Letters To The Editor

VIOLENCE

Judge’s few words speak volumes

I was in Superior Court recently and witnessed the sentencing of a gently youth who is being held responsible for the tragic shooting death of his young friend.

Half of the courtroom was filled with the weeping loved ones of the young woman. The other half was filled with the anguished loved ones of a remorseful adolescent leaving soon for a long prison sentence.

I feel that the eloquent words spoken by Judge Murphy as he faced the Solomon-like task of rendering justice in the sentencing of a child should be read by your wide readership. To paraphrase:

“I wish I could bottle up the grief that is in this courtroom. It is a grief for two children. I would pour it out over all the young people of Spokane so that they could feel this tragedy. They would understand this pain and never pick up a gun, never point a gun at people, and never pull the trigger.” Linda L. Woods Jail Education, Spokane School District 81

Attacking Iraq unconscionable

Your editorial of Feb. 19 expressed the notion that if our soldiers go to war in the Persian Gulf, we should support them. I know this feeling carries wide popular support, but it is cloaked in a false morality.

There has been a lot of discussion of the pros and cons of our course of action but no reference has been made to morality. Have we so lightly forgotten the commandment not to kill? Has our power blinded us, so we cannot see there are no guns pointed at us? Saddam Hussein has not threatened us; we have threatened him.

When soldiers engage in war they make individual decisions that they are prepared to kill on command. That decision carries a heavy moral burden. We are remiss not to remind our soldiers and ourselves of this fact, or to accept the consequences of it.

I will support no legalized murder in the Persian Gulf region, either morally or in any other way. A cowardly bombing, sure to injure or kill civilians, is no brave stand for democracy. Any others making their personal decisions to kill and to support killing may shoulder the responsibility for it by themselves. Greg H. Simpson Pullman

Fiction becoming fearful reality

Re: “FBI busts pair for possession of germ agent,” (Feb. 20). It seems eerily prophetic that Stephen King’s “The Stand,” written and published 20 years ago, appears to be taking place in our country at this time. In the book, an outbreak of a plague-type virus kills off most of what was America. Twenty years ago, who among us would ever have dreamed that a horror novel could ever become reality? Brenda L. Hicks Spokane

Spokane police are too rough

Re: Christopher Ostrander, the man who was dragged out of his car by a plainclothes police officer after failure to immediately turn over his license. I have had similar encounters with the Spokane Police Department.

I have lived many places around the world and have been in Spokane for a few years. The sheer audacity of the police in this area astounds me more and more every day. It’s hard to believe until you actually encounter it firsthand.

That’s my two cents worth, take it or leave it. Just don’t expect me to support local law enforcement efforts. I understand that being an officer can be a difficult job, but other, bigger cities do manage to pull it off without unnecessary roughness. Too bad Spokane can’t John J. Dice Spokane

BUSINESS AND LABOR

Cost-cutting shows - and scares

I’ve always felt safe in a hospital because I knew those caring for me were well trained. I could tell the difference between a registered nurse and an aide just by the way they were dressed. Now, they all dress differently and wear a little badge with printing I can’t read without my glasses, and I cannot tell who is drawing my blood or sticking my finger.

The last time I was hospitalized, it was for pneumonia. Being diabetic, my blood sugar had to be monitored closely. Several times during my four-day stay, the women testing my blood would mark down the results and start to walk away. When I asked for the results, they replied, “45 mg” or “40 mg,” without a clue that it was an absolutely dangerous level which, for some diabetics, would cause insulin shock and coma. There happened to be a registered nurse in the room and she said, “Oh my!” To which the first woman said, “Oh, is that bad?” I almost fell out of bed in another kind of shock.

Now when I get sick and my husband suggests taking me to the hospital, it scares me. I won’t name the hospital because my HMO says I have to go there and I don’t want them mad at me. Had it happened only once, I wouldn’t have mentioned it. But I believe all of the hospitals are cutting back on registered nurses and hiring more and more poorly trained people to save money. Mary Nell Jones Sprague, Wash.

Trend is troubling for us all

My heart goes with the nurses at Sacred Heart Medical Center. I admire their courage for standing up for their principles.

As the president of the Idaho Nurses Association and having been a staff nurse for more than 25 years, I am troubled by the trends in hospitals of replacing registered nurses with unlicensed workers. It may have worked 30 years ago, but today, patients have more complex treatments, more IV medications and are only admitted to the hospital when they are very ill.

The American Nurses’ Association recommends that all hospitals monitor outcomes such as patient satisfaction, nosocomial infection, skin breakdown, patient injuries, nurse satisfaction, staff mix and nursing care hours per patient day. In a recent survey of Idaho Hospitals (over 100 beds,) none collected complete data on nursing care outcomes. This is troubling to me and other nurses.

Economists say we must cut costs because somewhere down the line we will run out of money. To me, the bottom line is the quality. Why settle for anything less?

Nurses care deeply about nursing safety and quality. Numerous studies validate the fact that good nursing care is directly related to the number of registered nurses in the staffing mix and their level of expertise.

I hope the community stands behind the nurses and takes seriously the threat to their own health and safety if they should even need to be hospitalized. Gretchen Dimico, R.N., Ph.D. St. Maries, Idaho

SHMC should do as well as Teamsters

I’m a professional truck driver-trainer with 30 years of experience. The government has made regulations that state I can only drive 10 hours per day, not work more than 60 hours per week and must have eight hours off between shifts. These laws are to ensure not only my safety but the public’s safety.

I understand Sacred Heart Medical Center wants to force mandatory call and decrease nurses’ rest between shifts. Nurses have no government regulations to protect them from employers’ abuse. Sacred Heart nurses need a strong contract to protect themselves and the public.

The people I’m on the road with are normal and healthy. My job doesn’t entail dispensing medications or caring for the seriously ill or injured. If I become fatigued, I’m responsible enough to pull off the road and rest. Nurses can’t stop caring for their patients to rest. If Sacred Heart has its way, the nurses won’t be able to say no, even if they’re exhausted.

In my business, if we have more work than the drivers can handle, the employer hires more professional drivers. Maybe Sacred Heart should be as concerned for the public as the Teamsters. It should hire more nurses for the extra work, instead of endangering public safety by overworking the nurses it has. Bill Murrin Pinehurst, Idaho

HEALTH CARE

HMO critic couldn’t be more wrong

“Corpses can enhance cost-effectiveness” (Opinion, Feb. 8) opposes legislation legalizing physician-assisted suicide. The writer uses the following logic: Presently, HMOs have a financial incentive to cover expensive treatments because if it refused coverage, and the patient gets worse, “the plan is on the hook to provide care that may turn out to be even more expensive than the treatment that was rejected.” She says if physician-assisted suicide were legal, “the HMO could simply drop expensive treatments and services from the plan’s benefit package, provide minimal care and, when the patient finds that life no longer is tolerable, offer ‘compassionate’ assistance in dying.

Beyond her unimaginable ghoulishness, her reasoning is flawed.

HMOs are highly regulated. For example, state law requires that we offer coverage for unlimited hospital and physician care, with no lifetime maximum. The real problem isn’t with HMOs, but with traditional insurance products and self-funded plans, which don’t have the same level of regulatory oversight or requirements for coverage.

Years ago, a family with extraordinarily high medical expenses was forced to switch their coverage to Group Health Northwest because they’d reached the $300,000 lifetime maximum under their traditional insurance plan. We incurred annual costs in excess of $100,000 annually for this family - expensive, but that’s what we’re here for. The family was much more satisfied with their care in our system.

This editorial came from Southern California, where an entire industry is devoted to convincing the public that HMOs are the devil incarnate. No such legislation regarding assisted suicide is being developed in Washington or at the federal level. Henry S. Berman, M.D. president, Association of Washington Healthcare Plans, Spokane

INTOLERANCE

On Aryans’ parade day, we’ll be busy

As Coeur d’Alene prepares to honor the First Amendment by allowing the neo-Nazi parade, a generation is watching. What will they see?

Maybe we’ll get lucky and it will rain all day. In the meantime, I will explain to my children what the First Amendment tries to accomplish. I will explain that anyone can take any Scripture text out of context, twist it around to fit an agenda and create a cult following around it, which is what the neo-Nazi’s have done.

I’ve read the propaganda left on my doorstep last fall and I’ve listened to some neo-Nazis. With all the objectivity I could muster, the literature is not only the worst example of Scripture-twisting I’ve ever seen, but tormented English as well. Frankly, I’d rather watch paint dry than witness this parade.

We need our First Amendment rights preserved but unfortunately, parades don’t come with remote controls. You simply can’t change channels. As for me and my family, I think we’ll go to Spokane or maybe paint something and watch it dry.

It’s one thing to “exercise” free speech, quite another to whitewash blind hatred and peddle it as something of value to this community. Karen L. VanDyke Coeur d’Alene