Letters To The Editor

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

We deeply appreciate people’s kindness

I am writing to express my gratitude to the warmhearted and generous people of Spokane.

I am a single mother of three children, living in a women’s shelter. Difficult circumstances led us here. The last six months have been very hard for the children and for myself, as we adjust to being in a new place without their father (my husband).

This month, we have had many people, as businesses and individuals, give so much to my family and to others living here in the shelter. It has helped me so much to know that my children will have a happy Christmas day and that there are people who care enough to give to others in need.

To them and to all who have given so much, thank you!

Your generosity is so appreciated and will be remembered for years to come. Susan K. Devor Spokane

Polite society is an alien concept

Put any New Age justification you want on it, the fact is, we’ve become a city of disrespectful and trashy people.

I recently attended a wedding, arguably the most important day in the couple’s life. And a very expensive one. I was stunned by the number of people who showed up dressed more appropriately for a high school football game! As expected, the entire wedding party was immaculately and formally dressed. For the invited guests to show up in anything less than their best was disrespectful and insulting. It was disrespectful of a place of worship, as well. Regardless of my religious views, I would never show the lack of consideration for someone else’s church that these people showed. They sat with their mouths open, busily chewing gum! How dignified.

On Sunday, I went to a show. When did it become acceptable to drape your legs and feet over the seat in front of you? No sooner do people’s butts hit the seat than their feet land on the back of the seat in front - occupied or not. When I asked a young man to move his feet so I could pass, judging by the look on his face, I had violated his constitutional rights. After the film, the debris left behind by these supposed adults was unbelievable, despite the presence of conveniently placed garbage receptacles.

Maybe some courageous business people should establish dress and behavior codes. Wouldn’t that be novel? Dave A. Bauer Spokane

Never ignore or tolerate haters

I am writing in support of the recent victims of white supremacy violence. The perpetrators are cowardly and weak. Their self-hatred is a great festering wound. They rid themselves of their pain by attempting to create fear in others.

During the Holocaust, many good people turned a deaf ear, perhaps because denial was the only way they could cope with what they knew was happening. It would honor those who lost their lives and families if we could now live the lesson learned then and this time, take action.

This violence affects our entire community. To give in to fear empowers their sick, twisted actions. To remain neutral and silent is to repeat our past mistakes.

Unite, and remember the effectiveness of Gandhi and King as they took a stand through peaceful nonviolence. Prayer in its many shapes and forms is powerful. There is tremendous comfort when others reach out to let those victimized know they are not alone.

Realize that we are all involved already, because what we do today prepares our tomorrow. Debbe Butters Spokane

As always, call in the lawyers

You so often hear, “What ever happened to common sense?” I know exactly what happened: It has gone down the road of a litigious society, along with our right to disagree with a rampant legal profession.

Case in point: Robert Lobe has threatened legal action because his ridiculous, almost obscene art work was removed from public view at Eastern Washington University. As a citizen and EWU alumnus, I don’t object to this action. But because I can’t afford to hire an attorney, my views can only be shared here in the paper.

Common sense didn’t prevail when he produced this so-called art or when EWU accepted it. Nor does common sense prevail when no one seems to have the right to store it out of sight.

The solution is easy: Hire a pack of attorneys to settle whether Lobe has a right to expose it to the public. If common sense were to prevail, the answer would be a simple no. James A. Nelson Spokane

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Good people keep government viable

Last spring, I bought a Spokane city building permit for a vinyl siding job. Recently, I discovered the permit had expired and I’d forgotten to call for an inspection. I called the inspector and found, to my relief and delight, that he’d caught the problem and gone ahead and made the inspection - thus saving me the cost of a new permit.

This happened less than a week after an equally pleasant experience with a county tax assessor. I was protesting an unreasonable jump in a tax assessment on a rental. The assessor could have forced me to take my case to a hearing, but he didn’t. Instead, he took the time to negotiate a compromise that treated me very fairly.

No one is a bigger critic of government than I am. I have no doubt that we’d be far better off if most government programs and regulations, including building inspections, were eliminated. At the same time, I’ve nothing but good to say about the government employees I’ve dealt with. Even IRS agents, who have the impossible task of explaining and enforcing an insane tax system that cannot be explained, have always treated me with courtesy, fairness and respect.

Government will always be inefficient and cannot be structured to solve most of the problems we demand that it solve. Do not blame this on the employees. It’s the integrity and good will of our civil servants that keeps government from total failure, and from smothering us all. L. Jim Shamp Cheney

Behold the blessings of Clinton

If President Clinton is impeached and voted out of office, how are we going to get along? Just look what he has done for us and what he is planning to do.

He is committed to saving the global economy, which may be in the neighborhood of $200 billion, according to some economists, and will require massive U.S transfers to the International Monetary Fund. Also, to accomplish this, the United States will have to permit Asia, Russia and Latin America to expand their dumping of manufactured goods into our markets, even if it means the collapse of U.S. industries.

Clinton has shown his good will and appreciation to China for the $400,000-plus campaign donation by dismantling the Tiananmen Square restrictions on deliveries of strategic or dual use technologies, so U.S. firms can complete blocked weapons deals with Chinese firms. In addition, U.S. global positioning satellite navigation systems have been shipped to a Chinese aerospace plant in Beijing. According to some American defense analysts, the Chinese are integrating U.S. GPS systems into cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and new military jets, some of which go to Iran. As a further goodwill gesture, Clinton has lifted all licensing requirements for the sale of GPS systems to China.

What a prince. Who can doubt he is for America first? Fred Malstrom Spokane

Show Republicans will of the people

It appears that the Republican Congress members care more about their own interpretations of the Constitution than they do about their constituents.

If this impeachment is forced through Congress by this partisan effort, then in two years when we Americans have the opportunity to vote again, I say, vote partisan - for the Democrats. Maybe then the Republican constitutionalists will hear the people. Candace Henderson Spokane

IN THE PUBLIC EYE

Republicans, tell us about perjury

Republicans say impeaching Clinton isn’t about sex, it’s about perjury.

I remember seeing the CEOs of the major tobacco companies testifying before a congressional committee just a few years ago. They stated, under oath, that they had no research linking smoking to health problems, no research showing that nicotine is addictive, and that their companies never manipulated nicotine levels to maintain addiction. The lawsuits the states recently brought against the tobacco industry have shown that all those statements were almost certainly untrue.

Those CEOs, it seems, committed perjury directly to the Congress about a subject that has cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars in health care costs and taken the lives of millions of Americans.

So, what was the result? A $40 million investigation? Righteous indignation, with demands that these executives be removed from their leadership positions?

The Republican leadership reacted by slipping into the budget bill a $50 billion tax credit for the tobacco industry (later repealed because it would have resulted in every taxpaying household, on average, owing an extra $300) and defeating regulatory tobacco legislation.

Which was more morally appalling: lying about a sexual indiscretion or lying about profiting from the deaths of millions of Americans?

Republicans are clearly more interested in a political witch hunt than the crime of perjury. Vern P. Stevens Kellogg, Idaho

Equivocating is not good enough

The thought process of Rep. Amo Houghton, R-N.Y., (Today’s Focus, Dec. 9) is as obtuse as that of many radical Democrats.

The Constitution provides for an orderly transition of power to the vice president if the president is impeached and convicted. As we saw with the Kennedy-Johnson transition after President Kennedy’s assassination, a new vice president is then selected.

Europe’s leaders in the 1930s followed Houghton’s line of thinking regarding Adolf Hitler - it’s useless to fight for what is right. Instead, compromise to do what is apparently possible under the present circumstances.

Impeachment must not consider anything but whether this president has willfully broken the laws of our country, which he swore to uphold and defend. Whether anyone else ever has or has not done likewise for whatever reason must not obscure this. We require a credible, ethical leader of unquestionable good character, not an evasive defense lawyer.

The will of the American public is actually unknown, despite assurances we just want to put this mess behind us. In both elections of President Clinton, actually about half of those of voting age voted and only about half of those voted for him. We have evidence that poll results are not always what they seem to be due to wording of the questions and subsequent interpretations. William H. Allison Medical Lake

Milking a scandal is not governance

Editorial writer D.F. Oliveria thinks that allowing President Clinton to serve out his term will set a bad example for our children (Opinion, Dec. 11). As I witness the pitiless, remorseless attacks on the president by Oliveria and his self-righteous cronies, I wonder just what our kids are learning.

Other than a fairly sophisticated sex education course, the most appalling thought I have is that their young, tender minds may somehow construe this current dog and pony show as a legitimate substitute for government. Thomas Osowski Rathdrum