Letters To The Editor

IDAHO VIEWPOINTS

Supermajority rule only part of ills

Idaho not only doesn’t have state funding for local school districts, there is no federal money, either, because the local school boards refuse to consider the idea of national standards or cultural diversity education in this state.

The people most in need of a decent education are getting the short end of this stick in taxes and anti-government attitudes. They can’t and won’t pay for the schools either!

Lowering the supermajority for taxes begs the real issues here. Kristy R. Johnson Post Falls

Contention rates a big so what

Re: Carl Hendricks’ Feb. 7 letter taking Nancy Lynne to task for her Jan. 24 Street Level column.

Hendricks names Kootenai Environmental Alliance as a co-conspirator in the effort to undermine the economy of Bonners Ferry, rob underfunded schools and put more people on welfare. KEA would impose this bleak misfortune on Bonners Ferry, Hendricks laments, for the sole purpose of transporting kidnapped Canadian caribou into an unwelcoming environment.

If Hendricks can command the grit to re-read Nancy Lynne’s column (Jan. 24), he might observe there is a distinct difference between the organizational connection between his letter and her column. He clearly identifies himself as president of the Bonners Ferry Chamber of Commerce and he represents the members in his statements. Nowhere in Lynne’s column is there an implied connection with KEA. The editor notes she is on the board of two environmental groups and a college technology committee.

What if the editor had revealed that Lynne is also an active member of the Coeur d’Alene Chamber of Commerce? Would the apoplectic Hendricks demand her impeachment as a traitor to the Chamber of Commerce? Buell A. Hollister Post Falls

See where the entrenched get you?

I say, let’s also do away with term limits on the governor! However, most of the legislators would choke on this idea. Why? Because they know that, as it stands now, with term limits on the governor, the concentration of power rests almost exclusively with the Legislature.

Legislators know they can eventually pass into law what one governor may veto. All they have to do is wait for the next governor. Pretty clever, wouldn’t you say?

In 1994, the Republicans rode the term limits horse to a majority as part of the Contract With America. Idaho’s state Legislature rode this same horse. However, now that their jobs are seriously threatened, they are backpedaling at high speed. They are planning to repeal their own term limits - the very limits we voted for.

This whole exercise has taught me that Republican representatives are hypocrites and that Democratic representatives are missing a great opportunity.

Finally, if we want to keep getting what we are getting - a state budget that has almost doubled in the last seven years, from Republicans wo say they don’t want to tax and spend - then all we have to do is keep doing what we are doing. And what we’re doing is re-electing career politicians. Eugene M. Balsmeier Blackfoot, Idaho

LAW ENFORCEMENT

Zero-tolerance policy worth trying

Recently, The Spokesman-Review carried an article about an angry driver in Spokane waving a gun at another driver. The probably-no-less-angry but unarmed driver went to the police expecting action. Instead, he was told his was a low-priority incident. There were simply too few officers to investigate these “minor crimes.”

Put this on my growing list of reasons why I’m happy to be from Spokane. Still, it was troubling because what goes around Spokane eventually comes around here, just across the border. Yet, the Spokane Police Department’s action, or inaction, has some justification. After all, no one was really harmed and the police are busy.

About the time I had decided this was the other guy’s problem, not mine, I ran across an article in the March Reader’s Digest. Since Rudy Giuliani became mayor of New York City, he’s shown zero tolerance for all crime. The overall New York City crime rate has dropped significantly.

“One reason there were so many murders is that there were so many lesser crimes,” Giuliani was quoted as saying.

The man’s got a point. Turning our backs on crime, tolerating “petty crimes” and “minor” incidents desensitizes us all to crime. Waving a gun to intimidate is one very small step away from squeezing the trigger to do real harm.

Zero tolerance for all crime seems to be working in New York City. Maybe Spokane ought to try it. We all might like the results. Marilyn J. Roberge Rathdrum

HEALTH AND SAFETY

Bad drivers need different help

Re: “Bad drivers helped out of rut” (Feb 12).

In reading this article, I find it troubling that everyone seems to think that the problem that got the drivers in trouble in the first place was their failure to pay fines for traffic citations. As a risk consultant who helps businesses in many areas, including driving safety, I can tell you the real problem is poor driving habits such as speeding, failure to signal, not obeying traffic signals, etc.

Not paying the fine, for whatever reason, is a decision made by the driver. Continuing to drive after a license is suspended is indicative of the behavior that caused the original citations to be issued. This is further compounded by receiving additional citations while driving on a suspended license.

What is needed here is mandatory remedial driver training, not community service or an easy payment plan. Poor driving habits result in numerous injuries and deaths. Letting drivers negotiate or buy their way back onto the streets and highways without correcting the root cause solves nothing and simply adds to a growing problem. Ray Lindsley Spokane

`Defensive’ is the only way to go

Re: C.H. McDonald’s Feb. 21 letter regarding the brain-dead drivers of Spokane. I also have driven in large cities such as Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Denver, Chicago and Minneapolis. Spokane drivers without a doubt are No. 1 when it comes to being bad drivers.

I have lived here several years and can count on one hand the number of times I have seen the police pull anyone over and write a ticket. The city budget could be in the black if we used money from tickets for the city coffers. I can’t count the number of times I have seen police ignore drivers breaking driving rules. The only way to survive driving in Spokane is to always assume anyone on the road in front of, beside or behind you is totally brain dead - and drive accordingly.

Driving in Spokane gives new meaning to the term `driving defensively.’ R.D. Frankovich Spokane

FIELD BURNING

Attack on wheat growers uncalled for

When I was a young boy, my father taught me three basic principles: 1, your word is your bond; 2, hard work would pay off; and 3, being a wheat grower and feeding the world was one of the most honorable professions one could pursue.

Contrast those principles with a letter printed Feb 12 that equated wheat producers with drug dealers, burglars and drunken drivers, among other things. The writer was apparently upset that wheat growers are slashing emissions from field burning by 50 percent. (Emissions will be at the lowest level in history).

Let’s look at the facts. Rather than being lawbreakers, wheat growers are in complete compliance with the Clean Air Act. Rather than the Department of Ecology staging a sellout, the recent agreement with the Washington Association of Wheat Growers grants Ecology more authority than the law allows!

Yes, the agreement is voluntary, in the sense that the Wheat Growers did not need a new law to reduce emissions but rather they voluntarily signed an agreement with Ecology to phase down emissions by 50 percent. Now that the agreement is signed, it is no longer voluntary. We must accomplish it.

Regarding Spokane’s air quality, the growers are reducing emissions by 50 percent, the grass seed industry has been essentially shut down and the forestry industry has cut emissions as well. Perhaps at last, Spokane can finally do something about its own air quality and stop blaming everyone else.

Wheat growers are doing their part. Brett Blankenship Ritzville

Smoke is a fact of life in this area

Re: William Boaz’s letter, “Clean air vs. profits: No contest,” (Feb. 13). Talk about a no-brainer is right. Boaz’ argument is flawed.

The minor inconvenience the public suffers during grass burning season is something to be borne with fortitude. Grass and grain farmers have been growing crops, a part of which is the burning of stubble, for many decades. This is a liability for living in the area.

You can’t expect these farmers to quit burning simply to prolong the summer’s recreational time. I can’t believe you would have the farmers give up their livelihood to accommodate your wife’s desire to be outdoors. How does she handle nature’s pollution, such as pollen and dust?

From Boaz’ letter, I assume he doesn’t drive a car because I know he wouldn’t want to be responsible for all the carbon monoxide pollution, which is far more of a threat than grass burning. After all, I don’t believe he would want to finance my extended vacation during the months he drives a car. Megan M. Tallent Athol, Idaho

Complainers need to keep perspective

Re: “Clean air vs. profits: No contest,” (Letters, Feb 13). William Boaz seems to feel a few farmers are endangering his and his asthmatic wife’s health just to make a profit. It’s important for farmers to make a profit. Without profit, they will go out of business so that when he goes to the grocery store, where he evidently thinks his food comes from, he will no longer find the bountiful supply of the best and cheapest food in the world.

I, too, have asthma but mine is aggravated by the exhaust fumes from cars. Would Boaz be willing to park his car, which he says he would use the entire season in search for clean air if he could afford it, just to help relieve my symptoms? I’ll not hold my breath waiting for that to happen!! Thomas Neil Gwyn Moses Lake

IN THE PUBLIC EYE

Concert bad news for decent people

I am a mother, wife and, above all, a Christian. I recently learned Marilyn Manson is giving a performance in Spokane this Sunday. I am appalled to no end.

I admit my knowledge of this Manson character is not extensive and I prefer it that way. But what I do know is frightening. Manson represents all that is vile and morbid. Rearrange “vile” and what do you have? Evil.

This person’s stage name came from Marilyn Monroe and Charles Manson. That should speak volumes. A few years back, some teenagers took their lives after having been influenced, as it was reported, by the music of Manson. Satanism, drugs and other immoral issues, as well as perverse acts on stage, are what this person promotes. Our youth are so easily influenced that this corruption ought to be stopped. We need to take a long, hard look at where this country is going and take a stand to do something about it.

I would like to see concerts of this type banned. Perhaps with letters to the entertaining committees, editors of newspapers and government officials, this could happen. Mine is but one small voice, but if we pool all of our resources, we can become a loud trumpet.

If you do nothing else, please take a moment of prayer for these individuals who will attend the concert. Chelane M. Connell Pinehurst, Idaho

Fuhrman show? Bring him on

Re: “Fuhrman wants to add talk radio to his lineup,” (Feb. 18). I think that is fine.

I find Mark Fuhrman has aided Idaho in maintaining its outstanding status as being a conservative state with values that have long since been lost in much of the United States. I am sure his program would be interesting, intense and would support our beliefs that much of the nation, along with the government at all levels, is selling us down the river. The Coeur d’Alene Press and The Spokesman-Review should be ashamed of themselves for helping sell out America. I welcome this additional program. Theodore Guindon Post Falls

SNOWMOBILES

EPA should rein in nonsense

Re: “EPA to rein in snowmobiles,” (Feb. 19).

I can’t believe all the negative attention given to snowmobiles lately. First, we are destroying roads, then, we are threatening animals. Next, we’re spreading noxious weeds and now, we’re “the source of significant air pollution in some cities.”

Come on. How about some benefits?

Snowmobiles are used for rescuing people. They also check conditions at ski areas and look for avalanche dangers. Besides all that, the riders spend money wherever they ride. I don’t know too many people who even ride in the city. Come to think of it, I know of no one who does, so how could we be causing so much pollution in the city?

I am disgusted with people who don’t know what they are talking about who keep trying to make more problems for everyone. Laura S.K. Braniff Bonners Ferry, Idaho

Go, EPA - you’re on the right tracks

Thank you, EPA! (EPA to rein in snowmobiles, Spokesman-Review Feb. 19).

Finally, the days of earsplitting, carbon monoxide belching, acid producing, snow smashing, fuel wasting, wildlife stressing, environmentally destructive nuisance machines may be numbered. When snowmobiles and Jet Skis are allowed to produce as much pollution in two hours as driving a new car thousands of miles, regulatory action is definitely overdue. Perhaps the lingering Saturday afternoon blue haze will eventually even disappear from Mount Spokane’s winter scene, so that those who truly appreciate the freshness and serenity of winter might have it returned! Cris M Currie Mead

OTHER TOPICS

Ethnocentrism up to no good

Re: The Feb. 5 article by Anthony Deutsch, “Population experts weighing 6 billion mark,” and the letter by Jim Pritchard, both decrying the flagging U.S. funding to promote birth control and abortion in developing countries.

Concern about a population explosion is outdated. In the early 1990s, demographers noted that the primary reason for population growth was increased longevity and that birth rates were dropping drastically. For example, half the world’s population lives in countries experiencing below-replacement-level fertility rates. Countries with high birth rates comprise only 21 percent of the world’s population and even those birth rates are dropping. Demographers now see a peaking out of world population around 2050 and a continual decrease after that.

Why then, are the industrial nations still promoting population control? We suspect a eugenic mentality on the part of Europeans and North Americans, i.e. - we can’t let those people take control because they threaten our dominance. Walt and Velda Weid Spokane

Make tree cutting last resort, not first

I’m in the camp with the conservationists and some scientists who say the best response to the beetle infestation is not cutting the trees and removing them but trying other methods first, such as the one described in your paper of attracting the beetles to one area and then destroying them.

I am suspicious when increased logging is the means to improve the health of the forest. I haven’t seen that be the case yet. Ann Curry Kingston, Idaho