Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

More youth mental health help needed

Much attention has been given to our mental health services lately and I would like to acknowledge those services helping our adolescent population. It is a wise decision for the county to invest in services that help our mentally ill children, but unfortunately, these services are few and far between in Washington.

Tamarack Center here in Spokane is one facility that helps struggling adolescents learn effective coping skills, while monitoring medication changes on a 24-hour basis. It only houses 14 residents at a time. However, this type of program is in high demand and the waiting list is continually growing.

Mental Health Adolescent Program, also here in Spokane, is dedicated to the education and life skills of adolescents who are unable to participate in the public school environment. This program offers them the ability to obtain a high school degree that would otherwise not be obtainable.

Our family has been fortunate to have access to these facilities and I encourage those in charge of delegating money for mental health services this year to look long and hard at the lack of programs such as these here in Spokane. My ongoing thanks to all those who have invested their knowledge and time to the betterment of our young loved ones. Lisa M. Correia Spokane

Seems racism has its holdouts

I read Lou Stone’s letter, “Racism an ingrained NW folkway” (Jan. 28) with acute interest. I agree that Cowles Publishing can change the militant discrimination that exists in this area. However, we should also realize that this will not happen until they cease promoting racism and intolerance in lead articles on their front page while real human rights victories get play beneath the fold.

I’m referring to the Jan. 26 paper that led, in big bold headlines, with more “news” about the Aryans in North Idaho, while near the bottom with much less fanfare was coverage of the monumental passage by our City Council of the Spokane Human Rights Ordinance.

This is America, where laws are based on the premise that all people are created equal and have the right to equal human rights protections as a matter of civil law. I also found the recorded votes that evening to be rather indicative of the social problems that persist in this area.

The Spokane human rights ordinance was supported by three women and one man. One Native American woman, one African-American woman, one Caucasian woman and one Caucasian man made strong statements against discrimination by voting for the ordinance. The dissenting votes came from three gray-haired Caucasian men who gave patronizing little speeches against discrimination, exclaiming that they themselves are not bigots and that, according to Mayor John Talbott, we “do not need laws” protecting people’s human rights.

Very interesting comments, considering the basis of our form and purpose of government. N.G. Hannon Spokane

Humane Society not out of the woods

Obviously, the callous recall of two board members did not solve the Humane Society’s problems. Apparently, one should look deeper within the board of directors and the shelter if one wants to find the source of the problems. H.T. Wong Cheney

BUSINESS AND LABOR

Kaiser rolls out the dirty tricks

On Oct. 28, 1998, Kaiser plant manager Tom Duff and human resource manager Kathryn Gentemen sent letters to all striking Trentwood Steelworkers. It detailed how they had the right to work.

The letter explained the worker had to send a letter to the union stating they resigned from the union. It even included a sample resignation letter. There were statements like, “We are not suggesting, nor asking that any employee cross the picket line.” This was on the three letters received by union workers.

The company got a deluge of Kaiser union scabs (six of them) to cross. Most of them no longer work for Kaiser. Some were retained by making them management. More managers - just what Kaiser needs.

How do the scabs feel now? They were sent packing by the same company that begged them to come back. The reason they were let go? They were former union members. Isn’t that cute? Good luck on your next strike, Kaiser. If that is how you treat someone who falls for your lies, you’ll have a hard time convincing them the next time.

To the Kaiser-Maxxam bargaining team: Thanks for telling the public you want to improve the union’s quality of life when you try to bargain. If so, why wouldn’t you let us work for our old contract while you bargained in good faith - your words, not mine. It looks as if you don’t want us to enjoy the quality of life equal to the old way.

Of course, 3,000 Steelworkers know that and now, the public does, too. C. Dave Lamphier Kaiser lab technician for 32 years, Coeur d’Alene

Steelworkers appreciate kindnesses

Our heartfelt thanks to all those who have given their most gracious gifts of food, clothing and money to us striking Steelworkers. Thanks for all the doughnuts you drop off in the morning, and to the women who walked up Trent to the union hall in 10-degree weather with bags of food.

Thanks to the Christmas tree lots for their donations. Thank you for the coffee; you’ve been a godsend in this weather. We’ve been truly blessed.

We pray this company will pull that money bill from their eyes. There’s such a huge gap. It saddens me that deceptive intent plays a big role in this lockout. It gives a feeling of its being cunning, baffling and incapable of honesty.

Our records are open. Kaiser Steelworkers have reached their limit for survival in this dangerous job. Production records have been broken since the day we left. We all could have “scored.” That’s what the Steelworkers want. That hard-worked-for piece of the pie we deserve. We are considered the best rolling mill in the world. Steelworkers made that happen. Dale R. Findlay Spokane

FIELD BURNING

Stubble story just so much bias

The Jan. 31 article, “Trouble with stubble,” reminds me why I don’t subscribe to your newspaper. To call staff writer Karen Dorn Steele’s article “journalism” is a dishonor to the word. Activist press release or opinion-cloaked-in-fact are more accurate descriptions.

It is a fact that 107,000 acres of wheat stubble burned in Whitman County in 1998. We know that because 1998 saw the most comprehensive and accurate measurement of burning ever conducted. In spite of the article’s implications, we do not know how 1998 burning compares to other years. We don’t know how many acres were burned in the mid 1980s to control cephalosporium stripe, but some estimates are close to 200,000 acres in Whitman County.

To compare the 1991 estimates of burned acres with actual measurements taken last year is intellectually lazy and maybe even dishonest. The fact is, acreage reporting was not required in 1991. The author compared rough historical estimates to the first ever actual measurements, drew sweeping conclusions and then passed those conclusions off as fact. I thought journalists were supposed to be more concerned with presenting facts than leaping to conclusions. Whenever I see an article that I know is blatantly one sided, it makes me doubt everything else written by that author. Ben B. Barstow Palouse, Wash.

Editor’s note: There has been a statewide reporting system in place for field burning since 1995. In earlier years, counties maintained records from their burning permits and it was on these county records that the Spokesman-Review’s reporting relied. The Spokesman-Review stands by its story.

It’s wrong to foul everyone’s air

It is disgusting that a small group of businessmen (the wheat growers-farmers) can be allowed to ruin not only the the natural beauty of our great state (dark skies, filthy air) but our health also.

Living in Spokane and not having clean air is tantamount to an invading army of health-destroying particulates in the air, and not being able to do anything about it. Isn’t it time for the people to come first? Why should we be subjected to higher health care costs and allow the burning of wheat field stubble?

It is worth taking the time to consider the following: The real sin against life is to abuse and destroy beauty, even one’s own - even more, ones own, for that has been put in our care and we are responsible for its well-being. - Katherine Anne Porter

The people of Spokane deserve clean air! Why is our government not protecting us? Stephen Kunin Spokane

City people complain out of ignorance

The so-called stubble deal appears to be burning the elite in Spokane’s society. Spokane keeps using high figures for acreage and claims all this smoke from each acre falls right onto the town of Spokane. I say, prove it.

Spokane quotes its so-called medical association as to the burning being responsible for all its problems. I wonder who they would blame if there was no burning. New York City?

There is no implement or chemical of any amount that can equal the weed and disease control that burning does.

So you have environmental protection with fire. Burning will reduce the amount of tillage operations in order to plant back by four times across the field, thereby eliminating that much PM-10, which Spokane is also upset over. Also, four fewer operations of tillage greatly reduces the use of fossil fuels, which Spokane also complains about.

We hear how farmers burn for profit. May I ask, why do the Spokane people go to work? David J. Greenwalt Odessa, Wash.

Burning is not up dramatically

The coverage of the agricultural burning issue by The Spokesman-Review and staff writer Karen Dorn Steele has been incomplete and not impartial. Steele needs to check more than one source before quoting facts and figures.

The fact is, burning has not increased dramatically since 1989, as your graph from the Jan. 31 edition portrays. What has happened is the method of accounting for acres has improved dramatically.

In 1989, there were no burn permit authorities. Even until a few years ago there were only a handful of permitting authorities reporting acreages to the Department of Ecology. Last year was chosen as the best set of numbers, and is therefore the year chosen to determine base acres. The DOE will verify this explanation.

Eric Skelton’s comments on the wheat grower’s proposal being vague and inconsistent with the Clean Air Act is pure nonsense. The act clearly states an emissions reduction program, and this is exactly what the wheat growers have proposed. Emissions are quantifiable and can be calculated.

The one thing you fail to mention in all the discussions is that this process is to determine a state agricultural burning program, not just Spokane County.

We feel progress toward fewer emissions can be made with the wheat growers’ proposal and look forward to a fair representation of this issue as it unfolds. Randy Suess and Bruce Nelson Colfax and Farmington, Wash.

Uncompromising position worthless

The Washington Wheat Growers have in good faith stepped up to the table to address the problem of emissions with the state Department of Ecology and the Ag Burn Task Force. Now that a compromise has been about accomplished, Patricia Hoffman of Save Our Summers has resigned her position on the Task Force.I liken this to a temper tantrum of a 5-year-old who quits because she didn’t get her way.

There is no room on a statewide committee searching for a solution to a problem for someone who cannot and will not compromise.

Zero emissions from agriculture is Hoffman’s goal and it is not attainable. If her resignation from the task force stands, maybe we can see some real progress in emission reductions. Art J. Schultheis Colton

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

First, take care of national debt

President Clinton and Congress keep talking about a surplus and how to spend it. The Democrats keep coming up with different ways to spend it, and the Republicans want to cut taxes.

Explain to me how you can have a surplus when our national debt is more than $5.6 trillion and increasing $700,000 every three minutes, with interest?

It looks to me like we should do everything possible to reduce spending and not even think about a tax cut until this national debt is paid off.

Please write to your members of Congress and ask them to make reducing the national debt their first priority. William W. Bosch Spokane

Postal Service has some nerve

I am so appalled and disgusted to think that the U.S. Postal Service just announced over $1 million profit for 1998. Just recently, it raised the price of a stamp to mail a letter, yet at the same time, our mail delivery has become more and more inefficient.

I have been to my local post office in Hillyard twice within the last three months to fill out complaint cards about our mail service and give to the manager. At times, we get other people’s mail, addressed to other parts of the city. Just last year, my $285 refund check from the IRS was delivered to a complete stranger on another street, nowhere near my address.

The manager of the Hillyard Post Office tells me that my mail slot in the sorting room has been “red tagged” for warning the carriers making delivery to my address. This hasn’t helped in any way.

Letter carriers oftentimes seem to not know which street they are on and make misdeliveries, and the house numbers do not correspond to the numbers on the letters. I think it’s time that better service be provided, not cut. Train the carriers properly! John R. Hendrix Spokane

Pope and Clintons - how awkward

What a sight! Pope John Paul II, a man of integrity, honor and high moral standards, standing next to Bill Clinton, a corrupt, immoral, socialist buffoon.

Bill and Hillary must have been squirming as the pope, talking about America, said, “The conflict is between a culture that affirms, cherishes and celebrates life and a culture that seeks to declare entire groups of human beings - the unborn, the terminally ill, the handicapped and others considered un-useful - to be outside the boundaries of legal protection.”

Still, the pope’s rebuke will seem mild, indeed, when the Clintons and the other architects of the abortion holocaust are condemned by the Great Judge because of their total disregard for life.

Since Clinton took office, the pagan left’s stranglehold on America has just about suffocated liberty. Because socialism and an armed citizenry are like two chemicals in a jar, Clinton and other socialist Democrats have made disarming the people a top priority.

Fortunately, the eight-year nightmare is just about over. In another two years, the ‘90s version of the Dark Ages will mercifully be over and the American people can, once again, walk in the light of freedom.

The pope was instrumental in causing tyranny and oppression to collapse in the former Soviet Union. Perhaps now he can do the same for America. Curtis E. Stone Colville, Wash.

IN THE PUBLIC EYE

First lady sets bad example

It amazes me that the women’s movement has stood so firmly behind the Clintons when they have done more to set their movement and women’s abuse back 50 years.

There are two kinds of abuse, physical and mental. Which is worse? Hillary Clinton has allowed her husband, on more than one occasion, to cheat, lie, embarrass, belittle and humiliate her. Through all of this, she tells us she is proud of her husband and she still loves him. This is the same pattern police officers hear when they are called to family disputes. “It’s all right officer; he is sorry. It won’t happen again. I love him.”

Somehow, I don’t think Hillary is sending the right message to women who are being abused and to those who are trying to regain their self-esteem. Mrs. Clinton travels the world over preaching about women’s rights. Where is the role model? Janet E. Carpenter Coeur d’Alene