Letters To The Editor
SPOKANE MATTERS
SYSA intention is: All should play
Greg Ostlie has considerable grounds for complaint (“Coaches, what price victory?” Letters, Oct. 13).
As you may not be aware, Spokane Youth Sports Association rules for U-10 soccer are very clear on the subject of playing time.
Rule 1.5 of the SYSA rules for U-7/U-8, U-9 and U-10 play, as amended July 1993, states: “All registered players, in proper uniform, in attendance at league, playoff and championship games must participate and play at least half of the game. Failure to comply with this rule shall result in a 1-0 forfeit” (emphasis in the original).
The rule goes on to provide an exception for players who fail to attend practice, but adds that, “In the case of a player’s ineligibility, due to failure to appear for practice, the referee should be informed before the start of play.”
Presuming that your son did attend practice, or, if not, that the referee was not properly informed, your son’s coach was in direct violation of the U-10 soccer rules, and your son’s team should be forced to forfeit the game as a consequence.
Given your strong and commendable emphasis on sportsmanship, you should contact the league commissioner at once and have the game forfeited. This will, perhaps, send a message to the coach in question, and to others who forget what the real point of junior soccer is. Alexander P. Brown, SYSA soccer coach Spokane
Editor’s note: Alexander Brown’s team was not the one opposing the team Greg Ostlie’s son is a member of.
Airport bus service is great
The other day we arrived by air from a trip to Toronto, Canada. We discovered to our delight a Spokane Transit Authority bus waiting outside.
We paid our 75 cents each, picked up a transfer from a most congenial driver and used it at the new bus center downtown. We were within 100 feet of our home in short order.
What a great service! Forget those crowded or distant parking lots. The early morning and late afternoon airport bus runs increase to every half-hour, to accommodate the traveler rush period.
We are moving in the direction of really first-class transportation. Wonderful! Ann R. Wood Spokane
Put science center in STA Plaza
Now that the ice has been broken by Frank Bartel (“STA Plaza just the spot for Artifacts,” Business, Oct. 16) on the total lack of use of the facility, I feel free to mention my thoughts regarding a science center for Spokane. The planned location on the ballot was too inaccessible.
Why not put the science center in the empty space of the $21 million public building known as the STA Plaza, where it would be convenient to reach by youths and adults alike? Maybe the museum’s Native American artifacts and the science center could be compatible. If they are, we would have a utilitarian as well as a beautiful building in the center of our lovely city. It’s my hope. Ruth Tenold Spokane
Call them ‘Partners in Crime’
A Sunday article reported on the Community Partners’ assertion that Spokane residents have no idea what they want. This conclusion was arrived at by examining their own public survey and by holding town hall meetings.
According to the information, Spokane residents list crime prevention as the city’s top priority and building community centers at the bottom. Only a group such as this could possibly construe these views as contradictory. Only if you think as Mayor Jack Geraghty does, that “the best way to deal with crime prevention is through community centers,” does this theory make any sense.
The fact is: The best way to prevent crime is to convict criminals, sentence them without parole and stand by your decisions. The criminal is now prevented from committing crimes.
The worst way to fight crime is to release that offender into the community on the pretense that a community program, such as midnight basketball, will rehabilitate him. He is now free to roam our neighborhoods, knowing that he will receive no punishment for further crimes.
Remember, the exalted Community Partners are 29 handpicked “leaders” brought together to tell us what the City Council wants us to hear. They’re now in the business of misrepresenting their own surveys, where the results are obvious, so they can further their agenda. And that is to spend more of our money - money we don’t have. Michael Wiman Spokane
GOVERNING SPOKANE
County park funding would increase
A recent letter to the editor said, incorrectly, that the users of city parks would see present city funding stretched to serve county parks and that this would create a reduction in the level of service to city residents.
To the contrary, the only area within the charter that mandates an increase in funding is the Parks Department budget. The present county budget provides less than 1.5 percent support for parks, while the charter specifies 8 percent (Article IV, paragraph 70(C)). The present level of city support for parks is 8 percent. Therefore, no decrease in the level of service is specified in the charter. The change would represent a substantial increase over our present parks system budget for areas outside current city boundaries.
With the elimination of duplicate manager and assistant managers within the park system and the city and county, a substantial increase in efficient delivery of Parks and Recreation services will occur. No longer would there be two parks directors, two recreation managers, two maintenance supervisors, or even two golf managers. (Can you imagine, two golf managers?) Carol Lawton, former freeholder Spokane
Debt limit misstated
A recent letter from Margaret Leonard to her supporters in Spokane, city and county, erroneously indicated that the proposed city-county charter would allow for a total indebtedness of 3 percent of the assessed valuation of real property within the city and county.
Leonard referred to one section in the charter but failed to refer to the following section that limits total indebtedness to 1.5 percent of the assessed valuation - half the amount she inaccurately suggested (section 11.45, voter-approved bonded indebtedness).
It’s critical to read the whole charter for a factual and complete understanding. Having read the charter in its entirety, I’m impressed with the detail and thoroughness of the 25 elected freeholders.
I’m voting “yes” for the city-county charter. Maryellen Johnson Spokane
BUSINESS
We object to NC-17, unrated films
We are disappointed that Lyons and East Sprague Theaters have been showing the NC-17 movie, “Showgirls,” and that Lyons carried the movie “Kids.”
Because of the graphic nudity, violence and sexually depraved content, we feel that the deleterious effects of these movies and others like them could have a harmful impact on our community. The distributor, MGM/UA, has made it clear that “Showgirls” is just the first of many like it, if the mainstream market accepts it financially and without objection.
Although I trust the theatres will take measures to to ensure that curious minors don’t attend these movies, the fact that adults, stimulated by the graphic images, are attending the same theater should trouble many parents who drop their children off for a movie.
Our group has studied the effects that pornography has on families and communities and we find that there is an increase in domestic violence, disrespect for women and a growing problem with child sexual abuse.
It’s our hope that Act III theaters and all movie theaters will adopt a policy to not carry NC-17 or unrated movies due to the violence or sexual content in their multiplex theaters. We have alerted hundreds of citizens in Spokane by fliers and fax, and asked them to uphold a decent community standard when deciding where to spend their movie dollars. Penny Lancaster Coalition for Better Community Standards
MINING
GOP blunder really the pits
Iran has its Ministry of Mines and Metals; Iraq its Ministry of Industry and Minerals. Gadhafi maintains a Geological Research and Mining Department in Libya, and Haiti supports a Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources.
In fact, 134 countries around the world, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, maintain mining bureaus. Even the least known third-world country realizes the vital importance of tracking its mineral resources.
Not so in the United States.
Congress, driven by the unbridled zeal spawned by the GOP’s “Contract with America,” has abolished the U.S. Bureau of Mines. The United States is now the only major country without the means to inventory and evaluate its mineral endowment. This could have serious, if not deadly, consequences in the event of war or other national emergency.
It’s truly unfortunate that the esteemed Congress of the United States doesn’t have the conventional wisdom shown by Iran, Iraq, Libya and Haiti. Russell G. Raney Spokane
Mining law article just ‘baloney’
Re: “Public gets the shaft on mine reform” by Jessica Mathews, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (Oct. 12):
If this article is an example of what the Council on Foreign Relations has to offer, then it’s little wonder that we end up with foreign relations problems of great magnitude. The article is full of pure, unadulterated baloney from start to finish. It is a sad commentary on her complete lack of objective analysis and fact-finding before writing the article, and does the Washington Post no credit for printing it.
Public lands contain the opportunity to discover mineral deposits, no more and no less. Mineral discoveries are in every way analogous to technological discoveries. Both require research, investment and an array of technical expertise. Many prospecting ventures on the public lands end up with no results but huge expenditures.
Public benefits generated by mining on public lands when exploration is successful are jobs, taxes at local, state, and federal levels, and business for suppliers to the industry. The present mining law provides for the mining industry a mechanism to retain an equity interest in a discovery which is identical to that provided by U.S. patent laws for technology discoveries.
For a senior fellow at CFR to craft such a travesty as this article should be ample grounds for dismissal. Andrew W. Berg Spokane
PEOPLE IN SOCIETY
Challenge your own prejudice
A couple of days after the O.J. Simpson verdict was announced, I listened to a group of fellow white men doing quite a tirade on blacks and their “inherent inferiority” as people. I decided to divert the conversation and brought up the topic of gays. Another tirade started on that group.
A few minutes later, I was able to appeal to the sense of reason of one member of the group when he was by himself. He acknowledged the fallacious reasoning the group had used in evaluating these two groups.
I learned from this that without even realizing it, we all tend to have a collective bias toward certain groups that are different from ourselves. When these thoughts of misunderstanding arise, we can make a choice. We can look at the topic that’s bothering us differently, opening our minds to the possibility that at the core of our being all of us are essentially one, rather than separate entities, as outward appearance would lead us to believe.
Science has long shown that nothing is real the way we are seeing it. If we can set aside preconceived ideas and have just a spark of willingness to find a better way of looking at others, our whole world can be transformed. Peace can come into our lives and thus spread throughout the world. Tom Durst Spokane
JUDICIARY
Dellwo should succeed Clarke
Dennis Dellwo is a worthy and capable successor to recently retired Superior Court Judge Harold D. Clarke.
A practicing attorney for 24 years, Dello has broad trial experience in many areas of civil and criminal law. He possesses a powerful intellect and can be relied upon to make quick and correct decisions in the fast-paced Superior Court environment.
Like Judge Clarke, he can also be counted on to treat citizens and attorneys who come before him with the utmost dignity, courtesy and respect.
The people of Spokane County will also receive the benefit of Dellwo’s 13 years of experience in the state Legislature. As a lawmaker, Dellwo has firsthand knowledge of the public policy and legislative intent behind the laws of this state. We can rely on him to firmly, yet fairly and impartially, enforce these laws as a judge.
Dellwo is fully qualified and deserves your vote. Robert M. Seines Spokane
Rielly clearly the better choice
During my 18 years as an attorney in private practice in Spokane, I’ve had the opportunity to observe Neal Q. Rielly as an attorney, as a Spokane County Superior Court commissioner and now as a Superior Court judge.
As a court commissioner and as a superior court judge, Rielly has shown patience, courtesy and dignity to all who have appeared before him, whether they were parties to the litigation, attorneys or witnesses.
In rendering his judicial decisions, Judge Rielly has shown the ability to articulate his rulings to such an extent that the parties felt he understood their respective positions, cared about them as individuals and had treated them fairly, even when he may not have ruled in their favor.
Judge Rielly has shown the work ethic derived from his past experience as a paratrooper, iron worker and commercial fisherman to promptly dispose of those cases that are before him, thereby helping to ease court congestion.
Rielly is a proven judicial entity. His opponent is not.
Judge Rielly is the choice of the governor, of the attorneys who have appeared before him and should be the choice of the voters of Spokane County.
I strongly urge you to vote to retain Rielly as Spokane Superior Court judge. John B. Hancock Spokane
GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
Nethercutt, goodbye
On Oct. 13, Rep. George Nethercutt (R-Wash.) contacted the local right wing, wacko radio station to explain that he voted to stop Environmental Protection Agency funding because the agency required rural water supply systems to test their water more than once a year. On that same day, the city of Reardan found E. coli contamination in its water supply.
Good timing, Nethercutt.
In your Oct. 16 edition, the guest column was turned over to Nethercutt’s explanation of why Medicare has to be destroyed, so it can be saved from itself. Nethercutt is asking us to trust him on this one.
The United States leads the world in life expectancy of people who reach the age of 65. Nethercutt’s votes indicate that he wants to bring that average more in line with other nations.
Bye, Nethercutt; I think you don’t get it. Bill Sawatzki Liberty Lake