Letters To The Editor

WASHINGTON STATE

Early childhood care is critical

I am a physician working in family practice. Over the last 25 years in my work with families, I observed repeatedly the impact of substandard care of infants and children. I am writing to express my concern about the current department of social and health services policy regarding care for infants under one year of age.

Aside from the clear increase in danger to children when they are left with substandard care givers, the data accumulated from scientific study clearly indicates that the brain development that occurs (and attachment strategies developed) in the first 12 months of life shape the future and potential for individuals’ intellectual, emotional and relational well being. In families where fewer resources are available for children, the importance of safe, predictable and consistent care is even more vital.

The need for adequate child care for children under 12 months of age cannot be overemphasized. If adequate care is not available for infants, their mothers should not be required to work until such care can be attained. Michael J. Metcalf, M.D. Spokane

I want to take back control

I wanted a new boat so I went to my boss and told him I was giving myself a raise to pay for it. Sounds great, doesn’t it? That’s the way our state government seems to work. Those in it seem to feel we taxpayers can always afford a little bit more and more, and more. Enough already! After all, there are only two states with a higher sales tax rate.

It’s time for a change. Initiative 695 is about a lot more than reasonable license fees; it is about taking back fiscal control of our government. We should decide what we need and want as well as how it is funded.

I’m voting for 1-695 regardless of their threats of economic doom. Our state has needs and requires funding for them. I will vote for or against them based on their own merits.

I am tired of the so-called general fund that gets most of the revenue and is then dispersed in such a way that only an accountant could trace it. An example of this is the current tax I pay on my car. They say a portion of my tax ends up supporting the justice system, among other things. How does that relate to my car? Revenues should be related to expenditures.

In November, I’m voting for I-695. I’ll also support politicians, groups and/or parties who believe that it’s our money and our choice. Roger Baldwin Veradale

BUSINESS AND LABOR

Kaiser’s `thanks’ not wanted

I took my family to a baseball game the other night and what a beautiful night it was. The setting sun was shining softly on the green grass. The hot dog and program vendors were singing out their songs. Looking around the stadium I noticed families talking and laughing together, sharing dreams and ideas without the distraction of a television or a computer. This was definitely a family event.

Lost in thought, I glanced across to the left field wall. I saw a sign that forced me back to reality. It said, “Locally grown, internationally known, Kaiser Aluminum, thanks, Spokane.”

I started laughing at the irony of it. Here in this bastion of family values and Americana was a sign from a company that in the last 10 months has locked out its workers and hired replacements from inside and outside the area.

For the last 50 years, Kaiser has been a company where a person could work, raise a family and live the American dream. I am ashamed of what Kaiser has become. I would not want my children working for a company such as this. Kaiser, you are pathetic. Spokane does not want or need your thanks. Todd G. Lainhart Veradale

Officials’ actions disappointing

As a lifelong resident of Spokane, a parent and a taxpayer, I have been thinking about the Kaiser strike situation and our elected officials. I have been mainly thinking about the two labor-endorsed Republicans, Sheriff Mark Sterk and Prosecutor Steve Tucker.

At election time, they both asked for labor’s support and they both got it. Now, when labor needs their help, they turn their backs on them. They have violated their word to be fair to labor; they have violated their oaths to enforce the law (concerning out-of-state workers at Kaiser).

We’re told the sheriff’s office cannot do anything until the prosecutor’s office acts. Then we’re told the prosecutor’s office can’t do anything until the sheriff’s office acts. As it is, they have only collected their paychecks.

Stop passing the buck! There is more to holding office than playing golf and grandstanding. Dave E. Breitkreutz Spokane

SPOKANE MATTERS

Special place has been diminished

Until recently, Lincoln’s statue in downtown Spokane had a wonderful backdrop of trees planted in memory of Vietnam War dead. Winter’s snows laced the tall trees’ branches. In spring, the trees produced luminous green leaves. Summer shade was their legacy in this concrete and brick world. Fall brought even brighter color when the leaves turned yellow before falling to the ground like tears of remembrance.

Two trees remain. The symmetry is destroyed. Hearts are saddened. Cars have gained the upper hand, again.

A popular author of young adult books, Gary Paulsen, wrote a book called “The Monument” (1991, Yearling Press), exploring the meaning and need for remembrance: “Monuments can come from other places than just art. … During the Boer War in South Africa, a platoon of 40-odd British soldiers was caught in a small valley by vicious crossfire. They were all killed and the bodies were left where they lay. They had just been issued their food, and each had been given a half a dozen peaches which the men kept in their knapsacks. As the bodies decomposed they became fertilizer and the peach pits took root, and now there is an orchard there, still today, of 40 peach trees. It is said that the peaches from the orchard are the sweetest peaches in the world.” “Here … men have died from this area so here … we plant trees … so that people can come and sit in the quiet shade and think of what the trees represent.”

Officials give reasons for removing the trees but not one reason satisfies the hearts of those who loved those trees - right where they stood and should be standing yet. Tina Wynecoop Colbert

We’re grateful to two good people

It was annoying when the phone rang at 6:30 p.m. in the midst of the chaos of dinner and returning from vacation. I almost didn’t answer. As I geared up for a quick “no thank you” and prepared to hang up, I heard, “Have you lost a large sum of money?” They had my full and immediate attention.

Unbeknownst to me, a few hours earlier my husband was driving to our son’s ball game. In the front of the car was a large sum of money in an envelope - payback from the 50-odd members of the family reunion we had just attended in Oregon. Somehow, it fell out of the car and blew all over the street without my husband seeing it. Two people driving behind him stopped and gathered what they could, including a check written to us, and turned it in to the police. Then they called me. They didn’t have to do this. It was a lot of time and trouble for them.

We are so grateful, not only for the return of the money but for the wonderful affirmation of the good in everyday people. Thank you, from all of us. Michelle M. Townshend Colbert

ABORTION

Other deaths deserve concern also

It’s sad that the country, due in large part to our news and entertainment media, got so wrapped up in of John F. Kennedy Jr.’s death. It is a sad loss, no doubt, and there was so much potential lost with his death.

Does anyone think about the loss involved with all the abortions performed in this country? What kind of potential is lost every time a person is killed in the womb before they even have a chance to begin their life? If all the people totally distraught over Kennedy’s death, excluding his family and friends, would put a small fraction of this concern into all the lost lives of the aborted - no, murdered - fetuses in the U.S. alone, we would experience a far greater number of special people.

J.F.K. Jr. and thousands of dead babies each year; both sad occurrences and losses of life. But so much concern over one and much less over so many. Steve Haxton Spokane

RIGHTS AND RADICALISM

Basic freedom not an a la carte thing

Re: “Freedom doesn’t extend to lies.”

As a result of the recent Aryan Nations march, several letters have appeared recently from citizens who feel that the freedom of speech now goes too far. People seem to think that law concerning freedom of speech should either be rewritten or abolished completely.

For example, Andrew M. Netzel’s states in a letter that freedom of speech should only cover what is “true and good.” This idea has several flaws, the main one being the matter of who is going to decide what is true and good? Everyone’s point of view will differ. An entire nation would never be able to agree on a standard of good. What one person finds nice another will find offensive in the extreme.

Freedom of speech must be all or it is nothing. The beauty of this is that we all can speak our own minds and when somebody begins spouting absurdities to simply get attention, the rest of us can maturely ignore them and get on with our lives. This way, we don’t have to be bothered by endless debates over what is good and true, yet we still are able to hear all points of view and remain open minded while enjoying our constitutional rights.

I hope that narrow-minded people will realize that everything can’t be tailor made to suit their particular wishes. The Constitution, and with it the freedom of speech, was written for an entire nation. Sometimes, people need to just get over themselves and learn to ignore that which does not deserve attention. Katee J. Lunneborg Spokane

Bring on more nonracist parades

Re: “Aryan Nations says it has plans for Labor Day parade,” (July 22). If the citizens and/or organizations of Coeur d’Alene had their own parades scheduled on all important holidays, there wouldn’t be time or room for the Aryans. They would perhaps choose another day. At least it wouldn’t be the holidays important to the rest of us. Vicki Osburn Spokane

Don’t drive racists underground

It seems that almost every day on the Roundtable page there is at least one letter lamenting fact that the Aryan Nations (and all those we don’t like) have a right to speak their mind. This is shortsighted.

Suppose someone says something like, “All white people are superior to all black people.” The first thing that happens is that at least 10 people go up to racists and start telling them why they’re wrong. The anti-racists expand on their argument and give reasons why. Of course, almost everyone agrees with them because they’re obviously right. The idea that racism is evil and false is enforced, within a society that predominantly recognizes it is evil and false when someone says racism is good. So, all that Richard Butler does when he marches down the streets of Coeur d’Alene is ignite an anti-racist fervor.

Now suppose that instead of putting his putrid ideology in the spotlight where we can all see it and boo it, he goes underground and initiates other ignorant people into the racist doctrine. What will happen is that the group will grow and grow without any opposing force from mainstream society because we can’t see the growth. We assume that everything is fine and dandy.

Forcing the racists to go underground is like forcing an enemy army to regroup. Whereas letting the racists wave their flag, and loudly opposing them, is what will eventually rid our region of them. Will D. McGinty Spokane

OTHER TOPICS

These rights worth protecting

Nine of my ancestors and relatives served in colonial militia units in New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia in the 1700s. Two of the oldest men came to this country early that decade, one being a teenager in the British army.

Welshman John (ca. 1720-1811) had a flintlock rifle custom made in Pennsylvania which the British captured when they killed his son, who had borrowed it. All these generations, this gorgeous rifle has lain in the arms collection of Windsor Castle, but they aren’t giving it back.

Ulsterman Samuel (1725-1806) and his sons were loudly vocal in wanting separation from england, so their swords and firearms were confiscated. Samuel was imprisoned in the British jail in Camden, S.C., where he pried a window out and escaped. Without protection against search and seizure, they hid their weapons in hollow trees and forest thickets.

Later, as a member of the South Carolina Legislature, Samuel voted in the affirmative when that state ratified the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. We descendants are sure that old Samuel knew exactly what he voted for: a binding document that would save his descendants from the same indignities he suffered. We are found in many states with lots of military veterans among us.

Although I own no firearms, I will continue voicing my opposition to any legislation from either Washington that I believe will diminish my liberties.

More severe punishment for wrongdoers should eliminate all of this debate. Lillian Ogletree Forster Spokane

Failure to distinguish troubling

I was disturbed to see the sentence, “A 1996 lawsuit by Spokane psychiatrist Eric Smeltz accused Spokane Mental Health of unfairly using public sector money to support Greentree’s private business ventures” in Jonathan Martin’s “Finances force Mental Health to cut divisions” (July 27)

Smeltz is not a psychiatrist. A psychiatrist is a physician who has graduated from a four-year medical school with an M.D, degree, then taken four years of further training in the medical speciality of psychiatry, as another doctor might take further training in pediatrics, internal medicine, etc.

I am disturbed because it appears your reporter, in writing the numerous recent stories about Spokane Mental Health, the Regional Support Network, etc., didn’t learn such a basic fact in spite of all his apparent in-depth reporting on the situation. I wonder how many other inaccurate or ignorant statements were in his pieces.

Secondly, SMH has had a long and cordial relationship with the psychiatrists in the community. I would be surprised if any of us would want to be thought of as the type of person who would sue Spokane Mental Health, as Smeltz is reported as doing. I do not welcome any hint of guilt by association with Smeltz. David Grubb, M.D. psychiatrist, Spokane

Schlessinger factually challenged

Once again I have to correct factual errors in Laura Schlessinger’s column, this one from July 24. Perhaps, someday, you will understand that she is unqualified to have a column and The Spokesman-Review will stop inflicting her “opinions” on Spokane readers.

In this last column, she incorrectly identifies the American Psychological Association as the organization which removed homosexuality from the list of mental disorders in 1973. In fact, it was the American Psychiatric Association.

Secondly, she says that the change was made by the seven-member board by a vote of 4-3, with the four voting in favor of the change being gay. There is no proof of that claim whatsoever. But more importantly, that board decision had no power until it was ratified by the complete membership the next year. It was passed by 60 percent of the members, with over 15,000 psychiatrists voting in favor of removing homosexuality from the list of mental disorders.

All of this information is a matter of public record and easy to verify. Please do us all a favor and dump her as a columnist. Gregory M. Presley Spokane