Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

County doesn’t follow own rules

I am writing in response to the story of the suspect who jumped into the Spokane River trying to elude the police (“Chilly dip ends downtown chase,” May 7).

It seems the suspect was stuck on a tree in the middle of the raging river and had to be rescued. The only way the rescuers could reach the man was by using a personal watercraft.

Jet Skis are banned from whitewater areas of the Spokane River. In fact, any motorized craft are banned. Spokane County Code, chapter 6.3, boating safety ordinance, was changed several weeks ago, not allowing any motorized craft in certain areas of the Spokane River.

Commissioners John Roskelley and Kate McCaslin, did you watch the news Tuesday night? The same watercraft that allegedly are a potential safety problem saved someone’s life - again.

Fact: No accidents have been reported involving personal watercraft in these banned areas of the river. In fact, most rescues are made by personal watercraft that dealers have donated for use by the Sheriff’s Department.

Should the department be fined for having personal watercraft in this banned area? Maybe Roskelley could have saved the drowning man by throwing him a rope and some pitons. Matthew J. Spilker Spokane

Just fix pools we have now

Spokane County commissioners, unlike our forefathers, are swimming to a different stroke than the residents who elected them.

Pooling our funds with the YMCA is a great idea, except it misses the point. What our commissioners have failed to realize is why we have parks and swimming pools in our neighborhoods. It’s so the neighborhood children have easy access to a fairly safe, clean and fun place to spend their summer days.

Just how do children in our neighborhood get to this big, new indoor pool? Their parents have to work. Perhaps the teenage baby sitter they hired, but can’t afford, can walk them there.

It’s time to do the neighborly thing, commissioners. Repair our pools, keep our parks clean and safe for our children, and let our tax dollars be spent for what they were intended. Donna K. Schaaf Spokane

Children’s Museum deserves support

The Children’s Museum of Spokane was a great success during the few months it was open. The directors then wisely closed it because financing was no longer secure. Recently, the museum received a substantial grant from the William T. Gates Foundation and would be prepared to reopen. Our community should support this effort.

Once the museum is reopened, children will again be invited to come together to explore, ask questions, be challenged and discover their community and themselves through hands-on, interactive exhibits. To find out more about the Children’s Museum, call 624-0435. Ruth S. Peterson Spokane

Jury heard plenty about site value

Opinion editor John Webster’s May 9 editorial regarding Steve and Leslie Ronald’s riverfront property rests on the false statement that the jury was not allowed to hear testimony that the site’s construction costs adversely affected the commercial value of the property.

Had Webster actually investigated the facts, he would have known that the jury trial consisted of multiple days of testimony relating to construction costs associated with building on this site. In designing the project, the Ronalds hired nationally renowned structural and soils engineers who have built similar buildings on similar sites. The city was also permitted to submit testimony on this issue.

Any reasonable person who heard the evidence would have concluded, as the jury did, that additional construction costs were insignificant in comparison to the cost of any other construction project.

Furthermore, for Webster to denigrate the jury’s decision as “ridiculous” and “ill-informed” when they spent more than a week listening to the evidence is an act of arrogance. Webster did not listen to a minute of testimony in this two-week trial. Webster has never contacted us, the Ronalds or any of the Ronalds’ contractors, engineers or appraisers.

All commercial property in the city’s central business district in recent years has sold for between $40 and $100 per square foot. The jury in this case awarded $47 per square foot for this unique view property. Further, Webster was apparently unaware of a 1970 (pre-Expo) fair market value appraisal of this property at $685,000 - over 27 years ago. Michael A. Maurer and Eugene I. Annis Spokane

Editor’s note: The Spokesman-Review stands by the editorial. At the request of attorneys Maurer and Annis, who represent the Ronalds, the trial court refused to let the jury hear the city’s evidence disputing economic feasibility of commercial development on the property, a steep bank overlooking the Spokane Falls. Based on that exclusion of evidence, the city has moved for a new trial.

FATHER’S DAY

Idea whose time should never come

My father died in 1934, when I was 7, so I understand Angela H. Eudaley’s (letters, May 11) concern for the feelings of fatherless children. The rationality of her solution, that we abolish Father’s Day, eludes me.

Does she also propose abolition of Mother’s Day out of concern for motherless children?

A child lacking one of his or her parents feels that loss every day of the year. That leaves 364 days a year when her proposal would serve no purpose.

While I hate to appear judgmental, the lack of value her proposal offers children makes it appear more to be the androphobic agenda of a man-hating, extreme feminist. Edward B. Keeley Spokane

Many good fathers deserve a day

In regard to the insane idea to do away with Father’s Day, why should we stop there? There are plenty of motherless children, as well. Should we do away with Mother’s Day?

What about the affront of Christmas to non-Christian children? Let’s get rid of that celebration, too.

All kidding aside, Father’s Day is a time to celebrate the contributions of men who have chosen to honor their commitments to family. Fathers get little enough credit throughout the year. It should not be too much to let them have a special day to thank them.

I admit I was fortunate enough to be raised by the two most wonderful parents anyone could ever ask for. But even I don’t say thank you nearly enough. Give some credit where it belongs and honor the men who were good fathers. We hear too much about the other men already. Jeanne M. Sandblom Medical Lake

Don’t stop with Father’s Day

Angela Eudaley’s letter proposing the elimination of Father’s Day from the public calendar makes sense. May I suggest that we also do away with Christmas and Easter, for the same reasons cited by Eudaley?

If we employ the same criteria, it’s obvious that these two holidays - bearing overt attributes of the Christian religion - are a senseless assault on all non-Christians and are bitter reminders to those who, through no fault of their own, are not part of the Christian faith. After all, the pain of those excluded from these festivities must go very deep and must be a great burden. Tom M. Wootton Jr. Pullman

Keep Father’s Day and all such days

I feel compelled to reply to the May 11 letter from Angela Eudaley regarding removal of Father’s Day.

It is obvious to me that Eudaley has had a bad experience with her father or the father of someone close to her. For this, I am truly sorry.

What about all the mothers who have abandoned their children or, worse yet, are in the home physically yet have abandoned every other emotional need of the child? In this light, should we do away with Mother’s Day?

Is Eudaley suggesting doing away with Grandparents’ Day? What about all the poor unfortunates in this world who have no secretaries? Should we just give them a hug, too, and omit one more day of celebration?

Fortunately, I am one of the millions of people who were blessed with a wonderful father, grandfather and husband, who is also a wonderful father.

Get real, Eudaley, and accept the fact that we will continue celebrating fatherhood and, hopefully, continue to work toward raising children who will, one day, be good fathers and mothers themselves. Sandra M. Kessler Spokane

THE ENVIRONMENT

Filing fee not the whole of it

In reference to the May 7 article on the approved Crown Jewel mining project in Okanogan County, Wash.: Okanogan Highland Alliance member Dave Kliegman is quoted as saying, “(The mining company) can buy the land for $4 an acre.” Numerous letters to the editor on this subject have been printed in The Spokesman-Review and it is time such statements are left off of the business page.

The filing fee may be $4 an acre, but the company must spend millions of dollars to prove to the government the economic value of the claims and receive title to the land. For example, it costs only a few dollars to file for a divorce, but the cost of a divorce is substantially more than the filing fee! Tom A. Henricksen, consulting geologist Spokane

Wrong impression from poor source

The May 5 Associated Press story, “Open pit gold mine clears step,” environmentalist Dave Kliegman is quoted as saying, “How can we allow a multinational mining company … to buy the land for $4 an acre …?”

The land has actually cost the Nevada-based mining company several hundred thousand dollars per acre already, a total of several million. Some went for core drilling to prove a commercial deposit of minerals, a requirement for getting the land. Millions more went for environmental studies and other requirements by state and federal agencies, and hurdles still remain.

Most people in the area want the mine. The few who oppose it are mostly former members of a 1960s hippie commune who were on welfare before the money began rolling in from tax-exempt environmental foundations that oppose all industry - especially mining - and grants from the state, one by the Department of Ecology to “educate the public about mining.”

The opposition’s motto is “Pure water is more precious than gold.” But a leader of the group, Jere Peyton, was discovered to have been polluting the aquifer for 10 years by dumping raw sewage down an abandoned well, and she said, “One hole in the ground is like another to me.”

That and the statement by Kliegman about selling the land for $4 an acre tell you all you have to know about these so-called conservationists. Edwin G. Davis Spokane

Value of logging becomes clear

I am a student at Ferris High School. Recently, I was asked the question: What do you think about the logging issue in the Pacific Northwest? I didn’t know what to say. So I researched the topic, and was blown away.

Never had I thought that one issue could affect so many lives. The logging industry employs over 100,000 people in the Northwest alone. It also brings hundreds of thousands of dollars into the Northwest annually. Plus, it opens space for growth.

I consider myself pretty in tune to the environmental needs of the community, but I never stopped to look at both sides of the issue. I always looked at only the effects logging had on the environment, rather than how it could help our economy. For three weeks, I researched this issue and was astounded to come to the conclusion that I did.

I now believe that controlled logging is extremely good for our community. The impact it has on the environment pales in comparison to all the good logging can do. Jessica M. Ohman Spokane

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

We must help the homeless

I have been filled with shock, horror and the presence of my own selfishness over the past year. I’ve volunteered at soup kitchens, spent a week in Tijuana building houses and recently have done extensive research on homelessness. I feel very strongly that changes need to be made, but am also overcome by my helplessness.

Each of us ought to encounter the lifestyles people actually live and realize the power involved. We need to educate one another and work toward a plan that will not only ease homelessness but also eliminate it.

Many services are available to Spokane’s homeless. It’s important that they receive a meal and a shower, but in the long run, how can they change their lifestyle? The destitute are stuck in a vicious, frustrating cycle: It’s impossible to get a job without an address and impossible to get a home without income.

This leads them to illicit alternatives that eventually affect our community. Some form of long-term help is necessary to give hope to the unfortunate and help undo the pain.

It’s easy to overlook those in desperate need, those living a lifestyle we can hardly comprehend. We get so caught up with ourselves and our materialistic lives that we seldom open our eyes and realize that we are the ones who should do something. Brittany M. Winters Spokane

Unkind remarks happen

I am saddened to learn from Fred Davis’ May 5 column (“Roundtable”) that we live in an imperfect world. Poor Davis. He’s discovered that some of us are so thoughtless as to say what we really think and that the rest of us are not appropriately appalled.

His target of opportunity, one that provides him with a bully pulpit with a rather low center of gravity, is golfer Fuzzy Zoeller.

Zoeller, in a comment about the admirable Tiger Woods, made casual reference to the stereotype, however absurd, of black people’s preference for chicken and collard greens, and the frightful abandonment of principle by CNN for not reporting the incident as breaking news.

Zoeller’s comment told us more about Zoeller, of course, than it tells us of Tiger Woods. But Davis’ column tells us more about Davis than about Zoeller or CNN.

Davis cherishes Zoeller’s ill-considered comment (and that’s all it was; it was neither vicious nor cruel) as another badge of victimhood to be worn with the piety and righteousness common to people who, in the end, are never taken seriously. The power, strength and rectitude of Davis’ moral posture is perhaps enhanced by the realization that no black person in the history of this country has ever made an unkind or thoughtless comment about white people.

Yes, Davis, this is an imperfect world. Perhaps you and I can find consolation in knowing that each of us, in his own blind, foolish way, has contributed mightily to this imperfect condition. Robert G. Russell Coeur d’Alene

IN THE PUBLIC EYE

I have questions for Schwarzkopf

Why is a man who commanded a war that has left onetenth of his troops sick on U.S. soil being honored as a hero? Why is this man not being held responsible for missing logs and medical records? Why did he not acknowledge the possibility of his troops being exposed to chemical weapons, even though the CIA passed on the information of chemical weapons in the theater of operations?

This man, Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, is not a hero to many who served in the Persian Gulf War or are married to someone who did. Heroes do not subject other humans to experimental drugs, then conveniently lose the records of who received them. Heroes don’t lead from the rear, well protected in a basement bunker.

Heroes stand up for those who are suffering. Schwarzkopf has done nothing for his troops who have reported ill health since their service in the desert.

Has he stopped being a leader and a hero? Why does he turn his back on those who served his orders?

I hope to ask the great general these and other questions as I stand before the Spokane Arena on May 21 and demonstrate his lack of heroism. The true heroes are those who served for him and now battle on U.S. soil for recognition and treatment of illnesses incurred during service in the gulf. Debra K. Smith, public affairs officer Idaho chapter, Desert Storm Justice Foundation, Lewiston