Letters To The Editor

Wed., Aug. 11, 1999

WASHINGTON STATE

Demand halt to license boondoggle

I was appalled to read in the Spokesman-Review (Aug. 2) about a little-known law passed two years ago by the Washington Legislature that requires the replacement of motor vehicle license plates every seven years. Not only will the new plates cost each vehicle owner $9.72, but the state has budgeted $3.9 million for this project over the next two years. What a waste of natural resources and taxpayers’ money!

The reason given for this requirement is that aging, worn plates are difficult to read. Some of them are. But a more economical and efficient way to solve the problem would be to require motor vehicle owners to replace their plates when they become illegible. Enforcement could be accomplished in the same way that drivers are cited when their plates do not bear current tabs.

Failure to publicize the law when it was passed and the fact that commercial vehicles over 26,000 pounds are exempt makes one respect the power of corporate lobbyists and suspect the fairness of the law’s application.

This unwise and unnecessary law should be repealed before the first plates must be replaced next year. I urge everyone to join me in asking our state senator and representatives to help accomplish that goal. Ghery D. Pettit Pullman

Steele’s expose important, laudable

Thanks to this newspaper for giving Karen Dorn Steele a long enough leash to expose the collusion between the Washington Association of Wheat Growers and the state Department of Ecology.

Most folks in the region are outraged, except for this newspaper’s editorial board. Predictably, the board adopted a weak and conciliatory tone, probably to placate the powerful wheat association and others with dollar signs in their eyes.

Those of us with the audacity to favor clean air over harmful wheat stubble smoke from burnt farm fields perversely get blamed for inflaming the regional controversy. We also get dismissed as “activists” in Opinion editor John Webster’s editorial.

What’s the opposite of an activist? I propose it’s a passivist - one who passively capitulates to big industry, no matter how dire the outcome. A passivist believes so strongly in laissez-faire business practices and in government deregulation that he’s willing to sacrifice public health to further those goals.

In her fine coverage of the back room wheat deal, Dorn Steele caught the attention of editorial writers for the Lewiston Tribune and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Congratulations! Like Milt Priggee of this newspaper, the Seattle paper’s David Horsey, a Pulitzer-winning cartoonist, lampooned the covert “rollout strategy.”

I applaud the Spokane paper’s excellent staff writers, along with Priggee, for their vigilance and keen noses for truly worthy news. Ain’t it lonely being liberal in these parts? Paul J. Lindholdt Spokane

Pass 695 and watch `bleaters’ squirm

All of the bleating of various officials that the sky will fall if Initiative 695 passes reminds me of Proposition 13 in California some years back. The police, fire department, librarians - in short, everyone with their beak in the public trough - were crying that all of the services that the public needed, nay, demanded, would not be able to be provided.

The majority of the media joined the bleating. The San Francisco Chronicle, one of the mainstays of dysfunctional intellectual thinking that categorized the Bay Area’s approach to public thought, was filled with all of the bad things that were going to happen.

I lived in that area at that time and none of what was forecast occurred. What happened is that the budget process for public expenditures became more than a grasping for give me more to spend.

Don’t let the media and politicians fool you. Vote for I-695. You will see that nothing serious occurs and then watch how the politicians and their special interests try to get the money back. It will be the best entertainment that you can get.

The Spokane Regional Health District, who is one of the bleaters, will have to budget themselves according to some priorities and the money will have to come from someplace that has to do with health. They have no right to take money that comes from vehicle licenses, the monies from which should be dedicated to traffic and/or transit.

You will be able to tell when all of the bleaters are lying; their lips will be moving. Jack L. Thompson Mead

Ex-trooper’s fight understandable

A recent story by Craig Welch (“Ex-trooper fights RV tab case”) motivated me to write this letter.

I can understand why so many people would get their license plate and tabs anywhere but Washington. Who wouldn’t try to avoid excessive taxation in a state that has (according to the story) the highest vehicle taxes and fees in the Northwest?

Things like this may be the reason for the introduction of an initiative to reduce the vehicle license tab fee and fix it at $30 a year. After all is said and done, which would you prefer - paying $30 a year, or paying anywhere between $100 to $400 every year< Ernest Chamberlain Spokane

SPOKANE MATTERS

Let’s specify what `hits’ means

Re: “County holds excellent bond rating” (Spokesman-Review, Aug. 4) and the fact that Initiative 695 will cost the county $1.3 million.

The city and transit “would take similar hits” is true but needs to be clarified. The city would lose $5.7 million a year and Spokane Transit Authority would lose $15 million a year. Jim D. Fitzgerald Spokane

We appreciate Shari’s support

Let them eat pie! Thanks to Mindy Petersen, general manager of Shari’s Restaurant on North Monroe, students from Audubon Elementary will enjoy a cool summer slice of their choice.

Students who participated in a summer school pen pal writing contest, sponsored by the Washington Reading Corps, were given Certificate of Achievement awards by both Audubon Elementary and Shari’s Restaurants. Students were thrilled to receive recognition for their efforts and achievements this summer at an awards assembly.

As Petersen stated when donating the gift certificates, “My staff as well as myself support children, as it can be a difficult stage in life. I want them (the students) to succeed and excel!”

This is exactly the sort of community partnership which I believe deserves a proper thank you. Dena Stout AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer coordinator, Spokane

Light rail is going nowhere

Recently, The Spokesman-Review had an article about having a light rail system from downtown to Liberty Lake. Charles McCollim is 100 percent correct in his opinion of the light rail system. (“Light rail just a boondoggle,” Letters, Aug. 5).

People won’t walk two blocks to get on a bus, so how does anyone expect them to walk a mile or more to catch a streetcar? You’ve got to have your head in the sand.

If I remember correctly, the cost was expected to be $400 million . If that estimate is like most government estimates, you had better double it. Oh yes, a large percentage of the money will be federal funds! Guess who furnishes federal funds? That’s right, it’s you and me.

In American Heritage Magazine, May-June 1998 issue, there is an article worth reading, “The myth behind the streetcar revival.” Ed Weilep Spokane

RIGHTS AND RADICALISM

Rights poorly understood by some

Re: the letters by Andrew M. Netzel and Shirley Hethorn (July 28).

Freedom of speech is one of the rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights. These rights did not come from our founding fathers or the Constitution but were given to all human beings by our creator. Our founding fathers only acknowledged that fact.

Because governments did not give them, governments cannot take them away. Certainly not here and definitely not without a second revolution.

Something else about a right needs to be recognized: it imposes no obligations on anyone else. I have a right to free speech, you are not obligated to listen.

Hethorn says we should ignore the Aryan Nations group. She is certainly afforded that opportunity, as we all are. And I personally agree that they should be ignored but allowed to speak or march just as the rest of us.

Netzel says we should limit free speech to only the truth. Nice thought but to whom do we give the power and authority to determine what exactly is the truth? Even within the context of our judicial system the truth is not always evident and is certainly not always agreed upon. My opinion may not be what his is and if I told him to shut up because to me he was not telling the truth, he would be incensed.

Our system, under the Bill of Rights, has flourished for over 200 years. I, for one, vote not to change it. Edward L. Schafer Veradale

IDAHO VIEWPOINTS

System stacked against divorced dads

How would you like a judge to rule over your life who does not back up what he has ordered or signed? I have 2-year-old daughter and a 4-year-old son that I have not seen in two months because my ex-wife has disobeyed the court order.

I went to the Coeur d’Alene Police Department and talked to J. Matteney. He filed a report after I told him I believe my ex-wife has left the state. When for a second time she did not show up at the designated place to drop off the kids, I went back to the police. All the paperwork was sent to detectives and Chris Woods was assigned the case. She told me she would do her best.

Two days later, the papers went to the city attorney. They told me a warrant would be declined because it was insubstantial. How can that be when my ex-wife has taken my children out of the state without my permission? I’m not sure where they are (possibly in Montana).

I have tried to speak to Judge John Luster but have not been responded to. I have been back to the police department and back to the judge but no one seems to want me to get a fair deal.

A father is just as important in a child’s life as a mother. I am trying to be a responsible father but am not getting the same treatment as most mothers do in these cases. Not all dads are deadbeats. Michael C.P. Thompson Rathdrum

License cost increases necessary

The recent proposals for increasing the costs for hunting and fishing licenses, and accompanying tag and permit increases, is a proposal that needs to be accepted by those of us who hunt, fish and recreate in Idaho.

Certainly, few of us look forward to paying more but with just a bit of thought each of us will realize the true necessity of these proposed increases.

There are those who feel hunting and fishing are becoming activities for the affluent and some people will no longer be financially able to participate as costs increase. As with anything else of value, there are costs or expenditures that must be considered and of necessity incurred.

The hunters, trappers and fishermen of Idaho who truly wish to maintain and enhance our wildlife opportunities will readily bite the bullet and support these proposals. Others, with other priorities, will not. Ken Brown Post Falls

Schlessinger’s advice `refreshing’

Thank you so much for your weekly Dr. Laura Schlessinger column. I only wish you would carry her every day.

Her message is always profound and yet always very simple: “How to do the right thing.” How refreshing. Pat D. Kilpatrick Post Falls

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