Letters To The Editor

Sat., Feb. 14, 1998

SPOKANE MATTERS

SCAPCA job figures in spite job

Re: “Farm towns work on own clean-air act” (Feb. 5).

I read that the grass growers are trying to oust Cherie Rodgers from her position on the County Air Pollution Control Authority (SCAPCA) board and replace her with their choice, City Councilwoman Roberta Greene.

Rodgers was chosen to represent the city on the SCAPCA board by both former mayor Jack Geraghty and current Mayor John Talbott. Councilwoman Phyllis Holmes says Rodgers has the full support of the City Council. And, Greene says she doesn’t want the job.

I called the City Council to suggest the obvious solution: Greene should simply withdraw her name from consideration. Imagine my shock when the person who answered the phone told me that Greene could not legally withdraw her name and that if she gets the votes, she would have to serve. This is absolutely ridiculous and untrue.

Nowhere in state law does it say that a person can be drafted to serve on a board against their will.

This is nothing more than pay-back time to Rodgers for her courage in opposing the other council members over a bridge we don’t need and being concerned about potential taxpayer liability for the River Park Square project. Holmes may say the council supports Rodgers. Green may say she doesn’t want the job. But if this is true, let Greene publicly withdraw her name from consideration. Vivian Burgard Spokane

Think again about appointment

It has come to my attention that Councilwoman Cherie Rodgers may be replaced by Councilwoman Roberta Greene on the Spokane County Air Pollution Control Authority board. This is a serious mistake.

Rodgers has distinguished herself as an advocate for clean air for several years. Clean air in Spokane County is, after all, SCAPCA’s mandate.

I urge the mayors of these 11 cities and the others who control SCAPCA appointments to rethink their decision. Paul De Palma Spokane

Bridge waste would fix many holes

How many of the city’s streets could have been paved with the $9 million the city spent on a bridge it can’t build because it would violate the city’s own environmental protection plan? My estimate is that it would be lots of streets. Frances A. Waddell Otis Orchards

LAW AND JUSTICE

Execution only makes state murderer

Karla Faye Tucker was executed by injection on Feb. 3 after having been denied commutation of her sentence and a 30-day delay. Her crime: murdering two people with a pickax.

Yes, I believe committing a crime should have its consequences, but what is the purpose of jails besides to lock up prisoners? Rehabilitation. This may be the last hope for those who have hit rock bottom and need help in rearranging the disorganized pieces of their life.

Anyone crazy enough to kill two people with a pickax obviously needs some major help, and in Tucker’s case, she luckily received it before her death.

What good does it do to kill someone for killing someone else? Then you, too, become a murderer. I say, let the blameless be the first to inject the lethal substance or push the button causing someone to hang. What gives all of us as sinners the right to judge another, and in doing so, take their life? That is strictly God’s job.

A crime is a crime and nothing anyone can do, not even asking for forgiveness, can bring back a loved one. But people like Tucker should be able to live the rest of their lives, even if it means doing it behind the bars of a prison cell, to hopefully change the lives of their fellow inmates.

Just as one inmate told Tucker about Christ, she could in turn do the same, sharing her story to, I hope, prevent others from making her same mistakes. Brittany L. Bartlett Spokane

Same-sex divorce will pose challenge

Same-sex marriage could pose an unexpected problem.

For the past 60 years or so, the courts have virtually always ruled that the woman in a divorce should have custody of any children, as well as the family bank account, the car, the house and the camping equipment. She was also “entitled” to child support that frequently exceeded the needs of the children, and alimony or “rehabilitation” support.

The recent discovery that men and women are equal has had little effect on this situation.

How will the courts distribute the so-called family’s assets in a same-sex marriage, with no gender stereotypes to guide them? Robert Michik Othello, Wash.

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

Young writer knows about value

Re: “Count your blessings, complainers,” IN Life, Feb. 9.

This bright, young lady has learned a valuable lesson most adults will die having never learned. In a world full of big-screen televisions and $100 speakers, we tend to measure our worth by what type of car we drive. Our children fit in and are cool if they have expensive clothes and a nice house.

If our youth, and even adults, could grasp even a small morsel of what this rich young woman is saying, they would be far wealthier than all the Bill Gateses of the world. I’m not saying that tangible wealth isn’t great, but what good is great if you don’t realize how great it is? Jeanna M. Dameron Spokane

Quam a great movies host

Our family would like to thank Paul Quam for all the years he has greeted us at the door of the Garland Theater. Paul always took time to say “Hi” to our mentally challenged son, Dustin, and to tell him to enjoy the movie. Our daughters always looked forward to our family outing to the Garland.

We have always trusted Quam to provide honest comments about the movies at the Garland. When he stood in front of the audiences before the movie started, his words came from his heart. We were able always to make good decisions as to what movies to see based on his comments.

Quam will be truly missed. We thank him for being “for the family.” Ross and Naomi Rhodes and family Spokane

Bias shows in LeTourneau affair

I have felt for some time now that whenever a female engages in a sexual/reproductive act that falls outside of socially accepted limits, there is a tendency to assign blame to the nearest male.

The Feb. 9 article describing how the mother of the 14-year-old at the center of the Mary K. LeTourneau child-rape case is angry at the boy for the couple’s latest transgression reinforces my belief. A 14-year-old is being held to a higher standard of responsibility than a 35-year-old mother of four. This blame-the-male tendency is apparently strong enough that the boy’s own mother turns against him to defend LeTourneau.

This is consistent with being a prejudicial attitude of the in-group (female-mother) towards the out-group (male-father). A descriptive name for this would be uterocentrism, as a specific form of ethnocentrism. It seems that to the uterocentric in-group, blood is not thicker than water. Francis E. Kent Four Lakes

THE ENVIRONMENT

Roadless area plans too limited

While I strongly support the Clinton administration’s efforts to protect our nation’s roadless lands, the policy to end road construction only in some roadless areas does not go far enough.

The Forest Service has acknowledged a $10 billion backlog in road maintenance and 60,000 miles of uninventoried roads. Without protecting all roadless lands 1,000 acres or greater, the costs of building roads to the taxpayer and the environment will continue.

Only 5 percent of the timber sale program for fiscal year 1998-99 is planned in roadless areas. Nationally renowned scientists, as well as economists, have recommended the protection of all roadless lands over 1,000 acres from logging and road construction. This is not only a scientifically credible recommendation, it also makes good economic sense.

Roadless areas provide a natural method of flood control, clean drinking water and excellent fish and wildlife habitat. They also attract hikers, hunters and other outdoor recreationalists who enjoy the vastness of unroaded and unlogged lands.

As a grandmother, I see the necessity to protect our roadless areas so they will be left intact for future generations to enjoy. Please speak out in support of protecting our roadless public lands. Virgina I. Petersen Republic, Wash.

Makers of mess should fund cleanup

For the life of me I can’t figure out how state Rep. Bob Geddes came up with a cost to the state of $1 million per stream to clean up Idaho’s 962 polluted streams (Spokesman-Review, Feb. 6).

If I was cynical, I’d guess that the billion dollar price tag came from the Farm Bureau or some other industry lobby group that is trying to duck its obligation to clean up its act - and the state’s lakes, rivers and streams - by whining about those nasty federal judges again.

For the record, the Idaho Conservation League has gone to the Legislature every year since the mid-1980s to ask the state to protect our waters - with no success. It was only our successful lawsuit in 1995 that got industry’s and the Legislature’s attention. That’s too bad, because as anyone who goes in for a routine checkup knows, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

The only possible reason it could cost the taxpayers a billion bucks to clean up our streams would be if the Legislature continues giving industry a free ride.

It’s time the polluters pay, not us. Mark Solomon, past president Idaho Conservation League, Moscow, Idaho

‘Balance’ should mean just that

The Intermountain Forest Industry Agency’s Jim Riley was quoted Jan. 31 as saying, “Anybody who thinks it’s environmentally sound to not clean up ice storm damage is unbalanced.” He referred to Forest Service plans to sell 8.5 million board feet in North Idaho, some of which was damaged in the 1996 ice storm.

USFS and IFIA argue that logging is needed to reduce wildfire risk and stop insects that could migrate from down wood to living trees. They conveniently forget the many forest organisms that depend upon such natural disturbances. Standing snags provide nesting sites for cavity dwelling birds like woodpeckers and owls. Bats often roost and rear young beneath the sloughing bark of damaged trees or in abandoned cavities.

Insects targeted as such a threat are food for many birds, bats, shrews, fish (themselves food for larger predators) and are thus critical members of the biological community. Fallen trees provide habitat for small mammals, plants, mushrooms and return nutrients to the soil.

Wildfires are a natural part of the landscape. Many animals - elk and moose, black-backed woodpeckers, olive sided flycatchers, bluebirds, morels and mature Ponderosa Pines, for example - benefit from them.

What seems to have happened here is that, while profit motives were factored into the equation in planning this sale, the forest community and humans who would prefer to have their public resources left alone were not factored in.

Now, what was that you said about balance, Riley? Craig R. Miller Student Environmental Action Coalition, University of Idaho, Moscow

PEOPLE AND ANIMALS

Animal rights people exaggerate

Re: “Horses shouldn’t suffer” (Street Level, Jan. 25).

Deborah LaPoint seems to be a propagandizer for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and that other equally radical animal rights group, Physicians for Responsible Medicine. Trying to get objective information concerning animals’ care from either group would be like asking the Chicken Little Planetarium if the sky is falling.

As a woman of the age to suffer the symptoms of menopause, and who is taking Premarin, I want the truth. The truth can be obtained from the American Medical Association and National Association for Biomedical Research. They are both highly respected, mainstream associations.

I also researched articles published in the April and May 1995 issues of Western Horseman Magazine, one of the most respected publications for the horse lover. The original article was published in The Draft Horse Journal (P.O. Box 670, Waverly, IA 50677).

After doing my own research, I have no qualms whatsoever about taking my Premarin. Just remember that in the eyes of the animal rights movement, any use of animals is abuse. Cherie Graves Newport

Thanks for helping dogs and cats

Remember those dogs in their silly costumes during the holiday season that sat in front of Target at NorthPoint, raising money for the Spokane Humane Society? All who gave were promised that the money would reach the animals.

Because of your kindness, we were able to raise $595. With that money we were able to buy dog and cat vaccines, 120 pounds of kitty litter, flea shampoo, dips, grooming tools, milk replacement, plastic tarps, rawhide bones and much more. A big thank you goes out to Tidyman’s for putting a second barrel out for dog and cat food. That also went to the Spokane Humane Society.

Members of the Lilac City Dog Training Club did this project as one of our community projects for the year. Most dogs that were present for this function are doing upper levels of obedience work. Linda L. Maupin Spokane

Book tells about mistreatment

Re: letters of Jan. 31, concerning horses in the production of estrogen and also about rodeo animals.

If anybody really wants to find out how some horses are treated in this country, go to the library and check out the book, “Hot Blood,” by Ken Englad. It will really inform you. I couldn’t even finish the book; it disgusted and sickened me. Linda Wilcox Spokane

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