Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

What’s in a name change? Trouble

I heartily oppose the idea of changing our city’s name back to Spokane Falls.

Remember, we will be changing our region’s name, not just the city’s. While it seems like a nice, nostalgic idea, we should be looking forward, not backward.

The quaint-sounding name of Spokane Falls was probably just fine when our little community was centered around the falls. Today, the Spokane community encompasses much too vast a region to single out one small part and rename the city after it. We are now, and will continue to be in an era of inclusiveness, not exclusiveness, and Spokane Falls is distinctly a downtown location.

Changing our region’s name would also have a huge negative impact on businesses, tourism, our image in the Northwest, the country and even the world. A name change would be very expensive in dollar terms and with respect to the positive name awareness we’ve built over the years.

When someone goes to Niagara Falls, that’s just what they expect to see. Tourists coming to our region in the summer will be sorely disappointed. And I can see the headlines around the Northwest, “Spokane changes back to 100-year-old name … figures.”

A name change would also create decades of confusion on maps, airlines, road signs, travel information and other reference materials.

Our city’s name is just great. We have a lot of years and a lot of money invested in it. Let’s spend our time, energy and money on more important things. Let’s continue looking forward and let bygones be bygones. Edward L. Clark Spokane

WASHINGTON STATE

Investigate corrections policy

As neighbors of Mildred Klaus, we watched in horror as her son discovered her body and the police investigated her murder and robbery. We try to keep an eye on each other in this neighborhood, but when something this terrible happens right under our noses, we feel that we somehow let Mrs. Klaus down, as neighbors and fellow human beings.

This crime is ever more appalling when we learn that the two suspects being questioned about her murder escaped while at a Seattle Seahawks game last month. I would like to ask Kathy Spears, spokeswoman for the Department of Social and Health Services, to explain to the taxpayers why our money is being spent entertaining convicts like Vy Thang.

Obviously, our juvenile corrections system is terribly flawed and its programs for “rehabilitation” should be investigated. It’s apparent these juveniles know how to manipulate the system with good-boy behavior. Thang was already serving time for severely beating and robbing a 69-year-old woman. Only animals prey on the elderly and defenseless.

Mildred Klaus was a sweet lady and we will miss seeing her sitting on her front porch. We would like to express our deepest sympathies to her family and friends. Kathy L. Jacobs Spokane

Attention Sterk: Tighten system

Re:”Driver granted license despite 6 DUIs,” News, Aug. 30.

Rep. Mark Sterk doesn’t know what to do about drunk drivers like Harry Haight? What about enacting legislation similar to the three-strikes-you’re-out law? After all, isn’t getting behind the wheel of an automobile when intoxicated just as reckless and endangering of life and property as the utilization of a weapon in the commission of a crime?

Until our laws are changed and enforced by the courts to appropriately address repeat offenders, many more senseless deaths and injuries are sure to occur.

The Department of Licensing should be allowed to deny issuance of driver’s licenses to those with multiple convictions, outstanding traffic fines or lack of proof of insurance. These requirements could be tied into the same data bank and referenced at the time of vehicle emissions inspections/registration. And when violators are apprehended, if it’s their third offense, they could be locked up the same as other felony third-strike offenders and permanently denied the privilege of driving a motor vehicle, thereby guaranteeing no further victimization by those individuals. M.K. Bandy Spokane

HIGHER EDUCATION

Rip-off going on at EWU

I chanced to watch a program recently on excellence in American corporations. It was a story about how large and small companies (Southwest Airlines, Rubbermaid, Timblerland and others) were meeting the competitive challenges facing American business today.

A key feature throughout the analysis was the relationship of management to its employees and its customers. Management valued its employees and customers. It was a delight to watch.

Then, unfortunately, I was forced to compare this story with the reality of my own experience at Eastern Washington University under the present administration and its overseers, the board of trustees. That this group of administrators can be granted lavish awards for excellence while performing at a subpar level is a shame and an insult to the students, faculty and taxpayers.

EWU’s enrollment is down, not up. Morale on campus is down, not up. The institution faces a fiscal deficit, not a surplus.

How can they in good conscience continue to bleed the institution? Have they no shame? Jere Donegan, professor emeritus Eastern Washington University, Cheney

SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION

Headline an all-around disservice

A secondary headline in the Aug. 25 SpokesmanReview dismays me: “As summer enters the homestretch, try these titles to keep your kid’s mind off school.”

I’ve been trying to divine why anyone, least of all the area newspaper, would want to keep any kid’s mind off school. As a retired teacher, as a parent, as a grandparent and as a great-grandparent, I believe there is nothing more exciting than the shared anticipation of the beginning of school among our children. To negate that state of mind among those headed for school at any level is the same as saying to all children, as well as to all levels of caregivers, that anticipation is something to be avoided.

Despite what the public school naysayers seem to imply, and you certainly on this occasion have identified with them, the public schools are here to stay. Parents as well as many others are excited with the level of anticipation as exemplified through the attitudes of their children.

Many teachers have expressed their dismay at the implications of the above-mentioned statement. But, as teachers everywhere, their efforts will be directed at creating a classroom atmosphere well in keeping with the level of anticipation of their new students.

No amount of editorial negation will deter students, teachers or parents from engaging in the exciting event of opening a new school year with optimism and anticipation. Howard R. Foster Spokane

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

Too ready to judge others

Re: recent gay rights article in the paper.

To all those self-righteous people, what gives you the right to judge homosexuals? Do you remember a famous question asked by a very righteous man, “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone”?

Don’t tell me none of you have ever sinned. Why do you think Jesus died for us? If we all had our rights taken away, wouldn’t this be hell?

I am not gay. I believe we should live and let live, since we were born out of love. Carola B. Lyons Spokane

Sale ‘early birds’ really vultures

Recently, my family decided to have a large garage sale. We advertised the times (9 a.m. until 4 p.m.), the date and address. We also stated we did not want early birds.

The evening before the sale, a couple people drove by to see if they might get permission to look over our stuff. We asked them to come back the next day.

The next morning, at about 6 a.m., I was in the driveway getting things set up for the sale when two men in pickups drove up and asked if they could look our stuff over. I politely asked them to come back at 9, as the ad asked. They became angry and cussed me out, calling me every name I could imagine, (and some I hadn’t heard before) and drove away at a high rate of speed. Then they went around the neighborhood, tearing down all my signs.

Since then, I’ve asked other folks having yard sales if they had similar experiences. Their reply was almost the same: they got several phone calls (if their phone number was in the ad) and then several people came by the night before, expecting to be allowed to shop early. Others, especially the women, were intimidated and harassed by early birds who walked into their garage, rudely looking their stuff over well before the stated starting time, and demanded to be allowed to shop early.

Early birds, your actions are disgusting. Don’t you have any manners or consideration for others? Tom Akren Post Falls

BUSINESS AND LABOR

More travel agencies may also close

Thank you for the sensitive article about the death of Pat Corrigan and her “small operation,” the Travel Place.

Pat was a veteran travel consultant who treated her customers and employees well. She was like many independent travel agency owners and employees who love solving the complicated puzzle of matching an individual’s taste and budget to a vacation or business trip that fits their needs and style.

Although you didn’t mention why the Travel Place was closed rather than sold, I suspect it’s because there is not much demand these days for a service business that won’t sacrifice quality and personal touch for volume sales that may produce a profit. You mentioned some of the problems that plague small agency bottom lines, like cruises that are increasingly booked by “certified counselors.” Other big problems are people who book directly with the airlines, on the Internet or with some 800 number that goes to a mega company out of state.

If consumers don’t support their local travel agent who really cares about them and the success of their trip, there may be more travel agencies that just close their doors. And you can be sure that an airline or cruise company will not care if you save money or are on the best itinerary for your personal dream vacation. Prudence W. Hoffman, secretary Inland Northwest Travel Agencies Alliance

Any UPS triumph will be bought

In order to unflaggingly support interests of corporations over those of the “working stiffs” he obviously despises, Opinion editor John Webster must either perpetuate falsehoods or ignore evidence. Is he a knave or just unforgivably ignorant?

He writes in his Aug. 21 editorial, “Union delivers Pyrrhic victory” (in United Parcel Service strike), “The marketplace deals brutally with high-cost competitors.” The lead-in states, “the marketplace will choose the real victor, later.”

The “marketplace” doesn’t exist. Dwayne Andreas, CEO of transnational Archer Daniels Midland, states, “There is not one grain of anything in the world that is sold in the free market. Not one. The only place you see a free market is in the speeches of politicians.” And in the editorials of writers like Webster.

This is especially true of UPS, as Webster would know if he’d done his research. UPS has the fourth biggest political action committee in the country. It spends more to buy politicians than oil, tobacco, timber or any other corporations, more than the National Rifle Association and the National Association of Realtors. This money guarantees cooperation from the legislative branch.

Because injury rates at UPS plants are two and one-half times industry average, and because the Occupational Safety and Health Administration was threatening to clamp down on injury-causing UPS practices, UPS bought off acting head of OSHA, Dorothy Strunk, guaranteeing cooperation of the executive branch. Finally, to guarantee cooperation from the judicial branch, UPS bought off the son of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

UPS may win in the long run, but not because of some fictional marketplace. It will be because government and big business are in bed together. Laurel L. Pederson Spokane

OTHER TOPICS

Children need occasional firm hand

It’s interesting to observe the passions aroused by John Rosemond’s columns, especially those in which he dares suggest that parents should actually require certain things from their children (such as respect and obedience), and that corporal punishment is occasionally needed to accomplish that.

One does not have to spend a lot of time in a public place these days before observing out-of-control children, the product of parents who refuse to parent, who themselves are products of a society which has become too “sophisticated” to subscribe to moral principles, including parenting principles, that have served families well for centuries.

Subscribing to Biblical parental guidance does not in any way mean that a parent becomes an out-of-control, raving monster. Properly administered punishment, including spanking, can reinforce rules and principles which can save a child’s life. A 2-year-old has no natural fear of playing in the street because he cannot comprehend the dangers. “Please don’t play in the street (unless you really, really want to)” is a ludicrous and dangerous way to train a child in a matter that can mean his or her very life. Knowing that some very real physical discomfort results from disobedience of that rule reinforces the point in a small mind that sees no other danger in playing in the street.

Our children depend on us to guide and train them in the way that we know to be best for them. They flourish in a home where there are consistent, yet reasonable expectations of them.

Let’s not let them down. Jeffrey D. Smith Spokane

No, the grunge goes on

Re: “Grunge grinds to an end” (Entertainment, Aug. 31).

I am almost 16 years old and I listen to 103.9 FM Z-Rock faithfully. This article fails to point out that record sales may not show it, but there will always be people to buy the music they love, whether or not it is popular.

We are not going to conform to the popular music and stupid trends. I personally don’t want to be like everyone else. I will never stop listening to the bands I like because they say what’s on their minds and they put feeling into it.

Who really cares what people say and record sales show? If you love it enough, you’ll keep on doing it and not let it matter. You can’t say it’s ended because to me it never will.

Nirvana rules. Not only them, but the others, too, such as Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Screaming Trees, Pearly Jam, Hole and all the other bands you say have ended. Rhonda K. Anderson Spokane

Good for determined ‘radical’

Hoorah for John Osborn of the Inland Empire Public Lands Council for being gutsy enough to risk being called radical and extreme (by the likes of editorial writer D.F. Oliveria, Sept. 4) by calling for an end to commercial logging in our national forests. Obviously, there are plenty of rational players in the ongoing timber debate, which seems to continue to be ongoing nowhere.

Maybe what we need are more so-called extremists willing to risk alienating the powers that be by standing up for what they believe in. Kerry L. Masters Liberty Lake