Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

City waits for crisis, then gets serious

Any responsible homeowner knows the importance of budgeting. Repairs and upkeep on a home are a necessary responsibility.

If money isn’t set aside for this, the homeowner will be suddenly faced with a dilemma: Where will the money will come from? Unfortunately, a homeowner does not have taxpayers to bail him or her out.

Have street repairs been allowed for in our city’s budget? If not, why not?

Why wait until things get so bad our planners have to come up with a way to find the means to fix our streets - not all of them, just those deemed the most necessary. I know the street that runs by my home will not be repaired with the emergency plan. Driving down this street is like riding on a roller coaster.

I would not begrudge paying higher taxes for necessary improvements in our city if the improvements were budgeted in. The cost of everything has gone up, so higher taxes are sometimes necessary.

The way street repair and improvement matters have been handled is unacceptable. Dora Tylock Spokane

Why single out library people?

At the library a few days ago I was given a bulletin saying all libraries will be closed Aug. 26-31. This is called the Leave Without Pay program.

A library employee told me that not only are they forced to lose that week’s pay, but must choose more days off without pay for a total of 12 days.

I find it hard to believe there couldn’t be other ways of meeting the budget. Perhaps the time has come when a fee should be charged for a library card and for each book, tape or video checked out.

If the library is funded by the city, I wonder if any other part of the city is forced to take time off without pay? Why should only these people suffer for the city’s poor planning? Duane W. Caruthers Spokane

Ambassadors’ help appreciated

I want to personally thank and commend whoever is responsible for the Downtown Ambassador program.

I am an employee in one of the shops at the Flour Mill. Often, I am the only employee in the shop, as I was on a day recently when a large, obviously disturbed man became threatening to me. I knew our regular Flour Mill security was not on the premises yet, and I knew I needed help. Remembering that the Ambassador phone number was posted by our phone, I called and had help in about five minutes.

The ambassadors helped defuse the situation and it ended peacefully. I’m sure the ambassadors make many new friends for Spokane among visitors to the city. I know I feel much better knowing they are on the job. Kolleen Seward Cheney

SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION

Put and keep teachers in charge

The parents who are clamoring for Madison Elementary School Principal Shari Kirihara’s transfer or demotion are unwittingly responsible for the erosion of quality education in Spokane.

The average student is being shortchanged. Few among the top 10 to 15 percent of academic achievers are renegades. Brighter students take elective classes where they are challenged and ultimately enriched. Distractions are minimal and learning occurs mostly as expected.

The rest are mixed with the malcontents and the undisciplined. The atmosphere is only a burp away from disruption. By the end of the school year, they’re fortunate if their classes have covered half the expected material.

Educators function with reduced effectiveness in that environment because they’re denied the authority needed to meet their responsibilities. Their authority has been compromised by the vocal, overly protective parents who have intimidated administrators and school boards with litigation threats.

I taught for eight years in the 1960s. More recently, I have been in numerous classrooms as a substitute. I’ve never seen an incident where a teacher provoked or initiated abuse, verbal or physical. Their actions were responsive and, 99.9 percent of the time, prudent. Restraint of abuse and abuse are quite different.

You must begin again to believe the teacher. Deny the dissatisfied a forum except in obvious cases of malfeasance. If there’s doubt about the professionalism of our educators, then classrooms, hallways and offices should be wired with soundrecording video. Buying into the juveniles’ claims has been akin to letting the fox guard the henhouse. Keith Springer Spokane

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Wrong to enslave the non-needy

For 1,900 years, it was the job of the church, financed by tithes and offerings, to care for the poor. Bishop William Skylstad has found a better way - the forced expropriation of everyone’s income by the government (“Bishop decries welfare cuts,” Aug. 2).

I urge Skylstad to look at the big picture. He may be helping the poor, but he advocates stealing from everyone else to do it. When Jesus asked Peter to “feed my sheep,” I don’t think he intended for Peter to rob his neighbors to accomplish it.

Skylstad claims that poor children have a “right” to this country’s resources, as if resources were something found lying on the ground. In fact, it takes someone’s mental and physical labor to produce those resources. When the government takes by force those resources that I earn and use to sustain my life and gives them to others for their unearned benefit, that makes me a slave to those others.

There can be no such thing as the right to enslave, and for the bishop to be an accomplice to this puts him in violation of the commandments, “You shall not steal” and “You shall not covet … anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

God gave man free will, not only to believe in him but also to practice (or not) benevolence toward other men. Apparently, the bishop feels God screwed up and it’s up to him to fix God’s mistake. Sam Cathcart Spokane

Keep free meals for needy kids

School is the only stable place that many children can rely on. The free breakfast and lunch program is a necessary part of that because a full stomach comes first, before the brain can take in knowledge without distraction. Students can’t concentrate on learning if they’re hungry.

Recent television footage of kids in the park with the free lunch program showed them eating, with relish and appreciation. Let’s have that continue! When the cutbacks in welfare occur, I hope the free breakfast and lunch funds to schools continue. If not, then local and state funding for schools should be allocated and used.

This use of taxes meets a need more basic than does money spent on computers. Yes, we definitely need technology. But beyond that, brains need fuel.

Let’s speak up to state and national legislators to see that kids don’t go hungry. Can Rep. George Nethercutt meet the challenge of feeding hungry children? Kris Ballo Spokane

Threat to U.S. is real

You ask what the defense spending bill is for, Michele Zwiak? (“Look at waste, then vote for Kaun,” Letters, Aug. 6.) Let me enlighten you about what should be obvious.

There is indeed a global threat to the United States. Do you think for one minute that if we didn’t have the military power we do, that certain countries (think Middle East countries, among others) would hesitate to attack and occupy the greatest country in history?

You talk of a need for “dependable and safe child care, child care for working parents,” etc. Let me remind you and all other liberals out there that this is not a socialist country. It was founded on a concept called capitalism.

Maybe if we weren’t taxed to oblivion to support social programs similar to the ones you advocate, there wouldn’t be a need for two-income families and a parent could stay home, eliminating the need for child care. Maybe then a parent could do the job he or she, and not the government, is obligated to do. If you can’t afford a child, i.e. child care, don’t have the child.

On a similar note, isn’t it funny how the “compassionate” author of “It Takes a Village” has kept an extremely low profile throughout this whole welfare reform thing? Virginia Johnson Spokane

THE MEDIA

Curb feeding frenzy habit

Whatever happened to responsible media coverage and criminal investigations? All you have to do is look at the evening news and see what appears in front of suspect Richard Jewell’s apartment daily and shake your head.

It has always been my belief that in this country you are considered innocent until proven guilty. No one should be put through this sort of dog and pony show.

The authorities released just enough evidence to create a feeding frenzy and the parties involved are put through turmoil no one should have to face. We saw this happen in the O.J. trial, to the jurors and witnesses.

People like this have rights also. If court orders are necessary to control the media, then let it be so. We all like to be informed, but not at the cost of someone else’s obvious discomfort.

It’s time for the media to show some corporate responsibility and begin to police their own. James A. Nelson Spokane

Over-the-top commentary falls flat

I was appalled by the massive charges of “lies, distortions and counterscience” leveled at the natural resources industries by contributing writer Paul Lindholdt in the Aug. 4 Roundtable.

Talk about an in-your-face abuse of The Spokesman-Review’s board of contributor’s forum for public comment.

The problem is, Lindholdt’s rhetoric left no room for reasonable discourse. This may have been his objective. However, if his intent was to intimidate, he unquestionably failed. If his intent was to convince the reading public, my guess is that he failed by a wide margin on that count, as well.

The fact is, in his attempt to destroy with name calling the credibility of his perceived adversaries, Lindholdt destroyed his own credibility and in so doing diminished the privilege of being a contributing writer of The Spokesman-Review. Wallace McGregor Spokane

Glover Mansion fine place to dine

As a newcomer to Spokane, I have no prior experience or vested interest in local restaurants. However, I take exception to the negative review of The Glover Mansion (“Surroundings far surpass food at Glover Mansion,” Weekend, Aug. 2).

I recently had lunch at the restaurant. The meal was delicious and beautifully presented. The chef even paid an unsolicited visit to our table to inquire about the food. And, yes, the surroundings were gorgeous.

Fine restaurants such as The Glover Mansion should be encouraged. My only hope is that your sour review will not stop others from enjoying a delightful dining experience. Dorothy Wilson Spokane

Rosemond does us all a favor

Thank you for carrying John Rosemond’s “Parenting” column (IN Life, Aug 5). It was particularly enlightening.

The column lists six newsletters full of everyday wisdom. One of them, Voice, is free upon request from the People Foundation, 2111 Wilson Blvd., Suite 700, Arlington, VA 22201.

We can be very grateful in knowing that there is so much help out there. Parents, grandparents, and all those who care for children are wise to take advantage of these resources, thus doing our share toward a free and virtuous society, for the present and for the future of our loved ones and our country. C.J. House Spokane

HEMP/MARIJUANA

Hemp industry could end struggle

The timber debate rages on. So do the chainsaws.

The industry slogan, “Let’s salvage our forests before it’s too late” has given us logging without laws. Healthy timber - even old growth - is being “salvaged.” All the debate does is complicate something fundamental: The timber industry cuts down trees for profit. It will say and do anything to cut down more trees for more profit. Whatever the industry says that doesn’t directly refer to cutting down more trees for more profit is a ruse.

Conservationists decry public-subsidized devastation of our forests, pointing to clearcuts growing together, ruined streams, road networks, growing problems of flooding resulting from deforestation, habitat loss, conversion of forests to Douglas fir tree farms and so on.

The timber industry owns so many politicians, it just keeps on cutting.

The tragedy is, we have an alternative: hemp. Shortterm economic benefits from “harvesting” the rest of our forests are nothing compared to sustainable wealth and prosperity offered by hemp. Hemp can replace virtually every forest product and, with paper for instance, give a better product resulting from a clean, natural process.

As letter writer Rand Clifford said, “Hemp will be a boon for the people, so the people will have to fight to get it back.”

We have industrial hemp strains with under-1percent THC, which means they’re worthless as a source of recreational drugs. The old anti-marijuana argument is moot. Ralph Schneider Mead

Raid points up foolishness of law

Is there no limit to how low government will go when it comes to cannabis?

Recently, 100 California police officers swarmed in and busted the Cannabis Buyers’ Club in San Francisco. The club sells marijuana to the sick and dying so they can benefit from the plant’s well-known therapeutic powers. Buyers must show picture ID and a doctor’s referral.

Think of it - 100 officers with nothing better to do than rob sick and dying people of a little quality of life and dignity. The people who depend on that marijuana source deserve compassion.

California’s governor has apparently sunk to new depths, not just because of childish tendencies but because of the power of hemp, or cannabis sativa.

We could harness that power. Re-legalized hemp would be an economic and environmental bonanza. Technology came along in the 1930s that made hemp a superior alternative to established paper manufacture in this country. Hemp had been used medicinally and industrially for thousands of years.

Uncaring, foolish government is what stands between hemp and the people today. Wake up, people. Mary Toulouse Spokane

PARTING SHOT

Golf not just luxury for the few

M.J. Robinson claims golf is a luxury (“Speak up for more sensible decisions,” Letters, Aug. 5). I say, emphatically, that golf is a healthy outdoor recreation enjoyed by people of all ages, female and male, and is a solid contributor to the Inland Empire’s quality of life.

Golf is perhaps a luxury on the country club level, but it most certainly is not on the municipal level, where it is enjoyed by thousands of people of all income levels. People like myself who live on a fixed income and who do not own a power cart or rent one should not be priced out of the game. As I understand it, federal help is available to all venues that suffer flood damage - from municipal golf courses and public parks to businesses and private homes. There’s no difference. They all get help if needed. Frank B. Herron Spokane