Letters To The Editor
YOUNG PEOPLE ISSUES
Give young skaters some trust
This letter is in response to “Keep skate park drug-free” (Letters, April 20) and the new city plans to build a skate park under the freeway.
I am also concerned about the drug problem among some youths, but I believe building a skate park will help to create a productive outlet for many Spokane youths and will help reduce the drug problem, not increase it.
Being a young adult myself, I know that boredom and lack of interest in extracurricular activities are what leads a majority of our youths to excessive drug use and often trouble. Creating a skate park that is overly patrolled will discourage most people from using the skate park at all, thus defeating the park’s intended purpose.
The city needs to create a place where young people with a desire to skate can go and not feel threatened. I believe our youth should be given the benefit of the doubt and not be excessively regulated, until a drug problem is in fact present.
Creating a productive outlet for the youths of Spokane is a great idea. We should trust in the fact that the opportunity to skate will most likely be enough entertainment.
Neva A. Peterson Spokane
Girls need abortion education
I’m responding to the letter from the 14 year old girl who wrote on April 21. I’m also 14 years old and have the same feeling about abortion.
I think that if young women were educated about abortion they may have a different perspective about it. I didn’t really have a strong feeling against abortion until I read her letter and found out exactly what they do. I think schools should have an abortion class along with the sex education.
If abortion was more known to young teenage girls they may decide not to have an abortion because of the pain it puts the baby through and the effects later in life on that girl. Tia J. Gilroy Nine Mile Falls
Teens need to know dangers of pot
Studies show that marijuana is becoming more popular with teenagers. With a narcotic rate 100 times more powerful than when their parents smoked marijuana, how will this effect the teenagers who use marijuana?
Many teenagers say, “Well, my parents used marijuana when they were teenagers and they turned out fine,” but what they don’t know is that the narcotic rate in today’s pot is much more powerful than it used to be.
Long-term use of marijuana can cause a person to become slower and have trouble learning or paying attention in school. It can also cause a person to become very dull, such as talking and moving slower.
With so many teenagers not knowing how dangerous marijuana is, maybe education is the best defense against marijuana abuse. Parents need to talk to their kids about marijuana before someone else does. Sage O’Hara Spokane
IN THE PAPER
New isn’t always better
Is it just my imagination or has your brand new, supersplendiferous, multi-graphic, four-color weather extravaganza been wrong every day since its introduction? At least on the two-day-out forecast.
Would an old-fashioned text forecast, dull but more accurate, be more useful? James P. McManus Spokane
The grief is shared
A letter writer was horrified that a photo was used showing Ruben Pena’s grieving mother and step-father and their dying child.
Perhaps he is right. One can only hope that perhaps some sensitive newspaper person at the Fresno Bee prepared them for the publication of this very private and emotional moment. Only the Pena family knows.
For me, that particular paragraph resulted in an unexpected welling of tears, and brought home the horror or losing a child to such a senseless act of violence, in a way that words alone could not. I would want the Pena family to know that for some several moments I have grieved with them. R. Paul Unger Spokane
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
Commissioners going too far
Well now we’ve done it. We elected two environmentalists as county commissioners and have let the foxes guard the henhouse.
John Roskelley doesn’t like the smell of smoke. He should have been in the front lines; we had lots of it there. Both he and Kate McCaslin think that folks who pay sales taxes and license for boats should not use the river for recreation. What kind of license do they have for rubber rafts and canoes? I bet it doesn’t come near producing the same income for the county: gas tax, license, trailer license, beer tax, taxes on cigarettes.
Now they are going to consult with the union to see if they can ban smoking in county cars. What if they say it isn’t in the contract? Next, they will want all of the taxpayers to stop breathing. The last time I checked, this was still a democracy, not a dictatorship. Get a life! Charles E. McCollim Spokane
How about ‘adequate’ prosecution?
It is a sad state of affairs when an elected official, responsible for the county budget, including the funding of criminal justice, believes that the allocation of our taxpayer dollars for public defender services should be just enough to provide adequate representation to those charged with criminal wrongdoing.
I doubt County Commissioner Kate McCaslin would suggest that the county prosecutor’s office only prepare its cases adequately rather than to the extent the prosecutors believe is necessary to convict a defendant. And, should our judges research the law just enough to get some adequate idea of how to rule on a motion to suppress evidence? Should jails be constructed and staffed just adequately enough so that most inmates cannot easily escape?
The criminal justice system is one interconnected process, funded with tax dollars, and taxpayers deserve the best possible system for their money. If we, as voters, insist that all those charged with criminal wrongdoing be prosecuted to the full extent of the law and that plea bargains are not often appropriate, then we as taxpayers must also accept the consequences of that position. If prosecutions are increased and plea bargains are decreased, more trials will occur, which results in the need for more prosecutors, more defenders, more judges, more jails and more parole officers. This means more tax dollars to fund that system.
McCaslin’s proposed solution that the public defender’s office be inadequately funded is not only unconstitutional, it is not a solution to the bigger problem of the ever growing criminal justice system. Pamela J. DeRusha, president Spokane County Bar Association
OTHER TOPICS
A few profit while many lose
I was sickened, but not surprised, to see that corporate bigwigs are enjoying a 23 percent profit increase while they continue to perpetuate the resource scarcity myth (“Fortune 500 profits jump 23 percent,” April 8).
“The companies of the Fortune 500 have restructured, re-engineered, refinanced, downsized, laid off, split up and merged their way to prosperity.” This quote from Forbes magazine should have us all demanding to know just who is benefiting from this prosperity. Surely not the many employees who were casualties of downsizing in the name of cutting costs.
CEOs would do well to remember that one executive position could be taken out for the equivalent of laying off many workers.
I find it hard to believe that any CEO works that much harder than his/her employees that he/she can justify lining executive and stockholder pockets while simultaneously blaming job losses on a lack of resources.
Maybe we aren’t protesting this hypocrisy because it’s embarrassing to admit that the few are living in ivory towers at the expense of the many. We’re told that jobs are lost because of the bad economy, immigrants, the weather - myths to divert attention from the truth: personal profit motive for top executives at the expense of a company’s most valuable resource, its employees.
The insatiable hunger for generating profit exploits the environment as well. As profits increase, the Earth’s destruction gets worse. There’s absolutely no reason why we shouldn’t be using cleaner energy sources, except that some companies would become unnecessary.
What has truly been gained, and at what price? Laura L. Toussaint Spokane
State needs to support rail service
About three years ago the Washington Legislature inaugurated a program for the improvement of passenger train service between Portland, Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia. As a result, new European-style passenger trains were acquired by the state, track was improved for faster speeds and stations were constructed or renovated. The rail passenger service and the ridership remarkably improved.
But there remains more work to be done. The Legislature is now considering whether to keep the rail passenger program alive. Without an increase in the highway fuel tax, there is pressure to use for highways the motor vehicle excise tax revenues otherwise slated for the rail passenger program.
I believe we need daytime rail passenger service at various points between Seattle and Spokane via Yakima, and we also need daytime rail passenger service at various points, including Leavenworth, between Seattle and Spokane via Wenatchee. There is considerable congestion on the freeway west of Ellensburg and also on Highway 2 West of Leavenworth. And there is always the annual problem of snow on the highways in the mountain passes.
Hopefully, the Legislature will find the monies to continue the rail passenger program and that the passenger program will soon be available for Eastern Washington. James O. Neal Ephrata, Wash.
Trade mission done well
Leadership is an art. Being an artist and a business person, I appreciate good leadership when I see it. Having just returned from Japan as a member of the trade delegation, I tip my hat to the leaders of that group. Mayor Jack Geraghty; Rich Hadley, president of the Chamber of Commerce; Dave Shea, Chamber of Commerce chairman; and Ed Tsutakawa, vice president of Mukogawa Fort Wright Institute, were all professional and gracious leaders.
Dealing with a different language, interpreters, hard-to-pronounce names and different cultural customs is not a common, everyday business task. Presentation and relationship building are extremely important parts of doing business in Japan. Geraghty, Hadley and Shea were our main spokesmen and presented introductions of our delegation to several impressive gatherings of Japanese business leaders. They did a great job and Spokane should be proud of them.
I know that the relationship building and the introductions that they made for the delegation will definitely help our business and also open doors for other Spokane companies to do business with Japan. Exporting to Japan is a challenging but rewarding opportunity. I would encourage other companies to take advantage of the groundwork laid by this delegation.
Also deserving of applause is Tsutakawa. His gracious introductions in our sister city, Nishinomiya, where he has lived and is highly respected, were very much appreciated. He is also one fine karaoke singer!
It was a good trade mission, well put together, well led and well received. Jill A. Smith, owner Buckeye Beans & Herbs, Inc., Spokane