Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

Welcome to the Hillyard speedway

The posted speed limit in downtown Hillyard on Market Street is 20 mph, yet in all the years I have been driving there, I have yet to see anyone go that slow except when they’re parking.

I drive that street every day. During peak hours, the average speed being driven is 30-35 mph. Being a conscientious citizen and yet not wanting to incur the wrath of some bozo’s road rage, I only slow down to about 25.

This in itself isn’t so incredible; Spokane is known for its horrendously disobedient drivers. What I find incredible is that this occurs directly in front of the Northeast COPS substation. Even more incredible is that the Spokane Police Department patrol cars driving up Market Street are totally oblivious to the posted speed limit! What’s happening here?

During the past few weeks, I’ve made a mental note of every SPD car I’ve seen while on Market - every one of them cruising along at 30-35 mph. Last week, I was driving up Market at 25 mph when a SPD patrol car came up behind me. Thinking that by some miracle the police were now cracking down on speeding, I slowed to 20 mph. The patrol car proceeded to tailgate me until it turned off on a side street a few blocks later.

How can anyone respect the law when their own police officers can’t even respect it?

The speed limit through Hillyard should be raised to 25 or even 30. Until that happens, shouldn’t the existing speed limit be obeyed and enforced? Jeff Sims Spokane

Child ID program open to all

The new Operation Safe Kid Identification Disk, or SKID, is a helpful program by the Spokane Police Department and Community Oriented Policing Substations.

Everyone who loves and cares about their children should call and set up an appointment to have their child’s or children’s computerized picture taken. They then transfer it to a computer disk for your own safekeeping.

As your child grows and changes, this should be done every three years.

Should your child ever be missing, you can take the disk to any law enforcement agency, and your child’s picture can be instantly sent across the country. It is easy and quick. God forbid that we ever have to use it, but what a help it will be if we do. A $1 donation is requested to cover the cost of the disk and equipment. However, no child will be turned away.

Do not let this be a when-I-get-to-it deal. Do it now! Marilyn R. Grosstueck Spokane

Spare us view spoiled by gondolas

In Darlene Wilder’s April 2 letter, she states, “We wouldn’t think of obstructing the view of Spokane Falls.”

Sorry, the Parks Department does. Those godawful gondolas hanging across those spectacular falls are as effective at disrupting the view as billboards. They are like a blight across them. How many cities have white, pristine falls roaring through their center? It’s unbelievable that anyone would ruin such a phenomenally beautiful natural sight. Where are their heads?

I don’t know how much money the Parks Department makes from the gondolas but the view of Spokane Falls is priceless. Please, don’t park them over the river, park them on the sides.

Don’t spoil that precious view with a ride! B.J. Stratton Spokane

Excise tax is one too many

I am a working taxpayer and a resident of Spokane County. My taxes are paid in full for every day I choose to live here, including my property taxes. I’m a father of two children. My wife works seven days a week as a homemaker.

We recently sold our home on five acres, built in 1991, and purchased a lesser-priced home to help make ends meet. With all the costs of buying and selling a home itemized and accounted for, there was only one cost which appeared unfair, unjust and unearned: the 1.78 percent excise tax the county and state share.

In my work, I travel county and state roads extensively; the conditions are extremely poor. This tax must generate staggering amounts of revenue for these agencies, but I simply wonder where the money goes. The $2,200 of home equity they took from this family is a lot of money in our world. A swing set, bicycle and a few simple pleasures for two little girls was its intended use.

This blue-collar man’s pockets are shallow and just when they become a little bit deeper, these agencies seize the opportunity to get their hands in first. Shame on you, Washington state, and shame on you, Spokane County. This tax is unfair and I assure you, the next time I pay this tax will be the last time. Mark R. Haukeli Chattaroy

U.S. AND THE WORLD

Leave this to God, not NATO

Although I support our people in the armed services, I do not support the war.

There are times when good people will give their lives in support of a war but the pride and diversions of our draft-dodging president and the pride of NATO are not worth even one human life. Enough blood has been shed already by the victims of the several wars. We have enough problems on our own doorstep.

For the Christians of the world, this war is also a spiritual problem. When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we say, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Note that we must first forgive before we are forgiven. The people and nations of the world must deal with the old ethnic hatreds before there will be any peace. Forgiveness is not a matter of “yes, but,” it is a matter of “Yes, God, please help me to forgive.” Perhaps one day at a time or one hour at a time. As the song says, “Let there be peace on Earth and let it begin with me.”

Peace and justice flow from relationship with God, not NATO. Peggy Faust Coeur d’Alene

Lesson of history is clear

People like John Axtell and Charlotte Benjamin (Letters, April 12) are the same kind of people who did not believe Hitler was murdering the Jewish population.

Do you think Milosevic will just stop at Kosovo?

If we don’t learn from the past, history will repeat itself.

Those who deny the atrocities are completely out of touch with past world events and reality. Rick Martin Spokane

Finally, Clinton’s ratings may suffer

Clinton and his so-called foreign policy team have now done something so dangerous and stupid that it may, and certainly should, cut into the administration’s approval ratings.

Time magazine, on April 5, published historian Sir Michael Howard’s three rules for intervening in civil wars. These are: “First, do not. Second, if you do, pick a side. Third, pick the side that will win and make sure that it does.”

With the able assistance of national security adviser Sandy Berger, Clinton has ignored rule No. 1, followed rule No. 2 and appears to be highly conflicted, tentative and uncertain about rule No. 3. As an aside, is everyone aware that Berger honed his national security expertise in his former career as a registered lobbyist for communist China? Having blundered into this mess, with no clear definition of goals and no apparent rational plan for execution and completion, NATO and the United States are faced with two stark choices. They are to win or to lose. Both are perilous and both carry long-term and short-term costs. This is where the intellectually and morally bankrupt policies of the Clinton administration really begin to bite.

We didn’t have to be here but Clinton brought us here. Isn’t it ironic that the military he holds in contempt, and which his policies and budget choices have impaired, is now so important to him? Larry L. Morrison Harrison, Idaho

Refugees part of what we’re all about

Daniel Miller wrote (Letters, April 13) that he did not wish for the refugees from Kosovo to be moved to the United States, calling them the “Y2K bug.” He refers to the fact that they are now placed in disease-ridden refugee camps and could possibly transfer those diseases to American citizens.

People fleeing persecution founded this country; people who had the audacity to travel to a new land and seek asylum from those who would steal from them their inalienable human rights - just as the Serbians have done to the people from Kosovo. The base of the Statue of Liberty reads: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

It does not say give me only those who aren’t infected with diphtheria or tuberculosis - diseases which already occur in the United States.

The opinion Miller and those of like mind hold keeps them from ever learning the intrinsic value of freedom, something many Americans take for granted. I would welcome the Kosovars. I hope that by doing so, we could prevent the systematic genocide of the people of that region by the Serbian government. Ree Ann Hite Spokane

BUSINESS AND LABOR

Mad, yes, and with good reason

Re: Annette L. Moore’s letter of April 11, “Strikers’ excesses serve them badly.”

Here’s who I’m mad at.

Kaiser management leads for attempting to intimidate us into accepting an unfavorable contract. Their contempt, illegal actions, questionable gifts to county agencies moments before the strike and willingness to lose millions of dollars to prevail disgust me. Include companies like IMAC and CWI, making a living providing strike-breakers nationwide.

Next, the scabs, who are undermining our efforts to expedite negotiations through a legal strike. They rush in like vultures, collecting quick money for themselves, with no regard to the work force or local community.

Don’t forget the county officials who refuse to enforce our laws equally.

It sickens me to see the truths and concepts I’ve honored for a lifetime trampled by greed and corruption. You should be extremely thankful that all we do is yell! This is the real world and it’s not fair, equal, just or pretty. We have shown an extraordinary amount of self-restraint and professionalism during this dispute. The incidents involving Steelworkers can be counted on one hand.

There were other alternatives. Remember the Molly McGuires of the coal mining strikes? They inflicted terror and bloodshed to the replacement workers of that era.

Expecting us to stand by, wave hello and chat with them is absurd. A strike is not a friendly atmosphere. You can’t change that. I hope that when it’s your turn to be in our shoes, you’ll be able to stand and cheerfully converse about the weather with the people stealing your future. Richard M. Prete Steelworkers Local 338, Chattaroy

View from left field is naive

Annette L. Moore’s letter (April 11), “Strikers’ excesses serve them badly,” is an extraordinarily naive commentary. Moore takes the result of using scabs and uses that to condemn the behavior of the Steelworkers. This indicates some lack of a sense of reality, knowledge of history or any real understanding of community.

Her attempt at psychological analysis is ludicrous. The scabs did not make the Steelworkers walk off the job but are responsible for keeping them off the job.

The scabs are not “decent human beings.” They are thieves. They are robbing a large portion of Spokane’s middle class of their existence. They are ruthlessly disrupting the lives of children. They are causing enormous stress and strain to hundreds of relationships.

Many of the scabs are Idaho residents. They commute to the plants every day. That is illegal. It is the same as someone stealing a purse (given the tone of her letter, Moore would probably not object to someone stealing her purse.)

The Steelworkers have shown remarkable restraint. Their courage and strength are admirable. Moore should be ashamed. Thomas L. McArthur Spokane

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Pressure group should butt out

U.S. Term Limits is an organization spending vast sums of money on advertising to tell voters of the 5th Congressional District who we should not have as a member of Congress.

The South Side Republican Action Club feels that the voters of the 5th District are able, and should be allowed, to decide for themselves who they want as their Congress member.

Those in agreement with term limits appreciate the fact that Rep. George Nethercutt has voted in favor of this issue each time it has come up in the House of Representatives.

If Nethercutt chooses to run for a fourth term, we reserve the right to judge him on his value to our district based on his performance, not on what an East Coast special interest organization tells us we should do.

We the voters know who and what we want for a congressman. It is our district and our decision. Brad Johnson, president South Side Republican Action Club, Spokane

Freedom resides in the people

Freedom is not an entitlement. Believing our freedom comes from the government is much the same as believing our weather comes from the forecaster. Jon J. Tuning Spokane

THE ENVIRONMENT

Why aren’t leaders helping tribe?

As the greater Spokane community appears to sleep, we are soon to become the recipients of a radioactive waste dump.

In a deal that clearly smacks of environmental racism, Dawn Mining is getting close to setting a precedent in which they will be “cleaning up” their polluted uranium mine near the Spokane Indian Tribe’s reservation, essentially with tax dollars.

Can you say “corporate welfare”?

If Dawn gets its way, trainloads of radioactive waste will begin arriving in Spokane and will be trucked to the site near Ford, down busy Highway 2 and up the twisting road north, to fill a hole next to a tributary of the Columbia River. Much of the waste will come from the Buffalo, N.Y., area - all the way across the country. In typical federal policy, the transportation costs are not even being considered.

Where is our leadership?

Is Rep. George Nethercutt too busy manufacturing consent for his re-election campaign to represent the people of the 5th District? Could his silence possibly have anything to do with donations from the mining industry?

I hope to be proven wrong but it seems like our governor is Chinese-American only when it is a benefit to him politically. It seems to be the height of hypocrisy when other minorities are getting a raw deal and he does nothing. I call on Gov. Gary Locke to step up and represent the people of Washington. Barbara Rupert Spokane