Letters To The Editor

HEALTH AND SAFETY

Regulate Jet Ski use to save lives

I applaud The Spokesman-Review for taking a pro-active stance (Opinion, Aug. 7) on the issue of personal watercraft safety. Unfortunately, it took the death of a 17-year-old inexperienced Jet Ski operator to bring this issue to the forefront.

From my home at Liberty Lake, I have witnessed dozens of near misses involving Jet Skiers and other watercraft. Almost all of these incidents involved young, inexperienced operators, many of them without a lifejacket. A Jet Ski is nothing more than a motorcycle on water and should be regulated accordingly. Motorcycles require an endorsement to your driver’s license. Why shouldn’t a Jet Ski require the same?

Personal watercraft associations should support regulations that would make operating a personal watercraft safer. If not, more accidents will happen. Eventually, more restrictions will be placed on when and where personal watercraft may operate. Michael G. Schrader Liberty Lake

More at fault than ill-prepared teen

Re: “Teen apparently never saw oncoming boat,” Aug. 5. Two points to this story seem strange to me.

First, it said the kid was on a personal watercraft for the first time. Did he know the rules of the road?

Second, it said the boat was parallel to the shore. It should be obvious who was at fault. When the lawsuits start, the first people responsible should be whoever let the kid ride the personal watercraft. Scott E. Spray Careywood, Idaho

Candle game for kids a bad idea

On Aug. 6, I took my children to the Penny Carnival at Audobon Park. The carnival was put on by the Spokane Parks Department and held at several city parks. One activity table caught my eye and struck me as odd.

On the table were several lit candles and children were trying to put them out with water from a squirt gun. Older children were told to stay back. The smaller the child, the closer they were allowed to get to the candles. This was due to the aiming abilities of the age group. I saw children as young as 2 participating in this activity.

As I stood there watching children waiting in line to plunk their penny down to play with fire, I wondered how many might try this activity at home. How many would sneak off to their bedrooms and do it after their parents told them they wouldn’t allow it? How many would remember the importance of not playing with fire and all the dangers and tragedies that can occur? After all, nothing bad happened with it at the park.

I wondered if the parks department had been in contact with the fire department for advice on this activity.

There are countless stories of children being burned, scarred for life or dying, or losing their home due to playing with candles or matches to light them. The fire department puts on programs at schools every year to teach the children to beware of fire and here, our city parks department turns it into a child’s game. Kristine Schuler Spokane

Expect more attacks by cougars

We can only wish for the best for Carmen Schrock, the young victim of a cougar attack. I imagine attacks of this type will only increase as the population of cougars increases due to the ban of hunting with dogs.

This is what happens when you take professionals out of wildlife management and put it into the hands of the voter. Everyone in Washington state who voted for the ban is in part responsible for this attack. We can only hope that wildlife management will be returned to those who know what they are doing. Steve K. Davis Spangle, Wash.

Hunting change heightens danger

Re: “Cougar attacks 5-year-old girl” (Spokesman-Review, Aug. 5).

As an older, retired man who in years past has hunted cougars with hounds, I feel compelled to write.

The aforementioned article would have had a different ending if the cougar that mauled the little girl had been an adult cat. A grown cat can take down an 800-pound bull elk in a matter of seconds. Thank goodness those two young cougars hadn’t learned their hunting skills well yet or it would have been one bite and that’s it.

The big cats once were controlled by selective hound hunting, but not anymore. They once were an elusive animal that was rarely seen. Now, they are coming into our campgrounds and neighborhoods looking for food because their numbers have greatly increased and their normal food supply, deer, was been diminished by a hard winter two years ago.

We people have a right to enjoy the great outdoors without the fear of our loved ones being ambushed by a hungry cat. Eventually, it is going to happen. People are going to get hurt - someone even killed - if controls aren’t put into place. The only real effective control for the cougar population is regulated hunting with well-trained hounds. Orville “Dusty” Rhodes Spokane

Violent predators much too common

“Pulled into pickup, 17-year-old girl says,” (July 31). I think all the loose screws are getting looser.

What’s up, folks? Everywhere you turn, someone is getting carjacked or there are bad guys trying to get women into their vehicles so they can harm the women. It seems that people who commit these crimes are coming out of the woodwork like cockroaches. As women, we need to be able to protect ourselves from these kinds of situations. But more importantly, we need for punishment for these types of crimes to be more than just a slap on the hand.

As a society, we need to watch out for ourselves and each other. It’s frightening that there are so many of these types of crimes lately. What does this tell us? We better figure it out and make an effort with law enforcement and lawmakers to make these violent crimes have serious consequences. And from there, we need to tend to the children so that maybe we can prevent society from breeding more of these kinds of monsters. Sharon A. Shaw Spokane

FLUORIDATION

Treatment safe, helpful for children

Health care professionals who work with children in Spokane have but one purpose: healthier, happier children.

The dentist who first discovered fluoride can prevent tooth decay, Dr. Frederick McKay, was looking for a way to help children. He found that wherever fluoride was not naturally present in the water, dental health suffered. That was in 1931.

Dr. Benjamin Spock “became a firm believer … that fluoridation will reduce tooth cavities by 60 percent.” His book, “Baby and Child Care” has advocated fluoridation since the 1950s.

The journal, Pediatrics, states: “A few individuals continue to object to fluoridation, (but) there is no scientific basis for doubting … fluoridation as a public health measure for preventing dental caries.”

Fluoridation has been thoroughly studied and recommended as safe by the American Dental, American Medical and American Public Health associations, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Institute of Dental Research and the Royal Society of Physicians in Great Britain. Fluoride is added to the water supply in at least 30 countries. According to the U.S. Public Health Service, “Numerous studies have shown that consumption of fluoride at the level recommended has no harmful effect in humans.”

Since Spokane water isn’t naturally fluoridated, it is alarming that this benefit isn’t available to our children. Fluoride can be taken in liquid or tablet form but many poor children do not have ongoing medical care, much less access to wellness measures such as daily fluoride. They are prone to “baby bottle tooth,” which is often treated by hospitalization and performing dental work under general anesthesia. Sally L. Anthony, R.N., M.H.S. health specialist, Spokane

Don’t force this poison on me

Dr. Kim Thorburn feels fluoride in my drinking water would be good for me. I believe it is a poison and I don’t want it.

In 1993, people in Hooper Bay, Alaska, were poisoned after drinking water that had been overfluoridated. This is something that could easily happen.

If the doctor wanted to put something that is nutritious in our drinking water, I would oppose it. I firmly believe that each of us should choose what we want to use, not have it put on us against our will.

People who want fluoride have every opportunity to obtain it. Just don’t tell me I have to eat it. Pearl Schmitt Spokane

IN THE PUBLIC EYE

Poll results seem incredible

Change the cast of characters in the Clinton-Lewinsky matter as follows: The president is a high school principal and Monica Lewinsky is a cadet teacher. The school’s test scores are the highest in the state. The cadet teacher’s friend tapes her admission of sex in the office and offers them to the chief of police or a city council member.

Should it be ignored? Would the friend be verbally castigated and made fun of? Would many citizens say the principal is doing a good job and that his personal behavior is the principal’s spouse’s business, and what kind of friend would tape such an admission? Doesn’t a high school principal serve as a role model for his students and community? Doesn’t his character matter?

What about the president’s? It’s unlikely Bill Clinton would’ve been elected in 1992 if he hadn’t lied about his Gennifer Flowers relationship, then lied again when he gave a tacit promise to refrain from any other such behavior - with Hillary by his side.

Clinton’s allies must be rigging the polls because it’s impossible to believe a vast majority of Americans don’t want a moral leader in the country’s top elected office. John R. Downes Spokane

If guilty, Clinton should go

If an enlisted military person has sex with an employee, especially if married, they are 86ed from the service. A sergeant who trained troops was sent scrambling for a new way to make a living for having sex with those he was assigned to train this year. A woman officer pilot earlier in 1998 was drummed out of her career for having sex with a married man. Under the military code it’s called adultery. An experienced Army general late in his stint in the service was denied another star because of admitted sexual relations outside of marriage.

Conduct like that mentioned above is not tolerated in any government job or in private industry. Many foremen, supervisors, managers, vice presidents and chief executives have been sent packing because of sexual indiscretions with those who work for them.

William Jefferson Clinton is president of the United States and should send more than a moral message to government and civilian employees with exemplary behavior. I read that Sen. Orrin Hatch and others think he should apologize and be exempt from any serious punishment, when those who work for him would not be given the same opportunity. If guilty, he should exit the presidency, stage right!

This country is already experiencing weakening signs both foreign and domestically because of his problems. We cannot afford this type of exposure to our citizens and our country’s dignity around the world. Jonathan Swanstrom Sr. Spokane

Confession not good for U.S. soul

The editorial board apparently believes that if President Clinton “levels with the people” the American people can “move on” because Clinton’s confession will show “some integrity” and dispel “the poison of public cynicism (Opinion, Aug. 4).

What superficial nonsense!

In other words, if the president lied under oath, then lied again to the American people (shaking his finger, no less), then refused to voluntarily testify before a legally constituted federal grand jury; and then, months later, and after being served with a subpoena to compel his testimony before the grand jury, heroically admits to the American people that he had been lying to them all the time, the American people should forgive and forget.

How about Clinton’s demonstrated proclivity to lie when it serves his interests to do so? That’s the key problem facing the public: can they rationally ever again believe what Clinton says on controversial subjects?

A coerced confession is not going to resolve that dilemma. Bill Scott Liberty Lake

OVER THE LINE

We’re trashing our roadway why?

We have driven to the East Coast through cities along the way such as Minneapolis, Detroit, Cleveland, Washington, D.C., Louisville, Kansas City, Denver, Billings and Missoula. Sadly, the most trash and clutter I have seen along the highway is on our own 30 miles of freeway between Spokane and Coeur d’Alene.

In fact, I can truthfully say that on any day I see more trash in this stretch of road than I did on the whole 6,600-miles to Dover, Del., and back!

Why do we in Idaho and Washington care so little about keeping our junk in the garbage sack in the car until we get to a spot where we can deposit it?

In Idaho, prisoners are used to clean up our mess. In Washington, we pay kids to do the job. Isn’t it time we took pride in our beautiful area of the country and kept our waste in the car and not on the roadside? George W. Rodkey Post Falls

Idaho claims so much ‘twisted spin’

The state of Idaho is employing voodoo economics in claiming its 1986 settlement for $4.5 million with the mining companies managed to generate $50 million in federal cleanup money at Bunker Hill (Chuck Moss’ letter, July 26). It’s actually the other way around.

EPA listed the Bunker Hill Superfund facility on the national priorities list in 1983. That action required the state to match 10 percent of any federally funded cleanup actions not paid for by the mining companies.

Compare Idaho’s $4.5 million with the recent $215 million settlement reached by Montana with Arco, to clean up mining wastes in the Clark Fork River. Idaho settled with four companies: Asarco, Hecla, Sunshine and Coeur d’Alene. Asarco is one of the biggest mining companies in the world. Coeur d’Alene Mines wrote off more than $107 million in bad investments in Chile and New Zealand in the last two years. Hecla wrote off $110 million in 1995 and $40 million in 1996 for its failed Grouse Creek mine in central Idaho. These resources could have been spent cleaning up the mess they helped create in extracting profits from the basin.

At least Moss admits that “continued discussion about the circumstances of the (state’s) settlement are certainly ‘fair game.”’ But the twisted spin he has made - trying to credit the state with leveraging federal cleanup dollars - is just another attempt to elevate Idaho above the EPA and cover up its shame in letting the companies off so easily. Michele Nanni The Lands Council, Spokane

BUSINESS AND LABOR

Heating company has warm heart

Our 9-year-old son, Justin, underwent brain surgery in Seattle in an attempt to cure his epilepsy. After two weeks in the hospital, he was released on July 20. Justin’s recovery seemed remarkable until 10 days after his surgery, when he went into a grand mal seizure and was rushed to the hospital. The doctors weren’t able to fully stop his seizures until six hours later, and he has remained in the hospital since. The doctors determined that his fragile, recovering brain was overstressed by the heat. With no air conditioning in our home, how could we return Justin to the same setting that caused him such harm?

In desperation, we called Allied Heating and explained the problem, knowing that the heat wave would probably make a quick response impossible. Amazingly, Allied sent someone to our home early the next morning to determine what parts were needed. An installation crew arrived four hours later, and we had an air conditioning unit completely installed by evening.

Thanks to the caring efforts of the people at Allied Heating, Justin will be able to return to his own home.

This isn’t our first experience of Allied Heating’s helpfulness. The night before we left for Justin’s surgery in Seattle, our hot water tank ceased to heat. Having no time to get this corrected before leaving, we were forced to return Justin to a house with no hot water. Upon our arrival home, we call Allied Heating and a repairman arrived within the hour.

Allied Heating is truly a company that cares. Michael and Debra Lee Spokane