right to be compensated for regulatory restrictions on private property. It places corporate profiteering above public welfare and mortgages our state to private industry.
Ironically, it doesn’t even protect the average citizen’s private property since all our lands will be degraded from unrestricted development.
You can fight back. Sign petitions circulating throughout Washington to put Initiative 164 on the November ballot. Take your state back from a Legislature that is out of control.
Sign Referendum 48 and then vote. Robert Williams Kennewick, Wash.
THE MEDIA
We must curb violence on TV
In doing a research project for ninth-grade English, I chose television violence.
I already had some opinions and beliefs about television violence. For instance, I believe it’s become too prominent in today’s society.
Children are being exposed to it too often and I believe that when children are subjected to violence it causes them to act significantly more aggressive. As I have learned, I wasn’t far off in my beliefs.
Numerous studies were conducted which tried to find a link between aggressive behavior and viewing violent television shows. The results were astounding. Some conclusions were drawn from various studies where children who viewed violent films were more aggressive in their play than the children who watched neutral films.
Other studies have found that television violence viewed at a young age correlates to the seriousness of the crimes for which those children were later convicted. The connection is quite evident.
Now that the problem has been stated and proved, a solution must be established. Solving this problem lies in the hands of the American public. They are the only ones with the power to fix it.
We can’t expect the government to do it because censoring would be denying adults the right to their own pleasures.
The public needs to feel strong enough about protecting their children, to take a stand and make a change. Parents can and should limit the amount of time their children watch violent television. Not only has television become baby-sitter, it is their role model, too. Danica Praza Spokane
Comics comments begin to pall
Do you ever get the feeling that people are taking themselves much too seriously, that they’ve forgotten how to laugh, even to chuckle sometimes, at themselves and their opinions?
For example, I think Mallard Filmore is funny most of the time. I also happen to think Doonesbury is funny most of the time. I would hate to see you give into pressure and move Mallard to the Op-Ed page. For that matter, I would like to see Doonesbury moved back to the comics page.
(Staff cartoonist) Milt Priggee, whom I consider very talented, is outrageous but funny most of the time. I thought the cartoon regarding industrial waste was great!
All in all, your paper does a pretty good job, most of the time. Bob Aho Spokane
OTHER TOPICS
Euthanasia sometimes the only way
This is in response to “Euthanasia not the answer to pain,” Letters, June 10.
My sister lies in a hospital bed, transferred from long term nursing home care after having had surgery for colon cancer five years ago. The disease has spread to other vital organs. Attending physicians concur they can do nothing more.
She is grotesquely debilitated and has horrible pain. She cries intermittently, “Please help me; let me die.”
She has, as I do, a Living Will. It only eliminates “heroic measures.” She slips in and out of consciousness on medication that controls as much pain as possible “without killing her.” Even high doses of morphine will not kill the pain. If possible, I would help her to die. I do not feel this is murder, only compassion. We euthanize suffering animals, why not humans?
You have your opinion, which I respect. But I wonder, if the situation were yours or that of someone you love, how you would react, knowing that the only solution is “eternal rest?”
My sister has no sacred life. She only faces a very traumatic, tortured death. Only you, me or anyone else can determine what should be done with one’s own body when our hour comes.
I have so stated in my Living Will, and I hope it will be carried out. Euthanasia under the foregoing and similar conditions is not murder, it’s only compassion for the suffering. Mary Cosentini Spokane
Bosnia not worth American lives
President Clinton appears to lurch from one foreign policy mistake to another. The latest is his mumbled threat to send American troops to Bosnia.
The Serbs are the most war-loving people in Europe. More than 250,000 Nazi troops plus the Gestapo failed to pacify the Serbs during World War II. In the end, Serbs under Tito evicted the Germans with only token help from the major powers.
Are we to expect that 4,000 U.N. troops can succeed where Hitler’s quarter-million failed?
There is no compelling American interest in the Balkans. The entire peninsula is not worth the life of one American soldier.
Clinton is still self-righteous about his artful draftdodging during the Vietnam War. He signed up for ROTC at the University of Arkansas, a most unusual way to register a war protest. Then, when the draft tornado passed him by, he took his name off the list.
This has caused some to question whether his motive was patriotism or simply saving his hide.
Today, Clinton can prove his patriotism by keeping American forces out of Bosnia. As far as the U.N. hostages, that problem can be solved by a technique as old as history itself.
Ransom them. G.L. Nelson Colbert
NRA does plenty of good
Most Americans don’t believe all the news the media shovel down our throats. When is the last time a front page had a positive story about gun ownership or sportsmanship?
The National Rifle Association pledge says: “I certify that I am a citizen of the United States of America and that I am not a member of any organization or group which has as any part of its program the attempt to overthrow the Government of the United States or any of its political subdivisions by force or violence; that I have never been convicted of a crime of violence, and if admitted to membership I will faithfully endeavor to fulfill the obligations of good sportsmanship and good citizenship.”
How many lives has NRA safety training saved? How many rapes and murders have been thwarted by these classes? How many policemen have benefited from NRA training? How many veterans were trained as youths about the proper and improper handling of a firearm?
The truth is that the NRA is an organization under attack because it stands up for something most of us believe in. It is time that we as Americans demand the truth and take responsibility for our actions. We each possess the ultimate power in our country, the single vote. Let’s use this power to our best advantage. I’m a life member and proud of it! Bill Sahlberg Spokane