Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

Reaction to racism ‘reprehensible’

Recent racial and religious harassment incidents indicate we really haven’t come that far. One can’t help but wonder whether the only substantive change has been to force acts of hate from the conspicuous to a more insidious, covert level.

How else can we explain comments by our new police chief dismissing these acts of racism as not being any different from those occurring in other cities of comparable size? How else to comprehend statements characterizing a Jewish attorney’s indignant response to anti-Semitism as reflecting overreaction, the behavior of a swaggering city slicker or signaling some subversive socialist plot?

Who on Earth could feel comfortable describing religious and ethnic hatred as being merely obnoxious?

Do these people suggest the targets of prejudice somehow got what they deserve?

These and other failures of our community to unequivocally reject racism and bigotry are reprehensible. When an individual occupies a secure position of power and doesn’t experience discrimination, it’s easy to attribute the pain of discrimination to the target of such hate. It’s called blaming the victim.

Until this community faces up to combating this pathology - and lets not mince words, for that’s what it is - we will have to content ourselves with lemonade drives and an annual proclamation that Richard Butler is a misguided individual. Failure to do more confirms the perception that hatred and bigotry have found fertile soil here. Jeffrey Fong Spokane

Reclaimed neighborhood overlooked

It took five years of community effort to change First and Jefferson from a crime-riddled neighborhood to a peaceful block.

In those years of work, the media only reported the crime that went on in the area. Now that there’s an art gallery, a Spokane Market Place and a cleaner neighborhood with planted flowerboxes, the First and Jefferson community and the many people who worked to clean it up get very little media coverage.

These people were courageous, strong and willing to change a downtown neighborhood dying with many drug users, prostitutes and street kids who frequented the area. Vicky E. Lamont Spokane

LC seems to be in good hands

Re: Lewis and Clark High School renovation. After the August meetings about LC, I was pretty worried. There were lots of unanswered questions about the stairwells, floors and doors, the windows and the administration building. Why was the library in the basement, with no windows? The district didn’t seem to be listening to the community’s concerns.

But they did listen. At the school board meeting, the architect, LC faculty representatives and the administration responded to questions that were raised, and presented a preliminary preservation plan.

Not everyone agreed with the administration and school board decision to approve the faculty’s recommendation to demolish the administration building, but it was not a choice against preservation and needs to be seen in the context of all the other decisions made.

Thanks to the LC faculty for all their hard, thoughtful work. It isn’t just the building that makes LC a great school, it’s the staff. Gina M. Schrock Spokane

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

Program honors helpful young people

No one can escape the disturbing and shocking headlines today about young people gone wrong: teenage mothers secretly giving birth and then throwing away their newborns, youngsters barely out of elementary school on killing rampages, young people getting drawn into gangs.

It might be hard for people to believe that, although these stories are tragic, they are indeed the exception rather than the rule.

We at Prudential are trying to spread the good news with a program that recognizes young people for community volunteerism and inspires others to lend a hand.

The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, sponsored in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals, honor middle and high school students across America for outstanding acts of community service. Awards are granted at the local and state levels, then 10 national honorees will be named at a special ceremony in Washington, D.C., next May.

If you know any young people in grades 5-12 who deserve recognition for volunteer service, urge them to contact their school principal, Girl Scout leader or county 4-H agent for an application. Or call our office at 326-8555. The deadline for submitting applications is Oct. 30, 1998. Patricia A. Weil, Agent Spokane

IN THE PUBLIC EYE

No merit to Clinton protestations

Now that the public knows what we have been hearing these past eight months is true and that the president, his aides, staff, supporters, etc., have all been lying to us, the new cries are that it is not fair that we know these things.

Was it fair for the president to legally (and every other way) delay Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr’s investigation at great expense to taxpayers when he knew he was lying? Was it fair to lie to all those around him who were called to testify (needlessly, if he had told the truth in the beginning) at a great expense to them? Was it fair for President Clinton to allow those same people to launch unsubstantiated attacks, both personal and professional, against Starr, who was just doing what he was charged to do by the Justice Department?

Was it fair for the president to lie to the American people in a nationally televised statement and to have his cabinet members, staff and aides perpetuate his lies for eight months, at great cost monetarily and morally to the country and the presidency?

Was it fair that while the country was paying the president to be president, he was conducting lewd behavior on our time in our office with a young subordinate?

It appears to me, that as well as being an immoral person who lacks sound judgment, our president now sounds like a very immature person who cries, “It’s not fair.”

Wouldn’t be better off without him? D.M. James Sagle, Idaho

Clinton being singled out unfairly

Is sainthood a requirement to be President of the United States?

Our third president, Thomas Jefferson, allegedly had a son out of wedlock. Jefferson had many slaves and the mother was one of his slaves. Jefferson also doubled the size of the U.S. with the Louisiana Purchase. He was elected to two terms as president.

Grover Cleveland was also said to have fathered a child out of wedlock. This was publicized by his political opponents, yet Cleveland was elected to two (nonconsecutive) terms as president.

Franklin D. Roosevelt was said to have had a longstanding extramarital affair. He led the nation through the Depression and World War II. He was elected president four times. Career Army officer Dwight D. Eisenhower was said to have had an affair with a female subordinate during World War II. He was elected to two terms as president.

These are not the only transgressions by U.S. presidents. None were impeached. All served out their terms or died in office.

Should Bill Clinton be treated differently than these other presidents? Should people like Rep. Dan Burton (R-Indiana) or Rep. Helen Chenoweth (R-Idaho) stand in judgment of the president after both have admitted extramarital affairs?

How many other politicians have been less than candid concerning their personal relationships? Is our specialprosecutor-for-life, Ken Starr, going to investigate all of them? G.J. Works Spokane

I don’t want low-life for president

It’s a sad day when we have to admit that the president is an embarrassment to our country and a dirty joke around the world. He may have no shame, but he certainly has brought shame upon this land.

I do not want this reckless irresponsible person who lacks self-control and personal integrity in charge of my country.

Congratulations to your editorial staff for coming to the same conclusion. Marianne Houck Spokane

Let’s spank him and move on

This country and our government need to return their focus to the real issues our nation faces. The president’s personal sex life is not appropriate material for national debate, nor is it grounds for impeachment. All charges against him revolve around a single issue that doesn’t constitute a crime against the government.

Most Americans feel a reprimand is in order, followed by closure and moving forward. The most appropriate response would be a ritualized public spanking. The logical person to administer this would be Attorney General Janet Reno. Public opinion could be consulted as to whether Hillary and Chelsea should also give him a whack.

Next in line could be our self-appointed moral guardians, who profess to be so offended they’re willing to plunge the nation into a constitutional crisis and waste our energies on more lengthy, expensive inquiries.

We elected him president, character and all. He’s not our national daddy, not a hero role model (we leave that to those who can hit a ball with a bat). He was elected to do a job and our judgment should be restricted to his professional performance.

Investigating details of someone’s intimate activities is partisan and un-American. The prospect of such will on only reduce the quality of future candidates.

The embarrassment and exposure he’s suffering are punishment enough. I doubt he’ll reoffend. Let’s forgive him (the person, if not the act) and move on. Dave K. Johnson Elk, Wash.

Clinton just ought to resign

National leaders and all Americans should avoid partisan rhetoric, semantics and other useless tactics to dismiss the president’s conduct. Rather, we should communicate very clearly that we absolutely abhor the president’s mockery of truth and justice.

We can change the course of this nation when citizens, corporate and public leaders hold each other accountable to high standards of honesty, forthrightness and exemplary conduct. This president cannot lead us in this endeavor. He has demonstrated this by following his apologies with continuing legalese and defensive arguments that he did not “technically” lie.

A truly repentant man or woman is humbled, not angry. Just as a true leader is a servant, looking out for the interests of others, before his or her own. Congress may call for impeachment, but honor calls for the president to resign. Lisa L. Johnson Deer Park

A president lower than Nixon

At least Tricky Dick Nixon had the decency to resign. In contrast, Slick Willie Clinton hired three more lawyers. Who will ever believe him again?

Has any young woman ever been used as badly as Monica Lewinsky? Tragically, the answer is undoubtedly yes. For example, Hillary Rodham Clinton. We men should be ashamed of ourselves. Gene B. Williams Moses Lake

Desserts are justly ironic

Isn’t it ironic that the one major legacy, his place in history, that Clinton has been concerned about for many years has been determined by action she is solely responsible for. No matter what positive things he might leave behind, he and Monica Lewinsky will always be tied together. As the saying goes, “What goes around, comes around.” And there is no one to shift the blame to. Vernon J. Nelson Spokane

Let birds of a feather flock together

What about Bill Clinton? What about Helen Chenoweth? What to do, what to do? Perhaps Chenoweth can sign on to the White House intern program. Perhaps the two of them can be made to wear baseball caps with scarlet A’s. They could resign and make adult movies together, with Ken Starr as the director.

Oh, for simpler times when politicians answered tricky questions by stating things like, “What this country needs is a good 5-cent cigar.” Terry Hughes Spokane

OTHER TOPICS

Makah tradition argument lame

Thousands of people have spent millions of dollars hoping to return Keiko the whale to the wild, but now, whales will never be safe anywhere ever again because the international moratorium on whaling will end in October.

The Makah Indians, under protection of the Army National Guard and U.S. Coast Guard, will begin hunting whales off the Washington coast next month. Once this happens, the rest of the world will follow.

The Makah say the slaughter (with harpoons and highpowered rifles) is based on traditions of their ancestors.

However, I am afraid my ancestors may have been Indian killers or slave owners. Surely, my ancestral traditions would not justify returning to this barbaric behavior. Surely, the National Guard would not bring in troops to enforce my ancestral right to own slaves. They have, however, set up makeshift jails on Neah Bay tennis courts and brought in 800 National Guard troops to arrest protesters.

I thought we had the right to peaceful protest against fur or war, or unfair labor practices. I guess we have the right to protest against big business, but not against Indians?

Contact Gov. Gary Locke and tell him to stop the whaling. Tradition does not make it right. Kerry L. Masters Liberty Lake

Amendment protection is two-way

A rash of Roundtable letters have claimed the intent of the First Amendment’s religion clause was merely to protect Christians from state oppression. In fact, the amendment was also deliberately intended to protect nonbelievers from church oppression.

Our Constitution’s freedom of religion clause was written to federalize the principles declared earlier in The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom.

According to Thomas Jefferson, who helped draft the Virginia statute, non-Christians were to be granted the same protections as Christians. In his autobiography, Jefferson wrote that a clause praising Jesus Christ was rejected “by a great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mohammedan, the Hindoo and the Infidel of every denomination.” Chris A. Farnam Spokane

Dispense fluoride case by case

Fluoridation of entire water systems is one of the biggest pieces of skullduggery ever put over on the American people.

The idea germinated when a dentist in Texas found his patients’ teeth, though badly mottled, had few cavities, and were extremely hard. He had the water analyzed and it was found to be high in calcium fluoride.

Over time, and with events too numerous to relate here, the aluminum industry found an outlet for its waste product, sodium fluoride. Sodium fluoride is a deadly poison. A small percentage is labeled as rat poison and for insecticides. Disposing of the rest of this waste product proved an almost unsolvable problem.

The object of chlorination of the water is to kill dangerous bacteria and make it safe for human consumption. To use the water system to mass medicate all the citizens with fluoride, supposedly to benefit a few children under 12, is incredible.

Tablets could be available through dentists, the public health department or in fluoridated bottled water for those who wish to use it. Evelyn Lucille Kerfoot Spokane

Starr report sales - disgusting

Good job, Good Paper. Porn for sale at our family fair for $2 a copy (Ken Starr’s report). No age limit.

How low will you go to make a buck? Ed and Jodie Norris Spokane