Letters To The Editor

WASHINGTON STATE

Don’t regulate youth work hours

I am totally in agreement with the editorial by Opinion editor John Webster (“Jobs aren’t problem; hand-wringers are”). Once again, the government wants to regulate how I parent.

If my child wants to work more than 20 hours a week, that is a decision that she and I make; the government has no business being involved in that decision.

We wonder why our youths today have no direction, no purpose and expect everything for nothing. Here we are again, considering another excuse for them not to be responsible.

Does the government want me to pay for my child’s car, insurance (price keeps going up out of control), entertainment and college? If I do that, then what happens the day they graduate from college without the knowledge of just how tough it is to make ends meet, expecting someone else to supply for their every need?

Give me a break. A good, hard day’s work never hurt anybody. If my child gets straight A’s every quarter, does that automatically mean that she will be prepared for the realities of life? I don’t think so! Nancy J. Keller Spokane

Voters made terrible mistake

My husband and I were shaken and saddened upon hearing about Initiative 694 surviving in this state. We can hardly believe this is even an issue. Abortion and partial-birth abortion, which is the gruesome act of murdering an innocent baby as it is being born, is a hideous, inhumane and horribly violent act. Only God can make those babies that were meant to be here and only by the hands of a gruesome murderer can they be taken away.

The miracle of life is still a miracle. Unfortunately, more than half of the people in our state and country don’t think so.

Are the hearts of the people of this country as cold as we keep hoping, praying and thinking they are not? What is it going to take for the scales to be lifted from our eyes, to see that this violence is no answer? Isn’t there a law against cruel and unusual punishment? Inmates have more rights than an innocent baby that never made any wrong choices.

We will sincerely and regularly continue to pray for our country, our state, our families, friends and neighbors, that they will see that this horrible violence is absolutely wrong. Susan Yuse Chattaroy

LAW ENFORCEMENT

Sheriff’s department picks on strikers

As a taxpaying school teacher, I am appalled at the manner in which the Spokane County Sheriff’s Department chooses to spend my hard-earned tax dollars.

The department has round-the-clock surveillance on the striking United Steelworkers of America. I don’t believe that the harassment of working families that have in the past supported the sheriff’s department is a good use of public funds.

The sheriff’s department has failed to recognize some basic American rights: innocent until proven guilty, the right to assemble and the federally protected right to strike.

On Sunday (Nov. 15), I watched a USWA car rally of about 100 cars. The sheriff’s department found it necessary to harass and delay the rally for over 45 minutes, without regard to traffic risks or to parties not involved in the rally. These men, women and families chose a legal, peaceful way to demonstrate for a legitimate cause. Yet, with my tax-dollar support, the sheriff’s department found it necessary to stop every car, blocking all traffic. When I finally reached the sheriff, I was told that excessive horn use was unlawful, and that they would be ticketing offenders.

The sheriff’s department has far too much time and money in its budget if its people feel this is the best way to serve the Spokane community. I will not support them with my vote or tax dollars in the future. Dianne Bates Spokane

BUSINESS AND LABOR

No Third World sweatshops allowed

Some people take for granted the freedom we enjoy in this country, forgetting that this precious freedom is the result of personal sacrifice of blood, sweat and lives of many loyal, patriotic Americans who put their lives on the line. In the same light, we know that workplace conditions - wages, safety, child labor laws and fair labor practices - were not given freely by heartless corporate giants. These standards were obtained through the personal sacrifice of our union brothers, sisters and families.

The United Steelworkers and their families in Spokane are presently making these sacrifices so that all workers can hope to have a decent quality of life in our workplaces. All they ask for their sacrifices is that the people of Spokane support them in their battle with the greedy corporate giant and not support the scabs who have no respect for workers in this country.

If we don’t stand against concessionary contracts and wage reductions now, when will we draw the line, at $2 per hour and no job security?

It’s obvious that Kaiser would like to have a Third World country work force, where they could hire workers for $2 per hour, with no requirements as to safety, job security, wages and environmental hazards. U.S. workers won’t allow substandard working conditions or the disregard for the environment that the multinational corporate giants get by with in Third World countries.

I will not give up my dignity and self-respect for any job. John F. Goodman Spokane

What goes around will come around

Kaiser Steelworkers, you are taking the wrong tack in fighting corporate greed by picketing Kaiser’s gates. You need not play the role of the big bad wolf by doing a lot of huffing and puffing. Kaiser’s house of cards will fall of its own.

From a new trend in the increase of employee injuries, Kaiser’s management, with its total disregard for the welfare of its present expendable work force, has demonstrated that a need exists for a new hospital.

With Kaiser’s tendency to burn down the house, a new fire station will have to be built.

Through Charles Hurwitz’s exploitation of cheap labor, housing starts will be up to house the present and future out-of-state replacement workers.

Hurwitz will screw up, as evidenced by his previous corrupt methods of operation. This will assuredly give rise to civil and criminal complaints against him and Maxxam Corp.

The crimes that will undoubtedly be committed by the rap sheet-toting replacement workers will present a need for a new jail. You stand to win by the various job openings that will result. There will be a need for more sheriff’s deputies, jailers, attorneys, deputy prosecutors, construction workers, hospital staff, ambulance drivers, paramedics, firefighters, EPA agents, WISHA agents, DEA agents, and the like.

Then, to top it off, the replacement workers will soon tire of management’s heavy-handed, irresponsible ways and reach out to the Steelworkers to organize themselves into a collective bargaining entity. Robert “Bob” D. Hartman Spokane

I’ll tell you what’s antiquated

Re: Kaiser executive John Walker’s letter to the community.

Walker states that the high costs are largely due to antiquated work rules.

Walker, you have scab labor inside those plants working 12 to 16 hours a day, seven days a week, with no time off to spend with family. Of course your productivity could be better - that is, if you wanted to work us like dogs. But to me, this seems very antiquated.

A 40-hour workweek is not antiquated. Time off with your family is not antiquated. Safety in the workplace is not antiquated. It seems to me, from reading your letter, that you’d be more than happy to take us back 50 years - all for the sake of padding Charles Hurwitz’s wallet. This seems antiquated! You state this all seems “pretty reasonable,” as if you’re not so sure.

The proposal you laid on the table in Minneapolis is not going to raise my standard of living one bit. A dollar and 25 cents over five years is a slap in the face. Wake up! And as far as “not allowing a vote” on this proposal, we all voted to give strike authorization to our local presidents. We said that if the company tries to roll us, then we’ll strike. You tried, we struck.

All of the concessions we made in the 1980s - wages, vacations, medical benefits, extended vacations, etc. - were done to help ensure us a future with Kaiser. Walker, I believe you have mistaken that kindness for weakness. Douglas S. Frazier Spokane

Company perverts motto’s meaning

For more than 43 years I’ve worked at the big aluminum rolling mill in the Spokane Valley; 30 of those years as part of the extended Kaiser family that developed, produced and marketed a variety of products presently in use worldwide. In fact, our original operating motto was “Together we build.” Several years ago, that logo was changed to “One person can make a difference,” but little did we know as we agreed to concessions, restructuring and a reduction of benefits, all in the name of “company survival,” that that “one person” referred to was in reality Charles Hurwitz and his minions.

We’ve recently returned to the together-we-build motto, but that now seems to mean You give, we take! I’m sure that at the conclusion of the present negotiations, our new logo could very possibly read Us and them. Loren L. Seifert Spokane

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Eliminate the negative

For the past many weeks, like most families, we have turned our TV on in the evening to relax and forget the worries of our day. Commercials are usually entertaining or thought provoking in one way or another. We - myself, husband and our three children - were amazed and very disappointed in most advertisements for the election. It seemed not to be a campaign concerned with who you are and what you stand for but one to win if you can downgrade your opponent.

If you want our votes, even the hopeful votes of our children, please tell us about yourself, what you believe in and hope to accomplish during your time in office. Trying to destroy your opponent just doesn’t work for us. Positive reinforcement always works much better than negative.

Believe in yourself and you just might make others believe in you, too. Cass E. Stoner Elk

Time for the namby-pamby to suck up

The power of the press is more than showing. The great Clinton is now exonerated. His union bosses’ thugs and the powerful teachers union have dragged over to their super-liberal idol three and four Congressional seats.

Crash! Boom! Bam! Cheer! Clinton is free. Four seats and impeachment time is over. Hurray! In a way, it was worth it to get rid of weak sister Gingrich (the best friend Clinton ever had, if you ask me). But wait, like the pope apologizing for the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, Auschwitz and Queen Isabel and the Catholics driving the Arabs out of Spain, it turns out we are going to be slapped with more apologizers to take a turn at sucking up to Clinton.

They are “going to work with him.” They are going to stop being adversarial. That’s a good one. What do they think they were elected for? Even a marriage will rot without adversarial activity. Anyway, us real Republicans will never pull a Goldwater or a Gingrich. We want to be like Tip O’Neill or Tom Foley - get what we want or stop the show. George B. Valentine Sr. Rathdrum, Idaho

OTHER TOPICS

Troublemakers are tax-supported

I’ve seldom read a more eloquent and justified Spokesman-Review editorial than “Anything for an unworthy cause” (Nov. 3) by Opinion editor John Webster, about persecuting the Makah Indians for planning to hunt whales. Webster rightly identified the persecutors as the “white race,” the majority in this country, and not just extremists and hirelings of environmental groups.

That’s because a lot of the money that pays for persecuting the Makahs - salaries and expenses for organizers, lawyer fees, documentary film crews, expenses for demonstrators, for instance - comes from everyone who pays taxes. Money is fungible. When money is received for one project, money that would have otherwise been used for that purpose can then be used for something else.

Government and tax-exempt foundations give billions of dollars to environmental groups each year. The groups can keep 17 percent of federal grants, for instance, as “administrative costs,” and essentially do anything they want with it - lobby Congress or persecute the Makahs. Even if not used directly for the latter purpose, grants free up dues and other money to be used this way instead of going for salaries and other expenses.

As Webster points out, the Makahs are having their rights trampled by some media-savvy environmental activists. If you don’t want your tax dollars to pay for that, or don’t think support of it should be tax exempt, telephone or write to your elected officials and tell them you oppose grants and tax exemptions for such activist groups. Edwin G. Davis Spokane

Avast - it’s Priggee’s Moby Dreck

The Oct. 14 political cartoon by The Spokesman-Review’s propagandist, Milt Priggee, reflects an apparent disdain for the truth. In his zeal to negatively caricature the gray whale hunt by the Makah Indian Tribe, he appears to be following the principle that the end justifies the means.

The state of Washington prohibits ownership of machine guns by civilians, and it is my understanding that the Makahs will be using a .50 caliber rifle to ensure a humane death.

I sometimes wonder who Priggee looks to as his model. President Clinton? Francis E. Kent Four Lakes

$1 trumps Y2K any day

I’m not worried about Y2K because I learned long ago to always bet on the money.

Nobody is going to go into bankruptcy because their computers can’t change dates. No government is going to give up power by allowing its computers to crash and no utility company is going to risk losing even a dime over a computer-caused power failure. Greed will always win out.

Only the stupid will get hung and they would have gotten hung anyway. Judith M. Jones Spokane