Letters To The Editor

IDAHO VIEWPOINTS

Ruin Tubbs Hill, you ruin everything

I was born and raised in Coeur d’Alene. Coeur d’Alene will always be my hometown and I care what happens to it. I return several times a year to visit friends and family. I also go there for the beaches.

But sadly, every time I return, I see a little less forest and a few more buildings across the lake. Even so, Tubbs Hill crowns the city like a giant green emerald faceted on a sparkling lake. Tubbs Hill is what makes Coeur d’Alene beautiful and unique.

Now, I understand someone wants to build a five-story condominium on the east side of Tubbs Hill. This is such a ridiculous notion that I’m amazed and disappointed that it can be seriously discussed as a viable possibility. Why has the City Council and planning commission allowed this repulsive plan to fester this long?

The city by the lake is losing its charm as developments ooze across the county. I fear that one day the unbridled building will ruin the way the city looks , undermine the quality of life, lose its appeal to tourists and that will ultimately and irreparably hurt the economy. No one will go there for the natural beauty and recreation when it’s gone.

It’s time to take a good hard look at where this trail the city is trotting down will lead us. This isn’t a small-scale zoning change that will affect only one neighborhood. This is a major mutation that threatens the entire appearance of the Lake City! This putrid condominium project must be stopped for the well-being of everyone. Steven Wade Bell Port Angeles, Wash.

Many help driver safety effort

According to a study done by the Johns Hopkins Injury Prevention Center, the leading cause of injury death in young people to age 19 in Idaho is motor vehicle/traffic incidents. Alcohol is a factor in many of these deaths.

With this in mind, the Post Falls Fire District coordinated a mock drunk driving fatality collision on the Post Falls Jr. High football field. The demonstration, called Operation Graduation Night, was presented to the seniors at Post Falls High school. This true-to-life demonstration gave the students information on consequences of not wearing seat belts, injuries and death that can be sustained as a result of drinking and driving, sentencing and financial responsibility of a drunk driver.

This valuable presentation would not have been possible without the eager participation of numerous agencies, including The Post Falls School District and maintenance crew, members of Idaho Drug Free Youth and the Drug Free Fly Fishing Club, the principal and teachers at Post Falls High School, Smithson Towing and Recovery, Post Falls Ambulance and Rescue, the Post Falls City Police Department and Idaho State Police, Kootenai County paramedics, Todd Tondee at Little Caesar’s Pizza and the crew at Post Falls Fire District.

It was a pleasure working with all of you. Ramona Mobbs public education specialist, Post Falls Fire Protection District

‘Heat’ show portrays whites as jerks

I would like to complain about the television program, “In the Heat of the Night.” Thanks to the Atlanta and Chicago channels, it is on several times a week. Except for the sheriff (Carroll O’Connor) and his deputy, all the white people on the show are obnoxious fools, jerks and bigots. What does the Kootenai County Task Force and the Coalition for Human Rights have to say about a program like this? John A. Clark Bonners Ferry

LAW ENFORCEMENT

Cover-up of killer inexcusable

I read the guest column (Roundtable, May 13) regarding the botched murder investigation of 13-year-old Russ Evans. I’m appalled and shocked at the callousness of a police department that would allow the protection of some of their snitches over the welfare of the people they have sworn to protect and defend.

Apparently, because of their protection, a murderer has been allowed to run free, even brag about getting away with it. A family has lost a son, and now lost a father to depression and suicide because he couldn’t cope with the cover-up and the loss. The people of the city of Spokane have that much less reason to respect the officers of this police department.

I can understand protecting a snitch from other criminals in order to get information, but standing between them and honest citizens to protect them from justice is an outrage. It’s a license to kill, maim or steal.

Someone has made a serious mistake, and they should be reprimanded. The authorities who gave their permission or merely turned their heads while it went on should also be censured. This must stop.

The police department should do a thorough investigation of the previous investigation and bring justice for this poor family. Jan A. Slama Spokane

Police right in pursuing Kraft

Re: “Family investigates fatal chase” (May 22).

Call off the pursuit? No way. The police are out there to protect the law-abiding people of Spokane and keep the crazy drivers (or riders) off of our streets.

When they see someone running red lights and jeopardizing the lives of other drivers, they need to arrest them right away, not pick them up the next day.

Christopher Kraft shouldn’t have been out there on the streets. He didn’t have a valid driver’s license. He already had a felony hit-and-run charge out against him.

Kraft is the only one to blame for his fate. He chose to run red lights and not pull over when the police tried to stop him. He ran and caused his death. His family has no one to blame but him. To try and make it sound like the police did something wrong is sad. People make choices. Kraft made a poor one. Steven D. Reynolds Spokane

VIOLENCE

Corporal punishment prevents murder

When I was a child going to school on Idaho Hill and Newport, children did not have the right to be offended by any adult action (remember, respect your elders). We all had access to firearms but the thought of “getting even” by killing parents, teachers and classmates would not have entered our minds.

We did not have that right.

Reflecting on the recent killing of teachers, parents and fellow class members by children requires a very critical look at the Dr. Spock generation and child rights issues. I suggest the very best thing that could happen is to throw out the psychiatrists, psychologists and mental health workers who promote the drugging and the creating of new syndromes for all perceived behavioral problems by our children.

The threat to Mrs. Trenholm recently in Sandpoint is a local case in point. We students of yesteryear would have been propelled into the sickroom by our teacher and Principal Alberta Clark, and given a few whacks with the rubber hose - an action reserved for the most serious offenses.

Due to the influence of the above-listed self-serving groups, children know that should anyone attempt to discipline them in any serious matter, all they have to do is call 911 and scream, “Abuse!”.

Face the facts: children can be very evil and devious. They need guidance and discipline by parents and teachers, not self-serving social engineers. Bring back the hose and God to our homes and schools. Gary Tucker Oldtown, Idaho

CONSUMER AFFAIRS

Playing lawyer card gets results

I, too, had a similar situation as Peggy Harriman (Letters, May 18). My husband and I had purchased a new pickup in July 1996. We had made one payment when my husband died unexpectedly.

I received a phone call telling me I was behind in my payments. I told them my husband had passed away and we had credit life insurance. Of course, they said we didn’t, so I told them my attorney would take care of the situation.

The lady on the phone said she could give me an 800 number to call. I told her my attorney would call it.

Needless to say, the next week I received the title to the pickup, plus a refund check for over $3,000.

I have often wondered how many people are ripped off in situations like this, especially women and elderly people. Vera Moore Spokane

WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY

One can be free of chronic boozers

In some of the media discussions about the Washington State University riot, binge alcoholism has been referred to as a “rite of passage.” School drinking rules interfered with this “rite of passage,” so runs the reasoning, therefore, the public drunkenness and rioting. This makes it sound like drunkenness is one of the inevitable obligations in the task of growing up.

I spent my undergraduate years at WSU when drinking rules were rather rigidly observed on campus, at least in my fraternity, and when the drinking age was lower in Idaho. The major recreation of my fraternity brethren was to go to Idaho for beer and pizza, to return to campus sick and drunk, to vomit, and to pass out with their heads in the toilet.

I did not see in their behavior a rite of passage. I saw them as desperately unhappy young people.

Since I did not drink, I was isolated among them and surely every bit as unhappy as they may have been.

In my last year at WSU, I moved out of the fraternity, lost most contact with its members and met a happy bunch of students with intellectual and social interests beyond drinking. I participated with them in various extracurricular activities which complemented our academic and intellectual interests. It was a glorious year, probably what a good collegiate experience should have been like all along.

I lived among binge alcoholics at WSU for three years because I was simply too dumb to know there was an alternative. No one else should pass their undergraduate years that way. Wayne B. Kraft Spokane

THE ENVIRONMENT

Tribe should end the bad publicity

Thank you, Coeur d’Alene Tribe Chairman Ernie Stensgar, for sharing your thoughts in a recent editorial section. I agree that “cooler heads” should prevail in the Lake Coeur d’Alene Superfund debate. But why haven’t you gotten this point across to your public relations chief?

How can we trust the tribe when your publicity wheel spins stories in the national media (U.S. News & World Report) that scare Americans into believing we live near a “crystal clear dead zone,” - Lake Coeur d’Alene?

How many more reporters will your press secretary bring out here to feed false stories of gloom and despair? Even your web site (www.cdahistory.com.land3htm) gives the impression that Lake Coeur d’Alene is a “toxic soup.” Stensgar, you say you cannot control quotes or dictate how a federal agency conducts business. Why, then, has the Environmental Protection Agency claimed the tribes “pressure” “strongly influenced” its decision to be here? Why are tribe members pictured in nearly every negative, hateful article published in Coeur d’Alene? Past stories unfairly smearing North Idaho have appeared in the Washington Post, High Country News, Wall Street Journal, New York Times and other publications. All were orchestrated by your press agent.

If you truly are committed to protecting this region and improving its environment, why not commit to ending your national negative public relations campaign? As a leader of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, you can be quite helpful making sure cooler heads do prevail, and that constructive, cooperative progress takes place. Mic W. Armon Coeur d’Alene

OTHER TOPICS

We have democracy, not theocracy

I have to agree with Lyssa J. Gooch (Letters, May 21) that abortion is wrong, but I believe it’s wrong for me, not everyone.

Gooch stated, “You can dress up your ideas about women’s rights and aborted fetuses with all kinds of flowery rhetoric, but killing a baby is still killing a baby, and that just isn’t what God intended for us to do.” Perhaps it isn’t, but she fails to understand that abortion being against her beliefs doesn’t merit the introduction of a law.

Gooch is the one twisting the meaning of the Constitution. Separation of church and state is a clear and important part of the Constitution because our founding fathers had the wisdom to know that a country governed by a church will cease to function as a democracy.

I wish people would think before they start calling for reform based solely on their personal beliefs. Personal morals will always play some part in political policy making, but it should be minimal. There are thousands of single pregnant women who can’t support themselves, much less a baby who will demolish any hope of making an independent life for themselves. Why should our country force a belief system on these girls who have few options as it is?

I think abortion is a sad and terrible thing, but I don’t want to deprive others of it, either. We are supposed to have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In order for these rights to be available for everyone, we need to practice tolerance and compromise. Katherine I. Sombret, 17 Moscow, Idaho

Finally, the ‘chairman’ got on board

Frank Sinatra’s dying has prompted me to reflect on my own life. He was my contemporary, albeit my senior by 12 years. Singers like Sinatra, Jo Stafford, Bing Crosby, Eddie Arnold, Nat King Cole and the still living Perry Como and Andy Williams have gifted me with pleasure, relaxation and helped me to define and romanticize my own life.

For years I was saddened because Sinatra was perhaps unwittingly the singing icon of the doing-it-my-way generation, the card of the Ayn Rand-egoism-narcissist generation. The world view that is so self-defeating and self-destructive.

My sadness is now joy, but not because Sinatra has died. I rejoice at the manner of his dying. At the end, bottom line, when the “rubber hit the road” on his life’s journey, he acknowledged that doing it my way is self-defeating and self-destructive. With joy, Sinatra accepted the wise loving ways of the Lord and died a happy death.

The song in his heart as he left us was that of the Lord’s (and Eddie Arnold): “Welcome to my world. Won’t you come on in? Miracles still happen, even now and then.” With Sinatra, we celebrate love. James J. Flynn Spokane

Those who ‘know best’ don’t

Government of, by and for the people has given way to government of the people by the experts to the people.

Case in point: Our forebears eliminated grizzlies and wolves because they didn’t want them here. Washington, D.C., experts say we must have them whether or not we want them, so they spend $15,000 per animal to capture them in Canada and put them in our Northwest. Why don’t they import them into the District of Columbia if they love them so much?

Case in point: Fish are more important than people. Experts will tear down Snake River dams, double electricity costs, destroy farmers’ routines - all to save a bunch of fish, when they aren’t going extinct because millions of them run up and down Alaska and British Columbia waters.

Case in point: Coeur d’Alene Lake is a happy and placid body of water. All the mine refuse has been washed away or settled to the bottom. Now the experts are planning to roil up the lake bottom and foul up the lake so it will be a mess for 15 or 20 years before it recovers from their attack.

How long will it be until the events in Indonesia occur in America? C.F. Brenton Spokane