Letters To The Editor

IDAHO VIEWPOINTS

Thanks to all who helped search

This is an open letter to everyone involved in any of the many necessary tasks that helped facilitate the search for Ray Anderson, the hunter missing in Clark Fork. We are all saddened by the tragic outcome and touched by the community spirit.

There were supervisors who worked shorthanded to let searchers participate - Forest Service workers, Washington Water Power, GTE, Bonner General Hospital, community members, organizations, volunteers from other communities, merchants, the American Red Cross and countless others who rallied together to help in any way they could to aid Bonner County Sheriff Search and Rescue in our efforts to locate Anderson. Food and beverages, phone lines, volunteer searchers, personal vehicles and more seemed to just materialize at the scene.

We extend our heartfelt gratitude to each and every one, and extend our deepest sympathy to the family and friends of Ray Anderson. Cpl. Bob Howard, Search & Rescue liaison Bonner County Sheriff’s Office, Sandpoint

City can do without growth types

This is in response to Keith Dixon’s letter (Oct. 22) asking “Who are we?” specifically, asking where is downtown Post Falls?

I remember when Post Falls was identified as being a one-stoplight, two-small-grocery-stores, a-couple-of-gas-stations, bedroom community to Spokane, where it was a wonderful place to raise our kids.

We didn’t have to worry about locking our car doors, closing our bedroom windows or be afraid to go out at night because of gangs of teenagers wandering the streets.

I do not appreciate the fact that the timber has given way to empty tract houses, and grass and wildflower fields are paved with asphalt for parking lots and businesses that aren’t making it.

Post Falls has changed because people like you moved here to get away from the big city, only to try and change it because it was too peaceful and quiet for you once you got here. Leave Post Falls the way it is. If you have a problem with its identity and by your admission are “not proud” of it, I have a suggestion for you: Move to a town that has all the things you desire, like Seattle. I’ll help you pack. Kathryn Zimmerman Post Falls

School appreciates assistance

I want the citizens of North Idaho to hear about a project that the City of Hayden did for our school.

Due to increased enrollment of approximately 100 students, Hayden Lake Elementary received four additional portable classrooms on our site for the 1995-96 school year. These portables needed to be placed on an area of our playground that required removal, relocation and/or disposal of playground equipment and wood chips.

Our PTO president, Glenda Pope, vice-president, Stephanie Powers, and a parent, Roberts Speers, contacted Hayden City Administrator Bob Croffoot and asked him if the city might be able to help us with removal of the wood chips. He responded quickly and, with the help of his crew, Wade and Kevin, the wood chips were removed from the area around the new portables. Not only did they remove the chips, they distributed many to flower beds and other areas where they could be of use.

It is nice to have people like these in our community, folks who can take on a project to help our school by making it a safer and more pleasing place for students.

This public thank you comes from myself, the students, staff and parents at Hayden Lake Elementary School. Kathy Kuntz, principal Hayden Lake Elementary School

WASHINGTON STATE

Governor gets off a screwball pitch

Looks like the flim-flam man - aka the governor - did it again, telling us how our quality of life will be “improved” by paying more taxes for a new ballpark.

Regardless of where the tax is imposed, any tax increase or frivolous use of tax revenues affects the total population and usually results in reducing individual spending for food, housing, clothing, etc.

I’ll bet that our alleged representatives haven’t the faintest idea what kind of deal was struck with the owners. Or do they, and are afraid to tell us?

Could the Mariners’ owners sell the team out of state before the bonds are paid in full? If the team defaults on any contract for park use, who pays? If enough taxes are not collected each year for bond payments, who pays? Have the owners even signed a contract to use the park? For how long?

If the owners sell the team, must the new owners abide by any contractual agreements to use the park? Why not? Does the state have a voice in Mariner management? Why not? Is the team to be included as collateral along with state taxes to fund this scheme? Why not? If this whole idea is so great, why don’t the owners pay for the park?

I doubt that any responsible financial organization would even consider the governor’s proposal. We need a new set of representatives, for sure. Guy Matzinger Cheney

Sterk right to support stadium

Hats off to Rep. Mark Sterk and the other Eastern Washington legislators who worked hard to find a method to fund a new baseball stadium and keep the Mariners without imposing a statewide tax or taking money from the general fund.

The legislative solution places the burden of paying on those who benefit most, and recognizes the value of major league baseball to all of Washington. Those of us in Eastern Washington who wish to support the ballpark can do so by purchasing a Mariners’ license plate, playing the new sports lotto game or, best of all, attending a baseball game.

Sterk has demonstrated leadership, values and a fiscally conservative approach to solving the challenges facing Eastern Washington and the state. He has earned his 4th District constituents’ respect and vote. Jim Frank Liberty Lake

Process damaged in bid for bad law

What’s happened to the initiative process in our state? The disgraceful Referendum 48 has caused me to rethink my admiration of the process.

Now it seems to be a way for those with massive resources to contribute to campaign funds or buy TV ads to place their issues before the voters.

An issue does not have to have popular support to be placed before the voters. A large corporation can hire people to collect signatures on petitions.

This is what happened with Initiative 164, which had the highest failure rate of signatures in the state’s history. Names were copied out of phone books or off mailboxes. The timber and development industries paid a private company more than $183,000 for gathering signatures. Signature gatherers were offered $1 per signature.

In all, over $250,000 was spent to gather signatures for I-164, at a cost of $1.38 per signature. Despite the high rate of fraud, no one has been arrested; no one will be punished.

This perversion of the citizens’ initiative process is deplorable. What was once a mechanism for populist issues to gain a place on the ballot has become just another tool for greedy special interest groups.

I will vote against R-48 on Nov. 7. I think everyone should do the same.

But, regardless of the outcome of I-164, I wonder: What will the next special interest issue be? And is there any way to regain the initiative process for the citizens, for whom it was intended? Karen Booth Spokane

R-48 protects constitutional rights

Referendum 48 was drafted to give the preservation of Washington’s ecological treasures equal standing with preservation of the constitutional rights of private property owners.

It represents a grass-roots attempt to constructively deal with serious issues by combining both our love of Washington’s ecological heritage with the need to uphold certain constitutional rights.

R-48 would not destroy Washington’s ability to preserve its natural heritage but it does transfer the economic burden from the few to the many. The cost will be shared by the public rather than left to haunt, for example, a couple trying to supplement their retirement nest egg, families trying to develop land for their children or those first-time home buyers who are hardest hit by growing housing costs that stem from these same government regulations.

Just as we couldn’t sacrifice our wildlife to development, let’s not sacrifice an American, constitutional heritage of private property ownership to an unnecessarily inefficient system of government land management. Vote to approve Referendum 48. Aileen Haviland Spokane

R-48 endangers quality of life

I’ve read that Referendum 48 is a taxpayers’ nightmare. I’m more concerned with how it would undermine public health, safety, and the environment.

As Americans, we’re lucky to still have relatively clean air, drinking water and some healthy forests with viable wildlife populations.

If R-48 becomes law, we would have to pay polluters not to pollute. If a landowner, who wanted to open a toxic waste dump that would threaten my drinking water was restricted by zoning or other laws, he would be entitled to compensation or allowed to continue.

You may have the right to own property and use it as you see fit, but you don’t have the right to pollute my property in the process.

I want my 2-year-old son to grow up in a clean, safe, healthy environment and not one in which I have to pay my neighbor to be a good steward of the land.

I hope people realize the serious threat R-48 poses to our quality of life here in Spokane.

Please, vote to reject R-48 on Nov. 7. Heidi Burbidge Spokane

How could legislators do this?

I was shocked and angered when I read that under Referendum 48, I, as a taxpayer, would be required to pay people not to pollute the water or air, not to build a store, bar or porno shop in my neighborhood, not to grade land in such a way as to increase the erosion in streams or not to build a five-story structure in a residential neighborhood.

And in my reading of this obscure, poorly written initiative, if I have to pay one person not to misuse a piece of land and that person sells the land, I would have to pay the second owner as well.

What were our legislators thinking when they passed this atrocity? Is this an example of the new era of responsible government?

The losers in this law are the taxpayers and the people who manage their land responsibly for the public interest as well as their own.

The winners appear to be those people who wish to develop land with no regard for the future of the community.

The responsible people get nothing. Developers who maximize profits at the expense of the community, the timber companies who clearcut to the stream bed and the industry that pollutes get to do anything they want or be paid by the taxpayer.

Vote no on R-48. Shelly Pacha Spokane

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

GOP wrong about nursing homes

Republicans are micromanaging nursing homes by changing the regulations to lower standards. Instead of working to reduce the budget. why are they wasting time on rules that the states flunked years ago and the federal government was forced to take over?

It seems that the Republicans are just plain mean to the defenseless occupants of nursing homes. Walter A. Becker Pullman

Malls should host candidates

I think it’s a shame city and area malls do not promote political awareness before elections by having candidates set up tables where they could talk to the people on the weekend before the election. This would give voters an opportunity to meet the candidates and discuss issues.

Most voters do not involve themselves in politics because they would have to find the time to read and go to forums, etc. What an opportunity it would be, to meet your candidates while out shopping, and thereby help make your selection.

Wake up, malls. Try to help people make their selections in an easy way. George Springer Veradale

Get Dittoheads the help they need

Rush Limbaugh fans are in a cult, whether they know it or not. The self-described term “Dittoheads” shows they’re willing to accept with blind faith the views of their leader.

The 1988 Webster’s II New Riverside University Dictionary defines the word “cult” in several ways, including: “2a, a religion or religious sect generally regarded as bogus or extremist, 3a obsessive devotion to a person, principle or ideal, and 4, an exclusive group of persons sharing an esoteric interest.”

Cults exhibit several typical organizational characteristics. Like other cults, Limbaugh’s followers:

Disregard contradictory information from any outside source, such as the general media or scientists.

Only associate with those of similar beliefs so their words and behaviors are continually reinforced.

Hold black-and-white views found at the extreme ends of the spectrum.

Rarely show logical analysis of issues, relying instead on irrational propaganda, emotional rhetoric and ridicule of those different from them.

There’s no credibility in such an organization. These aren’t the types of people we want making decisions in our country.

If you know a Dittohead, try an intervention. These people are so far gone they can’t help themselves.

Finally, you can tell if you’re in the Rush Limbaugh cult if you have an inherent tendency to disregard this letter. Curtis Durrant Valleyford, Wash.

IN THE PAPER

Try listening to project critics

I am inclined to believe the way Cris Salsbury does (“Brickbats demean thoughtful foes,” Letters, Oct. 12).

Some of your well-known columnists revel in the fact that for no apparent reason they like to insult the voters who vote against the way the editorial department thinks. Is that fact really so unjust to you in the newspaper field? After all, we are just voicing our opinions in the way we feel we might be heard over all the squabbling which goes on in the offices of the Spokane City Council and the Spokane County commissioners.

Yes, I have read many good articles from those people mentioned in his letter, but aren’t your readers also allowed to have their own opinions? The editorial department does a very good job of printing letters of opposite opinions, for which you should be commended.

Not one of your positive remarks made me feel that I should vote for the science center where it was to be positioned.

Haven’t you heard all the cries of the young adults in this city, saying there is no place for them to hang out? Why can’t the very young people have a place to go and be entertained while parents have place to rest and watch them?

Sure, the science center would be a very good addition to the city, but why in Riverfront Park? Do you all want the park covered with buildings instead of the green grass, trees and flowers which definitely contribute to the oxygen we all need to breathe? Ruth G. Hammack Cheney

Cartoons provoke more than laughs

In her Oct. 23 comment on Mike Carroll’s Oct. 17 cartoon, Trina Snyder got the point right when she said that “jerks in this town who allegedly have murdered innocent little babies are getting away with it.” I believe that was exactly the point, and that this “jerk” blames their actions on the lack of parenting skills.

She also says that the “death of an infant is not a cartoon and should never be made into one.”

An editorial cartoon is not made for your enjoyment. These cartoons are made to address a serious subject in terms that simple minds can understand. Paul B. Larsen Spokane