Letters To The Editor

IN THE REGION

Let’s leave Newport out of this

Regarding the Jan. 14 Our View cartoon, in which a fortune teller holds a dog’s paw and says, “You have a bright future … Just stay away from Newport.”

I wish cartoonist Charles Castleman would have found his facts out before he put Newport on a bad list of places to go. This incident didn’t happen in Newport and had nothing to do with Newport, other than that the sheriff’s office is in the area.

The incident happened down the river from Newport on a little mountain somewhere. Please be sure the facts are straight. We are here to help in Newport. We love animals. We are helping these animals out, but we’re getting a bad rap.

This has got to stop. It’s not a Newport problem. Charlie Schaefer Newport, Wash.

Bead Lake should be public

I think it’s unfair to keep the public out of Bead Lake. We have fished in and enjoyed Bead Lake for many years, dating back to the Dick Cunningham days.

The men who worked with my late husband at Western Fruit Express all fished there. We all had a love for that lake. We all got along. You give a little and take a little - that’s life.

With help from our son, and being in the right place at the right time, we built a cabin there. I miss seeing people out in their fishing boats, enjoying the lake. As for the 5 mph speed limit, that’s totally unfair. You have to troll to fish Bead and you can’t get your line out at that speed.

Bead Lake should never be a private lake. It should be enjoyed by all who love it. Erma Coffield Spokane

SPOKANE MATTERS

Opera House statue under covered

While attending the wonderful performance of “Man of La Mancha” this past weekend, I was inspired and deeply moved by the sculpture titled “Dress Rehearsal” which now has a permanent place in the lobby of the Spokane Opera House.

This exquisite piece of art was sculpted by Spokane’s own Dorothy Fowler, who is an international artist. The life-size bronze of a young ballerina was donated to the city of Spokane by G&B Presents and G&B Select-a-Seat, celebrating 10 years of award-winning entertainment at the Opera House.

Many people, especially children, were admiring the sculpture and talking about the ballerina and its beauty. I learned that Mayor Jack Geraghty had unveiled the statue with Robert Goulet during an impressive ceremony last week.

A gift like this, created by a local artisan and which will last into perpetuity, deserves a picture in a prominent place of the newspaper, where all citizens may share the meaning. Sheri Barnard Spokane

LAW AND JUSTICE

God doesn’t set up theft opportunities

As a mother of six, grandmother of 17, and great-grandmother of two, I was appalled by the Jan. 9 front page story, “God sent a truck to Miami’s poorest.”

Reporters Tessie Borden and Jody Benjamin, wrote this story as if it were morally right, because one is poor, to take what isn’t theirs. Have they never heard God’s word on this? Thou shalt not steal.

Another quote that makes the police seem like ogres: “They even snatched money from an elderly woman who gathered it in a box.” It is unfortunate that we have such poor people. What is even more unfortunate is the morally corrupt climate that allowed a bystander to say: “They deserve it, those hard-working people. They don’t make enough money. God sent a truck.”

Certainly, God did not send a truck so people could break his laws, take what did not belong to them and in turn be robbed themselves. Where is the moral outrage? What is happening to our nation? Fifty to 60 years ago our poor had dignity and honesty. Now they have nothing.

I commend the pitifully few who turned their money in. Would that everyone had done the same. If they had I could agree that God sent a truck. He sent it to show the beauty of the honesty of doing the right thing, no matter how physically poor we are. When we all do what is right, we will be spiritually rich indeed, individually and as a nation. Jane Lyons-Macy Spokane

Miamians stole money, period

Regarding staff writer Jim Kershner’s Bottom Lines topic, “These Miamians know that returning a gift is just plain rude”:

Surely Kershner is not comparing God keeping his promise to the Israelites by sending them manna (the daily gift of food) to the Miamians who stole (yes, stole) the money that fell from the Brinks truck. That money didn’t fall from heaven. An unfortunate accident put it in their grasp.

These citizens had a choice. They could do right by helping the driver retrieve the money or they could do wrong (it’s still called a sin) by keeping it. They knew the money belonged to someone else.

If the Ten Commandments were still hanging in schools maybe those people would have made the right choice.

The bottom line is, what they did is wrong and the comparison is really inappropriate. Lu Caudill Valley

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Get the real spongers off welfare

Welfare reform is on the table both at the federal and Washington state levels. A lot is at stake, both for those who benefit from welfare and also those who pay for welfare.

It may surprise you who gets the big welfare funds. It is no surprise that all taxpayers pay for welfare.

Data available in 1996 showed that the hundreds of thousands of poor received $75 billion. Contrast that with the small number of corporations, such as not-so-poor General Motors and very wealthy mining, tobacco and timber corporations, that got an astounding $105 billion.

Another aspect of corporate malfeasance is that while street theft cost $4 billion, corporate crime cost more than $200 billion.

The U.S. homicide rate is about 21,000, while 56,000 die on the job or from occupational diseases.

Few corporate officers ever do time or pay penalties, due to their political clout.

Since you hired-elected and pay your legislators, they are your employees. Is it time you told your employees how to act? They have the responsibility and power to fix the system. Julian Powers Spokane

No tax money for Catholic Charities

There is a line in the Jan. 10 article, “Catholics’ social service fund hits snag” that says, “The charity’s $3 million comes entirely from private donations and government programs.”

Isn’t that something the American Civil Liberties Union would call the separation of church and state?

Not being a Catholic, I don’t want my tax dollars going to a society not of my choosing. If the church can’t get its parishoners to pay for what they deem necessary, they shouldn’t ask the taxpayers to do it. F.B. Crowley Colville, Wash.