Letters To The Editor

Fri., Oct. 6, 1995

BUSINESS

Wal Mart values profit, nothing else

The article “Wal Mart says shirt against family values” on Sept. 23 would have been amusing if it weren’t so infuriating for those of us who’ve practiced true family values all our lives.

When a company like Wal Mart puts itself up as a standard for family values as it purchases its merchandise from countries that manufacture this merchandise with the slave labor of children as young as 4 years old, as well as the labor of adults who are often beaten and branded, I must protest. Wal Mart, its founders and its management, know nothing about family values.

Most of these same countries also force women to submit to mutilation of their sexual parts. These countries include China, India, Pakistan, the Philippines and several countries of the Middle East.

Anyone who purchases products from Wal Mart made in these countries is supporting this misogynistic, dehumanizing policy. They’re also supporting American companies that have closed their doors, laid off American workers and moved their operations to countries where they could exploit the poor with low wages while they increase their profits by as much as 50 percent. Nike and Artist Craft outlets are good examples.

Wal Mart and its ilk have one motivation and it ain’t family values. It’s greedy, greedy exorbitant profit.

I, for one, won’t support it. Some day a woman will be president! Pat Wilson Mead

Matter of expectations

Regarding William and Juanita Fager’s home being sold by Fleet Funding Co. at a foreclosure auction last week (Spokesman-Review, Sept. 30):

What’s the difference between Fleet Funding Co. and a Fleet enema?

When you involve yourself with the latter, you expect to be cleaned out. Charles G. Cromwell Spokane

Self-Service Furniture shows way

I think the advertisement, “If you are a Smith’s Furniture customer with a problem, we may be able to help you” that appeared in the Oct. 3 Spokesman-Review is one of the best I’ve ever seen.

In simple language, without hype or extravagant claims, the ad succeeds in conveying an image of Self-Service Furniture as an honest company which is concerned enough about customers that it’s willing to extend itself to help even those victimized by a competitor. That’s pretty rare these days, when most people distrust advertising and are cynical about many retailers.

I’ve never shopped at Self-Service Furniture, but I will certainly do so in the future. If more companies would show this kind of citizenship and regard for the public trust, we would all benefit. Memory VanHyning Spokane

Toss trainers and track

With respect to the Sept. 27 letter by Joan Harman, “Toss bad trainers, keep track,” North Bend, Wash., located on I-90, and Lincoln City, Ore., located on the extremely popular Oregon Coast, both had Outlet Malls long before Post Falls. According to my information, both are somewhat smaller than Post Falls and neither has anything resembling a dog track.

Just possibly, the dog track and the small number of people it attracts (based on my observation of the parking lot while the track is in operation) wasn’t a factor, but the location of an Interstate Highway and the outstanding family oriented recreation facilities in the area were. Keep the dog track? Why? Alan Rennaker Spokane

Cherry flavored come-on says it all

Chris Peck missed the point (column, Oct. 1). Society isn’t demonizing tobacco companies. They choose this role by recklessly ruining the health of this nation and by targeting our children to ensure continued profits.

Peck suggests there are “money angels” behind the tobacco demons. If so, they must be fallen angels; heavenly ones don’t produce cherry flavored chewing tobacco. To ease the transition from candy to spitting tobacco, U.S. Tobacco uses a coarse cut that children can more easily manage. Young mouths aren’t used to nicotine, so USTC lowers the available nicotine through pH adjustment. This evil is detailed in the Wall Street Journal (Oct. 26, 1994).

Ask the parents of a child disfigured or dead from oral tobacco if they feel U.S. Tobacco is “a company with a heart and soul.”

Peck says society has demonized people who use tobacco. People who use tobacco aren’t demons. They’re victims of an unscrupulous industry that has entrapped them with an addictive drug, sucked all the profits they can from them, destroyed their health and is now looking for new, younger victims.

Whether or not Peck asks his mother to smoke on the back porch at Thanksgiving, I suspect she is a fine woman who, like many others who haven’t kicked the habit, chooses not to expose her grandchildren to the hazards of secondhand smoke. Ross Coble Spokane

WASHINGTON STATE

Stadium is Mariners’ problem

Like it or not, on Sept. 19, Seattle-area voters decided against building a new stadium for the Mariners baseball team. It does not matter that this team is currently one of the best in professional baseball. It does not matter that the team’s popularity among its fans is at an all-time high.

What does matter is that the democratic process was used to bring this proposition before the voters and that the voters made their decision. Like it or not, in a democracy, that is the way it is - and should be.

In response to the owners’ threat to sell the franchise if they don’t get a commitment for a new stadium by Oct. 30, Gov. Mike Lowry and the politically elite from Olympia have designated attempted extortion as a quality-of-life issue. Construction of a baseball stadium, it appears, is now more important than universal health care, affordable housing, meaningful employment and a clean environment.

In a free enterprise system, use of public money to subsidize private business is both morally and ethically wrong.

If the Mariners organization truly feels it cannot continue in business without public assistance, the franchise should be sold.

The obvious solution, however, would be for the owners and players to get up off their collective wallets and pay for construction of a new stadium themselves, like it or not. Scott Leyland Spokane

Buy Mariners a stadium? No way

The Seattle Mariners don’t like the King Dome? Well then they can build their own stadium.

King County voters voted down the measure to build a new stadium, so now, Gov. Mike Lowry is suggesting that the state of Washington pick up at least half of the cost of a new stadium for the Mariners? With the amount of dollars in professional sports, does it really seem justified for taxpayers to have to absorb the stadium cost?

State programs are being cut. School budgets are continually tight. And Gov. Lowry wants to build a baseball arena? Get real.

Call your legislative hotline at (800) 562-6000 and tell the governor what you think. Cheryl Nelson Spokane

Deck stacked against parents

Atrocities committed by juveniles appear almost daily in the media. Usually, within the context of the report, blame is attributed to poor parenting.

The media are quick to blame, but slow to seek the underlying problems of parenting. Parents today have few choices:

Allow your children to do as they please. Raise them with minimal structure, morals, values, ethics or standards.

This method is far easier, because the risk of separation from your children, either through government intervention or flight, is minimal. It’s far better and easier to ignore the behavior than to live without your child.

Stick to your principals and raise your children in accordance with your standards, morals, values, ethics, ethnic and religious beliefs. If you wish to do this, you’ll be fighting the government, school counselors and others whose beliefs differ from yours. When you stand up for your rights, beware. The government can and will take your children.

I chose to raise responsible children based on my principals. I paid the ultimate price. The state Department of Social and Health Services took my son. Is my situation an exception? I think not.

I sought media intervention to get him back, only to be told, “I know that what happened to you is outrageous, but it happens too often and is no longer news.”

Please don’t blame parents. Parents no longer have rights or authority when it comes to raising responsible children. Give parents a chance to raise their children by restoring their rights through legislation. L.M. Chobot Spokane

Legislators must be discerning, fair

I attended the hearing held by the state House Subcommittee on Child Protective Services in Spokane on Sept. 26. I went as an impartial observer for the League of Women Voters and as a volunteer who cares about children.

As your article reported, testimony given there was heart-wrenching. Most of these people were indeed sad, some sobbing, some almost incoherent. Most reported taking repeated drug and alcohol treatment and parenting classes.

I hope, however, that this testimony will be scrutinized before the legislators put too much credence in the accusations made against Child Protective Services. CPS is at a decided disadvantage in this kind of hearing. The agency may be accused of everything from kidnapping to selling babies but cannot respond because of the confidentiality laws.

Child abuse is all too common. Its causes and consequences are extremely complicated, far reaching and deadly. Almost all the accused abusers said they had been abused as children and are apparently still suffering from the effects.

I hope the legislators came away from that hearing feeling as I did. The tragedy of child abuse must be addressed by well-trained professionals - professionals who receive the support, both financial and moral, of our community and state. Marianne Connelly Spokane

Protect parents from CPS

In regard to Mary Shamp’s “CPS must answer to someone” (Sept. 30):

You have a great idea, Mary. Let’s put together an organization called Parent Protective Services.

I’ve had a couple of run-ins with this organization - all fraudulent calls. I have felt humiliated and interrogated. I wondered how someone could just enter my life and try to convict me and threaten to take away my kids. This is not freedom and it is not justice.

Our government was set up with checks so that one branch of it always knew what another was doing. This is not so in the case of Child Protective Services. Its work needs to be checked. Are the personal feelings of its workers coming before their professionalism?

If parents feel threatened, as I have, let’s stick together. If Parent Protective Services sounds like a good idea to you, let your voice be heard. Russ Brown Spokane

Demagogues make CPS a scapegoat

Regarding your article, “Politicians hear a lot about CPS” (Sept. 27): Rep. Val Stevens’ attacks on CPS remind me of McCarthyism at its worst.

It’s clear to me the House subcommittee is being unethical, using CPS as a scapegoat for political gain. CPS workers are being criticized by politicians who have no idea of the tremendous work CPS employees do under great stress and with little or no support from the public or elected officials.

Department of Children and Family Services employees are truly in the position of being damned if they do and damned if they don’t remove children from homes.

CPS workers can’t arbitrarily take children out of their homes. This can’t be done without court proceedings.

Child Protective Service ia also at a disadvantage when individuals accuse it of Gestapo-like tactics. Because of confidentiality rules, agency workers can’t respond directly about individual cases or to accusations.

We need to hear more than one side in this debate and not be led blindly by Rep. Stevens and others who would lead us to believe CPS is a dangerous agency that is out of control. Rather, we ought to be more afraid of elected officials who would further destroy the moral and dedicated, principled public servants for their own shallow political agendas and goals. Bob Stirling Colbert