Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

May he lose by a landfill

The other evening an article in your publication (“County may hire public relations firm,” Region, April 23) quoted one of our county commissioners as referring to one of our more highly paid county employees ($28,000) as “He’s junk.”

Fact of the matter is, we all really know who the “junk” is, and when the next election comes up for that commissioner position, we will hopefully “empty the trash,” so to speak. Bob Sanborn Colbert

Pro-city group employed democracy

Opinion Editor John Webster, in his vitriolic editorial (“City backers abuse Democratic process,” Our View, April 18), accused City of Opportunity proponents of abuse and said, “(with) ballots by mass mail, anyone can vote.”

How does a balloting system that has made this nation great for over two centuries deprive anyone of his/her vote? The infirm and the indisposed have long had the option of a mail-in, or absentee, ballot. Anyone can vote but most don’t because it involves making the effort, which makes voting enjoyable for those who care but burdensome for those who don’t.

He states, we “actually … agreed with” the Boundary Review Board’s decision. I looked through all my papers from the BRB, trying to find one I signed agreeing with its decision. It doesn’t exist.

To the unstated but implicit accusation that we acted unethically when we tried to salvage a year of hard, dedicated labor, I ask: Is it ethical for outside forces to use the auditor’s office to decide the outcome of our election?

Is it ethical to shorten our 30-day campaign period to five days? If the ballots had been mailed out May 1, as Bill Donahue intended, that would have effectively ended our campaign for an election ostensibly set for May 21.

It’s unfortunate that the newspaper should use the phrase “City backers abuse democratic process” when Cowles Publishing, through its powerful media organs, exhibits contempt for democracy over and over again.

We used the democratic process and I’m not sorry The Spokesman-Review is offended by this. Ed Meadows Spokane

Always leave ‘em laughing, eh?

Loved your tongue-in-cheek piece, “City ready, willing to listen to you” (Opinion, April 16). However, it would have been even better if you had waited until the “Police review panel just empty chairs” (April 21) had come out, don’t you think? David Grubb Spokane

More-aesthetic plaza worth cost

I thought that Bridget Dagg hit right on the mark with a number of statements in her article (“Why should the less affluent catch bus in a drab barn?” Street Level, April 21).

I do think the cost overruns should not have been, but what we need to do is not knock what we have but fix the problems for the next project.

I ride the bus seven days a week and am very happy that I have somewhere nice to stand out of the weather when it gets too cold, wet or even too hot.

To answer the question about why people still stand outside to wait for the bus, you will notice most are smokers. Also, if you are traveling through the plaza during peak hours you will see more people are inside than outside.

As for the special tiles and other high-cost items that were used in the construction, those will last a lot longer than junk would. I pay taxes just like everyone else and do enjoy having a place to relax after work while waiting for my transportation home. I cannot afford the luxury of going to the Opera House or the Arena for all the special events, and I feel that this has given me back some of what I have put out to the city. Myke Gaines Spokane

LAW ENFORCEMENT

Running lights not the only problem

The police are going to write tickets for people running red lights. That would be a good time to write tickets for drivers turning corners and not staying in their lane, which is illegal.

Some vehicles will take three lanes when turning at Francis and Division or Division and Wellesley.

The police could also write tickets for driving vehicles with parking lights only on when it is dark, or no lights at all or for having only one headlight. Tommy Bost Spokane

What’s the point, really?

I feel I have to express my anger at the money being spent to tell the public not to run red lights. I think as we take a test to receive a driver’s license we know to obey traffic signals.

This money could be spent for the homeless or other important projects.

What makes us believe a person who runs red lights is intelligent enough to read “don’t run red lights” signs? K.S. Belling Spokane

LAW AND JUSTICE

To what do we owe this distinction?

That’s an interesting quote from Prosecuting Attorney Jim Sweetser in the April 30 front-page story, “Prosecutor says Mangan did no wrong.”

Sweetser says, “There is no legal or factual basis to seek criminal charges against Chief Terry Mangan.”

So, are we to assume that a legal basis for something is not the same as factual, or vice-versa? Richard T. Brown Spokane

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

Self-appointed judges plentiful

I cannot believe how many supposedly perfect, intolerant people there are in Spokane. Sharma Shields did the right thing by coming forward on her own to confess to the Lilac Festival Association board what happened.

She took full responsibility for her actions, accepting the fact that she made a mistake and exercised poor judgment. I feel the board’s original decision was correct and fair. In no way did it condone what happened. It is too bad the board weakened under political pressure.

Sharma demonstrated the proper standard of the board by coming forward. It took a lot of courage for her to do that, especially since this incident would probably never have become public. Her past performance should count for something.

Sharma, you are a true princess to me. You have demonstrated courage, integrity and dignity, unlike some of the “perfect” grownups in this city. It is a shame that this happened but you will surely rise above it. Hang in there and know that you did the right thing. Unfortunately, politics don’t always recognize that. Your parents should be very proud of you and know that there are people in Spokane who forgive your momentary lack of judgment. Rosey Deal Spokane

Shields emblematic of greater ills

Sharma Shields is an issue in our community because her situation represents a much greater, vexing problem we are facing, not only in Spokane but throughout the country. This issue concerns our response (or lack thereof) in disciplining our children for acting in destructive and unacceptable ways.

Those who beg leniency for Sharma make me feel that this population includes those parents who are raising a generation of undisciplined, irresponsible children. Other problems of violence, lack of any values and rampant apathy arise from these childrearing ways.

The other side represent parents who maintain strict, yet loving discipline in the home, give their children the greater gift of self-confidence, the knowledge of what is acceptable behavior, and in turn raise more-responsible children.

Sharma is not the actual issue. She only became the center of this debate because of the lack of strong discipline given to her after she decided to drink and drive.

It is hard as a community and as parents to be stern with our children, but strong discipline’s greater rewards are shown in happier and stronger individuals who understand the consequences of poor behavior. Lisa Olive O’Quinn Fairchild Air Force Base

Intimidated parents do bad job

I am 16, and I think it is a travesty that today’s children under the age of 10 are committing such horrific crimes.

More disturbing is that today’s child experts, so called, don’t know why so many in tomorrow’s generation do what they do. The evidence is right under their upturned noses and blind eyes.

Every time a child is paddled, slapped or whipped on the butt, it’s considered child abuse. Parents can’t even slap their children on the face without having Child Protective Services take the kids away to a foster home for a week.

What’s psychologically tougher on a child:

Being slapped and put in the corner for 10 minutes.

Being slapped, sent to the corner and then, a day later, having strangers at the door who say your parents have been bad people and so you must go to a foster home for a week?

If you chose the first option, you’re part of why our children are acting so psychotic. We need to punish our children for what they have done wrong, not just say, “Now Johnny, you don’t take Eddie’s basketball and pop it just because he wouldn’t let you play.”

What we need to do is paddle Johnny’s butt, stick him in the corner and make him think about it for an hour, and buy Eddie a new basketball. Johnny should not be sent to his room, where his computer, stereo and Sega are. Jeremy McKee Spokane

Cheers for hard-working students

Congratulations to all of the high school students who were honored recently at the “brainpower banquet,” and to all those students who did not make the paper but have studied and worked toward intellectual achievement and academic recognition.

Louis Rukavina and those supporting Spokane Scholars are making an enormous contribution to our community. Hats off to The Spokesman-Review for giving this story the billing it deserves on the front page. Dr. Perry Higman, director University Honors, Eastern Washington University

We should listen to young people

Thank you, Kate Kershner, for your truly exceptional editorial (Opinion, April 26) on Sharma Shields. I would like to see more editorials explain how the newspaper and other media so frequently make situations worse through exaggeration and misinterpretation.

Accepting responsibility for one’s mistakes and faults is a lesson that is hard for youths to learn, because adults routinely set the wrong example.

Unfortunately, when youths express their frustration with this dissonance, they are usually ignored. When will we learn to really listen, instead of dismissing the insights and criticisms of our young people? Cris M. Currie Mead

ENVIRONMENT

‘Uncle Bunker’ like Typhoid Mary

Your April 23 story which reveals plans to revive the Bunker Hill mine in the Silver Valley has aroused concern among those of us who are aware of the history of mining in this area.

Every semester my university writing students complete a case study of the Bunker Hill mine because it provides a dramatic local example of an environmental disaster. We ask what circumstances led to the creation of this Superfund site. We classify mining practices which have impacted local citizens’ health, jobs, benefits and retirement, not to mention the Coeur d’Alene watershed. We examine social, political, economic and environmental impacts.

Imagine my disappointment, then, to learn of the plans of “Royal Silver Mines to breathe $40 million worth of life back into Silver Valley” with only a brief nod to the fact that “Uncle Bunker” is located in the heart of the Superfund site.

This article hardly presents a model of critical thinking to my students. How will Royal Silver Mines extract these heavy metals without further contributing to the pollution? Are new mining technologies now available?

Anyone interested in the case study of Bunker Hill Mine can call 838-4912 to obtain a copy of “Poisoning Children: Corporate Profits-Public Health.”

The irony of Bob Hopper’s statement isn’t lost on those of us who have become informed: “If it’s a good deal for the mine, it’ll always be a good thing for us.”

Contact Arlene Yoss of Great Falls, Mont., one of the children poisoned by Uncle Bunker, for her response to this statement. Ramona S. Evans Spokane

Arguments reveal weak position

The headline of Staff Writer D.F. Oliveria’s April 24 editorial, “Conehead policy will hurt forests,” is an outright lie.

The headline refers to a policy of zero commercial logging on public land. Since native forests survived forever without the assistance of chainsaws, and since industrial forestry is killing forests, it’s absurd to suggest a policy banning commercial cutting hurts forests.

Oliveria’s primary support? “If the … policy became law, it could prompt timber firms to log every toothpick possible off private land.”

Timber transnationals are already overcutting, as Oliveria would know if he’d done research. Has Oliveria forgotten Champion cutting and running? That Weyerhaeuser has no old growth left?

Has he forgotten that Plum Creek states: “We have never said we were on a sustained-yield program, and we have never been on a sustained-yield program. Let’s get to the heart of it. Sure, it’s extensively logged, but what’s wrong with that?”

Oliveria’s secondary support consists, as usual, of insults. Those calling for zero commercial cut are “coneheads,” or “the wine-and-brie set.” But according to numerous polls, most Americans favor a ban on all commercial extraction from public lands.

If Oliveria had facts to support his assertions he wouldn’t have to rely on name-calling. Derrick Jensen Spokane

Federal officials, pay attention

It was interesting reading details in the April 19 edition of the paper regarding the Barney Rubble’s Cabin salvage timber sale.

Fish and Game officials believe watershed restoration in this area should be a priority. Money for restoration of watersheds is not available without a timber sale in the area to provide needed funds.

Politicians in charge of federal forest funds ought to look at this ongoing problem. The Forest Service should be given the funds necessary to maintain healthy forests and related ecosystems. As long as politicians control forest funds, healthy forests will be difficult to maintain. Chris Wellman Rose Lake, Idaho