What If They Gave A Democracy And Everyone Did As You Do Today?
It’s a natural election-day theme, one that’s been raised in this column before:
Will you vote today? Are you even registered?
If you’re a participant in the process, what’s your motivation? If not, what’s your explanation?
If you say, as others have, that you don’t vote because the candidates are all alike or no good and that your vote won’t change things, whose fault is that?
Voter or not, what can you and other individuals do to strengthen the system? What will you do?
For the record, none of the candidates in today’s primary election for mayor or Spokane City Council would be affected by term limits.
No laughing matter
They have a joke in St. Paul, Minn.: “We have two seasons - winter and street repair.”
Around Spokane this year, Spokane motorists might find such a gag too real to be funny. With all the detours and torn-up surfaces, getting around tests your patience.
In northwest Spokane, where the state has been paving Francis Avenue and Nine Mile Road, area residents say the headache isn’t confined to the streets. Several neighbors complain that the work, being done at night, is disturbing their peace and quiet, not to mention their sleep.
State officials admit they are exceeding the city’s noise-level standards but say the project is exempt, as it benefits the public health, safety and welfare. Night surfacing work is defended as minimizing traffic disruptions and protecting children from possible exposure to hot asphalt on their way to or from school.
Book report
Community members line up to declare which works should be removed from high schools’ required-reading lists. Here are some suggestions for what to include.
From Wells Longshore, Spokane: Job from the Old Testament, Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” “Les Miserables” by Victor Hugo, “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor E. Frankl, and “Contact” by Carl Sagan.
“The message is: Life is difficult. Once you accept the fact that life is difficult, it’s not so difficult.”
J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye,” a title that’s practically synonymous with book-banning, got a resounding endorsement from James A. Nelson of Spokane because of its message about adhering to principles. “That had to be one of the finest books I ever read,” said Nelson.
, DataTimes MEMO: “Bagpipes” appears Tuesdays and Thursdays. To respond, call Cityline at 458-8800, category 9881, from a Touch-Tone phone; or send a fax to 459-5098 or e-mail to dougf@spokesman.com. You also can leave Doug Floyd a message at 459-5577, extension 5466.