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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

Put-down of officials wasn’t funny

I’m sure Jim Kershner thought he was being clever in his Bottom Lines column of March 8 (“Jim Sweetser need not apply”). However, to berate hard-working men and women in this community who are focused on making long-needed changes in some offices of elected officials does a great disservice to us all.

“Union” seems to be a great target word for many. While Kershner and others portray them as some sort of enigma, I would remind you that unions are made up of thousands of working men and women. Working people who are also parents, community volunteers, Girl Scout or Boy Scout leaders, schools aides, soccer moms and dads, Republicans, Democrats, independents and, yes, taxpayers.

A quick survey of the Spokane community will show that the largest constituency here is that of working families. You might be surprised at just how astute working people are in regards to elected officials and about just how well - or not so well - those officials perform their jobs following elections.

I am grateful to those in our community who keep an eye on public officials, remind them of their commitments and, when necessary, alert the rest of us to potential problems.

No, Kershner, these folks aren’t looking to “go to bed with anyone.” They don’t have time to do that. They’re too busy doing their jobs, taking care of their families and paying heed to really important issues that affect all of us. Judith A. Gilmore Spokane

River Park Square - get on with it

I support the River Park Square project and cannot believe that there is any question at this stage of the game - big hole in the ground and all.

It is time to start building! G. David Self Spokane

Fire department does excellent job

On Feb. 25, our business, Thornton & Sons, was victimized by thieves and arsonists. The fire gave new meaning to “Ash Wednesday” for us. It was an experience we had never imagined and hope never to have again.

As traumatizing as it was, it would have been even more distressing if it weren’t for the help of the Spokane City Fire Department. We thank them for their fine work during this emergency.

We very much appreciate the speed with which they answered the call, their professional approach to extinguishing the fire and saving what they could, and their assistance to us in a time of crisis.

More than one fire station responded to the call. We thank all the firefighters who were there on our behalf. Their decisive action, courtesy and clear thinking have given us increased respect for the fire department and the crucial service it provides the community.

Words cannot adequately express our gratitude and appreciation for their efforts. John R. Thornton Spokane

WASHINGTON STATE

Initiative 200 would lock in unfairness

Re: Initiative 200 proposed ballot summary: “This initiative prohibits government from discriminating against or granting preferential treatment to individuals or groups based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in public employment, public education or public contracting …”

Is it preferential treatment to consider someone from another race or background for a job that “typically” white males have had? Or is it because the white male feels threatened? To lose your job to a better-qualified female or minority person isn’t preferential treatment, it’s equality.

If you look closely at this proposition, you’ll see it includes sex and four ways to imply different ethnicities. It makes it seem as if affirmative action is beneficial to mostly “minorities” but it’s not. The beneficiaries are mainly white women.

Many people aren’t aware of the phrase “white privilege” but when that privilege is threatened and they realize it, they will do all that is possible to maintain it.

I haven’t experienced the business world yet but when I do, I want to be at the starting line with the privileged. And the only way to do that is for me and other women and minorities to vote no Initiative 200. Charina L. Carothers Pullman

Why insure others’ bad judgment?

Re: “Bill to keep homes high, dry,” (March 18). People who choose to live in a flood-prone area should be required to obtain their own flood insurance or pay for the damages themselves. They choose to live there and people who do not shouldn’t have to pay for their losses. Lewis L. Capaul Spokane

CREATION VS. EVOLUTION

Creationism fails science tests

Editorial writer D.F. Oliveria would replace physical science with “creation science” in the public schools. To qualify as a scientist, one must: 1) observe nature; 2) explain what one finds in terms of known natural laws; and 3) test all interpretations against the natural world. If they prove correct, they are called scientific theories. If creation “science” would become an acceptable alternative, it must do the same.

Understanding natural science is the first step toward technology. Technology is the field that applies scientific knowledge to the invention of things like color TV, pocket calculators, rockets to Mars and so on. If they work, they verify the scientific theories they’re based on. Creation “science” hasn’t yet tried to qualify in technology.

Creationism’s plea for equal time baffles me. Acceptable science demands convincing evidence. I have never seen either a definition or an example of “alternative science.” Exactly what is it? Why are 98 percent of all biologists (not Oliveria’s unverified 9 percent) evolutionists?

I also wonder why he dropped evolution so abruptly. It seems he couldn’t wait to complain about science’s failure to explain the origin of life. He surely knows that science has never claimed to answer that. Natural science does not study the supernatural, simply because there is no physical way to study God.

Somehow, I am left with the conviction that if Oliveria studied physical science as extensively as I have studied creation “science,” we would be in much closer agreement. Dr. Paul L. Weis U.S. Geological Survey (retired), Spokane

Evolution discredited monkey business

James Downard’s patronizing little piece (Letters, March 24) displays the typical fallacious reasoning and hypocrisy of evolutionists. It is evolutionists , not creationists, who have an elastic definition of “species,” deciding that a finch is a different species than another finch. That this is absurd is evident and to claim that it proves finches evolved from fish is ludicrous.

The same equivocation takes place with the words, “transitional fossil.” Evolutionists mean, a skeleton that can be interpreted as being “like” two separate species, for instance, Archaeopterix is labeled a “reptilian bird” in evolutionist texts. But what Darwin insisted should be available in spades in the fossil record if his theory were valid, is skeletons exhibiting transitional features: limbs graduating between a fin and a leg, or between a forepaw and a wing. However, among hundreds of millions of fossils, such evidence is nonexistent.

In the book “Darwin on Trial” by Professor Philip Johnson, evolution is exposed for the pseudoscience it is, and Richard Milton’s “Shattering the Myths of Darwinism” debunks its evidence. Recent scientific discoveries, as reported in “Darwin’s Black Box” by Dr. Michael J. Behe, prove conclusively that purposeful design, not chance, underlies life on Earth.

Actually, the theory of evolution has stood discredited ever since the discovery of DNA by Crick and Watson. Any scientist who still backs it is a fraud; anyone who still believes it should reflect that this theory literally makes a monkey out of them, before they sign their names to letters defending it. Jitske Hart Spokane

Creation long since shown to be myth

George B. Valentine wants to argue that because scientists have hotly debated evolution, it is now a disproven “myth.”

Evolution has been hotly debated but it is far from disproven or discredited. On the other hand, creationism was proved a myth when modern scientific technology pushed the age of the universe and the Earth back billions of years, the first life forms appearing on the Earth back hundreds of millions of years ago and the existence of man back a million years.

Too bad that creationists don’t care to accept the facts.

While the Rev. Billy Graham’s thoughts can be appreciated, I don’t believe he gets it right. Why would he place on the leaders of our society the special burden of answering for the moral decay found in society? Isn’t this a democracy? Isn’t government supposed to have limits to its authority? Aren’t we, as a people, supposed to have the right and responsibility to make personal decisions and accept accountability for our actions?

If this were a dictatorship, Graham might have a point. But if this country were ruled by a dictator, Graham wouldn’t have the privilege of making this point.

By the way, Christ said a man who would remove the dust from his brother’s eye would see more clearly how to do so by first removing the beam from his own. The people who would judge Clinton for his failures, clearly have failures of their own. Joan E. Harman Couer d’Alene

What faith evolution requires

I, too, believe in evolution!

How else can we reconcile the distinct differences between man and ostriches except by accepting the transitional life form, which I wish to catalogue as “AnthroOstricus,” also known as the Neo-Darwinist or the evolutionary scientist.

The findings in which I base my assertions are the singularly peculiar way in which each species thrust itself headlong into the earth; the Ostrich into the sand, the AnthroOstricus under a mountain of growing evidence dispelling his antiquated views about the origin of species. This, despite the fact that fields from molecular science to astronomy this century and not Darwin’s, have made incredible leaps toward comprehending the enormous complexity of the tiniest bacterial cell to quantitatively measuring the universe itself; formerly thought to be a simple cell in an infinite universe.

Also, many now understand that mathematical reasoning can be applied to calculate the likelihood of a cell forming from inanimate material. Astronomer Sir Fredrick Hoyle has stated the odds are “about the same probability that a tornado sweeping through a junk yard could assemble a 747 from the contents therein.”

Yet AnthroOstricus remains faithful. It takes more faith to believe in spontaneous generation and favorable mutations than in a creator. He continues to bury his head faithfully in search of one, just one, of the infinite number of “missing links” that his scientific model has created.

Now evolution is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of links not seen. Monte P. Sacks Spokane

HEALTH AND SAFETY

Gun safety but not gun product safety?

Robin Ball (Letters, March 21) asserted that “no one wants gun safety more than gun owners, the industry and the NRA.” But Lillian O. Forster (Letters, March 16) doesn’t want firearms included under federal Consumer Product Safety Commission regulations. She prefers that firearms be defective rather than be regulated. If a gun’s safety catch was faulty, that gun couldn’t legally be recalled to be fixed. Accidents can occur, such as misfires, the trigger activating without pressure, etc. Ball’s statement is not true if the National Rifle Association is against product safety regulations applying to firearms. Walter A. Becker Pullman

Always, the cover-ups and denials

Depleted uranium was cited as the cause of the Gulf War illness by a speaker at the Healing Global Wounds meeting at the University of Nevada Oct. 2-12, 1992. Prior to that, it was referred to as the cause by Ramsey Clark in his book, “The Fire This Time.” Only recently has it been mentioned by the news media. Why?

Is this another cover-up, like Agent Orange in Vietnam or of damage done to our people by radiation from nuclear plants, the Nevada test site and atomic bomb? Why the secrecy? This is not fair to our veterans or other people. Furthermore, a government that is not honest with its people breeds distrust, contempt and hostility. LaVerne Kautz Ritzville

IDAHO VIEWPOINTS

Abortion bill an atrocity

Re: “Abortion bill compromise hits House wall,” (March 20). If a parent and teenager have a good relationship, the teenager will seek out the parent’s advice if she becomes pregnant. If the parent and teenager don’t have a good relationship, a traumatic, unplanned pregnancy is not the time to expect a teenager to turn to a parent they don’t trust and can’t communicate with.

As a former nurse who actually worked with teenagers in pregnancy crisis, I find this anti-abortion bill barbaric. It will only encourage a troubled teen to mutilate themselves with a coathanger. It literally prevents the teen from seeking help from an outside source they can communicate with and trust. As someone who has personally seen coathanger mutilation and death among troubled, pregnant teens, I can only say I hope it doesn’t happen to your own daughters. Nancy Lynne Coeur d’Alene

Ditch Kootenai site ordinance

It seems the citizens of Kootenai County have only recently been informed of “Site Disturbance Ordinance 251,” effective Jan. 1, 1997. We find this ordinance to be unfair, and our rights as home and landowners have been infringed upon. As citizens, we should have had the right to vote on this ordinance prior to its adoption on Sept. 15, 1996.

The ability to build or improve our homes or property has been greatly diminished because of the added costs brought on by this ordinance. We hope the county commissioners take our concerns very seriously and either amend or repeal this unfair ordinance.

We believe the citizens of Kootenai County remain uninformed or have been misinformed on this very important ordinance. Teresa M. Clement, president Rimrock Women’s Social Club, Hayden Lake

End exploitation of our forests

Greed - the timber industry’s bottom line. The 400,000 miles of roads in our national forests are not enough. Now, the industry wants to build roads and log the last remaining areas of pristine public forest. These same timber corporations have already polluted most of the streams and decimated once-abundant native fisheries in areas they have logged and put roads through.

This situation is out of control. The Forest Service admits it lacks funds to properly maintain 75 percent of existing forest roads, yet it continues to pay corporations to build more. As a result, forest roads collapse, further polluting public streams.

After timber interests are finished logging, they walk away with their profits, leaving it to taxpayers to clean up their mess. This greed-driven destruction is one reason a growing number of conservation groups, individuals and congressional representatives are calling for an end to commercial logging in national forests.

It is worth noting that all this road building and clearcutting on federal forests provides only 4 percent of the wood products consumed in this country. If we stop damaging our national forests now, they will come back and provide future generations clean water, fresh air, beautiful vistas, wild fish and an abundance of diverse wildlife.

Contact the Forest Service and your congressional representatives. Tell them it’s time to stop the destruction of your lands and to end commercial logging on national forests. Barry Rosenberg Priest River, Idaho