Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

When terror hits where you live

It’s 3:55 on a Spokane summer morning. One block north of Manito Park, five blocks south of Roosevelt School. Eyes fly open as once-sleeping neighbors count the shots: one, two, three, four, five, six!

Perhaps a bazooka sounds the same. Is this how war sounds?

The assailants, hidden behind their darkened car windows, take out two cars and all the front windows of the house under fire. One shot goes wide, and lead penetrates the bedroom wall of the parents in the house behind, with one piece traveling on to lodge in the door of the bedroom of their sleeping children.

How unfortunate Interactive editor Rebecca Nappi moved up and on; she could have filed a vivid firsthand report of the gang activity in her neighborhood.

Perhaps Staff cartoonist Milt Priggee is at least partly right, in that only the stupid buy and keep handguns. You may as well arm yourself with a peashooter against this type of terrorism.

One thing is certain. If you ever felt compassion for the people in the central neighborhoods who have endured this for years, hold that thought! There is a real possibility you can extend that compassion to yourself and your immediate neighbors, and you, too, will deal not only with the horror of the movement, but the fear of recurrence. J.K. Pearson Spokane

Work with inevitability of traffic

Spokane traffic planners are approaching the problem of more and faster traffic on residential streets from the wrong end. They should be asking what is causing this problem.

Everyone knows that a stream of water will find alternate routes if it is impeded. So do drivers.

Officials should concentrate on facilitating the flow of traffic to its destination if we expect drivers to stay off residential streets. Hindering traffic by slowing or blocking it will only tempt drivers to fan out more through our neighborhoods.

All expanding cities face this problem. Sooner or later they must designate enough arterials to handle the traffic flow.

Let’s recognize the cause of our problem and get on with solving it. It’s time to stop putting all the blame on drivers. Barbara F. Green Spokane

Commissioners’ action contemptible

County Commissioners Steve Hasson and Phil Harris’ arrogance in ousting Steve Horobiowski, John Mercer and Wallis Hubbard from their county planning positions by the reprehensible technique of reorganization is representative of poor management, poor judgment and shameful politics.

I have known these three men throughout their academic and professional lives, and they have my unwavering support.

You couldn’t arbitrarily change the planning ordinances and regulations these honorable employees were required to uphold - regulations that seemed too troublesome to developers. So you and county Planning and Buildings Director Jim Manson just eliminated their jobs - ergo, no more problems for developers and you scored political points.

Now, you just intimidate other workers in the new department to be “team players” and you will have your way with the development process - meaning the rape of the rest of us. We’re not just talking undignified here, or conduct unbecoming; we’re talking certified managerial depravity. Neither of you should be in a position of public trust.

Truth is the linchpin of the democratic process. Not just being truthful personally but requiring that we all have access to truth so the dialogue produces the artful compromises democracy requires.

You used devious means to gain your own end without giving a thought to the judicious, fair application of political power and tried to pass that off as a bureaucratic adjustment. You hurt three good county planners in the process while cutting the heart out of the body of public trust. Charles Booth Cheney

Wrecking crew now in charge

Dismissal without cause and with no prior notification?

I have discounted many of the reports regarding Spokane County Commissioner Steve Hasson’s antics and escapades of the past. However, now, teamed with Commissioner Phil Harris, whose interests seem to be totally in the corner of the developer, he has given us a prime example of how damaging government can be.

While recognizing the need for budgetary prudence, I have to wonder how dismissal of county planning staff will result in a savings to citizens, as there will only be a cost in the long run to fix problems caused by lack of well-organized planning.

John Mercer is a highly experienced and professional individual whose primary interest is to provide citizens with good, sensible, regulated planning and thus quality of life. Marianne Richardson Spokane

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

Too young to ignore the rainbow

In a June 26 article, “State politicians woo Christian conservatives,” teenager Eric Nathan says he was “persecuted” in high school by being forced into observing “Indian drummers, and Buddhists,” and thinks “this is crazy.”

Eric, I feel sorry for anyone who is as narrow-minded as you seem to be at such a young age. Have you ever wondered about other kinds of people? They are much like you. They laugh, cry, love and, like you, they hate.

Jesus spoke against hatred. He went among all kinds of folks in many lands. We are told that he both taught them and learned from them. Are you so much greater than he? Have you nothing to learn?

Exposure to the culture of every country on this earth is a must in these times. When you get to know someone, it’s not “them” anymore, it’s “us.” Without us, without global cooperation, we will not survive as a species. Human hate and greed have ordained this. To achieve this world understanding and joining, we have to put aside ancient hatreds. When we learn tolerance, we learn to work together, whether we agree on all the little details of our personal lives or not.

The world is a rainbow filled with all the colors we see. Christianity represents one facet of a multicolored gem.

Your school tried showing you some other facets. You’re too young for religious bigotry. God made us all different. Try to love what God made, please. Abigayle Murray Spokane

Children are on loan from God

Not many of us actually knew little Rachel Carver, but somehow, this abrupt end to this little life affected a lot of us more deeply than we expected.

It may have been the fact that many of us, like myself, have daughters of our own, and the thought of such a thing happening to them is beyond the ability to comprehend. Or it may have been, for those with vivid childhood memories, that placing ourselves back in the third grade doesn’t seem too long ago; and thinking about what she must have gone through in comparison to how we felt at that age makes us anguish inside.

You see, there are children from all kinds of different backgrounds and family situations, but these little ones all have some things in common. They all have hopes and dreams, and they all have a heavenly Father who loves them more than man ever could. When I see my daughters, I am frequently reminded that they are God’s beautiful little creations and they belong to him. They are just on loan to us to take care of.

This concept is what more of us need to recognize. This alone should strike a healthy fear in the hearts of all you fathers who think that your children are objects to exercise perverted desires upon or build up your machismo with. They have a Father in heaven to whom you must give account how you treated them.

As for little Rachel Carver, it seems as though a true father was hard to find upon this earth. But on June 14, 1995, she found the true love of her heavenly Father, a love that lasts forever. Dave Ponsness Spokane

LAW AND JUSTICE

Wrong to castigate Eitzen

Bonnie Sligar’s recent letter (“Judge should be kicked out”) calling Judge Tari Eitzen “irresponsible” and “incompetent” is typical of the unfounded, extremist viewpoints often echoed by uninformed members of our society.

As almost any member of law enforcement and the local legal community would indicate, Judge Eitzen is a worthy, competent and responsible jurist. Judge Eitzen time and again throughout her distinguished career as an attorney, instructor and jurist, has indicated her concern and compassion for children and victims of crime.

It was not Judge Eitzen who delayed Jason Wickenhagen’s sentencing report, necessitating a continuance of the proceedings. Nor was it Judge Eitzen’s fault Wickenhagen chose, if ultimately found guilty, to act as he has been alleged to have acted. Nor was it Judge Eitzen who placed Rachel Carver in Wickenhagen’s care.

Attitudes such as those expressed by Ms. Sligar reinforce the need for independent-minded, able, exemplary judges such as Tari Eitzen and the other jurists and court commissioners elected to the Spokane County bench. Dennis C. Cronin Spokane

Demand long-term incarcerations

On June 15, an article in the Review began, “The Washington Department of Corrections reported that the following people were released from prison in May.” The first three crimes listed were rape, violent sexual abuse of a child and sexual abuse of a child.

The average prison time served by these monsters was two years and four months. Burglars and car thieves served longer sentences! Later that day, Rachel Carver’s body was found and the ugly, gut-wrenching story unfolded.

Our emotions are attacked yet again by the David Pelletier brutality to baby Courtney. She had been home for three months. He must be a slow learner. Any 6-year-old would know you don’t throw an infant. (A 3-month-old baby that weighs only six pounds would arouse my suspicions about care being provided.)

Fingers have been pointed at Child Protective Services, the school, family history and “society.” There are lots of theories about what we can do to prevent these crimes. If we can’t prevent them, we can stop repeaters.

One conviction for violent child abuse or sexual child abuse should be enough to imprison the perpetrator for 25 years to life - without parole. Imprisoned sex offenders interviewed on television have freely admitted no rehabilitation therapy can change them.

If each of us would write just one letter, we might get some action. Jean Reiter Loon Lake