Letters To The Editor
SPOKANE MATTERS
Situation bespeaks lacking values
Having worked for Northwest Fair Housing Alliance for almost two years both in a paid and volunteer capacity, I can state without hesitation that the services we provide are essential to the Spokane community.
NWFHA was started in 1995 by Florence Brassier, who saw the need for an organization that could serve as a voice for the poor and disabled in our community. With a small but dedicated staff, NWFHA has earned a reputation among its supporters as being committed to championing the right of every person, regardless of race, gender or economic status, to housing that is both decent and affordable.
Sadly, NWFHA may soon be forced to close its doors due to lack of funding. This would be a devastating loss not only to the local community, but also to those who dream of a society in which housing is deemed a fundamental right belonging to every person, rather than a privilege enjoyed by only those with money and status.
It is appalling that our government can spend over $40 million to fund an investigation regarding a silly sex scandal that, frankly, is nobody’s business other than the parties involved, yet is willing to allow a large segment of its population to go without adequate housing which, in my opinion, ought to be a God-given right.
In his inaugural address, president-elect John F. Kennedy boldly proclaimed, “If a nation such as ours cannot save the many who are poor, it cannot hope to save the few who are rich.” Gary S. Remington Spokane
Snow removal completely mishandled
Spokane road crew officials and their bosses should be fired. Spokane taxpayers were forced to endure the worst snowstorm in at least two years while snow removal officials decided it was too expensive to have crews out on Christmas.
It should tell us something about our city leadership when our elected officials do not budget enough money for snow removal. Anyone who has lived in this area for any length of time knows we don’t always get snow, but we deserve to have city leadership that has enough foresight to allow for days like this last Christmas.
The managers in charge of snow removal should be embarrassed, not only for the slow response but also for the lousy job that was done once the graders got out. Any person who drove on Francis in the couple of days after the storm will, I’m sure, agree.
Taxpayers of Spokane need to look at our elected officials and decide whether we want such shortsighted leadership. Someone must be accountable for this fiasco. Donn M. Gehret Spokane
Rethink LC building’s future
Earlier this fall, Richard Mope, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Washington, D.C.; Elizabeth Goldstein, director of the western office, San Francisco; and I visited your fine city for the statewide preservation conference. Your remarkable collection of surviving historic buildings and the public interest to maintain these resources were evident and encouraging.
We are concerned, however that the revitalization of certain older Spokane buildings remains precarious because these structures may unfortunately appear outdated and undesirable. Such a building of historical integrity with so much promise, for example, is the Lewis and Clark High School Administration Building.
Inspirational and successful conversions of once empty school buildings have occurred elsewhere throughout the nation. With support from the leaders and citizens of Spokane, the administration building can be transformed creatively to accommodate new uses within the high school’s programmatic planning parameters. Effective school reuse can occur through decision-making mechanisms that permit the city, school, school board, developers and local residents to develop innovative ways for renovation and utilization of the administrative building.
When irreplaceable historic buildings are torn down or allowed to deteriorate, a part of your past disappears forever. LC’s administration building is a valuable part of Spokane’s educational heritage that deserves thoughtful consideration for retention. We hope you will support a productive solution to revitalize this outstanding building. Gerald Takano, AIA, senior program associate National Trust for Historic Preservation, San Francisco
HEALTH AND SAFETY
About HIV, the ‘doctor’ is out to lunch
Re: Dr. Laura Schlessinger’s column hailing names reporting for people with HIV.
Schlessinger’s understanding of the disease and efforts to prevent it are paper thin. She contradicts herself several times in the course of the column. She says, for instance, that names reporting has nothing to do with discrimination. Later, she says that anyone who wants there to be the same acceptance of AIDS as there is for prostate cancer has got to be kidding. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that she wishes we all had the names available to us in order to discriminate (since that is the opposite of accept). This is why names reporting has been opposed in the past - and not just by the gay lobby.
When people feel there are employers who would fire them if they were known to carry HIV, they will seldom voluntarily submit to testing. How is this supposed to help with AIDS treatment and prevention?
Schlessinger also displays an ignorance of HIV transmission. It is not transmitted by promiscuity, as she says. It is transmitted by unsafe sexual practices.
In my position as a member of the board of INAC (Inland Northwest AIDS Coalition), I have met numerous people who have lost jobs, apartments, children, etc., when their HIV status was disclosed. Their testimony weighs much more heavily with me than Schlessinger’s, whose stance as moral arbiter of us all is unconvincing. Greg M. Presley Spokane
Anti-rock burst effort important
I am sure everyone in the Silver Valley is grateful that the rock-burst incident at the Galena mine did not end in tragedy. Hats off to the mine rescue crew whose bravery and skill were happily rewarded.
What might not be appreciated is how few of these rock-burst incidents make the news. Underground miners are no longer depending on luck alone to avoid such problems. This is because the mining companies have teamed with the Spokane Research Laboratory of the NIOSH office for mine safety and health research. Through such cooperative efforts, methods to detect potential trouble areas have been developed. The sensors installed in the mines, along with sophisticated computer analysis, have greatly reduced the risk of injury to miners.
While there has been much improvement, more study is needed. We are lucky to have a world-class mine safety research facility so close to the mine sites. Ivan Urnovitz Spokane
THE MEDIA
Polling methods grossly inadequate
In regards to Iris J. Byrne’s message for Americans to wake up (Letters, Dec. 25), Byrne is the one who needs a wake-up call.
Anyone who believes these polls accurately portray the will of a group of people as large as the American population is crazy.
First, the largest total of people polled is around 1,000, which is not even the population of an average village. Who am I supposed to believe, a poll of several hundred people that “accurately” portrays what over 250 million people thinks? The odds against that poll being accurate have to be tremendous.
Finally, who are these people being polled? Are they Democrats, Republicans, independents? Are they men or women? What is the age ratio of these people and what is the ratio of each? Where do they live and what is the political climate where they live?
Maybe I am just getting cynical in my old age, but what is the pollster’s agenda in asking these questions. And more importantly, who is paying them to ask these questions?
The duty of the House of Representatives was to impeach or not impeach. Imposition of any penalty is a belonging to the Senate. If the Senate decides to censure him, that is its right.
Ask yourself, if this happened to anyone you know personally, what would be the result? He or she would probably be fired - and should be. Michael Kimmelman Fairchild Air Force Base
Sweet deal for Sweetser - but why?
What possessed staff writer Dan Hansen to give Jim Sweetser, the outgoing prosecuting attorney, a front page article in Dec. 24 Region section promoting his new private practice of law? What a hoot that Sweetser now wants to help people “treated unfairly at work,” after he personally fired, demoted, transferred or drove out nearly 50 employees at the prosecutor’s office, many with considerably more than his 14 years of experience.
He should certainly have sufficient knowledge of “mistreatment,” since he spent four years demanding the “loyalty” of the remaining employees and then claiming their hard work as his own personal victory, as again repeated in this article mentioning “his” death penalty cases, etc.
Has checking the facts gone out of fashion? I must have missed all the previous free advertisements The Spokesman-Review has run for prior employees of the prosecutor’s office either starting their own offices, searching for work or maybe selling their homes so they could move away from Spokane, whether they chose to or not.
What’s going on over there? Does the advertising department know that you’re giving away front page space for free? Lynn L. Griffiths Spokane
Pro-lying columnist not what we need
We have a president who is now impeached because of his inability to simply tell the truth. Now, The Spokesman-Review has a new column by Beverly La Salle, who actually encourages lying and says she does it “all the time.” What is wrong with the truth, La Salle? Something like, I think this is a mistake and have changed my mind.
Oh, Miss Manners, where are you? L. Denise Leonard Hayden Lake, Idaho
IN THE PUBLIC EYE
Remember this chicanery in 2000
President Clinton’s high approval ratings, unprecedented in the history of presidential polling, explain why the far right has so vigorously conspired to undermine him by any means necessary.
A president with such widespread popularity might just introduce some meaningful legislation to benefit the working poor, the young, the old and minorities. He might just seek to reform health care or support the arts.
Better, then, for the corporate right, that he be hobbled with a series of diversionary scandals. Better, then, for our controlling elite that millions of dollars pour into right-wing law firms instead of into programs for those who are less well off and consequently unable to hire high-powered lobbyists.
The consequences for constitutional rule because of the craven caving of this cowardly Congress will haunt us for many years. We would all do well to remember the events of late 1998 when it’s time to vote in 2000. Fred Glienna Coeur d’Alene
Supposedly, it’s all relative
Regarding the political scene today: It’s obvious to me that if you believe in the rule of law and equal justice, you’re accused of being partisan and unfair. Yet, if you agree with President Clinton that he is above the law, and accept perjury, you are nonpartisan and fair. Does this make any sense to you? G.P. James Sagle
With me, it’s a credibility thing
A few days ago, the president again looked into television cameras and spoke to Americans in a voice filled with emotion and sincerity. He told us the United States had bombed Iraqi sites because of Saddam’s noncompliance with United Nations weapons’ inspectors. Yesterday, he informed us that Iraq had fired anti-aircraft missiles at American jets in the Iraqi no-fly zone. The president said Iraq was the aggressor, we took “appropriate action” and four more Iraqis were killed.
We should believe our president, shouldn’t we? Why am I not at all sure I do? Mary J. Fahland Deer Park
OTHER TOPICS
A spirit not of Christmas
Several readers have correctly pointed out that Jeannette Faulkner does not speak for all Christians in her Dec. 20 column criticizing anyone who doesn’t keep Christmas her way. No one, however, has questioned the “good” paper’s policy in displaying so prominently such an illogical and ill-tempered piece in the season of good will.
Faulkner muddles her dislike for commercialism and religious tolerance, and reaches some strange conclusions. If she had ever had Muslim and Jewish friends and neighbors, she might have learned that they care as passionately about their holidays as she does about hers. Certainly, they are even less interested in a tinny Christmas than she is.
Even more ludicrous is the suggestion that non-Christians are somehow responsible for the commercializing of Christmas. That phenomenon is a creation of this century and advertising, with no ties to pre-Christian or early Christian customs. Commercialism is an offspring of capitalism, a system of economics which is practiced by all faiths.
Many Christians just say no to the tinsel and the hype. They recognize charity, hospitality and humility as ideals of the season; they also realize that these are ideals of other religions. Where such virtues are lost, one finds the hatred and violence of northern Ireland, the Balkans and the Indian sub-continent, to name just a few.
Our community is not immune to such arrogance and insensitivity. Would that The Spokesman-Review could more consistently support efforts to build understanding and respect among individuals in our community. Carolyn King Terry Spokane
Helping animals isn’t so easy
R.W. Snyder (Letters, Dec. 21) shares a compassion for animals with many of us who would like to see good homes for all companion animals, so that what he saw at SpokAnimal would be a thing of the past.
I don’t approve of telling people an animal will be killed if it isn’t adopted by a stated time because that causes adoptions for the wrong reason. And many times, people get home, realize they made a mistake, and the animal is either dumped or ends up back at the shelter. Instead of admitting they made a mistake, people invent some behavior reason that puts the animal at fault and often ends up in it being killed.
Giving or selling animals to pet stores is not the answer. The only screening pet stores do is to see if the check or credit card is good. Shelters have their animals spayed/ neutered before they leave, or it’s part of the adoption fee, so there’s an attempt to end the pet overpopulation problem. By taking animals to pet stores, we are condoning kitten and puppy mills, and becoming part of the pet overpopulation problem.
If Snyder wants to help, perhaps he could ask the pet stores to either quit selling animals or start selling sterilization certificates with their animals. If he’s really feeling energetic, he could go after the puppy and kitten mills. If the pet stores weren’t available to them, maybe they would eventually be forced to quit breeding en masse in deplorable conditions. Louise Long Spokane
Cold isn’t what it used to be
Re: “Arctic winds sweeping down from Yukon,” (Dec. 18). I guess I should be better prepared in accordance with the advice offered in your article. Perhaps I’ve been lulled into insensibility by having spent three years in the Fairbanks, Alaska, area were temperatures lower than minus-60 degrees F. (actual, not wind chill) were common. Friends who have visited me from there say they they haven’t seen such lows in years and wonder if it is due to the effects of global warming. Philip J. Mulligan Spokane
There go the caribou - and trees
We all know why Sen. Larry Craig and the Bonners Ferry Chamber of Commerce say to forget the caribou and don’t fund their protected area in Idaho’s Selkirk mountains. Then we’ll see the Congress-controlled U.S. Forest Service have some big timber sales there. Wonderful, old-growth trees - just what the big logging companies want. Doris Mussil Spokane