Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

Our through the looking glass budget

I have followed with interest the formulation of our city’s budget. Initially, the City Council’s dilemma was was that projected, even existing expenditures exceeded revenues.

In successfully dealing with my personal finances, I’ve found that when I want to write a check, it’s first necessary to determine if there are sufficient funds in my account. If not, I refrain from writing the check. Were this not the case, I would go to the nearest real estate office and write a check for new house.

But, this is the real world. The way to avoid debt is to not spend money that one doesn’t have and to reduce expenditures if it isn’t possible to increase revenues.

After reasoning these things out, I decided I’d like to give the city some much-needed help with this serious dilemma. From City Hall I obtained a copy of the proposed budget with the idea that I could cross out all unnecessary expenditures. The problem is, City of Spokane: 1998 General Government Budget Proposal, is so nonspecific that there were seemingly no expenditures to be cut unless we were to become a community bereft of police and emergency services, parks and libraries.

I couldn’t find such things as pay raises for city managers or a travel budget for junkets to faraway places. I also thought the city wouldn’t pass a budget without citizens’ input. I guess I was mistaken.

What’s wrong with this picture? Ron Yorke Spokane

City staff can share in our low pay

After reading about the proposal to increase the salaries of Spokane’s top city managers and checking out the comparison chart, I see one thing that should stop any raises of this sort for a long time: the average household income in Spokane. Wages are not high around here for the working stiff, so why should people who work for the city be compensated at a much greater level?

The comparison chart did not compare other areas of value, such as home costs, power prices, commuting costs and stress levels. Spokane is not Seattle or Salt Lake City, and if anyone who now lives and works here thinks they are underpaid and can do better somewhere else, all I can say is, have a nice trip. Ron V. Blank Spokane

Young givers inspiring

What a sight to behold upon opening the Dec. 9 Spokesman-Review. There, smiling out at me, were the 10 Casto Christmas angels. What an inspiring story. We should all be so charitable. The picture now fills the space on our refrigerator. Hopefully, our grandchildren will also be inspired. Beth L. Amundson Spokane

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

Giving just encourages panhandlers

Re: Greg K. Johnson’s Dec. 8 letter, “I’m tired of disreputable teenagers.”

I, too, am sick of getting panhandled by teenagers every time I shop downtown. The only way to get these kids to stop begging is to stop giving them change. They’ve found an easy way to make money and will continue to panhandle if we continue to give. It is obvious that the spare change they receive goes toward body piercing, hair dye and cigarettes. So don’t fell guilty - clean up downtown and stop giving to panhandlers. Jane A. Somers Spokane

Do labels summon inner guilt?

Tom E. Schultz, in his letter of Dec. 12, suggests that the media should label the recent killing of Christian students a hate crime. Indeed, it may very well be just that. The deeper question is, why are so many bothered so much when attacks on homosexuals, blacks and Jews are labeled as hate crimes by the media? Could we be harboring some guilt ourselves? Richard McInerney Spokane

Something’s missing at home: a parent

“Great news!” says our president. “More people at work than ever before!”

Is it really good news, as our front page reports, “More moms back at work, census finds.” It may be good news for some, but for others it is from necessity. We need the extra income to make the house payment or rent. We just can’t do it on one paycheck, so mother will have to go back to work.

Unfortunate mothers usually begin at the bottom of the pay schedule, for lack of experience, they say. At any rate, there are two paychecks in place of one.

But what happens to the family? The extra money can be spent, of course - sometimes, so a dogged-out wife who does housework besides her paid duties can take a break and go out to dinner.

The really big problem, seldom mentioned, is where it puts the young fellows, 9 to 18, who no longer have direction from home about where their time is spent and who they associate with. If you don’t believe me, check with law enforcement officers as to the statistics in 1997 and ask what they expect in 1998, with no discipline in the house on a free afternoon.

Hillary Clinton says it takes a village to raise a child. The hell it does. It takes a responsible mother and father to do it. Carlton Gladder Spokane

TIMES PAST

Whitmans brought death to Cayuse

Re: the Dec. 5 editorials by D.F. Oliveria and Jamie Tobias Neely, about Marcus and Narscissa Whitman.

The Whitmans were religious zealots who introduced the Cayuse Indians to the “love” of Christianity by showing them violence in the name of God. They whipped the Indians with a leather strap in order to rid them of their heathen beliefs - something that was never a part of the Cayuse culture.

When the Indian families started to die from measles - something else introduced by the influx of travelers through the Whitman mission - the Indians went to Marcus Whitman for help. But each time a Cayuse went in for Whitman’s medical help, he or she ended up dying. If you were Chief Kamiakin what would you do?

Kamiakin felt he was saving his people from this madman. Only a select few were attacked in the Whitman incident. More than 115 others present at the mission were unharmed - further evidence that the Cayuse only wanted to rid themselves of the blight that was causing members of their tribe to die.

I also disagree with Oliveria’s statement that “Historical figures should be judged by their times, not ours.”

Those times were far more anti-Indian than society is today. Writers then made their judgments from the puritanical white Christian attitude. History books only perpetuate the attitude of that era. We are more conscious of cultural diversity today, and people are willing to live together in harmony, regardless of their cultural beliefs - something that would have been blasphemy in the Whitman days. Kanie St. Paul Grand Coulee, Wash.