Letters To The Editor

GRADES

Students work hard for A’s

I am responding to the article about the “easy” A’s being given to high school students today so that being a valedictorian doesn’t mean as much as it used to.

Our daughter was one of the valedictorians from Ferris High School two years ago. There was more than one valedictorian that year, as there have been many years. I knew the majority of the students who received that honor with her that year and they did not take classes for easy A’s. Our daughter struggled with the decisions of what classes to take, not because she worried about keeping her 4.0, but rather what classes would help her get into the university she wanted to attend. Her teachers worked along with her to help do her best, and not once did we feel that she was given anything easy during her high school years. She worked very hard for what she was given. I believe that most of those students did.

Thank you, teachers and the administration at Ferris High School. You are doing a great job.

By the way, our daughter is on the dean’s list at the university she attends and no, we are not worried that she got there with “easy” A’s. Denise A. Hendrickson Spokane

Grade inflation story misleading

As a Ferris High School junior, I was disturbed by Erin Van Bronkhorst’s analysis of grade inflation at Washington schools (“Grade inflation rampant,” March 29). Bronkhorst did not fully explain the situation.

While the average Ferris student’s SAT score has dropped in the last decade and grades have risen, this doesn’t necessarily indicate grade inflation. Many more students are taking the SAT now and the top Ferris students score higher than ever, so the drop in SAT scores could be a result of a larger portion of the student body taking the test.

In addition, the SAT doesn’t test many important things. Not only is it limited to math and verbal sections, it’s also designed to test a different and less valid kind of learning, recognition rather than understanding.

Bronkhorst also misuses the information regarding the grades of Ferris-turned-UW students. Many UW classes are designed to weed out students. In addition, college classes usually grade on a curve, which means that students with similar comprehension could have vastly different grades.

The public schools are correct in not dashing the hopes of aspiring 14-17-year-olds by mandating that a certain percentage fail. The current system rewards learning and comprehension, which are apparently foreign concepts to those who are obsessed with test scores and statistics. If Bronkhorst wants to prove this “rampant grade inflation,” she’ll have to dig deeper.

While I agree that Ferris’s 16 valedictorians is too many, simply rewarding a full honors class schedule by considering the number of credits taken and the difficulty of course load will lower that number.

Lincoln W. Ellis Spokane

HELPING OUR CHILDREN

Death from tobacco isn’t cool

I’m writing this letter in hopes that it will keep young people, especially kids and teenagers, from using tobacco - smoking or chewing.

Last week we buried my husband, who began smoking at age 17 because he thought it made him look “cool” and grown up. He was anything but “cool” when he spent his final five weeks suffering after lung surgery for emphysema, caused from smoking. His lungs were so ruined that stitches couldn’t hold and tubes were inserted into each space with a machine, pumping resulting air leaks and bloody fluid out to make room for oxygen being forced through a tube taped into his mouth.

For the past 11 years, after having quit smoking, he fought for breath, carrying a nine-pound oxygen cylinder on his shoulder. Even with this he had difficulty breathing. All this caused heart problems. During his final two hours I watched his heart rate go down and down until it hit 65. I couldn’t bear watching anymore as I knew he was nearing death. He breathed his last on March 15, at age 72.

I also lost a nephew who didn’t smoke tobacco but chewed it. His tongue and throat were eaten with cancer, caused by the tobacco.

Kids, please stop and think about not only what you are doing to your body but what it will do to your loved ones when they have to watch you suffer until you die. It can happen to you! Is it worth it?

Dare to be smart! Terry V. Stuart Spokane

Kids need love, not things

“Kids and Killings” (Opinion, March 31) was mostly on target about violent behavior in children. Unfortunately, writer Donna Britt fell into a contemporary trap when referring to an economy where “both parents … needed to work outside the home to survive.”

Except for circumstances of abject poverty, this just isn’t the case. Nor do violent children always come from poor families.

The fact is, as members of an increasingly greedy society, many people have come to value material goods and personal satisfaction more highly than they value their own children. Others fool themselves into thinking they’re helping their families by bringing in enough money to buy $30,000 cars, big-screen televisions, expensive toys and designer wardrobes.

What young children want is love, not things. They want their parents. And when they don’t get that most critical requirement for a happy life, some will act out in a violent manner.

There isn’t much difference between a temper tantrum at age 2 and shooting your classmates at age 13. The only distinction is that the 13-year-old has had 11 years to be raised by strangers, to worship material goods and to form the belief that greed, selfishness and violence are necessary to achieve happiness.

The best way to solve this rash of violence among young people is to reject the shiny baubles that modern society offers, return to a one-paycheck family structure and re-embrace the concept that love and true family closeness will always produce more tolerant, loving and secure children than those whose parents are always gone and whose value systems are learned from television. John Soennichsen Cheney

OTHER TOPICS

The unanswered creation questions

I have a few questions for creationists.

Biologists know that much of the DNA in our bodies doesn’t code for anything. They used enzymes to remove chunks of superfluous DNA in mice, and discovered those mice still exhibit all the physiological and behavioral characteristics of unmodified mice.

If God created all species 10,000 years ago, why are there such similarities in the DNA of closely related species? Geneticists can tell how distantly two creatures are related by comparing their DNA. Why did God make human DNA so like that of other primates?

If evolution is correct, we would expect plant fossils to predate any animal fossils, because animals couldn’t survive without plants. The oldest fossils discovered are of marine plants. As we would expect, the next-oldest fossils are of marine animals. We would expect terrestrial plant fossils to predate the earliest amphibians, because amphibians couldn’t survive on land without food. Indeed, terrestrial plant and insect fossils predate the earliest amphibian fossils. The theory of evolution leads us to expect amphibian fossils would be older than any other terrestrial animal fossils. This is the case.

Why did God create the world, a mere 10,000 years ago, in such a way that all the evidence points to an earth four billion years older? Is God trying to deceive scientists, or did God retain Satan as his general contractor? I can think of no other creationist explanation for this data.

The only obvious answer is that after the big bang, God’s creation occurred at the leisurely pace of evolution. Paul Yost Spokane

Pegasus still committed to Montana

Thank you for including Pegasus’ comments in your recent story. The purpose of this letter is to clarify a few points that you and your readers may not have fully understood.

Pegasus shares the concerns about the continued viability of the many small businesses that serve us, continuation of county services and maintaining education programs in Montana. We have held those beliefs for more than 20 years and we are now taking proven steps to ensure a successful company reorganization so as to continue that employment for Montanans and support for Montana’s economy.

Of great concern are taxes and the schools.

We have communicated to Jefferson County our unequivocal commitment to the payment of those taxes as quickly as legally possible. Our children go to those schools as well. Our commitment is firm.

It is extremely important that you have the correct facts on another issue: all of our post-petition vendors and suppliers have been, and will continue to be, paid as expenses are incurred.

Also of enormous importance is the completion of our reclamation at all of our mines. We currently have $110 million in surety bonds to ensure all reclamation obligations are met. Last November the Montana Legislature audited our bonding program for adequacy and confirmed the sufficiency of those bonds.

After all these years, there can be no question of our commitment to the people of Montana. I hope I have set the record straight. Werner G. Nennecker president and CEO, Pegasus Gold Corp., Spokane

Hatred for liberals amazing

After reading the first three letters in the April 1 Roundtable, I am convinced that some people operate on pure hatred.

Dick Bond, even after the failure of communism, still seems to believe that it is our greatest threat. He hates liberals, whom he aligns with the communists. He hates Nelson Mandela, whom he accuses of being a communist and he hates The Spokesman-Review, which he accuses of being a communist forum.

Esther McDonald seems to hate Clinton for apologizing for our forefathers holding slaves. Does she really believe that slavery was a good thing? We believe that Japan should apologize for Pearl Harbor, yet people of her ilk find our apologizing for slavery, for genocide and for the internment of American citizens during World War II, personally abhorrent.

Mike Carpenter seems to hate anything that makes people’s lives a little better. He seems to hate President Clinton for encouraging family planning. He actually seems to believe that birth control in Third World countries is causing their decline!

These people all seem to share one hatred in particular: Liberals. “Having, expressing or following views or policies that favor the freedom of individuals to act or express themselves in a manner of their own choosing.” Liberalism. What a terrible thing! Imagine living in a country where this concept is actually followed!

I am constantly amazed at the ignorance of people who profess to be so intelligent. Ed Meadows Spokane

Beef up campaign laws

The campaign finance reform bill was defeated, 337 to 74 in the House of Representatives. At least, this tells us 337 people we should not vote for at re-election time.

If Congressman George Nethercutt has “constitutional questions” about the bill, he should feel some sense of shame for his body of Congress. Why can’t they write a bill that will not have constitutional conflicts?

The biggest loophole in campaign finance is that there is rarely any penalty for wrongdoing. If a contribution is illegal, they say “oops” and return the money to the donor. Why not make a law that says illegal contributions will be confiscated by the U.S. Treasury?

I’m in favor of a different approach altogether. Let’s have a rule that incumbents cannot campaign for the seat they hold. They could run for re-election, but would not be allowed to campaign. An incumbent’s name would appear in the first position on the ballot and would be identified as an incumbent. In addition, make it so a challenger would have to not only achieve a simple majority, but would have to beat the incumbent by at least two percentage points. This approach would allow incumbents to work full-time in the job they were elected to do. Richard T. Brown Spokane

Synchronized swimming tough sport

I appreciate greatly that you put a picture of the west-zones synchronized swimming meet in your newspaper. My sister is involved in this sport and has framed two of the articles about this that have appeared in your paper. She gets very mad when people make fun of the sport or call it wimpy.

The truth is that this is a really tough sport. These girls have four-hour practices every other day. The best and most serious girls do this full time, with tutors for their spare time. All of these girls work very hard and appreciate that you have publicly given them credit for their hard work. Heather Kliment Spokane

Don’t sacrifice refuge for oil

Despite the recent upswing in the price of oil, there’s no denying that we have an abundant supply. If it were not for a pact among oil producers to lower production levels, experts across the country were predicting gas prices would have reached record lows. As it is, prices remain at or near their lowest levels since 1978.

But while the world is awash in oil, it is fast losing its remaining wilderness areas - some of them to oil development. The same oil conglomerates now colluding on production levels are lobbying lawmakers in Washington, D.C., to allow drilling in pristine areas like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska because they say we need the oil.

There is plenty of oil - more than a trillion barrels of known reserves - but the refuge is America’s last intact arctic wilderness. For thousands of years the Arctic Refuge has been home to musk ox, arctic foxes, wolves, grizzly and polar bears, wolverines and more than 135 species of birds. It is also home to one of North America’s greatest wildlife spectacles - the calving of the 152,000-head Porcupine caribou herd.

Legislation to permanently protect the Arctic Refuge is currently pending in both the House (HR9000 and the Senate (S531). Unfortunately, Sen. Slade Gorton and Rep. George Nethercutt have yet to stand up for this last great wilderness by co-sponsoring these bills. By doing so, they can send multinational oil corporations a message, that national treasures, like America’s Arctic Refuge, should be safeguarded for future generations. Dan Semler Colton

Is pure white race really so pure?

So, April 19, Adolf Hitler’s birthday, and July 25 were only ploys and now the Coeur d’Alene Aryan-Militia parade is once again rescheduled for July 18.

Now we all know the significance of April 19: Hitler’s birthday, the day the Nazi’s wiped out the population of Warsaw and the Oklahoma City bombing, to name a few. We can expect many attacks on the United States of America on that date in the future as that date to them is like the 4th of July is to the rest of us.

I wonder if Butler ever considered April 30 for his Aryan-Militia extravaganza. The multitudes might come to Coeur d’Alene for this grand event, but even better the parade might be held in Sandpoint where people don’t give a hoot and the hills are full of Aryan kindred. Hitler made his only move for the benefit of humanity when he shot himself in the head on that date and brought an end to his Third Reich that was to last a thousand years.

Www.1stbooks.com and I have more news for Butler on the pure white race. My paternal grandfather was German and my grandmother on that side was French. My maternal grandfather was American Indian and grandmother was English. Our blood was even more mixed in the next four generations so I ask, how does the Aryan-Militia believe their lines have remained so pure in the millenniums of time? I have assumed a “Broken Arrow” posture, won’t someone join me? Hal Riese Sandpoint

Affirmative action still needed

I take great pains in L. Gobroski’s somewhat off-based attempt to validate repealing affirmative action (Letters, March 18).

In his historic allegories, he states that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson opposed discrimination yet were themselves slave owners. Somewhat of a contradiction, unless he considers this just a minor oversight. Also, Abraham Lincoln was not concerned with the plight of slaves, but the continued union of the then-fracturing United States over the issue of slavery. He actually thought that blacks, who helped cultivate this great nation, should be shipped back to Africa. These historic figures did not concern themselves with non-white patriots of this nation as equals.

I, too, believe that merit, achievement and ability should be the cornerstones of any employment or educational endeavors. However, this country has never viewed individuals based primarily on their merits, abilities and/or achievements. Unfortunately, race and sex are significant factors in the way people are viewed for jobs, education and housing. When all people are treated as equals, irrespective of race and/or sex, then affirmative action will no longer be necessary. Until America achieves this race/sex-free idealistic goal on a consistent basis, then policy requiring equal treatment for illegally under-represented, although just as qualified, applicants is needed. Also I do believe that the separate-but-equal policies of the South, civil rights fights, women’s right fights showed just how much more racist and sexist pre-affirmative action United States was during this century than affirmative action is being alluded to be. Jason Randall Spokane