Letters To The Editor

GOVERNMENT/POLITICS

Starr not only one to blame

One gets the assumption from Walter E. Lane’s letter (March 30) that Kenneth Starr, alone, is responsible for spending $270,000 a day investigating Bill Clinton. Judge Starr was appointed by Attorney General Janet Reno. If you think he is wasting your money, why don’t you complain to her? She and the president are the only ones who can fire him.

Besides that, if you divide $270,000 per day by the 270 million people in this country, it comes to less than 1 cent per person a week. At that rate, I’d like to throw in a $20 bill just so Judge Starr could keep his investigation going.

Furthermore, if Lane is going to complain about Starr spending all that money, which is all legal and accounted for, why doesn’t he say something about Clinton and the 30 lawyers he has working for him to get him out of all the scandals and lies that he’s involved in? And we’re not talking about his private attorney.

But then, we really don’t want to talk about that. It’s probably just another right-wing conspiracy.

As for spending $270,000 to build homes for the homeless, send kids to college or weatherize older houses, isn’t anyone responsible for doing anything by themselves or for themselves any more? Does the government have to do everything for you? Do you want to continue to send your $10 to Washington, D.C. and get back $1 worth of services for it? I hope not. Joe P. Wollman Odessa, Wash.

Harassment laws must be changed

Equality between the sexes has not been achieved, and following the dismissal of Paula Jones’ case the struggle has been blown backward by a forceful thunder clap.

Men with authority over women in the workplace can, it seems, pull their genitals out of them pants, wave them in our faces or rub them on our bodies as long as they do not also threaten our job position after we dismiss their behavior, politely, as we have been brainwashed to do by society, according to the sexual harassment law.

This law needs to be changed!

Men, unfortunately, need to be forced by law to act civilized and stop using women’s trained submissive tendencies to act like Neanderthals, that in every case sabotages our self-image, building a wall.

It is time men are no longer so hubris they believe they can control women by diminishing our entitlement to equality.

It is not surprising that a female judge threw out the case or that more woman support President Clinton. Behind every woman against a woman, without cause, is a lifetime of men’s covert influence over their lives. Billie L. Storm Spokane

Let’s do something about high taxes

Taxes have been increased at an accelerated pace. Young people can’t afford homes because of the high property taxes, and all of us are being gouged by the license registration fees. We are not getting a proper return on the taxes we pay. Many programs are too costly and out of line, and maintenance on our highways and roads are lacking. The League of Washington Taxpayers say enough is enough.

We have introduced two initiatives.

Initiative 689 will return property taxes back to the 1989 level, reduce property assessments from 100 to 80 percent and eliminate the 106 levy limit.

Initiative 690 would eliminate the present formula for determining license registration fees, reduce registration fees for all cars and pickups to $70 every two years and reduce fees for all other motor vehicles. Eighty percent of license fees would go to the Department of Transportation for road and highway maintenance.

Both initiatives could only be changed by a 60 percent vote of the people.

The league believes citizens should be involved in the running of their government and have a say in how much tax we pay and how it is spent. Volunteers throughout Washington are gathering signatures to get these initiatives on the November ballot. If you would like to help call 467-5467. Let’s do something about these high confiscatory taxes. Leo Jack Fagan League of Washington Taxpayers, Spokane

SPOKANE MATTERS

Not all art is worthy

I take issue with Glenn Mason’s defense of the offensive “message board art work” on display in the STA Plaza. Mason defends the “art” because it provokes a response from viewers who challenge its validity and its messages to the young people who frequent the STA Plaza. He says the purpose of art is to evoke a strong response from viewers and often that is accomplished best when people are offended by the work.

This same excuse was used for the offensive Robert Mapplethorpe exhibit featuring such works of art as a crucifix in a jar of urine. Just because something is shocking and offensive does not give it artistic merit. Elitists love to shock the public and then claim the lowly public just doesn’t understand.

Then Mason hides behind the disclaimer that the display doesn’t necessarily reflect the opinions of either the STA or Cheney Cowles Museum.

As an art major in college, I was told this lie 40 years ago. It gave me and my fellow artists a great excuse for wasting our time and producing inferior, worthless “art” because we were taught that all art is subjective and, therefore, no one can criticize. I have seen where this lie has led.

I have no desire to censor any artist, but let’s be honest and admit that not all art is worthy. Just because it’s shocking is no reason to call it art.

It reminds me of the fairy tale about the emperor’s new clothes. Are the citizens of Spokane being hoodwinked like those in the fairy tale? Barbara Green Liberty Lake

Incinerator blame a real switch

What hypocrisy. Bob Dellwo, one of the prime movers in the process to shove the garbage burner down our throats, is now blaming it for polluting our air (Letters, April 5). What a turnaround from the days when he was on the City Council.

This was to be cutting-edge technology, the ultimate in non-polluting garbage disposal. Dellwo traveled far and wide around the country to dig up corroborating evidence about how wonderful it was to burn garbage and only now has he found what a dirty industry it is. I suppose that it is convenient to find a scapegoat to divert attention from his friends in the bluegrass industry.

All of this ties together nicely, right along with his “compromise candidate” for the SCAPCA board, Mike Brewer, our non-representative representative. The only compromising that was done was in the ethics of Dellwo and Brewer.

Now I remember why I voted against both of them. Pat M. O’Leary Spokane

Where’s the logic here?

Re: 44th and Regal shopping center.

While I live in a neighborhood outside the city limits that is highly unlikely to be targeted for a shopping center, I cannot but wonder what logic the City Council uses when it borrows millions for redevelopment of the downtown area and continues to authorize private projects that cannot but draw even more business away from downtown.

Although I do not pretend to know whether or not the downtown project is the one that will revitalize that decaying area, I do know that unless something important is done, no one will ever shop downtown if it can be avoided. By authorizing more competing shopping centers the council only makes its most important task even more difficult.

What’s going on here? Don M. Barnes Spokane

City Council deserves thanks

I applaud the City Council for approving the River Park Square project. A new, revitalized downtown will strengthen the city for years to come. We currently have several strong businesses downtown, and the new additions will augment the area nicely. Spokane is fortunate to have not only a strong city center, but also a City Council that is willing to do what is best for the city.

Given that, I was surprised to read George W. Springer’s suggestion (Letters, March 31) to “build a top over the streets between buildings, making it a giant mall.” Hopefully he meant this in jest. The very fact that downtown Spokane is not a mall adds to its appeal. Yes, one has to pay for parking, but the new Easy Pass system cuts down on that expense. Even without this system, I would much rather pay for parking and enjoy the diversity of downtown Spokane than park for free at a cookie-cutter mall.

Thank you, City Council, for voting to strengthen our city. Your foresight and wisdom will benefit us all. Katherine M. VanHeuvelen Spokane

KEY TRONIC

Job sacrified to save company

Recent stories about Key Tronic Corp. make clear the tragic effect the company’s policies have had on Spokane’s economy.

After Stanley Hiller assumed control of the company a few years ago, he decided to “save” Key Tronic by exporting hundreds of jobs from the Spokane area to Mexico. A decade earlier, different executives of the company exported hundreds of local jobs to Asian Rim countries.

The jobs, which didn’t pay that much to begin with, were exported to places with much lower wage scales and virtually no rules on worker safety or environmental protection.

I wonder how many more jobs we will have to sacrifice in Spokane in order to keep “saving” Key Tronic.

Also, I wonder how this job exporting will show up in the statistics offered by the bewildering bean-counting boosters of the Spokane Area Economic Development Council. Most of the time this group sounds like people who go to the race track. They like to brag about their winnings, but they rarely talk about their losses. Bill First Spokane

NATIONAL FORESTS

Environmentalist makes sense

I was delighted to read “Logging ban simply goes too far” (Opinion, April 5). Not only was this a most cogent statement regarding the debate over logging on public lands in which the author lambastes those who’d like to lock up our forests, but most surprising, it was written by Patrick Moore, one of the founders of Greenpeace and the founder of Greenspirit.

I doubt anyone could reasonably claim that someone with those environmental credentials was biased in favor of the logging industry. Nevertheless, I suspect that some so-called environmentalists will attempt to refute his comments.

Moore’s opening statement that “politically correct activists posture to preserve everything while using nothing” really hits the nail on the head. I agree with his reference to those who presently support a bill before Congress to ban all logging on federal lands. He states, “They are wrong, and their plan would result in a great deal of harm to the environment.” It’s hard to find fault with his contention that public forest land should be zoned so that some of it may be used for each of the many values forests provide, including timber harvesting. He effectively makes the point that it’s entirely possible and desirable to fully utilize and enjoy our forests while preserving their value for future generations.

My hat is off to a true environmentalist for attempting to inject plain old common sense into a controversy which has become a quagmire of petty bickering, court injunctions, congressional hearings and political maneuvering. May his kind proliferate! Norman F. Lewis Coeur d’Alene

Roads in national forest necessary

National forest roads are essential for public use in hunting, fishing, hiking, horseback riding and all other outdoor enjoyment.

Roadless areas will affect the log flow needed to maintain the timber industry’s local economy. Lack of harvesting and thinning will increase the incidence of insect and disease outbreak that could affect entire landscapes, including our own well-managed forests, as well as contribute to real fire hazards such as Spokane’s Firestorm ‘91 and the Yellowstone fire.

Many of our roads in the national forest areas were established in the early 1800s as wagon or horse trails and foot paths to facilitate such activities as livestock grazing, prospecting for valuable minerals and extracting forest products.

In 1866, by act of Congress, the U.S. government adopted RS2477 of “public ways,” including the network of roads, trails and paths now located within our national forests and the Bureau of Land Management, even if they were never maintained. These roads can be closed only by order of the county commissioner.

Don’t be misguided by the environmentalists. Their plan is to stop all logging and grazing in the national forests. Then the national forest system will be phased out and replaced by the U.S. Park Service, eliminating all hunting. It’s all part of the “big picture,” which will have a social, cultural and economic impact on our western way of life. Tony Delgado Loon Lake, Wash.

MINING/POLUTION

Dying birds a warning

I read the article, “Coeur d’Alene basin scoured for dead birds” (March 29) and was annoyed to read the comments by Holly Houston, representing the mining companies.

On one hand, she questions whether there is a problem at all with respect to migrating birds feeding and dying from lead contamination in the flood plains of the Coeur d’Alene River. Then, she claims that the river system is “cleaning itself” (i.e. flushing into Lake Coeur d’Alene and the Spokane River). Then, in the next breath, she blames the government, the Coeur d’Alene Tribe and the Lands Council - in short, everyone but the mining companies - as the cause of the “swan death problem” not getting solved.

Apparently these die-offs of tundra swans, Canadian geese and a host of other migrating birds have been recorded since the early 1900s. Seems like the mining companies and the State of Idaho have had quite a long time to move forward with the companies’ so-called plan to “treat mine tailings so birds don’t digest them.” Is it really public awareness efforts that are to blame for the inaction Houston cites, or is it the mining companies’ own pollution, denials, dodgings and public relations lies that are to blame?

These migrating birds are providing us with a warning, just like the canaries in coal mines used to do. If the Environmental Protection Agency’s recently announced cleanup initiative can reduce the number of swan deaths, perhaps lead exposures of children in the basin will be reduced, too. Mark Scarboro Spokane

Mining pollution study bogus

The state of Idaho has again demonstrated that it cannot be trusted to conduct a scientifically acceptable study of mining pollution in the Spokane/Coeur d’Alene watershed. Upon completion of this bogus $300,000 investigation, new levels of metal contamination were established many times the national standard.

Several metals, rather than one at a time, should have been used in their bioassay. Since metals are synergistic, the total effect is greater than the sum of individual effects. Wissmar (1972) studying plankton in Lake Coeur d’Alene found that combining metals produced a more toxic substance than the additive effect of these materials.

The fish used by DEQ should have been put in live boxes in the South Fork, where zinc, copper, cadmium, arsenic and other injurious materials exist, rather than test them under artificial conditions in the lab. Salmonids exhibit an avoidance reaction to metal in aquaria (Sprague, 1964, 1968).

Fish are considered a poor indicator by some since they can move away from the source and are often able to excrete metals. It would have been better to sample bottom-dwelling aquatic insects as a means of testing for pollution since they are relatively immobile, unlike fish, and cannot flee a pulse disturbance that might be missed by conventional water quality sampling.

Monitoring aquatic insects over a period of 24 years in the Coeur d’Alene watershed has demonstrated that poor habitat, leaching and seepage of metals from jig tailings and ponds will most likely prevent significant recovery of the watershed in the near future. Fred W. Rabe Moscow, Idaho