Letters To The Editor

IDAHO VIEWPOINTS

Good commissioners deserve thanks

Regarding the new Bonner County commissioners, I was at the Wednesday meeting and thought they did an admirable job of handling the situation that had been orchestrated by construction union workers.

Did Commissioner Dale Van Stone go to the new commissioners and ask to be included “in the loop”? Did he really want to know what was being planned in order to aid the new commissioners in getting the term under way? I don’t think so.

If he’d shown himself to be ready to make a smooth transition to new management, he would have no cause to whine, but he has created the exact climate he desired - a forum for the media to exploit.

The building department’s demise should have been no surprise to anyone because that is one of the issues on which Bud Mueller and Larry Allen campaigned.

These are honorable family men who have devoted much of their time to a job that puts them in the public arena where they can be maligned by the press and private interest groups who disagree with them. We should be thanking them profusely for the changes in government they are effecting.

The lack of a building department doesn’t mean a lack of codes. The state has electrical, sewer and water safety codes that must be met. It’s only the type of structure a family desires that no longer is regulated. Capable people can design their own homes without someone telling them they are out of line.

I suggest Van Stone stop acting like a stooge and team up with the men who are creating a smaller, more manageable county government. Shirley Hethorn Oldtown, Idaho

Officials are bad news warmed over

Bonner County seems to be caught in a time warp. We went through all this two years ago; now we are repeating the mess.

When someone runs for public office with the promise to reduce taxes, hide your money. Inevitably, it ends up costing the individual. Why do we keep electing people with personal vendettas? Bonner County Commissioner Bud Mueller did not attend major candidate forums nor did he answer questionnaires from the newspaper.

If he had attended a major forum, someone would have questioned his intention to build on land on Sunnyside Road that he bought cheap. He knew the health department would not permit septic tanks in the area. But now that a building permit isn’t needed, the health department has no way of knowing who is putting in illegal tanks. So much for protecting the lake.

Larry Allen just wants to do away with all government. One wonders if he will take the taxpayers’ money to dismantle Bonner County government. He has made a big point of doing away with nepotism. We haven’t had this problem for many years. Now, it looks like his political supporters will be hired as staff director and engineer.

We all need to see whom the two hire. After all, how many knew about the staff director position? They didn’t even advertise for 30 days, which is the usual method. Ann Souza Careywood, Idaho

Commissioners doing what we expected

Let’s get behind our new county commissioners. What we are seeing is a businesslike approach to governmental correction. Bonner County government bureaucracy has become grossly self-serving with the taxpaying public the servants of many all-powerful appointees and non-elected officials. We voted for a change, and it appears we are getting it.

Criticism of the commissioners by Jonathan Coe and the Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce reflects the ability of that group to solve problems such as the traffic congestion in Sandpoint. This group’s concern about the “potential threat to public safety if uninspected homes are built and occupied” does not address the fact that the Sandpoint High School roof caved in under a snow load on a building built with all the inspections and attention of the Bonner County building department.

I do not recall any Bonner County school building built prior to the inspection of the building department having any catastrophic roof load problems.

We now have people in office doing cleanup of a mess that has accumulated over many years. Let us be rid of some of the bureaucracy and spend our own money at our own discretion. James E. White Clark Fork, Idaho

IDENTIFICATION

Different person, different views

The Patricia Keinholz who wrote the letter on Jan. 9 is not the same Patricia who is the daughter of Delbert and Mary Keinholz of Spokane. I want people to know that those opinions are not mine. Patricia Keinholz Spokane

SOCIAL SECURITY

Trust fund a pass-through account

Vern Klingman’s Jan. 12 letter, “Social Security’s number almost up,” contained inaccuracies worth noting. Klingman referred to the balanced budget amendment that is up for consideration as letting “Congress move money from Social Security trust funds to the general fund” and that “this overrides the 1990 law excluding Social Security from deficit calculations.”

Sorry, but that is happening and has been ever since the surplus trust fund was established. The fund is buying special issue government notes from the general fund, which is spending the money, thereby reducing the deficit. Government notes in that fund are nothing but tax-backed IOUs that can only become liquid for benefits distribution through new taxes.

Because Social Security benefits are tax dollars that are skimmed wealth off the top of other people’s productivity, the only solution is to change the system to one in which individuals’ Social Security benefits come from the income from their own ownership of productivity through private investment. Jeff Schaller Pullman

Hooverites never change or learn

Re: “Don’t trust government to help fund your retirement” (“Roundtable,” Jan. 17), a commentary by George Marotta of the Hoover Institution:

I completely oppose Marotta’s notions about Social Security and government measures to provide employment during economic downturns.

Franklin Roosevelt defeated President Herbert Hoover (for which Marotta’s institute is named) precisely because Hoover insisted Depression-devastated people should just wait for the economy to right itself. Meanwhile, millions - and I was one - worked 10-hour days at 15 cents an hour to survive.

Roosevelt wasted no time launching several programs to provide work at a time when stores bulged with goods no one could afford. Hundreds of young Civilian Conservation Corps boys and thousands of Works Progress Administration workers came to this area to help build Grand Coulee Dam. The effect on their families was incalculable.

Ever since the Social Security Act was passed, I’ve heard workers bellyaching about government having no right to make them contribute to a fund to keep them from penury when they could no longer work. Strange how appreciative they became when Social Security benefits kept them relatively solvent in their final years.

Money these retirees now spend does far more to keep our economy stable than do the millions paid to executives who get huge bonuses for downsizing their labor forces.

Marotta writes, “Individual workers cannot do worse than the really bad central decisions made by our government over the past six decades in our present ‘social insecurity’ program.”

He’s wrong. A few sophisticated or lucky investors would do well but millions of Social Security recipients agree with me. Fred J. Meyer Coulee Dam

Doomsayers have their reasons

The recent editorial on Social Security reform made two major mistakes.

First, Social Security and Medicare were lumped together and presented as one major problem. These are two separate programs funded by different means. Combining them is a popular conservative ruse used to make things look a lot worse than they really are and to scare the bejesus out of aging baby boomers.

Second, if it ain’t broke, why fix it? Social Security is one government program that actually works. It’s reduced poverty in old age and helps middle-age workers who would otherwise have to support elderly parents.

Social Security now collects more in taxes than it pays out. The excess is invested in U.S. Treasury bonds that paid an average of 7.6 percent last year. The fund is expected to grow until 2019 before it will have to start cashing in bonds.

Revenues from payroll taxes alone would be enough to pay 75 percent of all Social Security benefits for the next 75 years. A reasonable 1.1 percent increase in payroll tax for employees and employers would make up the difference.

The riskier stock market doesn’t offer a great improvement in profits over safer bonds. Wall Street fat cats become positively orgasmic at the prospect of a privatized Social Security suddenly shifting billions into their pockets. But do you really want to put the security of your retirement years in the hands of the high rollers who run the casino games on Wall Street? Russ Moritz Sandpoint

My, what a fine, chauvinist idea

Robert Michik (“Tie benefit window to life expectancy,” letters, Jan. 13) suggests changing Social Security benefits to match life expectancy. Since women live about seven years longer than men, he proposes their age of retirement be changed to 74, while men could retire at 67.

Michik says this means men are subsidizing women. He also suggests some kind of compensation for women because we bear children. Suppose life expectancy were factored into Social Security benefits. Girls mature earlier than boys. Should we also begin working earlier, say at age 10, to make up for this discrepancy? At that rate, we would owe only about a year’s worth of subsidy.

On the other hand, why not work seven years longer than your husband? He could be enjoying the good life, kicking back, enjoying the grandchildren, while we’re putting in 45-plus hours each week. Never mind that you worked as many years as he did, equally sharing in the financial responsibilities. Never mind that you earned about 70 cents for every dollar he earned. Never mind that you want to enjoy your golden years together - you can’t afford it! Unless, of course, you’ve received “compensation” for each child you’ve brought into this world. Remember, too, married men generally live longer than unmarried men.

Michik says any politician who supported his plan would surely lose his office. Michik, not only do we vote, but women now are politicians, too.

As for me, I look forward to spending my retirement years with my husband. Gail Kogle Liberty Lake

RAISING CHILDREN

Rosemond ‘a breath of fresh air’

Ever since moving to Spokane over five years ago, we have wanted to thank you for including John Rosemond’s column in your paper. We believe he promotes healthy, truly loving discipline of children, authoritative but not authoritarian. He’s a breath of fresh air amidst the permissive, inconsistent and neglectful child-rearing going on today.

We can say from experience that his principles work. We have three grown children who have been raised this way and they are all we could wish for. They not only give us great pleasure but also are making positive contributions to society. Don and Laverne Meekhof Spokane

Letter writer knows best

Re: Meta Stone’s letter (“Once, there was no beating the system” Jan. 21). I did not read Bob Vernard’s letter, but I want to clarify that Stone is not condoning “beating” or child abuse and this should not be confused with godly discipline, i.e. “spare the rod, spoil the child.”

I am one of four children and our parents disciplined us lovingly. And yes, we received spankings but they were never undeserved and there were not very many of them that I can remember.

Mom never said “wait until your dad gets home” because sometimes my dad’s ship was out for months at a time. None of us ever got into trouble with the law or school officials and we respected the rules in our home. We never felt abused but knew that our parents loved us.

I know how Stone feels about this because she’s my mom. Jeanne Helstrom Coeur d’Alene

Letter bespeaks a wise parent

Bob Vernard of Bonners Ferry, Idaho, is right on, (“Spanking is beating and is wrong,” letters, Jan. 13). His was an excellent letter and I congratulate him as a wise and discerning parent.

Our job as parents is to firmly limit in such a way that the child wants to cooperate with us. We want our children to learn that it feels good to follow parents’ guidelines while they learn socially acceptable behavior, which is vital if they are going to receive positive messages as they move out into their world. Children are very sensitive to adults’ unspoken messages. They recognize and react to approval or disapproval.

Vernard stated his children are “unusually mature, responsible, gentle and self-assured. Their teenage years did not live up to the horrendous experience we are taught to expect. By respecting our children, they learned the meaning of respect.” Jean Payne Nine Mile Falls

THE MEDIA

This is how low low gets

I’ve read reports of a tabloid’s purchase and publication of crime-scene photos connected to the murder of JonBenet Ramsey. One photo shows the rope and stick used to strangle her, another a rope mark on the child’s wrist.

Two weeks ago, the most morbid evil I could conceive of was child pornography. I could cope with this, barely, believing our society is striving to end such monstrosities. Laws exist to protect victims and society from these publications.

And as a Christian, I could try to forgive those at fault by assigning blame to mental illnesses or some gap in humanity through which those responsible fell.

But I cannot forgive the individual responsible for the leak of the photos. His or her actions cannot be blamed on a psychosis. This person occupied a position of trust and then betrayed that trust for money. This person made a victim of that sweet child after her death. But even this pales to the continuing crime inflicted upon her memory.

Each time that disreputable publication is purchased, the victimization goes on. The editors of that trash didn’t pay for the photos; the readers did.

JonBenet was treated as an object in her life; a trophy to be posed and looked upon like a prize-winning terrier at a dog show. Now, even in death, she remains a thing because of those photos.

All those who acquired copies of the photos, please send them back to the publishers. Leave the perversions to the perverts. Lane Helgeson Spokane

Pitts, Willon commentaries excellent

Congratulations for two great, thoughtful articles. The “Roundtable” commentary by Leonard Pitts Jr., “All children ought to be allowed their childhood,” speaks to my feelings on seeing a 6-year-old dressed as if she were a woman or a performing monkey on her mother’s string.

And on the Jan. 18 “Opinion” page, Phil Willon’s “Cures merely delay the inevitable” was so well-written and well-thought-out that I felt elation when I read it. Someone else sees it the way I do. Good work. Joanne Peters Kellogg