Letters To The Editor
VIOLENCE
Working through our loss, grief
Faced with the horrific tragedy involving the loss of two of our recent graduates, the West Valley High School community has come together this week, both in pain and with hope, to remember and honor our friends, to console each other in our grief and to explore ways we might help end the insane, inexplicable violence that surrounds us.
There is no simple, immediate prescription for how an individual or school needs to respond to tragedy. In sorrow we are all challenged to look within ourselves in new ways.
As with individual healing, schools move through similar stages of reaction to loss; from shock and buffering denial to anger, acceptance, healing and hope.
West Valley High School is a sensitive and caring community. Since arriving at school on the morning of April 29, we have been taking active steps to extract both personal and collective meaning from the deaths we have been forced to confront this year.
Wonderful people - students, faculty and community members alike - have expressed their sympathies and hopes in ways that have been both public and quietly private.
As a community of conscience we need to keep working past the tragedy, together and with love, in order to assure that “the storm of last night may be crowned this morning with golden peace.” Cleve Penberthy. principal West Valley High School
Bomb stupidity won’t be tolerated
This is in response to the cowardly act of terrorism against all the people of Spokane we witnessed in the bomb blast at City Hall.
I fully understand the frustration and futility in political dissension. Most would agree that we need political reform at all levels of government. But all would agree that this is not the way to do it.
Use the tools at hand: initiative, recall, referendum and ballot box. A pen and a book of stamps will achieve far more than any bomb ever could. We are the government, we are city hall. That is our building, not some phantom entity’s.
This act of terrorism cannot and will not be tolerated by the great people of Spokane. Ken Withey Spokane
IN THE PAPER
Attack on Gonzaga unwarranted
Milt Priggee’s editorial cartoon spelling Gonzaga with a KKK hood (May 5) is reminiscent of the material Hitler used during the Holocaust. This was part of Hitler’s big lie campaign designed to distort and destroy.
Gonzaga, whose founder was a missionary to local Native Americans, is a nationally recognized university that is privately funded. The school was established by people of vision and courage to serve society and it has survived and excelled because of people who have made heroic sacrifices.
The Jesuit priests take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Their primary mission is the spiritual, intellectual and moral development of all of God’s people. They live it, preach it and teach it daily.
The Jesuits of Gonzaga Prep and Gonzaga University, including the presidents, each live in one small room that includes all their worldly possessions. There are no ivory towers on these campuses.
The faculty, staff and students participate in our community at every level, from tutoring children and assisting the sick and elderly to the highest level of leadership.
Gonzaga Prep and GU have graduated tens of thousands of responsible, productive and caring people with minimal public funding.
This statement by Priggee and The SpokesmanReview, attacking this dedicated university, its staff and students, is incorrect, irresponsible, uninformed, insensitive, ungrateful and sad. Dave Hamer Spokane
Sounds right but reads wrong
Your front page quotation from Gonzaga’s Coleen Stoudmire, as wanting to “ring somebody’s neck,” is a wringing instance of your consistent failure to edit out homophone errors.
Some training for your reporting-editing staff is long overdue. Ed Reynolds Spokane
GASOLINE TALLY
Send oil companies a weekly message
Many of us can remember when oil companies had price wars to capture the summer tourist/traveler. Now, knowing travelers will pay whatever they demand, the price of gasoline rises every summer, proving the end price of a product has little to do with the cost of production, distribution and marketing. The price is whatever the public will pay.
Oil companies claim the rapid price increase this spring is due to a shortage of supplies. The oil companies created those shortages with their own decisions. The cost of their raw materials hasn’t changed significantly in several years and the cost of production, distribution and marketing is about the same whether there’s a shortage or a glut of raw materials.
We are told the steep price increases are attributable to market forces. That means as long as the consumer is willing to pay their asking price the trend will continue.
Isn’t it time for a rebellion?
If we want to get the the oil companies’ attention, there is a way to do it with little sacrifice and almost no inconvenience on the consumer’s part. It would have a tremendous impact.
All we consumers need do is refuse to buy even one gallon of gasoline on Fridays. Simply arrange your fueling time to some other day and stay out of gasoline stations on Fridays.
Nothing does more to moderate rising prices than the consumer who says, I’ll be damned if I’ll pay that much. Dave Perkins Spokane
Make a difference - boycott
I’m boycotting! I realize that the oil companies have us over a barrel. I need fuel to get to work and to do errands. I know we can’t completely stop purchasing gasoline. Therefore, I propose that we consumers of this nation choose one of the major oil companies and refuse to buy their products. I think this might persuade them to reconsider the exorbitant increases in fuel prices.
Let’s not wait upon legislators to try to resolve this issue. We can make a difference, one person at a time, one gas tank at a time. Ted Baker Spokane
Oil companies will eat farmers’ profits
I have farmed for 47 years and this is the first time it looks like farmers might make a little profit. I’m amazed how many people are concerned about that.
Wall Street is worried that food prices will rise. If they do it won’t be because of the price of wheat. Bread and cereal prices have been outrageous for years, while farmers were getting less than $3.50 a bushel for wheat.
Opinion Editor John Webster’s May 2 editorial expressed concern about how we would handle these high prices and the loss of subisidies. Farmers pay into different organizations to study wheat production, quality control, weed and soil control and marketing practices.
Most farmers don’t want subsidies and government controls. They would like a fair price for their wheat that coincides with operating expenses. Some countries completely subsidize their farmers so they can take less for their wheat when they sell to foreign countries.
People should be more concerned about fuel costs and the profiteering of the oil companies right now. This is going to have a greater effect on the consumer than wheat prices.
Truck companies can’t continue to operate with the high fuel prices so they will raise their freight rates. The higher rates will be passed on to consumers. These high prices also affect the farmer, so he isn’t making as much profit as everyone thinks.
The media say the government is looking into the high fuel prices, but why is it taking so long?
Why not let the farmers make a living and look to where the real inflation is coming from? Gwen Ruegsegger Otis Orchards
Local station owners victims, too
It is not entirely true that “Spokane gas stations are ripping off the public,” as Jim Easling wrote (Letters, April 21). It is the corporations that are.
Corporations set the wholesale price for gasoline, region by region. Their sublime wisdom has determined that you can pay more right now.
Most gas stations are owned by your neighbors. It’s not these little guys who are stealing from you. But - and this is where Easling is right - many gas stations throughout the country are owned by the same corporations that make the stuff and set the wholesale price that the little guys must pay. This corporation then sets the retail price at their stations as well, and that much above the wholesale price.
The guy down the street then has to cut back, scrimp and sweat to keep his price competitive. Indeed, it is automotive work and the convenience store that keep him afloat.
The corporation, on the other hand, will hire kids at minimum wage to clerk the convenience store and collect your money for gas. So they pocket the retail-wholesale difference like all retailers, but then keep the wholesale price minus the production costs as wholesalers do, save on wages, and then shaft you because you live in Spokane.
Next time you smell conspiracy, Easling, don’t point the finger at the nice guy down the street. Point it at the notat-all-nice corporation that rips you both off. John-Dan Key Republic, Wash.
GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
Politicians should address hunger issue
In Idaho, 67,000 children under age 12 are either hungry or at risk of hunger. In Washington, the number is 257,000. As candidates for public office gear up for the upcoming primaries, they should offer solutions to this dramatic problem.
Even though bashing federal programs has become a popular sport of politicians, voters still believe federal nutrition programs play an important role in reducing hunger. A poll commissioned by Second Harvest, a national network of 185 food banks, showed that 84 percent of all U.S. citizens believe that the government should maintain or increase spending for food assistance programs, such as the Women, Infants and Children program (WIC), which provides supplemental food for low-income pregnant women and young children who are nutritionally at risk.
According to another recent poll, 95 percent of Americans agree that hunger should be a major issue in the upcoming elections. Candidates who ignore the wellbeing of our nation’s children do so at their own peril.
All candidates should come forward with their answers to the injustice of childhood hunger, because no child should be allowed to go hungry in Idaho, Washington or any other state in America. Jo Austin Post Falls
Only fools and knaves will be taken in
You have recently printed two letters right out of Rush Limbaugh’s mouth about President Clinton and fake tears at Ron Brown’s funeral. I’ve seen this little episode several times and it gets worse every time.
These letter writers were so wanting to believe anything that would demean Clinton that they would believe that at a Cabinet member’s funeral there would be only one camera the president might be able to see.
I would guess at least 40 cameras would be recording this event.
I’m glad I am not so stupid that I could be taken in by this type of TV bull. Wayne Rawley Coulee Dam
THE ENVIRONMENT
Faulty thinking common, worthless
Recently, the Roundtable featured several letters lambasting resource extraction industries. This was all in good timing for the recently passed Earth Day. Again, hype, hysteria, exaggeration, and half-truths were magnificently displayed.
Several letters railed against logging, stating that anyone who supports logging must a be a rich Republican or not an outdoor person. I know poor Democratic outdoor people who favor logging and make their living at it.
Old growth forests are sometimes not healthy and may contain lower biodiversity than a young or middle-aged stand.
One letter referred to ASARCO’s Rock Creek project, claiming the mine would be a big polluter of Lake Pend Oreille. This project’s environmental impact statement period has been long and much scrutinized and modified by U.S. Forest Service and state regulators. As modified, it meets environmental requirements for water discharge and leak-proof waste storage.
The writer claimed that “thousands of lake-based jobs” would be lost for 50 or so mining jobs. Projected mining employment would be at least 250, with better wages than generally available in tourist-based Sandpoint. This seems to be another example of the environmental tactic of “if research doesn’t support your preconceived notions, exaggerate and go cry to the public.”
I’d rather live with facts and good research than exaggeration and pre-formed results. People need to read more than just the newspaper or watch television to get the truth. Participants in the Earth Day walk across the Long Bridge probably did not ponder the source of the iron and concrete they were walking on. John Etienne Coeur d’Alene
OTHER TOPICS
Gospel’s truth is what counts
Although I agree with most of Peter Wehner’s story (“The almighty vote,” April 28), I found some of his assumptions to be wrong.
He says he is a Christian, complains about Christians involving themselves in politics, yet he himself belongs to Empower America.
One, he talks as though the church is universal and that because one calls himself a Christian that makes it so. If I call a cat a dog, the cat still remains a cat. Because one says he or she is a Christian doesn’t make it so. Two, the focal point of Christ’s ministry was not on the downtrodden and outcast, it was sin.
In 1 John 4:1 we are told to prove and test everything - including false prophets or people who call themselves Christians. Christians are told we will know them by their fruits. If we tested people who say they are Christians and aren’t teaching people about salvation, then I think there might be a problem.
God didn’t confuse man, but man will confuse you. God gave us just one way of salvation, stated several times in the book of Acts. Jesus preached one church, not the church of your choice.
On the basis that Wehner lumps anyone who says he is a Christian a Christian, I disagree. The Christians I know aren’t perfect, but neither do they fall into this article.
Christianity should be about saving souls - period. Yes, support your country, vote, have a say. Remember, though, in the end all that will mean zero. The question will be: Did you obey the Gospel? Kevin B. Dahl Coeur d’Alene
Abortion not just or humane
We have a hard time accepting Vern Klingman’s claim (“President’s veto just, humane,” Letters, May 2) that President Clinton’s veto of the partial-birth abortion ban is justified. Since when is abortion just and humane?
Granted, if a mothers very life is endangered, common sense and heart tell us that the baby must die. But what about normal pregnancies?
Let us remind Klingman that God abhors hands that shed innocent blood. If that doesn’t convince him, we suggest reading Exodus 20, verse 13. Let us call abortion what it really is: murder. Dave and Beth Carlson Spokane