Letters To The Editor

Thu., May 18, 1995

LAW AND JUSTICE

Canada’s evidentiary rules better

Our U.S. judicial system could certainly take a lesson from the Canadian judicial system. They may march to a different drummer up there, but they do practice justice in a way that is not done here.

In Canada, they have more lenient rules about admissibility of evidence. Even if a piece of evidence is wrongly obtained, it may still be admissible if it is determined that it would be a greater obstruction to justice to omit it from the relevant facts being considered in the case.

Pretty logical, wouldn’t you say?

Think of the time and money that could be saved in the American judicial system, not to mention justice being better served, if this practice were to be followed in the U.S. also. James A. Nelson Spokane

Measure OKs discrimination

I was disappointed with Alison Boggs’ comment in the article, “Liddy gets hero’s welcome” (May 14). In the article, Ms. Boggs incorrectly referred to Initiative 166 as an initiative which “protests special rights for homosexuals.”

As a member of Simple Justice, a Christian organization whose Catholic and Protestant members belong to 1,100 parishes and congregations, I must say what the initiative would really do: overturn existing human rights ordinances in five Washington cities and three counties and prevent local governments from enacting human rights ordinances protecting citizens.

Proponents of I-166 are trying to prey upon the public’s fears in order to gain the right to discriminate against a vulnerable segment of our population.

While Simple Justice’s members may not be of like mind regarding the morality of homosexuality, as Christians we are unanimous in our opposition to discrimination.

I hope this newspaper will be more accurate in your descriptions of this initiative in the future. Craig Peterson Spokane

Gaping hole in court’s stated logic

“Court backs city’s denial of gay rights” (May 13) is an important article because it shows how ignorant American courts are.

According to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, sexual orientation doesn’t consitute an identifiable class. However, religious affiliation does.

People need to pull their heads out of the sand and pay attention to what’s really going on here.

On the streets there is no way you can truly tell what religion somebody is. The only way a person can tell is if they ask. There are black Jews, white Buddhists and Vietnamese Christians. Being of one religion doesn’t mean everybody looks the same.

You can’t tell if a person is gay unless you ask.

The U.S. courts feel people don’t deserve discrimination for their choice of religion. But at the same time, the U.S. courts feel that if a person is gay, there is nothing that can be done to protect them from the persecution of discrimination. That’s the biggest double standard I’ve ever heard of.

What happened to America being a melting pot where diversity is appreciated? Q Rushing Spokane

Put kids’ needs, safety first

Now we have the Becca Bill and can incarcerate children for running away, including many children who are attempting to escape extreme abuse.

This is a step backward, unless we can in all cases protect the children with healthy, acceptable alternatives to being returned home. That is not possible.

I don’t know what the answer to runaway and throwaway children is. I can tell you what the answer for child murderers is. In all cases - parent, step-parent, stranger or family friend - the answer is a charge of first-degree murder and an automatic death penalty.

Was a 13-year-old girl robbed or was she just murdered? The law is ludicrous. It means that money is more important than she was. Michaela Morgan Spokane

LAW ENFORCEMENT

Bush too stupid for gun toting

The National Rifle Association doesn’t need George Bush. Anyone so stupid shouldn’t carry a gun.

Where was Bush when his helicopters and armed cars attacked the Weaver cabin? Weaver’s son and wife didn’t just die, they were killed by the U.S. government when Bush was president.

Do you think he even knows about Waco? Stupid is as stupid does. Bonnie Esensee Metaline Falls, Wash.

Our protectors deserve respect

As a retired criminal justice administrator with almost 30 years in the field, I concur with Sheriff John Goldman that all too often, our law enforcement officers are verbally and physically attacked. They deserve enormous respect, especially since they put their lives on the line every day to safeguard citizens.

I, too, have concerns about those who may well be exercising their First Amendment free speech rights advocating violence against our officers. I nonetheless understand how even some legitimately patriotic citizens are given grist for some animosity when we fail to openly, honestly and forthrightly conduct hearings into incidents such as Ruby Ridge and Waco. It happens also when we fail to take appropriate action when officer wrongdoing is actually involved, as appears to be the case in these two instances.

We must maintain the integrity of our law enforcement’s internal investigatory safeguards and self-regulatory monitoring systems, which include open hearings. We must do this so the citizens who pay their salaries can differentiate the few law enforcement blunders from the many good, effective enforcement actions that predominate.

I have worked with scores of sheriff’s departments in another state and have had the opportunity to know close up how the Spokane County Sheriff’s Department functions. I can assure Spokane citizens we are fortunate to have excellence in every aspect of the department’s operation.

We have a highly professional administrative staff as well as an excellent internal self-monitoring system for which former sheriff Larry Erickson and Sheriff Goldman deserve to be proud. Ken Van Buskirk Spokane

WASHINGTON STATE

Lobbyists score against consumers, too

John Webster’s editorial concerning lobbyists running the Olympia show was right on, especially when it came to drafting legislation and worming their way for changes prior to the vote on something becoming law.

During this session lobbyists have been somewhat successful in altering the weights and measures consumer protections that have been in place for the last 50 years.

Why all this activity by lobbyists hired by the retail industry? Because they were prosecuted after many warnings from Seattle’s Weights and Measures section to correct the pricing accuracy of their scanning computer systems. The names of these companies were printed in the Seattle Times.

Retailers put their lobbyists to work to get the law changed so the names of violators wouldn’t be released. They also worked to get violations changed from criminal to civil actions, which would drive up the cost of prosecuting stores found to be repeat violators, thus cutting the chances of being taken to court in the first place. Fortunately, they were only partly successful.

How Spokane fares, I don’t know. The weights and measures department doesn’t have the people to conduct tests because it’s been severely downsized.

With an ever-increasing retail base, this has weakened the protection citizens are entitled to. This will result in millions of dollars being sucked out of the local economy by a few greedy or sloppily operated businesses - millions that could increase the local job base.

Lobbyists basically want influence without responsibility and power without living with their consequences.

It’s too bad they’re allowed to get away with it. Alex Schmall Otis Orchards

Lawmakers’ snake oil won’t cure ills

So, the Legislature is in agreement that unwed teenage girls who become pregnant will not be allowed any cash grants.

Please tell me, what will these girls do?

Let’s take a look at their choices.

I suppose they could beg their parents to support them.

Get a job? What a joke! A part-time, minimum-wage job won’t get them far.

Perhaps these young girls could turn to prostitution to support their babies.

I’m sure if they decide to abort the baby the government will have no problem paying for that. Is that what the government wants? More abortions?

Do you think the number of teenagers committing suicide will increase? I do.

All this concern for the children in society today - what about these children having children? If you ask me, these girls are the ones who will need state help the most. If the Legislature thinks denying them benefits will prevent teen pregnancy, they are wrong. It will only make things worse.

Welfare may not be the right answer but it just may be the only answer. Joy Meek Spokane

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Courting radical right a mistake

I join the increasing number of readers who are alarmed by the growing strength of the radical right and its reflection in your paper.

Your frequent use of Chuck Asay’s political cartoons from the Colorado Springs Gazette and your inappropriate inclusion of Bruce Tinsley’s mouthpiece of the Republican Right, Mallard Fillmore, on the cartoon page are potent examples.

Pandering to the radical right sentiments of the day may help your circulation in the short run but will have dire consequences for society. Shifting from the middle ground to the right is like the compromise of Neville Chamberlain.

Many of today’s problems and frustrations find their source in the disparity of incomes, the lack of a realistic minimum wage, budget deficits caused by the Democratic-controlled Congress and Republican president of the 1980,s and the export of jobs through unreciprocated trade policies.

The radical right may be having its day, but if this trend continues, a powerful radical left will emerge to counter the threat, as it did in the 1930s and repeatedly throughout history. This country’s democracy may fall to totalitarianism of the right - the Gordon Liddys and Oliver Norths- or of the left, in the name of protecting the country from the other extreme.

Unless the middle class can be enlarged and firm voices of moderation come forward to resist the radicals, this country will continue to move toward a calamity.

Which direction is your paper going to encourage? Thomas A. Lumpkin Pullman

Clinton wrong about Japan, trade

In response to “Clinton keeps up the tough talk of sanctions against Japan” (May 14):

President Clinton needs to stop playing politics and start facing reality. Japan is a sovereign nation. She does not need American vehicles; she makes arguably some of the finest in the world. American consumers continue to support Japanese vehicles, many of which are being manufactured in the United States.

Sanctioning Japan for doing a good job will only hurt Americans who work in the Japanese-American vehicle theater, and also those American consumers who continue to drive those vehicles.

Clinton needs to support our free-market society the way it is. Stop saber rattling (do we have a better international friend overseas than Japan?) and work on other substantive issues that continue to weigh heavily upon this nation. Robert Spaulding Post Falls

Conservative’s stereotyping wrong

This is in response to Robert Leach’s May 13 letter, “Finally, conservative nirvana”: I am liberal, have been most of my life. I also have been a labor union member for 42 years.

I am retired now after 41 years on the railroad and a few years in the Army. My employer and I paid for my retirement.

I don’t sit and watch Sally or Jenny on the tube. I’m too busy enjoying my retirement. I don’t laugh at the working class because I feel I’m still part of it. I don’t sit around swilling beer.

As for the nonworking masses, there wouldn’t be so many people unemployed if the corporation heads had not moved their factories overseas just to fatten their profits. Their goods are manufactured by practically slave labor and sold in the United States for the same prices or higher than those with U.S.A.-made labels are selling for.

I hope that Mr. Leach read the William Bragg Ewald Jr. column of the same date. I enjoy traveling over Ike’s freeways. I also think his farewell address is a great document. Ike and Lincoln are the only good Republicans I can think of right now.

Maybe Mr. Leach has been brainwashed by the likes of Gordon Liddy and Rush Limbaugh. Ernest L. Loewen Bonners Ferry, Idaho

U.N. now beyond our budget

I sure hope somebody told Rep. George Nethercutt about HJM 4022 (Spokesman-Review, May 13). West Side Stories writer Lynda V. Mapes should have included the names of the other six co-sponsors so I could send thank you notes to all of them.

Popular support aside, this country is almost $5 trillion in debt. We can’t afford to belong to the United Nations any longer. Jon J. Tuning Spokane

Focus condemnation narrowly

Chuck Armsbury stated in “The Road Leading to Here” (Letters, May 7) that “I thought McNamara was a fascist war criminal in 1966. In 1995, I respect the man for renewing the hope of aroused conscience. Just say no to U.S. imperialism.”

It’s amazing to me that because a particular administration, or individual members of an administration, act unscrupulously and perhaps criminally at times, that so many Americans fail to call the offending person or administration to task but rather denounce the entire form of government established by our founding fathers.

Greater care should be given to limiting the power and size of government, thereby severely reducing the ability of particular administrations to err so grievously. Sandra Bechthold Hayden Lake, Idaho

Congress should cut members’ pay

This last election was the first time I voted straight Republican and I am proud I did, as this time they are being honest with the citizens.

I believe in the program they call the “contract.” But the one thing that puzzles me is their sincerity in getting rid of the debt. They refuse to raise minimum wage so the citizens can at least eat and pay their bills.

The only thing I do not hear from Republicans and Democrats both is about them cutting back the $35,000 wage increase they voted themselves and applying it to the debt. If workers out here can live on $4.50 per hour, why can’t they live on $35,000 less per year? Harry M. Davidson Spokane

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Jesse Tinsley

Meet Jesse Tinsley. As a certified drone pilot, this veteran Spokesman-Review photographer often can be seen capturing beautiful aerial photographs of our region. Sometimes though, the job requires getting down with the dogs.
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