Letters To The Editor
WASHINGTON STATE
Sommers earned our gratitude
Recently, a letter appeared in The Spokesman-Review that criticized Rep. Duane Sommers for actions that appeared to jeopardize the future of the Cooper Jones Act. Our family was out of town for the final week of the legislative session and I have not yet spoken to Sommers about the last hectic week of the session. I do not know the details of those few days.
I do know that as the principal sponsor of the bill in the House, Sommers worked long hours and expended considerable political capital to persuade reluctant fellow Republicans to allow the bill to come to a vote in the House. When that failed, he kept the bill alive and searched for acceptable means to fund it.
Our experience in Olympia has shown us that things are not always as they appear at first glance in the Legislature. We have worked with Sommers and his staff for a number of months and can assure you that they consider the memory of Cooper to be very special. I have no doubt that Sommers acted on his convictions and with the belief and assurance that another option was available, and that the bill would not die.
We thank Sommers, his assistant, Lynn Fallows, and every member of the Eastern Washington legislative delegation who worked together to secure a benefit for everyone in Washington. David O. Jones Spokane
Columnist needs civics lesson
I read with interest the understated and restrained comments offered by columnist Doug Clark (March 12), where he referred to lobbyists as humankind’s two-legged cockroaches who scuttle out from the dark crevices of government to peddle their dirty influence.
Perhaps Clark was referring to those cockroaches in Olympia who represent the American Cancer Society. Maybe it’s those “unctuous bloodsuckers” who represent Childhaven, the American Diabetes Association, the Washington Catholic Conference or even the Allied Daily Newspapers of Washington.
Perhaps Clark is only offended by lobbyists who represent employers and other private sector interests, and therefore calls for them to be dispatched.
As a lobbyist in Olympia, I am proud to represent my clients before public officials. Timely and credible information is the most important tool available to any lobbyist. Hundreds of special interests advance their points of view through lobbyists. Perhaps that is what really bothers Clark - “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government …” (contained in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Clark should not only review the tone and nature of his rhetoric but the rudiments of civics as well. Melvin N. Sorensen, lobbyist Federal Way, Wash.
IN THE PUBLIC EYE
Paper should not be West apologist
The Spokesman-Review has now run three articles trying to condone the actions of Sen. Jim West. It is evidently the paper’s view that it is OK to call a person a an “SOB” and to threaten that person with death. It is OK as long as you are really angry.
All you have to do is listen to the tape of what West said and you know that he really didn’t mean it. And if he did, who cares? It was only an evil lobbyist that he threatened.
You manage to imply that West shouldn’t have done what he did, but that you’re glad he did it. Wow! The paper’s conclusion: So, here’s the story: A senator blew his stack and snarled at a lobbyist, who deserved it. We are shocked, shocked.
Yes! We all should be shocked. We should be shocked that the editors of The Spokesman-Review totally lack moral values of any kind. John E. Hanke
Excusing violent threat is baloney
In Opinion editor John Webster’s editorial of March 16, he states that my husband, Tom McCabe, should have known not to take Sen. Jim West’s threatening phone call seriously. He says “you’re dead” is just part of the normal Olympia discourse.
That’s baloney. In the 10 years we’ve lived in Olympia, this is the first time we have come across such frightening and bizarre behavior. You can’t seriously believe people in Olympia, as a standard practice, go around anonymously shouting “you’re dead!” into one another’s answering machines.
I’m also troubled that you decided Tom “deserved” this behavior.
Sen. West claims, and The Spokesman-Review editors agree, that he was justified in making the call because Tom’s employer, the Building Industry Association of Washington, had run an ad in The Spokesman-Review urging people to call West on some issue. Tom did not approve this ad. He didn’t write it, place it or pay for it.
Believe me, when Tom first heard West’s anonymous message and was frantically scanning his memory to figure out what he could have done to prompt such a call, this ad did not come to mind. My husband did not do anything personal to West.
Night after night on the front page of newspapers like yours, I read about acts of violence often too horrific for me to even imagine. Yet, when an anonymous caller says to my husband, “You better get me because if you don’t, you’re dead,” I’m supposed to shrug it off?
Who on Earth would treat a beloved family member so callously? Susan McCabe Olympia
West’s abusive personality made clear
Sen. Jim West’s calling a constituent a “son of a bitch” and leaving a threatening message on his answering machine is both outrageous and abusive. His defense of his behavior is a classic example of the excuses that are given by abusive people who want to defend their actions.
For people like this, assaulting others is a way of gaining power and control.
Also typical of an abusive personality is the minimization of the behavior. West said, “My friends took a political shot at me, I took a political shot back.” This rationalization that his friends wronged him, therefore, he was justified in retaliating is unacceptable from a person in his position. If this is politics, it is politics at its worst.
Public debate is the cornerstone of a democracy. Personal vendettas compromise the effectiveness of elected representatives to represent the public that elected them.
West stated that the only thing he regrets is having left the threatening message on the answering machine. In the future, he would “corner” the person to deliver the message, thus showing a complete lack of remorse for anything except having been caught. He indicates by that statement that threatening people is acceptable behavior, and he would do it again.
This is unacceptable for anyone, let alone a person in a position of influence and leadership. If you agree, contact his office and tell him that such rude and abusive behavior is unacceptable to you also. Nancy Foll Colville, Wash.
SPOKANE MATTERS
Take incinerator threat seriously
Spokane waste-to-energy plant director Damon Taam suspects that the high 1997 dioxin readings from incinerator unit No. 1 are “probably an anomaly.” It is not at all reassuring that he is prepared to believe desirable (low) stack tests but to discount undesirable (high) results, especially when the scary numbers come from three different test runs over two days.
The Northwest Environmental Education Foundation of Spokane issued a major review of the incinerator earlier this month. Our major findings included:
1. The incinerator costs Spokanites 50 percent above the going market rate for garbage disposal.
2. Although prior stack tests for dioxin and other poisons looked “good,” the tests themselves are inadequate because they can only examine less than 1 percent of annual emissions from non-random conditions.
3. Scientific evidence increasingly shows that there is no safe dioxin exposure level; amazingly tiny quantities of this cancer-causing chemical the top identified source for which is incinerators can also disrupt the human endocrine system controlling growth and development.
If low dioxin emissions test results have questionable validity and minuscule levels may be dangerous, certainly, test results exceeding Spokane County Pollution Control Authority limits warrant extreme concern.
Our city representatives should stop trying to prove the value of an inherently expensive and risky technology. Instead, they should focus on finding safer, less expensive alternatives to burning trash.
While they’re at it, they should support legal and legislative remedies to prevent surrounding communities from pre-empting our representation on the SCAPCA board. Michael M. McCarthy, M.D., president Northwest Environmental Education Foundation, Spokane
Brewer is sacrificing his good name
Linda Lehman’s letter of March 13, “Dirty politics win out,” told that 1,731 citizens of five small towns usurped the rights of 195,000 Spokanites to have their representative on the Spokane County Pollution Control Authority board of directors.
Richard Nixon may be best remembered by, “I am not a crook,” not by his historic opening to China.
Mike Brewer will be remembered as the person who prevented Cherie Rodgers from properly representing the citizens of Spokane on the health issue of clean air, not for his years of caring and unselfish service to our community.
Brewer told me he believes he can fairly represent the citizens of Spokane. This is not the widespread perception.
The citizens of Spokane want democracy and more priority to the health problems suffered by many hundreds of citizens above the marginally increased profits made by a small number of grass growers.
I urge Brewer to do the right thing: appoint Rodgers as his alternate and restore his reputation. K. Julian Powers Spokane
Review neglecting incinerator report
For the past two weeks I have been checking The Spokesman-Review for coverage of the Northwest Environmental Education Foundation’s stunning report on the Spokane incinerator. Published in its entirety recently in the Inlander, I was sure The Spokesman-Review would make note of this comprehensive report on the risks posed to the community by our waste-to-energy plant.
I have often admired The Spokesman-Review’s coverage of regional environmental issues in the past. I am confused by what I see as a glaring omission of information important to our community by two of our most probing regional investigative journalists, Larry Shook and Tim Connor. Kendall G. Feeney Spokane
BUSINESS AND LABOR
Support for nurses says something good
Recent events surrounding the contract negotiations at Sacred Heart Medical Center sent a strong message to this community, and to Sacred Heart’s new CEO, Skip Davis. The message is that no matter how big and important Sacred Heart has become as a regional medical center, and how massive its structure, to countless families in the Inland Northwest, it is our family hospital.
Sister Peter Claver knew this and so do the nurses who care for the patients there as though they were their own family members.
Davis was probably told when he was contemplating moving here that in many ways Spokane functions like a small town. Now he has seen that demonstrated. When something dear to her was threatened, this small town stood up and fought back.
There obviously were many factors which contributed to the success of the contract negotiations between Sacred Heart and the Washington state Nurses’ Association, but the enormous public support for the nurses carried the most impact. For that we not only owe the people of this area great thanks, but we also owe them the very thing they helped us win: the best care we can possibly give. Our new agreement gives us the chance to help ensure this for the future. Caryl J. Lawton, R.N. Spokane
Telemarketing is free communication
This whole telemarketing debate is something of a tempest in a teapot. In a truly free society, unfortunately, it seems that people tend to feel at ease with the concept of approaching others with their ideas, whether it be through some form of communications media or face to face.
If the only abuse of my rights that I have to endure is having people bother me with what they want to say, then I would say I am doing very well indeed. I rather dread the alternative. How long do you imagine we would remain a free society if people could not freely disseminate their ideas? Terrance F. Ball Spokane