Letters To The Editor

IDAHO VIEWPOINTS

Very well, then, move Sandpoint

Re: “Design last issue on U.S. 95 bypass,” (Sept. 11).

My wife and I both graduated from Sandpoint High School in 1962. Sandpoint needed a bypass then and the local bickering was just as shrill then. During a recent weekend that we spent in Sandpoint, we were stuck in traffic from the south end of the bridge through town. It was more than an hour to get through. I remarked that it took longer to negotiate Sandpoint than it does to negotiate Houston at rush hour. That’s not an exaggeration!

One of the problems with all this is that no one has considered the alternatives. Petrified dinosaurs have in their DNA scripts that reflect thoughts about the Sandpoint bypass. But has anyone considered the obvious alternative? Why not relocate Sandpoint? Why not put it in Dover? That would settle the issue once and for all!

Mike Brown Houston

High court decisions puzzling

If the state Supreme Court couldn’t determine the high water mark of Lake Coeur d’Alene in 1980, how in the world did it get established for the Coeur d’ Alene Indian Tribe in their award of the lower third of the lake and part of the St. Joe River? Rhonda Stancil St. Maries

Moral principles fine but not founding

First, Diana Bertholic (Letters, Sept. 9) ought to read her Bible. There is no prohibition against gambling. But there is one against creating new sins.

Second, checking out history is in order. There are plenty of times when Christian America did not uphold the Bible. So, the claim that this country was founded on moral principles is unfounded.

Third, if this country had been founded on moral principles, radical hatred and violence between Christians, as well as prejudice against religious minorities, would have not existed. The moral principles of love would have been foremost in Christian minds.

Finally, a church that could prosecute “witches” also sought out astrologers, whose existence was forbidden in the Bible. Christ never argued that hypocrisy was the basis for morality. The Christian church, throughout its history, has been based on hypocrisy. Is it from hypocrisy that Bertholic would argue this country was founded on moral virtues? Joan E. Harman Coeur d’Alene

SPOKANE MATTERS

Being soft on bigotry is wrong

Let’s connect the dots. Mass mailings of hate literature financed by two wealthy businessmen who moved to Sandpoint, an increase in hate crimes and copies of the racist newspaper the New Order found at City Hall.

Now, let’s look at how the City Hall dealt with the individual who drew a symbol during a City Council meeting that every educated individual knows represents the extinction of millions of people. Let’s also look at the city attorneys who aren’t going to do anything about this individual, either.

Lest we forget, there was Opinion editor John Webster’s despicable editorial blaming the whole incident on that outside Jewish attorney who had the chutzpah to be offended by the symbol and demand that something be done. Every individual who says they support human rights and diversity should have been offended by the symbol.

As long as there is empty rhetoric about diversity in this community there will continue to be an increase in hate literature and the relocation of hate groups to our area. Flora J. Goldstein Spokane

IN THE PUBLIC EYE

Nowhere to go but up from here

Thank God we are beginning to clean up the presidency and the White House. Perhaps from now on, presidents and White House personnel will be seeing to it their conduct upholds the integrity of the highest office of this country and of the seat of our government, which has been degraded by the conduct of the administration in the past four years.

Maybe Ken Starr has done our future generations a favor. Maybe now we can begin a recovery back to morality, honesty and integrity in the nation as a whole, which has reached an all time low. Donald N. Nelson Spokane

It’s all about voyeurism and power

I am appalled by your choice of blatant lead articles every day since the Starr opinion was released. Either you are simply following herd mentality or you’re truly a pervert. Whatever the case, it calls your competency into question but certainly affirms your partisan political position on the right.

The news of late, announced to the world, has all but affirmed that America is a nation of perverts and voyeurs. What else would we call a group of people so consciously obsessed with another person’s private sex life? This is degrading to all of America.

Who in their right (no pun intended) mind, would insist that we the people must be totally consumed with our president’s personal life? It appears the actual issue is that Clinton is not a conservative Republican. He presents an obstacle to the right wing desire to impose totalitarian policies that will cede more power to the wealthy. I see how the editor is simply doing his job and protecting the wealthy class. N.G. Hannon Spokane

Pornographer hardly better than lecher

After reading the Starr report, I was reminded of the time when I first encountered smut. What’s the point of publishing such a revealing document?

When this whole mess of the Clinton affair first arose, I felt that Clinton was in the wrong and should be punished. Nevertheless, after reading Starr’s report, I am left with but one thought: Whatever happened to the sanctity of privacy? The President had an affair, admitted to his wrongdoing and asked for forgiveness time to move on. However, after reading the report, I wonder what Starr keeps hidden beneath his mattress? Evidently, the man does enjoy his smut! Ronald R. Campbell Cheney

How does Chenoweth look in stripes?

Rep. Helen Chenoweth has admitted to a sex crime. Adultery is a crime in Idaho.

Idaho Code 18-6601 defines adultery as follows: “A married man who has sexual intercourse with a woman not his wife, an unmarried man who has sexual intercourse with a married woman, a married woman who has sexual intercourse with a man not her husband, and an unmarried woman who has sexual intercourse with a married man, shall be guilty of adultery, and shall be punished by a fine of not less than $100, or by imprisonment in the county jail for not less than three months, or by imprisonment in the state penitentiary for a period not exceeding three years, or in the county jail for a period not exceeding one year, or by fine not exceeding $1,000.” Dorothy R. Teren Coeur d’Alene

Adultery takes two, Chenoweth

I am a female Republican voter and I believe Rep.

Helen Chenoweth should do as she would have Bill Clinton do, and resign. Her statements seem to say that because she was divorced and not in office, her affair should be OK.

Her lover and partner, however, was married and in public office. Jan T. Lenning Athol, Idaho

Chenoweth poses problem for GOP

Rep. Helen Chenoweth’s explanation of her situation brought back a wonderful memory. As a boy of 13, my best friend (who later became a Southern Baptist minister) and I were engaged in typical 13-year-olds’ mischief. He later informed me I was going to hell. When I said he did the same thing, he responded, “Yeah, but I’ve been saved.”

Will our Idaho Republicans stand up for the values they have piously been preaching and nominate a new candidate or admit to being hypocrites? My guess is they’ll be hypocrites.

Where do you stand, Chenoweth? Hal Payne Coeur d’Alene

Too-human being not the worst type

The Republicans, Christians and their churches are passing moral judgments on our president and our nation for a personal human failing. I’d rather have a compassionate, real human being to lead our nation than some corporate baron, ie the Republican Party, whose primary concern is the bottom line. Paul Edwards Spokane

Goofing off when he owed us work

Excuse me but the president seems to forget that the job he begged the American voters to give him is a 24-hour-a-day, seven-days-a-week job and knew it was when he was campaigning.

He also knew when he was sworn in there would be only one sanctuary he could call private and that is the first family’s living quarters. Any other place that he’s in while the taxpayers are paying his salary, providing free food and living quarters as well as free travel and God knows what else, his life is totally public and the taxpayers own him. He has no private life outside of his living quarters and has no right to cry about us demanding to know what he’s doing in the time we’re paying him to tend to the business of running this country.

By fulfilling his sexual fantasies on our dime, he is stealing from the taxpayers. If he’s done as much good as some people claim, just think what he might have done if he had not spent our time giving in to his urges. Marlene J. Brazington Spokane

Starr owes us a $40 million refund

So now we know what we got for four years and $40 million. No Whitewater, no campaign finance misdeeds, no Filegate, Travelgate or Vince Foster murder. Just some very bad soft core pornography foisted on us by a sexually repressed voyeur.

What a rip-off! Kenneth Starr owes the American taxpayers an apology … and a refund! Anne Groeschel Spokane

Rave on, but pass me a barf bag

Hello, is anyone home? Is this for real? Monica Lewinsky, whom even her peers say lies about her sexual exploits (her diary apparently verifies this) is given complete immunity to say anything she pleases because her version of the truth is the only one Ken Starr wants to report - and the public believes this?

The Starr “Report” must have been pretty graphic, considering how many people have become so outraged after reading it.

Well, well, could it be at all possible that a woman who thinks herself in love with the president could be telling you word for word what she watched on her television sex channel or on one of the sex chat rooms, fantasizing all the while about “herself and Bill?” Who’s “truth” is she telling?

What is it about Bill Clinton that people in the Northwest so hate that they’re willing to throw out what this country stands for, such as innocent until proven guilty, the right to privacy and their own Christian ethics as embodied in, “He who is without sin cast the first stone”?

All this to jump on a campaign against Clinton that’s turned newspapers into nothing more than biased tabloids, turned friends against friends and some people into such self-righteous moralizers that I want to puke. Jannelle Jaquith Ann Travis Coeur d’Alene