Letters To The Editor

Fri., Nov. 15, 1996

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Votes more helpful than gripes

My name is Andrea Manos. I’m a seventh grader at North Pines Junior High. I’m concerned about people who did not vote Nov. 5.

If they don’t vote, how will we get a free America? People who didn’t vote should not have a say in decisions. Nonvoters sit there and complain about the government when their vote could have made a difference.

About 70 percent of the people voted in past elections. By 2000, hopefully, 100 percent will be voting. One vote will make a difference. Andrea Manos Spokane

Whipping-boy mentality of little help

Angelique Utley, you express well your parents’ opinions (“Choice, as it is, has been made,” Letters, Nov. 11). They obviously think little of President Bill Clinton. However, both they and you are ill informed.

Yes, Clinton did smoke pot, as did a large number of people of your parents’ generation. Yes, Bill Clinton did protest the Vietnam war and tried to avoid fighting in it. So did a large number of people in your parents’ generation. Clinton is a representative of his age, more so than Bob Dole could ever be. That is why Clinton was elected to a second term.

But where is the evidence that Clinton is a criminal? Yes, the MacDougals encouraged the Clintons to invest in real estate and demanded protection as their S&L began to fail. But the same can be said of many politicians and their families. If Clinton is a criminal, then three-quarters of his elected peers should also be in jail. That includes those, such as Sen. Alfonse D’Amato, who are running ethics probes against the Clintons.

Foreign influence in campaign financing extends back to the 1980s. Republicans were just as influenced by foreign contributions as Clinton. That includes Dole.

The point is, the system is corrupt and any politician can fall under its sway. Why should Clinton be singled out as the whipping boy when special interests feel that government as a whole only listens after large cash transfusions?

If you and your parents want it to be different, you will have to actively work for change. Joan E. Harman Coeur d’ Alene

Suddenly, a huge without-sin mob

Seems there are a lot of people out there who are sorely disappointed that President Bill Clinton got re-elected despite his alleged moral lapses. Their assessment may be a bit premature since the jury is still out on that issue.

If you’re going to jump to conclusions, you should first be certain you can make the leap without tripping on your own assumptions.

There appears to have been more people who wanted Clinton re-elected, and taking pot shots at the president is more a reflection on your character than his. He may not be a moral paragon but he didn’t stoop to attempted character assassination during the campaign.

It doesn’t matter how I voted or how you voted. Over half the people who did vote elected Clinton and their motives are their business. That’s called democracy. Unless you have a better way of doing things, please, sit down.

I’m pretty sure I remember reading something in the Bible about who should throw the first rock. Dave Perkins Spokane

Clinton elected but detestable

Now elected for a second term, President Clinton boldly leading our nation into the 21st century is an oxymoron and anathema.

As I express my feelings about our president on this Veterans Day, as a Korean veteran, I join with thousands of my fellow veterans who deeply distrust him. As we catch glimpses of him on TV laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, paying tribute to soldiers who suffered and died serving in the military, we wince and turn the channel.

Anyone who wants to truly account for the gender gap in this election can find much of the answer with those of us who served our country honorably and who can differentiate a true patriot from an imposter. What incongruity, that men who would be expected by the ‘women’s movement’ to vote for Clinton with a wink and a nod, negating the Gennifer Flowers and Paula Jones factor, voted for Bob Dole. Instead, it was female voters who did the winking and nodding.

We will see just what kind of stuff this Clintonian bridge to the 21st century is made of. Will it be solid ideas he borrowed from the conservative Republican agenda or will his phony conservative campaign facade fade, allowing his bridge to be constructed with his and Hillary’s frail socialistic agenda? Male and female, we will all then finally see him naked with his manipulative and sociopathic personality fully exposed. Ken Van Buskirk Spokane

Americans need new, better pastime

For the last 35 or 40 years, no president elected has ever been good enough for the people.

No matter if he was a Democrat or a Republican, no one was happy with what he did or didn’t do. Aspersions were cast on his reputation and he could never do anything right. What do we want, a puppet we can control or a tyrant who controls us? Obviously, we can’t have it both ways and there doesn’t seem to be a middle road.

Isn’t it about time for us to wake up and work with, not against, our president? Time to stop the mud-slinging, and complaining?

We really ought to thank our lucky stars this isn’t a country run by a tyrant who allows no choices. Betty Randall Moses Lake

THE MILITARY

Awful situation nothing new

Having spent time in the United States Army during the Vietnam era, I find it paradoxical that now, in 1996, the Army is starting to address sexual harassment and rape.

It was common during the ‘70s for women in the armed forces to be constantly jeered, criticized, humiliated and harassed, just because you were a woman in the service. If perchance you made it through basic training, which I will admit was grueling physically and mentally, you were considered a lesbian or sexually promiscuous.

Girls in our unit were told by our drill instructors never to leave the barracks alone. We had the buddy system way back then. We were, however, still harassed, constantly on guard of the deviates who were only after a sexual encounter, officers and enlisted men alike. It was awful.

After serving my three years at Fort McClelland, Ala., and Fort Sam Houston, Texas, I declined to re-enlist. My self-esteem had, by that time, plummeted.

I had nothing but great respect for the armed services when I enlisted. However, after experiencing the actual day to day existence of military life, I told myself if I ever had a daughter, I would break both her legs just so she would not serve in the United States military. Even though I feel the military has advanced in the last 25 years, I thank God she has no desire whatsoever to enlist. Suzann O’Sullivan Embury Hayden, Idaho

THE MEDIA

Brinkley put-down hardly a first

I’m sure we’ve all read, seen or heard David Brinkley’s election night comment about President Clinton: “He has not a creative bone in his body; therefore, he’s a bore.”

A similar comment was made about another of our presidents by H.L. Mencken. Mencken said that President Calvin Coolidge “had no ideas but he was not a nuisance.”

I didn’t know that Clinton was a bore when I voted for him. I found him knowledgeable on all the subjects I heard him discuss. Josephine J. Lannen Spokane

Labeling new minister wrong

There was an article in your paper which reads “Lesbian ordained in Toledo” (News, Nov. 10). Very, very sad.

The only way to abolish prejudice is to not practice it. I noticed that articles on other people don’t bother to state Heterosexual ….

Your personal opinions don’t equal fair reporting - and until sexual-orientation, which I believe is only the business of the individual concerned - stops causing discrimination, fair reporting should be heavily considered so as not to spur hate and hate crimes on individuals. Debbi Sullivan Spokane

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