Letters To The Editor

IN THE PUBLIC EYE

It appears West is on a power trip

Columnist Doug Clark has the nerve to make light of Sen. Jim West’s latest blunder, but let’s get real. West is a man drunk with power. Like the alcoholic who uses, for West, one is too many and a thousand is not enough - he has no self-control. Perhaps he feels that he is above the law, or he is the law, since he is responsible for writing so many laws.

We, as his constituents, should ask ourselves if we want a person in West’s office who represents us or want a person who is merely trying to carve a name for himself in history.

In any case, I am outraged that this senator is pretending his actions are not serious. It is obvious that he is in denial. It is also obvious that he needs a lesson in professionalism and tact.

West should be reminded that he works for, and represents, Eastern Washington.

Do your job, sir, or step down! Tim Collins Spokane

Williams has some nerve

It’s incredible that former city engineering director Phil Williams has the gall to file a claim against the City of Spokane asking for his job back and $425,000 in damages. Margaret Millsap Opportunity, Wash.

Clinton has done plenty, all right

Michael Z. Magins (Letters, March 6) asks, “What has Clinton done for us?”

Are you kidding? I can name several things he’s done.

He’s given us a president with a good head of hair. I have spoken to many women who actually voted for him because they like his hair.

He’s taught us that it’s OK to lie. Even how to phrase a lie so it’s not a lie, i.e. “‘As I recall …” or “The truth as I know it …” etc.

He’s taught us adultery is OK, especially if your wife thinks it’s OK, that it’s not his fault and is a right-wing conspiracy. He’s even defined sex, which I don’t want to go into.

He has also led the fight to make late-term abortions more accessible, acceptable and downright necessary to any woman who wants one.

What a legacy. Chris A. Mewhinney Fairfield, Wash.

THE MEDIA

Caption insults adults

I was shocked and disappointed to wake up this morning and read the caption over the article on the front page of section B, regarding the children’s unit at Sacred Heart Medical Center. It reads, “Out of bounds to old folks” (Mar. 8).

How does a newspaper which recently had articles promoting a saging center extolling all the virtues of our elder population go from that to insulting captions about “old folks?”

This caption implies that so-called old folks are dangerous to children. I’m sure that grandparents, foster grandparents, the elders in this community teaching children how to read and elders providing day care services for family members would all be quite shocked to find out about this.

On a planet such as ours and in a society such as this one, we should be promoting intergenerational relationships, instead of implying that the two can’t get along. There is enough sexism and racism in our society, we don’t need our newspaper encouraging ageism also.

I suggest that in the future, whoever is editing this publication be at least 50 years old. That person not only has the advantage of 50 years’ intelligence but 50 years of experience and hopefully, a little more compassion than whoever put this caption across the top of that picture.

A better caption might have been, “Out of bounds to mean adults.” Guess what? All old folks aren’t mean adults. Vicky Webster Spokane

Web entrepreneur rips off celebrities

Re: Doug Clark’s March 8 column, “Whiz kid scores with the naked and the Web.”

I hope everyone sees Scott Santens and others with pornographic web pages for what they are: sex merchants. Just because he has fantasies about Courtney Cox doesn’t give him the right to feed the jollies of others. What a cheap, selfish and ignorant way to make a buck. This is just another example of Internet abuse, but it’s only the beginning. Look at how television has changed over the years.

Anyway, I would think those celebrities Santens uses could build a case against him because he is making money from the celebrities’ images without their consent. Make Santens find people who are willing to pose for his pocketbook. Sam J. Holden Cheney

As victim’s go, this one’s lacking

I read Doug Clark’s column of March 10 and found it must be easier for him to irresponsibly condemn someone from the safety of a computer than serve with the Moses Lake Police Department, whose people put their lives on the line daily to help keep their streets safe.

As for Adam Wyble, I feel sorry for this poor cherub who was “corrupted” by his co-workers. To think that a young man would be pressured into drinking before he was 21 is unthinkable.

Get real. Did a group of police officers pin him down and hold a glass to his mouth, forcing him to drink? Did a police officer force Wyble to get behind the wheel? Did a police officer command him to break the law and endanger countless others the day he’s said to have decided to tear down the road like he was cruising for pole position at Daytona?

As for Clark, his attempt to paint the police as people who, off-duty, would knowingly break the very laws they work so hard to enforce by allowing an underage co-worker to drink and drive is totally irresponsible. It unfairly discredits the police department.

Wyble should take a long look in the mirror and stop pointing fingers at others. Clark needs to think before he drags people through the mud. They both need to start taking responsibility for their own actions a whole lot more. Rob Kauder Coulee Dam

Movie ratings faulty, a disservice

Although I agree with the ideals presented in Edwin A. Olson’s letter (“R-rated fare not worthy of writer,” March 11), I want to point out that the R rating does nothing to protect teens. It only denies them the right to view some very good, relevant films.

R ratings are based on almost ridiculous standards. The difference between an R and a PG-13 movie can be simply the amount of times an obscenity is used. Directors often will cross the “swearing boundary” in an attempt to get an R rating, simply because such shows do better in theaters than do films of lower ratings. Well-done films that can be appropriate for teenage audiences, such as “Good Will Hunting,” receive high ratings, whereas much worse films, such as “Empire Records,” containing sex and bad language, receive PG-13 ratings.

More crude speech can be heard in the halls of an elementary school than in most films. Sadly, many 10-year-olds know more about sex and violence than their parents did at the age of 15, without ever having seen an R-rated film. By the age of 16, some children are exposed to more nudity, foul language and violence in the real world than their parents ever were.

Something is obviously wrong with a society that raises its children in such a fashion. However, some films teach important lessons that are very relevant to teen culture, and their only sin is using an obscenity more than once. Denying teens the right to watch them doesn’t seem reasonable. Lisa E. Conley Liberty Lake

HEALTH AND SAFETY

Blame shifting a common mistake

In the article, “Bicycle safety bill passes,” the statement by David Jones, father of Cooper Jones, that the tragedy his family has endured “was in no way Cooper’s fault,” is ludicrous. Cooper Jones was riding a bicycle down the center of a state highway. Doesn’t he share in at least part of the responsibility?

The attitude expressed by David Jones exemplifies a major problem in America today. No one is willing to step up and take responsibility for their actions. Rather, there is a shift to the belief that if I have a problem, no matter what, it was caused by someone else.

While I have sympathy for the Jones family in their loss, shifting the responsibility for bicycle safety on public highways from the individual bicycle rider to the motoring public is wrong. Each individual must be responsible for his or her own actions and cease placing blame elsewhere. Ronald L. Eaton Spokane

Smoking damages and kills

Henry Warlow makes an excellent point by stating that Clinton should not allow the advertising of alcohol toward youths (“Clinton ought to target alcohol,” Letters, Letters, March 2). However, Warlow implies that smoking cigarettes doesn’t kill people. This is exactly what the tobacco industry wants everyone to believe. Unfortunately, evidence proves that smoking causes serious health problems.

Among the 4,000 substances found in tobacco smoke, 60 are known to increases chances of cancer or tumors. The risk of lung cancer in heavy smokers is 20 to 30 times greater than in nonsmokers. Other cancers for which smokers are at higher risk include cancer of the bladder, mouth and esophagus.

Carbon monoxide and tar, both inhaled when smoking, limit oxygen to the body and accumulate along the lung linings. This leads to chronic bronchitis and emphysema, among other respiratory problems.

Warlow states, “I have never heard of a teenager dying from smoking.” This is true because diseases associated with smoking don’t develop until years later. However, most people who die from smoking started smoking as teenagers.

Warlow states, “I have never seen anyone I know die from smoking cigarettes.” To think that people won’t die from smoking is wrong. The late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy once stated in a public address, “Each year, cigarettes kill five times more Americans than do traffic accidents. Lung cancer alone kills as many as die on the road. The cigarette industry is peddling a deadly weapon. It is dealing in people’s lives for financial gain.”

Do not be fooled. Smoking kills. Marshall T. Greene Spokane

Beware of foods containing olestra

The article on long-term effects of olestra (Nutrition column, March 4) deserves an additional comment.

I ate some of the potato chips with olestra, or Olean, as Procter & Gamble calls it, and I got so sick I thought I was having a near-death experience. It took my poor body 12 hours to recover. I believe this fake fat is poisonous and will prove to be dangerous.

The article, “Proctor’s big gamble,” in the March issue of the Nutrition Action Health letter says the use of olestra in our food constitutes “an uncontrolled experiment on 200 million people using an unsafe food additive.” I encourage everyone to stay away from all products containing olestra and to write to Frito-Lay and insist that they not use us as human guinea pigs. Karen D. Peck Spokane

U.S. AND THE WORLD

Nethercutt parrots appeasement line

Rep. George Nethercutt’s remarks from Rome after his whirlwind tour of two U.S. military outposts in Bosnia are just another rehash of our country’s appeasement-oriented attitude toward Serbian aggression, a policy first formulated during the Bush administration and then carried on ever so well by Clinton’s team.

Is there something in the water in Washington, D.C., that causes government officials to fail to recognize the obvious? Serbs initiated the conflict in Bosnia, captured huge amounts of territory in a country that we had recognized as an independent nation, were responsible for most of the deaths, and practiced “ethnic cleansing” (the ultimate euphemism) on a scale unknown in Europe since Hitler’s Third Reich.

The fragile peace exists only because the United States and Western European nations were unwilling to confront the naked land grab for a greater Serbia engineered by the slippery Milosevic when it first began.

We have had troops in Korea for three generations to protect the South Koreans and we hear no congressional cries to remove the troops there. If it takes years of military policing to protect the citizens of Bosnia from Serbian aggression, so be it. We had the chance to stop the carnage in 1992. We didn’t and now we’re belatedly paying for it.

An exit strategy is not feasible at this time if the United States and Europe wish to maintain peace in the region (and the recent events in Kosovo reaffirm the need for a stabilizing influence). Ted Wert Spokane

Balance firmness with compassion

Fortunately, we’ve backed away from a military engagement with Iraq. Now, it’s time to show the world our true colors.

There is no question that we are right in demanding unimpeded inspections. This is especially true since such inspections may limit Saddam’s ability to produce chemical and biological agents which could threaten humanity. The potential dangers of such toxins are so great that any country found conducting such experiments should be required to submit to international inspections. That includes the U.S.

However, our bombs could not eliminate all of this chemical-biological threat and probably would only harden Iraq’s resolve to continue such experimentation. The only ones to be hurt would be the Iraqi people; they would be killed by the errant bombs and later by starvation and illness. Their leaders would be safely tucked away in secret bunkers. We’ve even piously proclaimed that we wouldn’t target Saddam because that’s illegal. But a few thousand Iraqi kids blown to bits is acceptable?

The best long-term solution would be the gradual lifting of sanctions as a reward for allowing inspections. Meanwhile, people are starving. It’s time for us to show the world and Iraq that regardless what we think of their leaders, we do care about Iraqi children. Let’s start a grass-roots effort to get food and medical supplies to Iraq.

A great show of U.S. compassion at this time might, ironically, accomplish the very thing that all our bombs could not: bring an end to Saddam’s regime in Iraq. William Betz Newport, Wash.

China has designs on Panama

On Dec. 31, 1999, Panama is scheduled to take control of the Panama Canal, which was built with American resources. Our security requires that we maintain the ability to rapidly transfer military vessels between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, through the canal.

Unless prompt action is taken, Red China will gain control of key ports on both the Atlantic and Pacific sides of the Panama Canal. Red China is becoming a serious threat to U.S. security. The two ports targeted are at opposite ends of the shortest land route over the isthmus. An established Red Chinese presence at Panama also makes it easier for the communists to plan infiltration, sabotage and terrorism. Red China is the only country which admits having nuclear weapons aimed at the United States.

Given the fact that the Red Chinese are also on the verge of taking over the U.S. Naval base at Long Beach, Calif., it’s clear their pre-emptive strike in Panama is part of a pattern of expansionism. Retired U.S. Naval commander Chip Beck said in a letter to the Washington Times, “China’s intelligence operatives are not stationed in embassies. They work out of banks, shipping companies, businesses and commercial entities.”

China’s impending takeover of seaports on both sides of the Panama Canal can still be reversed, with prompt action. Congress must instruct President Clinton to conclude base retention negotiations with Panama, increase the defense budget to fund maintenances of U.S. bases in Panama and agree to pay a reasonable leasing fee for the continued use of our bases. Laura L. Kister Spokane

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Help for veterans a welcome move

Re: “House approves help for disabled veterans,” (March 3). Thanks for what you are doing. I will say it every time someone stands up for a veteran now who stood up for his or her country then.

At a time when it appears to be politically correct to ignore the needs of those who sustained damage in service to this great nation, it is refreshing to see there are some who still are cognizant of the fact that if the nation reneges on its responsibility to its caretakers, there will come a time when volunteers will not be seen. Mike C. Sheldon San Jose, Calif.