Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

Independent audit should be tried

I support Mayor Talbott’s call for an independent auditor for Spokane city government. I find it extremely interesting that two pages after The Spokesman-Review’s article on the mayor’s suggestion, there is a very good article (page A-7, June 8) about how the independent auditors for the Environmental Protection Agency, its inspector general, has “found widespread failures by federal and local officials to police even the most basic requirements of the nation’s clean-air and clean-water laws.”

Could it be that an independent auditor for our city government would find where money is being wasted on cellular phones, on telephone lines that don’t have phones hooked up, on roads that aren’t getting fixed, on planning functions that aren’t working right, and so forth?

I believe that the vast majority of our city workers are honorable people trying to do a good job. However, an independent auditor would be focused on finding the waste and improving procedures.

One of the best bosses I worked for in the Air Force told me that you have to find the problems you need to fix in an office within six months of your arrival, because after six months you will not be able to find the problems. They will be part of the furniture, and you’ll be part of the problems that you haven’t found.

The City Council should at least give an independent auditor a try. Charles E. Latimer Spokane

Response to Luigi’s fire impressive

Recently, Luigi’s Restaurant was consumed by fire. As their landlord and interested party, I was at the scene of the fire and witnessed our city’s emergency resources in action. I was impressed! It was a complicated situation with 30 apartments above Luigi’s requiring tenants and their pets to be evacuated, as well as dealing with the fire itself. In addition, there were common walls to the adjoining Onion Restaurant. The Fire Department had to prevent the fire from spreading sideways and upwards.

Our Fire Department was prompt, effective, professional and confidence inspiring. I saw the sophisticated systems the teams of men were utilizing and marveled at how well coordinated the entire effort was.

In addition, in the heat of the battle the firefighters and their chiefs, the Red Cross volunteers, Spokane Transit and our east side neighbors came together in support of the tragedy and were unruffled enough to have a palpable calming effect under very difficult circumstances. Just what the situation required! I would like to convey my sincere appreciation to the city of Spokane for your support. Specifically our Fire Department for their well orchestrated skills, the Red Cross volunteers for their ability to calm and organize a scary situation, the Spokane Transit Authority for providing a bus for shelter from the rain and Jensen Distributing for opening their building for telephone and restroom use.

I would also like to thank all of our suppliers and vendors who have called and offered assistance since the fire. Larry M. Brown Spokane

PEOPLE/SOCIETY

Efforts of veterans not in vain

Re: “America - What a waste” by J.J. Orlando (Letters, June 5).

Mr. Orlando, I am truly saddened by how bitter you are. If you are disappointed by what America has become, I am confident you will find any number of defeatist and pessimists to tell you how right you are.

If you thought the sacrifices made by you and your contemporaries in World War II would result in an everlasting Utopia, you had unrealistic expectations.

If you think future generations owe you a debt, you will remain disappointed. It will not be paid.

But if you believe your efforts were in vain, I respectfully disagree. You and your generation ensured that we and a large portion of the world’s population continue to enjoy that most precious of gifts: our freedom.

If we abuse that gift, it is now beyond your control, old soldier, for that is the very nature of freedom.

But know this: The America in which I have lived, raised children and prospered beyond my efforts these past 50 years is, thanks to you, a wonderful place. Phil C. Berry Rathdrum, Idaho

Seek out good, not evil

J.J. Orlando, your anguish over the evil in our country is understandable (“America - what a waste,” Letters, June 5). But your ingratitude for life in America is terribly sad.

Because of your 11 months in combat, the war ended, and kids like me grew up safely. Can you really believe that life in America would be better under a Nazi dictatorship?

Yes, atrocities happen in our society, but your perspective is far too narrow. Is your diet only the daily news? There is more to the picture.

I have read that of over 20,000 elementary schools, shootings have occurred in only about five. Shouldn’t you thank God for that? I do.

After years in freeway traffic, I have never been shot at, nor have I even witnessed it. Thank God.

Through decades in Spokane and Los Angeles, I have never seen even a fistfight. Thank God.

Oh yes, if you seek out evil, you will find it, but the goodness of America is everywhere. I know survivors of five years in the Japanese hell-camps in the Philippines who thank God daily just for being alive - in America. When one is busy serving others, one finds little time to feel sorry for himself.

If you don’t think America, with all its faults, is a beacon for all universal hope, talk with Spokanites who have escaped Ethiopia or Eastern Europe. Its eye-opening. And you need that. Charles R. Grizzle Spokane

Negative response not surprising

I am 19 and lesbian. I am a student, a writer, an activist and a singer. No one of these defines me absolutely, yet if a stranger were to pick one, I would be labeled a lesbian.

I recently returned to Spokane after two years at college in Missouri, thinking that I would be returning to a more liberal and accepting state. I was disappointed to read that Washington State University canceled a conference aimed at helping gay youths because the organizers did not think that they could provide a safe environment due to the anti-gay phone calls and e-mails they received.

This negative response did not surprise me. A poll conducted by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force revealed that 56 percent of Americans disapprove of homosexuality. What surprised me was that Rep. John Koster promoted this attack on the conference charging that “they’re out there recruiting minors.”

Any young person attending such a conference most likely already came to a decision concerning his/her sexuality. This decision is personal, but young gays and lesbians need the support of their families and communities, something the conference tried to provide. Despite the prejudiced views of some residents of Washington, I know that they don’t speak for everyone. There is no homosexual agenda; it is only ignorance that promotes the continuing homophobia in this country.

Rep. Koster can continue his campaign against the recruitment of minors. He should realize that his efforts to “save” these young adults do more harm than good by depriving them of the support that they need. Ryan M. Patterson Spokane

Volunteer effort deserved coverage

On Saturday, June 6, 110 high school sophomores from Central and Eastern Washington, along with 40 adult volunteers, were bused to Camp Dart-lo in northern Spokane to undertake a huge community service project. These volunteers (kids) sanded and stained floors, deckings, a teepee base and benches. They washed windows and walls, painted four bathrooms, a kitchen, more than 20 tables and twice that number of benches.

They cleared brush and made trails, built an archery range, cut and burned trees damaged in the ice storm, and hauled and stacked cut wood. They painted a mural on the side of a building, repaired a broken railing, and raked pine needles and pine cones.

All of this was accomplished in four-and-one-half hours by sophomore students who were attending a Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership Seminar at Gonzaga University, June 4-7. Each students committed to 100 hours of community service over the next year in response to the President’s Summit. Paint, paint brushes, gloves, scrubs, sanders and power washers were donated by community members.

This was a huge, successful undertaking. Why was it not considered newsworthy enough for the media? Joanne Poss HOBY Seminar Planning Committee, Spokane

OTHER TOPICS

Pregnancies shouldn’t ‘just happen’

Jane Lavagetto’s article “No Kidding” (June 7) raises some serious issues.

There are many facets to the subject of having and raising children, but the fact that in the United States 60 percent of all pregnancies are unintended is a glaring one that as a society we must confront.

Do people have momentary regrets about any life-altering choice they make? Yes. But the operative word here is “choice.”

For the majority of women in the United States today parenthood is something that “just happens.”

Is it a lack of access to sex education, contraception or abortion?

In some cases, yes. But for many, I think it’s a persuasive attitude of “que sera, sera.”

Careful condiseration of parenthood before conception is not the norm.

Children are too precious to merely “happen” and then be dealt with as best as one can.

As the bumper sticker says, “A world of wanted children would make a world of difference.” Cynthia Fine Spokane