Letters To The Editor

IDAHO VIEWPOINTS

Government figures don’t compute

I always thought newspapers were dedicated to protecting the public from bizarre and outlandish manipulation by the government. Now we have the federally sponsored Federal Reserve raising the interest rates on account of too many people getting jobs.

Isn’t there anybody to protect us from such insanity? Why can’t the Federal Reserve admit that inflation is the real reason - inflated stock market, inflated oil prices (up 20 percent in the last 90 days), cars selling for $20,000 to $30,000 when four or five years ago it was between $10,000 and $20,000, $1,000-a-day hospital service. Does that sound like 1.2 percent inflation? Does anybody ever question how the government arranges those figures?

Of course, that manipulation saves billions in COLAs and I guess that would be reason enough to lie about true inflation. George Valentine Sr. Rathdrum, Idaho

Idaho politicians’ ‘hypocrisy’

Sens. Larry Craig and Dirk Kempthorne and Rep. Helen Chenoweth (of Idaho) recently showed their lack of concern for the family values they supposedly espouse. In trying to outlaw late-term abortions, they’ve used family tragedies to create a political climate.

President Clinton deserves enormous praise for the compassion and caring he displayed in vetoing HR 1833, the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act.

It’s hypocrisy for Idaho’s politicians to advocate less government interference in the economic, personal property rights and business arenas while intruding in a very personal medical decision a woman must make with a pregnancy in crisis. We elected Chenoweth, Craig and Kempthorne to make laws to enrich and protect the state and its citizens, not to make laws and medical judgments against women and their families.

HR 1833 is so extreme that it doesn’t even contain exceptions to save the life of the mother, and thus would force women to be endangered to save a malformed fetus.

This is also a direct challenge to Roe vs. Wade. The House refused to consider a health exception - even after President Clinton requested such a change - again demonstrating this bill is nothing more than political posturing at the expense of women, and a major threat to families and their medical physicians. Joanne Peters Kellogg

Chenoweth is right on the issues

On Nov. 5, 1st Congressional District voters have to make a choice. The choice is experience, wisdom and integrity or Washington, D.C.’s and Clinton’s policies. Rather than an undecided future for Idaho, I give full support to Rep. Helen Chenoweth for re-election.

With Chenoweth, there is never a need for secondguessing. Chenoweth stands for a stronger Idaho with a brighter future. Her voting record proves this. She will not soft-pedal or use smoke and mirrors on any issue. Can she be swayed on issues affecting our lives? Yes, but only by healthy debate and facts.

Many of Idaho’s woes are due to federal ownership of land and a lackadaisical attitude from Washington D.C. toward private property rights. Higher taxes and overregulation are always in the forefront as well. Clinton administration policies have created an absolute plague for Idaho.

Chenoweth is as audacious as she is tenacious when challenging Clinton policies. Chenoweth has fought for sustainability of multiple-use lands. She has been courageous in the fight to protect ownership of Idaho’s water. Chenoweth is a strong supporter of our right to keep and bear arms.

For Chenoweth, it is very simply put: to protect hardworking families, Idaho’s economy and all the traditions and cultures that go with it. Help Chenoweth stop the abuse from Washington, D.C. Let’s make sanity and balance a priority for Idaho. Earl T. Britt Potlatch, Idaho

SPOKANE MATTERS

Money for streets, not STA

Now that the city’s street bond proposal has been defeated, it’s time for our political representatives to look for sources of funds that do not raise our excessive tax burden any further.

Throughout the campaign they told us that funds going to the Spokane Transit Authority were not available for street repairs. Well, maybe it’s time they changed the law. STA obviously has more money than it knows how to spend productively, and its buses are obviously harder on the streets than cars. I make it a point to observe the utilization of buses as I encounter them on the streets. Despite the tinted windows, you can usually determine that there are two or three riders. Even from an ecological perspective, mass transit is a stupid failure. Pollution per mile per passenger from a bus carrying two or three people is definitely more than the pollution per mile per occupant produced by my car.

Yes, it is time to fund our streets - and it’s time to defund STA. Jonathan H. Lundquist Spokane

OVER THE LINE

Make a statement: Buy in Idaho

My wife and I went to the Spokane Interstate Fair with the specific intention of looking at EPA-certified wood stoves for a new home we are building in Pend Oreille County. While at the fair, we put a deposit down, refundable if we changed our minds.

After looking at the paper work, I noted that you are charged sales tax plus a $30 Washington stove tax. We had looked at the same model in Idaho earlier and it was almost $200 higher. I then called the Idaho dealer and asked if they could meet the fair price minus the Washington stove tax and a lower sales tax. The answer was, sure.

I went to the local dealer and picked up my deposit check and he said that he would come down $30 more. The answer was no because it is a matter of principle that no matter what he did, the state of Washington would get its tax.

The moral of the story is: When you attempt to do something to help the environment, the state of Washington wants to stick it to you with its stupid tax, tax, tax. Buy in Idaho. Douglas Furlott Spokane

GRASS FIELD BURNING

Growers, spokeswoman presumptuous

I had always thought it took years of study and training after college to qualify a person to diagnose and treat illnesses. Now I see, according to “Doctor says smoke cause of collapse” in the Sept. 13 Spokesman-Review, that someone without a medical education can diagnose an individual without even seeing the sufferer.

I refer to the case of nurse Kelly McAnally, who collapsed while on duty and had to be treated in an intensive care unit. Her doctor, a pulmonary specialist, attributed her near-death to grass smoke.

But Linda Clovis of the Intermountain Grass Growers Association applied her superior medical knowledge from a distance to conclude the collapse could be due to “exercise-induced asthma,” implying that McAnally perhaps raced up and down the corridors while on duty or carried a heavy patient up three flights of stairs. Now, really!

We have already lost one woman, Sharon Buck, due to grass smoke this year. How many deaths and costly medical emergencies have to occur before the grass growers recognize that they cannot continue their present practices at the risk of other people’s lives? Robert Forman Colville, Wash.

Incident undercuts rationale

I am now more than certain that the grass growers have been selling us a false bill of goods. Sept. 10 was the worst of the smoke generated by burning fields, at my residence on West Poleline. When I first smelled and then saw the smoke rolling across my property, I recalled that all grass fields in the immediate area had already been burned.

Upon arriving at the east end of my road, at McGuire, I was stopped by, I assume, employees of the grass burners. I then realized that this was not a grass field being burned but a field of wheat stubble.

I questioned the person holding the stop sign in regard to burning grain stubble, in addition to grass fields, and was told they can burn grain stubble whenever they want.

This shoots down the explanations that burning kills bugs and fungus and enriches the perennial grass for the next year’s growth. If this is the reason for burning, why burn grain stubble, when this field has to be worked and replanted for next season?

It is now very obvious to me that burning is done for only one reason: greed. It is much cheaper to burn than to remove straw by a conventional method such as baling and hauling away. Roy DeBoever Post Falls

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

R-e-s-p-e-c-t - just a little bit

What has happened to the people in this country? Have they lost all sense of decency and respectability? The office of president of the United States is the highest in our country. The man elected to it should be shown the utmost respect by all. You as an individual may not like the man as an individual, but his position should receive the respect of all people of this country. He is not getting it.

How can other countries respect this office if we do not?

Every day there is some article, cartoon strip, etc. in the news media that degrades and shows lack of respect for this man. When it degrades and shows lack of respect for this man while he holds this office, it degrades and shows disrespect for this office.

We wonder what is happening to our children today that they have no respect for other people. Well, they are learning from good teachers, the vast public. How can we expect our children to respect others when the adults who should know better are setting this example? If you don’t like the man or what he is doing, the polling place is the place to take care of that. Don’t resort to degrading or demeaning the office.

Adults, start cleaning up your act or the children will be lost. Dorothy Andersen Republic, Wash.

Clinton ‘at it again’

Well, folks, it looks like Slick Willy (President Clinton) is at it again. He thinks this is an ideal time to step up military operations against Iraq’s Saddam Hussein.

While Saddam deserves anything he gets, since he has been doing what he’s doing for many years, I don’t understand why Slick Willy thinks now is the appropriate time to take action. I’m sure it’s only a coincidence that there are less than two months until elections. Since Clinton would do anything to be re-elected, I have no doubt that his decision to take action against Hussein at this time is purely politically motivated.

I’m sure Slick Willy feels re-election is extremely important for many reasons, including several legal actions pending against him when he leaves office. A.B. Kellogg Sandpoint

Democrats seek gain from lies

After spending millions of unauthorized and unbudgeted dollars on her Health Care Task Force in her first year in office, Hillary Rodham Clinton learned two things. First, that the American people were too smart to want socialized medicine, also known as rationed medical service. Second, that fear and anxiety can cause some individuals to act and vote irrationally.

Now the Democratic election campaign is using this second bit of knowledge, the effect of fear, to influence votes for Clinton and Gore and the Democratic candidates for all other offices. They are being aided and financially supported in this effort by the AFL-CIO. The union is paying for TV ads featuring sob stories about what those “mean-spirited” Republicans will do to Social Security and medical care programs if they are elected. They are spreading fear and anxiety instead of factual information.

Did any of the candidates who ran for the opportunity to oppose Rep. George Nethercutt denounce these misleading ads? Not that I have heard or read. They all hoped to be chosen to replace Tom Foley, one of the greatest tax and spenders of all time.

Nethercutt is a good representative. He deserves to be re-elected. Earnest A. Sprow Spokane

Don’t let parks heritage be ruined

My husband and I recently returned from a visit to Mount Rainier, one of the most magnificent snowcovered mountains in the continental United States, and only a few hours from Spokane.

What a blessing that our government leaders way back in 1899 had the wisdom and foresight to set aside this land as a national park for all American people for all generations. Republican President Theodore Roosevelt acted on the belief that certain pristine lands must be set aside as national parks and forests; a sacred trust for posterity.

Our present Congress would betray that trust and “privatize” these lands for individual and corporate short-term profit, beginning with the redwoods. May that abuse of power never happen! Bernadine Van Thiel Spokane

Immigration position a bellwether

As confusing as presidential campaigns can be, occasionally, an issue comes along that clearly defines what the two candidates really stand for. The immigration bill now in Congress is just such an issue.

Simply put, Bob Dole maintains that when aliens illegally enter the United States, taxpaying citizens of this country should not be required to pay for their children’s schooling. President Clinton’s threat to veto such a provision makes it clear that he thinks we should pay for their education in spite of the fact that they are fugitives for being here in the first place.

Clearly, if Clinton sees this as a fair use of our hardearned tax dollars just six weeks before the election, just imagine what kind of spending programs he’ll come up with once he’s safely re-elected and resting easy in the knowledge that he’ll never have to face the voters again. Jim Howell Spokane

OTHER TOPICS

School officials’ attitude wrong

The anti-meat message on Sept. 13 was unpalatable. Children go to school for an education. That means learning about the basics, along with current issues and life choices.

We’re not suppose to teach prayer in school or even touch on religion. We can’t discuss sex, either. That’s too risky. Now, we can’t even discuss vegetarianism with students? Get real.

What many animals go through before they die or while they’re butchered should be discussed with children at a level appropriate for their age. Associate Superintendent Cynthia Lambarth is right. Vegetarianism can be a poor nutritional choice, unless done properly. So can most things.

I used to think schools were to teach the correct way or how to succeed. Principal Louis Haymond hopes the carrot mascot will quietly go away, and says children should ignore it. Is this what we want to teach our children? Our society is already afflicted by complacency.

Parents should teach these important issues at home. School is a student’s second home, where they spend the majority of their waking hours. Our children should have every opportunity to explore issues and be given guidance and encouragement while in school. We should expect this as a society. I don’t want our schools teaching ignorance or complacency.

Haymond has visions of kids upset, throwing away their lunches or feeling sick to their stomachs. These are - appropriate responses to being taught about animal slaughter.

Vegetarianism is a healthy way of life. Managed properly, it is a positive, nutritional choice. If it were taught, there might be less obesity, less animal suffering and more awareness. Julie K. Lovell Spokane

Public opinion a hindrance

Public opinion has caused more problems than anything in this country’s history. If we wouldn’t have let public opinion dictate what we did in the gulf war, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein wouldn’t be in power now. We promised the Kurds that we would protect them. Is it going to be promises - or public opinion? Gary M. Dennis Jr. Spokane