Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

City is a consultants’ welfare agency

The first priority of our city government is to protect the health, safety and welfare of the people.

Our elected officials and their appointed department heads first run our city as they very well please, then - and only if ample funds are available - address the issues most important to the people.

The cry from City Hall is, we don’t have the money to maintain and fix the streets, our snow-plowing budget is depleted, etc.

Do you ever hear such sobbing when they want to spend tens of thousands of dollars for a consultant? Or, the thousands upon thousands of dollars for various studies? Most people hired for this kind of work are from out of our area. When they look up Spokane in the dictionary or on a map there must be a big picture of a dollar sign next to it.

If you’re one of those who stands in money up to your eyeballs our city leaders will rush and stumble all over themselves to give you even more money. They tell us this is good business, to throw money into those deep pockets. But, what about throwing some of that money into fixing the deep potholes and plowing the deep snow?

Sorry, Joe Citizen, you’ll just have to take a back seat and we’ll throw a few bucks at your priorities later.

How long, Joe Citizen, are you going to sit back and take it? George Britton Spokane

City’s priority is milking taxpayers

“Priorities” - a word of confusion, a word of wishful thinking, a word of contrasts, especially if the Spokane City Council has anything to say about it.

Last week, power brokers in Spokane conjured up the 1997 priorities of confidence, assurance and financing of the RiverPark Square parking garage. It was a lip service of hope, a pipe of dreams and contempt for average taxpayers, who see the logic of city government deteriorating right before their eyes.

The 1997 city budget, as usual, increased several times the increase in the cost of living. The City Council, as usual, increased real estate taxes and the city utility tax.

Councilman Orville Barnes, after voting for the tax increases, as he has done each year since in office, made a profound statement that “everybody knows” when we increase utility rates that we also increase their city utility taxes. Everybody, Orville?

It’s no wonder we have one of the highest city utility taxes in the United States. Does everybody know that, Councilman Barnes?

But Mayor Jack Geraghty takes the cake. Geraghty referred to the 1997 city budget as “frugal.”

Taxpayers are again seeing both real estate tax and city utility tax increases. The 1997 budget also included spending almost $3 million to supplement its reckless spending habits. Now the City Council wants additional tax revenues to bail it out of an impending road maintenance problem. What about cutting out the proposed corporate welfare for the parking garage?

Maybe it’s time to really set some priorities in Spokane that make sense for a change. Dick Adams Spokane

Spokane has its good Samaritans

There are good people in our city.

Recently, the car I was driving stopped dead just ahead of the intersection at Hamilton and North Foothills Drive. Amidst the honking of horns by other drivers who apparently couldn’t see my blinkers, a woman to my right got out of her car and directed several behind me to use the turn lane, clearing space to reposition her car behind mine. She pushed me up the Hamilton-Nevada hill and all the way to Wellesley, into Divine’s Service Station. Then she disappeared.

A big “God bless!” to this generous and courageous person, and to all such thoughtful souls. Sister Bernadine Casey, SNJM Spokane

PUBLIC SAFETY

Traffic lights, not drivers, the problem

I have noticed a campaign accelerating to encourage and remind us drivers to stop running red lights. This must be expensive.

Why not use this money to fix the lights? I also noticed during our recent ice storm that Spokane drivers did exceptionally well without the weird lights. I even heard one woman say she was sorry they came back on.

I am generally of the opinion that when you have a problem that involves a lot of people, chances are good that there is another, bigger problem causing most of these people to mess up.

I lived in Seattle for nine years and still visit there often, and I have never been aware of the enigma of traffic violations involving lights that we have here in Spokane. I am presuming that is because of their superior traffic light system. It’s consistent, dependable and electronically controlled. I think it helps keep their drivers consistent too.

Telling people what they already know is ridiculous. Barbara Clark Spokane

Seat belts save lives; I know

I lost a very important person on Jan. 6, 1997. This person was my father. He died because he wasn’t wearing his seat belt. He was thrown from a vehicle, and might have lived had he been buckled up.

Please don’t let anyone ride in your vehicle unless they are buckled up. Seat belts can, and do, save lives. Please buckle up. Michelle Lukenbill Spokane

IN THE PAPER

And donate they did

On behalf of individuals with disabilities and disadvantaged adults of Spokane, Career Connections would like to thank The Spokesman-Review for printing the Community update column, “Consider donating old computer,” Dec. 12.

Career Connections is a nonprofit organization that has been in business for over 35 years in the greater Spokane area. Our purpose is to assist individuals with disabilities and disadvantaged adults gain independence through employment readiness and placement.

We also offer services to businesses, including shrink-wrapping, assembly and professional custodial services.

In response to the Dec. 12 article, we received several donations of computers, printers and other miscellaneous computer components.

We are still in need of 386-plus model computers with Windows capabilities. We also need printers, keyboards and other peripherals. Bill Stout Career Connections, Spokane

Column itself a breach of sensitivity

Re: Doug Clark’s fictional dialogue in his Jan. 7 column (“Doc-tor fails sensitivity class in crude fashion.”

As Spokane County coroner, Dexter Amend’s behavior has been less than honorable, at times even embarrassing. However, Clark’s creative writing exercise further demeans the unfortunate deaths of our city’s children and creates an oversensationalized version of Amend’s actions and beliefs.

This dialogue is in extremely poor taste and has a high chance of being mistaken for the truth, since it appears in a venue where readers usually find a newsworthy and pro-community article.

I am very disappointed in The Spokesman-Review’s decision to place this column on the front page of the Region section, as opposed to a designated space for personal opinion. It is extremely unfortunate that Clark would waste his creativity by mocking tragedy and bringing more publicity to families already traumatized by their situations.

This column produces no social good and, in my opinion, is a waste of space. Lara Anderson Spokane

Clark goes over ‘tasteless, tactless’ edge

Doug Clark is definitely a candidate for sensitivity classes, as evidenced by his Jan. 7 column. All of the people mentioned, except the imaginary Ms. Bliss, have suffered enough without such tasteless, tactless and cruel “humor.”

Granted, the column is written to question issues and people, but Clark has gone beyond the most outer limits of integrity and decency in journalism. Elita Jones Spokane

Did reviewer actually read book?

After reading the Jan. 4 column by AP writer Matt Truell, “‘In His Steps’ leaving imprint after 100 years,” I had many questions about Truell’s view of the book. I wondered what book he was reading. Did he miss the first chapter?

I hate to be critical of an article that was obviously meant to pay tribute to such an inspirational book, but it isn’t very inspirational when it isn’t even accurate.

Isn’t there a code of ethics for journalists? Things such as accuracy and accountability in reporting? Before put my byline on a story I’d make sure to check my facts. Especially when it requires only four pages of reading. Christopher Gooch Spokane

RAISING CHILDREN

Spanking is beating and is wrong

In a recent letter to the editor, Dave Perkins (“Rosemond’s way harmless, effective.” Jan. 5) praised punishing and spanking as the most effective method of teaching children.

Wisdom is recognizing what is truly different and what is the same. The statement, “There’s a big difference between spanking and beating, between punishment and cruelty,” is completely false. The dictionary confirms that to spank is to beat and to punish is to inflict cruelty. The force of the spanking and the degree of pain and suffering by punishment do not change what they are. Form is meaningless, content is everything.

The statement, “The child does not learn it’s OK to hit someone” by being struck by a parent denies the obvious. We teach in everything we do, foremost of which is by example.

When our daughter was 2 and our son 4, my wife and I gave up the traditional interpretation of discipline as punishment. I clearly remember when I last administered a spanking. I hated it and felt that there must be a better way.

Since that day 16 years ago, we have raised our children with patience, communication and love. We have not grounded, yelled at, struck or punished them in any way since. When in doubt, I treat the child as if it is myself in accordance with the Golden Rule.

The results speak for themselves. Both of our children are unusually mature, responsible, gentle and self-assured. Their teenage years did not live up to the horrendous experience which we are taught to expect. By respecting our children they learned the meaning of respect. Children you see, are not different. They are a part of us.

I would be tremendously surprised and equally disappointed if one of my children ever beat, punished or otherwise inflicted cruelty on a child, or anyone else for that matter. Bob Vernard Bonners Ferry, Idaho

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Think again, Social Security reformers

Gamble with Social Security funds? Not on your sweet life!

Any politician who dares to play with elderly folks’ Social Security can kiss his or her political life goodbye.

I can’t believe how naive our political leaders must think the general public is. There will be another election and we can rid ourselves of such nonsense leaders.

If playing with the stock market is the only alternative to overhauling the Social Security system, everyone is in a heap of trouble.

What happened to the idea of raising the retirement age to 67 years old? After all, we do live longer. And what about raising the percentage of FICA? The government seems to remember giving folks cost of living allowance increases. There are many alternatives to helping the Social Security fund.

I wonder if the politicians in Washington, D.C., are living so high on the hog that their attitude is “Let them eat cake”? M. “Liz” Berg Spokane

Tie benefit window to life expectancy

I noted in an article about Social Security that an increase in the retirement age would hurt men, as they don’t live as long as women. I have a proposal.

Taking note of the fact that people live longer than they did when Social Security was established, let’s increase the normal retirement age for men to 66, 67, etc., as indicated by their increasing lifetimes. Let’s also increase the retirement age for women to 73, 74, etc., to take into account their longer lifetimes.

This would be actuarially sound and would result in men and women receiving benefits for about the same number of years. As it is now, women get benefits for about seven years longer than men. This is clearly unfair.

Another way of looking at it is to state that men are subsidizing women’s benefits.

This is true of any system that provides the same monthly retirement benefits for men and women, as is the case in Washington and many other states.

I expect women to be violently opposed to this suggestion. Not because it is unfair but because women would have to give up their current advantage. Any politician who supported such a plan would surely lose his office.

Whether women are entitled to this special consideration in view of their obvious contributions to the rearing of children is entirely another matter. I would rather have women directly compensated for this effort than to have it expressed in many uncontrolled and unstated preferences. Robert Michik Othello, Wash.

Tradition of dishonesty must end

When will our senators and representatives start telling the truth and working together to resolve the errors of the past?

From day one when our nation was 13 states, the government was pushing and killing the Native Americans. Then when people needed slaves, they headed for Africa and captured those people and sold them on the auction block. Again, the white man was the big bully.

When our troops were sent overseas, they were poisoned by chemicals or bad medications. Again, our elected representatives lied to the people and told our GIs it was all in their heads.

Wake up, America, and write these servants a warning to start telling the truth and working together as a team or quit the office. Pete Therens Spokane

Congress, voters do remember

I applaud Rep. Linda Smith for her guts.

Smith, at her own expense, did not sell out to good ol’ boy conscription in refusing to vote for Newt Gingrich as speaker of the House. Rep. George Nethercutt, on the other hand, voted to keep Gingrich as speaker.

I am again incredulous that the voters of Eastern Washington traded former speaker Tom Foley for Nethercutt. I guess in the end we get the kind of government we deserve.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. In 1994, the Republican majority received a voter mandate to offer the American public an alternative to the legislative morass of the Democratic-controlled Congress. A large component of the demand for change was campaign finance reform and a “moral imperative” to conduct the legislative branch with accountability.

Although I was skeptical of the Republican Party’s ethical high ground, I was nonetheless willing to quietly examine the alternative offered by this Congress.

I now believe that the liars and cheats in the former Congress were far easier to stomach than the current arrogant manner in which this Congress disregards its own flavor of dishonesty.

What is galling, is that this Congress really believes that voters have a short memory.

One thing the 1994 voting public taught me is the actual power of the vote. You were voted in and just as easily we can vote you out. This time, you will not have to illegally sell the package to America. Maureen T. Long Pullman