Letters To The Editor

NATURAL RESOURCES

Compromise needed in forest use

We need to pay attention to the voice of reason. I know good forest managers and loggers are concerned with the environment. I’m equally certain genuine environmentalists recognize the benefits humankind can bring to our forests. So the learning process can go forward, we need to move ahead in cooperation and put forest management ideas to work. By so doing, we’ll be able to see our successes in the state and make the needed corrections.

The unreasonable views of extremists and their stubborn refusal to acknowledge that mankind can enhance forest ecosystems are a hindrance to enlightenment.

In the meantime, people who inhabit the logging towns around the Northwest and the forests we all love with their wild inhabitants, are being denied all they could be.

Steve James Spokane

Act protects animals, habitat

The Endangered Species Act is currently under consideration in Congress by the House Resources Committee.

How sad it is to observe Rep. Helen Chenoweth, via C-Span, receiving a basic lesson in basic biology. For instance, Chenoweth argued there’s no difference between a gene pool for native salmon and a gene pool for hatchery salmon. Reps. “Not-so-curious” George Nethercutt, Doc Hastings, Linda Smith, et. al., also harbor Chenoweth’s ignorance and mean spirit on this subject, as does Sen. Slade Gorton.

More depressing is the chair’s silly trick for the people as he suggests he is seeking “balance” between humans and animals and natural habitat.

Locally, the chair is of the opinion that while 98 percent of the old-growth forests have been extracted along with animal habitat, that “balance” would be achieved if the remaining 2 percent is logged because that’s what humans have done, so it’s okay to continue doing it.

The truth is, “balance” is only possible if the human eases off the overconsumption of animals and their habitat through resource extraction. The human has created an unbalanced situation based upon greedy consumption for economic drives for individual human material wealth rather than basic needs.

Look around you. The sawmill corporations’ executive greed and resource mismanagement have been hidden in the attack against environmental protection. Commercial fishing, mining, and other resource extraction/destruction industries need to blame themselves, not friends of the environment.

The ESA means “balance,” because through this act, the animals and their habitat are being protected from hyper-consumption. Lou Stone Inchelium, Wash.

GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS

School meals greatly appreciated

This is in response to Kelly Hubbard’s letter on Sept. 22, about reduced-price and free school breakfasts and lunches. My husband has a full-time job, I babysit and my two children receive reduced lunches. I’m not on food stamps and I get up every morning at 5 a.m., fix breakfast for both of them and take them to school.

I make lunches for them every day, but they still like to take hot lunch at times. At $1.15 a lunch, it gets a little expensive. A little help from the school district is greatly appreciated.

My family has lived in the same school district for over 50 years. This is 50 years of taxes from my family. My children are the third generation in the same school. We have earned the right to our school lunch program.

If your child took hot lunch once or twice a week, are your putting the responsibility of feeding your child on someone else? J. A. Mason Spokane

A few truths about welfare

The cartoon which portrayed a single mother “giving birth” to her welfare check deeply offended me. It’s time to discuss the myths about Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). I’m not a single parent and I’ve never been on AFDC. I decided to learn more about the “welfare” system, so I could be informed. I found a lot more information than you hear about in the media.

AFDC makes up one percent of the federal budget. In Washington state, 50 percent of AFDC recipients leave in one year and 70 percent in two years. One percent of recipients are teen moms under 18. The birth rate for women receiving AFDC is slightly lower than the national average: two. Half of AFDC recipients in Washington have only one child, 30 percent have two, and only 4 percent have four-plus.

Congress is passing a welfare bill. If the bill’s intention is to reform welfare, it’s missing some key elements. There’s not enough funding for the children who need child care while their mothers are required to work after two years on AFDC. The vast majority of jobs these women will be taking will be retail trade and services. They represent 45 percent of the employment in Spokane, with a combined average annual wage of $13,918. How can a family survive on these wages?

Why is society so quick to attack a group that for the most part is caught between a rock and a hard place? For the majority of AFDC recipients, the reason they’re on AFDC is because of economics, not laziness. Please become informed before you make a judgment. Shannon Selland Spokane

CPS must answer to someone

I was at the meeting dealing with Child Protective Services here in Spokane, and I felt very sorry for the people because all those who spoke up at the hearing were informed that whatever they said about their case they couldn’t be protected from any retaliation the state CPS workers may care to impose on them.

I would like to know where it states in a CPS worker’s job description that they have free reign and have no boundaries on how and why they take a child from its home?

I believe we need CPS workers, but when their job affects their ego and they can lie and no questions asked, we may as well step aside and let the Gestapo take over.

It only takes a couple bad CPS workers to ruin the good they can do for the children who need them. It looks like it’s about time they answer to someone. Mary Shamp Spokane

JUSTICE

Drunken drivers need to get message

The laws we have for drunken drivers are ridiculous. I don’t understand why we have them if they’re not carried out. It takes an accident like the one on Trent for someone to be punished. Why does it have to come to that before something is done? Every year we lose loved ones because some idiot decides to get behind a wheel after he’s been drinking.

I know someone with four offenses. He got his fourth while driving suspended from his third. His punishment was so light, I thought “why are they bothering?” His fine was cut in half and he got six weeks of home monitoring. Not very strict. All you have to do is be home eight hours a day. What kind of punishment is that? Then, he got two weeks off for good behavior.

I’ve been in a hit-and-run accident with a drunken driver. Everyone treated his insurance company like the victim, not my friend and me. I think he ended up with community service. That tells drunken drivers that it’s okay to disobey the law because there’s really no punishment. If they’ve done it once, chances are they’ll do it again.

Why not make first offense punishments harsh enough they just might think twice before they get behind the wheel after they’ve been drinking? Then, if they decide to do it again, get them where it hurts. Could these killings have been prevented? Who gives anyone the right to take someone else’s life? Where can we begin to fix this problem? Kendra Bedard Spokane

An opportunity to practice justice

The recent attack upon the life of longtime resident and local saint to the elderly, Mr. Peter LaBeck, is sufficiently extreme enough to be regarded as atrocious and utterly intolerable. The intentional and reckless behavior of the youths involved must be dealt with swiftly and with the maximum enforcement allowed by the law, so society may be protected.

It must be shown that individuals are responsible for their own actions. Spokane must not allow this opportunity for justice to pass. We must know that the offender will pay his debt to society. If he gets away with this, what has been learned? That this type of behavior is acceptable?

This type of cruelty is truly appalling and must not be allowed to thrive in Spokane, a city most of the country still considers an oasis from the problems associated with inner-city life.

There’s always room for improvement in any society and unfortunately it takes an incident like the LaBeck beating to motivate enough citizen concern to make it clear that this type of behavior is inexcusable and unwelcome in Spokane. Please keep the public informed as to the progress of this case. Alan J. Rathbone and Michael Lynch Spokane

OTHER TOPICS

Students can’t afford cuts

I read an article in The Spokesman-Review on Sept. 27 that said the Senate has cut federal student loans by $10.1 billion. I’m a receiver of student loans, and I can’t afford to lose that money as it will raise tuition. I wish the Senate would get off their butts and realize they are hurting the youth of America. Debra Beckwith Cheney

‘Censorship’ or just child protection?

This week is the American Library Association’s (ALA) “Banned Book Week,” the group’s 14th annual protest against “censorship” in our nation’s libraries.

The ALA, through its Library Bill of Rights, which Spokane has adopted, advocates unlimited access for children to all types of materials regardless of content. Judith Krug of ALA told Citizen Magazine “I’ve never known a book or magazine to make any girl pregnant,” as if that kind of reasoning makes a good case for just allowing children access to any kind of material.

ALA’s “Banned Book Resource Guide’ (BBRG) documents the 214 so-called “banning and censorship attempts” recorded in 1994-1995. Of the 35 incidents occurring in libraries, not one resulted in the actual banning of any book. The remaining 179 incidents occurred in schools (no action was taken in 110). School officials decided to temporarily remove the books or that the material in question was age inappropriate.

One concerned parent (in the BBRG) expressed concern when her sixth-grade son’s teacher read aloud in his class, portions of “We All Fall Down,” a book which graphically describes behaviors such as gang rape. The school board eventually moved the book to a higher grade level - an act the ALA calls “censorship.”

The ALA doesn’t encourage libraries to be responsive to the community. They encourage confrontation. Parents who want to protect their children from material which could harm them are considered “censors.” What has happened to parents rights and who will protect our children? Marilyn Lawson Spokane

These cuts don’t make sense

Let me see if I have this right. Newt’s brigade, including Spokane’s favorite George Nethercutt, support the following:

1. Eliminating Americorp, the youth training program that has young people doing work in inner cities in exchange for financial aid for education, yet they support funding for an outer-space station.

2. They want to cut housing aid to the elderly poor, yet increase defense spending on things like the Stealth bomber. How many old people can live in one of these planes, I might ask?

3. They want to cut welfare to poor women and children. When is the last time you heard Bob Dole talk about cutting corporate welfare? Not in a long while and don’t hold your breath waiting to hear it.

One final thing needs to be said about the 1994 elections. Be careful for what you wish for, it may come true. Ragan Fayler Spokane