Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

Thorpe Road project still a menace

City Hall may have overreached for tax revenues when it issued fast-track permits for the Mission Springs mega-apartment complex on Thorpe Road. The state’s Department of Transportation issued a poor grade on the project, reflecting warnings about dramatically increased traffic through a pair of narrow, early century, one-truck railroad tunnels that exit onto Highway 195, the scene of many injury and fatal accidents.

Combine inadequate traffic design and increased population with the area’s dry forests, the potential for a real fire disaster looms. Imagine Thorpe and Grandview area residents fleeing east through the narrow tunnels, while westbound emergency vehicles attempt to enter the Thorpe Road area.

Also, how accommodating has the city been in allowing a 20-year-old EPA study to be used and accepted in this area of natural springs and private wells. The same developer hopes to quiet this concern by renaming the current replacement project Canyon Bluff. Common sense and planning seem lacking, with the project yards away from heavy rail traffic. Similarly located projects have evolved into tax-subsidized, low-income HUD apartments.

We wonder that because the mayor and City Council received so many legitimate complaints that it overrode City Hall permits and now, by the state courts, is found to be monetarily liable for overstepping authority in delaying the Mission Springs project. I hope the city won’t be quietly blackmailed by the project’s developers into a quick approval of the Canyon Bluff complex. The city should also ponder potential criminal negligence lawsuits from area residents. What is a resident’s life and well-being worth? Mike Carpenter Spokane

Developer’s motives, methods clear

The California developer who insists on building almost 800 new apartments at the Thorpe Road entrance of two tunnels that are so narrow two trucks won’t fit through at the same time, and about 100 yards from one of the most dangerous highway intersections in Spokane, is so upset by the fact that just about everyone in Spokane (including the City Council) thinks this is a really bad idea, that he is willing to sue the city until he gets his way.

Why would we allow someone who lives 1,000 miles away to dictate to our City Council how we should develop our city?

If this fellow is willing to enlarge the tunnels and create a safer and more free-flowing traffic situation at the highway intersection (out of the outrageous profits he intends to make on the development), then he should be allowed to go ahead. But my experience tells me he would prefer that the good people of Spokane foot the bill or suffer the consequences. Steve Simmons Spokane

WASHINGTON STATE

Schindler in self, not public, service

Shame on Lynn Schindler for accepting the appointment to the House of Representatives. With only a short time left in the legislative term and the Legislature out of session, there is nothing for her to do but use the position to posture and fund her campaign.

It is ironic that Schindler says she will fight for a lower tax burden for families while she is accepting a tax-funded salary for doing very little. In her announcement article she acknowledges that most of the year’s legislative work is done. Why is she then wasting our tax dollars?

Maybe the truth is that she is talking a good talk but continuing with politics as usual. She has paid her political dues to her local party and now they are repaying her with this position. I hope Schindler will lead by example and refuse this unearned income. Do we really want our tax money used to fund her campaign? Dan P. Coyle Spokane

Don’t manage gender equity, teach

I was scanning the letters today (April 28) and read one concerning Take Your Daughter to Work Day. The author listed her title as gender equity manager, Community Colleges of Spokane.

My curiosity stirred, I phoned the administrative office of the community colleges for some information about this position. A kind lady attempted to explain the job description. It was incomprehensible to me. She then offered to fax me a copy of the job description, which I received several minutes later. It’s still incomprehensible.

However, there are some details that are understandable. First, this position pays almost $33,000 per year. Second, it is not a classroom position. Third, it does zero to support any legitimate learning program with which I am familiar.

There is seldom a week that goes by where we don’t read that our kids are falling further behind other countries in learning basic skills, accompanied by grave warnings that we need to spend more money on education. Well, maybe we just need to spend the money we have a little more wisely.

I’ll bet that if you asked 100 people which they’d prefer, one new teacher in the classroom teaching a basic skill such as math or science, with money left over, or one gender equity manager, 90 or more of them would vote for the classroom teacher.

Perhaps we should look at our state education budget a little more carefully to see just how many gender equity managers our taxes are buying. Hal R. Dixon Spokane

DAUGHTERS DAY

Valuable, albeit in a perverse way

April 23 was Take Our Daughters to Work Day, wherein girls are taken out of school to view their parents’ places of work. Judging from my own experience, young girls do not benefit greatly from this holiday.

The only thing that I ever learned was that my parents probably chose the two most mind-meltingly boring professions imaginable. After spending hours watching my mother count pills at a counter I couldn’t see over and playing with the blueprint machine at my dad’s office, I could hardly see myself getting through the day, let alone spend my entire life as a pharmacist or architect.

On the other hand, now that I know I am completely incompatible with these two occupations, I will not make the mistake of choosing to spend time and money preparing for them. That security could make those two days of painful boredom worthwhile after all. Erin-Rose Rundquist, age 16 Spokane

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Satisfied with miasma it creates

A recent Spokesman-Review article reported that not only do American citizens distrust their governments’ employees, but many government workers lack confidence in the private citizens’ knowledge of government matters.

In large part, the media were blamed. It was suggested, “If the press, radio and TV did a better job, a more constructive dialogue would pertain.” I disagree.

Many of us make a conscientious effort to understand governments’ workings. The IRS is a case in point. Moreover, as a doctor dealing with Medicare, and a private pilot dealing with the FAA, I’m familiar with the regulations issued by those agencies. I find that often their voluminous and puzzling pronouncements can be less than helpful in achieving the desired results. Harsh injunctions, insisting that one had better comply with these regs or else, work for a while, but eventually, sheer exasperation upsets the patience of the most assiduous inquirer.

It’s impossible to write sufficient regulation and law to cover all the eventualities befalling humankind - not that government doesn’t try. There seems to be an intentional ambiguity which characterizes too much of this material, and the consequences are unpleasant. The variety of “correct” answers one receives to a given inquiry is worrisome. We must admit that the law is being broken regularly, albeit unintentionally.

Thus, there is a predicable reluctance to go along with a lot of this. Government may claim it’s misunderstood, but surely a more efficient exchange would result if this game were simplified. Sadly, the current mindset seems to thrive on the distrust fueled by unnecessary obfuscation. Jon A. Holloway, M.D. Spokane

We need quality people in office

Why do we keep looking for solutions to replace the real need for men of integrity in our government? I often read articles on the need for term limits, why term limits will not work, etc. It seems that those who propose term limits as a solution want the rascals back out of office before they learn how to use the power that they have been elected to.

Those who reject term limits seem to understand that we live in a very technical world and require experienced technocrats in government office. Isn’t the real solution electing men who are committed to a service of integrity?

We should not be so cynical as to not believe that these men are in our communities all over the country. We can insist that those who throw their hats into various political rings demonstrate a lifestyle that offers a level of comfort to the electorate. Let’s encourage those who believe that America’s greatness is due to those in our history who believed that we are “one nation under God.” Let’s put more like them into the political process. Russ D. Brown Mead

OTHER TOPICS

Church failed to mind its language

I want to thank your good paper for enlightening me about the meaning of “cum ba ya.” I went into my church one Sunday and heard guitars playing and someone singing this phrase over and over. Now, I read in your paper that it is Gullah dialect ( a dialect of Africans who live on islands off the coast of Georgia) and means “come by here.”

As I have never studied this dialect or been on the islands off the coast of Georgia, I apologize for my ignorance. As I could not say my prayers in this dialect and worship Christ, and not the god of liberalism, I went home to say my prayers. Adell Cook Spokane

Race-based testing was cruel, pointless

Regarding the March 18 article, “Test on minorities criticized as racist,” I agree that the subjects were biasedly chosen. Scientists were testing on low-income, minority children whose brothers were juvenile delinquents.

In the study, children were given a harmful fenfluramine (the “fen” in fen phen) and kept in bed for five yours. Then ,they weren’t fed for a least 17 hours and had many blood samples taken. This is not only cruel, it is unhealthy. All this was done on innocent children whose brothers made unlawful decisions.

This study offered no medical benefits. All it would prove was minority children are “predisposed” to be violent some day. Scientists are searching for the roots of violence in kids that don’t have a history of misbehavior.

This study was done only on African-American and Hispanic children. Do scientists believe only these races have anger problems?

Anger is a trait all races have. It’s an emotion and every human handles theirs differently. Leila J. Summers Spokane

Cars, guns have different purposes

To Darrel Zorn’s proposition that shooting a weapon and driving an automobile are somehow analogous, I must take gentle exception.

The utility and beneficial effects of driving an automobile, although not without negative aspects, far outweigh the suffering caused by the inevitable accidents. Firearms, conversely, are designed for one function only, the taking of life. Regardless of one’s position relative to the issues of hunting, gun control, gun safety, etc., that fact should be clear.

Let’s put this specious argument to rest forever.

As an afterthought, I’m thinking the time may be right for the National Rifle Association to deflect some of the heat it’s been taking with a new propaganda campaign aimed (sorry) at the real source of the mayhem we read about all too often. I’ll even offer what I think should be the new battle cry for this campaign: “Guns don’t kill people, bullets do.” Roger T. Bogley Nine Mile Falls