Letters To The Editor

IDAHO EDUCATION

Education must come first

As a teacher and a member of Bonner County Education Association I’m asking for help from everyone interested in improving our educational system. I believe every teacher, parent, and concerned citizen should support the school levy April 23.

Having worked on the levy committee, I know the provisions of the proposed levy. Everything set out in the levy is a direct benefit to students and to education.

For too long, various factions have used Bonner County students as pawns in battles over regional, administrative and personal issues. We, as educators, parents, and citizens must help our communities overcome these barriers to education.

I know the first priority of most of you is the same as mine: the education of our students. We must take this opportunity to convey this priority to our students and patrons. Paul M. Branham Sandpoint

Are we talking meat or trimmings?

My no vote on the $15 million-plus Post Falls school levy was not about raising property taxes. It was about not knowing if the much-needed learning tools were a part of this multimillion dollar levy.

My main concern is educating the young, promoting new learning technology and higher academics. Tell me about these important issues and I’ll be on the front line selling the idea of a new high school.

I see on TV and read in the newspaper about crowded hallways. Gosh, this was the condition many years ago when I was in high school and college, due to all the schools being on the same class schedule. A poor selling point for an overcrowded school. Publish how the $15 million will be allocated. Then, if it isn’t only about a multimillion dollar building but the real issue - education - I believe you will get a majority vote. Martha Blake Post Falls

OTHER iDAHO ISSUES

Freedoms lost in drug search

As a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho, I was accurately quoted last month in a story about use of drug dogs in high school parking lots. However, my remarks were incomplete and wrongly suggested satisfaction with the warrantless searches.

I had observed that at least one court has permitted police dogs to sniff cars. Without individualized suspicion, however, it is my belief that police and school officials should refrain from such searches of students’ personal property, including of their vehicles. The privacy of our personal possessions should not be shattered unless authorities have good cause to suspect criminal wrongdoing. In this case, the privacy interests of 600 students were compromised in an effort to nab a handful of students.

Furthermore, news reports indicate that the students’ “consent” for the search of their cars actually may have been obtained through police trickery or deceit. When police told students they had warrants “prepared” in the event the students did not sign the consent forms, the intended message was obvious: “If you resist, your car will be searched anyway.” I suspect few students were told the “prepared” warrants still needed the approval of a judge.

I recognize school administrators have a difficult task combatting drug abuse in the schools while respecting the privacy rights of students. However, individual freedoms (including the privacy of personal possessions) are our nation’s most precious achievement. Jack Van Valkenburgh, executive director American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho

Chenoweth needs to visit home

North Idaho and the Northwest experienced the most devastating floods in more than 30 years. The governor came, Sens. Craig and Kempthorne toured the flood zone, but Rep. Helen Chenoweth was nowhere to be found. She has not had a town hall meeting since December. Where could she be? Recently I discovered the answer: Wisconsin.

Chenoweth was in Janesville, Wis., a couple of weeks ago attending a fund-raiser for fellow freshman Rep. Mark Neumann. While I recognize Chenoweth has every right to attend an out-of-state fund-raiser, I can’t figure out why she would avoid her constituents in Idaho. And I’m not talking about a $40 fund-raiser at Templin’s recently, I’m talking about a town meeting where the common folks can address the issues. Not everyone has $40 to address their representative.

All I ask is that Chenoweth show the same courtesy she showed the residents of Wisconsin. Why is it so difficult to hold a town meeting, publish the date in the paper and become as informed as the Wisconsin residents she so recently briefed? In short, all I’m asking is that she do the job she was elected to do in Idaho. Katherine von Hagen Coeur d’Alene

Don’t be invisible

The last of this year’s whistling swan families are feeding and resting in Pack River flats on their way north to nest in the tundra. Let us hope it is not the last year we are privileged to share our wetlands with them.

The last chance for us to comment on Asarco’s proposed Rock Creek mine is now. Tuesday in Noxon and Thursday in Sandpoint are the public hearings on the draft water discharge permits for mine water, tailings impoundment water and what is being inaccurately described as stormwater. April 22 is the deadline for the final written comment on these permits and on the water-related parts of the environmental impact statement.

I encourage each person who lives in Bonner County to participate in this stage of the democratic process. We will not be ignored by the agencies who issue these permits, nor the politicians who make their policies, unless we are invisible. Please, attend a public hearing, write a comment to the Montana Department of Environmental Quality and send a copy to Gov. Phil Batt. Sherry Dodson Clark Fork, Idaho

Agency backs wrong policy

The March 24 article (“Battle over bear hunting,” News) on Idaho’s black bear initiative destroys the Idaho Fish and Game Department contention that hunting with dogs and/or using bait is a “biological” control of the bear.

Idaho state officials say fewer than 2 percent of the estimated 4,000 bears living in the Panhandle were killed using dogs or bait. That’s hardly evidence of major population control. Five times as many bears are killed using conventional stalking hunting tactics.

I have hunted for years in this state and do not have a problem with standard hunting of bear in the fall. I detest the use of dogs in the spring simply because most of the kills during this hunt are in the latter period of the spring season. This is when most of the sows emerge with their cubs and are fairly predictable in their feeding habits.

Many kills made during this hunt involve suckling sows. You might as well shoot the cubs if the sow is killed as they don’t stand a chance of making it without her.

Using leftover restaurant food to bait bear is about as sporting as shooting pigs around the slop trough. How anyone can justify this type of hunting is beyond me.

The Fish and Game Department would do its credibility a great deal of good to stop making excuses for these abhorrent hunting methods. John E. Bentley Post Falls

RELIGION

Religion doesn’t mean reformation

In “America needs religion’s compass” (March 28), David Bolt repeats the hackneyed refrain that, without religion, people would lack a “moral horizon” on which to orient themselves. If by religion he is referring to biblical orthodoxy, then his premise is factually unsupported.

Historically, it has been the humanists, freethinkers, Deists, liberals, etc. who have most often forced reform and moral uplift upon society, frequently in the face of strong opposition from religious fundamentalists. It was Bible-quoting Christians who were the most vociferous opponents of women’s suffrage and the abolition of slavery.

The founding fathers were well aware of the dangers posed by excessive meddling of the church in the affairs of the state, and vice versa. This concern was perhaps best articulated by Thomas Jefferson in his plea for a “wall of separation” between governmental and sectarian institutions. And it is this “wall” which largely has been responsible for sparing our nation the religious bloodshed that has plagued so many others where this barrier is less substantial.

Bolt wonders if one were approached by boisterous youths in a poorly lit, undesirable part of town, would it make any difference if they had just come from a Bible study class. Certainly it would if I were African American or Jewish and the youths had just come from a meeting of a Bible-based white supremacist organization. In that case, I would much prefer that they were secular humanists who had just studied the Humanist Manifesto. Jack DeBaun Sandpoint

Portrayl of Phineas twisted

Bill Morlin’s front page article (April 3) on the recent bombing in Spokane contained an off-hand comment about a Bible character that could easily leave your readers with a misperception: “Phineas is a white supremacist hero from the Bible who killed race mixers.”

A quick glance at the text (Numbers 25) shows a stark contrast to Morlin’s and the racists’ understanding of the Biblical account. The action that Phineas took (at God’s direction) was not about race, but was in response to God’s chosen people - the Israelites - joining themselves in worship to Baal, a pagan god. Worship of Baal including prostitution, child sacrifice and other activities abominable to God.

The opening paragraph on Morlin’s page 7 article with Jeanette White is even more curious. To associate Phineas, a Jew, with anti-Semitic acts requires quite a leap of logic. Perhaps examining the actual biblical account, rather than simply quoting the misinterpretation of a convicted murderer, would be more enlightening.

Clearly, anything more than a cursory glance through the Bible reveals that God opens his arms to all peoples. This weekend Christians celebrate the fact that God sent his son to die for all who accept his gift, regardless of race or any other factor. Although the white supremacists may choose to twist the text and omit the portions that contradict their positions, hopefully your staff writers will not accept those misinterpretations so casually. Chris Cheeley Coeur d’Alene

HATE

Hate letters cowardly, depraved

My heart aches for the black law students at Gonzaga University and the indignity they have suffered because of the recent “letter” from some sick, poison-pen writer or writers. Whatever the motivation and background of the writer, the threats and racial slurs are shameful and evil.

Our “white” culture and people are undoubtedly racist and lacking in fairness to some extent, and some of us recognize this fact and try to fight our racism. However, this cowardly act goes to such an extreme it should disgust all of Spokane. It must indeed be a production of a depraved individual, or individuals. I, and my colleagues, wish to express our deep regret to these students that it could and did happen.

We earnestly pray that no harm come to any of these students and that this attempt at intimidation will have no lasting ill effect on their lives or their goals. We also hope that the author(s) of the letter is found and held accountable, and that this community will renew its determination to stamp out acts of racism. We must all work toward acceptance of other races, cultures and religions, and we must demand equality and just treatment of all persons. Jane Cunningham, member Social Justice Committee, Spokane Unitarian Universalist Church

Group wages war on bigotry

Hate letters to black law students, a cruel and homophobic county coroner, racial slurs hurled at people of color walking down our streets, bombings with possible ties to the Aryan Republican Army - it’s enough to make ordinary folks despair. Our community, our region is making national headlines for the bigotry expressed in words and actions.

Spokane is better than this. It’s time for the vast majority of people who believe in respect for others to speak up and take action. Apathy is our real enemy.

Since December, when we commemorated United Nations Human Rights Day, a group of concerned citizens and organizations have gathered under the banner of “Unity in Action.” We are committed to improving the human rights climate in Spokane by supporting and enhancing existing resources, serving as a clearinghouse for human rights-related information and developing a rapid response network to speak out on issues important to us all.

People who want to be part of a pro-active effort to reduce bigotry and promote respect are encouraged to attend the next Unity in Action meeting on Tuesday, 5:30 p.m., at the YWCA Comstock Room, 829 West Broadway. Cherie Berthon Spokane