Letters To The Editor

OVER THE LINE

Gouging outsiders works two ways

Re: “Cabin fever comes early in Idaho” (Oct. 22).

Reading the comments of Idaho Attorney General Al Lance, one gets the feeling that he wishes to build a wall around the state and keep us “out of staters” out.

As property owners, we help pay taxes for libraries, schools, roads, etc., that we seldom if ever use. We pay taxes and spend our money in Idaho while asking for little in return.

Not all the out-of-state people who own property in Idaho are wealthy. What the attorney general is advocating will only eliminate the average person, not the rich, from owning recreational property in Idaho.

If we’re going to build a fence around Idaho to keep the out of staters out, maybe we should make sure that those Idahoans can’t get out. Our slogan is “do not subsidize Idahoans.”

The solution is for Washington state to impose an out-of-state wage earner tax an income tax that applies only to people who reside in Idaho and work in our state. With such a tax we can recover a portion of our expense in providing good roads for the Idaho people to get to work.

This type of thinking is obviously very mindless as well as seemingly endless.

And then, having gone on the offensive, why should we let all those untested cars from North Idaho pollute our air? Let’s get them set up on an inspection schedule. If they want to work in our state and enjoy our higher wages, they have to be made to pay the price.

That’s the Idaho way. William M. and Elizabeth K. Sexton Spokane

SPOKANE MATTERS

Pageant foe said much but knew little

With the need for positive programs for young women, I wondered why Julie Askey (“Miss Spokane contest - who needs it?” Letters, Oct. 28) degraded the Miss Spokane scholarship program and discouraged women of color from participating. So I called her.

Askey had moved from Seattle and knew nothing about the program. Her letter was based solely on one newspaper photo of this year’s participants. She had never seen the program, nor had she talked with any of its participants or committee members. She is not aware of the program’s criteria.

Askey complained about lack of cultural diversity but was unaware that young women of color have participated in the program. Nor was she aware that a recent former Miss Spokane, an Asian-American, Jennifer Fryling, used her scholarship to complete law school.

The current Miss Spokane will use her $2,000 scholarship to become a doctor.

The program is open to all young women in our area. Askey would not make any suggestions that would encourage more women of color to participate.

Each participant has a written platform about an issue they feel strongly about. Forty percent of the criteria is for interview skills, including being informed and holding validated opinions. In this area, Askey fails miserably.

The participants are bright, talented, intelligent young women of diverse backgrounds. Askey’s hope that women of color do not participate in this fine program shows her bigotry. David B. Gallik Spokane

Incinerate Williams’ employment

Phil Williams has demonstrated again why he has the trust of so few people in the community.

Williams has often been referred to as out of control, an “empire builder.” He has long acted as if he is accountable to no one but himself through his actions at the incinerator, such as the burning of tires and pesticide containers which other incinerators won’t burn. Then he claims there’s no public health hazards with the incinerator. He claims his current problems are just the result of anti-incinerator people out to get him.

However, the Department of Health and the Department of Ecology have found problems. Citizens for Clean Air spent a mere $8,000 on a study which found many problems and serious scientific omissions in his study of the incinerator’s environmental impacts.

Now, Williams has a $300,000 study that seemingly finds the incinerator is free of problems. Interestingly enough, this final report is already two years late and he has been having an affair with the lead scientist of the report. This is the same scientist who writes glowing reports about our incinerator in The Spokesman-Review.

For years citizens have been complaining about Williams’ activities. City Manager Bill Pupo knew about the affair a year ago and did nothing. When will our city’s management start acting responsibly? Williams should be fired.

This is a perfect example of why so many people resent and dislike government. Larry D. Hampson Spokane

‘Past time for Williams to go’

Kathryn Kelly, chosen as the expert to write about the mass-burn incinerator’s emissions, wrote a report that only could be the result of something as blinding as an affair with Spokane Engineering Director Phil Williams. The intellectual quality of the report is imprinted with his style of half or less of reporting on anything.

Williams has been blind-siding Spokane County since his arrival here. He was due to be out of town yeas ago but stayed to join the duck soup of gibberish we have heard on mass burning as being great for the human race ever since.

Spokane, as a sitting duck, gullible enough to get the incinerator, might well consider not electing repeats of candidates who gave us the incinerator with no regrets being stated.

How Williams arrived at nearly $83,000 income and now blames his wife for this situation when alimony could be substantial is a typical remark we should buy into?

Thanks really go to staff writer Karen Dorn Steele. New reporters, take note of Spokane County’s good fortune to have her here!

Most of all, remember David Birks, Williams’ buddy in helping give us an international garbage burner with all the shenanigans to ship and burn in Spokane. It is now past time for Williams to go. Ora Mae Orton Spokane

Ambassador group grateful

We at People to People Ambassador Programs wish to thank you for the positive coverage you have given the World Conference on Family Violence and Dawn Davis, in particular. We are certainly proud of the progress we have made in this area.

As president, however, I would be remiss in not calling attention to the other 119 associates of our organization who are helping to fully develop this vision. I am proud of all the efforts that have been put forth so far.

The World Conference on Family Violence has team members from all areas of our organization: program development, travel services, air planning, information services, production and accounting. The logistics, coordinating and planning behind this event are monumental. This conference is only one of over 100 unique professional exchange programs that we coordinate each year which are intended to bring the world together.

We, too, believe in the “power of one.” When President Dwight D. Eisenhower launched People to People, above all he was asking individuals to step forward and leverage the power of one in overcoming the mutual suspicions that were driving antagonism between Cold War states by meeting their counterparts, one-onone, as people to people should, rather than government to government. Today, the issues may not be as threatening or as black and white as nuclear war, but the issues are real, and in some ways more complex, which requires even greater people-to-people contact to understand one another’s perspective and work toward mutually satisfactory solutions.

And just think, this is all happening in Spokane. Jeffrey D. Thomas Ambassador Programs, Inc.

‘Heart Follies’ deserved review

On Sept. 27, Sacred Heart Medical Center performed “Swingin’ at the Heart” Heart Follies, at the Spokane Opera House. There were costume changes for each act and there were over 20 acts! Plus, comedy scenes thrown in.

I have waited and waited for someone to review this absolutely talent-filled and colorful event. What a shame no one did. All these wonderful talented people at Sacred Heart - nurses, technical people, doctors, secretaries. This stage show was so much better than some professional ones I have seen. And I do think these people should have been rewarded with a grand review.

What a fantastic chorus line they had! We certainly should support our local talent. Diane Hanks Spokane

ARGICULTURE

Washington cattle eat clean feed

It’s difficult to understand why a Washington newspaper would run a wire service commentary (“What’s for dinner: beef, well dung,” Opinion, Oct. 23) from Virginia, a state without a cattle feeding industry, before consulting local experts who feed nearly a half million cattle a year.

The commentary was far from credible as it was written by Donna Hurlock of the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine, an anti-meat activist group comprised of fewer than 5 percent of physicians.

Consumers can rest assured Washington cattle are not fed poultry litter! Cattle feeders are proudly among the state’s largest recyclers. Each year, our cattle consume more than 1.2 billion pounds of high-quality vegetable and fruit byproducts. That’s enough to fill a bumper-to-bumper line of semi-trucks from Spokane to Seattle.

Byproducts consist mostly of potatoes and include carrots, apples, sweet corn and peas blended with corn or barley. The feed becomes delicious, nutritious beef.

As participants in the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s Beef Quality Assurance program, Washington cattle feeders routinely sample and work with food processors to ensure the safety and quality of the byproducts they use. These byproducts, if not fed to cattle, would simply go into landfills.

Contrary to Hurlock’s commentary, Washington’s cattle feeders are committed to producing safe, wholesome beef in an environmentally responsible manner.

When agricultural issues arise, feel free to contact local experts. There are plenty of us in Eastern Washington. James G. Miles, executive vice president Washington Cattle Feeders Association, Pasco

BUSINESS AND LABOR

Take a stand against low local wages

For years in Spokane, I worked on poverty issues. When people would say, “We’ve got to make welfare work” my response was, “No, we’ve got to make work work.”

Just months ago, the courageous workers at UPS, members of the Teamsters Union, struck home this same point. By declaring that a “part-time America doesn’t work,” their message resonated throughout the country.

Spokane’s Peace and Justice Action League has initiated a livable wage campaign. It petitions the city to declare a local minimum wage of $7 per hour in 1998 and $8.25 in 1999.

The campaign gives us a chance to say that a low-wage America doesn’t work, a low-wage Spokane doesn’t work.

The petitioners are finding that Spokanites really understand this as a definite local problem. Many people can’t afford to work in Spokane. Their kids can’t afford to stay here, and they move away.

We can set a standard here for keeping families together, as well as for keeping our community together. If you would like to sign or work on these petitions, please contact PJALS (838-7870) or the Spokane Progressive Alliance (326-8518). Morton Alexander Spokane

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

Shamp’s welfare analysis accurate

Seldom have I seen an analysis that goes so much to the root of the welfare dilemma as did Jim Shamp’s latest Roundtable column (“Real poverty war is fought and won by individuals,” Nov. 2).

There is no doubt, from what I’ve seen independently, that some government programs have perpetuated, more than have alleviated, a sense of resignation in many of their clients about their prospects for achieving selfreliance. To the extent that welfare agencies have caused their clients to think of themselves as stupid and hopeless, such agencies should be curtailed or modified.

I applaud Shamp, also, for calling attention to the need to curb corporate welfare. It is, after all, a poor example to subsidize those few corporations that do take more than they give back and do further damage to the unsophisticated by marketing on the basis of unrealistic expectations, self-gratification, selfishness, etc. After all, whatever cause lottery revenues support, if it is mainly the unsophisticated splurging badly needed income in pursuit of impossible returns, then it may be relevant to ask whether our society requires both individual and collective responsibility, instead of just one or the other. Philip J. Mulligan Spokane

OTHER TOPICS

Denver graced our lives with his music

One year ago, I saw my eighth and last glorious John Denver concert in Spokane. It was the first time I ever waited afterward (thanks to my daughter) to get a closer look at the incredible and most underrated singer of our time.

When he finished meeting with VIPs and physically challenged children, he stepped outside and, smiling and tired, he shook everyone’s hand who offered and posed for a picture with three young fans. I watched in awe from 20 feet away.

My children were raised on John Denver. They have a great love and respect for nature, our planet and its people. They attended his concerts and listen to his music. I hope they rock their babies to John Denver.

For those who stopped listening after his major hits, you missed the best of Denver. He was eons past “Rocky Mountain High,” “Country Road” and “Grandma’s Feather Bed.” To the music industry, which isn’t quite sure how to classify Denver’s work, I sincerely hope he will get air time on the “contemporary” stations, so new listeners can be exposed to some of the most beautiful and inspiring music ever written and recorded.

To all Denver fans who are devastated by our loss, make it a point to “Denverize” a friend. We can keep him alive through his music and in our hearts.

Goodbye, friend. It was an honor to share your music and we will truly miss you. Bonnie J. Algar Liberty Lake

Denver fans’ loyalty will continue

The man who chided John Denver for saying that some day he (Denver) would be bigger than Frank Sinatra owes Denver an apology.

Denver has just as many fans, is just as beloved and will be sorely missed. We are grateful to Denver for his songs, his beautiful voice and his memory. We cherish his music and will listen to it for years to come. P.J. McBride Deer Park, Wash.

China’s policy parallels our own

I sympathize with the Tibetans’ struggle for self-rule. Yet, before I piously carry the currently popular banner protesting China’s occupation of Tibet, I struggle to rationalize any difference between it and our national occupation of the Sioux lands in the Dakotas, or the Nez Perce lands in the Wallowas. Other than the length of time the lands have been held, is there any true difference?

The same would also seem to hold true in protesting England’s presence in Northern Ireland and protesting Israel’s presence in Palestine. Perhaps we should look in our own closet before we complain about what the neighbor has in his. Eric M. Christianson Spokane

Lack of proof in Rosemond pudding?

In the Nov. 3 Spokesman-Review, columnist John Rosemond tells us how he dealt with temper tantrums thrown by his grandson. It occurred to me that if he is as competent and clever a parent as he would like us to believe, how is it that his son, the father of his grandson, brought up by this pompous paragon of parental perfection, is either unable or unwilling to deal with his own child and leaves it up to know-it-all daddy? Max Bromberg Hope, Idaho