Letters To The Editor

GOVERNMENT/POLITICS

President has moral obligation

I am disgusted with the way the scandal involving President Clinton is being accepted by the citizens of the United States. One argument, that many of our influential political leaders have had affairs, so the president is just as entitled, makes me sick at the desensitization of our country. Where have our morals gone? If a man is willing to take on the task of running our country, then he should be able to conquer the task in the most important place: - the family. After all, Clinton won the presidential campaign by his speech on the importance of family.

A man in Clinton’s position should realize that he has a moral obligation to our country and our people, young and old. What are the young adults and the future leaders of our society to think when they see the scandal in the White House being perceived with such acceptance, such nonchalance? That sin and infidelity are acceptable, as long as one gets the job done? I should hope not.

I think that we the people should find a way to halt such acts. we shouldn’t let our role models get away with such acts. We should remember that it takes more than just skill at running our country and to be called a role model or leader - much more, such as a healthy moral conscience. Kara Rene Hayden, age 17 LaCrosse, Wash.

New legislation jeopardizes all

The residents of Spokane County have just lost an important battle in the struggle to maintain the purity of our clean drinking water from our precious sole-source aquifer.

Rep. Duane Sommers’ recent piece of legislation, now signed into law, exempts trailer parks from being required to hook up to the county public sewer systems. In trying to save a few businesses in the county the expense of sewering, Sommers’ bill allows the continued use of septic tanks in trailer parks. This ignorant and short-sighted legislation jeopardizes us all.

Sooner or later, these septic tanks will leak their contents of human wastes into our clean water supply. When that happens, the costs of cleanup will be of an order of magnitude far greater than the price of preventing pollution now.

Sommers’ activities in Olympia must receive the closest attention from Spokane city and county officials and us, the public. Warren S. Peterson Spokane

When treaty expires, so does welcome

Laura Kister (Letters, March 17) takes the position that we built the Panama Canal, so it’s ours at all costs. She says “Red China” will become a threat to us in Panama if we don’t act now to renege on the treaties, or at least to renegotiate the defense of the Panama Canal. She seems totally ignorant of the issues regarding this waterway.

Panama does not want our bases, period. We colonized Panama with the Canal Zone for nearly eight decades, and that colonial attitude does not sit too well with Panamanians. It is their country, not ours. We abused our stay by pretending to be their owners and masters, and when the treaty expires, so does our welcome.

Kister’s colonial tone is precisely why we will no longer have control of the canal after 1999. Many Panamanians are descended from the Chinese who helped build the canal. They own businesses, including banks, shipping companies, and other commercial entities. They are as much a “red threat” as Kister is.

The canal is obsolete for defense purposes because most of our two-ocean Navy’s battleships and aircraft carriers don’t fit through the canal, so Chinese forces are no threat to us or to Latin America. We are developing more economical means of moving commerce from one U.S. coast to the other. Even the Panamanians know that the Panama Canal is soon to become a white elephant. And Long Beach - please! Enough ignorance, already! Eric W. Anderson Seattle

SPOKANE TOPICS

Captain’s promotion surprising

I was surprised to learn that Capt. Chuck Bown of the Spokane Police Department has been promoted from commander of the Spokane serial killer task force to acting deputy chief.

Isn’t he the same Capt. Bown who was interviewed by The Spokesman-Review a few weeks back and stated that the Washington State Patrol detectives are not experienced in investigation and are not real cops? I fully expected to read a retraction and an apology for the remarks to the State Patrol and the detectives, but I don’t believe this ever happened.

Who knows, if Acting Deputy Chief Bown would publicly denounce the abilities of Chief Sandberg of the Washington State Patrol, perhaps he could be promoted to be the new chief of the Spokane Police Department. This surely would save time and the cost of choosing a new chief.

It is sad to know that the Peter Principle is alive and well in the Spokane Police Department. Elge Genther Nine Mile Falls

Playing it safe not always best

I often wonder, given the recent charades by the current mayor, if the people of Spokane are embarrassed. Just a little over half of them were fooled by a man who has made a career out of being a chameleon. John Talbott has been causing trouble in our community for years. Then he runs for mayor again, after several losses, and wins due to the hypnotic spell he and developer Dave Sabey put over the people of our city. They worked as a team to make people scared. And when people are scared their natural reaction is to play it safe.

I believe that voters thought they were doing the right thing, but I am also very sure that a great deal of them now regret the way they voted.

My father is a good, intelligent, professional man who always had the utmost concern for our city. That included the North Side as well as the South Side. The revitalization of downtown is crucial to the existence of the entire city. Only those of us who didn’t fall under the spell of Talbott/Sabey know this to be the truth.

Well, the spell has worn off. Talbott is showing his true colors; he is back to his old obnoxious, paranoid self. I wonder how many people regret voting him into office? My father accepted his very marginal defeat with dignity and grace - two aspects of Talbott’s personality that are non-existent. I truly believe that if a mayoral election were held tomorrow that Jack Geraghty would win, again. And Talbott would lose, again. Sheila Geraghty Leek Spokane

GUNS

Gun laws need to be tightened

Re: “Armed boys kill five at middle school” (March 25).

I was appalled to hear of the five deaths and 11 wounded, gunned down by two boys merely 11 and 13 years old. I question our society’s mixed opinions on the subject of gun control. A person’s individual rights should end when lives are at stake, especially the lives of innocent children. In Arkansas, minors are not prohibited from possessing rifles or shotguns. The two boys were apprehended with shotguns and handguns and were running to a van containing more weapons and ammunition.

The laws enabling the purchase and possession of weapons need to be taken into consideration and tightened. The death of another young child should not be what it takes to crack down on the circulation of deadly weapons. Geneva B. Pritchard, age 16 Spokane

Children, guns bad mix

Hearing about townspeople wrestling with the Jonesboro tragedy and trying to find a message is baffling.

The message is very clear. Don’t teach children to shoot and don’t keep guns in your house except in a locked safe.

Children can get terribly angry, as anyone who has them knows, and they don’t have a lot of self-control yet. Someone who teases them at school can set them off, and if they have something at hand to use for vengeance they might do so.

Children and guns are not a good mix. We know this, so why is it so terribly hard to face up to? Dorothy E. Carter Spokane

Fight for right to retain guns

In a recent Roundtable article Pete Fretwell is trying to find a way to send Nazis the message, “Never again.” He is sending the message to the wrong people.

The Aryan Nations pose no threat to anyone. “Never again” is a message that must be sent to those who propose gun controls and the people of Africa, Bosnia, South Africa, Iraq and China that are killing their own people with totals in the hundreds of thousands, or more.

I encourage those who believe that what Hitler did in Germany (a democracy) should not be done again, to take positive action to support the rights of those being killed every day around the world both with their voices and their dollars, and to fight for our right to retain guns that will be effective in any resistance movement that we may need to be a part of, should our democracy become tyrannical. John W. Axtell Valley, Wash.

IN THE PAPER

Youth’s story heartwarming

The news in today’s society generally comes across negatively to most people, which I would have to agree with. But the article, “Awards put spotlight on young heroes,” (March 25) is the sort of thing we should all talk about more often.

One prime example is Derrick Dyer, who has overcome more in his young life than many of us can even imagine. He’s lived on the streets, gone without quality food for months and has been without a strong supporting family for lengthy periods of time. If I was in that position, I think it would seem extremely easy to give up.

This tough kid - and I mean that in a positive way - did not throw in the towel. Kudos to him for that. Now that he has a life that he can make something of he is wasting no time using it to his advantage. He is helping fix up a theater and is encouraging people around him to gut it out and trudge through the muddy waters of life. His story should warm the hearts and make us realize how much we have to be thankful for and how much we take for granted daily. Whenever we are in difficult situations that seem to be like hell, we need to look at Derrick’s position and his achievements. He has gone from nothing to something, and many of us will subconsciously go from something to nothing in our lives if we do not watch out. Scott Wolf, age 16 Spokane

ANIMAL CIRCUSES

Boycott animal circuses

In response to Cecile Moran’s letter (March 28) asking what we can do to help circus elephants: simply refuse to patronize animal circuses!

The circus is a business, after all, and circus owners make money by exploiting animals. If we refuse to attend these performances, and if we educate others and encourage them to boycott these acts as well, promoters will have no choice but to stop using animals in this “entertainment.”

Doing away with animal acts doesn’t mean the end of the circus. Top-rated circuses such as the Cirque de Soleil from Quebec and the Pickle Family Circus from San Francisco offer exciting human acts without exploiting animals.

Think about it! Unlike human performers, animal performers don’t choose their profession. They don’t thrill to the roar of the crowd or dream of fame and fortune. Animal performers are captives. The arenas in which they are forced to spend their lives are as unnatural to them as their natural environment would be to us.

Please do this simple thing to help circus elephants and all performing animals. Boycott animal acts and urge your family and friends to do the same. Anne Groeschel Spokane

Circus cruel to animals

How sad it is that we are willing to let animals be tortured and suffer for our enjoyment. And of all the groups to profit from this, the Shriners should be the last. Their efforts on behalf of children are more than noble, but it’s time to realize that the same help can be forthcoming without others of God’s creatures suffering for it. Numerous great circuses have come to this realization and have no animals in their performances. It time the Shriners joined this group.

Change is not easy, but this too is for a noble cause. Joyce F. Steele Spokane

HEALTH/SAFETY

Dental care higher in Spokane

In his March 11 column (“Home, medical prices push Spokane living costs above average), Frank Bartel claims that health care costs 23 percent more in Spokane than in most other places in the nation. The basis of this claim is the American Chamber of Commerce Research Association’s (ACCRA) third quarter 1997 data. ACCRA measures average relative health care cost by locally surveying the charges for a semi-private hospital room, a medical doctor’s visit, dental exam and teeth cleaning and a tube of polysporin ointment.

Interestingly, the data reveals that doctor visits in Spokane are not only below the national average, but also substantially below the state average. Medical doctors in 90 percent of Washington communities charge more for an office visit than do doctors in Spokane. The primary reason for the higher health care costs in Spokane (13 percent), according to ACCRA, is due to the higher costs for dental care. Rodney L. Trytko, M.D. vice president, Spokane County Medical Society

Disabled spot for disabled

I am writing this letter to the person who was parked in a parking space for the disabled at a North Division sporting goods store on March 28. This person’s vehicle had no disabled parking placard or plate.

I had to park in a “no parking” place, with my disabled placard. This was not OK, but there was no other parking place. I left a very pointed note on this person’s windshield, and went into the store.

When I came out a short time later there was a note on my windshield that contained an obscenity and called me a faker. This person had also spit on my window.

I would like this person to tell me how to fake post-polio syndrome. I would love to be able to fake it but I can’t. I have to walk on feet and legs that have no feeling, except when I have horrendous pain in my lower limbs. I don’t wish this person any bad luck, but do wish he/she had to walk with my legs and feet for about a month, then maybe he/she would be a little more considerate of other people. Robert F. Asterino Sr. Spokane