Letters To The Editor
SPOKANE MATTERS
Ordinance foe’s vision blighted
In his argument in favor of scrapping the human rights ordinance recently approved by the City Council, Jim Shamp wants to abolish all protected classes (“Scrap ordinance,” April 4). He suggest we live in a world in which we are equals. He calls us to a “free society.” However, this is not the world in which we live.
Shamp makes clear his position when he suggests we’ll be “better off without them” - the pejorative them used to refer to a “small minority of misfits” who lead “odd, even offensive lifestyles.” Some of the ramifications of what Shamp is proposing are that we’ll live in a society in which bigotry and hatred can go unchecked and that our freedom will come at the expense of others we don’t like.
While Shamp doesn’t want a “particular philosophical belief” imposed on him, he appears willing to impose his belief on others. His free society would be truly free only for those “fair-minded folks,” who, like Shamp, have their “prejudices under control.” Such a selectively free society is not one to which we should aspire.
Spokane is a place in which open displays of bigotry and hated are sometimes not challenged and, by default, are permitted. The movement to remove sexual orientation from the ordinance will encourage that climate to continue.
While the language is often cloaked in moralistic terms, this isn’t a debate about morality. On that point, Shamp is quite right. This ordinance is about justice and it is the right of every citizen to expect that his or her government will act to ensure that justice is done.
Brad Read, member Spokane Human Rights Commission
Ordinance backer muddles argument
Re: “Rights fight” (Perspective, April 4.
Peter C. Dolina’s argument for the so-called Human Rights Ordinance would be humorous if it were not so pervasive and antithetical to a free society.
Dolina writes that sex between “consenting adults is moral,” but then contradicts himself when he writes that associations between consenting adults (unless it meets his criteria) is immoral.
Dolina asks, concerning the ordinance, “Whom will it harm?” and “What is the purpose of fighting it?” The answer was provided in Jim Shamp’s column opposing the ordinance when he wrote, “A government powerful enough to dictate personal morality, relationships and associations is powerful enough to become our master.” Ultimately, this ordinance harms everyone and that is the purpose for fighting it. Sam E. Cathcart Spokane
Beyond rights to special status
Re: “Rights, not orientation, are everyone’s business” (Your Turn, April 7). I agree with Mervin Finstad that any suicide is a tragic waste - even more so when the victim is a young person. It is unfair, however, to seek out scapegoats to carry the blame for these tragedies. When did it become fashionable to pass the buck and exonerate ourselves from personal accountability?
In those cases involving beating and murder, let the perpetrator be held responsible. We all make choices and must accept the consequences that follow. That includes homosexuals.
Christians have no desire to discriminate against any of God’s children. We are called to campaign openly against all sinful behavior - to hate the sin, but love the sinner. Separating the two is probably the most difficult task of all. Yet when Christians have the courage to espouse their Biblical principles, we are labeled “homophobic.” What a misnomer! Christians do not “fear” homosexuals. We pity them for the choices they have made and pray for them.
This controversial human rights ordinance in Spokane is a ridiculous attempt by gays and lesbians to single themselves out for preferential treatment. If this concept is allowed to prevail, will we next make laws to specifically protect short people or fat people or blondes? How could they be denied minority status if it is being granted to homosexuals? Karen K. Carver Spokane
Undesirables pose a problem
While walking to work the other morning in downtown Spokane, I encountered a surly and menacing individual on the corner of Sprague and Post streets. As he partially blocked the way, he made the following request: “Can you give me some change?”
I was not duly impressed by his full-face tattoo and jovially responded, “Do I look like a millionaire or something?”
At that point, he began to produce a tirade of obscenities. I continued along my way to the office. I would respectfully suggest to the city administrators that this type of individual does not create an atmosphere conducive to retail sales or business in the downtown area. The average female shopper who is not a martial arts expert may feel threatened by dirtbags and decide to shop elsewhere.
Unfortunately, the city has built an opulent palace called the STA Plaza which apparently condones loitering, truancy and begging. I have no solution to the aforementioned problem, but that problem may be a bigger hurdle to downtown revitalization than is parking or the lack of fancy new buildings. Jim F. Ebisch Spokane
Celebrate Library Week with a visit
This week of April 11-18, we celebrate National Library and Friends of the Library Week.
As a child, I spent hours in our little Montana town’s local library. I can still see the rows and rows of books. The children’s section was in the front and I sat on the floor for hours at a time, devouring the words. In those days, there were no computers, no videos, no tapes or cd’s to take out. Just books, magazines and newspapers. But mostly, books. Because of the availability of that library, my love affair with the printed word has never ended.
We in Spokane County are blessed with a wonderful library system and great facilities at each of our area universities. If you haven’t visited a library in your neighborhood or on campus recently, I urge you to do so.
My childhood library is long gone, and today there is a whole new and improved world to be discovered. Shari Huffman, chairwoman Friends of the Library, Eastern Washington University Libraries, Spokane
WASHINGTON STATE
Other school workers deserve raise, too
The media, in general, are forgetting about 47 percent of the school employees when they talk and comment on the raises being lobbied for by the teachers and their union. Let us remember the bus drivers, cooks, teachers’ assistants in the classrooms, the secretaries and custodial and maintenance workers. In the past, their “raises” have been the same percentage as the teachers’. But, they usually have to negotiate those raises rather than receive them automatically.
This current proposal from the Legislature has not included the classified staff - the staff that often deals one-on-one with the students, especially the teaching assistants. More often than not, the teaching assistant is in the classroom alone with the student(s) doing lessons. The teacher usually does not know how to sign or read Braille, but the teacher’s assistant does and thus does the primary interaction/teaching with the disabled student.
It is also the classified staff member who cares for severely and profoundly mentally retarded children. Those are the people changing the diapers, feeding the student and cleaning the tracheotomy tubes and catheters.
Please tell me these people also deserve the same raises as the teachers. Frankly, they deserve more. Jean Moffatt Spokane
It’s so easy to solve others’ problem
I teach. The other day, I was paired in a game of golf with a bunch of dentists. After discovering my trade, one of them took it upon himself to do the usual bashing of public education. Then, he offered a two-part solution to the current problem of teacher salaries.
First, teachers earn enough as it is, because they work only nine months a year. Second, if teachers are unhappy with what they earn, they can find jobs for the summer.
So, let’s see. Prospective teachers should expect to spend a minimum of five years in college at an expense of around $45,000 and to begin teaching at $22,000 per year. Then, they should expect to have to go on the job market for the summer in the hope of finding a temporary job to make ends meet.
Dang! I forgot to ask the dentist how these teachers are supposed to go to college to earn their required continuing teacher certification credits. Oh well, I can probably add that piece to the solution as well as he can. Night school. Now that’s an offer one can’t refuse. Tom K. Kendall Veradale
Teachers past due for fair pay
Re: “Public lesson plan, teachers make pitch for pay” (April 1).
I’am very concerned about the future of education and the lawmakers we’ve entrusted to protect it.
Why was a new baseball stadium financed if there isn’t even enough money in the budget to compensate our teachers? How is it possible that teachers make less than other professionals who have the same amount of, or less, education? Where are our priorities?
America today has a skewed view of what is really important. What do teachers get for feeding, expanding, enriching and challenging our children’s minds? Substandard wages, little appreciation or recognition, even blatant indifference.
I am the child of a teacher. I’ve been a school volunteer for five years and worked side by side with many fine teachers, all of whom have one common thread: dedication.
It infuriates me when I hear the often-voiced complaints of the unenlightened, “Teachers don’t deserve a raise; they only work six hours a day and have summers off, paid.” In reality, a teacher’s day starts well before 9 a.m. and never ends at 3 p.m. They work at home, well into the evening and on weekends. As for summer, they are required to continue their education, and their nine-month salary is merely spread throughout 12 months.
I challenge anyone to walk in a teacher’s shoes for one day. It would open your mind. I also urge anyone who cares at all about education to contact their lawmakers and demand they give our educators what they deserve. Jan L. Graves Spokane
Actually, truckers outearn teachers
Re: “Teachers face tricky sales job,” April 4.
Geez, staff writer Jeanette White, is a 70-year-old (presumably retired) truck driver the best you can do? It’s doubtful your trucker friend realizes that even entry-level truck drivers will make thousands more per year than entry level K-12 and community college personnel nowadays. Such truckers will start at about $2,400 per month (National Transportation, Spokane, 1999) and will not be saddled with massive student loans. That trucker will earn $10,000 more than a part timer at the community colleges, who earns less than $14,000 per year to teach one class less than a full load.
So, why don’t educators just become truck drivers instead? Probably because as educators and school employees (K-12, community college, universities), we thoroughly enjoy preparing people for life (the basics - reading, writing, computing) and for specific careers in business, health care, law, engineering, etc.
Wouldn’t it be nice if educators didn’t have to beg for a fair wage, considering the vital work that we do?
My husband’s boss, who works for private sector America with my husband, apologized profusely with great shame that his subordinates would only be given a 4 percent raise this year, due to lower than usual profits. I suggested his boss run for our Washington state Legislature. Maybe the Brad Benson types need to get out of their ivory legislative chamber and into the real world. Karin M. Hilgersom Newman Lake
GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
OK for Nethercutt to change mind
I was privileged to be appointed by Rep. George Nethercutt to serve as a House page. My association with this man of integrity was an honor for me as well as for my fellow pages.
The advertisements encouraging Nethercutt to step down at the end of his term greatly disturb me. Is it really fair to label him as dishonest as the other politicians in the advertisement? Doesn’t he have the right to change his mind about his future? Isn’t he justified by realizing the impact he feels he can still make? By every one of us being human, I think it is safe to say that every person at some point in time will change their mind after they are allowed to experience a different way of life than they knew before. People are wrong when they accuse a man of great character with lying.
We are very fortunate to have Nethercutt as our representative. We need to acknowledge the hard work done by him for our district and the entire country. The next time you hear or read these false advertisements, please take a minute to stop and think. Hopefully, we will all come to the realization that when we have a man like Nethercutt representing our district, we need to support him and trust him. I can still hear colleagues of Nethercutt saying to me, with a smile, “You don’t get much better of a person than George.” Lexi M. Harlow Clarkston, Wash.
IDAHO VIEWPOINTS
Be conservative or begone
The insult of choice this month, apparently, is to be called an Idahoan!
Idaho is the most conservative, the most Republican, state of the union. That is an insult? Well, so be it! I’m proud to so labeled and may that label stand until the second coming of Jesus.
As for the “extreme” Rep. Helen Chenoweth, yes, she is. She is extremely honorable, extremely sensible, extremely accountable and extremely capable. She has been sent to Congress three times by the people of Idaho because she represents us. She is so honorable, she will not seek a fourth term in violation of the self-imposed term limits.
Concerning Bonner County, it is, deplorably, the only Democratic county in Idaho. I point out to the gentleman who conceded that “a Democrat was elected commissioner in the last election,” that the Republican elected in 1996 was the first Republican commissioner in over 60 years. (Not counting Bud Mueller, who is a zebra - he doesn’t know what he is.) What has been accomplished in Bonner county since the election of the Democrat? Zilch, nil, nada.
It is because of our representatives to Washington, D.C., that we are still a conservative state. I commend Sens. Larry Craig and Mike Crapo, and Chenoweth for their untiring representation of the Gem State.
I invite those of you who find it so repulsive to move to Washington, Oregon, California or even Arkansas to express your zeal in turning everything into your intellectual elitist Utopia. Shirley Hethorn Oldtown
Welcome to your `toxic dump’
It’s the health district’s job to teach about the hazards of lead and heavy metals. The district has fallen short, considering a prominent, well-educated member of the community believes lead doesn’t harm you but may make you intelligent. Shame on the health district.
Joel Hirschhorn is an adviser brought here to help interpret the complicated government paperwork at the Superfund site. He found EPA-certified Smelterville to be clean while it had proof of recontamination. Certification states that if your property is recontaminated, it’s solely the owner’s responsibility to clean it. The People’s Action Coalition asked the EPA not to certify any other areas as long as recontamination continues. The site has been named a regional repository - a dump for waste from the region. This is a toxic dump now.
EPA officials have admitted homes are contaminated but refused to do anything until recontamination is assured not to occur. The PAC asked the EPA to place portable air filters in the homes to clean the air. The EPA has to do five-year reviews at this site. It wants to do partial reviews, where they would only be back every two or three years. PAC officials told them to do as the law is written, which is to review all together once every five years.
The government is here to stay. We can only limit its presence in the future. We live here and have the right to know what they are doing to us. Jeanie Smith Cataldo
Columnist, gas prices - grrr
I read D.F. Oliveria’s Hot Potatoes column. What a bunch of crap. I am so tired of hearing that we should feel lucky because gas is more expensive elsewhere in the world.
Well, gas is 15 cents a gallon in Saudi Arabia and I vote for that part of the world’s price, OK? As for our wonderful, civic-minded gas station owners, how fast did they raise the prices when OPEC decided to raise the price of crude? How about that day? Well, maybe the next day. Give them the benefit of the doubt. Why? That 15,000 or 20,000 gallons of gas they had in the ground didn’t cost them any more. It was already in the ground and paid for.
Greed and a chance to stick us for some extra profit, that’s why. They’re no different than the store selling generators at twice the price during a power outage.
What I really want to know from constantly seeing Oliveria’s columns is why do people keep calling him a conservative? Of course, on the S-R, it doesn’t take much to be a conservative, considering the bent of the rest of the staff. Joe Robinson Coeur d’Alene