Letters To The Editor

ILLICIT DRUGS

Vested interests want status quo

What if we were to decriminalize marijuana? Strip the profit incentive from it and control it like alcohol, a far more dangerous drug. What problems would emerge?

Think a moment about war. If war were effectively and permanently abolished, what would everyone at the Pentagon on down do? How about the enormous industrial military complex? What on Earth would we do without enemies? Could we survive?

The war on drugs is a real war. With marijuana legal, what would drug warriors do? Marijuana is their big cash cow because it is so common, despite escalation after escalation of the war on drugs.

Construction and operation of new prisons, one of our prime growth industries, would be ruined. Attorneys and judges would have to focus on real crime. And what would we do with all the billions of dollars saved?

What’s more, we would suddenly have our most valuable natural resource back - hemp. Industries such as timber and paper, petroleum and petrochemicals, synthetic textiles and more - their vast profits would start spreading back to the people.

Nobody would be on the street, driven by profit seeking, out to find new users. If we resort to genuine education, marijuana use would probably go down, especially among kids. The economic and environmental benefits of hemp would ease their angst and sense of no future.

Could we stand the strain of losing such an enemy? Yes, and the people would be much better off. Rand Clifford Spokane

Costly war serves the warriors

Regarding your Dec. 6 editorial, “Families, voters can make decision,” I couldn’t agree more.

What’s more, every drug warrior has a vested interest to see this drug war drag out as long as possible. Why? Money.

Many Americans are being hoodwinked. But those pulling the wool over our eyes are the drug warriors themselves!

Let’s “just say no” to the drug war and begin to reach for rationality.

I would also be very interested in knowing where Opinion editor John Webster gets his facts on marijuana. Every study I’ve seen refutes his claims of marijuana’s dangers.

Since synthetic THC (Marinol) has been proven safe and effective, by what measures does the government continue to deny the medicinal benefits of natural marijuana? Is it perhaps because a plant cannot be patented and profited from by the major drug manufacturers? If people can grow their own medicine, the companies can’t profit from suffering, as they usually do from expensive pharmaceutical preparations.

It’s time for the will of the American people to be recognized. End this terrible war on the ill. Johanna Wools Grand Coulee

Subverting new law is wrong

I thank The Spokesman-Review for publishing “Families, voters can make decision” (From both sides, Opinion, Dec. 6). This well-written column brings out into the open a point that has been ignored during the Proposition 215 debate.

The law has been passed by a majority of California voters. The question is not whether to accept the law, but rather one of how to enforce it.

California Attorney General Dan Lungren and others admirably admit that this is the will of the people. Yet they still seek to subvert the will of the people by imposing impossible requirements upon the people the law protects. All this while continuing to block any attempt to perform valid medical and scientific research into the subject of medicinal marijuana.

Our elected officials must be hiding the benefits of this natural medicine for a reason. Could it be to protect pharmaceutical companies from an effective but unpatentable medicine? Or is it because of the governmentally imposed social stigma against marijuana? Or both?

Enough, I say. These people are public servants, put in their positions by the same people who passed California’s Proposition 215. It is their duty to follow the letter of the law, and more importantly, the spirit of the law.

If they cannot do that, for whatever reason, then I call for them to step down and make way for people who will. Tom Hawkins Grand Coulee

ICE STORM ‘96

Next time, I’m outta here

I survived Mount St. Helens, Fire Storm ‘92 and Ice Storm ‘96. Does anybody know how to build an ark? Dick Melor Spokane

OTHER TOPICS

Technology to the rescue soon

During the recent power outage, I was in Spokane for a reading at Auntie’s Book Store about my new book, “The Coming Energy Revolution: The Search for Free Energy.” I thought, great timing Spokanites will be wanting alternatives and seeing the need to decentralize power plants. We’ll have a big audience.

I was wrong. My former hometown was suffering through a situation too traumatic to allow the leisure needed for exploring new developments.

The good news, nevertheless, is that new energy inventions are popping up around the world. These include fuelless, magnet-motor/generators, what the Japanese call new hydrogen energy and clean generators based on implosion instead of explosion.

These or other nonconventional approaches could solve the problem - our reliance on miles of vulnerable power lines coming from centralized power plants.

Clean Energy Technologies Inc. of Dallas has a research kit universities can lease to study the Patterson Power Cell (five to 1,000 times more energy output than input).

Also available is the Griggs Hydrosonic device in Georgia, which also defies the known laws of physics. Other inventions will soon provide abundant, safe, decentralized power.

Reading The Spokesman-Review about the suffering during the long power outage, I thought about city residents everywhere. Few have wood-burning stoves. Living on the West Coast, I realized that an earthquake could snap trees, break power lines and create dangers that I hadn’t considered before.

It was a sobering experience. Thanks for your compassionate coverage of human experiences. Jeane Manning Vancouver, British Columbia

CPI tinkering just ‘voodoo’

I read with growing horror the Dec. 5 article concerning revisions in the Consumer Price Index.

President Clinton and Congress are considering this as the latest magic fix for the deficit. Instead of addressing the real problems of overspending and wage stagnation, we’ll just make a paper adjustment. The results: higher taxes, slower wage increases, senior citizens receiving even tinier increases in their fixed incomes and the federal government can continue to spend at a higher level. However, our new, manipulated statistics will indicate we are all better off.

One question comes to mind: Will this have any impact on the politicians’ salaries? Please seek counseling if you think the answer is yes.

My income is about average for my age group. It used to be above that. Of all my family and friends, I cannot think of anyone who has kept ahead of the cost of living.

The only persons qualified to realistically assess the relationship of earnings to expenses are those of us who must budget our limited money day to day.

I don’t trust any senator or president earning six figures and secure in two or more pensions after retirement to have the first clue as to what this “healthy” economy is doing to me.

This CPI voodoo is more devious than any tax cut for the rich. It’s the most outrageous attempt yet to balance the budget on the backs of the middle and lower classes. It’s also a thinly veiled effort to draw attention away from the real danger: a bloated federal government. Mark Ashar Spokane

Slap at Kessler uncalled for

As a person with diabetes, I resent the Dec. 6 Roundtable cartoon by Hank Payne that denigrated David Kessler, (departing) commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.

Kessler required the listing of fat, fiber and calories on processed foods, making it easier for me to find foods in the store that can be used in my strict diet. There are millions of other persons on diets who are helped.

We need more Kesslers in the government who will stand up for ordinary citizens instead of special interests with political influence. Walter A. Becker Pullman

Why alienate aliens

If I were an alien, I’d resent being labeled as such, especially if I knew that one connotation for alien meant “hostile” and another “not in agreement with.” This would present us Earthlings as being rather unwelcoming or even “alien” ourselves. Not exactly the right approach toward friendly relations.

Suppose we become more creative and invent some other nomenclature, just to be on more diplomatic terms.

When you think about it they are other-worldlings, but of course, that term is 11 characters longer (including hyphen) than “alien.” The press would never tolerate that. Well then, they are also non-Earthlings, but that is still much longer than “alien,” so what are we to do?

We could shorten it and call them otherlings. Now, that’s only four letters longer and has a gentler, more respectful tone.

Any ideas? Pass them on. All this presupposes that there are such creatures in the first place. That’s it! “Creats” - same amount of letters as “aliens,” but then that sounds too much like Crete, an island that belongs to the Cretians. So where in the world are we? Sister Madonna Buder Spokane

Two wrongs don’t make a right

Re: “Throw a flag at UW coach for running off at mouth,” Hot Potatoes, Nov. 28.

Staff writer D.F. Oliveria contends that because NCAA sanctions have been levied against the Huskies in the past, Husky coaches shouldn’t address ethnic remarks made by Cougars players. Oliveria’s reasoning fails in several respects.

The sanctions did not render subsequent players incapable of hearing such remarks and reporting them. The sanctions weren’t intended as a further punishment, forcing players to endure racial remarks without means for redress. Certainly, the sanctions were not designed as a means to allow proliferation of adverse behavior by opposing players.

Contrary to Oliveria’s suggestion, Jim Lambright knows the harm caused by unfounded charges. He experienced firsthand how unfairly a program can be impaired when the sanctions were levied against his team in 1993. No school has ever been sanctioned so severely for players’ failure to work without breaks in their off-season jobs, accepting fruit baskets or alumni expressing encouragement to recruits before an important game.

None of the alleged charges referenced substantial violations or involved coaches or staff. Several schools have gotten off lighter for much worse violations. Lambright knows better than Oliveria asserts the importance of well-based charges. In fact, he is in a better position to understand the validity of charges by virtue of the sanctions Oliveria cites.

Typical of a team that did not deserve sanctions, the Huskies withstood them and have been successful despite them. If this upsets Oliveria, he should find something valid to support his complaints. Anthony Matthews Spokane

Correction

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.

GIVING THANKS

Apartment managers did their best

We live in a low-income housing apartment, the Aquaview. There are 128 apartments. We lost our heat and lights on the first day of the ice storm. Somehow, our managers, Willi and ChuckWinslow managed to get two butane heaters and camping stoves. They made coffee and soup, and worked around the clock for our comfort. It was a great effort and I applaud them. Shari LaCaze Spokane

Friends made it bearable, then good

We express our deepest thanks to Carol Giles and her family on the south side of 29th Avenue, who had electricity. (Those north side of 29th did not.)

Thursday the 21st, we went to pick up our son from her home and to convince her to go to the shelter with us, as a third night in the cold was just too much! Carol’s electricity had come on minutes before we arrived. She insisted we stay with her. When I told her we were concerned about our dogs, she insisted we bring our dogs with us.

We went home, grabbed a bunch of food (her refrigerator was bare), then returned to her house. It was wonderful. She cared for us and our dogs just like we had always lived there. She gave us her bedroom and insisted we sleep in her warm bed while she and the five kids slept on the living room floor. We will never forget this.

I (Sheron) was beginning to lose it emotionally and needed my spirits lifted. The next day, my husband Graham talked with friends in Seattle who were supposed to come over for the Apple Cup. Even though they knew we did not have electricity, they came anyway and brought us a generator. How wonderful to be in my home with heat!

A special thank you to Gary Sorensen and John March from the Seattle area for buying us a generator and bringing it to Spokane over very bad roads when there were no generators to be found in Spokane. Graham and Sheron Olson Spokane

Coat loan, shoveling appreciated

After spending 25 years as snowbirds in Yuma, Ariz., we decided to give it all up and spend our winters at home. We arrived in Coeur d’Alene the weekend of ice storm, without even a winter coat. Our next-door neighbor, Caroline Smith, was a life saver. She shoveled our deck and loaned me a winter coat. Caroline is the jewel of our neighborhood, and we thank her. Florence and Lenny Bertram Coeur d’Alene

Wood for heat a great help

We thank our next-door-neighbors, Ralph and Viola Homme, for letting us use some of their wood to heat our house. Without their generosity, we couldn’t have stayed in our home during the power outage. Ray and Sally Wittkopf Spokane

Guests thoughtful, delightful

My sincere thanks to my son and daughter-in-law, Jeremy and Fiona Morrison, for their kindness, patience and love during the ice storm. My husband and I shared our home with them because they lost their power. They stayed with us the better of six days and were very patient with dad and me. We know it can be hard to live with someone else, especially your own parents and in-laws. You were delightful, thoughtful, loving and grateful. Opal and Richard Morrison Veradale

I have a friend in deed

I extend my heartfelt thanks to Michael Palmer. He not only opened his home to me, he made me feel like I was on vacation. He got up every morning and made me coffee. He is retired and could have slept in. Instead, he was out scraping the ice off my car. I mentioned I had a sore throat. He purchased lozenges for me. I mentioned cookies and he keeps the cupboard supplied with them. Ice outside? I hardly noticed. I have been warmed by having such a special friend. Alecia Gaffney Spokane