Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

Let’s put recall on city agenda

I was stunned to read that a majority of our City Council did not support Sen. Lisa Brown’s amendment to the state Clean Air Act. It would have given Spokane fair representation on the local air quality board. As things stand, Spokane County’s 10 small towns choose the city’s representative.

The council’s inaction raises some disturbing questions.

Why wouldn’t our elected officials advocate for the city having its own voice? Why are they acting in direct opposition to the people they were elected to serve? Whose interests are they representing?

Perhaps the citizens of Spokane should recall all council members except Cherie Rodgers, Rob Higgins and Mayor John Talbott, and hold a special election.

Let’s kick the bums out!

Heidi M. Gann Spokane

Tree ordinance goes overboard

The Park Board’s proposed tree ordinance is too oppressive.

Spokane can certainly use an ordinance that encourages people to care for street trees. Perhaps as many as 5 percent to 10 percent of our street trees have been ruined by bad pruning. Let’s teach people not to do that any more, perhaps even fine them if they persist.

The flip side, of course, is that 90 percent to 95 percent of us are maintaining our trees satisfactorily. The currently drafted ordinance, however, assures that the innocent will not go unpunished.

The drafters, mostly arborist and parks department folks, have reviewed their work with the public but refuse to make the draft reflect the public’s desires. When citizens tried to give input at the public hearing, they were told to limit their comments to two minutes. The committee didn’t flinch when told that citizens would get five minutes to deal with the issue when it goes before the City Council. They chose to send it to council without further change, even though two of their own members requested a delay for further improvement.

Each non-arborist citizen said Spokane needed this kind of ordinance but some problems need to be fixed before the draft becomes acceptable. One major drawback is that you will need to buy a permit to prune a two-inch branch from your own street tree. Fees will help underwrite the city’s inspection of your work.

The ordinance drafters seem convinced that they love our trees more than we do. If that were true, wouldn’t the money be flowing in the opposite direction? Mickey Thompson Spokane

Give the tree-friendly more support

Re: The Spokane Park Board’s urban forest program.

Since trees along residential streets are an asset to the whole community, why make it difficult and expensive for the homeowner to plant and maintain the trees?

I suggest city officials provide trees for free (or at a bargain price) to any homeowner willing to plant them in the parking strip; provide free pruning advice and, if the homeowner chooses, a bargain-rate (subsidized) pruner; and haul leaves away free.

That would be a good investment in Spokane’s future. William P. Safranek Spokane

Plaza display sends wrong messages

As a twisted form of pop art, an illuminated message board was installed in the Spokane Transit Authority Plaza by the Cheney Cowles Museum. This board continually flashes various messages, some of which seem to have been written by Aryan Nations skinheads (“Violence is sometimes permissible” and “War is a purification rite”).

These are just two examples of the negative propaganda being disseminated to impressionable young people who pass through this place and certainly do not need to be bombarded with negative messages.

I can’t begin to imagine what purpose this serves. It’s not art, it’s just idiocy. Dorothy Carter Spokane

HEALTH AND SAFETY

Rinsing is not washing your hands

Re: The recent hepatitis scare in Spokane.

In hygiene class many years ago, the teacher made a graphic test for the students on how one should wash their hands.

She set out a pan of gelatinous matter for each student and then had us put our hands on the gelatin before we washed them. Of course, a lot of bacteria showed up. Then, she had us wash in cold water. It was a little better but still did not come clear. Then, we washed in plain warm water and it was a little better still. It wasn’t perfect until we washed with hot water and soap.

This is something the general public as well as the Spokane County Health Department should know, as I have seen several signs in restrooms that say, “Wash your hands before leaving.” But they don’t say to wash with warm water and soap.

I see many people just slip their hands under the cold water faucet and go away thinking they have washed their hands. This does not take care of the bacteria. Ruth Randrup Spokane

TOLERANCE/INTOLERANCE

Acid test for Butler: a road show

It’s again time for the Aryan Nations to apply for a parade permit. I suggest that Richard Butler step out of the shadows and bring his act to Spokane.

I commend our neighbors in North Idaho who have been carrying the torch against Butler’s ignorance for years. The great majority of North Idaho people are fair minded and tolerant, as evidenced by the several organizations in that area developed to promote those virtues.

Similarly impressive is the collection of 500 signatures from Rathdrum-area residents who are fed up with Butler’s brand of racism. Thousands of Washington people support them.

I invite Butler and his minority to apply for a permit to parade down the streets of Spokane. It takes no bravery to jackboot around his compound and thrust his arm into the quiet forest air of North Idaho. If Butler is so sure his brand of hate is the seed of a white homeland in the Northwestern United States, why doesn’t he take his show on the road, where the world can see how the vast majority in this part of the country feel about his movement?

Does the thought of thousands of citizens lining the parade route with their backs to his parade unnerve him? Is he afraid it would put a kink in his recruiting or that such a parade would generate huge sums of money to finance the anti-hate movement?

Please, Butler, give us an opportunity to peacefully tell you what your North Idaho neighbors have been telling you for years: your 15 minutes are up. Thomas P. Robinson Spokane

Prescription for protest would backfire

The March 7 letter by Dorothy Willis, which stated that the only way to counteract the Aryan march in Coeur d’Alene is to line the streets with minorities and not allow any room for Caucasians, implies that all Caucasians are supporters of the Aryans.

That is completely untrue. I am Caucasian, yet I strongly disagree with the Aryans’ view of white supremacy.

By suggesting to line the streets with only minority protesters, Willis is clearly judging others based on appearances rather than philosophical beliefs. She should encourage all people who oppose the Aryans to protest against them, for if she excludes Caucasians, she herself would become a separatist.

Furthermore, lining the streets with only people of minorities would send a strong message to the Aryans that the white population supports them. The Aryan Nations needs to see that their beliefs are not acceptable to all people, including others of their own race. Corey K. Mullen Spokane

Aryan sympathies sadly limited

While I think what happened to Richard Butler’s dog was inexcusable, I just wish he and his co-nutsies felt the same compassion for the “human animal.” Charlene Luzynski Blanchard, Idaho

Violence shouldn’t come as surprise

Re: “Aryan’s dog killed, mutilated,” (March 17).

Too bad for him. After some of the things his group has said in the past, Butler acts surprised that this kind of thing happens.

The Aryans are an embarrassment to people from that area who have moved to other places because their job required it, and when you mention home, people bring them up. Eric Strandberg Cheney

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Support bill for credit union access

The most recent edition of Prime Times, a bimonthly publication for retired people who are members of federal credit unions, informed its readers of increasing efforts of banks to limit the right of persons to belong to credit unions.

The Credit Union Campaign for Consumer Choice, in an attempt to achieve legislative relief from the attack of the bankers, has succeeded in getting 130 congressmen to co-sponsor HR1151, the Credit Union Membership Access Act. The bill will need a minimum of 218 favorable votes for passage.

Although the bankers are continuing their attacks on federal credit unions, the latest Gallup poll reports that customer satisfaction of credit union members has risen from 69 to 73 percent, while the satisfaction of consumers with banks has dropped to 53 percent.

I urge all credit union members who read this letter to e-mail, write or phone their legislators to express their support of HR1151. Fred J. Meyer Coulee Dam, Wash.

Immigration laws lacking

Re: “Swallow an elephant, choke on a gnat?” (Opinion, March 18).

The United States was certainly built by immigrants, but so were other countries: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa. When I checked on the subject about 12 years ago, all the countries I listed had immigration policies that reflected their needs. South Africa, for instance, would only allow immigration of people who could prove they had a job offer in South Africa. Yes, the embassy helped in obtaining lists of various positions, but the applicant had to go from there.

Immigration in the United States is governed by rules that certainly don’t work for the benefit of this nation. The Sierra Club is absolutely right to point out that the yearly quotas themselves are unreasonably high.

Is William Wong scared by “nationalistic tendencies?” If those tendencies translated into policies that would benefit America, what is wrong with them?

What is asked of people who want to immigrate to the U.S.? Not much: to be part of a certain group from a certain nation (political immigrants) or to be patient and wait for years, sometimes in vain.

Nations have quotas and that is the cornerstone of the policy. Does fluency in English make a difference? Skills? Education? Age? A real sponsor? Except for minor exceptions, the answer is no. We don’t have to admire Pat Buchanan to see the consequences and call for a change. Peter C. Dolina Veradale

Make campaign reform for real

I agree with Steve Thosath’s opinion regarding the Washington Education Association’s use of members’ dues without their permission (“WEA gets comeuppance at last,” Letters, March 12), but why stop there?

For campaign finance reform to be meaningful, it must be applied equally to all participants. Why not outlaw all contributions except those made by individuals? Let the unions, corporations and endless associations try to affect legislation with logic and reason if they can. Outlaw all soft money. No exceptions. No complexity.

To single out any one group and ignore the others is nothing more than the same old garbage in the pitiful guise of “reform.” J. Andy James Colville, Wash.

OTHER TOPICS

Thomas reveals what he’s like

In his syndicated column of March 11, attacking Rev. Billy Graham and President Clinton, Cal Thomas tells us more about himself than about his adversaries.

Purporting to be a Christian, Thomas rationalizes away several essential tenets of Jesus’ teaching.

The Christian is required to forgive everybody he feels may have wronged him. We are told in the Lord’s Prayer that we will be forgiven only to the same extent that we have forgiven others. This must be a blanket forgiveness, not a picking and choosing of what we will and will not forgive.

Our forgiveness is not to be confused with absolution, which is a power not granted to ordinary Christians. Despite Thomas’ claim that only God can forgive sin, we know Jesus conferred this power on his apostles.

Citing Jewish refusal to forgive the perpetrators of the Holocaust is meaningless. The doctrine of forgiveness was unknown before the teaching of Jesus.

Thomas, with no more evidence than the allegations we have all heard, declares the president “guilty.” This violates Jesus’ frequent injunction that we are not permitted to judge our fellow men, as well as the citizen’s constitutional right to a presumption of innocence. In this respect, it should also be noted that some of the most damning allegations, like Troopergate and the semen-stained dress, have been proved false.

If Thomas knows anything about the powers of the chief executive, he has to know that access to FBI files is one of them. The files in question were not “purloined.”

And we are still not allowed to “bear false witness.” Edward B. Keeley Spokane

Creationist exhibits facts deficit

Editorial writer D.F. Oliveria’s fascinating defense of creationism’s scientific stature again illustrates why it has none. Following the common creationist mistake of confusing the origin of life (still quite an open question) with its subsequent evolution, he offered apropos the latter exactly two examples.

Desperate for any scrap of ammunition, creationists latch onto Jay Gould’s consideration of the pace of evolution to intimate he believed there are no fossil intermediates at all. Even a casual reading of Gould’s books or monthly articles in Natural History shows this to be an egregious misrepresentation.

Such bald appeals to authority aside, though, not only do transitional fossils exist (and Gould has written about them), but Oliveria ought to know of some, since I recently drew his attention specifically to the progressively mammalian therapsids.

More serious is Oliveria’s attribution of the Galapagos finch beaks to merely “variations within species,” when in fact they involve distinct species. By changing the term, creationists strive to wriggle past how natural processes transcend the supposedly inviolable species barrier (by similar precision erasure, one might “prove” Jesus Christ was really Genghis Khan).

Oliveria is so unfamiliar with the literature, he has no way of recognizing such misstatements when he reads them.

Is this the brand of “science” he endeavors to include in the public schools? What a revealing example he affords us. James Downard Spokane

Good some are still into decency

Thanks to Jim Patrick for his input regarding the president’s alleged conduct (Letters, March 16). It’s comforting to know that there are men who understand the meaning of decency, honor and example. He expressed very well many of the thoughts which have crossed my own mind.

Another thought for those “who cares?” citizens. If you or a loved one were to experience sexual harassment on the job, then would you care? Donya M. Kemp Spokane