Letters To The Editor

AGRICULTURE

Farmer group seeks a fair deal

We are the family farmers, ranchers and dairymen on the land trying to get income enough to cover costs of producing those food items on the grocery shelves. The market does not cover costs and we must get outside income to carry on.

Even government subsidies are inadequate. We note that of the $11 billion paid out each year by the U.S. Department of Agriculture on the Freedom to Farm Act, our estimate from local farms is that less than 10 percent of this money reaches us on the land.

We are the risk takers who carry the operating expenses to get the production into the channels of commerce. Why are we discriminated against? Why can’t our costs be covered first; then allow investors their share of the balance, if any? It is this discrimination that we ask Congress to consider - and correct. To this end, we have organized and incorporated the Family Farmer Organization, Inc.

Under the FFO plan, the target price would be set at parity. Congressional appropriations in the ag budget would be directed toward filling in the difference between the market price and the target price for the producer’s share of domestic human consumption. The excess production would move freely onto the world market at the producer’s discretion.

At our organizational meeting Nov. 23, we adopted bylaws that set up open membership and a program of self-help action to reach the consumer-voter with the FFO plan. We want Congress to hear from voters who understand the family farmers’ difficult situation. Al P. Schmitz, president Family Farmer Organization Inc., Brockton, Mont.

SPOKANE MATTERS

Keep the LC annex

I continue to be fascinated by the response of School District 81 and the school board with regard to the demolition of the Lewis and Clark annex. Who do these people think they are?

The school board is elected by the people. Many people voted for renovation. The School Board agreed to demolition of the Annex. Wrong move. Vote again. Listen to the citizens of Spokane. Listen to the Spokane City-County Landmarks Commission.

My mother went to LC. My son attends LC. My other son will attend LC next year. We have lost way too many historic buildings in Spokane due to shortsightedness by School District 81. Keep the annex!

In the Sep. 19 Spokesman-Review, Christie Querna is quoted as saying that when the remodeling is complete, “we will have a wonderfully restored, elegant and historic building, reflecting genuine pride in our community.” This will not be possible mainly due to the current process demonstrated by the board and the school district.

Wake up, people. The opinions of citizens matter. Listen! Lindy Haunschild Spokane

Thanks to all who helped after wreck

On a recent evening, at about 9:45, I was stopped on south Ray Street, waiting to make a left turn onto 27th Avenue, when an intoxicated driver of a van going approximately 50-60 mph (according to witnesses) hit my vehicle in the rear. My car was thrown about 40 feet over an embankment. Bull pines kept me from hitting a tree head-on. The driver fled the scene.

I thank the person who reported the accident by cell phone; police, ambulance and firemen were there within about 10 minutes. A big thank you to the firemen who diligently worked to get me out of the car, taking special care of my right hip which had been totally replaced three months earlier. Thanks to the policewoman who reassured me they would catch the driver and to the paramedics who took care of me on the trip to Sacred Heart Medical Center. I also thank the personnel who tended to my needs in the emergency room.

But most of all, I extend my deep gratitude to the couple who immediately ran down the embankment to my car, to see if there was anything they could do to help me. And help they did! They talked to me, keeping me calm and, since I was conscious, getting me to talk. I know their humanitarianism kept me from going into deeper shock.

In a day and age when so many people will not get involved or care a darn, they did. Bless them. Incidentally, the police found the culprit. Peggy L. Orth Spokane

BUSINESS AND LABOR

CEO’s notions not friendly to families

I watched Kaiser CEO Ray Milchovich on KSPS recently and he again talked about being responsible. In the Dec. 10 Spokesman-Review story on Kaiser, Milchovich states that people in Kaiser mills are working 12-hour days, six to seven days a week.

If someone is working 12 hours for six days, that’s 72 hours a week. Are you willing to sacrifice one job, one family, to save eight hours a week, Milchovich? You said in an earlier interview that you wouldn’t be doing your job if you don’t get the job cuts you want, that it wouldn’t be responsible. I’m sorry, but I don’t see expecting people to work like this as being responsible. I doubt that other business leaders see that as responsible leadership, either.

If you need a lesson in objectivity, hold your paycheck in one hand and a picture of your family in the other and decide which is worth more. If you wish to be seen as a responsible leader, come to the table personally and negotiate a fair contract. Michael J. Hart Post Falls

What do scabs contribute? Nothing

Regarding the scab workers at Kaiser and all over this nation, comments by most of the Kaiser workers have been very kind. Make no mistake, these scabs contribute nothing to this great nation.

If the Kaiser people were to go back to work tomorrow, they would probably never recover their economic loss. But at least there would be a decent job left for their children and fellow man. A scab leaves nothing to his children or his fellow man.

A man or woman can tell his or her child, “I’m on strike to make things better for you and others.” What does a scab tell his child?

They say they have a right to work any job. What do they know of rights? The rights the working people have now were hard won. People died trying to get a living wage and decent working conditions. Name one right we have gotten from the scabs of this country.

When this strike is over, you people standing on the corners with signs reading “will work for food” better look behind you. There may be a scab with a sign that says, “will work for nothing.” Paul W. Carter Newport, Wash.

Management should rethink future

Re: Maxxam Kaiser lockout. Our corporate leadership insists that only way to compete in a global economy is by gutting the contract with 3,000 Steelworkers. This only shows these leaders’ lack of understanding and inability to see that future.

Steelworkers have for over a decade competed in that global economy and produced record production and profits. These workers will not be led into the new millennium by corporate managers who have no respect for them.

Steelworkers have demonstrated on more than one occasion that they can compete in a global economy. Meanwhile management has shown its inability to predict future need, exhibiting instead remarkable corporate greed. These values will result in losses for all workers, community and managers involved in this lockout. So stop predicting the future and face reality. Your best work force is waiting for common sense and fairness to prevail. Let’s all deal with this today and take the future as it comes. Those unwilling to respond fairly today have no future.

This union’s record of responding is clear. As all know, bottom-line thinking of the future means less for those who produce and more for those who predict. Remember, trickle-down economics somehow never reaches those on the bottom as it showers those at the top.

Show real leadership. Be fair and respectful to secure a future we can all be proud of. Donald C. Kegley Spokane

Steelworkers learning to not trust

In our current struggle of legally exercising our rights against Kaiser Aluminum, Steelworkers are being impeded and discriminated against by the state attorney general, Spokane City Council representatives, Spokane County Sheriff’s Department and The Spokesman-Review. All of them parallel the bias, preferential treatment and mockery of our judicial system during the publics fixation of this labor dispute and including the president’s impeachment trial.

Because litigation is costly, these individuals exhibit an aura of impunity, while the average citizen, seeks to redress or rectify the injustice of their equal rights. This double standard should be scrutinized and eliminated, for the foundation for democracy will result in anarchy. Two entities we do not trust in today’s society are Uncle Sam (the government) and big business management. Randy W. Bowers Spokane

IN THE PUBLIC EYE

`Good job, Priggee’

Staff cartoonist Milt Priggee’s political cartoon of Jan. 20 was spot on. It’s just like the Republicans to fail to recognize the efforts and effectiveness that a Democratic president has had on our economy. They choose to believe that the power of the president does nothing for the economy - except, of course, during times when there is a Republican in the White House. Then, as if by magic, suddenly the president’s proposals do have an effect. What an amazing bunch. Good job, Priggee. Tom Cameron Spokane

Parties’ identities revealed

My thanks to Milt Priggee for his Jan. 20 cartoon. We often say, only half jokingly, that there are two parties: the mean party and the stupid party. The question is which is which. Priggee’s cartoon answers the question. Brad Benson state representative

First lady said it, in 1974

In 1974, a young attorney helped draw up the rules under which Richard M. Nixon would be tried by the Congress for impeachment. “Impeachment,” she wrote, “ did not have to be for criminal offenses, but only for a `course of conduct’ that suggested an abuse of power or disregard for the office of the president of the United States.”

She wrote that “a person’s `course of conduct,’ while not particularly criminal, could be of such a nature that it destroys trust, discourages allegiance and demands action by the Congress.” She wrote that the office of the president is such that it calls for a higher level of conduct than the average citizen in the United States.

This attorney, who helped write the standard under which presidents are to be judged by the House of Representatives, has a unique perspective of the present situation in the White House. That attorney, who said then that unethical course of conduct could overthrow a president, is now the first lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton. Jan A. Slama Spokane

OTHER TOPICS

A week to learn about Catholic schools

Re: Catholic Schools Week (Jan. 31-Feb. 7).

Imagine a school where the principal calls most students by name. Imagine working side by side with the parents of your children’s friends, in the classroom, during fund raisers, and growing together as a family of believers.

Imagine an affordable, private education for your children where the classes are small, the commitment is strong and your children grow in faith and in serving the community.

Don’t imagine it any more. Live it.

Trinity Catholic School, and all Catholic schools, welcome you to experience this dream for your children. During Catholic Schools Week, find out how you can afford private education for your children where morals, values and community awareness mold them into Christian citizens who are our future. Call the Catholic school of your choice, meet the wonderful people who will welcome you to visit and let the dream come true for your family. Michael Elaine Alegria Spokane

Dog owner asked for trouble

Re: “Pepper spray should never be used as a first resort,” Renee Roehl’s “Your Turn,” Jan. 23. I regret the pain and suffering your dog went through after being doused with pepper spray, but you are out of line blaming the elderly lady who did it.

You say she should have used the spray only as a “last resort.” Would that be after an unleashed dog injured her pet or only after that same dog injured her? Did the lady have extrasensory perception and know your dog, as it was “prancing” toward her and her pet, was a big pussycat and would never hurt anything or anybody? Are leash laws for everyone except you?

I walk my dog on a leash and, in the course of those walks, often encounter unleashed dogs. I also carry pepper spray. If those dogs “prance” toward my toy poodle, I pick him up, because I don’t know their intentions, nor do I want to find out at his expense. I am not elderly and my dog is small enough to easily pick up. Had I been in the elderly lady’s shoes, you can bet my pepper spray would have been quickly employed.

In spite of your indignant, self-righteous sputterings about you and your dog being victims, in reality you were wrong and your dog suffered because of it. For you to try soothing your conscience by laying the blame on someone else shows how thoughtless you are. Humans can deal with your thoughtlessness, but I feel sorry for your dog if he continues having to suffer for it. William C. Stickler Spokane

New millenium starts Jan. 1, 2001

Rachel Riggs’ “pregnancy” argument supports why the millennium starts on Jan. 1, 2001. In 2000, we will be in our 2000th year, not 2000 years along.

A simple number line explains why the third millennium begins Jan. 1, 2001: Under the Gregorian calendar, day 1 of the first millennium was Jan. 1, year 1.

One year was completed Dec. 31, year 1. One decade (10 years) was completed Dec. 31, year 10. One century (100 years) was completed Dec. 31, year 100.

Toward the end of the first millennium on Dec. 31, year 999, 999 years were completed.

One thousand years were not completed until Dec. 31, year 1000. The second millennium began the next day, Jan. 1, year 1001.

On Dec. 31, 1999, 1,999 years will be completed.. Two thousand years will not be completed until Dec. 31, year 2000. The third millennium begins the next day, Jan. 1, year 2001.

Since our calendar began on Jan. 1, year 1, there is no mathematical way that 2,000 years will have passed on Dec. 31, 1999.

I realize this issue is not of real importance overall. If people want to celebrate the new millennium on Dec. 31, 1999, they may. But this is not a matter of opinion. It is a matter of being correct or incorrect. It’s better in that situation to try to be correct. Alan Bright Moscow, Idaho