Letters To The Editor

IDAHO VIEWPOINTS

Don’t put city in step with haters

Re: “Aryan Nations plan parade” (Feb. 6).

I suggest Steve Judy, new mayor of Coeur d’Alene, visit the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., prior to consenting to a parade of followers of one of the most evil dictators of the 20th century.

The 20th century has provided the human race with more than sufficient historical data to alert us to the evils of hate doctrines that encourage cries against humanity.

George Santayana said of history, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Do we really care to relive the nightmare years of 1930-1945?

There are revisionists who say the Holocaust never occurred. They believe Adolf Hitler’s “final solution” was a historic fabrication. They believe the Nuremberg trials were a conspiracy.

The swastika reminds me of the Nazi Party, of Nazi Germany and the hideous crimes committed against humanity.

The proposed neo-Nazi parade for Hitler’s birthday gives a false impression of solidarity between the city of Coeur d’Alene and Aryan Nations, which makes for an undesirable image of the city. Bigotry and hate are not options for a parade in a city where peace-loving citizens live.

This is another wake-up call to stand firm against those who will use the liberties of a democratic government to undermine our social conscience and inculcate in society their doctrines of hate. Ray R. Aleman Osburn

SPOKANE MATTERS

Alleged majority - where’s the proof?

The knowledge I wouldn’t acquire without reading the letters to the editor!

Regarding the loans for the downtown redevelopment project, Robert F. Sestero Jr. (Feb. 8) glibly states, “I urge the Department of Housing and Urban Development to listen to the majority of Spokane citizens and their City Council’s plea …” How, oh how, did Sestero determine this “majority?” Was there a vote taken that some of us slept through?

Then there is Douglas Siddoway’s statement (Feb. 8) regarding the proposed Lincoln Street Bridge: “It would also be in keeping with the wishes of a significant majority of the city’s citizens.” How does Siddoway know this to be true?

Until we have a City Council that cares what the citizens really want and trusts the citizens to make these types of long-range commitments, we will never know with certainty just what the majority truly supports. Ira W. Gardner Spokane

Downtown will be better than ever

I own a small business downtown. I work hard to provide my customers the best products and service possible. But I cannot compete if the life is sucked from the downtown core. If there is no reason for people to come downtown, there will be little reason for business to exist here.

The new River Park Square will add vitality and people to downtown. It will serve as a catalyst for more growth and more business in Spokane. It will add significantly to the tax base.

I believe in investing in our downtown and can’t wait for the new millennium, when the city’s downtown sparkles with retail activity, business flourishes and offices are abuzz with new orders and activity. I believe in downtown. Wanda L. Helgeson, owner Brew Bakers Inc., Spokane

Help make equality a reality

I recently read in the Stonewall News Northwest that there will be two public hearings by the Human Rights Commission, Feb. 12 and 19. At these hearings, the HRC will gather public opinion on two ordinances and will afterwards brief City Council members.

The ordinances call for an end to discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations. They would establish recognition of domestic partners benefits. They would also strike down discrimination based on race, religion, color, sex, national origin, marital status, familial status, age, sexual orientation, source of income or disability.

After the Chamber of Commerce bungled with its “all-white” vision of diversity in Spokane and after hearing Shaun Higgins’ 1998 economic forecast calling for more cultural diversity in our community in order to attract higher-economic businesses, I’m surprised I have not seen much support for these two ordinances in The Spokesman-Review.

I urge public attendance at these hearings and letters of support to the HRC so that we can end discrimination of any kind in Spokane.

Spokane has the right thoughts when it comes to diversity, but without equal rights to go along with it, the chamber’s video showing an all-white Spokane is right on target. Marvin Reguindin Spokane

LAW AND JUSTICE

Reference evokes root of an old wrong

The caption for your Feb. 8 article on musician Mark Tzu is incorrect. It speaks of Tzu and thousands like him as being Japanese. In fact, they were American citizens of Japanese ancestry, entitled to the same life, liberty, pursuit of happiness and freedom from arrest and imprisonment without due process as the rest of America’s citizens.

Public hysteria, a cowardly Congress and a politically motivated president wrongly condemned these innocent persons to years of harsh imprisonment. With one exception, they were given no hearings, no trial and no chance for parole. Young men were allowed to join American combat forces fighting in Europe, where they distinguished themselves by both bravery and percentage of casualties. It should be noted that those of German or Italian ancestry did not suffer any such suspicion or restriction of their liberties.

It’s easy to dismiss this injustice by referring to these people as “Japanese,” implying they were Japanese nationals. In fact, they were American citizens, like you and me, and victims of a cruel, government-approved expediency. Sam Van Wyck Spokane

How bitter, the fruits of retribution

Re: Karla Faye Tucker. On Feb. 4 The Spokesman-Review published a picture of a woman holding a sign that read, “Forget injection. Use a pickax.” That’s what I like about the death penalty. It brings out the best in people. Joel B. Carr Mica, Wash.

U.S. AND THE WORLD

Leaders don’t reckon with real oil costs

As we head into another crisis in the Persian Gulf, it’s time that we turn our attention from TV entertainment and sports, and games on personal computers, to question what national leaders of the two dominant political parties are doing.

Whether or not America’s armed forces are committed to combat, the question of where our real national interest lies needs to be answered. Soon, the necessity of supporting our family members, friends and neighbors in uniform may get in the way of asking some hard questions.

Every time I see a headline about Marines being sent here or there, I feel a commitment to support the corps with which I had the privilege to serve. Now, I also feel an obligation to ask if the status-quo policy of maintaining access to relatively low-cost oil in the Persian Gulf area is in the long-term interests of both our children and the children around the Persian Gulf.

Can the national leadership of either major party truthfully answer that they have crafted energy and Persian Gulf policies in the long-term interest of these children?

What responsibility do we bear for our neighbor’s loved one who is standing watch in the Persian Gulf tonight, when we jump into our cars for that single-occupant trip tomorrow, if we have another option? Charles E. Countryman Spokane

Petitioners’ punishment undeserved

Twenty-five “prisoners of conscience,” representing teachers, priests, nuns and other such dangerous criminals are being given an outrageous sentence of six months and $3,000 fines for a petty misdemeanor.

They exercised their First Amendment right to peacefully assemble and to carry thousands of petitions to close the School of the Americas onto the unrestricted military base that houses it.

Graduates of this military training school in the United States are responsible for the torture and murder of priests, nuns and other innocents in Latin America.

Please, write to your elected officials and ask them to support a pardon for these people. Marjorie A. Simpson Moscow, Idaho

Naming airport for Reagan a travesty

Reagan International Airport, is that the plan? Naming it after the man who “single-handedly smashed through the chains of the Evil Empire? The greatest Cold War hawk who ever lived, Hollywood’s legendary president?

Some may feel exhilaration about this, but I don’t. When I hear representatives like Henry Hyde or Dick Armey lobbying for the Washington airport name change in the name of dignity, democracy and freedom, my intestines seek explosion, my skin crawls, my knees buckle.

If Reagan did anything single-handedly, it was to unleash a multi-billion dollar war of sheer terror against the poor of Central America. One can argue that he did this not out of malice but ignorance, that he just didn’t know what the Salvadoran, Honduran, Guatemalan and Nicaraguan Contra armies were all about. But now that nearly a decade since the 1980s has passed, today’s men and women of Congress are without excuse for not knowing the truth about Central America: the documentation of U.S. financed-slow wars of attrition against entire villages of people is virtually endless and incontestable.

Dignity? Democracy? Freedom?

If any man deserves to have an airport named after him, for human decency, the name is Carter, as in Jimmy. Doug Demeo Spokane

OTHER TOPICS

Gun danger stories foolish propaganda

On the front page of the Feb. 2 Spokesman-Review is the declaration, “Many surgeons work in war zone,” and page A-3 spouts, “When it comes to guns, consumers beware.” Both of these so-called news articles are totally devoid of any objectivity and reflect your paper’s bias, in that you chose to print them, and did so in the same issue.

While the inflammatory statements and dubious statistics in the first article came from results of a survey answered by 915 obviously leftist doctors, your paper made the decisions as to appropriateness, placement and emphasis. Statements such as “Guns: May outkill cars by 2003” are not only insupportable but extremely sensational.

To compare gun-related deaths to AIDS deaths is simply stupid - almost as dumb as the second article’s comparison of guns to Tickle Me Elmo dolls. Of course the safety of toys is regulated by the government. Toys are meant to be played with by children. We do not have an amendment to the Constitution affirming our individual right to keep and bear Tickle Me Elmo dolls, either.

Come on, Spokesman-Review, give your readers more credit. If you truly feel that there are too many gun-related incidents resulting in injury or death in the United States, do articles on gun safety programs such as the National Rifle Association’s Eddie Eagle program. Expose the real culprits - the judges who continually refuse to hold criminals responsible for their grisly crimes and turn them loose on an increasingly unprepared society.

As for me, if one of those criminals decides to break into my house some night, I won’t be meeting him or her at the door with a Tickle Me Elmo. Larry R. Allen Blanchard, Idaho

Stamp skier handicapped from start

The U.S. Postal Service has just issued a 32-cent stamp. Although not an official Olympic stamp, it was released just before the Winter Olympic Games started. It depicts an Alpine skier. Let’s hope the model for this stamp wasn’t a member of the U.S. Olympic Team as the skier is shown wearing two left boots! John R. Sturgul Moscow, Idaho