Letters To The Editor
IN THE PUBLIC EYE
Amend poised to bury us in debt
Dexter Amend has never been a competent coroner. He regularly impedes police investigations and prevents thorough autopsies. He has never conducted the duties of his office in an auspicious manner.
There were many complaints of his insensitive behavior during his previous stints as coroner. Now he may end up costing county taxpayers millions.
Spokane County is self-insured. All attorney fees, court costs, settlements and Amend’s attorney’s fees are paid from county coffers. Amend was responsible for the fees of his three attorneys until the county commissioners voted to pay them. From where are Commissioners Steve Hasson and Phil Harris going to appropriate these funds?
The appeal to the state Supreme Court to prevent the vote to recall Amend is just a stalling maneuver until the Legislature passes the bill to enable Spokane to have a medical examiner instead of a coroner. If a medical examiner is appointed, the county will have to pay Amend his salary for three years until the end of his term. If he is recalled, he will not be entitled to the additional salary.
Recall Amend now! Lois Coleman Colbert
Dwyer story ‘apparent persecution’
I’m both shocked and disgusted by the apparent persecution of Justin Dwyer (Feb. 17) over his past involvement with the Aryan Nations.
Again we see the paradox of the liberal push for equality. It’s wrong, they say, to discriminate against someone unless, of course, that someone is/was a white racist. Then it’s open season, isn’t it?
Employers are free to terminate employment of those who are/were proud of their race. I know because it’s happened to me as well. Anyone is free to slander or threaten someone based on that person’s racial or political beliefs.
I feel a great deal of sympathy for Dwyer because at one point in his life someone told him that he, being an American, had certain freedoms.
Apparently, he was foolish enough to believe them. Ryan Huston Spokane
SPOKANE MATTERS
Madness destroyed terrific person
The sound of gunfire is no longer foreign to Spokane residents. Random acts of violence have become more frequent and outrageous.
Incidents of vandalism, assault, abuse, burglary and shootings are reported regularly in our newspaper.
This time, gunfire killed my friend, Marie Van Slate, a mother of four, while she worked at the Silver Grill in the Ridpath Hotel.
Van Slate was an innocent victim. You could say she was in the wrong place at the wrong time or that she may have disturbed an unstable mind. But that doesn’t answer the question of how or why such a tragedy could happen here, or to her.
There is no easy answer. The rage that drove her killer to commit such a crime couldn’t be foreseen. It cannot be explained, understood, excused, punished or tolerated by the citizens of Spokane.
Surely, the people in this town must be saddened and outraged by this most cowardly act.
Marie Van Slate’s death is a loss to us all. She was a helping hand, a ray of sunshine, a loving parent and a doting grandmother. She was a gentle, caring lady and my friend for 30 years. She practiced the teachings of her church every day of her life.
The world would be a better place with more Maries in it. She will be missed. Glenda Scott Liberty Lake
Say no to trail easement
Fairmont Memorial Association should not grant an easement for the Centennial trail.
The trail, which in its inception seemed such a pristine idea, is now filled on many summer days with rude, aggressive, shouting people who deem it their right, not just a privilege, to use the trail in whatever selfish manner they choose, including to litter.
Friends of the Centennial Trail would have you believe the $460,000 needed to build a bridge is like a gift or a private grant when it is actually taxpayer money looking for a place for the U.S. Forest Service to squander it. Why not use it to improve logging practices that contribute to flooding?
City and county officials should not get involved since such involvement would probably require a commitment to police the area. The city and county cannot even police their existing parks, which are much more confined areas.
Duane Broyles, members of the Fairmont Memorial Association, just say no. Leo F. Daily Spokane
GOVERNMENT AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Need is for rational decisions
Why does a reasoning person make choices based on the study of facts? This almost always leads to making choices based on compromise.
Radicals and extremists, particularly in the environmental area, have difficulty with this. They want to see everything as either good or bad. Looking for a balance in solving controversial issues isn’t on their agenda.
While there has been a dramatic increase in world population, modern technical agriculture continues to produce the great bulk of the world’s food. And it does this on the same amount of land that was used for agriculture in the mid-1950s. This is made possible by modern technical agricultural efficiency.
A statement in the Feb. 19 Roundtable, “herbicides, insecticides and fungicides drift is an enormous threat to health,” is so unsupported by any credible documentation that it defies reason. This is the realm of the sky-is-falling radicals who see only the media-hyped health concerns and choose to ignore lengthening life expectancy tables and other optimistic public health statistics.
The grass field burning controversy fits neatly into this area of reasoning choice. There’s a trade-off between the short period of field smoke and the yearlong environmental benefits of a field devoted to grass seed production.
Many of the most outspoken individuals on this subject don’t have an understanding of the trade-off. They let emotionalism determine their mindset, much to the detriment of decisions based on supportable facts and maximum environmental benefit. Glenn Leitz Fairfield, Wash.
Anyone minding the store?
Re: “Hanford waste may be in groundwater” (News, Feb. 21). I am so disgusted with “officials” who are supposed to help and always seem to create more problems because they don’t take the time to check how secure their systems are.
Rob Taylor’s article notes that the Energy Department now believes about 3.8 million liters of concentrated radioactive waste may have leaked into the soil. It is alarming to me that there aren’t strict fines and regulations put on Hanford. The article also pointed out that the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Restoration and Waste Management had investigated the tank farm and found the conditions to be “poor.” It also said the condition “continues to deteriorate because corrective maintenance is not keeping up with equipment failure.”
If the department knew of these problems, why weren’t they regulating the tank farm to make changes and develop some precautions? I hope that the news coverage will force Hanford to start taking a more serious approach to storing nuclear waste, but I doubt it will. Laura K. Wohlers Cheney
Put ‘sold out’ sign on forests
I am a lifelong resident of Washington. The one thing that appeals most to me about Washington is the pristine beauty of our national forests.
Now, under the timber salvage provision enacted last year, all this pristine wilderness stands to be lost.
The idea was to reduce the amount of dead trees and fire-prone underbrush in the national forests, but thousands of healthy trees are targeted for commercial cutting under the logging law as well.
Sen. Slade Gorton, who helped write the law, said he has no problem with the Forest Service offering live trees for sale as part of the salvage package, and that he was confident the agency won’t cause any serious environmental damage.
The recent flooding here in the Northwest, in which logging roads played a large role, have proved Sen. Gorton wrong.
I am concerned that my young son may never see how beautiful our national forests are. As long as logging without laws continues our forests will soon be a thing of the past. Susan Driscoll Cheney
RELIGION
Guess what else has liability policy?
It’s too bad unbiased reader/erudite legal interpreter Michael Wiman didn’t read to the end of the article on employment practices, liability insurance or personal umbrella policies to discover just what other policyholders, besides President Clinton, have collected for their own immoral acts.
Then again, maybe Wiman is one of the dittoheads Rush Limbaugh pontificates to. A Feb. 8 Wall Street Journal article discloses that the Catholic Church is such a policyholder and “will often seek defense benefits while they fight the claims of ‘allegations of sexual molestation of parishioners by priests.”’
In all fairness, and no pun intended, Wiman, how about another profound diatribe on their bed? And all the while passing the collection plate. Ollie Horton Spokane
Rift is between each person and God
Reading the two articles on your Feb. 17 religion page, “Healing the rift,” I couldn’t help but think that the problem is not race relations but our relation to God. The church was not set in place to make sure diversity is achieved, but to reconcile in the body of Christ all those who would come and obey his commands.
The reason most of the problems exist in the church today is because the preachers have stopped preaching the truth and have turned to fables.
Blacks need to be taught their roots! Whites need to be taught their roots! All colors of people need to be taught their roots! The roots I am referring to, though, are not Europe, Africa, China, etc.; it’s Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Christ, etc.
God did not say, “Spirit of unity,” he said, “Unity of the spirit.” People today believe in unity at any cost, but God says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
When we want to do our own thing, we end up with 600 churches all preaching something different. If we do God’s will, we end up with one church (Eph. 4:4, Matt 16:18)
Color, sex, money, where you live, what job you hold or anything else means nothing to God. He created everything that is, was or will be. All He wants is your obedience to His word. When we do all in the name of the Lord, we will find peace within us. Kevin B. Dahl Coeur d’Alene
Islam doesn’t teach thuggery
I agree with Mohsen A. Hedaya, “Muslims don’t deserve this” (Letters, Feb. 20), that Islam does not teach the brutal excesses or slavery practiced by the leaders of Libya, Iraq, Iran or the Sudan.
However, I interpret (Steve Benson’s) cartoon satire as aimed more at the bloody madmen who, in the name of God or Allah, distort and pervert the true teachings of Islam.
Violence, corruption and hatred are reprehensible, whether extolled by Islamic, Judean or Christian leaders.
I am concerned that I rarely see persons of the Islamic faith speak out against the Gadhafis or Saddam Husseins of the world. Benson was correct in depicting Louis Farrakhan in locked, goose-step with these butchers and implying what his true agenda and real “religion” is: hate. Gregg A. Leibert Chewelah, Wash.
OTHER TOPICS
Death penalty makes things worse
The mentality displayed in D.F. Oliveria’s Feb. 15 editorial perpetuates violence in America. Making Mitchell Rupe out to be a monster by repeatedly mentioning the man’s obesity, to convince us Rupe is even more deserving of death, is sickeningly transparent.
I don’t know what it feels like to be a member of a murder victim’s family. I do know there is a group of these people who actively oppose the death penalty despite their own pain and anger.
Society-sanctioned killing such as the death penalty sends a message to people that killing is a valid method of problem solving. The message is also driven home every time we watch television or a hero-kills-monster or good-guy-kills-bad-guy movie.
Do gang members see themselves as heroes who deal out vengeful punishment to those they see as deserving of it? Why are we surprised when a 14-year-old chooses to use vengeful killing to solve his problem with a school bully?
We should be angered by the vicious crimes taking place. We should be so angry, in fact, that we commit to taking consistent preventative action to eliminate the factors that help cause these crimes.
Pursuit of the death penalty, which has been shown repeatedly not to be a deterrent, is a misdirected focus of this anger and only adds to the problem. Molly O’Connor Spokane
Ramrod tactics not appreciated
The political primary season confirms some long-believed suspicions about the election process.
We are now being told often, loudly, blatantly, arrogantly and unabashedly that the Republican nominee will be selected by elite party leaders - not us, the people. We are told that if we choose the “wrong” candidate, there is no way possible the party will allow him to be the nominee.
And all the time I thought we, the voters, had some say.
The more the conservative candidate succeeds, the more we will see a barrage of derogatory articles, statements, innuendoes and desperate attempts to scare us, discredit the candidate and distort the facts.
I guess we have two options: Let these elitists, big money and the media tell us who the nominee will be; or support the candidate who puts America and Americans first, who has and stands by his principles, and whose character is beyond reproach.
Let’s tell these self-appointed power brokers that we’ll make up our own minds, thank you. Jim Schindler Spokane
Neither major party worthwhile
‘Tis the season for political promises, political hopes. The season for all the rhetoric from candidates and what they can do for the voter.
But, as time has proven, it isn’t reality, is it? How difficult to separate the lies from the truth, the wheat from the chaff.
This great nation has been on a downhill run since the early 1900s. In 1913 we established the Federal Reserve, and income taxes and the national debt has been growing since then. World War I, the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam fiasco and now GATT and NAFTA have all occurred during a time when we had nothing but Democrats and Republicans in power, controlling our destiny. Why do you think those we put in office in 1996 are going to solve all our problems? How many empty promises from both Democrats and Republicans do you have to have before you learn that they consistently lie to you?
Which party has kept its promise to reduce the deficit, balance the budget, reduce our taxes and maintain the American dream? If it hasn’t been accomplished in the past 70 years, why should we believe it will be done now?
Perhaps there is a flaw in our monetary system. It defies common sense that a nation so powerful, so productive cannot get and stay out of debt. It is ludicrous that a free people can be so unfree, so burdened with interest and taxes. Earl G. Fox Spokane