Letters To The Editor

(From Letters to the editor, December 10, 1996:) A letter in yesterday’s Roundtable, “Boys Town helped make hero” contained some factual errors regarding Medal of Honor winner Vernon Baker. Baker was not needy, as the letter indicates. His grandfather paid his way into Boys Town. Also, Baker was not an orphan, since his grandfather adopted him. The letter writer was contacted about these errors and requested that the letter not be published. Due to an error on our part the letter ran. We apologize to Baker and the letter writer.

UNCOMMON MAN

Boys Town helped make hero

My thanks to Spokesman-Review staff writer Ken Olsen for his articles on Vernon Baker’s heroic military experience, but there is more to be said.

Baker was born under the most humble social conditions. In 1930, during a worldwide depression, Baker at age 10 was an orphan. Like so many other children, Baker was taken to Father Flanagan’s boys’ home, Boys Town, Neb.

Baker was among 200 needy children who found a home there. There was one building with eight dormitories, 25 children to each. Times were hard, money and credit were more and more difficult to obtain. In 1931 and ‘32, in the heart of the Depression, the home was in danger of closing if money was not raised. The boys were in need of shoes, with winter approaching.

Baker received both academic and religious training. Father Flanagan taught the boys fair play and gave them self-government. Baker’s strength of character was further strengthened by this environment. He graduated from the eighth grade, which was the highest level at Boys Town. During the Depression years, few kids went to school and fewer finished eighth grade.

Boys’ Town alumni are proud of Vernon Baker and of his long overdue Congressional Medal of Honor.

Baker, you are a tribute to your race, family and our alumni. We are very proud of you. You are an example of personal courage, both in war and in enduring social and military injustices.

May God continue to watch over you. Ray Aleman Osburn, Idaho

Please clarify changes in rank

I found Ken Olsen’s series on Vernon Baker (Nov. 29-Dec. 1) to be fascinating reading, but the last installment left me with some questions.

Why, after the war, was he demoted to enlisted rank? If he was good enough to be an officer during the war, why wasn’t he good enough to be one after the war? Were there also racial reasons for this? I think a clarification is in order. Jeff Bergman Spokane

Editor’s note: Vernon Baker re-enlisted in 1948, after his wartime commission had expired. He thus became a noncommissioned officer. During the Korean conflict, he again was promoted to lieutenant, returning afterward to his NCO grade. Baker did not attend West Point or go through ROTC and so did not qualify for peacetime officer status, he says.

OTHER TOPICS

Smoking warnings a good move

Congratulations to the Spokane City Council and to the Spokane County commissioners for adopting ordinances that require restaurants to post smoking policy signs on their entrance doors.

These regulations will allow patrons to determine whether or not secondhand smoke is present in a restaurant without having to expose themselves to this dangerous substance. It is hoped that all of the other incorporated municipalities in Spokane County will follow this lead. Dennis W. Biggs, Jr., M.D., member Spokane Unit of the American Cancer Society board of directors

Let punishment fit crime

Recently, I saw a news clip of a video surveillance system in Britain, where teens were observed defacing private property with spray paint. Police were dispatched and arrested the youths, who were immediately put to work cleaning up the mess they had created.

The kids arrested for a similar act in Spokane are good kids, I’m sure. What they did was wrong. Rather than putting them in jail for a year (four quarters at Junior College for Crooks?), they should be put to work cleaning up their mess, eight hours a day, five days a week, until it’s all cleaned up. Larry R. Treffry Spokane

Wearing fur is OK with God

Concerning recent letters on the subject of wearing furs, one said that if God had intended for us to wear furs, he would have made us furry. I do wish that people who refer to God’s wisdom would check the source.

As early as the third chapter of Genesis, we find that “The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and Eve, to clothe them.” Throughout holy writ, men of God killed animals for food, for offering sacrifices (see the first eight chapters of Leviticus for numerous examples), and even for feeding angelic visitors (Genesis 18).

How many know that one of God’s commandments for the Israelites forbade the eating of animal fat (Leviticus 7:22-25)? How interesting - God knew about cholesterol!

If I had to kill what I eat, I’d probably be a vegetarian. But I do eat meat, wear furs (dating from 1962) and prefer leather shoes. And considering the alarming proliferation of reptiles in Florida, I think I’ll go shopping for an alligator bag. C.K. Young Spokane