Letters To The Editor

RACISM AND PRIGGEE

Racism extends beyond Idaho

I have been waiting all week for an editorial response to last week’s Priggee “cartoon” and I was greatly disappointed at what I read in Chris Peck’s column of April 20.

Peck uses an example of a Post Falls student and her experiences. I don’t doubt for a minute that she has had many inexcusable racist experiences here in Idaho. However, I’ll bet if you interviewed a similar student at any Spokane high school that they would have just as many stories to tell.

My point is that it is this region that has the problem, not just Idaho, and I am tired of people like Priggee acting so smug. You should not have printed that cartoon and, typical of our times, you won’t admit guilt. I have subscribed to your paper for a dozen years or more. Please forward my subscription cancellation to your circulation department. Karen B. Leitner Hayden Lake, Idaho

Real leadership is needed here

Re: “Pointed cartoon has a place, but so do solutions” (Chris Peck’s column, April 20): Let’s start with the leadership gathering. “Speaker after speaker said Idaho’s reputation became a factor in business recruitment, a factor in the tourism industry.” So the reputation became a bottom-line factor, correct? Isn’t the bottom line also the No. 1 priority here? A real leader has courage even if it hurts the bottom line.

If somebody from Japan says that to move 60 jobs to Idaho is impossible because of the “image,” the leader would firmly reply that the concerns are unrealistically exaggerated. Rather than listening to a tirade of prejudice, he would politely point the concerned businessman to some other areas where diversity flourishes and no image problems exist, e.g. Southern California or Florida or even Seattle, because you can hear so many languages on First Avenue.

The part about Milt Priggee is a masterpiece. He did nothing wrong because this is the way cartoonists make their points and his cartoon “kind of puts into reality what a lot of people think about Idaho.” On the other hand, he does not speak for the newspaper and the editorial board has a different opinion. So there is still no reason for an apology!

Well, if people (and especially in Idaho) responded by cancellations en masse and companies withdrew advertisements as a response, Priggee might get the point himself. Peter C. Dolina Veradale

‘Fringe’ gets too much attention

Editor Chris Peck’s column, “Pointed cartoon has a place, but so do solutions” (April 20), couldn’t be further from the truth. It seems to me that The Spokesman-Review spends an inordinate amount of coverage of the “fringe element” in the Inland Northwest. It also spends a huge amount of time defending Milt Priggee’s arrogant, obnoxious, bigoted opinions.

Several major stories in The Spokesman-Review in the past couple of years have highlighted the fringe element. These stories only make outsiders wonder if this area really is nothing but the radical fringe. Some of these stories get national attention and when no links can be found with this area that story is never reported, so people are left with the opinion everyone belongs to some fringe element.

Last week the Spokesman-Review spent more time and paper covering Richard Butler and his eight protesters than the 350 people in the leadership conference meeting.

Peck claims that Priggee doesn’t speak for the newspaper, but if you draw your salary from the newspaper and are reviewed by the editoral board prior to press, then you are sanctioned by that paper.

I don’t believe that comparing Priggee’s obnoxious cartoons to talk radio is valid. At least you can argue with the talk radio hosts about opinions in real time.

Political columnists may offend a few political junkies but rarely are they bigoted or racists in their opinions.

Peck says, “The Spokesman-Review has done more than any paper in the country to shine a light on the hate crimes.” Maybe that’s the problem. These groups want publicity. H. Wayne Lythgoe Colbert

GROWTH MANAGEMENT

County need tools for the future

I celebrated the April 11 front-page news regarding the Eastern Washington Growth Management Hearing Board decision that “toughened” the Critical Areas Ordinance (CAO).

I was involved in the Citizens Advisory Group, the public process that developed the ordinance. After education, much discussion and compromise, in the final meetings a lot of the more protective and scientifically-based language was removed.

In the next step, the Planning Commission resurrected much of those last deletions.

Two of our county commissioners then ignored these recommendations and disabled the CAO further.

The Growth Management Hearing Board has validated the work of the Citizens Advisory Group and the Planning Commission. We don’t need to “go back to the drawing board,” as indicted by Commissioner Kate McCaslin. The discussion, process and decisions have been completed.

The county needs to use these tools (updated to reflect the hearing board’s decision) and comply with most citizens’ wishes to protect natural systems. Thus, we can have a sustainable community ensuring a future with clean air and water, and minimizing our tax burden by leaving those natural systems in place, allowing them to work for us. Margo E. Wolf Newman Lake

Board was just doing its job

Shame on Al Haselbacher, executive officer of the Spokane Home Builders Association. He was quoted in a recent Spokesman-Review article as saying, “There was a citizens advisory committee that worked nearly three years on the (critical areas) ordinance. To have the hearing board overturn that … just shows that the power of three individuals is way out of proportion.”

That citizens advisory group was shocked when the county commissioners deleted penalties for noncompliance. That citizens advisory committee struggled mightily with very technical scientific data regarding appropriate development setbacks on major streams. The compromise that was bought forward by the group reflected political reasoning at the expense of scientific fact. Almost immediately the citizen-based county Planning Commission recommended that the buffer be extended 50 feet to reflect the findings of the scientific data, as required by law. Again, for political reasons, the county commissioners changed that recommendation and wrote into ordinance the shorter setback.

In this regard, the hearing board merely said that you cannot ignore scientific evidence when dealing with critical areas.

The ball is once again in the court of local government to make the decisions required of it by state law. The hearing board power is not out of proportion. It did its job as required by law. It responded to an appeal by citizens who challenged their local government’s decision that ignored scientific information and, by extension, ignored state law.

Haselbacher’s suggestion that the hearing board has disproportionate power and threatens local planning efforts is akin to slaying the messenger who bears bad news. Sheila A. Collins Spokane

POLITICS

Keep religion out of politics

Finally, President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire seems to be on the skids. It was recently revealed that Pat Robertson was in bed with Mobutu. How long has Robertson been aiding and abetting Mobutu in hope of riches from a diamond mine scheme?

In the early 1980s, Jerry Falwell was influencing Reagan policy regarding South Africa. Even before then, Falwell was enamored by apartheid. Falwell wanted to use the Afrikaner method to gain political control in the United States.

Robertson raised a lot of money here for Benjamin Netanyahu before the last Israeli election. For the first time since Carter, there had been actual progress toward peace in the Middle Least. What interest did Robertson have in the election of Netanyahu?

How much longer must taxpayers put up with the lies, the hate, the evils and the intrigues of Falwell and Robertson? Using tax deductible money, they are interfering with foreign and domestic affairs. Even their political action committees, no matter what they are called, are suspect. I believe that those funds end up as an illegal tax deductions for someone.

Is there any good reason why any contribution in the name of “religion” should be tax deductible?

I have about the same chance of getting to paradise as Falwell and Robertson. However, if they do end up there, I’ll choose the alternative. Roy M. Wakefield St. John, Wash.

Kate McCaslin’s remarks insensitive

If Adam Lynn’s article of April 18 on the need of the Spokane County public defender’s office for additional staff is correct, and his quote of county Commissioner Kate McCaslin is in fact accurate, McCaslin is another uninformed, uneducated embarrassment of the county commissioners’ office.

How dare she say that indigent individuals only need “adequate” representation. The attorneys in Spokane County have continuously worked in seeking equal justice for all citizens, notwithstanding income and regardless of their defense being needed for criminal or civil matters.

Why shouldn’t Public Defender Don Westerman’s attorneys zealously represent their clients? What is the difference between someone with money and someone without money receiving the best possible defense? A portion of the oath taken by attorneys when they are sworn in states, ” … never reject, from any consideration personal to myself, the cause of the defenseless or oppressed, or delay unjustly the cause of any person.” It says nothing about the defenseless or oppressed being indigent or wealthy. I invite McCaslin to read the Oath of Attorney.

McCaslin owes this community an apology for her lack of sensitivity. And she owes the attorneys of Spokane County a debt of gratitude for the outstanding job they do for everyone, regardless of income. Judy J. Foster, executive director Spokane County Bar Association, Spokane

GOVERNMENT AND BUDGETS

Republicans just can’t win

I have two problems with the story in the April 21 Spokesman-Review about Democratic Sen. Sid Snyder quitting the Washington state Senate after 48 years.

First, shed no tears for Snyder. Lord knows he’s been there far too long in the first place. He’s simply getting a little dose of what his party’s been handing out for many years while they were in the majority. Like many of his companions, he’s a lot better at dishing it out than receiving it. He must have forgotten the last time his party was in the majority, when the state budget was formulated entirely behind closed doors and given to the Republicans just before the vote was to take place on the floor.

Second, there’s an objectivity issue regarding media coverage. Remember when Republican Rep. Todd Mielke quit the Legislature a short while ago to take a position in the private sector? He was crucified by the media for his “breach of faith with the voters.” Yet, here’s Democratic Sen. Snyder, taking his ball and going home because the other kids decided to play a little different game, and he’s a martyr and a hero. In both cases, the Republicans are the bad guys. Go figure. Hal R. Dixon Spokane

Greed keeping budgets out of balance

Balanced budgets are needed at all levels: federal, state, county, city and even family. If not, eventually the economic system at that level will collapse.

It has been reported that personal and family debt is at an all-time high. Is it just a coincidence that bankruptcies are also at an all-time high? Record profits have been reported by our three big automakers. Is that where the debt is, in automobiles? Why do lenders continue to push credit buying even though a report may be marginal. You “don’t need equity to get an equity loan.” Even banks need to make a profit to stay in business.

I believe the basis for all of it is greed fueled by the federal government, the one who prints the money, controls its distribution, regulates business, levies the taxes and doles out the welfare, pork, disaster aid, health care, Medicare and Social Security.

After all, why should a family or any other level balance its budget if the federal government doesn’t? Won’t the federal government bail them out anyway?

Every government program that passes out money fuels greed, which generates fraud. If the fraud part of it could be controlled, all budgets could be balanced. We must remember, ‘the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil,” because of the greed of people. Floyd F. Damman Colbert

Selective taxes not fair

It’s not a tax - it’s a user fee. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Change the name and issue the verdict; let those who use it pay for it.

Well, I agree - sort of. In this case, a gasoline tax will cost some of us much more than others for the exact same mileage and road wear. My truck, which I have to drive to accomplish my job, gets 12 miles per gallon. That means I’ll have to pay three times the tax as someone whose vehicle gets 35 miles per gallon for exactly the same miles traveled. Is that fair? Not really.

So, if you want user fees instead of taxes, then all you parents pick up the user fees for your children’s education. I have paid school taxes for 30 years and I have no children. I don’t particularly like sharing the cost of your children’s user fees. Either we pay taxes, evenly shared, or we pay user fees. One or the other. Not selective taxes like gasoline user fees which hit some harder than others. I’ll gladly pay user fees if all the rest of you pay your user fees - all of them, including schools.

Say no to this selective tax. The next one might get you. James C. Fletcher Colbert

OTHER TOPICS

Criminalization not the answer

I am responding to the editorial board’s absurd call (April 21) for the criminalization of tobacco. Why would we want to further overburden the police, courts, jails and prisons with yet another misguided effort to control the private behavior of adults? Such an effort would make criminals out of millions of otherwise law-abiding adults and create another lucrative black market - all of which would harm social stability.

A better solution would be to place tobacco and alcohol under the regulation of the Food and Drug Administration (they are drugs, are they not?), such that they could only be sold in stores like today’s liquor stores. All advertising would stop, and all sales would come with information explaining the best medical knowledge about harmful effects.

I stress that the criminalization of behavior should always be done carefully, especially when only consenting adults are harmed. Education about medical realities and tolerance for those who make choices that differ from our own are the most effective and pragmatic solutions to such social concerns.

I am not a smoker and never have been, but I feel that efforts to criminalize these people are both unrealistic and even more immoral than the actual use of tobacco, alcohol, or marijuana, or gambling, prostitution, or any other number of victimless crimes. The editorial board and other moralists need to get a clue and generate solutions to social problems that don’t rely exclusively on criminalization and which have at least an ounce of pragmatism and tolerance for others. Ted R. Curry Pullman

Give police respect they deserve

Why can’t we support our police force and demand of our governments that they support them also? We should offer a police career to capable young men of which they can be proud, with rewards such as high public respect, good salaries, esteem and prestige. After all, a man who risks his life to protect the citizenry is a warrior in the highest sense of the word, and he should be rewarded adequately. A police officer should be on par with any of the professionals, and only the most intelligent and patriotic be recruited.

Once, the police were deeply respected in this county, but the communist-oriented society has degraded these poor men and has permitted them to be insulted by criminals, even denounced by artful, sly and sentimental judges.

We can make grimly certain that any man appointed to judgeship, or elected to it, is a person of the strongest and most principled character; a man of law, justice and good judgment; a man of integrity and honor; a man of patriotism and pride. Our criminals would not survive a week if the judges everywhere were gentlemen of character, virtue and respect, for the law and their country. They must understand that it is their function to protect not the criminals but the decent citizenry against the criminals.

Thus working together, both police and judges can do their jobs adequately. Elizabeth A. Dornoff Spokane