Letters To The Editor

WASHINGTON STATE

Some things you just don’t legislate

A law that will force everyone to have heart and compassion? (“Required to rescue,” June 14, on the proposed Joey Levick bill). We don’t need a law that requires us to love our neighbor. That is already covered in the Bible. Isn’t there already a law concerning accessory to murder?

Melva Levick, I refuse to believe that our society has deteriorated to the point where we need a law to force us to do the right thing. There are just too many cases of personal heroism and selfless acts committed by everyday people to support having a law of this nature.

Perhaps no one saw your son lying in that ditch except for the killers. The estimated $50,000 you have spent already on your campaign to vindicate your son’s death could have been spent in a more positive manner. A law that would protect good Samaritans from lawsuits would be a good idea. A law that makes life insurance companies pay such heroes a reward for saving their client’s life would be another.

Levick, virtually everyone I know would have stopped to help your son if we’d had the chance. I pray that you will find closure for the death of your son and that you will realize that the vast majority of human beings have compassion.

Government-regulated love and compassion would be a black eye to Washington state. Tell the world we are so uncaring we need a law to force us to be kind to one another? That’s not the Washington I know. Robert A. Jensen Spokane

SPOKANE MATTERS

See trail plans for yourself

As owner of a plot adjacent to 13 family members in Riverside Memorial Park, and as an avid fan and occasional cyclist on the Centennial Trail, I support the trail route proposed by Friends of the Centennial Trail.

Bicyclists and runners travel by Greenwood/Riverside Memorial Parks daily, and these folks are far closer to gravesites than they would be on the proposed trail route.

The trail wouldn’t be visible or obtrusive. It wouldn’t encroach on the sacredness of the burial grounds, nor would it interfere with services held there.

The Centennial Trail literally abuts Fort Wright Cemetery, unlike the proposed route near Riverside Memorial Park. I’ve bicycled past Fort Wright Cemetery several times and have paused there to rest. I’ve observed no disturbances by cyclists or walkers. The proposed trail past Riverside will, on the other hand, be fenced to separate users by distance and sight.

Please take the time, if you are a concerned plot owner or if you have a family member at Riverside, to drop by the Friends of the Trail office and fully inform yourself of the proposed route. You’ll be pleased to learn of the careful consideration and safeguards that have gone in to the planning.

Friends of the Trail members have taken great care in their planning to beautify and add to the aesthetics of the proposed route near the cemetery. It is the most logical and cost-effective route available, and it will be a terrific loss to us and future generations if we make the wrong choice. Bill Bussard Spokane

Trail should run by the river

I appreciated Opinion Editor John Webster’s June 9 editorial on the Centennial Trail (“What would city’s pioneers have done?” Opinion). He said it all very well.

I was a founder of the trail and have been actively involved in matters concerning it for more than 15 years. We have crossed many barriers of conflicts with private property rights and have surmounted them all. I hope we can surmount the unanticipated one involving Riverside Memorial Park.

I have a related project which involves the establishment of an Indian National Park at what is now called People’s Park, which will include a community college associated with Spokane Falls Community College. The trail connecting it to SFCC and beyond is an essential ingredient. Robert D. Dellwo Spokane

Why tax just homeowners?

This is in response to city planning services Director Irv Reed’s proposal to raise money to fix our ailing streets.

Reed states that “We have a problem with our streets.” Well, Spokane streets have been a mess since I started driving in 1986, and they weren’t in any better shape before that.

Everyone in Spokane knows that the streets we drive on every day are horrible. Everyone knows they need to be repaired. But Reed’s proposal to take money away from those who are buying or own their home is ludicrous, to say the least.

Are there only homeowners driving on the roads? Of course not! Surely the guys and gals living in the apartments down the road use that same road every day. Besides, the homeowner is taxed enough as it is.

Another question. What did the $400-plus that I spent licensing two vehicles this year go to? Washington state, so I’m told, has some of the highest-priced vehicle licensing fees in the country. Where does this money get allocated?

Surely not enough goes to this side of the state, as Reed is going after the homeowner to repair streets. Which brings me to my last question.

Is he a renter? Scott Steele Spokane

Remarkable how penalties shake out

According to staff writer D.F. Oliveria’s editorial (“Picture this: Photo-red looks like dead-end idea,” From Both Sides, June 7 ), the cost of a ticket for running a red light will be “an automatic $66.”

I understand that the fine for skateboarding on the sidewalk is $90. Does this make sense? Anita Raddatz Spokane

SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION

Need for PCs worse at Rogers

Evan Stancil (“Students needs more PCs in school,” Letters, June 9) stated that Ferris High School has only 150 computers for students to use - one for every 13 students.

I don’t feel sorry for him at all. I work at Rogers High School, and I don’t think we have 150 computers for student use in the whole school. Evan ought to come to Rogers just one day and see how hard it is to get computer time in the MAC lab when you have to share it with other classes. Try having one computer for about 40 students.

I, too, would love to see more computers in the public schools, as technology is the way of the future. We need to educate school district voters to pass a levy. In the meantime, some schools have to do without. Stancil, you should count your blessings. I think Ferris is pretty well off as far as computers for students is concerned. Barbara Beck Colbert

THE MEDIA

Good news great to see

It was a day brightener on June 13th to see a picture of those bright, talented students at Lewis and Clark High School doing something to beautify our neighbor City of Spokane (“Face Lift,” page 1, by staff photographer Christopher Anderson).

If businesses like The Spokesman-Review, and parents and grandparents would give more recognition and encouragement to this kind of good thing, we might just see a little less of the bad things.

I would love to see more pictures and stories of this type, and I bet they’re out there, if we would just all take the time and effort to look for them. Thanks again, Spokesman-Review and Lewis and Clark students. Carol Bordeaux Medical Lake, Wash.

Coverage slights some graduates

I was pleased to open my newspaper on June 6 and see a listing of all the graduates from high school from the south and western parts of Spokane. It is nice to honor all graduates and see their names in the paper. The valedictorians and some scholarship winners from each school were also listed.

Then, when I got to work, I saw that graduates from schools on the North Side not only had their names in the paper, but each school’s senior class also had its picture in the paper. In addition, pictures and short articles on all the valedictorians ran in the paper. It was a pleasure to see all the pictures and read about the students who had maintained a 4.0 average throughout their high school careers.

However, I was shocked and dismayed to see that students in all parts of town were not treated equally. I and others would like to know why students from Lewis & Clark, Ferris, Cheney, Medical Lake and Freeman were slighted in this manner. Your paper all to often highlights teens with problems, but it does not write enough about those who excel.

Graduation time is when all students in the area should be treated equally. Dina Tanners Spokane

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Doctors flunk Gorton, Nethercutt

Physicians for Social Responsibility, a prestigious, nonpartisan, national organization of doctors, has issued a final report card for our Congress for 1995 on children’s environmental health.

PSR said children are more vulnerable to everyday hazards in our environment because they are developing rapidly and consume more food and drinks per pound of body weight than adults do.

PSR evaluated all representatives on 22 votes plus one bill co-sponsorship, and all senators on 11 votes, all of which directly applied to children’s health. A grade of ‘A’ means that Congressperson voted for children’s health every time. A grade of ‘F’ means a Congressperson voted against children’s health every time.

The final grades: Sen. Patty Murray got an A. Sen. Slade Gorton and Rep. George Nethercutt got Fs. Julian Powers Spokane