Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

Put Wal-Mart where it belongs

Camelot is a name we use when we reflect on a memorable era in political history, but locally, will we reminisce of Camelot as an assassinated American dream?

A special place is quietly nestled amidst the rolling, mounded terrain with distant mountain vistas providing a picturesque backdrop for a place called home. You sense an immediate kinship with Camelot, a residential subdivision in north Spokane. The pleasure of good neighbors and the pride of home ownership form a unique community.

However, the potential for all these qualities to dissipate into a mere wisp of thin air is provoked by the rezoning of lands just south of Camelot. If rezoning is permitted, 40 acres of wooded land on the perimeter of Camelot will be ravished and denuded for dense, excessive commercialization.

Will Camelot’s aesthetic neighborhood and appreciable real estate value simply fade from recollection? Will the pride of home ownership pale in the shadow of commercial concrete growth?

We need more residential areas like Camelot, places where a strong sense of well-being and neighborhood is alive and flourishing among the families that live there. Will the presence of another Wal-Mart afford us those strengths and incentives to fulfill that aspiration? I think not.

The integrity of Camelot as a subdivision with intrinsic, admirable character demands preservation. Let the shock wave of progress and growth under the guise of a WalMart be felt in an area already zoned for commercial development. Flo Carrico Spokane

Tax users for street repairs

There have been several articles and comments in this paper recently about the proposed street improvement bond. When it was first proposed, it was pointed out that the need was because of bad winters destroying the pavement (an easy victim).

Recently, the argument has focused on whether the city should be campaigning in favor of the bond and if streets have gone unpaved as a ploy to entice voters to support the measure.

I would like to hear someone address the issue of increasing traffic on city streets being generated by suburban sprawl as the reason streets are deteriorating.

In 1994, the population of the unincorporated county surpassed that of the city for the first time in its history. The city of Spokane still generates a large percentage of the job opportunities as well as commerce for the county, which, in turn, creates heavy traffic demands on city streets.

As a city resident who regularly rides the bus to work, I resent having my property taxes raised for street repairs so that county residents can have a smooth ride while taking advantage of the city’s amenities and opportunities. A property tax increase is not an equitable way to pay for street improvement.

Maybe an increased gas tax or tax on parking spaces would better target the users of the streets. Scott K. Johns Spokane

Fair officials right to go by rules

Re: “No fair! Cries family after rules exclude pig,” News, Aug. 24.

As a believer in the importance of animals and pets in helping children learn about loving, caring relationships, I am pleased that Lacie Hourlland will keep her horse. Another aspect of this incident concerns me, however.

Increasingly, complaints are heard regarding the unwillingness of citizens to assume responsibility for their own action. One of the primary goals of the 4-H program is to teach young people to assume responsibility, both for their projects and their own actions throughout life.

If members of the Hourlland family have evidence that the required registration fee was paid in accordance with competition rules, they have reason to complain. If, in fact, notice of this rule was simply overlooked or ignored, the fair officials’ enforcement of rules might better be acknowledged as an important lesson learned.

Instead of blaming fair officials, could it be that a word of praise is instead due them for assuring that the same standard was held for all participants? Virginia Meyer Spokane

Indian encampment meaningful for all

Thank you for your coverage of the recent annual Spokane Indian encampment that took place on the ancestral hunting and gathering grounds of the Spokane Tribe. All were their guests.

Some take offense at Indians dancing on the graves of the U.S. Seventh Cavalry at Little Big Horn. Their victory dance celebrated an aboriginal people’s right to protect and preserve their heritage, custom and culture from a military campaign of destruction and genocide.

It was good to see this weekend, Indians and nonIndians celebrating the importance of all heritages, customs and cultures - not one feeling the need to oppress the other, since we are all walking Mother Earth together for the future of all of our children. James Gordon Perkins Colville, Wash.

ILLICIT DRUGS

Jail traitors in this two-faced war

Who wonders anymore if the war on drugs is a joke?

Ronald “just say no” Reagan ran the drug war with one hand and covered-up a CIA crackfest with the other, flooding America with Dope and violence. The hypocrisy is staggering.

Our government devotes billions of dollars to the drug war, builds prison after prison, saturates us with anti-drug messages, passes ever tougher sentencing laws - and helps drug cartels import cocaine on the side.

How many lives were destroyed due to this policy? How many addicted babies were born? How many kids were killed in gang wars? How many cops were murdered? All in order to finance some brutal and unpopular guerrillas.

If the drug war is to have any legitimacy whatsoever, everyone involved in this fiasco would get a life sentence.

The worst part is that this is typical for our foreign policy. Saddam Hussein was our buddy before the Gulf War, and he was just as bad then as now. Manuel Noriega was on the CIA payroll during the ‘80s, even though he was a known drug runner. How many more soldiers will die fixing the problems we make supporting dictators?

How many more police will die fighting a drug problem we created?

This information exists at the library. Read “Year 501” by Noam Chomsky or “In the Time of the Tyrants” by Koster and Sanchez. These and other books show some of what the U.S. does on the sly and the catastrophic consequences.

We should get our priorities straight. George Wilson Spokane

Rationale for policy just went south

Politicians who smoked pot and now seek to wage a war on pot smokers should be rotting in prison cells, not running the country. These hypocrites smoked pot and their doing so didn’t lead them into heroin or crack addiction.

Now, Rep. Susan Molinari, R-N.Y., who was chosen to deliver the keynote address at the GOP convention, admits that she, too, partook of the evil weed. And yet, she somehow miraculously escaped damnation. More importantly, she didn’t get busted and now holds an important position in government.

Molinari says she wouldn’t have done it if she knew then what she knows now. What does she know now that she didn’t know then? That she would be giving the keynote address to a hypocritical political party that takes in millions from the tobacco and alcohol companies? Her excuse is that she has kids now.

It’s time to call off the witch hunt. People who smoke pot are no more criminals than are people who drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes, and the pot smokers’ mortality rate is much lower.

Even if the politicians don’t know it, their children must know they’re hypocrites. Tom Hawkins Coulee Dam

Let’s get all the drug criminals

For once, I agree with House Speaker Newt Gingrich when he states that “professional narcotics traffickers” who make their living “by destroying our children” should receive a mandatory death penalty.

Presumably, the first people to be tried and executed under this law would be presidents Reagan and Bush, who ran a phony war on drugs while importing crack and addicting millions of American children.

Or is it possible that since the perpetrators were powerful and since these children are poor and African-American, none of this would count in Gingrich’s view?.

After those two, we could try and execute the CIA and Drug Enforcement Agency agents who supposedly served America by implementing this plan.

The next logical step would be to try and execute those tobacco corporation executives who knowingly and for profit addict and murder millions of people worldwide. This would of course lead to the trial and execution of politicians such as Bob Dole who serve these corporations at the expense of human lives around the globe.

How much longer until the citizens of this country act on the knowledge that the people and institutions that govern our lives are willing to commit any crimes, including murder, in order to make money and consolidate their power? Derrick Jensen Spokane

Critic, come on down

Does the person who wrote the letter “Skip teens and bust pushers” (Aug. 28) even have children?

I am a youth program director in the West Central community. I work directly with kids who have been through DARE and I cannot tell you how many times they have cited something they learned in the program as having prevented them from making a bad decision.

DARE and TEAM also provide an opportunity for officers to be role models. Spokane Police Department officers have been very active in my own youth program, mostly on their own time.

With Chief Terry Mangan’s support, the officers have made a difference in children’s lives by interacting with them. The community at large has commented on the new, positive attitude of these children.

Yes, we need to crack down on drug dealers. But we absolutely do not need to skip programs like COPS. Perhaps the best thing the writer of that letter could do to get a realistic view of things is get involved. I can always use another volunteer. Louise C. Stamper, COPS West Spokane

ANIMALS

Appears zoo cats were let down

Re: “Zoo cats die after trip to Texas,” News, Aug. 27.

Is Roscoe the bear next? When I read your article about the latest Walk in the Wild Zoo tragedy, I really felt for the animals. I also felt anger at the fact that three beautiful animals died, possibly because of human error.

I did not want to see the zoo close, yet in the name of progress this had to happen. I understood that the animals were going to Silverwood Theme Park, then that didn’t happen. Instead, the animals are being euthanized or shipped to various places.

Is it standard zoological procedure to drug animals before transporting them? Is it necessary? With all the complaints over the years I’ve heard about how the circuses treat their animals, they are somehow able to transport the creatures from town to town, even under stress, without casualties.

Why, if Carol Asvestas and three co-workers spent 9-1/2 hours taking these animals to San Antonio, weren’t the cats occasionally checked on? That’s a tremendous amount of time to spend on a flight that distance.

I’ve heard many complaints about Cat Tales, but at least its animals are well cared for. I highly recommend that anyone who enjoys big cats visit Cat Tales. I just wish it could’ve taken some of the zoo’s animals.

It sounds as though the animals died of heat stroke, but I assume they traveled in an air-conditioned compartment. Whatever the cause, hopefully, something can be learned from the experience. Lloyd Phillips Spokane

Please, Spokane, no more zoos

If the information in the Aug. 28 Spokesman-Review on Walk in the Wild Zoo is correct, the zoo’s (mis)management is planning to build a new zoo around a lion named Leonard. If there is any sanity left in the world, this will not be allowed to take place.

Walk in the Wild was so badly managed that it more than earned its reputation as one of the worst zoos in the country. Poor management, ignorance and politics created a concentration camp for animals unfortunate enough to land in Walk in the Wild. These people cannot even ship valuable and delicate animals safely to where they may have a chance to live out their lives.

When it’s known that an animal is a high-risk candidate for travel, common sense would dictate that extra measures be taken to ensure the animal’s safety. Maybe such a concept is too complicated for the zoo’s management. Why don’t they leave such matters to people who care and know what they are doing?

Besides, Spokane doesn’t deserve a zoo. After all, the people of Spokane never did support the zoo, so why even think of starting a new zoo? It will only suffer the same apathy the first zoo died of. Carey Pomerantz Spokane