Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

Pro-billboard arguments nonsense

Re: “Taking away signs is bad business” (letters, July 24).

Nathan S. Batson’s assertion that billboard regulation will sound the death knell for Spokane is absurd. Companies using billboards for advertising represent a small fraction of businesses located in our community. Billboard density is not an indicator of the overall retail health. It is more likely a sign of billboard industry health.

Although retail businesses are a significant portion of the overall U.S. economy, expenditures related to billboard advertising are only a small portion of the total dollars spent annually on media advertising, for which there are numerous alternatives. To suggest that billboard advertising is the retailer’s primary or most cost-effective means of communicating with the consumer is insupportable.

Although most of Spokane’s citizens would not consider Sprague or Division a part of their neighborhood, I, as a member of the South Hill community, consider 29th Avenue a part of my neighborhood. And 29th Avenue is quickly becoming the Sprague of the South Hill.

Billboard regulation is not a violation of the First Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that governments may regulate the physical characteristics of signs and that signs are a form of expression that are subject to municipalities’ regulatory powers.

There are numerous examples of communities that have banned billboards with positive aesthetic and economic results. Consider the beautiful states of Maine, Vermont, Alaska and Hawaii that have statewide billboard bans! No community has lost jobs, lost tax revenue or been sent to the morgue because of a billboard ban. Robert A. McGuinness Citizens for a Scenic Spokane

Let me end concert seating confusion

On July 24 and 25, Allegro Baroque & Beyond presented the second annual Royal Fireworks Festival and 21st annual Royal Fireworks Concert. As in the past, all events were free to the public, thanks in large part to the generosity of our major sponsors, US West, The Spokesman-Review and Washington Trust Bank.

Additional support from foundations, businesses and individuals makes it possible to produce this wonderful event for our community but additional funds are necessary to cover expenses. In an effort to raise money this year, for the first time, we set aside a small section of reserved seating at the Midsummer Night’s Dream production on Saturday evening and at the concert on Sunday evening. Anyone who wished to purchase a ticket to benefit Allegro could do so.

This new fund-raising venue created confusion, leaving some people with the misunderstanding that there would be no free seating made available on the Opera House steps. We sincerely apologize for the confusion and want to assure our friends who have supported the Royal Fireworks Concert for so many years that there will always be free seating on the steps. We thank all of you for joining us and look forward to seeing you next year.

For those of you who came to Riverfront Park for the festival and/or concert and enjoyed yourself, please write a letter of thanks to our sponsors. It is with their gracious support that we are able to continue this event that helps to make Spokane such a special place to live. Linda Milsow board president, Spokane

Thanks for backing Evergreen Club

Thank you to those who are coming to the aid of the underdogs and rescuing the Evergreen Club. This fine organization gives just the kind of daily support the mentally ill need in their struggle to live independent lives.

Dealing with mental illness is a difficult and time-consuming responsibility. We as a community need to help these people who, through no fault of their own, are trapped in lonely, often depressing lives and need a helping hand to get through each day. Christie Wade Spokane

Firefighters, your help is appreciated

To the firefighters of Spokane who helped raise money in the Muscular Dystrophy Association Fill the Boot fund raiser, our family thanks you from the bottom of hearts.

Our 2-year-old son, Matthew, has spinal muscular atrophy. He is affected with a rare form of muscular dystrophy. He has never rolled over, crawled or walked and has a life expectancy between 10 and 20 years because of his respiratory issues. A simple cold can be life threatening to him.

We are very thankful to all the people in the community who are willing to give their time to Matthew and kids like him. Without the MDA, our family would have little hope. We are hoping and praying for a therapy to stop the progression or, best of all, to help find a cure. The MDA has helped our family with equipment, diagnostic testing, doctor visits, doctor bills, etc.

Thanks to you, the MDA can help thousands of families like ours. Stephanie E. Varney and family Spokane

CHURCH AND STATE

Consider origins of separation need

There are several issues concerning the July 27 guest column by Kootenai County Commissioner Ron Rankin.

First, the headline, “American heritage forged in Christian beliefs.” of the various Bible quotations in it that Rankin said are in government buildings, I noted only two that were from the New Testament: “Search the Scriptures,” not identified but from John 5:39, and the passage from John 1:5. The rest are from the Old Testament. The headline should more accurately have referred to Judeo-Christian beliefs.

Rankin cites the painting of the pilgrims but let us note why they fled England. They were persecuted and some even imprisoned because their religious beliefs were not in accord with those of the government-sponsored church. Whenever government and church become entangled, the power of government may be used to control religion. This country was established to avoid that.

There is nothing wrong with someone in government expressing his or her personal religious beliefs in speeches, as per quotes cited of Lincoln and Jefferson, or in having a room for private prayer for members of congress.

The problem comes when specific beliefs are made official. If there are Bible quotes in government buildings, no one is forced to go there. But the law does require a child to go to school. For the school then to promote specific religious beliefs puts us closer to being like the English government at the time of the pilgrims. Robert E. Forman Colville

Rankin’s views befit a leader

I returned Tuesday from a visit to Washington, D.C. during my absence, the commentary by Kootenai County Commissioner Ron Rankin ran in the July 27 Roundtable. I then read the disappointing letters in response (Aug. 4).

Rankin’s motives, political affiliations or agenda were not directly expressed in his piece, so I can’t judge them. But I conclude that his inspirational thoughts are genuine.

During my visit to the capital, these inscriptions were not wearing off, nor am I aware of any proposal to chisel them from the surface of our historic symbols. While a case can be made that we live in a decadent culture, the living God prevails in these times, as the inscriptions remind us.

For one not to bring intense and deep convictions about the spiritual quality of life to a role in public service would be a tragedy. Herbert J. Landis Spokane

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

Gays out to brainwash children

“In any campaign to win over the public, gays must be portrayed as victims in need of protection so that straights will be inclined by reflex to adopt the role of protector. The purpose of victim imagery is to make straights feel very uncomfortable - that is, to jam with shame the self-righteous pride that would ordinarily accompany and reward their anti-gay belligerence and to lay the groundwork for the process of conversion by helping straights identify with gays and sympathize with their underdog status” (Steve Baldwin).

What are we really looking at when we see the gay agenda trying to be “protected”? What we’re looking at is the homosexual strategy of trying to establish their behavior as being on a par with heterosexuality. Do you feel they should be on a par with a normal lifestyle? I don’t want my children to think that a gay lifestyle is normal. But, the gay agenda makes no bones about tryng to make their behavior normal and they’re going right after the children to do it. Look in the library’s children’s section and see if “Heather Has Two Mommies” is there. Are you ready to have your daughter taught that having a relationship with her girlfriend is normal?

The gay agenda is bogus when they say they need protection. This reeks of the tired victim status strategy. Please don’t let the gay agenda take advantage of your good heart. Stay strong in your beliefs, for your children and your community. C. Shawn Clum Bonnners Ferry, Idaho

Fishermen epitomize selfishness

Why are we making such a fuss over the fisherman who recently caught a 13-foot Mako shark off of the coast of Massachusetts? Should we be proud of them, that after two hours of trying to reel this very rare specimen onto their boat, they finally brought in their trophy? Or maybe the fact that once they brought it onto their boat, they simply watched it die for the next 45 minutes.

What’s wrong with these people, let alone ourselves? These creatures are a part of our lives and the amazing things that make up our very beautiful world. Instead of rallying around these bozos and patting them on the shoulder, we should be asking them why they didn’t count their blessings on getting an up-close-and-personal look at such a marvelous mammal, and just cut it loose.

But then again, this society isn’t made up that way anymore. In this society, the more notoriety the better. And in this society, we only seem to care about numero uno. What a shame. Jeanie Defrancesco Spokane

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Paying down our debt the best plan

Although I would personally benefit from many of the provisions in the Republican tax cut plan, I strongly disagree with its timing and with the priorities that it represents. I agree with The Spokesman-Review’s editorial position (July 27) that doing nothing is better than implementing shortsighted tax cuts because doing nothing would allow the Treasury Department to pay back loans early.

Republicans are saying that it’s the people’s money that they overpaid.

First, we don’t know that there will actually be a surplus in the future.

Secondly, and more importantly, we should ask who benefited from years of deficit spending that has built up a $5.6 trillion national debt. We, the American people, benefited.

Who’s going to pay off this huge national debt? Our first priority should be to pay it off before spending it on tax cuts, not leave it for youngsters yet unborn.

Our national debt is a mortgage on our children’s future. We’ve borrowed heavily since Ronald Reagan took office. We’ve spent on good things - national defense, education, national parks, farm programs, transportation, medical research, etc. We’ve also subsidized corporate interests like logging and mining.

Juvenile diabetes research - a Nethercutt passion - is an example of good federal research. Maybe there are some priorities, such as veterans’ health care, on which we should spend more.

The point is that we’ve spent lavishly on ourselves via the federal government. Let’s pay the bill, our national debt, now when we can afford it instead of spending it on tax cuts. Charles E. Latimer Spokane

Clinton just favors his supporters

President Clinton says he will veto tax relief until he knows how to “save Social Security and Medicare.” But he does know how. He has on his desk a bipartisan plan to save Social Security. But he ignores solutions in order to increase federal grants to the president’s support groups.

What Americans really don’t know is how to keep this rapacious government from redistributing their tax money to Clinton’s friends and contributors. Paul Clark Spokane

THE MEDIA

Make that voodoo-doctor Laura

After reading Greg Presley’s excellent letter tearing apart Dr. Laura Schlessinger, I thought nobody could add anything to it. Schlessinger herself proved me wrong in her July 31 column.

Schlessinger brags about her black-and-white vision. What does that signal? Often, it signals limited knowledge of a subject (maybe that’s why she has so many fans) and a certain level of hysteria: I’m right in everything I say. If you don’t agree with me, you are evil.

Sometimes, she doesn’t know what she’s talking about but that doesn’t make her less certain.

She says “thousands” of gays and lesbians write to support her. Really? To support her cruel opinion that under no circumstances should they be able to adopt? If that’s so, she’s a magnet for homosexual idiots.

Sixty-thousand people, according to Schlessinger, try to reach her daily. What they usually get back are stereotypes that look moral but in reality are cruel and stupid. Such as a single and pregnant woman who has only one option, to give the child up for adoption.

If that woman is dumb enough to seek Schlessinger’s advice, she may indeed be incapable of bringing up a child. Peter C. Dolina Veradale

Better listen up, sinners

Re: Dr. Laura Schlessinger-bashing letter by Greg Presley (Aug. 3).

Oh my, are we really so hard up for material to support an opposing point of view that the only thing we can attack about Dr. Laura’s column is a minor statistical flaw and a misstatement on which professional group (psychologists or psychiatrists) voted to remove homosexuality from the DSM guide?

In the past few weeks, I’ve noticed other letters to the editor bashing Schlessinger for her opinions. The most recent writer wants The Spokesman-Review to stop “inflicting” her opinions on Spokane.

I, for one, enjoy her columns and her radio program. She’s one of the few “personalities” in our country who is willing to stand up to the liberal politics of the day. She has strong opinions and urges people to do the right thing. She’s not always right - no one is. But she’s on a better track than the so-called ultrafeminists and gay lobbyists who get so hot under the collar every time she speaks.

What is it about someone standing up for good and right that makes some people so squeamish? Can’t stand the heat, or what? Can’t handle your own sinful nature being exposed to the light? Funny, that’s what the Bible says will happen when “truth” is shared with people who don’t want to relinquish their sinful habits. The light will expose the darkness and people will be afraid. So if Schlessinger scares you, maybe there’s a reason.

Spokesman-Review, keep Schlessinger! We just might need her to challenge us to do what is right. Lyssa J. Gooch Spokane

OTHER TOPICS

Use common sense to keep cool

With the devastating temperatures we’ve experienced in recent days,it would be interesting to know just how many people opened their doors and windows in an attempt to cool off their homes. I have seen and experienced this in my own home, having had a family that had no idea that as you keep the doors closed to keep the cold out and the heat in for winter also works in the summer to keep the heat out and cool in. Keeping the windows shaded also helps keep the heat out.

Also, opening a window on either end of one’s house when the sun goes down and it starts cooling off works very well if they are closed again before the sun comes up in the morning and the temperature rises.

Much power and money is needlessly wasted every year by people who fail to take heed of these few simple little things, including those who open their doors on a warm spring day because it’s too warm in the house but they don’t turn off the heat. Art Krebs Sandpoint

Loved ones await us, I am sure

I read with interest all the comments on Milt Priggee’s cartoon featuring John Kennedy Jr. introducing his new wife to his parents, in heaven. Evidently, all the naysayers tried to read something else into this depiction, one that simply isn’t there, or they never attended Sunday school as a youngster, or had a grandmother describe heaven to them as a child. If they had, they would have known that all your past loved ones will be in attendance.

Now I ask you, was I taught wrong? I don’t think so. I know it’s true because my grandmother told me so. James A. Nelson Spokane