Letters To The Editor

GRASS FIELD BURNING

Grass growing does so much good

I express my indignation over the biased reporting of staff writer Karen Dorn Steele on farmers burning bluegrass fields. Her Jan. 16 and 17 articles are better suited to the editorial page.

I recently relocated to Spokane Valley from Los Angeles. I love this area. I grew up here.

Farmers’ issues aren’t covered. Vital ecological benefits of bluegrass burning should be made known.

Bluegrass, a rotational crop, is important to our food chain. Nutrients which have been depleted in soil growing other crops are replenished by field burning. Although science hasn’t developed a way to regenerate the crop without burning, periodic fires play an important role in the maintenance and character of our ecosystem.

Bluegrass protects against wind and run-off erosion, absorbs water into our water table. Bluegrass traps airborne dust and pollens, which otherwise are released into our atmosphere. It acts as a soil bank, purifies water entering underground aquifers and acts as a summer air conditioner.

Bluegrass absorbs carbon dioxide, ozone, hydrogen fluoride, other elements, and releases huge amounts of oxygen. Soil conservation regulations strongly encourage bluegrass planting.

Ninety percent of all bluegrass is grown in this area. It’s vital to the balance of nature, supports wildlife and benefits all of us. Grass fields help the problems of feeding the world’s population. Burning occurred only 11 days last year, while emissions from industry and others lasted all year long. Ben L. Holstrom Spokane

Wrong to choke off debate

Rep. Gary Chandler, R-Moses Lake, who doesn’t think grass smoke pollution is a major problem in Spokane, does not intend to schedule a hearing for HB2271. This is not right.

Spokane Democrat Rep. Lisa Brown introduced legislation that would give state and local regulators more power to consider health risks of grass smoke. But now the people of Spokane will not be given the chance to give their input on the situation.

How can this happen? We deserve a chance to express our feelings and share our information about grass burning because it affects us. Some of us may not care about the effects of it, but many of us do.

Maybe you can’t see a big difference in the air now and the effect it has on our health, but I don’t want to take a risk of finding out later what harm it has already done.

The only fair way to deal with this problem is to have a debate with both sides represented. Without a hearing you might as well put your face masks back on. Gail Nitta Cheney

PUBLIC SAFETY

Some four-wheel drivers a hazard

It is a useful public service for you to remind drivers of the limitations of four-wheel-drive vehicles, though I thought the examples a bit misleading.

Rigs you can take out of four-wheel-drive are dangerous on ice because distribute equal power to all wheels as long as they’re in that mode. Newer full-time four-wheel (all-wheel) drives are designed to send less power to back wheels unless the front wheels start to slip, whence more power goes to the wheels that don’t slip.

More importantly, the jerks who drive beyond the limits of their vehicles also don’t often bother to install studded snow tires all around, if at all. It’s not the vehicles that are so inherently unsafe as are the drivers. Phil Mulligan Spokane

LAW AND JUSTICE

Zoning must stay free of tampering

Recently The Spokesman-Review reported the filing of a case by a former planner against Spokane County. He alleges he was wrongfully fired for not acceding to unwarranted pressure from his superiors, administrators and commissioners to make decisions contrary to zoning ordinances codified by Spokane County.

This case has not worked its way through the legal system, and until a decision is rendered one should not speculate as to its merits.

However, as a former building official who stepped down and eventually resigned rather than acquiesce to pressure from superiors to deviate from existing building and zoning regulations, I wish to point out that intrusion, by commissioners or anyone else, for political or economic reasons into the lawful administration of zoning and building ordinances should not be tolerated.

A planner and/or building official is not in a popularity contest when he or she deliberates a zoning or building matter. Zoning and building ordinances are designed to protect the public as a whole.

To allow political or economic meddling to be injected into the administration of these ordinances does a disservice to the public.

A planner who has worked 15 years for the county deserves to be treated in a fair and equitable manner. Let us all hope, after all the facts are known, that it can be shown this planner was treated fairly and was not fired for resisting unwarranted pressure and/or meddling by a superior or a commissioner. Neil Reeve Ritzville

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Drug policy: Advance to the rear

President Clinton’s choice of a four-star general to lead drug control efforts sends the wrong message at a time when the nation’s greatest needs are in the areas of drug treatment and prevention.

It seems clear that after months of being under fire for its drug policies, the Clinton administration has chosen Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey to protect Clinton’s right flank on drugs during the campaign season.

During confirmation hearings, Congress should demand that the administration justify the expenditure of taxpayer dollars for such a political purpose. By choosing a four-star general as drug czar and reviving talk of efforts to reduce drug use as a “battle,” the president has undercut one of his most significant achievements in the drug field - the elimination, until now, of the “war” metaphor for drug policy.

It is sad that an election year has caused the president to abandon his public health approach to drug control. The president himself has spoken of the danger of massive GOP-led cuts in drug education and treatment programs, but he has chosen an individual to head the drug office without the background or credibility to fight for those programs.

I wonder how many more of his positions the president will sacrifice in order to try and secure votes. Tom Hawkins Coulee Dam, Wash.

Listener of the House ill-mannered

What a congressman we have from this district.

I watched C-SPAN for the State of the Union address. Their roving camera caught Rep. George Nethercutt laughing and talking with the person next to him.

Whether the president is a Democrat or Republican, the office of president should be shown respect. What Rep. Nethercutt was doing was rude, crude and showed disrespect. John Llewellyn Spokane

Headlines reflect bias

Headlines in the Jan. 20 Spokesman-Review concisely spelled out this paper’s editorial leanings.

The first, “Relief for little guy helps big firms most,” propagated the thought pattern that the purpose of taxes is to redistribute wealth. There was no mention that with the B&O tax, Washington state has one of the most repressive business taxes in the country, and just maybe that this tax rollback would correct some of these wrongs.

The second headline stated, “Forbes buying way into nation’s heart.” The assumption is that voters are lemmings, driven by the winds of advertising and sound bites, with no intelligence to formulate opinions and think for themselves.

However, is it possible that voters are turning to Malcolm S. Forbes because his agenda makes sense, and a flat tax will generate investment and growth? Could it be that these same voters are tired of politicians who formulate political positions based on polls, special interests and the smell of money?

These headlines solidify the fact that the management of The Spokesman-Review needs to perform a serious self-evaluation. Does The Spokesman-Review hope to provide the news and be a source of honest community information while keeping its opinions to the editorial pages? Or is it just another self-serving, biased rag, believing its mandate is to hand-feed an unenlightened public that is too ignorant to evaluate news for themselves? Alfred S. Olsen IV Spokane

Du Pont corrupted by welfare?

Re: “John du Pont shoots Olympic wrestler.”

If there is a direct link between crime and the welfare system, I wonder if House Speaker Newt Gingrich will blame that one on the “corporate” welfare system? Bruce DeFrates Spokane

Clinton on side of average folks

Jeremy Bajema (Letters, Jan. 12) claimed that President Clinton was to blame for the impasse over the budget. His analysis of Clinton being at fault holds little water.

It is true that the GOP is fighting for what it believes in. Unfortunately, that does not include fighting for working class people like Bajema.

It is sad that most people who support the GOP do not understand that Republicans could not care less about working class people. The people Republicans like most are those who earn $150,000-plus per year, not the hard-working kind of people who live in Spokane, where the median income is roughly $19,000 per year.

Does Bajema give his hard-earned dollars to the Republicans? I think not. In addition, those Republicans Bajema supports want to pass legislation that will decrease the quality of the water he drinks. Clinton opposes this kind of rider being attached to budget bills.

The bottom line is that my president is standing firm on protections for clean water and other environmental concerns.

Look to Congress, not the president, to hold the rest of the nation hostage and to continue its attack on working class Americans like Bajema. Greg Gardner Pullman

Defense cutters are mistaken

Joan Harman (Letters) is typical of those misinformed about our defense spending, assuming reduced military spending is justified because the Cold War is supposedly over.

Such myopia becomes rampant the moment danger seems to no longer exist. It happened after the two world wars, even after Korea and Vietnam. Now it’s happening again.

Military spending has plummeted to 18 percent of the federal budget; down from 29 percent just 11 years ago. By the end of the century, the Navy will have only 346 ships, down from nearly 600 four years ago. Today, the Pentagon is spending less on new weapons and equipment than at any time in 40 years.

Clinton’s defense secretary, William J. Perry, stated, “The amount we’re spending on modernization today will not sustain our forces over the long term.”

Military strength is being drained by high-cost U.N. “peacekeeping” operations. Such operations drained almost $3 billion from the 1995 defense budget.

“Clinton has squandered the legacy he inherited,” said former defense secretary Dick Cheney, “and the world has become a more dangerous place.”

People like Harman are living in a dream world, falsely believing the Russians no longer constitute a threat. Russia has failed to dismantle weapons of mass destruction, a project the U.S. gave $1.7 billion in assistance to. Instead, Russia is modernizing and replacing weapons beyond defense requirements. It has also developed two new land-based missiles (the U.S. has none), a new submarine-based missile, a new missile sub and new underground bunkers. Charles C. Starr Coeur d’Alene

OTHER TOPICS

Cartoon good example of bad practice

I protest Milt Priggee’s Jan. 25 cartoon. This community (Idaho in particular) has made an enormous effort to teach its citizenry that stereotyping individuals is improper. Priggee’s editor has now sanctioned a sad example of such behavior.

When one finds a biased or inaccurate reporter, cartoonist or editor, shall all reporters, cartoonists or editors be accused of the same misbehavior?

I challenge Priggee to go to the newspaper’s lawyers or to federal judges at the Federal Courthouse in Spokane, look them in the eye and repeat the accusation in person. Or maybe he would like to come to Coeur d’Alene and do that to me.

If a lawyer lies he or she is fair game for whatever kind of criticism Priggee wants to level. Because Hillary Clinton stands accused of lying by William Safire does not mean, even if the accusation is proved, that all lawyers lie. If warranted, members of the bar association will be as hard on her as the rest of the citizens will be.

The shot by Priggee was not fair, but that is not so important. What is important is to teach that youngster in the cartoon to judge people on their individual merit and not on the basis of stereotypes. Hopefully, Priggee can run a cartoon that gives that lesson as well.

I am a lawyer and proud of it. Alan R. Markizon Coeur d’Alene

‘Don’t believe all’ is right

The “Don’t believe all you hear” letter (Jan. 3) was appropriately titled. Start by not believing Don Kerley.

He blamed the terrible washouts in Idaho forests on clearcuts and multiple logging roads. They were partly, but not entirely, to blame. But the big timber companies have learned from these mistakes and are using the latest technology to prevent these events, such as on steep slopes or if the timber is inaccessible by roads they use helicopters to remove the logs.

He stated that PBS television showed that with a timber harvesting machines one person can harvest more than 300 ax-and-saw people of yesterday could. True! More efficient, with less ground disturbance.

He claimed that if dead and dying timber is not logged it will become fertilizer for trees left standing. One hundred years ago, the forest averaged about 60 trees per acre. Now it’s closer to 600 trees per acre, due to tree planting and fire suppression. That goes beyond fertilizer all the way to fuel load for the next fire. A fire in that type of situation burns homes, mills and crops, not mention loss of human lives

It’s important to know that the Forest Service typically offers only about 20 percent of the burned trees for salvage, leaving the remaining 80 percent for fertilizer.

Kerley’s comment about the removal of one pine cone being detrimental to the forest is comical. Is he proposing we muzzle the squirrels? And where we do get the seeds to plant new trees when they are needed? Cliff Robinson Kettle Falls, Wash.

Don’t feed the bears, respect them

In response to the Jan. 21 article, “People, bears struggle to share habitat,” I am saddened by how people take matters into their own hands and destroy one of nature’s most majestic creatures just because they do not understand and are frightened by their misunderstanding. The article talked about how Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula had canceled its brown bear hunting season last year, yet bears were still being shot in so-called “self-defense.” This may result in no hunting season next year, according to biologists.

This is unfortunate since we, as humans, are the ones taking over the bear’s habitat. He has no way to fight back and he certainly can’t just sit down and try to work out a compromise with those too hotheaded to understand.

Human stupidity is shown in how a few irresponsible humans can endanger such a glorious animal. People, as mentioned in the article, feed the bears scraps and then are surprised when those same bears encroach on the human society begging for more. Don’t feed the bears if you’re unprepared for what will happen. Natalie A. Vaughn Cheney

Quilting not a lesser pursuit

At a recent hearing regarding golf fees, a gentleman said, “The fees you propose will put golf out of reach. We can’t play softball or football. You eliminate golf and you have quilting and shuffleboard.”

The world would be a kinder, gentler, softer, warmer, more comfortable place if there were more quilters.

At a recent Washington State Quilters meeting more than a dozen members showed quilts they have made for children with such serious diseases as cystic fibrosis and cancer. The quilts are made personally for each child, taking into consideration their color preferences, hobbies, etc. The quilts cost far more than $14.50 or even $17, and they are made with sheer love and compassion - and are donated for free. Quilters have made hundreds of quilts for Ronald McDonald House, women’s shelters, nursing homes and hospitals.

I don’t know much about shuffleboard, but please appreciate the art of quilting. Margie Karavitis Spokane