Letters To The Editor

LAW AND JUSTICE

No place safe for the totally inebriated

I read with anger and dismay the April 9 article about Rejena Coghlan asking the court to hold the University of Idaho and the Greek houses responsible for her tragic injury. Coghlan, who was 18 at the time, had spent the evening consuming enough alcohol to tie one on for her entire sorority. Her evening ended when she fell from the fire escape at the Alpha Phi house. According to the article, her blood-alcohol reading was 0.25. That level borders on stumbling-down drunk.

Nowhere in the article does it even insinuate that she was forced or coerced into this behavior. It would appear that she was a willing participant in this death-defying act of self-destruction.

Coghlan’s attorneys argue “that students have some expectation to a relatively safe place for their education.” I agree, but you can’t ensure against stupidity. How do you provide a safe environment when some people defy common sense? After all, Coghlan was a university student. Did she not know the dangers of drinking herself into a state of oblivion? If not, does she belong away from home at an institution of higher learning?

No one has mentioned that she was in violation of Idaho state law when she consumed the alcohol that evening.

Universities are for mature, law-abiding individuals who have self-control. We cannot as a society reward this type of demeanor by allowing someone to hold those with deep pockets responsible for individual actions that were illegal and irresponsible. We set a terrible precedent if this suit is recognized by our courts. Bill Litsinger Sandpoint

Ludicrous exercise in blame shifting

The accident that resulted in Rejena Coghlan becoming partially paralyzed is truly a tragedy. As a parent of four daughters, I can only imagine the fear and sorrow felt by her parents.

What I can’t understand is why it would be considered anyone’s fault other than Coghlan’s. To try to blame and sue the University of Idaho, any Greek house or any bar for her attendance at two different fraternity parties, named “50 Ways to Lose Your Liver” and “Jack Daniel’s Birthday Party,” is ludicrous! These parties were, by their very names, going to be big drunk fests.

As an 18-year-old adult (too young to legally consume alcohol), she obviously made the conscious decision to attend these parties. She made more bad choices by drinking enough alcohol to bring her blood-alcohol level to 0.25 - more than three times what Idaho considers legally drunk. Nobody but Coghlan opened her mouth and poured in all that alcohol. Her actions were typical of a lot of people her age, but ultimately she is the only person responsible for them.

Of course this event provided another attempt by an attorney who chooses to ignore the facts and then takes the opportunity to pass all the blame onto anyone who might remotely have anything to do with the situation. If this suit is upheld, there will be a huge increase in lawsuits against colleges. Any time a student is harmed there will be a lawyer looking for a few bucks.

Please, as a society, let us again accept responsibility for our own actions. Gerry D. Bassen Spokane

BUSINESS AND LABOR

White collar criminals? Absolutely

Peter Dolina, I am the “they” who created the sign you mention in your April 11 Roundtable column. When I say “white collar criminals,” I am referring to Charles Hurwitz, the man who bought Kaiser with what I consider stolen money and who is currently on trial in Texas for the crime that netted him that money.

On a local level, I am referring to those salaried workers at Trentwood who ensure their job security by cheating injured workers out of their medical benefits, discriminate against minorities, women and older workers, and who violate job and environmental safety regulations for Kaiser.

I don’t know if your friend, Jan, is one of these people. However, if she is as you describe, a person of great technical expertise who commands natural respect, her days at Kaiser are numbered. For the past few years, managers who meet that description are the first to be fired when the salaried work force is downsized.

This is one of the issues that rankles Steelworkers the most - the deliberate dilution of expertise and integrity in Kaiser’s salaried work force.

Kaiser Aluminum is being “parted out” in America. If Steelworkers refuse to work for Third World wages, its assets will be transferred to other countries which also tire of this exploitation.

President Ray Milchovich’s pockets are being lined with an obscene amount of money by Hurwitz for managing this corporate treason. When will laws be passed to deport or jail this new breed of federal criminal? Margaret Larive Spokane

HIGHER EDUCATION

Baby steps toward reining in EWU

Re: “EWU told to shift weight to Cheney” (April 10).

I’m glad to see that Eastern Washington University’s administration may yet be brought under control as a result of legislative and regulatory action. However, the small steps proposed and initiated are utterly insufficient.

There may have been a time when transportation between Cheney and Spokane was sufficiently difficult that a branch campus was appropriate. This is clearly no longer the case. If one applies an objective analysis, it is clear that neither EWU nor Washington State University should be allowed to have a Spokane presence. No such analysis has ever been made and even the suggestion of doing one results in screams of anguish as someone’s sacred ox is gored. Dr. Niel Zimmerman’s unprofessional whine is a perfect example.

When I was a student at EWU, I met students who lived and worked in Walla Walla, Colville and other distant locations. They valued their education enough to make the effort to attend classes in Cheney and Spokane. It is appalling that someone who lives in the immediate area will not do the same. To spend vast sums of money to support this unproven “need” is unethical.

The state has probably spent well over $100 million in capital and other costs to support the Spokane presence of both schools. Think of what this amount of money spent over 20 or 30 years could do if invested in faculty, staff and other useful educational support. Why, then, is this fiscal abomination, and the other misconduct of the Stephen Jordan administration, being tolerated? Douglas R. Mitchell Cheney

SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION

More for less not

Re: “Teachers seeking more for less” (Letters, March 22) by Victoria Carlile.

Early release of students on half days is tiring to teachers. Children anticipating a half-day release are more unruly, distracted and off task than during a regular class day.

Most teachers start their day between 8 and 8:30 a.m. They receive only a half-hour lunch and are lucky if they get that. They usually try to be out of the building by 4 or 5 p.m., and on some occasions not before 6 p.m. This doesn’t even count the evenings spent coming back for school functions. It is also not uncommon to see teachers at school on the weekend, doing lesson plans and keeping up the paperwork the district and government require for each student.

Carlile mentions teachers wanting a 15 percent pay increase. Yes, they do want an increase - and deserve one. Teachers have not received a cost-of-living increase in five years. This is only 3 percent per year - far less than the yearly increase in the rate of inflation.

Carlile mentions low test scores and children who can’t read. How often do parents sit down with little Johnny and work with him on his homework, so he can come to class prepared to participate, instead of being a disruptive element in the classroom? How about volunteering at a local school to read with a child? It is very easy to place fault with our teachers and make baseless statements without taking the time to learn the facts. R.G. Roduner Spokane

U.S. AND THE WORLD

Refugees would continue fine tradition

Re: “Don’t bring contaminated refugees here” (Letters, April 9).

Daniel Miller’s opinion was interesting from two angles.

Unless Miller is a Native American, his forebears immigrated to this country. And, since the first immigrants were not required to pass through Ellis Island in New York and go though various inspections, I don’t believe anyone checked their health. Who knows what sort of illnesses they brought to this new land? We all have read about what diseases the Native Americans acquired with the arrival of the white man. But gosh, everything turned out fine.

These refugees seem to be a tough group of people. In most cases, after watching their villages put asunder and possibly losing loved ones, most have walked many miles with just the clothes on their backs and a minimum of food, if any, in cold and rainy conditions with no shelter. Their determination is remarkable and anyone who would go though those conditions to get away from that tyranny would be welcome in my neighborhood anytime.

We who are lucky enough to live in this country and whose relatives were welcomed with the words, “Give me your tired, your poor…” should return the favor that was given to us. Patricia (Pat) A. Boyd Ephrata, Wash.

Go for definitive victory over evil

With all due respect, President Clinton, whereas you have proved to us over the past year that you kept your seat in the Oval Office through successful strategies; and, whereas Slobadan Milosavic has foisted his rottenness onto other Serbs who continue to carry out heinous crimes against humankind daily, setting the stage for revenge and the next war; and, whereas you continue to represent the citizens of this country as president as well as the citizens in war-ravaged countries like the Balkans as a leader for basic human rights, now - and quickly - show us your mettle. Show citizens your effective strategy for stopping the criminal carnage in the Balkans by taking these steps:

1. Send in NATO troops.

2. Take out Milosevic’s media capability.

3. Set up radio and television transmitters to broadcast throughout the Balkans, the truth about Serbian crimes against the innocent and why NATO is there.

4. Drop leaflets containing the above information. The war of words is equally important to the physical war we are engaged in. If we want support for the rightness of our case, we need to tell everyone in that region, in their language, what’s happening and why. Unless we mount a strong verbal and pictorial barrage of truth and honesty we will lose any peace that follows in the course of time.

What would Teddy Roosevelt do? What would John Kennedy do? There comes a time in every man’s life when he has to make difficult decisions and take a stand. You don’t need a poll to do that. H. Bob Wheeler Chattaroy

Albanians suffering for lack of guns

If the Albanians had the legal right to bear arms, as law-abiding Americans do, they could defend themselves when the Serbian troops come knocking at the door. If the Albanians had been armed in the first place, the Serbian troops would not have been as eager to do what they have done, because the armed Albanians would have had the ability to fight back.

There are U.S. and NATO people who are talking about giving arms to the Albanians, so they can do their own fighting. I support this, because America can no longer afford to be the police force of the world.

The right of law-abiding citizens to own weapons is a U.S. Constitutional right. If we law-abiding Americans allow the government to take away that right, then we, too, could have the very same thing happening right here in America. It is because of this danger that our forefathers included in the Constitution the right for law-abiding citizens to own and bear arms. This is exactly what an enemy within would not want us to have. Joseph Kranz Newport, Wash.

Don’t deal with evil Chinese regime

How on Earth can we even think of dealing with China or any other nation that steals top secrets and technology from us, that imprisons its people when they speak what they believe to be right and murders its children for wanting something better for themselves and their future children? We are hoping to gain monetarily on the blood and anguish of the peoples of the world.

This nation will undergo terrible judgment for our greed, our callous indifference to the pain and heartache of the enslaved of the world. Giving our wealth and technology to these monstrous nations will not help their people. It will only make these evil governments stronger and richer while their people long for freedom.

All the gold and silver winds up in bank accounts around the world of the despot rulers, while we seek to gain advantage at others expense. Do your remember what the Japanese ambassadors were doing weeks before the bombing of Pearl Harbor? Jim Wilbur Spokane

OTHER TOPICS

Today’s reporters are distorters

The April 11 column, “My news isn’t pretty,” should be required reading in every journalism school in this country. Frank Bartel’s point: News reporters today do not report. They “interpret” the news. In short, they slant, transform and “make” the news. They don’t inform their readers of facts, per se. They provide fluff, entertainment and embellishments which distort the truth, rendering the “reports” completely unreliable to any but “generations of younger readers short on reading comprehension, short on attention spans and short on time.”

Amen! One unfortunate result of this credibility deficit by the news media is that the people (excepting those with the intellectual capacity of ragweed) can no longer rely on the accuracy, or even the motives, of the Fourth Estate. This is a dreadful loss, considering the unreliability of the emanations from the current administration in Washington, D.C., today.

Our country’s at war in Kosovo. At war! But who can trust what the Clinton administration tells us about cause and effect? Who can believe the White House press corps, the releases by the departments of defense or state? Are we hearing hard news or propaganda? Does it depend on what the definition of “win” is? The definition of “aggressor?”

It matters to us who truly want to know what’s happening.

I, too, long for the days when “news was straight and gray.” If such days ever return, those of us who think and care about events shaping, or entrapping, humanity might - just maybe - have reason to surrender cynicism for real hope. P.G. Wilson Hayden Lake, Idaho

First, teach decency, sportsmanship

I think most people will agree that our society has a sportsmanship problem. Not only do our young athletes show blatant disrespect for their opponent, they are becoming more aggressive toward umpires, referees and other officials. Often those who should be setting the example for them, professionals and parents, are just as bad.

If we want our young athletes to act civilly, behave themselves and show respect, we must show them how it’s done and reward them when it is done right.

This brings me to the April 1 article, “N.C. and V.C. noted for courtesy.” The article was quite small, three inches maybe. It was buried on page 5 of the Sports section. I’d bet that hardly anyone noticed it. Yet these were kids who acted with respect for all during competition.

Don’t you think it’s time for the “good paper” to become a part of the solution? Come on, let’s demonstrate to our kids what’s important. How about some real recognition on page 1? By the way, I don’t have kids at either school. I’m just a grandpa who wants kids to be able to enjoy competition and respect others at the same time. Emery Wold Spokane

Cloning monkeys bodes ill for mankind

I read something on the Internet recently that chilled me to the bone. It came over the Reuters wire as a report from a cloning seminar organized by the Center for Gynecological and Reproductive Studies in Buenos Aires.

The report states that our National Institute of Health is spending our tax dollars on research into cloning monkeys. The report states that rhesus monkeys are being used because of their close relation to humans; their reproductive organs function almost identically to those of humans.

We should have known when scientists succeeded in cloning a sheep that we would not quit there. We will keep experimenting on other animals until we learn to clone humans.

Once, man was content to be the son of God. Now we want to be God! My mind runs wild thinking about the possibility of a world where one crazed dictator could create an army of super soldiers in a laboratory by taking the nuclei out of the cells from an adult and fusing them into egg cells.

Animal research is a dangerous game. The implications are terrifying. Chris G. Bowers Liberty Lake