Letters To The Editor

BUSINESS AND LABOR

The good fight leaves us stronger

Being a Broadview Dairy worker on strike, I, and my family, thank the community for its support. The food and money donated helped us through the holidays. Cars honking and people waving lift our spirits.

We’ve been through several plant sellings over the years, giving up wages and benefits every time. Older Carnation workers were apprehensive when Goodale & Barbieri bought the dairy. Teamsters, working 30 and 20 years toward the retirement most would dream of were bashed by the strike and by G&B’s union-busting tactics.

Most have heard rumors that the strike will be over and we’ll be back to work soon. This seems to be a half truth. Don Barbieri is busy selling the business to an out-of-town company. G&B will build yet another facility with unskilled, low-paying, entry level jobs.

This isn’t good for Spokane’s economy. This destruction can be seen throughout corporate America, with greedy businessmen wanting more and bigger bonuses, forgetting loyalty to workers.

We who carried the signs and did the handbilling have something we’ll always remember. Together, we stood up and fought for a better living. Others joined us in fighting for a better lifestyle. We had pride knowing what we did. We may lose cars and homes, but they can be replaced.

To those I have worked and picketed with, I will always respect you for your courage. We can all hold our heads high. From personal experience, these people are the highest quality anywhere.

Thanks and good luck. Bill Blaine Otis Orchards

Brinker to right of Milton Friedman

I am 66, retired on disability and I must say what garbage Norman Brinker’s Jan. 6 (Roundtable) column is. Coming from a restaurant industry magnate it is ludicrous.

This is an industry that devised and promulgates a system wherein they pay the barest minimum they can get away with, letting the customer pay a goodly portion of wages via tipping.

Are we assumed to be so stupid that we don’t know any increase in the minimum wage will be added to the cost of merchandise? Bet the farm his restaurants will not close and will not absorb the modest increase.

Neither the current nor proposed wages will sway any recipient to choose a $10,000 or a $20,000 automobile. The company will follow the trend, hire more part-time help, paying low wages and no benefits.

Paradise for him would be a return to the sweatshops, seven-days-a-week and a pittance of a salary. Or even better, the lord-and-serf system, with Brinker the lord, throwing a few crumbs to the serf who tugs his forelock, casts his eyes to the ground and mumbles, “Thank you, m’lord.” Lee Corrigan Rathdrum, Idaho

Tycoon knows money, not people

Norman Brinker of Brinker International may paint his appeal for cheaper slave labor in bright and fraudulent colors, but he cannot get away with it. His Jan. 6 (Roundtable) column on the minimum wage gives itself away.

Shakespeare created “Hamlet”; Brinker did not create 1.5 million jobs in any positive sense of the word. Economic theory reveals his connection to his slaves to be accidental and his own words say the connection is iniquitous. Tycoons like Brinker have always patted themselves on the back for viewing working men and women as machines rather than as humans.

Brinker says he has been paying his workers way too much for some time. Well, why hasn’t he replaced them all with machines by now? And what if he does? And what if he goes out of business? And, as they used to say, what if Lincoln frees the slaves?

It is because workers are human and not machines that we will move beyond the Brinkers and the Gingriches, and survive them. Ron Myers Spokane

SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION

Spare our young from false economy

“Spend a little, and save a lot.” That slogan tells us why we, as voters, need to vote yes in the school levy election on Feb. 6. We aren’t even really spending any more money. The levy simply continues the funding our schools need to function.

As a member of the Shadle Park Parent Advisory Committee, I see how hard our administration is working to provide the kind of education that will prepare our kids for a world that has changed radically. I see how, like all of us, they strive to make every dollar count. I see teachers going above and beyond “job requirements” for our kids. Without our support, without our yes vote, they can’t do the quality job that we as a community want them to do. Remember, a no vote is a no vote. We’ll have to rewrite that old slogan, “Save a little and lose a lot.” Sandra King Spokane

Commitment means more than cash

Generalizations in “Poverty, test scores linked”(Region, Jan. 10) concerned me tremendously.

I would be counted as one of the poor in Spokane, according to this article. However, our daughters have always done well in school. Because of our concern about the deterioration of public education, my husband and I now home-school.

We don’t own a computer, travel frequently or own an extensive library. We do visit our public library regularly. I firmly believe poverty isn’t the problem in children’s education. The attitude existing in each family determines the success of any child. A strong, loving, supportive family, rich or poor, determines a child’s future.

In these poor schools, do most children come from two-parent homes or are most from single-parent homes that are on welfare? Are these poor children tended to by a stay-at-home mom or are they left unsupervised? We should look at the structure of the family, not income level.

A broad statement such as “poverty, test scores linked” helps develop prejudice against anyone making less that $30,000 a year. The insinuation that high school graduates aren’t as capable of helping their children in school is extremely offensive. Any child can do well if they have parents who care.

A high income, education level, even a computer, can’t accomplish what two loving parents can do in a child’s life.

Let’s begin to focus on helping to encourage family unity, and not on the financial status of families. Poor families, even those on welfare, can raise well-educated, responsible children. Rebecca Williams Spokane

OTHER TOPICS

No shortage of good, caring people

Last week I skidded and rolled my car into the ditch on Highway 195. By the time my daughter and I unfastened our seatbelts and crawled out her window, there were people there to help pull us out, making sure we didn’t put our hands on the broke glass.

Three cars stopped instantly to help us, even though driving conditions were icy and it wasn’t the safest place to stop. To them, to the school bus driver who stopped to call 911, and to the close to 30 people who saw us standing there and stopped to ask if we needed help - thank you so very much.

Our gratitude goes to the terrific policeman, too, stuck out in the cold directing traffic while the tow truck got the car.

Sometimes, with all the negative news that makes headlines, it’s easy to forget all the wonderful people who are willing to stick their necks out for a stranger. Pam Ovlen Spokane

Look who’s casting first stone

It seems to me that Bev Numbers should take a long, hard look in the mirror before discussing financial responsibility (“Anderson needs a job, but not this one,” Letters, Jan. 7).

Numbers was one of the least financially responsible council members we had when it came to City Council expenditures, and we all pay.

Mayor Jack Geraghty is being a leader by recognizing Councilman Chris Anderson to serve on the Finance Committee. Anderson is our most financially responsible council member.

With his presence on the committee we can correct the severe cash shortfall partly caused by other council members’ frivolous expenses. Christopher R. Haynie Spokane