Letters To The Editor
SPOKANE MATTERS
Give event a more appetizing name
On Labor Day, my wife and I joined friends to dine at the Spokane Restaurant Fair in Riverfront Park. This is an annual event for us. Again this year, we enjoyed good friends, delightful food and excellent entertainment.
The only thing that sullied our otherwise splendid day was sitting under a banner which proclaimed the fine community activity we were enjoying as a ‘Pig Out in the Park.’ How unimaginative! How unappetizing. How uncouth!
This appellation for such a fine community picnic makes us question whether we want to join friends and family at the neighborhood trough each year. Can’t Spokane do better in naming this last summertime hurrah?
This unfortunate label is just another example of the deterioration of our language in the ‘90’s’. Our lives (mostly throughout the media) are bombarded by street talk, bathroom talk, bedroom talk, and now, barnyard talk. Language can be used to build a society, as when it’s used by Dr. Robert Schuller, or tear down a society, as when it is misused by Howard Stern. Let’s start building up by changing the name of our annual restaurant fair.
I suggest that the organizers have a contest to name next year’s dining fair, giving the winner a year’s supply of barbecue ribs and baklava. I submit the names, Labor Day Luau or Restaurant Reprise at Riverfront for starters. (Please don’t consider Porcine Picnic in the Park to appease those in Spokane County whom Seattleites rightly call their country cousins).
Dining in the verdant Riverfront Park with the beautiful Spokane River running through it can be likened to enjoying a diamond in an emerald setting. Let’s not portray this wonderful annual gastronomical event as a pearl in a pig’s snout! Merle R. Craner Cheney
STA unresponsive to suggestion
In the article “STA Plaza: It’s a people place,” (Aug. 31) you emphasize customer satisfaction with the new Spokane Transit Authority Plaza. “But bus riders say they like the place” is the opening comment in the third paragraph.
This may be true for people using the Riverside bus zones and customers not using the buses, but not completely true for those of us using the Sprague Avenue side of the building.
In putting the underground parking level entrance on Wall Street, they made the Sprague side a solid wall with a high overhang. Bus commuters are left out in the elements with no escape from the cigarette smoke while waiting for their bus. Not much different from being on the corner of Howard and Riverside.
On the Riverside Avenue side, commuters can stand inside, are able to see their bus arrive and proceed outside when it does.
In March, I submitted a detailed suggestion to STA for building a wall down from the overhang, 10 feet out from the building, with windows for commuters to see their buses arrive and doors to exit from. I have not received a reply explaining why it can or cannot be done.
Since there are just as many bus “zones” on the Sprague Avenue side as on Riverside, I assume there are just about as many customers. I’m sure others would agree, the Sprague Avenue side of the STA Plaza is not a people place. Donald L. McDowell Medical Lake
IN THE REGION
Ferry County seeks protection, balance
Re: Dave Robinson’s Sept. 10 letter (“Finally, some fairness in Ferry County”).
Robinson and his group, Concerned Friends of Ferry County, have been involved in the public process in growth management planning, but his letter fails to tell the whole truth.
I am no longer the growth management consultant to Ferry County, as he claims. I have since resigned from that position.
He is correct in saying that I am the executive director of the Ferry County Action League. But his claim that the league is an “anti-environmental lobby” is also false. The league is an organization working to protect the rights of citizens. It is clearly stated in the organization’s mission statement that it exists “to promote and maintain a high quality of life and environmental quality in Ferry County.”
Ferry County has met the state requirements to designate and protect wetlands, and fish and wildlife areas. Ferry County has wetland buffers like every other county, which is what his group asked for from the beginning.
Robinson asked for more, such as 600-foot buffers on streams and wetlands. The county struck a balance and adopted the plan. Now, he takes his battle to the paper, asking for sympathy from the public for his actions of appeals while the state decides the county’s future.
One of the 13 goals of the Growth Management Act is to protect private property. I have always ensured that all 13 goals were equally met and the plan was balanced. David M. Keeley Malo, Wash.
GRASS FIELD BURNING
Reliance on stacked committee won’t do
Department of Ecology Director Tom Fitzsimmons smoothly crafted his apparent denial of backing down on the grass field burning ban.
The truth is that statements such as “It may take longer than we had hoped to put certified alternatives into place,” and “It is premature to judge whether or not alternatives will be certified by next summer” confirm our fear: The promised ban of grass burning in 1998 is dead, and Fitzsimmons has once again given growers the green light to continue burning their fields.
Fitzsimmons states that he has turned the matter over to the Agricultural Burning Practices and Research Task Force to solve. Incredibly, he claims that the task force “has members from all sides.” What he doesn’t tell the public is that this committee is heavily dominated by growers and those with a financial stake in field burning. Parties interested in ending field burning have just one representative. None of the members are doctors, owners of businesses harmed by the field smoke or victims who suffer health consequences and bear the burden of medical bills.
The task force has met just three times since January, and the topic of ending field burning is not even on the agenda. Does Fitzsimmons really think it’s appropriate to place such an important public decision in the hands of non-elected farmers who have directed so much energy toward fighting for their right to burn their fields?
The promise Gov. Gary Locke made during his campaign when asked about his stand on field burning was very clear. He said he supported the ban.
Fitzsimmons needs to support it, too. Diane E. Radkey Spokane
Lock up robbers of people’s freedom
Once again, the grass growers have demonstrated how little they care about the people of the Inland Northwest.
On a recent Wednesday afternoon, the Spokane Valley was blanketed in a choking haze from the grass burning, causing stinging eyes and scratchy throat in anyone who ventured outside. Running, biking on the Centennial Trail or even walking with your family became a health-threatening activity.
Like every year, the nicest days of late summer are stolen from us, as people are forced to hide indoors and miss the beautiful weather. And for what? So a few dozen grass growers can make a little more profit. Why should tens of thousands of citizens suffer so that the growers can carry on their “traditional” way of life?
The director of the Intermountain Grass Growers Association wants us to think that they are “studying alternatives,” and that if people will just be patient, maybe it will all just go away.
In any other area, anyone regularly harassing or endangering other people would be put in jail. Isn’t it time to stop making allowances for a few rich farmers? David A. Barnett Post Falls
Tell officials burning is wrong
How surprising - the insensitive grass burners are at it again.
The fair process of hearings the last couple of years already had determined that grass field burning is dangerous and unhealthy for our community. If numerous obviously intelligent doctors in our area have already agreed that grass burning is unhealthy for our lungs, why does the burning continue?
After numerous hearings, then-Department of Ecology Director Mary Riveland made the wise decision in 1996 to eliminate grass burning by the summer of 1998.
Now, Gov. Gary Locke’s newly appointed Ecology director, Tom Fitzsimmons, is ignoring all the established facts and decisions made by due process by stating he has no intention of honoring the ban.
The grass burners are a group of very few businessmen making easy money at our expense; gray skies instead of blue, lost tourist funds, etc. Who would want to come to any lake area where there are no blue skies and no fresh air? What about the people who work at small restaurants and shops around our many lakes? Their jobs are being lost because of these few grass burners.
Please take a few minutes to make a difference. Call these people who can stop this needless, foolish grass field burning: Department of Ecology, 456-2926; Idaho governor’s office, (208) 334-2100; and Coeur d’ Alene Indian Reservation, (208) 686-1800. David Kavanagh Spokane
SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION
Follow up on awareness of problems
The fourth-grade test results come as no surprise to anyone who has taught at the college level or made a career in a technical field. The saddest part is that the public has been deceived into believing our school system was not only very good, but a world leader.
Americans have historically shown an incredible ability to meet challenges when informed. Gov. Gary Locke has urged that parents support and encourage kids in learning pursuits by pulling the TV plug.
The greater challenge for the school system is honestly accepting the results and the responsibility for those results. Parental support is crucial and can only be won by an honest, unvarnished statement of position. For too long we’ve been misled by beautifully orchestrated PR programs.
It’s time for school systems to say we have a big problem, the solution of which will determine the success or failure of your children and ultimately their country. Children must learn to study and to behave. They have no right to interfere with others’ education. Parents must learn to accept responsibility and create a learning environment. Without your help we can’t succeed.
State schools Superintendent Terry Bergeson and Locke are to be congratulated for their courageous stand. The next step should be an objective evaluation of education on industrial-world standards (we’re in about the 15th percentile). It’s no coincidence that in many of our best universities, most staff members are foreign professors or that two-thirds of the P.h.Ds in science and engineering are earned by foreign students.
Bergeson summed it up by saying our education is a mile wide and an inch deep. It remains to be seen whether we’ll meet the challenge or continue to delude ourselves with meaningless A’s. R. William Bender Spokane
Liberals only care about the money
On a recent “Meet The Press,” former New York governor Mario Cuomo and Pat Buchanan debated school choice.
Cuomo is opposed because it would channel money from public schools to private and parochial schools. It’s money, he says, needed to repair schools.
Question: Where has all the money gone? Why hasn’t it been better spent to maintain schools? Why have these schools been allowed to deteriorate? And besides, Cuomo goes on to say, “There is already choice. Parents can choose which public school to send their kids to.”
Buchanan said it would make public schools better because of competition. Also, lower- and middle-class parents could afford to send their kids to private schools, just like the Clintons and Gores.
What came through is this: It’s all about money and who controls it. Liberals like Cuomo don’t want school choice because they want to control the flow of tax dollars. They don’t want parents having tax vouchers because it puts parents in control of their child’s education. They treat this issue the same way they look at tax cuts. “How are you going to pay for it?” Liberals should be told: It’s not your money! Mark Duclos Spokane
PRINCESS DIANA
‘Shame on all of you’
Re: the Sept. 9 cartoon (if you want to call it that) of Princess Diana looking down from heaven saying, “All this silly debate about the paparazzi, privacy and the press kinda makes me wish I left by stepping on a land mine.”
Do you honestly think this is in good taste? I was totally and completely angry about this disgusting thing. (I can’t call it a cartoon, and I don’t know what else to call it.)
Diana was loved by everyone. I’m sure there wasn’t anyone in the world who wasn’t saddened by her death. As a mother myself, I can guarantee that she didn’t want to die either from a car crash or a land mine.
Where are your ethics, your good taste? Isn’t there something a little more positive that you could have put in that spot? I was horrified, and I know several other people were, too. That piece was totally inappropriate.
Shame on all of you. I have seen some bad pieces before, but this tops them all.
Try picking on someone else for a while. Sharon L. Frazier Buck Davenport, Wash.
Good paper, bad cartoon
I’m not one to criticize The Spokesman-Review, but staff cartoonist Milt Priggee’s cartoon of Princess Diana (Sept. 9) is very offensive.
Priggee’s insensitive and trivial approach to serious matters such as the paparazzi, privacy and the press - to say nothing of land mines - does a real disservice to a very good paper and its readers. Jacqueline Eide Odessa, Wash.
Sad testimony for MADD cause
Perhaps one of the causes that should benefit from the untimely death of Princess Diana is Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Or perhaps William should found Sons Against Drunk Driving (SADD).
This seems to sum up the tragedy. Janice L. Keith Spokane
MOTHER TERESA
‘One true religion’ tack not her way
I join Phil F. McCabe (Letters, Sept. 11) in feeling that the world has lost it’s (arguably) most sincere and worthy proponent of human decency and Christian values. Nonetheless, I suspect we would be doing her a grave injustice by attempting to make her a banner for any personal religious views.
Far from heading a “battle” to convert others to a “true” religion, Mother Teresa led a war on human suffering, as a personal offering to her God. In doing so, she became a perfect incarnation of Karma Yoga to Hindus, an embodiment of Christian love to Christians, etc.
Perhaps one way to honor her and the things in which she believed would be to follow her lead in, for example, adopting unwanted children rather than bombing abortion clinics, assisting battered women’s shelters and otherwise helping where we see a need. It is these things that will honor her memory and the spirit of her work in a more truthful, and presumably, Christian fashion.
Let us not allow divisiveness to be a legacy of her faith. Vance L. Shaw Spokane