Letters To The Editor
From Letters to the Editor, page B11, October 18, 1998: CORRECTION Dale LaVoie’s letter published Oct. 13 offered a web site address which contained several typographic errors. People may find out more about John Beal and the American Heritage Party at the following site: http://www.cet.com/~dlavoie/bealforcongress.html.
SPOKANE MATTERS
Fragmenting would ruin service
First Call for Help is a community information and crisis response telephone line at Spokane Mental Health, primarily staffed by volunteers who provide supportive listening, counseling referrals, financial resource information and crisis intervention services 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
We match callers’ needs with appropriate community services in the Spokane area. After business hours, we coordinate the needs of callers, including those who are at high risk, with a SMH on-call system. This system is vital and enables us to access immediate professional mental health care, whether it be children’s services, adult, elder or multicultural services. When a caller is in a high-risk situation, county designated mental health professionals are on hand to intervene when necessary and appropriate.
The callers we assist would not receive these services in a timely manner if the current care system were to be fragmented, as proposed in the county’s request for proposal.
Anne Martin-Giblin, M.A. Spokane
Mental Health works, so leave it alone
Re: “Upheaval at Mental Health” (Oct. 7). It looks like managed care is after us again. It’s going to get to where no one will go into health care of any kind if we don’t stop these takeovers by managed care agencies.
The Mental Health agency has done a very good job for the last 30 years and we should follow that old saying, “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.”
Why is it that around election time those running for office want to change everything? Some things need to be changed, I’m sure, but let’s use our heads and think of what’s best for the people, not what it can do to get us up the ladder.
Also, it’s disgusting to see and hear people dragging each other down just to further their chances of getting elected. I will not vote for anyone who lies and tries to degrade his or her opponent. Leta L. Donahoo Spokane
5TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT
Nethercutt has exemplary record
Rep. George Nethercutt, who amazed and confounded the prognosticators by defeating Speaker Tom Foley in 1994, has established an enviable record during his first two terms in the U.S. Congress.
He has demonstrated intimate knowledge of the concerns and positions of his constituents. He is an honest, hard-working representative who has risen to the position of one who is admired and respected without exception by his peers. As he continues to gain stature and influence, he will become a leader who can have greater influence in the crucial decisions that Congress will address in the future.
Recently, Nethercutt successfully led the effort to keep foreign markets open to Washington farmers. He has been part of a Congress that has reduced unnecessary government spending and lowered taxes on working Americans. Nethercutt supports further tax relief so taxpayers can keep more of their earnings, rather than continually feed the growth of wasteful bureaucracy.
A leader in health care issues, he voted for the Patient Protection Act, which guarantees a patient’s direct access to physicians of his or her choice, guarantees a patient’s right to know and ensures access to emergency care.
We can be proud of Nethercutt for his strong family ties and high morals. He is a role model for our district - sorely needed in these troubling times. Please vote to re-elect Nethercutt in November. Jeannette Hayner Walla Walla
Nethercutt fails pro-life litmus test
It’s again time to contrast Republicans’ deeds with their promises.
Take Rep. George Nethercutt, for example. Like many Republicans, he tried to substitute a toothless partial-birth abortion ban for what pro-lifers were promised. Republican leaders promised real pro-life legislation and they fabricate a laughable counterfeit.
What has Nethercutt ever sponsored for pro-life? Has he touted his contract on America? Yes, but what has he done for pro-life? Does he utter speeches in pulpits? Yes, but what of pro-life? Has he championed lower taxes for taverns and tobacco? Yes, but pro-life?
Talk to pro-life Republicans and we get lectures on capitalism. Talk about the poor and get oracles on free trade. Talk against pornography and get sermons on privatizing-down family wages.
Republicans are so dense that they bend light! Only things with no substance can escape Republican black holes. Things like contracting out. Things like communistic-level wages. Things like Nethercutt.
If Nethercutt was honest in the pulpits, he would explain why church donations flounder while Wall Street flourishes. That is, American worker GNP rose 29 percent in 1995-1996 while net wages fell 2 percent against inflation. Michael J. Brown Spokane
Good that Heritage Party is in race
In a time when partisan politics and unprincipled, pragmatism is commonplace in the United States government, it’s very good to see the American Heritage Party come into the scene. The American Heritage Party seeks to return the federal government to its boundaries as originally prescribed in the Constitution.
For those interested in learning more about 5th Congressional District candidate John Beal and the American Heritage Party, there is information on the World Wide Web at http://www.cep.com/tildadavoie/ belforconress.html Dale R. LaVoie Spokane
SPOKANE MATTERS
Sidewalk complaints lame
I got a kick out of C.R. Neihart’s letter on Oct. 5, “County plans sidewalk boondoggle.”
To set the record straight, Bill Johns is a very professional and fine county engineer. Ask anyone who works or deals with him, besides Neihart. In the matter of the six-foot sidewalk on North Waikiki Road between Hawthorne and Hastings, this section carries lots of foot traffic and joggers. Most people say the sidewalk is a welcome improvement.
If the county won’t tell Neihart how much the project costs, he can look it up. It’s a matter of public record.
As to pork barrel in its richest form, as he stated in his letter, how much money did he hold out for, for right of way and loss of landscape? That’s public record also.
Was the power company fair to him for the same trees the county paid him for? As he said in his letter, “My friends, you pay the bill.” Well, some of us pay the bill. Angelo J. Roman Spokane
Sterk statements don’t befit an officer
“Character counts,” we are often told, concerning our elected public officials. Character must certainly include telling the whole truth in public statements and not misleading the public.
Mark Sterk, a candidate for Spokane County sheriff, has had distributed thousands of copies of his campaign flier, “Standing firm.” In it, Sterk says he will get rid of cable TV in the jail. There has never been cable TV in the Spokane County jail.
In the same flier, Sterk calls for a return of the “long -lost punitive tool” of restitution to crime victims. Restitution is not long lost, nor is it up to the sheriff’s department to order restitution. This is up to the courts. It is fairly common for courts in this area to order restitution.
Sterk has more than 20 years of experience with the Spokane Police Department. He certainly knows how the jail system and courts operate. After taking much criticism over his four-page flier, he promised to add an extra page. I can hardly wait to see it.
It’s troubling to have a police officer who doesn’t really tell the whole truth in this public statements. We, as citizens, are subject to be called to serve on juries where we must hear police officers’ statements. I’ve been there, trying to weigh such statements.
I’m one of the 25 percent who voted in the primary election. I will not be able to vote for Sterk in November. G.J. Works Spokane
IN THE PUBLIC EYE
Fault is there for all to see
Does any thinking person become concerned about the integrity of our legal system when the nation’s chief federal law enforcement executive can swear to tell the truth under oath and then lie for personal and political convenience?
Efforts to rationalize this remind me of Hans Christian Andersen’s fable, “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” All the councilors, ministers and men and women of great importance stood with the emperor, and stared and stared, and saw only what the emperor could see. They pretended that his new robe was magnificent and all was well. “How well the emperor’s clothes suit him!” “But he doesn’t have anything on!” cried a little child. “Listen to the innocent one,” said the proud father. The people whispered among each other and repeated what the child had said. “He doesn’t have anything on! There’s a little child who says that he has nothing on.”
I ask a second question. How long before the people shout, “He has nothing on!”? William F. Stifter Spokane
Lewinsky business is the least of it
President Clinton’s sexual promiscuity is a scandal and a reproach to our nation. However, the real focus of public indignation and congressional investigation should be his actions in possibly compromising our national security in exchange for Chinese campaign donations.
Chinese military officer Liu Choa-ying reportedly gave $300,000 to Democratic fund raiser Johnny Chung. He gave $110,000 directly to the Clinton-Gore re-election effort. In return, Liu Choa-ying was given access to President Clinton and he altered U.S. policy to allow the Red Chinese military to receive technical assistance that could improve the accuracy of their main delivery vehicle for nuclear weapons.
House Majority Leader Dick Armey said, “The more you look into this business of the transfer of advanced, sophisticated technology to the Chinese military, the harder it is to stay away from words like ‘treason.”’
The Clinton White House has actively supported the media focus on the Lewinsky matter, using personal perversion as a smokescreen to distract attention from bribery and treason. Ken Starr has also wasted time and money focusing on the Lewinsky scandal because in private practice he represents a Chinese company controlled by the Chinese Army and, after all, he can be removed from his high-paying job at any time by Clinton.
Now that the House is finally considering impeachment, we should all contact Rep. George Nethercutt and Armey to tell them not to rely on the president’s Starr report, but do their own investigating and look at all the evidence. Steve J. Dunham Spokane
Let’s remember who elected Clinton
Re: the Oct. 6 letter from Charlene L. Lewis, in which she comments that “we are the laughingstock of the world.”
May I respectfully suggest that perhaps those who voted for Bill Clinton not once, but twice, are the laughingstock? To paraphrase an old saying: Bamboozle me the first time, it’s your fault; bamboozle me again, it’s my fault. Keith L. Reckord Spokane
Polls results are beside the point
“Public opinion polls demonstrate that most do not favor an impeachment” scream the headlines at least once a week. I’ve read articles speculating what this means about the state of American voters. Quite frankly, these polls speak more about the state of American political leadership.
Not too long ago, most polls in this country would have supported the institution of slavery, opposed the right of women to vote and supported the right of parents to beat their children senseless in the name of discipline. I remember newspaper articles in which a reporter would ask people to comment on the Constitution. More often than not, the people polled felt that the Constitution was “a radical document” and probably a communist plot.
The single most important factor in the abolition of slavery, in extending voting right to women and in criminalizing child abuse has been the willingness of politicians to stand up for what is right. Where are the courageous congresspersons today? Cringing behind the “evidence of the polls.”
The question is not why did President Clinton allegedly break the law. It is did the president break the law? If he did, than he ought to be accountable to the law. That was the basic question back in 1974, when a “third-rate burglary” brought down President Richard Nixon.
Will our elected representatives support the idea that the same standards of law that apply to you and me apply to the political class as well?
Meanwhile, each of us has a civic duty to make our opinion known in the upcoming election. Rev. Paul Masters Fairfield, Wash.
OTHER TOPICS
Belated apology encouraging
This letter is prompted by a Sept. 8 Reuters news item, “Christians take apology crusade to Beirut streets.”
Event is the Reconciliation Walk that began in 1996: the 2,000-mile, three-year walk across Europe, through the Balkans, Turkey, then south to Jerusalem. Over 1,000 volunteers (Lutherans, Episcopalians and Anglicans) from 25 Western countries wore t-shirts and caps with the words, “we apologize,” in Arabic and English. “We have followed the way of the Crusader campaign to Jerusalem to apologize to the people for the horrors which Crusaders committed in these areas under the name of Christianity,” Kathy Nobels of Australia told Reuters.
A similar story appeared in Christianity Today, October 7, 1996, “Christians retrace crusaders’ steps.” It says, “many evangelical Christians have disowned the Crusades as a dark chapter of pre-Reformational Christian history.”
Further, “the zealots committed the equivalent of modern-day ethnic cleansing, murdering Jews and warring against Muslims en route to Palestine. In 1099, when they reached Jerusalem, blood flowed freely. The reconciliation walk message says, the Crusaders “betrayed the name of Christ by conducting themselves in a manner contrary to his wishes and character. … We renounce greed, hatred, and fear, and condemn all violence done in the name of Jesus Christ,” they explained, hoping to share their message face to face with 2 million Muslims. Their sincere honesty is most touching.
Reconciliation, acceptance, tolerance, understanding - amen. S.M. Ghazanfar Moscow, Idaho