Letters To The Editor
SPOKANE MATTERS
Oil spill: Spare us more surprises
Eric Kincanon writes (“Bunk, not Bunker C, is the problem,” Letters, May 17) that Washington Water Power Co. does not need to remove its underground spill of Bunker C oil because “at normal temperatures and pressures it is solid and does not flow.”
If it doesn’t flow, how did the Bunker C get from Railroad Avenue to First Avenue? If it is because there were abnormal temperatures and pressures from the steam plant, how do we know there won’t be abnormal temperatures and pressures in the future?
What happens, for example, if the adjacent vacant lot becomes the site of a building with an underground heating plant or parking lot?
Remember how many times this oil has already surprised Washington Water Power. As far back as 1984 WWP felt absolutely confident it knew what this oil was going to do. On WWP’s assurances, the Department of Ecology gave WWP permission to cease monitoring the oil’s flow. Seven years later WWP discovered that it had made a big mistake. It had to admit there was 50 times as much oil as it had reported before, and it traveled over 10 times as far as WWP thought it could.
Let’s keep this record in mind when we hear grand assurances from WWP about what this oil will do. Bill Stimson Spokane
Make special routes for bike riders
Spokane has giant problems preparing for current and future growth and development. A whole panoply of solutions is needed. Included is a program to enlarge and extend bike and jogging trails to “get people out of their cars.”
Your recent article implied that these could be along arterials and showed a lone biker on the freeway. Experienced bikers carefully avoid arterials because, when using them, they find themselves vulnerable to fumes and carbon monoxide.
Our biking community advocates a system of bike paths and trails, carefully avoiding arterials but connecting our parks, recreational and residential areas. We hope one day to have a biking beltway around the city.
Our central trail will be Centennial Trail and we are alarmed at the lack of cooperation of Riverside Cemetery, which opposes the portion going along the river next to the cemetery.
These projects must be carefully designed and completed. Let me speak of a typical one: a bike path from the 4600 block of Indian Trail, just inside the landfill area, across the southern park area to a park-and-ride facility near Assembly and Francis, where express buses can take the bicyclists downtown. The bike path would continue, however, along Pettit Drive to the Centennial Trail.
Our city must plan and construct at least a dozen projects similar to this. Robert D. Dellwo Spokane
Symphony evokes pride
I commend and sincerely thank the Spokane Symphony for its outstanding performance Saturday night as it accompanied the Moody Blues in concert at The Gorge. A great feeling of pride was felt, knowing that Spokane’s own symphony excelled throughout the concert. “Nights in White Satin,” my favorite, never sounded better. Sandy Haasch Spokane
City promotes illegal dumping
Thank you, Spokane City Council, once again. In your infinite wisdom, and usual selfish attitude, you voted down giving everyone free passes for the dump this year.
One would think the piles of garbage that appear all over town would prompt you to use your heads and encourage use of the dump. Instead, you raise the prices and encourage people to use vacant lots instead of your beautiful facility. Plus, you let us pay the overtime when the city starts cleaning up these piles.
Why not use the city manager’s raise to pay for the free passes and make everyone happy? Louise Long Spokane
BUSINESS AND LABOR
A lose-lose deal for the people
Re: Dawn Mining Company’s intent to import low-level radioactive waste to its mill site at Ford, as reported in the Review on April 16th and 17th.
The articles state that Dawn has to pay $10,000 for a study to determine if highway improvements are necessary, that the transportation department has already determined that the route is narrow and substandard for truck traffic, and that the company is nearly bankrupt. It seems clear to me that the study will ask taxpayers to pay millions of dollars for improvements so that the company’s trucks can use our roads.
What does the company get? Dawn and its parent company get out of paying for a multimillion-dollar cleanup. What do we get? Increased risk on the highways from 50,000 semi-truckloads of radioactive material being transported on the same roads over which you drive to work and send your kids to school. Maybe we even get to pay to upgrade the roads. What kind of a deal is that? Mike Irving Valley, Wash.
Que sera, consumers
All the carping and hand wringing over the rip-off gas price increase is a waste of time. In the best American tradition, big business is screwing the public. They’ve done it before and will do it again.
The politicians, flailing about for votes, repeal a pittance of a tax, release oil reserves equaling perhaps a day’s usage, “to send a message” - a favorite occupation. It’s a message nobody pays any attention to, particularly oil companies.
We drive cars; cars need gas. They got it and we will pay whatever they charge, like it or not, now and forever. Lee Corrigan Rathdrum
THE ENVIRONMENT
Think seven generations ahead
It is no secret that we are destroying forests at an alarming rate. In the 1600s, over 50 percent of the continental United States was covered with native forests. By 1995, less than 5 percent of these forest remained. These forests are being cleared out so quickly to meet our demands for paper and lumber products, and it is time for us to take some responsibility.
The Forest Service and other organizations claim to be compensating for the loss through reforestation and logging quotas, but the forests continue to disappear at an alarming rate. We need to realize that trees cannot be omnipresent, and if we are not careful they will vanish forever.
Before we selfishly use up all of the resources available, we should follow the example of another culture. Native Americans believe we should consider seven generations in the future before acting. Our children could benefit tremendously. Susanna M. Fenner Cheney
MARRIAGE
God alone can define it
Same-sex marriage? There is no such thing. God willing, there never will be. It would be a gross and near unforgivable insult to Him.
He established the marriage institution and He is the only one who can change it. No government, legislative body, court, group or popular vote can ever rightly invoke any change in the definition of marriage. It was given as a universal law that a legal union between a man and a woman constitutes a marriage, nothing more and nothing less.
This absurd notion that the sodomists and lesbians are forcing upon the God-fearing and God-loving populations of the world is a further testament of how rampant the moral decay has infected the very basics of our society.
The issue has nothing to do with rights; that’s a smokescreen the immoral minority throws into the faces of the majority anytime we disagree with their agendas. The issue is a fight to maintain a clean, moral society that worships God and strives to follow His laws. Those laws are the only thing that will save us in the end.
The agendas of the sodomists and lesbians are destined to destroy all that is decent in a family. Destroy the family, and all societies will fall. The world cannot stand without a strong, moral family of husband, wife and children.
So, reject this lie of the homosexuals, and stand for what is right. There is no shame in standing for what is right. It takes courage, though, and it’s going to be a tough fight. Russ C. Wilkerson Spokane
Incredible immoral victory
Re: “NW gay rights advocates jubilant over ruling,” May 21: Rep. Ed Murray,D-Seattle, the only openly homosexual state legislator, was quoted as saying, “This is an incredible moral victory.”
Excuse me? Instead, read immoral victory.
His remark is a great example of newspeak, where deviant behavior is described as an alternative lifestyle and the old immorality becomes the new morality. Heaven help us all. Philip M. Hudson Spokane