Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

Cemetery board should be wary

I have hiked at Riverside State Park between Seven Mile and Nine Mile in all seasons for years. It has been a lovely, almost pristine, area used by deer, coyotes and appreciative foot travelers. Because it is volcanic, the soils are thin and fragile. But well-used foot paths have kept human traffic off of delicate areas.

Several years ago the Centennial Trail took over Aubrey White Parkway, which runs through the park, and a rapid degradation of the area began.

Despite the availability of a road and central trails, some mountain bikers prefer the steep, narrow paths. They have plowed through in wet times, leaving deep ruts. When the resulting erosion made the trail unattractive they created parallel paths.

Trails that had been 18 inches wide for decades were suddenly five feet wide. In pursuit of greater challenge they began using some of the game trails, causing slides of wet topsoil and moss, and trampling vegetation.

Riverside State Park staff have been made aware of this situation but appear to be powerless or indifferent. Their only action was a token gesture that involved putting up signs saying “multiple use” at trail heads.

Many,including most mountain bikers, use the Centennial Trail responsibly. But until some effective efforts are made to deal with those who are careless and destructive, I advise the cemetery board to stand its ground. Suzanne Hempleman Spokane

Trail plan would be life-affirming

My parents, aunts and uncles are buried in Fairmont Memorial Park. My husband and I are planning our own arrangements and would like to consider Fairmont for our own burials.

The Centennial Trail skirting a small part of the boundary would be a positive, life-affirming symbol. It would not violate the sanctity and serenity of the cemetery. Some of us would like our final resting place to be right alongside the trail.

We live close to the trail in the Valley and have found people using the trail have respect for the land and the surrounding property.

We urge the cemetery board of directors to reconsider its decision and to work to find a solution that connects us all. Willene Priestley Spokane

Trail along cemetery? Callous

Concerning the Centennial Trail and Riverside Memorial Park:

My husband and I bought our lots 20 years ago. They, and the one we bought for our handicapped son, are in the section that would be affected by the trail.

The beauty and peacefulness of this area were very important factors in making our decision to purchase these lots.

My husband passed away a year and a half ago, and my children and I visit his grave often. We see others who are visiting their loved ones as well. I think we are all comfortable with each other as we are all there for the same reasons - mourning our loss, trying to hold onto memories and resolve the many heartaches that confront us.

I cannot imagine anyone being so callous as to even consider invading the privacy or the solitude of this place.

Cemeteries are a prime target of vandalism. Some think this isn’t so, but remember that we have had at least two cemeteries vandalized in recent years.

I am grateful to Fairmont Memorial Association for protecting the resting place of our loved ones and for having compassion for their families. Alvina Webb Mead

Trail will get through

This morning, for perhaps the thousandth time ,I jogged by Riverside Memorial Cemetery on Government Way - one of our most congested arterials.

I passed Central PreMix Concrete Co., its north boundary just annexed to the city for residential and business development. I jogged over to the Riverside side of the cemetery to get away from the fumes. The unimproved trail was under water.

The route of the proposed trail is below the ridge that separates the cemetery from the river. It will be out of sight but will serve as an essential link to our trail - one of the best in the United States.

The Cemetery Association did not oppose the planned development of central PreMix, its north boundary. It is unseen in the plans for the southern boundary. It seems unaware of the traffic congestion going by on Government Way. Yet it takes action to oppose the Centennial Trail.

Our river belongs to everyone. The trail makes it available to walkers, joggers, bikers and even Roller Bladers. Continuity is essential. It cannot be interrupted here and there by private interests.

The trail will be built there for sure. If the association is successful in barring it from the upper shoreline, it will be built, as some sections in the Spokane Valley are, below the high water mark, which is public property - to be occasionally flooded during the high-water seasons. Robert D. Dellwo Spokane

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Buchanan’s no Nazi

I don’t support Pat Buchanan for president. However, I deeply protest the Spokesman-Review’s labeling of Buchanan as a Nazi.

There’s no doubt Pat Buchanan embraces many extreme ideas and political viewpoints. He doesn’t, however, advocate any of the things associated with Nazism or Fascism.

This country survived four tumultuous years of world war defeating Nazism and every vile act and belief Nazism represented. Let’s never forget the terror Nazi Germany espoused.

The editorial was wrong to so lightly compare a political candidate with whom the writer disagrees with one of the world’s most horrific, hate-filled forms of government and its leaders.

Some supremacist groups do support Buchanan’s ideas. Furthermore, Buchanan has made speeches attended by supremacist groups. This doesn’t make him a Nazi, not even close.

Opinion editor John Webster’s editorial states that Buchanan’s supporters are gun-toting militia, neo-Nazis, Aryans and the well-meaning army of Christian conservatives. This implies these groups are Buchanan’s only supporters. New Hampshire primary exit poll results contradict this notion. Buchanan has the support of many middle class workers, despite his views on abortion, immigration and the like.

The bottom line is, if you disagree with Buchanan, fine. Say so in your editorials, but don’t give in to the trendy cliche of calling extremists Nazis. Leave that to the tabloids. Yours is a better newspaper than that. At least, I hope it is. Roger Watkins Spokane

Go, Pat, go

Well, Pat Buchanan took the New Hampshire primary. Good news for the middle class.

Bravo for a committed, positive, on-track candidate who may represent the best interest of the burdened working class and the future well-being of this great nation.

Unlike the mainstream media, I see Pat Buchanan as a man who can lead this nation and deliver a knockout blow to President Clinton’s flip-flop, bankrupt, liberalism-without-virtue. Robert Spaulding Coeur d’Alene

Some selection; Some menu

Pat Buchanan won in Hew Hampshire. Now, with all the backlash toward Buchanan on the Feb. 22 Opinion page, what does this say for the voters’ views about Sen. Bob Dole? Sometimes, when given the choices, we have to pick the better of two evils. Scott Steele Spokane

Line’s not exactly forming on the right

Pat Buchanan had it backwards when he stated he would not hire gays and lesbians because they would discredit his administration.

He should have said their presence in his administration would discredit the good judgment of gays and lesbians. Craig Peterson Spokane

Simplistic remedies flawed at basis

Pat Buchanan thinks we can build a wall to keep out immigrants and products from those evil Third World countries, and that we’ll then be swamped with high-wage manufacturing jobs materializing from out of the ozone.

Union leaders have an easier solution: Simply outlaw low incomes by raising the minimum wage and, hocus pocus, poverty will vanish. We’ll also be punishing those vile business people for making a profit.

Trouble is, the reasons for low wages have nothing to do with imports or corporate greed.

The first reason is demand. People don’t eat at fast food restaurants because the food is good. It’s because the food is cheap and fast. Raise the minimum wage by very much and the menu will no longer be cheap. A large chunk of the industry will die - along with lots of jobs.

Unfortunately, a huge percentage of low-income jobs are in industries that won’t survive higher wages, because the demand for the product isn’t sufficient to absorb the increased cost.

The second reason is skill. Any city newspaper lists page after page of help wanted ads. Trouble is, most jobs require people who actually know how to do something. The trades, for example, are begging for workers at excellent wages, while we graduate kids who excel in weightlifting, ceramics and self-esteem.

The main value of first, minimum-wage jobs is to provide workers with the work habits, skills and connections needed to move on to something larger. Far too many folks think they have a God-given right to start half way up the ladder. Jim Shamp Cheney

Hunker down, Democrats, moderates

Letter writer Andy Kelly’s “Pays to be rich under Republicans” (Feb. 19) left out some facts.

First, too many jobs reduced from the federal work force came from the military. I would rather have seen them come from the bloated bureaucracy, which continues to spend my money for outdated programs that don’t work.

Second, the deficit has been reduced by refinancing the debt rather than slowing spending, which takes 78 cents from each dollar of revenue, and don’t work.

Third, it’s ignored that Democrats have been in charge the last 30 years. It was they who increased spending, bringing us to this level of indebtedness, while poverty, crime and the welfare state increased. Your president had two years and a majority in both houses when he could have worked for laws to balance the budget, reform welfare, give Americans a sorely needed tax cut and do what he promised when he was campaigning. As usual, he lied to the American people.

We can see what the Democrats and liberals have done to this country, which is why we voted to replace them with people who want a better America.

We’re in charge of both houses of Congress now - and soon, the presidency - so get used to it. Bob Jewett Spokane

GOP Old Guard, say a big uh-oh

Instead of focusing on long-term achievements for American business and labor, thus enabling the elite to form a legitimate alliance with us commoners, well-off Republicans chose a political strategy of uniting the interests of big business and social conservatives.

Vulnerable minorities afford easy targets for these strategists to exploit, garnering the support of those afraid of the changes taking place in our world - changes largely due to the engines of capitalist greed.

For instance, instead of focusing on the reality that both parents in a household need to work because that’s what it takes to support a family in today’s economy, strategists largely blamed feminists, gays and various reasons other than structural economic ones for the decline of the traditional family.

Amidst all this blowing of smoke, they proceeded to get wealthy.

But a small percentage of scoundrels ensured there would be no trickle-down. For example, the costs of the savings and loan scandal will be borne by us commmoners, whose tax dollars will continue to pay for that moneymaking experiment well into the next millenium.

Eventually, the social conservatives caught on that maybe focusing on hyper-moneymaking wasn’t a good thing. Hence, Pat Buchanan won the New Hampshire primary.

The GOP establishment isn’t pleased. That’s because it has created a monster in its own image that has begun to think, like its former master, in terms of its own shortterm economic interests. Hence, the trade protectionism and anti-corporatism that makes the GOP’s Old Guard shudder. The proverbial chickens have come home to roost. Micki Archuleta Pullman

Apply FDR’s good sense today

Most Americans believe remaining budget differences between Republicans and Democrats should be put aside, a compromise should be struck and the budget balanced.

President Clinton suggested as much, shortly after Republicans walked out on budget talks and before Congress went on a vacation.

In 1932, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, “One thing is for sure. We have to do something. We have to do the best we know how at the moment. If it doesn’t turn out right, we can modify it as we go along.” Does this sound straightforward, or what!? No wonder the guy was elected four times.

What do guys like House Speaker Newt Gingrich have against FDR? Probably the same thing the rich and powerful had against him in 1936, when he said, “Economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power. These economic royalists are unanimous in their hate for me - and I welcome their hatred.”

Urge your congressional representatives back to the budget negotiations. The worst they can do is get it wrong, which will be better than the mess that they’ve left it in. Marc Lawrence Potlatch, Idaho

AESTHETICS

Relieved roadway won’t go to waste

I was glad to see that, according to “Cattle trucks unloading all over roads” (News, Feb. 19), something will be done about the offensive offloading on Highway 95.

The article said Canadian cattle haulers open drains on their trucks on their way home and essentially fertilize the highway, creating slick roads and driving hazards, not to mention the unpleasant smell. Now it seems that all truckers caught with their drains open are subject to a $97 ticket. This may help to remind truckers, the next time they decide they don’t have time or are too lazy to clean their trucks properly.

It’s good to see that some people are trying to keep our highways clean. Natalie A. Vaughn Cheney