Letters To The Editor

In support of Kevin Eastman

I am responding to Alan LeTourneau’s letter, “Eastman teaches self-destruction” (Jan. 21).

Obviously, LeTourneau is a fair-weather fan of coach Kevin Eastman and Washington State basketball. His sports happiness and loyalty depends upon winning. He must also believe in the “kick ‘em while they’re down” philosophy. He not only insults Eastman’s coaching, but adds further injury by stating no other player on the team, outside of the “top five,” has any talent. How wrong he is! Don’t new recruits get a chance to adjust, mature and progress in a new program before being graded on their contributions to the team?

Yes, I am a dyed-in-the-wool Cougars fan, but I also know about basketball, having been born and raised in Indiana, basketball capital of America. The huge difference between LeTourneau and I is that I am a fan whether the Cougs win or lose. And, yes, I would go to the Arena to watch them play again, as I’m sure others would.

I am also an Eastman fan. I applaud him for his high standards and academic values. Unlike most coaches, he cares more about his players’ welfare than winning at all costs. To me, that makes him a winning coach!

Kevin Eastman teaching self-destruction? I don’t think so. He is teaching self-respect, self-esteem and selfmotivation, which all our young people need. Vicki D. Rodeffer Medical Lake

There were no winners in this game

I normally don’t let statements by others in the letters section bother me either, Chuck (Richardson). However, your letter Jan. 21 did. First of all, I would say there is a big difference between teaching kids to play up to their potential and using your potential to humiliate other young athletes. You can not justify the unjustifiable.

Maybe you are a lot like (Central Valley girls basketball coach Dale) Poffenroth in your thinking. Obviously, you do not understand the magnitude of being humiliated in an athletic contest. I have taught and coached for years in the area and have never read such an absurd score in any sport. There are many ways to keep a score under control in every sport. How about running the 30-second clock down on every possession? How about telling your girls not to fast break? How about working on some things you normally don’t get to work on in games? How about five passes before you shoot? How about handling the situation with a little bit of class?

I think the CV girls were put in a situation that was both wrong and unfair of Poffenroth. I really doubt CV or North Central felt good about what happened in that game. Let’s get a grip on what high school athletics are all about. Yes, there has to be a winner and a loser. In this game, everyone was a loser.

I would like to wish the CV girls basketball team the best of luck the rest of the way. You are obviously a talented bunch of young ladies. I place no blame on the girls. However, I do place all the blame on the coaching staff and people like Richardson who are missing the point of athletics. Chris Spring Spokane

Talk radio balances coverage

I just finished the (Jan. 22) article by Dave Boling about talk radio. I now remember why I seldom read his column. I made this decision several years ago when all he did was say Dave Krieg was the reason the Seahawks were losing. It did not have anything to do with a subpar offensive line, did it Dave? The only reason I even read the latest article was because it was about talk radio.

What Boling and the rest of the Spokane media need to realize is there are fans who like other teams. I, along with other people in the Inland Northwest, are tired of hearing about Cougars and Huskies, the Seahawks and the Sonics (oh, and make sure and throw in the 49ers).

The aforementioned statement is the answer to his third paragraph, in which he states there are more than 400 calls an hour coming in from the 509 area code. We are tired of not receiving sports news on other teams, and to get it we have to go to other sources. Do not take me wrong. I feel it is necessary and I like to receive information on the local front, but do not focus all your attention on it.

I do not appreciate the screaming, vulgarity or arrogance of some talk show hosts, but if I want up-todate information on other sports teams I have to put up with it.

I am not expecting you to carry five stories on each team in all categories of sports. I am just asking for a little more diversity out of my local paper. The newspaper is not only to blame. Look at local Fox and NBC affiliates, who try to show only Seahawks and 49ers games. Danny Shea Spokane

Washington lottery misses boat

Why aren’t there more Rich Landers out there? A resounding here, here, atta boy and keep up the good work, in regards to his column, “Congress poses a serious threat to wildlife areas” (Jan. 18).

Although as a former Alaskan and 30-something years Spokane resident, I must disagree with you on the Alaskan Permanent Fund Entitlement view. For every barrel of oil pumped through the pipeline the state has allotted $1 to be set aside from the current price of a barrel. When I left Alaska, the Permanent Fund was around $17 billion and the interest from the fund pays every man, woman and child in Alaska $1,000 every year.

Now Washington could have done something similar when we introduced the lottery. But we didn’t. So please don’t cry in our spilled milk.

As for Don Young, George Nethercutt and various others in the Forest Service, state and federal governments, it should be required they all go camping, fishing, hunting in a National Forest at least three times a year so they have a little understanding of our parks and forests.

As to the big reason for my writing, I would like to challenge all Eastern Washington and North Idaho Panhandle sportsmen to the task of the recovery of the Spokane River system to the bringing back of king salmon and cutthroat trout into the river.

Genetic engineering of Kenai Salmon Alaska, Atlantic King Salmon Scotland and Coeur d’Alene freshwater salmon could be performed. Salmon and cutthroat hatcheries could be built along the I-90 corridor west of the Idaho/Washington border.

Not only would the investment pay off short-term, but in tourism and Spokane pride, it would gain world recognition and create jobs. Pat Marshall Rosalia

Trees need to be salvaged

The screed against salvage logging in “Congress poses a serious threat to wildlife,” Jan. 18, by Rich Landers, raises a question. How is fishing in Typee Creek in the Wenatchee National Forest? How is the hunting in the Boise National Forest?

These were just two of the areas devastated when wildfire swept 4 million acres of the west the summer before last. Dead timber burned with such heat that streams boiled, and the heat sterilized soil 14 inches deep. Such soil no longer absorbs water, and flooding, massive erosion and destruction of fisheries resulted. Thousands of deer and other animals died in the fires or starved because their forage had been destroyed, hundreds in Washington alone. The burned areas may not recover for generations. Some formerly timbered areas in Idaho, damaged by the 3-million acre Panhandle fire in 1910, have grown nothing but brush since.

Seventy years of fire suppression and 20 years of extremists blocking forest management with appeals, lawsuits and lobbying have created silvicultural slums choked with fuel for the inevitable, holocaustal fires. Every responsible authority says reducing the fuel load by salvaging dead or dying trees is the only rational way to reduce such fires in the future, but eco-wackos, for whom Landers is a propagandist, are willing to sacrifice our forests and wildlife on the altar of their utopian fantasies about nature. Edwin G. Davis Spokane

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