Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

Vote to protect our land and water

Many of us choose to live in this area due to the pristine mountains, vast wilderness, clean air, rivers and streams. However, continued population growth has placed an ever-increasing demand on our water source and has had an impact on wildlife corridors. We need to preserve and protect our wilderness for recreation, wetland for waterfowl and open space for an abundance of wildlife.

To continue to enjoy the natural beauty and appreciate this quality of life we must become responsible stewards of this environment. Voting yes for conservation futures is our first step to preserve these lands and waters. In doing so, we protect our resources for future generations to enjoy. Ric A. Villalobos, president Inland Northwest Wildlife Council, Spokane

Story cast disturbed man in bad light

In a Sept. 24 story, “The trouble with Harry is that he has rights, too,” a situation involving two citizens in the north Spokane area is described. At issue was the rights of both.

While I don’t have any answers as to how this struggle and the rights of both parties ought to be resolved, I do have a problem with the hidden messages I found within this story.

I believe your presentation of this situation was quite prejudicial against persons with mental illness and will reinforce readers’ fears and assumptions about the disease. Most readers - except perhaps those who know someone with a mental illness - will perceive it as something to be very afraid of, and with no protection from society.

The writer presents three-year-old manslaughter charges against Harry - that have since been dismissed - for the alleged murder of his mother. These charges were never proven and have nothing to do with the current incident. Were the case to go to court, such information would probably not even be admissible.

What purpose can this information serve, other than to imply to readers there is a dark, violent side of this mentally ill man?

As the major newspaper in this region, The Spokesman-Review has a responsibility to improve community perception of mental illness - the result of which will assist persons with mental illness to reside successfully in residential communities. Ann Turner Olson Cheney

WASHINGTON STATE

Think about 20 minutes in danger

When our home was burglarized, we were told that even if the sheriff’s office was alerted immediately, it would be a minimum of 20 minutes before they could respond, regardless of the emergency. We live only six miles from the city limits.

Under Initiative 676, my right to protect my family during that 20 minutes becomes a mere conditional privilege from a government that spends its energy taking on Big Tobacco and telling me I have to wear a helmet and a seat belt. This is the same government that cannot even keep drugs off the streets and out of our schools, and cannot get to our home in an emergency.

Our government should not be used to disarm honest citizens to the sheer delight of every stalker, burglar and rapist. Greg G. Staeheli Spokane

Nip police state in the bud

The more I think abut it, and knowing how history has a nasty habit of repeating itself, I think a vote for Initiative 676 is just another step toward total confiscation of all firearms.

First it was the assault-type semiautomatics, then the higher capacity clips and now this.

Big brother is here and we had better take our blindfolds off quickly because this will soon turn into a police state, or worse, if we do not take action now. Vote no on I-676. Mike W. Smith Spokane

Food assistance is for food only

Your Sept. 26 article on the planned conversion of food stamps to an electronic benefit transfer system (“Public assistance going plastic”) inexplicably failed to point out the limitations that apply to food stamp purchases.

The food stamp program, financed entirely by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, expressly prohibits the use of food stamps for the purchase of alcoholic beverages, cigarettes and a variety of other non-food items such as household goods, personal care products, cleaning supplies and pet food.

There are also limitations on the amount of cash back from purchases made with food stamps. Cash back is limited to no more than 99 cents.

Plans call for these limitations to be continued under the new electronic system.

This should be of interest to S.R. Isaac (Letters, Oct. 3) and other readers who may have been left with the wrong impression about the use of food stamps after reading your initial report. Jerry W. Friedman, assistant secretary Economic Services Administration, Olympia

Agreement with tribe illegitimate

It will be interesting to note the type of huddle the Fish and Wildlife Commission will have with its director, Bern Shanks, upon learning that the Sandra Day O’Conner clarification of 1991 may have prime application in censoring the commission’s motion of a rewrite or extension of the Colville agreement by Shanks. (Oct. 3 at Ellensburg).

In 1991, the Supreme Court ruled in an 8-0 decision that state officials who violate someone’s rights while performing government duties may be sued and forced to pay monetary damage. O’Conner wrote that the law is clear that state officials are not immune from being sued solely by virtue of the official nature of their acts. The law is intended to provide relief for those who say they have been victimized by persons acting under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom or usage.

The 1982 Colville agreement that is under scrutiny today was a martial law seizure of the right of public comment. Also, a takings of valuable land rights and wildlife productions.

The 1982 big game/state-Colville Tribes agreement was rooted in 100 percent fraud. Ervin C. Palmer Inchelium, Wash.

HIGHER EDUCATION

EWU faculty makes exceptional effort

I take the Oct. 13 front page article, “Eastern paves road to recovery,” as a compliment to the University. It is a welcome relief to EWU students and supporters.

The compliment, though, misses the target. The article reports that EWU is backing away from tougher liberal arts requirements and instead is preparing graduates for jobs. It suggests that university administrators regard EWU’s tougher liberal arts requirements as a “failed policy” that they intend to abandon.

Many of us at EWU directly working with students object to this characterization. Thirty-two faculty from 24 academic departments are teaching new junior-level liberal arts enrichment courses this year. More faculty members will develop their courses for next year and still more will develop a senior-level liberal arts enrichment capstone to offer for the first time next year.

These educators are not engaged in failed policy; they are building the university’s hope. They want to balance EWU’s specialty programs with a program that prepares students for fluctuating job markets and enhances their value to employers with experience integrating knowledge across disciplines.

These faculty members want to develop students’ skills in oral and written communication and in collaborating with others from different specialties. Their hope is to see graduates carry these skills into their civic and private lives, benefiting themselves and their communities.

No other state university offers such extensive education integrating across disciplines. No other state university so diligently prepares its graduates to avoid the pitfalls of academic specialization. Larry L. Kiser, director EWU office of liberal arts enrichment, Cheney

SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION

Roots of failure not hard to spot

The latest flap about our local school system has given most of us our first peek behind Spokane School District 81’s bureaucratic curtain and, judging from the letters to the editor, most of us did not like what we saw.

Perhaps this is the reason. A phone call to the information desk of the Spokane Public Library stated the national education system was first started in 1857. It was revamped in 1870 into the current format and by the mid-1960s, all administrative offices were held by teachers.

This 1960 date coincides with the beginning of the end of basic education. Now, we have a top-heavy administration and a teachers union with dictatorial powers. They turn out fourth-grade students who can’t begin to pass a fourth-grade test. For years we have been subjected to their new, expensive methods that were to revolutionize education - all the while ignoring basic education.

It is time our school board starts to question these programs and demand results, even if it upsets the tranquility of the school board meetings.

It has become obvious that educating our children is far too important to leave entirely in the hands of these educators! Robert C. Sprint Spokane

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

Affirmative action still necessary

We’ve had affirmative action for some 30 years but we’ve had discrimination by race, gender and color since long before slavery.

On the surface, affirmative action appears to be preferential treatment for minorities but in the context of the residual effects that discrimination has had on them and their children, we realize that we need a little more time to equal out the playing field of opportunity for them. How much more time depends on how long we take to live up to the promises of equality that we made in the 1960s and beyond.

Your back page article, “Affirmative action splits parties,” was clearly biased in favor of those who seek to eliminate affirmative action. The name of the initiative, the Washington State Civil Rights initiative, is a classic example of doublespeak along with the GOP group that supports it, “Republicans with zero tolerance for discrimination.”

The high-sounding names of this initiative and its supporters remind me of the speeches on equal opportunities that never made the transition from word to deed. You showed your bias by placing seven or eight quotes from initiative supporters at the beginning of article and only two at the end for initiative opponents. Few readers get past the first four or five paragraphs.

In our system of corporate capitalism (often confused with democracy), it is not elegant speeches or buzz words about equality that ensure good jobs and education for the many who have been passed over. Historically, it has been action; in this case, affirmative action. Harvey Berman Spokane

Propositioned? Think life and death

In reference to the Oct. 14 article, “HIV-positive man faces assault charge,” I find it absolutely amazing in this day and age that people continue to willingly engage in risky sexual behavior.

The unnamed woman in the article reportedly had the forethought to inquire of her partner if he had any diseases. The man replied he had none.

Regardless of this man’s motives, whether it be to spread disease or satisfy his immediate needs, he obviously isn’t going to volunteer this information. This woman is as much to blame for her predicament as her partner.

The police may be able to arrest someone for willingly putting others at risk but that’s a little like closing the gate after the cows have gotten out - the damage may already be done.

Until people take to heart the gravity of the HIV epidemic and the risk of casual, unprotected sex, the disease will continue to spread, needlessly.

Wake up, people. Don’t be a victim of circumstance. Protect yourselves, because casual partners do not have your best interest in mind. Diane R. Delanoy Cusick, Wash.

Being PC has become a craps shoot

I find it terribly ironic that we as a society “correctly” eliminate the use of Native American names and icons that have always been synonymous with bravery and honor, yet now accept the newer association to slots and other gaming devices as uplifting and independent. Loren L. Seifert Spokane

THE ENVIRONMENT

Timber interests also foul lake

I was pleased to read the recent message you published from the Coeur d’Alene Basin Mining Information Office, telling me the water I drink and the fish I catch to eat from Lake Coeur d’Alene are now safer due to the reductions in the nutrients added to the lake from its watershed.

The mining companies are now sensitive to this controversial issue. Good for them!

My question now is, is the timber industry doing its share to ensure a clean, safe environment?

As I watch from my waterfront home, tugboats pull large log booms from the south end of the lake to Coeur d’Alene-area sawmills. I ask myself, what and how much nutrients are these thousands of logs dumping into the lake?

Also, the many acres of water at the mouth of the Spokane River and in Cougar Bay are being devoted to the storage of these logs and cannot be used by the public for recreation. Yet, the timber industry goes unscathed.

It’s time to stop blaming the mining industry entirely for pollution of the lake. Larry G. Brownell Coeur d’Alene

Some can’t tell spoilers from the trees

Allowing the timber industry to manage our national forests is like letting the fox guard the hen house.

Sen. Larry Craig, who just happens to be one of the biggest recipients of campaign funds from the timber industry, has recently introduced his forest management bill, which just happens to have the full support and blessing of this same timber industry.

The Craig bill suspends current federal open meeting laws, thus encouraging secret meetings between the timber industry and our Forest Service.

Let’s analyze some recent statements of supporters of this bill.

Former Forest Service Chief Jack Ward Thomas stated, “There’s nothing illegitimate about talking to someone who has an interest in management of the national forest.”

Jim Riley of the Intermountain Forest Association said, “The current system is paralyzed by conflict and process, which isn’t good for fish, wildlife, water quality, people or forests.”

Would Riley and Thomas have us believe that the timber industry would be so benevolent as to do what is best for fish and wildlife, water quality, people and forests? Richard McInerney Spokane

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Clinton has no room to judge harshly

It has been reported that President Clinton rejected the nomination of Marvin Gray Jr. for an appointment to the federal judiciary because, in his late teens, back in the 1960s, Gray expressed support for racial segregation.

That was about the time that Rhodes un-scholar Clinton enrolled as an un-student at Oxford University and, while a guest in a foreign land, engaged in organizing and participating in public demonstrations of protest. These were against the policies of the government of the nation in which he held citizenship and in favor of the Soviet Union, which then was engaged in a war by proxy in Southeast Asia, a war in which U.S. citizens were fighting and dying.

Gray has repudiated the segregationist views he espoused in his youth. However, it seems that Clinton has not changed his mind, as evidenced by the trade and other policies he now is pursuing - policies that are resulting in the transfer of vast amounts of wealth of the United States and its citizens to the government of communist China, where it serves to support the creation of the mightiest and most modern military forces the world will ever have seen.

Slick Willie has been forgiven the traitorous indiscretions of his youth but he continues to sell out the security interests of the United States to communists. Go figure! Leonard C. Johnson Troy, Idaho