Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

Pumpkins meant something special

Anyone driving on the Freya Street hill on Nov. 1 couldn’t help but notice all the smashed jack O’lanterns on the sides of the street. I’m sure the people who gathered (stole) them from all over the neighborhood had a great time bowling them down the hill. I’d like to tell each of those people the story of my little girl.

Ali is 4 years old. On the second day of preschool, she and her classmates went on a bus to Green Bluff. This was a big adventure for all the kids. They got to pick an apple right off the tree and go into the pumpkin patch to pick their very own pumpkins. Ali carried that pumpkin around the house for days. She took it in the car with her and wanted it in her bedroom at night.

Finally, on Halloween afternoon, she drew one more face on her pumpkin and Daddy helped her carve her jack O’lantern. She had such a good time. Her big sister carved one, too. We put candles in them, took pictures and put them out on the porch. She loved the way it turned out and how it glowed in the dark.

On Sunday morning, both of the girls’ pumpkins were gone. Ali woke up and wanted to look at her pumpkin. When I told her someone had taken it, she looked up at me with those big, brown eyes and sadly asked, “Mommy, why would somebody do that?” I didn’t have a good answer for her.

I wonder if the pumpkin smashers do? Lori Daisley Spokane

District scheme not what we need

With some frequency, great pearls of wisdom can be found in the comic strips, as happened recently when Dilbert asks, “Why do the worst ideas always have the noblest-sounding reasons?”

This applies to the new effort to elect City Council members by district - a truly bad idea.

A great city is more than a collection of neighborhoods. There should be significant organizations, structures and sprit that transcend district boundaries, such as the symphony, Opera House, Arena, chambers of commerce, economic development efforts, and charitable and corporate headquarters.

Election by district could easily lead us down the path to the ward politics of yesteryear. Instead, we need to elect the absolutely best people available who have a vision of the community as a whole, casting aside the notion that the location of their residence automatically clouds that vision. They need the mandate of the entire electorate.

Within the last few years we’ve seen how individuals have promoted their own self-interest at the expense of the overall community. Some folks don’t really care about how big or small the puddle is, they just want to be the big frog in it. We don’t need to perpetuate and institutionalize that type of thinking. Frank H. Storey Spokane

LAW ENFORCEMENT

Better service up to citizens, officials

I see many letters complaining about the Spokane Police Department: lack of response, not investigating property crimes, catching red light runners or speeders, not getting to accidents promptly.

The department has 287 officers to cover four sectors, seven days a week, 24 hours a day. This breaks down to fewer than 15 officers on the street at any given time. Not very many!

When you consider the police average one domestic violence call per hour and over 50,000 auto accidents per year, we need more officers. Most cities this size have more than two officers per 1,000 people, vs 1.5 here. If the City Council were to fund the police proportionally with other cities, we would have 100 more officers. This would go a long way toward solving people’s complaints.

There are several things we can do to help solve this problem:

Have the City Council allocate a set percentage of the city’s budget for the police, similar to the Parks and Recreation budget.

Go to City Council meetings and request a larger allocation for the police, especially the next few weeks when the council is voting on next year’s budget.

Vote in an operations and maintenance levy for the police, similar to the fire department’s budget.

Get our state legislators to increase the state portion for police funding.

Let’s get together and figure out ways to get more of our money for the police department. It’s all a matter of priorities. We may need to reallocate them, vote for more taxes or do both. Wayne Lythgoe Colbert

BUSINESS AND LABOR

Steelworkers, don’t run Kaiser off

I feel for both sides in the Kaiser strike. My ex-husband and son have been both union members and company employees, and both sides have some valid arguments.

But the fact remains that it is very difficult to make anywhere near $30,000 a year in this town without a specialized college degree. And, these types of highpaying manufacturing jobs are getting harder and harder to find.

If Kaiser’s striking workers are so unhappy, I encourage them to go out and find another job in Spokane that will pay them $30,000 or more a year with their skills and education. Not to mention the impact on all of Spokane if they are successful in running Kaiser out of town. I urge them to be reasonable and act responsibly for all of us. Denise R. Utter Spokane

Family values, Kaiser style

After a personal explanation from a company manager, three letters to my home and now The Spokesman-Review article of Oct. 30, I fully understand that I may return to work full time for Kaiser.

Full time meaning seven days a week, 12 hours a day. With good health and barring accidents, I could even earn the $60,000 Kaiser says I make.

Four years ago, Kaiser asked union employees to give up their five-day, 40-hour work week in favor of 12-hour shifts, three on-three off. This would help them streamline operations, save money and give us more time with our families. We fell for it.

Now Kaiser wants a contract that gives it the right to eliminate jobs and force us to work on our days off to fill those vacancies. Kaiser’s black heart has no room for family. Duane A. Giese Liberty Lake

HEALTH CARE

HMO economics misunderstood

The writer of “Why can’t HMOs make ends meet” (Nov. 2) shares the confusion of most consumers about how Medicare pays HMOs. The writer complains that his mother canceled a medi-gap policy costing $145 a month to switch to an HMO and how he reads that HMOs will be paid an average of $426 a month by the federal government next year. He wonders how their costs could possibly have gone up that much in two years.

The $145 premium for the medi-gap policy did not cover any Medicare costs (hospitalization, 80 percent of physician fees, etc.). Rather, it covered everything Medicare did not cover (hospital and physician deductibles, the other 20 percent of physician fees, etc.). Under traditional Medicare, the government had been spending about $430 per month on the average Spokane resident and this policyholder was spending another $145.

The HMO was receiving approximately $410 a month from the government to cover all these costs combined. Now, two years later, that amount is $426 - and that is not keeping up with medical inflation.

These are confusing times for consumers who need to pay for health insurance and the politicians don’t help any by blaming HMOs for every problem that wasn’t caused by El Nino. Henry S. Berman, M.D. Spokane

In-home provider a welcome addition

It’s said that home is where the heart is. On Oct. 29, I read your article “Senior day care to offer homelike setting.” Hats off to Michelle Dahlstrom for starting up her business! Spokane cannot overlook our increasing aging population and their care.

Dahlstrom’s homelike setting will provide the atmosphere conducive to engaging the senior. After talking with her on the phone, I believe that she will provide a safe, nurturing, comfortable home for her guests. Most importantly, it will fill the need to help care providers.

Eighty percent of the aging dementia seniors are being cared for at home by their families. Many of these family members are not receiving adequate help. Dahlstrom’s in-home senior care is the answer to providing a supportive, healthy, safe atmosphere. Laurie Lordan, R.N., geriatric psychiatry Spokane

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Nethercutt re-election heartening

Travelers crossing the Cascades into Eastern Washington can’t help but realize, as they drive, the tremendous forests neighbored by the vast lands of farming activity. Agriculture, with timber products, are the second leading industries in Washington. From field to transport to consumer, representing fiercely committed farmers, to thousands of jobs along the distribution chain.

Any political candidate who enters our region cannot be truly effective when these people are given only lip service to their cares.

Those of us who have been in FFA, worked as teens in grain harvests, thinned a stand of timber or worked in a mill yard know this as a hard yet rewarding life.

Rep. George Nethercutt has shown a ready willingness to put on the boots, walk those fields, to listen and learn. The green fields of summer saw this; now are calling him home. Again, to Washington, D.C.. To be part of the earth. Thanks, George! Thanks, people! Marc Ramsey Spokane

Nethercutt - amazing gracelessness

Tom Foley is a man of great compassion, thoughtfulness and intelligence.

When Foley defeated Republican U.S. Rep. Walt Horan in 1964, Foley gave a large party for Horan in Washington, D.C. The party honored Horan for a job well done. Congressmen were amazed that Foley would honor his Republican opponent. He was a first in Washington, D.C. Foley also found a job for Horan’s top aide. Typical thoughtful Foley.

Now, many of us are working to have the Federal Building in Spokane named the Thomas S. Foley Federal Courthouse. We believe that Foley, who was the first speaker of the House from Western United States, as well as the current ambassador to Japan, deserves the honor.

Well, believe it or not, Nethercutt and fellow Republican officeholders are refusing to allow the naming of the building for Foley.

What a pity they don’t have Foley’s class! Sally Jackson Spokane