Letters To The Editor

Thu., Sept. 21, 1995

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

Taxpayers won’t pay for sculpture

The information regarding Spokane’s International Sculpture Exposition published in the Sept. 10 Arts Notes column is greatly appreciated.

I do wish to clarify the impression that the city of Spokane will purchase a monumental work from this event. A purpose of the exposition will be to provide and install three-dimensional works of fine art within the city, at absolutely no expense to the taxpayers. A portion of the event’s proceeds will be used to accomplish this purpose.

Visitors to the event will be asked what subjects and forms they would most like to see exhibited permanently within the community. Placements will not be limited to Riverfront Park nor the Sculpture Walk. Fortunately, the region has numerous sites, both public and private, that lend themselves to the display of monumental works of fine art.

We hope the efforts of nearly 200 participating artists will contribute to the cultural beauty throughout our community. We know that private enterprise has an obligation to the advancement of the arts, regardless of the programmed reductions in public art funding. This will be our effort in that direction. Donald P. Walsdorf Spokane

Free publicity for trash

You usually seem to take a mature and responsible approach to promoting what is good for Spokane and the Inland Northwest. So why on earth did you run the article “Adults only” (Sept. 8)? It gives free publicity to trash. Not one of your better decisions. Jean Leary Othello, Wash.

Too much for missiles and movies

The Spokesman-Review on Sept. 12 had a couple of insightful articles. On the front page was an article about the firing of 13 cruise missiles on the Bosnian Serbs. The cost of just 13 missiles was $16.9 million. On page 3 was another tangentially related story about the 40 best-paid entertainers.

No. 1 on the Forbes list was Steven Spielberg, at $285 million, and No. 40 on the list was Demi Moore, at $21 million. However, Demi is married to Bruce Willis who was 25th on the list. Combining their salaries, would put them in 11th place, between Sylvester Stallone and Tom Hanks.

Rush Limbaugh was just edged out. Demi Moore’s bare breasts beat out Rush’s one-sided diatribes as popular entertainment. Still, it was close, although Rush’s wife doesn’t make near as much as Demi’s husband.

These two articles say volumes about American values. We are willing to pay millions for music, movies, mysteries and missiles. The top 40 highest-paid entertainers averaged just over $1 million a week. That is almost as much as the cost of one missile.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, young men of underclass are running around with semi-automatic weapons. They are emulating the behavior modeled by numbers 10, 25, 27 and 30 (Sylvester Stallone, Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Michael Douglas) on the top 40 highest-paid entertainer’s list. I don’t know if less violence at the movies would affect the problem of youth violence in any significant way. I suspect some of that two billion dollars invested in real jobs is what is truly needed. James J. Bauer Spokane

IN THE PAPER

Medicare headline misleading

On the front page (Sept. 13), a headline proclaims: “Medicare plan met with scorn.”

Scorn might be more properly directed at your paper for printing that headline. You could have said: “Democrats meet GOP Medicare plan with scorn” at least that would have been accurate, if hardly killer news. How else would you expect Democrats in the House to react to the plan?

As it is, you give the impression that the GOP plan for Medicare was met with instant and universal disapproval. Could it be that your paper, too, already has formulated a scornful opinion?

The event you speak of is simply this: “GOP releases new Medicare plan” (or something on that order). Perhaps you would have done better to suppress the “Democrats’ scorn” at least long enough to squeeze it into the subhead, which tells the folk not what the plan is about, but that Democrats deride GOP proposal to set up medical savings accounts.

MSAs in some form or other may actually provide a useful solution to a desperate problem. The GOP proposal deserves to be studied with great care - it ought not to be dismissed categorically. Ursula Solom Spokane

Water system major breakthrough

R.J. Adams’ invention of a water-purification system capable of destroying noxious organisms quickly and relatively inexpensively may well be the most momentous news of 1995. Tom Sowa’s account in the (Sept. 5) S-R, “Thinking pure thoughts,” described this exciting, possibly historic effort.

Further, Mr. Sowa told of tests which convinced University of Idaho Assistant Professor Scott Kellogg of the efficiency of the Phoenix Biological Disinfectant System. Tests also reversed the skepticism of Karen Crouse, division director of laboratory epidemiology at the Spokane County Health District.

Mr. Adams’ invention, his “doing the impossible,” could conceivably solve the world’s need to clean up our water. Might it have implications more far-reaching even than a cure for cancer or AIDs? His dedicated and dogged research should at the very least qualify him as a role model.

In due time, when this system is further studied and understood, his dedicated and dogged research might also qualify R.J. Adams as a candidate for a Nobel Prize in physics.

Am I excited? Yes. Thanks for bringing this information to us. Peggy Rathbone Sheldon Spokane

Political column wasn’t funny

This is in reference to Doug Clark’s column “Vote for those with joke fodder” on Sept. 14. This attempt at “humorous writing” reeks of tabloidism.

If Doug wanted to poke fun at elected or potential elected officials at a closed party, that’s fine. This is an abuse of power by The Spokesman-Review to trash citizens.

I won’t comment on any commissioners, but when you use the Review to trash councilman Anderson, John Talbott and Ken Withey, that’s over the line. What’s wrong with citizens trying to bring about change for the good of the community? I found no humor in this column at all, only contempt.

“Malcontents?” The purpose of the charter reflects the dissatisfaction of the people with local government. Maybe it’s time to retire Doug to bring him back to reality. Edward Thomas Jr. Spokane

Clark needs lesson in manners

Doug Clark’s column in the Sept. 14 paper was rude and offensive. His characterization of Jimmy Marks as a “dim bulb who can’t read, write or shut up” and as the “most annoying little man on the planet” say more about Clark’s lack of manners than it does about Jimmy Marks.

In the interview with Mr. Marks printed in your paper on Sept. 12, Marks came across as someone who might bring us diversity and a new perspective.

Certainly Doug Clark’s ability to read and write hasn’t added much to civilization in general or the quality of journalism in Spokane in particular. Geraldine Sombke Spokane

Thomas a self-righteous Christian

Regarding Cal Thomas’ article on Colin Powell (Opinion, Sept. 14): Why does he label himself a religious conservative? He is a self-righteous, fundamentalist Christian, who’s morality bases itself upon what he, and others like him, believe to be the truth.

Frankly, I get disgusted every time the religious right opens its mouth to shine the light and trash anyone who doesn’t hold the same moralizing and extremist views which have hampered social change in my lifetime. Suzanne Mathews Spokane