Letters To The Editor

AROUND THE AREA

Keep money for community centers

We’re a nursing home in northeast Spokane which has been there since 1941. We take great interest in our neighborhood and neighborhood centers.

It’s been brought to our attention that the budgets for the centers have been singled out for cutbacks. At the same time our mayor has listed “prevention of crime” at the top of the list for centers. With all the great programs the centers have for the youth of our city, naturally crime prevention is very important.

I feel the city would do better to cut back elsewhere than to cut the budget for our neighborhood centers. We need to keep our trust in our community centers to provide the vital leadership to support our neighbors quality of life.

We need not only give them our support, but the monies to carry out their programs. It takes the whole community to make these things work, we all need to be prepared to do our part. Florence Davis Reynolds, administrator Loganhurst Healthcare, Spokane

Smoking ban may be costly

Does the Spokane County budget have adequate finances for frivolous and preventable legal challenges?

If not, I hope someone will inform Steve Hasson, Bev Numbers and other Health Board members bent on pushing through the restaurant smoking ban. I promise you that there will be legal battles over individual rights, those of property owners, employees and customers to conduct a legal activity on private property, to exercise their right to freedom of choice.

Such potential lawsuits have already dissuaded other counties that have contemplated a smoking ban. Yet our Health Board still believes it can impose their particular political agenda on all citizens under the disguise of public health.

Perhaps each board member is prepared to take on the legal liability individually as members of a governing board or directors. The restaurant industry and specifically the Restaurant Association will not sit still for this. Our industry was told at a candidate forum breakfast not 12 days before the election that the smoking ban was a dead issue due to conflicts with state laws, that awareness of the problems should continue to be discussed. Do you remember this, Bev? Where was the public and where was the discussion? Certainly not at the meeting I was prepared to testify at in October, which was quietly canceled.

Aside from the legal issues and the lack of finances and foresight, Spokane just does not need to chase its last viable industry, that of service hospitality, tourism and conventions, over to Idaho, Oregon or another county. That’s the other dumb financial choice in this Health Board’s scenario. Geneva Ward, president, Restaurant Association, Spokane

Sonic boom went a long way

Your Nov. 18 issue had an article about an SR-17 spy plane that created a sonic boom over the Inland Northwest. Your article explained “The plane broke the sound barrier over the Inland Northwest, creating a sonic boom.”

This explanation for a sonic boom is a common misconception. When it’s printed in a newspaper as fact, it begs correction.

A sonic boom isn’t a one-time event that occurs the moment a plane “breaks the sound barrier.” A plane continually creates a sonic boom the entire time it flies faster than the speed of sound. A plane that flies high - like the SR-17 - exposes a wide strip of ground to sonic boom along its entire supersonic flight path.

Your article should correctly have stated “The plane was flying faster than the speed of sound when it flew over the Inland Northwest, allowing us to hear its sonic boom.” Greg Lloyd Spokane

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

The choice is really simple

“Crooks mug county budget” (Nov. 19). “Shutdown slowly affects everyone” (Nov. 19). Why is it that we never see in your paper (or in the rest of the media for that matter): “Bureaucratic fat-cat managers must go,” or “Downsizing is required?”

Listen up, fellow Americans, the current political debate can be reduced to the following - do you want all the jobs to entail working for the government or would you rather be working for private enterprise? Mike Anstine Spokane

A new low for the Democrats

The present attack by Democrats on Newt Gingrich has established a new record for sleaze for the Democratic Party.

It was even lower than the attack on Dan Quayle when he misspelled potato and when he defended family values. That is now a major plank in the Democratic agenda.

Democrats across the country are simpering and smirking about the headline calling Gingrich a crybaby. After a year of digging they have finally found something with which to demonize him. John Stuckart Wallace

OTHER TOPICS

Father deserve more rights

Getting fathers involved in their children’s lives other than child support, what a great concept (Asay cartoon). Who would have ever thought that our children need us emotionally, just as much as they do financially? I believe nothing is more important to children than their parents and the time spent with them. I’m willing to bet it didn’t come from former spouses who want to get on with their lives and believe the less involved the father is the better.

I’ve felt at times that I was expected to just fade away. I couldn’t understand why some fathers deserted their children just because of a divorce. The emotional, legal and financial stresses I’ve experienced, lead me to greater understanding of why some fathers choose to desert their children. Many fathers don’t have the means or the will to support a legal challenge against these rights, so they give up and abandon their children.

I suggest laws be enacted to give children and fathers minimum visitation of every other weekend, one day in the week, every other holiday and one-half of all school vacations. I find it remarkable I’m paying $1,250 in legal fees to enforce what should’ve been my minimum right of visitation.

The more opportunities given fathers to be involved without constantly placing them in a system which at times is bias, accusatory and costly, the greater the benefit to the children. The idea is to do what would benefit the children, isn’t it? David Trevino Spokane

Selection of stories curious

I find myself again quite critical of your news coverage; it seems slanted.

In the last few days you played up Speaker Newt Gingrich’s remark of not using some of the long time on Air Force One for some possible negotiations regarding the budget. He was portrayed as a crybaby. Really, now.

Perhaps more noteworthy but unmentioned as far as I can find in The Spokesman-Review was any data regarding the fact that a group of 48 Democrat representatives and seven Democrat senators had moved to the Republican position. This was mentioned in the broadcast media, but I had hoped for details in the newspaper. D.L. McCorquodale Spokane

‘Paranoid patriots’ the real danger

I attended a presentation by Martin Stern of the Anti-Defamation League in Sandpoint and appreciated his words of wisdom in regard to the dangers of far-right influences, i.e. militias and constitutionalists - softening their rhetoric to find appeal in the political mainstream. These groups are hoping to find acceptance of their criminal activities under the guise of our U.S. Constitution and anti-government sentiment which is becoming more popular these days.

There appears to be a strong connection between the Militia of Montana and the Stevens County Militia in our area. Being somewhat versed on the Constitution as a history teacher, I don’t find anywhere in our Second Amendment a rationale to form private, paramilitary armies stockpiling arms, food and survival gear in preparation for the purpose of fighting agents of the federal government.

The Covenant, The Sword and the Arm of the Lord (C.S.A.) is a good example of Christian identity believers who prepared in the same way, but used firebombings and a series of criminal activities, including preparing to poison with cyanide the water supply of a large city in hopes of creating their version of a white, Christian republic.

Fortunately, through the efforts of federal agents, their compound was raided and the pro-Nazi effort was thwarted by convictions to federal prison. The lives of law-abiding citizens were preserved and the essential elements of our U.S. Constitution were maintained by public servants, who receive little compensation for their monitoring of “Paranoid Patriots.” James Gordon Perkins Colville, Wash.

Israel’s future in jeopardy

Thomas Friedman’s article, “Judaism can either save or destroy Israel”(Nov. 21) misses the point of Rabin’s assassination and its deeper meaning. Many religious Jews and Christians believe the land of Israel was mandated by the Creator.

Rabin, Peres and the labor government have sold out all Israelis - religious and secular - for what can only amount to fleeting peace. Every Jew who legally settled in the West Bank is in jeopardy. The next issue to arise will be Jerusalem. Hamas and other militant Palestinian groups, whose appetite for Jewish blood will never be quenched, will bring terror on Jerusalem and other Israeli cities. In doing so, they will hold the Jewish state hostage in exchange for Jerusalem.

The exchange of land for peace is a dubious venture. The geographical size of Israel is just 12 percent of Washington state. In some places along the Mediterranean coast, the width of Israel is about fifteen miles. The question Americans have to grapple with is whether we will ensure there will never be another cry for “Juden Raus,” “Out with the Jews.” Let’s not forget the PLO cry for pushing the Jews into the sea. These are the same people who have negotiated at the Oslo Accords. While peace is indeed a worthy goal, peace at any cost is not. I fear for Israel’s enemies within, but I fear more from their adversaries without. Don S. Otis Sandpoint