Letters To The Editor

Tue., Oct. 20, 1998

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

Anti-gay Christians strangely selective

Immediately after a major anti-homosexual media campaign in Wyoming, Matthew Shepard, a young gay man, is brutally murdered. The Christian Coalition and similar religious extremist groups mildly condemn the brutality and disclaim any responsibility for the murder. They say there is no correlation between their campaign of hate and this act.

These are the same people who oppose talking about birth control because it promotes sexual activity. They attack violence on TV and rap music because it promotes violence. They condemn any positive or neutral discussion of homosexuality because, they say, that promotes homosexuality. Yet they claim there is no connection between spewing hatred against homosexuality and the violence against this innocent, gentle man.

I don’t understand the reasoning that acceptance of an individual as a lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered person promotes homosexuality, yet spewing hatred and condemnation does not promote violence.

The hypocrisy is obvious. I pray that hatemongering behavior ends before others - such as 16-year-old Dan Dover of Tacoma, who narrowly survived a gay bashing in August - ends up dead like Shepard. Dean B. Lynch Spokane

Fundamentalist right into persecution

The very essence of the fundamentalist Christian right is painfully obvious in the brutal murder of a gay student and the state sanctioned assassination of a mentally retarded incest survivor.

Hate, violence and death are at the very core of this theological invention. What could be further from orthodox Christianity? What could more undermine the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ.

This right wing pursuit of a persecution agenda is a greater threat to Christian faith than any other ideology or world religion. Mindful that satanic thought and deed are alive and well within the minds and hearts of fundamentalist Christians, let us pray that Jesus might save us from the sin within, before we’re all dead. Patrick M. Malone Spokane

Usurping God’s judgment, are we?

After Matthew Shepard died, those who protest equal rights for homosexuals said they believed that a law against hate crimes was really a law against free speech. Frightening! Members of a Topeka, Kans., church that regularly engages in anti-homosexual picketing are planning to demonstrate at Shepard’s funeral Friday in Casper. Abhorrent!

Is it really free speech to beat another person to death because of their sexual orientation? Is a funeral the proper place for the expression of free speech - free speech that is calculated to hurt bereaved family members? Is this Christianity?

I believe in God. I believe Christ died for our sins. I believe that Christ asked me not to cast stones at others just because I didn’t feel they were good Christians. So, I will not call those who deny homosexuals equal rights names. I will not beat them senseless or until they are dead. But I will ask them, Did Christ ask you to be judge, jury and executioner? Can’t you trust God to judge? Is this really what Christ wants of you? Deborah Lawrence Hale Greenacres

Republican instigators share in guilt

Recently, the Republican leaders in Washington, D.C., had a news conference where they made clear their feelings about homosexuals, encouraging Christian extremists to keep up their hatred toward gays.

Three weeks later, we saw the results of hating gay people. In Wyoming, four local rednecks decided to take a local gay guy out into the fields and beat the hell out of him because he was gay. They beat to death young Matthew Shepard, who was 5-foot-2-inches tall and weighed 105 pounds.

This disgusting act was encouraged by religious extremists who continue to hate anyone who is gay. But it’s doubtful that any of those ignorant folks even know anyone who is gay.

I have news for you. These gay people are just as nice as anybody. They are American citizens, they fight for their country, obey the laws of our land and are productive, good neighbors. They certainly are just as good as any of you are.

Many restaurants in this area employ people who are gay. These people are very good what they do and seem to be exemplary employees. These people don’t need this hate to continue. They just want to make a living and to be respected for doing a good job.

The important upcoming national election is your opportunity to tell the world you want this homophobia stopped. I don’t know how anyone could vote Republican when their pronouncements help create an environment that encourages this criminal behavior.

Vote Democratic. Let’s get this hatred out of our state and out of our lives. Thomas Akren Post Falls

Protest a hideous example of faith

I am a junior at a Christian college in the Northwest. I find it troubling about the slaying of Matthew Shepard at the University of Wyoming.

What increasingly angers me is the lack of compassion and understanding of differences. It frightens me that a leader of a church would protest a funeral of someone who suffered such a horrible death. How can a pastor of a church portray an attitude of hate and disgust for someone who sins? I guess he forgets that he is, and forever will be, a sinner.

The leadership position in religion is one of power and influence. It is frightening to know that people look up to individuals who are as crazy and ignorant as the Kansas pastor. How can a leader of a Christian church protest a time of mourning and closure to life? It is crude and disgusting to think that someone in my personal faith embraces murderers, not the good Samaritan. Is it me or is this contrary to every humane and ethical belief that Christianity as well as a number of other religions, teach?

Is the act justified because he happened to be gay?

I hope the message passed by the protesters is not taken as a universal feeling within the Christian community. I am glad of the sane people who formed a ring and sang “Amazing Grace” to prevent disruption of the service. Ryan J. Baker Spokane

Emphasis should be on the hate crime

I was distraught to see the front page story of Oct. 13, “Gay student dies, nation outraged.” It makes me upset to think that you either have to have a different sexual preference or be a dog, cat or horse that was mistreated to make the headlines in Spokane.

It’s nice to see that Gonzaga had a vigil against anti-gay violence, for violence is never the answer. But why no front page stories or vigils stating the nation is outraged over innocent children or adults being raped or murdered? It seems to me in the past there has been just that, but only for the rich and famous.

I’m sure that Matthew Shepard had a lot more going on in his life than being gay. What is sad is that is what he will be remembered for. A better heading would be: “Matthew Shepard dies; United States saddened by hate crimes.” Robin A. Beck Spokane

MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES

Awful idea presented as enhancement

Re: “Upheaval at Mental Health”; (Oct. 7).

The Spokane RSN has further complicated the already baffling proposal to reconstruct how mentally ill individuals are served in Spokane County.

I’ve worked as a mental health professional for five years in the Urgent Care department of Spokane Mental Health. I am well aware of the current movement to privatize through competitive bids any and all services that have in the past been managed by government agencies or their agents.

To dismantle a mental health system that has worked so consistently and collaboratively for the past 30 years seems irresponsible to me.

Kramer’s assertion that it’s better for the mentally ill individual to be served by “separate treatment providers” (as many as 23, under his proposal) leads me to conclude that he and those he represents are out of touch with the reality of people who suffer from mental illness.

Kramer states that the current proposal was designed to “increase patient choice.” Translated, this means increase competition. Now, I might want more choices when I buy a new car, but increasing competition for treatment of the mentally ill - a group of people who are already marginalized and often discriminated against - seems lacking in wisdom.

It will be a very sad day when we as a community sell out to a national managed care company for the treatment of our mentally ill friends and neighbors. Replacing a local, private nonprofit mental health center known nationwide for its leadership and quality of care hardly seems like the right thing to do. Lucy Lennox Spokane

Do not head off in wrong direction

I have been a psychologist in Spokane for 30 years, three of those at Eastern State Hospital, 27 at Spokane Mental Health. With a specialty in suicide prevention and a national perspective on mental health services, I will comment on the effect the proposed dismemberment of the current system of mental health service delivery might have on people at risk for suicide.

We know treatment saves lives and access to treatment is key. Research has shown that transitions, problematic transfers among therapists and agencies, and divided service elements provide high-risk windows for suicidal people. Suicidal people die of hopelessness and despair more than anything else, especially if they believe nothing more can be done to help them. To the degree that suicide is a solution to perceived insoluble problems and unending suffering, any care system these people see as confusing, difficult to use, slow to respond, indifferent or bureaucratic may raise, not reduce, the community’s suicide rate.

I urge the county commissioners and other interested citizens to maintain and improve one of the most admired, most caring mental health systems in the United States. Paul Quinnett, Ph.D. Spokane

Please don’t make this mistake

Thanks to Opinion editor John Webster and the editorial board of The Spokesman-Review for their support of Spokane Mental Health (Oct. 11).

We who are National Alliance for the Mentally Ill advocates ask Spokane County’s commissioners to please not dismantle the rainbow of services provided by the award-winning Spokane Mental Health. Mental illnesses are brain disorders that can be - and are being - treated very efficiently by Spokane Mental Health. Our daughter relies on Spokane Mental Health’s Evergreen Club to be a productive citizen.

The request for proposal (RFP solicitation no. 98-175) is a managed care effort to completely dismantle Spokane Mental Health and the Mental Health Alliance of Spokane County. It would cost taxpayers more and leave many persons with brain disorders on the street or at least without treatment services. Please do not destroy our system that works. Don W. Crippen, National Alliance for the Mentally Ill Spokane

SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION

Notions earn failing grade

No, Fred Glienna (Roundtable, Oct. 13), school is where you learn facts, figures, concepts and calculations. Home is where you learn you’re not the center of the universe and not to push at the drinking fountain.

In that article I missed the part about all the home schooling families you observed to conclude that “the give and take of classroom exchange … doesn’t exist in home schools”; that only public schools “have guest lecturers, classroom visitors and different teachers”; that home school students work alone at a computer keyboard; that “the home school proponent is about another agenda, one that fears new ideas, contamination with other cultures”; that “the home schooling parent doesn’t want his or her child exposed to Darwinism, other cultures, other religions … or points of view other than those of the family.”

I missed the part about all the research you did to determine that home schooled children aren’t being educated well and the study you must have done to pronounce such dire consequences on the whole world and on human culture brought about by children being schooled at home. (Only about 2 percent of children are schooled at home.)

I teach in a public school. I’m called upon every day to educate in whatever way best meets the needs of my students. Perhaps parents who choose to school their children at home are answering the same call. After all, it is parents who are ultimately responsible for their children.

We schooled three children at home. If I measure your article by who they have become, your article flunks the test. George K. Brown Cheney

Reality check is in order

Ouch, Fred Glienna! You’re stepping on my little ingrown toenails! Your Oct. 11 Roundtable column, “Do we really want a future full of little ingrown toenails?” stereotyped home schoolers as social cripples, scholastic deficients incapable of communicating or relating to those different from themselves. At the same time, you typify the products of public school as equipped to “make a smooth integrated transition to the outside world.”

Your fish-to-fry bias was smoking as readers were led to conclude that a “valuable exchange of ideas” can only take place within the confines of the public school system. As a parent with children who have experienced both home schooling and public school, I see benefits and drawbacks to both. Show me, sir, the perfect model of existence, whether referring to education, school, work, relationships or life.

Yes, differences are important to notice. Noticing that there are people raising their children to be responsible, productive citizens, future mothers and fathers equipped with strong values and beliefs, even if those values and beliefs may differ from the popular social agenda of our day, needn’t be a threat to you and is certainly not a threat to society.

On the road to reality, Glienna, you might want to check your rear-view mirror. Your prejudicial slip is showing. Diane L. Shuman Edwall, Wash.

Parents are kids’ most valuable asset

Reading the Oct. 15 Spokesman-Review, I was alarmed by a half-page advertisement from US West stating our children’s “most valuable school supply” is access to the Internet. Further on, I read Leonard Pitts’ column echoing my concern of what can be found on the Net, intentionally or not.

The most valuable school supply your children can have is their parents’ love, time and supervision - especially when using the Internet. Sharon M. Hicks Spokane

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