Letters To The Editor

Mon., July 14, 1997

SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION

What Yankee Doodle dunces

A Seattle news reporter was conducting sidewalk interviews and asking questions of several people, at random, in recognition and celebration of the Fourth of July weekend and what it means. Most of these people didn’t have a clue about what the reporter was asking.

For example:

To the question, “Who was the first president of the United States?” one person answered, “Abraham.”

I assume he meant Lincoln.

“What year did the United States gain its independence?” One person answered, “1963.”

“From what country did the United States gain its independence?” Two answered, France and Mexico.

“Approximately what year did the first world war begin?” One answer was 1943. “Was Oregon one of the original 13 colonies?” A young lady answered proudly that Oregon was in fact one of the original 13 colonies.

It’s obvious from news reports like this and many scientific studies that have been conducted and reported that the education of our people, for 30 and more years, has been and is deteriorating. We can no longer simply throw millions of dollars at the issue of improving education and expect young people to turn out better educated for it.

The really sad and disgusting part is, this example from Seattle is but the tip of the iceberg. George Britton Spokane

Response to complaint was worthless

Re: your story, “District revises harassment policy.”

It has been my experience that the district doesn’t take harassment seriously or investigate complaints made by parents.

Our family experienced a situation where our son was degraded and verbally harassed by a coach. When we brought this matter to the attention of everyone involved, they told us they were satisfied that the situation did not require any action. We also sent a letter to Ivan Bush, who never responded to our letter of concern.

We were brushed under the rug and my son paid the price for the repercussions of bringing this matter about. We could never find anyone within the system who wanted to help us or cared about the education of our son.

I did find out by talking with other parents that when they had similar problems, they were handled in the same uncaring way. A friend of mine who has a daughter who is deaf also complained when a teacher had the class “see how deaf she really was,” and they made loud noises and laughed at her. It also was brushed under the rug.

My advice to parents who are promised rules of enforcement regarding teachers accountability is: beware. We did come forward and no one cared what we had to say. Our children are at great risk to suffer the dirty ways of politics at an early age. Cheryl A. Gilmore Spokane

WELFARE

Economic realities different now

I understand how Charles E. McCollim must feel (“‘Lazy bums’ in for a shock,” Letters, July 10). A person of 71 might see the issues of welfare reform as crystal clear (“aka lazy bums”), as taking the working man’s money. In his time, a family could be supported by one hardworking person’s income. For most hard-working families, this is no longer possible.

Gone are the days of full-time, family wage jobs with medical, dental and retirement benefits. Now, many of our jobs are part-time, low-wage, no-benefits jobs. People should work, but work should pay. There are not enough jobs, even low-paying jobs, to put everyone on welfare into the employment market.

The real issue is that times have changed. To many companies, profit is more important than the standard of living of their employees. The good jobs have moved overseas to places where a corporation can use cheap labor, lax environmental laws and favorable tax climates to increase shareholders’ earnings.

Let’s stop pointing the finger at people on welfare and start looking at the real causes of poverty. Support local companies and give kudos to the remaining businesses that compensate their workers for their labor. Besides, we too may one day need some help that uses taxpayer money. Eric J. Graham Spokane

Knowing the cost but not the value

Re: Charles E. McCollim’s July 10 letter, in which he refers to welfare recipients as lazy bums.

A rich woman once told St. Vincent, “The poor frighten me.” To which he replied, “The poor are frightening, as frightening as God’s justice.”

Perhaps this is the problem with so many people today. The only God they know resides on the dollar bill. R.J. Rogers Spokane

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Come clean and get busy reforming

When we elect individuals to Congress, deep down, the public expects clear, concise and effective actions that will benefit this country.

We were asked to support a hearing that finished without any effective conclusions, i.e., tobacco. After several decades, the harmful effects of tobacco still linger, yet that hearing wasted time and money. Although tobacco executives swore in unison - publicly - that their product is not harmful, Congress did not act on the known facts of tobacco’s destruction of individuals.

Now, the public must endure another hearing on campaign finance reform. TV coverage of this calamity will be on CNN, MSNBC, C-SPAN and FOX and there will be sound bites on the networks.

The world, particularly U.S. citizens, knows about questionable funding practices by both the Republican and Democratic parties. The country should be spared this hypocritical posturing and wasteful spending merely to expose the wrongdoing of both parties.

I request that they stipulate in a written resolution that both major parties have used these practices in the past. Then, use this hearing to discuss methods solely to establish procedures for campaign financing in the future.

This could make for a memorable and productive session with great appeal to the American people. Edward Thomas, Jr. Spokane

TECHNOLOGY

2000 problem based in software

Re: “2000 no problem for Macintosh,” Letters, July 9.

Paul Brown is obviously unfamiliar with the PC platform. The PC is perfectly capable of handling 4-digit year values. The fault lies with software developers who failed to account for the year 2000 in their database applications. The Macintosh is just as vulnerable to this type of error. Blame the programmers, not the platform.

And while you’re at it, do yourself a favor. Join the rest of the world and switch to PC. You boast 60 million Mac users worldwide, yet you conveniently failed to mention is that the Mac’s market share is a feeble 5 percent and falling (Computer World, Aug. 26, 1996, page 15).

It’s no secret that Mac software is generally released much later than its IBM counterparts, if at all, and that Macs tend to be consistently more expensive than equivalent PC configurations.

Then there’s Apple Computer’s tremendous financial losses and dwindling sales in recent years. Dr. Gilbert Amelio, former CEO of Apple, resigned just days ago after analysts predicted Apple would lose $70 million in the third fiscal quarter. What a vote of confidence from Apple’s own corporate heads. Meanwhile, companies that manufacture PC hardware and software are flourishing. Joshua M. Haberman, age 15 Coeur d’Alene

2000 no problem for these PCs

Despite Paul D. Brown’s smug letter of July 9 (“2000 no problem for Macintosh”), my DOS-based IBM compatible PC, which runs Windows 3.1, and my wife’s Windows 95 PC will handle the year 2000 without a glitch, as will virtually all PCs, whatever their operating system.

You can check your computer, as I did, by going into setup and changing the date and time to 11:59 pm on Dec. 31, 1999, and then waiting a minute to see what happens. Chances are, the transition to the year 2000 will be unremarkable and you can celebrate the New Year early. If you do have a problem, you will have a couple of years to fix it. And don’t forget to reset your time and date. Max Bromberg Hope, Idaho

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