Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

Anderson’s OK; Are the rest?

After seeing the latest in the Aug. 22 paper about Councilman Chris Anderson’s absence, I wonder if the rest of the council is not risking turning him into a working-class hero?

By now, its clear to the voters that the council positions are part time. However they may feel about whether his absence is justified, they probably identify with his taking other work to support his family.

On the other hand, I doubt most voters know how other council members supplement their council income, but a good many (if letters to editor are any guide) seem to suspect that the City Council is more responsive to developers than to the average city resident’s concerns.

This might be an appropriate time for them to allay undue fears and suspicions on the part of the electorate, if indeed that’s a problem. Philip J. Mulligan Spokane

Welfare rips-off all but freeloaders

Two writers recently attacked Janice Moerschel for saying Bishop William Skylstad should not advocate “theft,” that is, using the power of government to take money from some people to give to others.

To decide who or what is right, one must separate emotion from reason and try to discern the moral principle involved. Clearly, it is wrong for me to take your money to use for myself or give to another; that is theft. What about legal plunder, i.e. passing a law to accomplish the same thing? That is also theft.

We are all inclined to believe that anything lawful is also legitimate. Think about how many people once considered slavery moral because it was legal. Notwithstanding, slavery and theft are both wrong.

Both writers accuse Moerschel of lacking compassion. Compassion? Workers already give over 40 percent of their income to taxes. How much is enough? What have taxpayers received for the huge sums spent on welfare since 1965? We’ve received nothing; we’ve subsidized misery.

Resulting statistics on family breakup, illegitimacy, crime, disease, and drugs prove that. The great and abiding problem of welfare programs in America is that freeloaders line up for the benefits alongside of, and in greater numbers than, those who truly need help.

It’s time to stop telling welfare recipients they’re entitled to the fruit off someone else’s tree. They should be informed that the money they receive was earned by the hard work of someone else - from whom it was taken by force. Welfare programs should be under local control and designed so they encourage work, marriage and personal responsibility. Alexandra Ockey Spokane

WASHINGTON STATE

Foreman - ‘a man for all reasons’

Why are more and more people planning to vote for Dale Foreman as our next governor? Character, integrity and proven leadership, to begin with.

Foreman, the only candidate from Eastern Washington, is a fine family man and community leader in the Wenatchee area. He is a successful attorney and owner-operator of a 100-acre apple and pear orchard.

He has served well in his two terms as a Washington state legislator and received the national honor of being chosen 1995 House Majority Leader of the Year.

He is pledged to cutting taxes and government waste. He wants to ensure that criminals serve their jail sentences. He is also prepared to tackle our state’s higher-than-average prison costs.

It’s easy to see why we are among those supporting Foreman for governor. He is the best choice - a man for all reasons. David and Ann Petty Spokane

Seems attitude reform is needed

“Paid a homeowner $150 for prime yard sign real estate.” “Don’t have time to mess with that boy.” “Free enterprise.” “My opponent hasn’t paid property taxes in his life, and doesn’t know the value of property.”

Lonnie Sparks expects to win support with actions and comments such as those in “Staking out territory” (Aug. 14)? It looks to me as though campaign finance is not the only area of campaigning that needs reforming.

Jeff Gombosky and his lovely wife Melissa have worked hard to cover the 3rd District in his campaign for state representative.

Jeff has worked just as hard in our community development neighborhoods. He has helped me and others, through his leadership programs, so that we can better serve our community.

I admire the Gomboskys for giving of themselves for the good of Spokane and its citizens. Lucy Reiner Spokane

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

Miss Universe victim of bad bias

What a sad statement the Miss Universe pageant is making to us.

The poor gal who won the pageant is now being told she is in danger of losing her crown. What is her crime? Did she rob a bank? Did she do something improper? No, she gained a few pounds. In our society, that’s a big crime, as we all know.

You’re not worth anything if you’re overweight. You are stupid and lazy. You aren’t worth the salt in your food. What a message we send to our youngsters.

Our country has a large number of children, 6- to 7-year-olds, who are on diets. This is because our society tells them they aren’t worth anything if they’re fat.

A bunch of untruths are put out and expounded upon by the media. Hollywood also is guilty of this. When was the last time you saw a fat person as the hero in a movie? They only play funny, evil or stupid characters.

This poor gal only gained a few pounds. Does that minimize her worth? Does it make her unable to carry out the duties of her crown or her title? No.

Let’s get real. We need to get the emaciated people off the front pages. Kathie Fiessinger Couer d’Alene

Counting of coup justified

Is George Paccerelli (“Official authorizes a travesty,” Letters, Aug. 19) a Native American? Have his family, friends and neighbors been killed for no reason? Has his way of life been forever changed by invading people once received as friends?

How can people be considered enemies or even former enemies when, if it hadn’t been for those people’s ancestors, the Pilgrims wouldn’t have survived their first year in the New World? Who has no respect for our way of life and doesn’t consider us human beings? The white man.

We’ve been called savages by the white man. Who do you think taught us to take scalps? At least the counting of coup isn’t harmful, except to the one who has had his coup counted. Even then, it’s mainly harm to one’s pride.

The counting of coup is an honorable way to do battle. It shows one’s prowess by getting close enough to one’s opponent to touch him without doing harm to either party. It’s much more honorable than hiding in a trench and shooting bullets, or worse, dropping a nuclear bomb (or any bomb) on your enemy.

Any Native American who has lost family, friends and cultural self-respect at the hands of the white man should perform a victory dance and count coup - even 120 years after the fact. Whites have had no respect for our living or our dead; yet they seem to expect us to have respect for their dead. The double standard is appalling. Charles J. Chapman Spokane

Disbelief hurts abuse victims

As a former patient of Dr. Greg Nail’s, I’ve followed his case with interest. Because my personal experience with him convinced me he was a competent, compassionate physician, I was skeptical about reports of his sexual misconduct.

However, I have again been forced to realize that those who choose to abuse the confidence of those younger or less powerful than they are often seemingly model citizens. This means most of us may refuse to believe or respond quickly to allegations of sexual misconduct, and so the victims’ pain and suffering are increased.

My own experience has taught me that those in positions of authority or prominence do not want to face the reality that someone of their status and level of public respect may have another, very unprofessional, dark side. Thus, the official response I generally see when allegations of sexual misconduct are made is first, disbelief, and second, cover up.

Most recently, a male administrator in my domain responded to such a situation with the comment, “Well, we certainly do not want to ruin Mr. X’s life.” There was no expression of any equal concern for X’s female victims.

Until our institutions become more concerned about healthy human relationships than prepackaged public relations, abuses of power and sexual misconduct will continue to be their dirty secret.

Remember, all it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. Janet S. Yoder Spokane

THE ENVIRONMENT

Forests’ real friends apparent

I have read a lot in the paper lately about people’s various viewpoints about our timber industry and the Forest Service’s regulation of that industry. There are “concerned citizens” on both sides of the issue but it is how we show our “concern” that bothers me.

Recently, my husband and I were privileged to work with Clearwater Resource Coalition and the Forest Service to restore an old campground. With help from some local Boy Scouts, we assembled picnic tables, planted posts in the ground, spread gravel, leveled camping sites and painted.

That evening, I thought of another group of concerned citizens not too far from where we were. I admit that I have not been to their camp, but the pictures and articles in the paper tell me a different story.

These concerned citizens don’t clean up campgrounds, they destroy them. They haul dead debris from the forest floor but they pile it in the middle of the road, along with old cars and other garbage, destroying the roadway and sending sedimentation to the streams they claim to be protecting. The cost to taxpayers is staggering.

There is much talk about logging the last remaining old growth in the lower 48 states, but every time the Forest Service puts up a timber sale, some preservation groups come forward to claim it is yet another “last remaining ‘old growth’ in the lower 48 states.”

We all use the forest in some way, from the homes we live in and the morning newspaper to roads that carry us to our favorite hunting grounds or ski slope. Become a truly concerned citizen and support your local grass-roots group. There are several in the valley and they need your help. Rita Carlson Lewiston

Will we ever learn?

I’m just visiting your great state for the summer and it sure is an interesting place. The Europeans whose ancestors stole this land from the Nez Perce are interesting, too.

Truth be told, the land is being stolen by some of them all over again. Only this time, these public lands are not being stolen from only the Nez Perce. They’re being stolen from both native and European descendants.

In Central Idaho, the Cove-Mallard timber sale is penetrating the heart of the largest forested roadless area left in the lower 48 states. The sale of this treasure was offered to the timber barons by the U.S. Forest Service. This outlaw federal agency doesn’t listen to the people, the cry of the wolf, or the whisper of the wind through the trees. The Forest Service can only hear the cry of the timber barons for more wood to satisfy their unending greed.

Maybe I expect too much. In the push toward the Pacific Coast, no one listened to the native people about how the Earth ought to be respected, not exploited. That we belong to the Earth, it does not belong to us. It seems we’re still not listening.

If the jewel which is Cove-Mallard is plucked, it will be gone forever and we as a people will again be to blame for a land twice stolen.

Very interesting. Don Kimball Moscow, Idaho

Industry health being put first

The Spokesman-Review believes there is a forest health crisis in our region (“Litigation logjam in need of thinning,” Our View, Aug. 7). I agree. However, the problem is not the “dead and dying trees,” not “insect infested” or “diseased” trees. The problem is in irresponsible management.

Death and decay are natural and necessary parts of a forest’s life cycle. As anyone versed in forestry realizes, fires, disease and insects return nutrients to the soil, strengthening the forest’s gene pool through natural selection.

They provide wildlife habitat by leaving den trees. The only forest health crisis is that these natural processes are not allowed to continue due to the logging industry’s endless greed.

Sen. Larry Craig’s bill, S-391, which the editorial fully supports, does not attempt to manage for forest health. Rather, it manages for timber industry health.

Let’s be honest: the so-called forest health crisis is merely a political maneuver to convince John Q. Public that weakening environmental laws and disrupting a forest’s natural processes actually benefit the forest.

The editorial states that “the weight of credible analysis” proves this “crisis” exists.

Obviously, the research is weighted toward the timber industry, not toward forest health. Todd W. Burley Spokane

OTHER TOPICS

Anti-choice arguments lacking

Marcia Rolland has three flaws in her argument (“Republicans right about abortion,” Letters, Aug. 14).

First, the majority of the Republican Party does not support an outright ban on abortion. The minority Christian Coalition special interest group solely owns that particular plank.

Second, if God were opposed to abortion, proabortion language would not be found in Deuteronomy, Numbers, Jeremiah, Hosea and Job.

Third, rape and incest were regarded as sexual abominations in the Bible. In what way does rape, which translates into a violent violation of women; or incest, which can translate into pedophilia, be regarded as less-serious offenses?

Rolland tries to justify an anti-choice stance by being liberal about the sins the Bible opposes, as long as such sins produce a baby. But she deems herself “conservative” by agreeing to church doctrine that created abortion as a sin for political reasons. Apparently, Bible belief doesn’t preclude license to freely reinterpret the Bible for obvious political goals.

But, will an anti-choice stance put us on the right side of God? Not if it is permissive of the sins that God opposes. And not if it is forgetful of the teachings of Christ that consisted of compassion, mercy and forgiveness. Joan Harman Coeur d’Alene

Writer said it for others

Finally, the silent majority has a voice (“Colbert malcontents should leave,” Letters, Aug. 22). Thank you, Gary Dean! Thomas A. Davis Colbert