Letters To The Editor

HEALTH AND SAFETY

Fitness? Make that self-destruction

What a disappointment to read “Serious training” on Nov. 6. The article really gives fitness an ugly face and a bad name.

It’s unfortunate that a former bulimic (now starving herself) with epilepsy, hypoglycemia, anemia, irregular heartbeat and terribly damaged knees is proudly going to parade her “accomplishments” in front of the entire country while representing Spokane.

Stacy Riggiola doesn’t represent fitness. She needs help. She starves her body of proper nutrients and severely overtrains. Energy (primarily carbohydrates) is needed to sustain any level of fitness, and rice cakes and tuna fish won’t cut it. No dietitian would ever recommend such a ridiculous dietary regimen.

She claims she learned about exercise and nutrition at Eastern Washington University. As a faculty member of EWU’s Physical Education, Health and Recreation Department, I know that no one in our department would teach this lifestyle to anyone.

The Spokesman-Review should consult true fitness and nutrition professionals - there are several in the Spokane area. To feature this behavior as “fitness” is an embarrassment to your wonderful paper.

Being physically fit means sustaining a level of fitness that enhances one’s quality of life. It doesn’t mean starving oneself and overtraining in order to fit into a swimsuit or bend over backwards while doing pushups.

The human body is an incredible machine. Care for it and it will thrive. Abuse it and it will break down.

Stacy Riggiola’s body is on the verge of self-destruction. What a shame. Brian Roberts, M.S., director The Body Shop and Fitness Center, EWU

Fitness, yes; Obsession, no

I read with dismay the article featuring the young woman preparing for the Fitness America Pageant (“Serious training,” Nov. 6).

I give all due respect to the grueling work and intense willpower this woman has utilized in reaching for her goal. However, I must point out that this regimen involving over five hours of daily exercise combined with a low-carbohydrate, low-calorie diet is designed to reach an illusive number on the scale and a dangerously low body fat percentage.

This cannot be considered safe, healthy or laudable.

Current culture dictates to most women that smaller is better, regardless of the cost. Reality is, however, that the extreme exercise and unbalanced eating behaviors used to attain and maintain that size leaves the individual no healthier and therefore no more desirable than one who is sedentary and overly fat.

I encourage any person involved in such endeavors to reevaluate their goals and change their behavior. Obsessing with body size and reaching some unrealistic magic measurement will not fix any real problems. The goal should be to be healthy and balanced. Obtaining sound nutrition counseling from a nutrition expert, preferably one with expertise in sports nutrition, can help. The American Dietetic Association has a referral network for nutrition professionals.

Finally, moderate exercise is best, but if one must obsess, at least try to make the activity, not the body, the goal. Training for and finishing a marathon might be a better goal than racking up some arbitrarily reached score for an appearance in a swimsuit. Dawna White, registered dietician Spokane

Bad drivers an ever-present menace

I am replying to the Your Turn column by Thomas Dixon (Nov. 15) in regard to his cat being killed.

I have also had a cat killed, and I understand his grief. I have also had a friend hit and killed on Trent and my children’s cousin was killed there as well.

My neighbor, a crossing guard at Garfield Elementary, has had several close calls while her flag was out. One of my sons was clipped in a crossing on his way home from school. My father was hit by a drunk driver and missed a year’s worth of work.

Spokane drivers are careless and inattentive. They drive too fast for the conditions and the area they are in. They run red lights and stop signs regularly, including those held by crossing guards. They drive when they are drunk and high on drugs.

Spokane drivers kill more people in this town with their bad driving than do people using guns, and nobody seems to care.

I don’t have an answer. It’s been like this ever since I can remember. All I can do is sympathize. I’ve been there. Judith Jones Spokane

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

To one of the good ones, my thanks

On Monday, as I was leaving Rosauers in the Valley, I dropped the envelope with our food money for the month. I did not discover this until Wednesday.

After searching at home, I returned to Rosauers to see if I had left it on the counter. A customer had found it and returned it intact.

I am most grateful to this person, although I do not know who he or she is.

After so much news about the crime in Spokane, it is nice to realize there are still honest and good people here. Joan McKinley Spokane

Hunting critic ignorant of facts

I’m sure there will be many letters in response to Deborah Silver’s letter, “Hunting is unnecessary blood sport” (Nov. 15). Talk about ignorance. Had Silver read the article, she would know the tule elk is no longer on the brink of extinction; there are thousands, and due to the efforts of hunters. The article states the elk is back from the brink of extinction because of revenues from hunting licenses and taxes on sporting equipment.

Hunter Jack Sellers bid $18,001 on a tag, all of which goes directly to the Department of Fish and Game’s elk management program. When was the last time Silver Silver spent any money on elk management?

Yes, Silver, go back East. Don’t try to pass your ignorant values on to us. Robert Bly Newman Lake

BUSINESS AND LABOR

Teamsters singled out unfairly

Nov. 1, Teamsters Local No. 582 employees were forced to hit the picket line against Broadview Dairy. Why, you ask?

The Broadview Dairy owner proposed the following: Employees to pay for their own medical coverage - a loss of $150 minimum per month, per employee.

The Broadview Dairy owner no longer wanted to pay into the union pension fund. Employees due to retire soon would only receive 40 percent of their retirement pension, losing 60 percent of what they have toiled and sweated for.

The Broadview Dairy owner proposed a $3.42 wage cut, taking approximately $7,000 a year out of an employee’s budget. How many people could afford to take a $7,000 salary cut?

To add insult to injury, the owner offered no amnesty to striking union members when and if they come back to work. I don’t think I have to spell out the ramifications of that.

The owner states “he is losing money,” but the only wages and benefits being cut are those of Teamsters Local 582 members. What about fairness? Why not cut from the top down - management, engineers and secretaries? Production employees didn’t create the money loss problem, why would they be the only ones singled out?

There comes a time when a man has to stand up for his rights. As the wife of a Broadview employee, I recognize this as that time. Jan Burton Spokane

Shell Oil behind wrongful execution

What a tragic world we live in, where oil profits and political power win over human rights.

Last week, Nigeria’s military government executed activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight of his colleagues for allegedly inciting murder during a protest against the environmental damage done by Shell Oil in the Ogoni region of Nigeria.

Saro-Wiwa and his organization, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, have fought for fairness, for restitution to an area that has seen all of the damages associated with oil development and none of the financial benefit. But fairness has been set aside for greed, restitution for grief.

Shell Oil Co. accused Saro-Wiwa of supporting violence, even though Saro-Wiwa’s organization supported only nonviolent campaigns. The Nigerian government convicted Saro-Wiwa of murder, even though the true murder is at the hands of the government and Shell Oil for the death of this great leader and for the destruction of Nigeria’s land by the ravages of oil development.

It is too late to save Saro-Wiwa, but it is not too late to preserve his legacy. We must urge the United States and other countries around the world to act on their condemnation of the Nigerian government’s action. And we must strive to ensure that Shell and other oil companies are held accountable for the damage they do, in the name of fairness and in the name of human rights.

I don’t intend to buy Shell gasoline again. I hope you will join me. Paul Lindholdt Spokane

WASHINGTON STATE

It’s one life to live, Bartel

Frank Bartel’s diatribe on Todd Mielke (“Mielke spurns public service with a vengeance,” Business, Nov. 13) goes a bit beyond the norm.

Bartel admits he’s never met ex-Rep. Todd Mielke, which is strange in itself, being a newspaper business editor, and Mielke gaining strength and power for the 6th District in the state Legislature. That tells me how much Bartel does not get out of his little corner of the office.

Bartel’s buddy, Rep. Dennis Dellwo, as well as Bill Day, Sen. Bob McCaslin and others, can tell you it’s very difficult to hold a marriage together while working for peanuts and being gone six to eight months of the year.

Whether Bartel realizes it or not, Mielke’s wife sued for divorce. They have a young child. Knowing Mielke, he will give up anything in order to save this marriage. He would never just quit in the middle of his term to change jobs.

My feeling is that Bartel should get a life and get to know who he is writing about. He always lost me on his health care pitch after being schmoozed by Gov. Lowry. I think it’s time for a replacement writer. Nathan Narrance Spokane

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Review not conservative enough

The Spokesman-Review consistently fails to provide readers with unbiased, complete coverage of significant news.

On Nov. 10, the front page covered five topics. Three were smokers’ rights, a new day care center and the end of a comic strip. However, back on page 12, it did surprise readers by carrying an article revealing that Hillary Clinton’s health care task force had an original White House estimate of $100,000, yet actually cost taxpayers $13.8 million. Such major news rarely makes front page, if it’s even printed.

Editorials are always slanted to the political left and often insult conservatives and their values. For example, Nov. 7, Doug Clark’s column stated “Most of Richard Clear’s radio talk show listeners live in tunnels deep in the woods” and referred to them as “unwashed hillfolk.”

Rather than juvenile insults and trivial topics, readers want specific, complete, unbiased news. They want the truth in reporting. A good paper would expose and repudiate the cover-ups and corruption throughout the Clinton administration and the lies being spread about the Republican budget plan.

Editors should recognize that readers are intelligent enough to make their own interpretation without being subject to Editor’s Chris Peck’s liberal slant. Citizens of the Spokane area deserve better. No wonder some subscribe to other publications such as the weekly edition of The Washington Times, where they get more substantive news in a single edition than The SpokesmanReview provides in six months. Irene Beeson Spokane

Republican bill not strong enough

I’m glad President Clinton vetoed the bill the Republicans sent him. He should wait for a bill that spends less money and cuts more programs. Maybe we can make government smaller.

Seven years is too long to balance the budget.

The message of the voters in the last election was clear. We all want less government in our economic and personal lives. We want it to cost less. We want less taxation. We want less regulation. The American people overwhelmingly have indicated that they want a balanced budget and tax relief, not tax increases - the preferred liberal solution.

I hope Republicans continue to present President Clinton with smaller and smaller budgets until he signs. Janice Moerschel Spokane

Clinton using scare tactics

It’s a sad state of affairs when our liberal president has to resort to scare tactics to get support. He is one of the most negative presidents this nation has ever had.

In 1994 Americans voted for less government and a balanced budget. Did not our president and the liberal establishment get the message? Apparently not.

In the 1992 election, President Clinton said he would balance the budget in five years. Then he said seven years, then 10 years. Now he apparently doesn’t support a balanced budget at all. He has yet to propose a balanced budget plan.

Clinton could care less about the nation’s budget. All he cares about is getting re-elected.

Mr. President, scaring older Americans with your lies about Medicare will not get you re-elected. Truth is, Congress’ budget plan saves Medicare. It saves education and our environment by cutting waste and restoring sensible spending. Most of all, it saves this country from going completely bankrupt by balancing the budget in 2002. What’s wrong with that?

If the liberals in Congress keep it up with wanting to tax and spend they are going to lose more congressional seats in 1996. And Clinton will lose the presidency. Kevin Davis St. Maries, Idaho

Republicans - ‘they lie’

I keep hearing the Republicans bragging on President Reagan. They sure approve of his policies.

I remember thousands and thousands of people on the streets a year after he was elected, and the numbers kept growing.

I remember how the Democrats tried to pass bills to help those people, but the Republicans rejected them and the president vetoed them.

I remember President Reagan cutting a lunch program for the schools that was providing one meal a day. To many, that was their only meal.

They are making good speeches now, just like they did then, before election. But they lie.

President Clinton is trying to save our country from this. They take from the poor and give to the rich. Ernestene Becker Clarkston, Wash.

LAW AND JUSTICE

Get tough with batterers

Ever wonder why some women stay with a batterer? One reason is that the batterer can go right back to the victim and do it again, only worse.

He may tell her, “I’ll be out of jail before you get out of the hospital. If you don’t drop charges, I’ll kill you” etc., and it can be true. So, she takes the batterer back. She may say “He didn’t mean to, he really loves me.”

Pressing charges and dropping restraining orders should be taken out of the victim’s hands. If a woman is scared enough to call 911, charges should be automatically filed.

Did Nicole Simpson or Denise Chapman want a better life? Victims are under horrible stress. They can’t think rationally or be objective. A victim needs to learn she doesn’t have to live like this to survive.

Batterers need a penalty (caning comes to mind) and counseling so they will never batter again. Battering is a calculated form of control. Without counseling, victims make excuses for the batterer. They say, “It’ll be all right next time.”

Call the 800 number of your senator or state representative. Tell them to put some teeth in domestic violence laws, make such crimes more than a gross misdemeanor.

Urge them to take the burden of pressing charges off the victim. Seek counseling for the victim as well as the batterer. Get these laws changed, it will save lives and benefit children. Dolores M. Grimm Spokane