Letters To The Editor

Sat., Oct. 7, 1995

TRIAL AND TRIBULATION

A net loss for everyone

Race is still a delicate issue in this country. We made a big mistake making a black man, standing accused, a daily spectacle on television. Unfortunately, the reason was O.J.’s celebrity status, not his crime. Otherwise, Ted Bundy’s trial would’ve had more to offer.

Johnnie Cochran knew how to appeal to the jury’s deep-rooted anger over racial injustice and loyalty for one of their own. It’s hard for me to understand their unanimous declaration of O.J.’s innocence, in spite of the evidence. But then, it’s impossible for me to comprehend what life must be like having to deal with constant unfairness and rejection just because of skin color.

Ultimately, the jury will have done O.J. a disfavor. It may be much harder to live with a big lie and with distrust and suspicion all around him, rather than to have cleared his conscience before God and everyone, and then experience real freedom, even in prison.

The media would do us all a favor by ignoring O.J. and the subject, by letting us again move ahead in trying to learn to accept each other regardless of skin color.

This has undoubtedly been a real setback. Ingrid Norris Spokane

Browns’, Goldmans’ pain shared

O.J. Simpson inflicted fear, pain and trauma on the woman he claimed he loved. I believe he caused her death, whether he did it himself or not.

Put that aside and what’s sickening is that, as a society, people love and support men like O.J. Simpson- a batterer, a destroyer.

As a survivor of domestic violence, I feel the pain that every domestic violence victim felt as the verdict was read. That outcome is what every one of the victims fears the most for themselves.

My heart goes out to the Browns, the Goldmans and to all victims of any violence. Rachel Crook-Hay Colville

View from O.J.’s head, maybe

Parsing the fourth dimension of O.J. Simpson’s unconscious: I was orenthaling through Brentwood the other night, when in a sudden flash to my senses, I was transported to Chappaquiddick Island at nearly twice the speed of light.

Now, to my surprise, I’m home again in Brentwood all safe and sound, but something is vaguely missing. Perhaps I will travel again soon. Larry Vandervert Spokane

Racism, yes, mainly by non-whites

O.J. Simpson’s lawyers were right, the Simpson trial was all about racism. It was practiced by the jury. If Mr. Simpson was white or if his victims were black, would the verdict be the same? I don’t think so.

Because of his skin color and monetary resources, this cowardly wife beater got away with murder. One individual couldn’t have framed Simpson. It would have taken the entire police department to pull together that mountain of evidence. If you look at the facts, it’s evident that the Los Angeles Police Department wasn’t out to get Simpson. It protected him for years, while he beat his wife.

Mark Fuhrman is a hateful individual and I believe most Caucasians were disgusted by his comments. Oprah Winfrey, on the other hand, made the racist statement that most whites think like Fuhrman.

This verdict set race relations back 20 to 30 years. We need to ask ourselves who is feeding the fires of racism today? K.W. LeMay Spokane

Blow struck for spousal abuse

What a travesty of justice. What a mockery of our judicial system. I guess the old saying that money talks is right. And, of course, now O.J. walks.

Any progress we may have made in the area of curbing domestic violence and spousal abuse has just been set back another decade. Pat Moberg Medical Lake

One pre-emptive first strike shy

I can think of only one thing to say about the tragic life and death of Nicole Brown Simpson: If she had shot him when she met him, she’d be out of prison by now. Janie Holmes Coeur d’Alene

Bad outcome all around

Shame on those who choose to idolize yet another sports icon who feels he is above the laws of America and human rights. O.J. Simpson is just a rich wife beater who’s shunned the black community and likely gotten away with murder - pathetic hero material.

I abhor the message this trial has sent: Money can buy everything, justice is blind, the victims are secondary.

My sympathies go to those families. They will never see justice served. And for all the hatred-driven Mark Fuhrmans of this world, white and black, please go back to your cave of ignorance. We don’t need you. Taryn Hutchins Spokane

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Bartel influence subversive

This is in response to Frank Bartel’s column of Oct. 1.

Frank, you’ve joined the “big lie” group. You know the theory: Tell the big lie long enough and the people will believe it as if it were true.

You said the Republicans propose taking from the needy and giving to the rich, or words to that effect. That is a lie - a lie you and your liberal colleagues throughout the media are telling at every opportunity. Not only it is a lie, but it assumes the premise that the government has the right to take money I have earned through the sweat of my brow and give it to someone who didn’t earn it.

Where, other than the liberal manifesto, does it say my government has that right? Does the Constitution say it?

Maybe you should move from the business section to a section that is more politically correct.

Business has enough detractors without having a wolf in sheep’s clothing in its midst.

And what has happened to journalism? Are there no responsible journalists at The Spokesman-Review? John Pilley Spokane

Writer not serving well at all

Well, Staff writer D.F. Oliveria has suddenly developed a deep concern for the taxpayer, at least when it comes to the pretense of including the poor in “equal justice for all” (“Legal Services not serving well,” Opinion, Sept. 22).

Oliveria’s tirade of cleverly interwoven half-truths and outright lies is typical of the silver spooned, overprivileged parasite who has never had to really work, much less labor for minimum wage.

Using Oliveria’s twisted logic, we should also save the taxpayers even more money by eliminating funding for our overpaid prosecutors because they sometimes abuse the system by using perjury and falsified evidence to obtain convictions of the innocent. That doesn’t bother Oliveria though, since it’s only the poor who can’t afford a well-paid private attorney with the time and resources to fight for them who get falsely convicted.

Meanwhile, slumlords, politicians and greedy employers keep the poor in their place, where supposedly good people like Oliveria don’t have to be reminded of their existence.

Except for once a year when they can salve their consciences with the Christmas bureau. D.E. Twitchell Spokane

Liberalism is destroying the country

The concept of liberalism is simple but the results have been complex and will be catastrophic.

The concept is that those giving the money (elected liberals) have the power. The ones receiving the money will vote the givers back into office because they’re dependent on the giver’s generosity. Simple.

The results are that we pay inordinate taxes. Production of goods must then slow down. This is due to the people not being able to spend the money they give back to the givers. Taxation increases again due to more people needing the government’s “help.”

The government became so large and sloth-like it is actually preventing the people from reaching their fullest potential. People accept this Trojan horse under the guise of “helping” others. What liberals are actually doing is creating more people who need “help” and keeping themselves in power.

Complex liberalism has created a class and generation of people with no skills who are dependent on the government for everything. People have lost their self-reliance.

It was self-reliance that built this country. It will be this lack of self-reliance that will destroy this country. Catastrophic. Kevin Westie Medical Lake

THE ENVIRONMENT

Gorton wrong about wild salmon

I was glad to read the salmon articles on Sept. 10 by Lynda Mapes. I’ve spent years fishing all over the Northwest and I have observed firsthand the demise of wild salmon.

Sen. Slade Gorton may think wild salmon runs are expendable, but I’ll bet the majority of Northwesterners don’t agree. Wild salmon have made their amazing journey through the Columbia, into salt water and back for thousands of years. It is one of the great treasures of living here, and salmon fishing is certainly one of the most exciting experiences for any sport fisher. Glen Sagdal Wenatchee

Logger critic’s numbers mislead

This is in response to Adam J. Larson’s Sept. 28 letter (“Forests suffer for almighty dollar”).

You lose credibility when you make an exaggerated statement like “We’ve reduced America’s forests to 5 percent of their original area, and that 5 percent is slipping fast.”

The area of America is 3.6 billion square miles and 5 percent of that area is 180,000 square miles. California is 160,000 square miles. If we take all the forests in America and put them into California, there wouldn’t be enough room. If these are the last 5 percent of the forests of America, then the land here must have been covered with forests. Since approximately half land is prairie, desert, high mountain, water and other terrain that can’t support forests, where do you get your figures?

Have you seen the forests of New England in the fall? How about the Redwoods of California, Yosemite, the Great Smoky Mountains, Yellowstone, the state of Washington? There are many beautiful forests in America.

The timber industry is important and most companies realize that they need to be good stewards of the gift of forests. Mother Nature destroyed thousands of acres of trees with the eruption of Mount St. Helens. Without timber companies, most of that forest would just be starting to come back.

Do you have anything made of lumber in your home? How about your home? Your newspaper? How did you write your letter? When you can live life completely without lumber, then you can complain. Peggy Hoppes Fairchild Air Force Base

BPA, Gorton need new scapegoat

Staff writer Lynda Mapes’ Sept. 10 piece on Bonneville Power Administration subsidies was great!

As a fisherman, I get incensed when I hear Sen. Slade Gorton and the BPA talk about how fish costs are going to drive the BPA bankrupt. The truth is that BPA’s total fish and wildlife costs only amount to 3.9 percent of its budget. Obviously, BPA’s money problems aren’t due to salmon.

It’s time for Sen. Gorton to stop putting all the blame on salmon. I know I speak for other fishermen in saying that we don’t intend to lose wild salmon in the Northwest without a fight. Dave Eichler Wenatchee

Paper all wrong about lake issue

Again, The Spokesman-Review is using biased reporting and incorrect facts in its coverage of the Lake Pend Oreille issue. “Corps noncommittal about lake level” (Oct. 4) incorrectly states that the kokanee fish will be helped by such a plan.

On the contrary, there is no proof that this experiment will benefit anyone other than marina owners, real estates sales and biologists looking for work. Ratepayers of the Pend Oreille County Public Utility District will be directly affected as will the customers of many other downstream hydro project owners.

The small, self-serving coalition from the lake is pushing another “in the name of the fish” project for other economic reasons, with the help of biased reporting, to the expense of the region’s electricity ratepayers.

The Corps of Engineers at least has the guts to think this over while the Northwest Power Planning Council continues to show us why it should not exist.

I respectfully request that The Spokesman-Review get the facts and all the information on this issue. Larry Weis, general manager Pend Oreille County Public Utility District

EPA missteps exceed those reported

Karen Dorn Steele’s Sept. 14 story regarding designation of the Eastern Columbia Plateau aquifer (ECAP) as sole source is factual. However, it overlooks the following conditions and leaves several questions unanswered.

1. Why was an obscure environmental group able to petition the designation and why did EPA accept the petition as valid, knowing full well ECAP is a system of aquifers separated by the Vantage interbed throughout the area?

2. Why did EPA not reject the designation and hold hearings on the aquifer under Moscow and Pullman, where the designators reside?

3. Why did EPA rely on a U.S. Geological Service study not developed for the information EPA used it for? Why didn’t EPA consult the state Department of Ecology, which has spent years studying Eastern Washington aquifers?

The counties that together provided their multiple resources to take issue with the EPA designation, did so at considerable expense to their taxpayers. The ECAP designation was improper and used flawed data to support the conclusions. All this had nothing to do with waste management business in the area.

ECAP is a system of aquifers and therefore ineligible for sole source designation. This costs county government thousands of dollars and should never have happened.

These gross misuses of an agency’s power will continue until the federal government makes agents responsible for their actions. County commissioners are responsible to their constituents and are personally responsible for their financial actions. Shouldn’t other agencies be as accountable? Irwin W. “Bill” Graedel, chairman Lincoln County Board of Commissioners