Letters To The Editor

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

Hate a matter of blame shifting

Another young, woman-hating boy goes berserk with a baseball bat and kills young women. Then we’ve got man-hating men over in Montana who have had such trouble with the male authority figures in their lives that once they no longer had the Great Russian Bear to hate, they had to turn their hatred on that other great big male in the sky, their own government. (The rise of militias is concurrent with the breakdown of the Cold War.)

People wring their hands and raise their eyebrows and despair of understanding what’s going wrong with their world, yet all these things are pretty understandable and are hinted at in that great half-science/half-art field of psychology. But people still roll their eyes when you try to suggest what may have caused these tragedies. They think you are making excuses for the criminals or siding with them when, actually, you’re just trying to understand the dynamics of the situation.

Sharing the life/ride with these people is like riding a roller coaster that keeps jumping the tracks and killing us. Along comes a roller coaster repairman. He points out a loose track, but people tell him to quit making excuses for the ride.

People with blinders on like that make it easy for authority-hating males, women-hating males, power-hungry people, male-hating women, etc., to accept the hard, often terrifying responsibility of facing their own inner demons and to quit blaming and killing others for their problems.

George Thomas Spokane

Culture a domestic commodity, too

It amazes me to read stories about “culture” in The Spokesman-Review. They always center around “foreigners,” where somehow the U.S.-born don’t qualify for the term.

The article, “‘A man of two worlds” (May 5) seems to go overboard in trying to make a point about race. I take issue with Professor John Yoder’s statements, “I think it is a rare individual who is bicultural.” “Moving easily from a mostly white campus … shows a knack for understanding people.” This is a crock.

Aren’t colleges and universities there to teach young people about understanding each other’s culture? Those born in the U.S. experience cultural exchanges daily. What is rare about this? Nothing.

This is the same professor who took students on a whirlwind trek to “experience racism close up.” All he had to do was visit the Gonzaga law school campus; that could have saved Whitworth a lot of travel funds.

During a lecture series at Gonzaga, one professor was adamant about First Amendment rights being unrestricted. When professors believe you can say anything without responsibilities, it creates a climate that nurtures hate.

Is it politically correct to revere foreigners with feel-good articles rather than protect U.S. citizens? Edward Thomas Jr. Spokane

LAW AND JUSTICE

Affirmative action is unfair

I am a poor white man. I have two children to help support and care for, bills and taxes to pay. I work for myself and pay my own way. No subsidies or entitlements support me.

Because of affirmative action I belong to the most discriminated against group when it comes to employment or contracts. Someone can get a job or a contract over me simply by belonging to a minority, because someone not even related to me, but with the same skin color, abused someone else’s ancestors. Does this really and logically sound fair to anyone?

Preferential treatment of one group over another is wrong no matter what you call it. Equality is a high ideal to strive for. Equality for everyone.

Many of affirmative action’s actions give preference to certain groups over others. This causes one group to believe that another group owes its members something. That undermines self-sufficiency and responsibility. It also causes the group not getting but paying for benefits to feel disadvantaged, used and discriminated against.

All this causes tension between the groups. Any time you give privileges to one group, another is discriminated against.

I am not complaining about my position; I am responsible for where I am and how I live, and that is fine with me. My point is that I pull my own weight and I expect others to do the same. We all have opportunities. Brad Brougher Spokane

ABORTION

Double standard at work

The Roman Catholic Church has said abortion is the taking of an innocent life. The church also believes the death penalty is morally wrong, and the church works for decent living conditions. Yet, some feel the church should not speak out on these issues.

Recently, Roman Catholic cardinals were severely criticized for opposing President Clinton’s veto of a ban on partial-birth abortions.

What about people and organizations supporting abortion? They attempt to persuade people by any means possible. Yet Catholics are criticized for expressing opposition to abortion. Where is the fairness? Are Catholics to be seen and not heard? Michael T. McGuire Spokane

Not abortions of convenience

Lost in the turmoil surrounding third-trimester abortions is the reason an abortion would be performed so late. Pro-lifers presume a healthy mother and a normal infant. If this were the case this type of abortion would be indefensible.

However, the legislation passed did not apply to this situation. It barred late abortions even when medical conditions both threatened the mother’s life and prevented a caesarean delivery. The decison must be left to the judgment of the woman’s personal physician.

We should feel the utmost compassion for the mother, infant and doctor when these circumstances prevail. We should fervently hope we never face such a moment of decision in our own lives. Ruth Ann Forman Colville, Wash.

Unlike Priggee, cardinals are right

We take exception to Milt Priggee’s degrading depiction of the U.S. cardinals (May 2).

The cardinals’ denunciation of President Clinton for his veto of legislation aimed at stopping a particularly brutal form of late-term abortion called partial-birth abortion causes many Americans to view these men as heroic role models for having the courage to speak out on their convictions.

It is not easy to face the barrage of criticism and ridicule that so often results from taking a public stand against the rising tide of moral crisis in our country. We say hooray for the U.S. cardinals! David and Ann Petty Spokane

BUSINESS AND LABOR

More power to Royal Silver Mines

Regarding the possibility of Royal Silver Mines bringing the Bunker Hill Mine back into production, I am all for it. I think it will be good for the Silver Valley, the county, state and nation.

Our trade deficit remains in the billions and our national debt is now $5 trillion. We could use a little prosperity.

Mining is one of the few industries that produces real wealth. Service industries just trade it. The environmental industry just spends it.

Recently, readers’ letters have focused on perceived threats to the environment by mining. It hasn’t happened. All we’ve done is drive the mining industry overseas. Maybe it’s time we focus on the potential benefits such as decent jobs, higher tax revenues, lower property taxes, better streets, better schools, etc.

If anything has brought about a feeling of national malaise during the past 20 years it has been the great environmental movement and the constant preaching about the next great crisis to befall our poor planet. It hasn’t happened. It’s all been a bunch of baloney and I truly wish these people would get a life.

It is time we focus on the positive instead of the negative. So good luck, Royal Silver Mines. Go raise a bunch of money, hire a bunch of miners and bring a little real prosperity to the region. We’ll all be better for it. E.A. Johnson Mead

THE ENVIRONMENT

Timber company clearcuts truth

Plum Creek Timber Co. asserts, “We will treat land, people right” (Letters, May 7). It has no continuing obligations to the public under the 1864 Northern Pacific Railroad land grant.

“I owe the public nothing,” said J.P. Morgan.

Plum Creek claims commitment to the environment. Yet Plum Creek also said, “We have never said we’re 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 is wrong with that?”

I encourage Plum Creek directors and shareholders to read “Railroads & Clearcuts: Legacy of Congress’s 1864 Northern Pacific Railroad Land Grant.” This book details how millions of acres of public lands intended by Abraham Lincoln and Congress for homesteaders instead ended up in the hands of robber barons.

Plum Creek, Boise Cascade, Potlatch and Weyerhaeuser are modern corporate counterparts of railroad empires that have controlled much of the nation since the Civil War. Northern Pacific is at the core of the forest crisis.

Responding to populist outrage, Congress has taken up reform of the railroad land grants. Corporate overcutting, destructive to communities and the land, is reawakening public interest in the Northern Pacific grant and its continuing obligations.

Plum Creek’s assertion that the Northern-Pacific-based corporation has no continuing obligations to the public rings false. “Railroads and Clearcuts” puts to rest this corporate deception. John Osborn, M.D. Inland Empire Public Lands Council

Don’t worry, be happy

In a May 29 article (“Many resist as state eyes federal land”) powerful timber industry lobbyist Joe Hinson states support for the transfer of management of Idaho federal lands to the state. No surprise, he wrote the proposal for state legislators and the Land Board, who have adopted it. Seems Hinson doesn’t care much for public input and believes state management would put more logs up for sale.

According to Hinson, the timber industry is “going out of business.” Is that right? Why did The Spokesman-Review recently report Boise Cascade earned record profits last year? Who’s correct?

This is the same Boise Cascade that proclaimed it is “striving to protect northeast Washington’s water and wildlife” as it was degrading water quality and wildlife habitat in southwest Idaho. Which is the real Boise Cascade? Perhaps actions speak louder than words.

Then there are the “environmental forestry” folks at Plum Creek. Plum Creek recently jumped on the Forest Service to fix Fishhook Road after it washed out during the winter floods. The road washed out again this April - your tax dollars at work.

No doubt Hinson will be asked to write the environmental rules to govern state management of our federal lands, as well. Mills will no longer close (unless, of course, they’re inefficient and outdated or sitting on prime real estate). Boise Cascade can make bigger profits, and the environmental foresters at Plum Creek can have the state “fix” Fishhook Road. Industry will take care of the land and we’ll all be better off, right? Hey, just ask Joe. Barry Rosenberg, director Forest Watch, Spokane

Lynx need protecting now

On Dec. 28, the Fish and Wildlife Service declared that the lynx does not “warrant threatened or endangered status in the lower 48” states. FWS states that the lynx was never common in the lower 48, and that many of the states never had “adequate breeding populations.”

Although lynx numbers may have never been high, we all should do our part to help preserve a species in trouble. It may take lynx numbers so low that they are unrecoverable before the Clinton administration sees that it should do something. We need to act now. Frank Shucka Cheney

Return city to Mother Nature

Paul Stearns’ April 25 letter (“Apply the Golden Rule”) was fair and encouraging. He addressed the hypocrisy of forcing environmental regulations on “rural types” while exempting city-based “consumer types.”

There could be either of two motives for this letter.

1. Since environmental regulations don’t apply evenly to both consumers and producers, we should scrap them altogether. This would support the property rights movement, whose supposed purpose is to defend the little guy. It is, however, just a front for corporate interests to ensure their right to pillage at will. This is a pretty hefty accusation, but it is politics. As it is, what little protection our Mother Earth receives is vital.

2. Since regulations don’t apply evenly to both city and country, we should essentially tear down the city so as to make room for the renewal of nature. This probably seems sarcastic, but I believe that’s exactly what we should do.

Granted, I am a consumer, but I am progressively using fewer and fewer resources. The next step is to leave the city entirely and join a more eco-friendly community; they do exist and they are growing. If someone wanted to tear down my apartment building to help restore native elk range, I’d pay every penny I have and volunteer 12 hours a day to aid demolition. And I wouldn’t stop until Spokane was a pile of rubble from which nature could regenerate. Adam Larson Spokane

Lands belong to ‘moderate majority’

In his May 7 letter (“Rip-off artists apply gags, too”), Timothy J. Coleman said public lands belong to all Americans. I agree. They belong to the moderate majority, who believe in the stewardship of nature, every bit as much as they belong to the eco-extremist minority.

Seventy percent of the public approves of the Emergency Forest Health bill for which Rep. George Nethercutt voted and which Coleman dislikes. The bill allows salvaging some of the dead and dying timber in our public forests to prevent the spread of disease and insects, and to reduce catastrophic wildfires. At the Seventh American Forest Congress in Washington, D.C., Feb. 21-23, attended by 1,400 people of every possible persuasion, including environmentalists, two-thirds supported the salvage.

One lesson learned at the Forest Congress is that there will always be a fringe element, claiming to represent the majority, who will never be willing to work for the common good. That is their choice. We must move forward without them. Unanimous agreement isn’t possible, but consensus among men and women of good will can be achieved. Edwin G. Davis Spokane

OTHER TOPICS

As a victim of Reed Simpson’s unwanted, annoying political e-mail, I protest. My daughter, who is 16, also received one of his political surveys.

I protest Craig Welch’s characterization of Reed Simpson as a “computer virtuoso.” Simpson’s actions are neither virtuous nor praiseworthy.

If he had been a teenager he would be called a “cyber-punk” and would have lost his e-mail privileges. And, yes, there are many teenagers capable of breaking into the files of DMI, CompuTech, and NetLink to steal subscriber addresses. Fortunately, they don’t.

I am equally concerned that NetLink has not sanctioned Simpson for violating its clients’ privacy. Canda Mitchell Post Falls

Tired of seeing words co-opted

It’s pure larceny to try to take a word, “marriage,” that for millennia has meant the commitment of a man and woman to each other, and redefine it to include gays.

If gays want a legally binding relationship let them find their own word for it. How about “union” or “commitment” or “homophilia”? That’s fine with me. What two gays have and what a husband and wife have are not the same thing, despite some similarities.

The word “adult” has already been stolen to mean smutty and pornographic. “Choice” has been hijacked to hide the reality of what is really happening in abortion. A word should have the right to be left in peace to mean what it means. Bob Silver Nine Mile Falls