Letters To The Editor

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Tax cut plans puny, at best

Recent published reports on the approval of a tax cut have characterized it as a “big tax cut plan.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

The net tax cut from the Senate is $76.8 billion spread over five years, which is less than one-fifth of 1 percent per year. Currently, all government taxes have climbed to a record 29.7 percent of U.S. output. The federal government’s tax receipts, which have been consistently around 18.5 percent of gross domestic product, now have reached a record 20.5 percent of GDP.

In the tax debate, the issue of fairness was raised - more tax cuts for the poor, less generous cuts for the wealthy. The truth is: If any income tax cuts occur, they must go to the more wealthy; the poor pay almost no taxes. The top 1 percent of earners paid 28.7 percent of all taxes in 1994 compared with 17.9 percent in 1981. The top 10 percent paid 59.1 percent, up from 48.2 percent in 1981. The top 50 percent of all earners paid a whopping 95.2 percent of all taxes; the bottom 50 percent, 4.8 percent.

The Clinton administration has raised taxes to run its programs, ignoring the truth known to presidents Kennedy and Reagan. Kennedy said, “The soundest way to raise the revenue in the long run is to cut the tax rates now.” That’s the way to increase economic growth and give all Americans something better than a tax cut: faster economic growth which will bring income growth. That’s the way it works! John A. Peterson Peterson Investment Management Inc., Spokane

NEA funding should be stopped

In response to Speedy Rice’s letter (July 16) concerning “Neanderthals” in the U.S. House of Representatives, I would like to say I support the decision to de-fund the National Endowment for the Arts. Why?

Where is the grace and beauty in an exhibit consisting of human excrement? (at the New York Whitney Museum in 1993.) Where is the inspiration in Robert Mapplethorpe’s crucifix soaked in human urine?

Art patronage belongs to the private sector, not the government. I resent my hard-earned dollars being used for such shock treatments.

The NEA has abused the privilege it has enjoyed. Now the consequences should be paid and the privilege of funding should be stopped. Linda J. Reed Spokane

Leave arts endowment alone

In response to D.F. Oliveria (“Keep government out of the arts,” editorial, July 18):

What is the difference between an artist and a pornographer? Guaranteed profits.

There is no question that Oliveria likes to get into a puritanical uproar whenever he sees naked bodies in a museum. But if his kind of thinking had prevailed in the classical period and in the era of the great masters, the world would be deprived of much beauty.

Robert Mapplethorpe is one of the few artists who crossed the line between art and sexual exploitation. Something that Oliveria should remember is that porn is about sexual exploitation.

Now, define “sexual exploitation.” To a religious radical, it’s the painting of a naked woman in whatever setting is porn; to the artist, it’s something of beauty.

Quit attacking the National Endowment for the Arts. Joan E. Harman Coeur d’Alene

Space exploration is important

Wil R. Mohney (letters, July 12) questions why, given the world’s “social ills,” we should be spending money on space exploration.

The answer is obvious. We should do both.

We should demand that hard-working adults be given just compensation sufficient to provide their families with such basic needs as medical care, child care, etc.

We also should demand that at least a small percentage of our gross national product be spent on such basic research as space exploration, because sooner or later, the very survival of the human race will depend upon it.

If humankind remains totally confined to this planet, it’s only a matter of time until a wayward comet, a slightly more effective airborne virus, the blithely ignored greenhouse effect or something else will put an end to us all. At least until we can verify that we aren’t the only self-aware “intelligent” organisms in the universe, we should take the precaution of dispersing amongst the stars.

But there are more immediate reasons for an active space program. The billions we spent on research to put men on the moon led directly to the trillions we’ve reaped from today’s high-tech industry. The need for miniaturization of electronics in spacecraft resulted eventually in the VCRs, home computers, microwaves, satellite communications and hundreds of other gizmos we enjoy now.

If it weren’t for all that research, there’d be a lot more minimum-wage jobs and a lot more latchkey kids in our country. Without the resultant technology it fostered, we would be a second-rate, agriculture-based society today. William L. Betz Newport, Wash.

Space spending is lunacy

Recently on the evening TV news, it was stated that the United States pays the Russians $100 million per year to train our astronauts on Mir. The statement was so then we would know what to do in an emergency.

Let’s make them firemen, air traffic controllers, 911 operators, Spokane drivers approaching a red light or dodging a pothole something here on Earth that we all can use.

We all have heard of the great experiments they are doing in outer space. Have any of them helped anyone? Didn’t bring my taxes down. I still have a bunion. This has to be the granddaddy of all boondoggles! Charles E. McCollim Spokane

Nice idea doesn’t add up

On July 18, you published a column by E.J. Montini wherein he suggests, hopefully with tongue in cheek, that all our financial problems could be solved by having Bill Gates and his ilk give each taxpayer a half million dollars.

While I agree that one person having $36 billion is almost obscene, I’m afraid the arithmetic to support Montini’s suggestion is sorely lacking.

If Gates is worth about $36 billion and there are about 500 billionaires in the world, let’s assume the average wealth of each is about $18 billion (it’s probably less). That comes to a total of $9 trillion for the total wealth of all of them.

To simplify the equation, let’s distribute all the money, rather than let each billionaire keep “billions left over,” as the column suggests.

If we break $9 trillion down into half-million-dollar packets, there are only 18 million packets. Since the population of the United States is more than 250 million, we can assume at least 80 million of us are taxpayers. Distributing the 18 million packets still leaves 62 million taxpayers with their noses to the grindstone.

Oh well, it was a nice fantasy while it lasted. Please send Montini back to school. Larry Blanchard Otis Orchards

LAW AND JUSTICE

‘Lifeline’ is saving wrong lives

Re: “Lawyer a lifeline for death row dwellers” (July 20):

I am not a big expert on pedophiles, but I think that what makes them different from the whole society is that they can be sexually attracted to a child while the rest of us cannot. Yes, they see something in a child that nobody else does. This feature, however, does not earn them respect. They can be very dangerous.

By the same token, I feel not the slightest respect for Joan Fisher, the death row inmates’ advocate whom you feature in your Sunday story. She says she came to “generally like” people who take friends to targetshooting and kill them, who rob and kill two people and rape and murder a third, who kill two newspaper carriers or who shoot and kill a cashier during a bank robbery.

It does not come as a surprise that what makes Fisher feel happy and exhilarated is a debate about the exact definition of the words “heinous,” “atrocious” and “cruel.”

People like Fisher help make our criminal justice system as costly, inefficient and poor at deterring crime as it is. In reality, we pay these people to make this country more dangerous.

I am still glad that you ran the article. I have never written or called my elected officials, but now I will. As a voter, I want the funding for Fisher’s operation to be stopped immediately. Peter C. Dolina Veradale

THE MILITARY

Wisdom of all-male policy apparent

In these days of “political correctness,” the United States is becoming the laughingstock of the world.

I recently came across an L.M. Boyd trivia column that I had cut out of the May 14 Spokesman-Review:

“Japanese Kabuki actors three centuries ago fought deadly duels over Japanese actresses. So, for the good of the acting troupes, the powers banned women instead of duels. Military units worldwide have been banned women, too, for the good of the units. They’ve said women distract men in dangerous duties. No doubt women have been banned for their own good by various groups, but that has not been history’s most common explanation.”

Maybe it is time for us to do away with political correctness, go back to the way things were in the old days and have an all-male service again. That probably would do away with the sex scandals that have been rocking the military for the past several months.

It appears that the old-timers were smarter than this generation is, even though they might not have been politically correct. Edwin O. Weilep Spokane

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

War’s lesson lost

The chance to really put his spiritual belief to the test eluded Andy James (“Street Level,” July 20).

James will never know what he’d have done had his draft number been low. Would he have followed his convictions and run to Canada or would he have served jail time? Or would he have betrayed his beliefs and joined a few million others in the meat-grinder experience of Vietnam?

James believes he lucked out. But rather than doing what a man’s got to do, he didn’t have to do anything. He went on with his life, earned his degree, built his house, raised his kids. There was no real emotional minefield for him to cross, no decision to run or fight.

Some who didn’t have James’ luck of the draw did choose Canada or jail. Others had the dubious fortune to find out something important when the rifle rounds cracked by, when the mortars came smoking in, when friends were stuffed into body bags, when each dirty day seemed like forever, when the safe and sane world was a million miles away.

We found out war is not a human-rights violation or a betrayal of some religious doctrine. War is survival. It’s finding out just what you’re made of under circumstances I wouldn’t wish on anybody. War in all its horror afforded many of us a unique and terrible opportunity to truly test our spirit, our luck, our very core, and to know, gut-deep, we passed the test.

It’s an opportunity James missed and an unshakable conviction he’ll never know. Russ Moritz Sandpoint

Article lent valuable perspective

I don’t often stop to read and reread articles written for the “Our Generation” section, but the July 14 article, “Acting your age is tough” by Ben di Biase, was definitely worth contemplating. Ben articulately reveals the internal struggles our teenagers face in being caught between childhood and adulthood, innocence and responsibility.

Thank you, Ben, for helping those of us trying to guide you into the realm of life we already have entered to recall the delicate balancing act of being neither and both simultaneously. We’ll try to be patient. Jane A. Orto Coeur d’Alene

Too many rush to judgment

The people of Spokane are going overboard and are being too hard on Paul Sorensen. Why do you think you have the right to call him a criminal and a bad parent who doesn’t care about his children?

I don’t know the man. In fact, the article in the newspaper was the first time I’d ever heard his name. But I don’t think I have the authority or nerve to judge him on one incident that landed his name in the newspaper.

Sure, he made a bad choice. But being the mother of a 3-year-old, I can relate to his feelings of wanting to let a peaceful toddler sleep in her car seat while running to go do something. I have never acted on this impulse, but if I did, I think the airport would be one of the safest places to do it.

I do not condone his actions. Leaving a child in a car unattended is clearly a bad idea. But why do people think they have the right to condemn a man for a (possibly temporary) lack of common sense?

Maybe if we all withheld judgment for a while and had compassion for everyone involved - including Sorensen - the world would be a better place in which to live. Stephanie L. Wilson Spokane

Highlight the good people sooner

Thanks to editor Chris Peck, whose article in the Sunday paper gave me a glimpse of Carl Maxey’s life. One should not die to be known.

We are like a child; something is taken away from us, and we will miss it. When we have it, we do not appreciate it all that much. It’s just there.

Spokane, give us the good news! Let us know about these special and unique people in and around Spokane. Maybe some of us would like to give them a bravo when they still can hear it. Monika A. Metz Sprague, Wash.

OTHER TOPICS

Memorial message bespeaks love

The recent “In memoriam” in The Spokesman-Review to Nyla “Nikki” O’Malley by her grandson, James Tillett, was a very thoughtful, warm and loving testimonial to a lady who sounds like a marvelous grandma.

Your grandma would be proud of your wonderful memories and great love for her, James. Your words inspire me to be an even better grandma to my own granddaughter, Jennifer. I would like to leave her with the same sort of memories and love as the ones your Grandma Nikki left for you.

Thank you for sharing that love, James. G. Kay Cobb Spokane

Know and properly train your dogs

When children are attacked by dogs, it’s because neither dog nor child is being properly supervised.

When I was growing up, my parents bred AKC Rottweilers and boxers. Our dogs were trained to respond to a command, no matter what. One snap of the fingers and the dog would sit. Two snaps, and it would lie down. Our pets were trained to recognize verbal and nonverbal commands. They were so well-trained that when they had puppies, we could invite all our little friends to watch.

At the age of 3, my brother could tell them to sit or stay (he couldn’t snap his fingers yet) and the dogs would obey. Our dogs were a pleasure to have around and never attacked anyone.

We treated our dogs like the domesticated animals they were, not like four-legged people. They didn’t wear sweaters or sit on furniture. They were never left unattended around children.

People need to wake up. If you are going to own a dog - any dog - please make sure your animal is properly trained and supervised at all times. Understand that when put in an unfamiliar or uncomfortable environment, the dog will respond accordingly. Be in tune with your animal and remove it before it causes harm - because before dogs were domesticated, they were wild. No amount of breeding or training will completely remove wild instinct. Rose L. Kjack Rosalia, Wash.