Letters To The Editor
SPOKANE MATTERS
Groups should not lock up river
Banning personal watercraft from the Spokane River would be totally unfair. Why should the interest of other sporting groups be considered more important than the personal watercraft rider’s interest?
The river is a fantastic asset to have right in the middle of our town, but it should be for all. The idea that PWC enthusiasts should go to Long Lake to enjoy the river is totally to misunderstand the objective of the people who ride the river. They want to ride in the current and/or white water.
It’s like asking someone who enjoys downhill skiing on Mount Spokane to drive up to Priest Lake and go cross-country skiing. Ask a kayaker or rafter to go Long Lake and see what they say.
Regarding the safety issue, the sheriff’s department says it is safest for Jet Skiers to stay off the water. Give me a break. It would be safer if no one would ever venture closer to the river than 30 feet, including fishermen, rafters, kayakers, etc.
The bottom line is that everyone should enjoy the river in a way that is fun to them. For any group to try and ban another group from using the river to enhance their sport is very selfish and unfair. Tolerance of other sporting activities should be exercised. The next ban could be aimed at you. John Russell Spokane
‘Bless our library system’
And so I said to the gal, “Why I believe you have an excellent idea. I will write a letter to the editor.”
What precipitated the suggestion?
As usual, I was busy thanking her for the excellent services offered by the library and saying how annoyed I get when cuts are made in those services they offer. Or when people refuse to vote in the affirmative when money is needed for one of the most valuable services offered in America.
Bless our library system and the help the libraries offer so many of us - the young and slightly older. Thomas R. Main Spokane
Road project will enhance safety
Recently a left-turn lane was completed at the intersection of Highway 395 and Monroe Road.
We know that it didn’t just happen, but that many individuals and groups were involved in making it possible. These people ranged from federal, state, county and grass-roots groups to individuals. Special thanks goes to the “Project 395” people.
Other projects are also being completed or worked on along this route. We are sure people who use those intersections or passing lanes feel as we do about the increased safety.
Everyone’s ultimate desire is a four-lane highway clear to Kettle Falls, but that could be a long time coming. However, those of us who use the Monroe left turn feel much safer.
A superhighway could be built and there would still be accidents. Safety starts with the person behind the wheel. Slow down, obey the law and we can all enjoy a safe trip on all the highways, streets and roads in the city, county, state and nation. Lynn and Bonnie Beazer Colbert
Innovative repair used only once?
When our city officials cannot figure out how to remedy a problem when it first crops up and take care of it right then, before it gets out of hand, they wait 50 years - and now they want to tax us to death to fix the streets. What has happened to the gas tax money?
What we need to run this city so it will be in the black is someone with brains who will listen to the citizens.
Look at Alberta Street; no potholes in the last few years since they paved it. Before that it was nothing but pothole alley. Someone said latex was used in laying it down. If this is true, it has saved us a lot of money in repairs. So why are they not doing this to all the streets? If they did, they wouldn’t be digging us for more taxes. But that would be the easy way. Harry M. Davidson Spokane
Traffic critic better forgo rocks
As I read the June 18 letter (“Need wide roads, neighborly drivers”) by James Allen I was amazed.
So, he has lived on the South Hill since 1970. From his statement I assume there are no rocket scientists in his family: “I carry a hand full of rocks…”? I guess the rocks are to be thrown at passing motorists.Doesn’t he realize he is breaking the law? That he could cause a chain-reaction accident?
First, Allen should remember there are stop signs on that corner. It is he who is entering the arterial. Anyone, including the students at the junior high, who thinks a driver can stop a 4,000-pound car on a dime gets another free think - as they climb out from underneath the car.
I invite Allen to cite the injury or fatal accidents that have occurred at that corner in the last 30 years.
When he is riding a bicycle he is not considered a pedestrian.
I further invite him to check the city ordinance concerning the pedestrian’s obligation prior to setting foot in the street. It is pretty clear that they have certain obligations - like making sure the way is clear both ways. You don’t just jump off the curb like you own the street. Charles E. McCollim Spokane
LAW AND JUSTICE
Need is for preventative justice
I’m responding to a letter writer’s complaint about the three-strike law. Granted, it does take the power to pass sentence away from the judge. However, that’s the purpose of the law.
A significant number of judges have been taking the easy way out and passing light sentences on repeat offenders to either make a deal, avoid being labeled as discriminatory or other such excuse. By taking this responsibility away from the judges - who have failed to uphold their responsibility to society - it is no individual’s fault for any criminal receiving a life sentence, it’s just the law.
The law’s intent is not to give a criminal a life sentence for robbing a convenience store or selling drugs. It mandates a life sentence for demonstrating that criminal is a menace to society who, if given the opportunity, will kill, rob or sell drugs again.
Most in society have forgotten the real purpose of our judicial system. We’ve become so concerned about the convicted individual’s rights we forget the rights of the law-abiding portion of society.
When a sentence is determined the criteria shouldn’t be whether it’s fair to jail the criminal but whether it’s fair to subject society to that individual.
Example: A drunk driver causes an accident that kills someone. Say this happens more than once. While it may seem harsh to jail him for the rest of his life (after all, it’s not his fault he’s an alcoholic), is it not harsher to the loved ones of his next victims to let him go free? Mark Gores Spokane
Judge threw book hard - bravo
I’m grateful to Judge Kathleen O’Conner for the 25-year sentence she recently handed down (“Drunken driver gets 25-year term for auto homicide,” News, June 14). She represents the feeling of the majority of this community and sends out a message.
Drinking and driving can and does kill innocent people, and the punishment should fit the crime. It’s about time that our judges use their common sense and treat murder as just that, regardless of how it was committed.
Our city could be a much safer, friendlier place to live if our courts would, in every instance, let criminals and would be criminals know that they will be punished to the fullest extent of the law. Arlene H. Giles Spokane
Courts re-victimize victims
A criminal has a right to a speedy trial and to delay the trial (“Delay of trial forces dismissal of rape charges”).
Why does the victim have no rights?
In my own case, my attacker chose to delay his trial for nearly a year. That is his “right.”
On July 5, 1995, my apartment was broken into and I was beaten and strangled by a former college athlete. My attacker’s team of three defense attorneys delayed his trial eight times. In March, the prosecutor’s office determined the case had become too expensive to pursue. The judge who permitted the eight delays ruled for deferred prosecution behind closed doors with the defense attorneys.
This case will never come to trial. The attacker, who had a 20-year-history of violence, is completely free and has again avoided being held accountable for his actions.
Why does a victim have no rights and no protection from the courts in Spokane? Why are our courts and judges more interested in protecting the criminal than in helping the victim?
My heart goes out to the 16-year-old girl in the rape case. Like me, she has learned the courts do not care and the judicial system offers us no protection. Cindy Houk Spokane
Here’s a reform worth trying
What a system we have here (“Delay of trial forces dismissal of rape charges,” June 12). The charges are completely dropped because the suspect’s trial was delayed too long. Amazing.
Could we come up with a better plan? What if, when the accused does have his constitutional rights infringed upon, we try his case anyway and then if he is convicted of the crime we balance his infringed constitutional rights against his victim’s constitutional rights and mete out punishment accordingly.
To drop the case is, to me, a larger infringement of constitutional rights of we the public who are the victims of crimes.
Please, someone, tell me if this cannot be done this way or if someone can think of a better plan. If it were not for other, unrelated charges this man could have been set completely free.
We the people, the victims of crimes in this great country, have rights we need to stick up for. Susan Simonds Spokane
FIREARMS
NRA over the semiautomatic edge
It seems I almost daily read about a mass murder and the wounding of innocent people. This is not by knives, clubs, or what have you, but usually by an automatic weapon of some kind.
How can American politicians continue to swallow that old cliche touted by the National Rifle Association, that “guns don’t kill, people do”? This quaint expression is small solace to families and victims of crimes in which automatic assault weapons were used.
No one enjoys hunting or owning a firearm or shotgun as much as I do. But I draw the line when it comes to supporting the advocates of mass ownership of assault weapons. They are designed for only one thing: to kill other human beings, as fast and as many as possible. Any politicians who believe otherwise are sadly mistaken.
As for our right to bear arms, as written in the Constitution, I don’t class the average person on the street with an assault weapon in his hands as a well-regulated militia by any stretch of the imagination.
The NRA has become too political through the years and has lost millions of members because of its recent views. I am one of them. James A. Nelson Spokane
THE ENVIRONMENT
Craig watching out for companies
It’s laughable that Opinion Editor John Webster is so concerned about taxpayer money being spent on public education concerning pollution in our Coeur d’Alene watershed (“Environmentalists create lead scare,” Opinion, June 3).
The videotape being distributed by the Public Lands Council was funded from surcharges on state transport of hazardous waste and earmarked for public environmental projects.
In contrast to this funding is the legislation being introduced by Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho. Senate Bill 1614 places the burden of cleanup from years of mining neglect with - you guessed it - the taxpayer.
If anything “smells,” as Webster puts it, it’s the fact that Sen. Craig has received more mining PAC money than any other senator over the last several years.
Have we the taxpayers been sold out again? It’s a story too often told.
I applaud the Inland Empire Public Lands Council for its work with the Department of Ecology in bringing this important issue to focus in our community. Lola K. Frederick Spokane
Alarmist approach worth little
Recent attempts by some to sound an alarm about lead pollution in the Spokane River system seem motivated more by anti-mining sentiment than by a sincere desire to clearly define the significance of the problem and bring about a solution.
Money spent recently to produce a video designed to create fear and anger would have been far better spent on unbiased, scientific analysis of the issue. Faced with reliable technical data clearly defining a health threat, few reasonable people would deny the need to take action. But that threat ought to be defined by solid technical analysis.
While less-enlightened mining practices of the past no doubt contributed to the lead pollution, this metal was entering the river system long before the first miners entered the Silver Valley. If you pause on I-90 anywhere between Cataldo and Lookout Pass, you will see miles and miles of country rock that is full of lead-bearing minerals. Then think of the many cubic miles of similar material that were removed by erosion to create the Silver Valley, and you will realize that the Coeur d’Alene/ Spokane River system has always contained lead in its sediments and always will.
The important question, to which we still don’t have a definitive answer, is does this natural and manmade condition pose a threat today? This can only be answered by careful scientific evaluation. It is time to stop the lawsuits, the accusations and the bickering and get on with solving the real problem. Otto L. Schumacher, geologist Spokane
PEOPLE IN SOCIETY
Oppressed minorities, move over
I’ve been thinking. My mother is English, Scottish and Welsh. Pop was Dutch and Scottish (or Irish), with a touch of American Indian, and was once a Canadian citizen. My wife is French Canadian and something else.
My oldest brother and I have six Spanish children, born in Colombia. My youngest brother has a Puerto Rican wife who was raised in Hawaii. Along with their homegrown children they have an adopted biracial daughter.
My sister is married to a German, one sister-in-law is the daughter of Ukrainian immigrants and my sister-in-law-to-be is Hong Kong Chinese.
I’ve decided to become outraged. We are clearly a minority. Certainly, we deserve some sort of special treatment. I’m not asking for a congressional district, although we certainly deserve one. After all, how many of us have ever served in Congress? It must be discrimination.
Maybe an ethnic studies program at a local college will do. Better yet, give us the right to own a business (a casino?) without being subject to local laws.
What ethnic group, you ask? I’m surprised you don’t know. I’m a Member of the Unrecognized Theoretical Tribe. I’m damn proud to be a MUTT. Jim Shamp Cheney