Letters To The Editor

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Gorton carrying out racist vendetta

Sen. Slade Gorton represents the upstanding citizens of this great state and he is not even from this state.

In the 1970’s, he used the Judge Boldt fishing decision to get the white fisherman against the Indian people to get himself elected. But did he help the white fisherman? In the last election, Gorton used the owl issue to get the white loggers to help get him elected but did he help out the white loggers? The answer is no.

My question is, why is Gorton so anti-Indian and what did we ever do to this man? Is this man a racist?

The word of your forefathers and of all of the great men who made up the United States made treaties with the great leaders and chiefs of our Indian people mean nothing to Gorton. History will show you that the Colville Confederated Tribes Chiefs gave up land that borders the Okanogan River to the middle of the Cascade Mountains and south to the Moses Coulee and North to the Canadian border in a treaty signed with the United States government. Dollars could not buy back all of the land and history that goes into this land. But in turn, the U.S. government made promises to our people that include sovereignty and financial assistance.

Gorton wants to end all of this and break the treaties signed by your leaders. In the tradition of our people, we know that when you treat people badly and are mean and spiteful, what comes goes around comes around.

Gorton was elected by us to represent people of all walks of life in Washington state, not pursue his personal vendettas. I know the great citizens of this great state are not racist. I hope that you let your senator know this. Eldon Wilson Spokane

Senator’s approach hardly original

General William T. Sherman, in reference to American Indians, was quoted as saying, “They all have to be killed or be maintained as a species of paupers.”

It seems like we have a senator from the state of Washington, Slade Gorton, who seems to have the same Sherman mentality. Scott Hendricks Spokane

WASHINGTON STATE

I-676 is unnecessary, unwanted

Re: Initiative 676. Read the small print.

It’s a very serious threat to American freedoms. It’s being masqueraded as a “handgun safety and triggerlock” measure. It’s another do-it-for-the-children trap.

If I-676 becomes law, it will be unlawful for any person to possess or control a handgun unless the person possess a valid handgun safety license. That means getting a minimum eight hours of instruction. The license will show the licensee’s name, address, date of birth, physical description and bear a unique number. Licenses must be paid for and periodically renewed.

You must also report to the government every time you deliver, loan or otherwise transfer a handgun to another government-licensed individual. You can’t loan it to an unlicensed person. There are several portions discussing being guilty of class C felonies for violating various laws.

These are just a few highlights of the restrictions of this initiative.

This is not a handgun safety suggestion. It’s a gun control law. There are already laws that you cannot shoot someone or rob someone. There’s no need for gun control laws for law-abiding citizens. And criminals don’t obey the law anyway.

Do this for the children. Leave them their rightful American freedoms. Vote against this disarm-them-sothey-can’t-object Initiative 676.

By all means, play Paul Revere and warn your friends. Betty L. White Tonasket, Wash.

Letter writer wrong about me, too

Lu E. Haynes (Letters, Sept. 5) has charged me with the death of millions of unborn babies through abortion, as well as being a hypocrite and a liar.

Unfortunately for Haynes, she has demonstrated the sort of error common to those who seem to think only in the broadest of stereotypes.

The fact is that, through my church, I have been strongly active in the pro-life movement ever since the 1940s - years before people like Haynes discovered the issue. My pro-life commitment is total: I oppose abortion, capital punishment, bombing of clinics, shooting of doctors and even the deaths of the gang members Haynes is willing to sacrifice.

In all modesty, my pro-life credentials are superior to Haynes’.

My stand on guns has never varied. I strongly support all responsible gun ownership. People who, like Haynes, claim the founding fathers favored irresponsible gun ownership, and so legislated, dishonor their memory and do violence to the heritage they left us. Edward B. Keeley Spokane

THE ENVIRONMENT

Tell Nethercutt to support clean air

I want to see our air more breather-friendly in the coming years. The Clean Air Act was designed specifically for this purpose - to give cities like ours the chance to grow and obtain the cleaner air that we deserve.

Children do not deserve to suffer during bad air days. When they do, everyone suffers. It is a proven fact that asthma deaths in children and young adults increased by 118 percent from 1980 to 1993, many of them caused directly or indirectly by air pollutants.

Unfortunately, there is the sentiment among polluters that the federal government should roll back the Clean Air Act, solely so their corporations do not have to spend millions of dollars to comply with it. This is not the action we need. What we need to do is actually strengthen the Clean Air Act to prevent these attacks and needless deaths every year.

Rep. George Nethercutt is not doing his part to correct these ills. He has a 16 percent voting record on these environmental and health issues. This is simply not good enough.

We need to be a community united in the strength of our future - cleaner air and healthy children. We all need to do our part. Write or call Rep. Nethercutt and tell him we are concerned and we are watching. Cambie A. Kostelecky Liberty Lake

Stop the logging-related damage

I read with dismay editorial writer D.F. Oliveria’s lambasting of the Inland Empire Public Lands Council’s zero-cut position for the national forests, as well as other past editorials pandering to the local timber industry.

The only thing that has improved about the timber companies is their command of propaganda, and the big fish on the editorial board have taken the bait - hook, line and sinker. It’s embarrassing to read such rot when nationally famous papers such as the Washington Post are writing exposes regarding the devastation of our backyard.

Small town boosterism has its limits, and The Spokesman-Review could do better than back a loser timber industry that has done nothing but destroy our most precious asset, the beautiful wild country off our back doorstep.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that most of the creeks in the parts of North Idaho that are roaded and logged are filled with rubble from landslides caused by clearcuts, roads and mines. But I’ll make an offer to any of the editorial board members: I am a rocket scientist, and I’d be happy to take them on the land to show them.

It’s tough to stake out a position that has enough oomph to fix the problems of our public lands, such as zero-cut.

I commend the Lands Council for taking this courageous position. Let’s stop destroying the landscape before - not after - we lose our precious wild heritage. Charles Pezeshki Troy, Idaho

Federal lands should not be logged

The Spokesman-Review has shown its true colors. It’s the mouthpiece for the timber industry.

In response to the Inland Empire Public Land Council’s call for an end to commercial logging in our national forests, the S-R is trumpeting the timber industry’s old jobs-versus-environment clap trap. Where was the S-R when the timber companies were automating the mills and buying enormous cutting machines for the woods, all of which put thousands of workers on the street?

Must we choose between destruction of our national environment and full employment of timber workers? No!

The federal government currently subsidizes the cutting of trees on federal lands to the tune of $500 million per year. That money could keep many of the workers in the forest cleaning up the damages of the last 40 years.

We’re not faced with the lumber shortage bugaboo, either. Federal timber is a small part of the national supply. We could replace that portion of our supply with conservation, reuse, recycling, and alternatives, as we have with other industries. Conservation would eliminate any shortage and create new jobs in a new industry.

As American citizens, we have the power and the duty to control the use of our public lands. Those lands are ours to use for our lifetimes only. They belong to future generations.

For decades, we have been cutting the trees faster that they can grow back. The forests are devastated. The old ways won’t work. We can and must stop commercial logging on our federal lands now. Terrence V. Sawyer Spokane

We need conservation - it’s good sense

Editorial writer D.F. Oliveria’s Sept. 4 editorial calls the Public Lands Council position of no more commercial logging in our National Forests “extreme” but to thinking people, this position makes good economic and conservation sense.

The Forest Service has spent billions of taxpayers’ money “managing” the National Forests and what do we have now? Only 5 percent of our original forest lands left, 380,000 miles of logging roads that we can’t afford to maintain, roads wash out and cause silting, loss of fish habitat, flooding, pollution and more, millions of dollars in damage to towns, homes, rivers, and lakes.

The Forest Service says it needs to sell timber to maintain roads. The best timber areas have already been logged. Much of what is left is on high elevations in less accessible sites susceptible to heavy damage. Selling timber for road building and maintenance is a program that has failed; it leads only to overcutting, with subsidies to timber companies.

Using taxpayer money to retrain loggers to do road obliteration, maintenance for recreational roads and forest restoration is a fairer expenditure for all citizens. Timber companies own enough private forest land to serve our paper and lumber needs, if we use new technology, recycle, and conserve. No more commercial logging means we could begin to reverse our pollution and flooding problems, improve our waterways and increase our fish and other wildlife. Now, that’s not extreme - that’s good sense! Jane E. Cunningham Spokane

Balance wood demand, preservation

Historically, resource extraction from our national forests has been interpreted to be an important need. Fortunately, our society is dynamic and, like our forests, it experiences constant change. As our values evolve, so do our wants and needs.

Recently, we have expressed the desire to integrate ecosystem resilience into national forest management. The Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project is a manifestation of this desire. The integrated scientific assessment associated with ICBEMP has revealed many ecosystem cause-and-effect relationships. The most prominent is that Columbia Basin forests have evolved with frequent disturbance events that conveniently serve to maintain ecosystem resilience.

Another cause-and-effect relationship that occurs on a national scale has remained relatively constant over time. As our population increases, so does our demand for wood products. It seems evident that our need for wood and our desire for resilient ecosystems must be integrated. If we apply the knowledge we have, we can achieve this integration. We can substitute calculated timber harvest for disturbance events and extract wood products while maintaining resilient ecosystems.

John Osborn recently suggested that it’s time to end commercial logging in our national forests. We could do that. What we should do, however, is take responsibility for our consumption by applying our knowledge of ecosystems as we satiate our voracious appetite for wood. V. Edward Shaw Colville, Wash.

OTHER TOPICS

Needle exchange a bad idea

Eight million people in the United States are aware of their diabetes. Ten percent of those are insulin dependent. Another 8 million people don’t know they’re diabetics and a large percentage of those will end up depending on insulin injections to stay alive.

Syringes (or needles) attract different ideas from different people. When I hear discussion of needles, I automatically think of giving myself four shots a day to stay alive. When other people hear of needles, they think of someone getting high or using dirty needles. Several people are upset because I have a negative opinion of a free needle exchange for intravenous drug users.

I have had several experiences where I’ve needed new syringes to take my insulin and literally had to fight to get them.

I’m not saying that everyone should have access to syringes. But when I have a prescription for insulin on file at the pharmacy, you’d think they’d know why I need the syringe. I’ve had a pharmacist tell me, on two different occasions, I couldn’t get my syringes without a prescription.

Offering drug users access to free needles sends a message that says, No, we’re not going to stop you from breaking the law and endangering lives. As a matter of fact, here, we’ll help you be a little better at it.

If people who depend on syringes to stay alive have such a hard time getting them, maybe people using them for badness should, too. Renee Bushnell Spokane

‘Established communities’ left out

The assisted living industry is booming, especially in Spokane and the Spokane Valley. Your Sept. 7 feature was an excellent example of what is going on in Spokane.

I am disappointed, however, at the lack of information from communities that are well established in the industry. Your feature chose many of the newer operators. While most of these are very competent, information from old-timers in the industry was lacking.

I realize that not every community can be included, although it seems blatant that Brighton Court, being one of the experienced operators with local ownership, and Sullivan Park, being from a long-established company, were obviously omitted.

What criteria were used to gather the feature article information? I realize my connection with Brighton Court is not alone sufficient for it to be included. But I also have founded and head the Spokane Assisted Living Providers group, which includes 15 of the 22 assisted living communities in Spokane. I have also been a featured writer in national publications, such as Spectrum and Provider, which deal with seniors and long-term care.

Brighton Court has been in business approximately 10 years. Sullivan Park has been operating in Spokane over six years and has opened an assisted living community to its long-term care campus. Why were these prominent properties not included?

Spokesman-Review readers are getting information that shows this as a new industry, which it is not. Don’t the readers deserve information from all sides, including the experienced operators? Sandy Davidson, general manager Brighton Court Assisted Living

Wrong to play off

Diana against nun In answer to Patrick Benapfl’s letter of Sept. 8, I feel it was unkind to downplay Princess Diana’s worthiness to receive the adulation of the world, or to contrast her worthiness to the specialness of Mother Teresa’s dedication to Calcutta’s poor and the radiation of her goodness beyond the periphery of that area.

Have you never heard that everyone is beautiful in their own way?

There is too much negativism displayed in our world. We should begin to shift our attention to honoring and encouraging the good and to recognizing that which is beneficial to society at large.

I’m sure that you, too, are beautiful in some special way. Perhaps you could share that with us and others. Lucille Anderson Spokane