Letters To The Editor

IDAHO VIEWPOINTS

Bad parking policy killing downtown

I have lived in downtown Coeur d’Alene for close to nine years, and on a nearly daily walk past shops and restaurants that have “tried so hard to make it,” I have witnessed the punishment that befalls far too many citizens with bucks to spend, who dare to park on downtown streets during normal business hours.

I have witnessed the anger of many local residents who, after spending a bundle of money on a leisurely lunch in a downtown restaurant, return to their cars to find they’ve been ticketed for taking more than two hours to enjoy their dining experience. I have overheard their angered damning of downtown while vowing never again to patronize any downtown business. I have overheard their loud, angry voices promising to spread the word to friends and families not to spend their hard-earned money in downtown shops or restaurants.

I have witnessed the city-retained “enforcer” affixing his notice of punishment on the vehicles of those he calculated had overstayed their welcome on streets where numerous parking spaces were vacant.

As I witnessed the death of more and more and more downtown business over the years, I could not comprehend the narrow-minded reasoning of the city in limiting visitors to two hours of non-punishment downtown parking, rather than three or four.

Oh, and what to do with “green space?” Nothing, other than preserve it in the well-groomed, recreational, beautiful park and open space that it is. A. Newt Preston Coeur d’Alene

Buck powerful trend with tax cuts

I’ve heard no plan that will save downtown. No amount of money, which this City Council has wasted hiring “consultants,” is going to do any good. It’s simply an ongoing evolution of the direction our society has chosen - building outward on less-expensive land.

Also, it is a function of previous City Council decisions not far-sighted enough to be protectionist. Downtown cannot draw Kootenai County citizens to spend money because of two insurmountable problems: not nearly enough of the right kind of parking, and not enough of the right kind of stores with the right kind of prices.

Take a look at the enormous and costly effort Spokane has made to save its downtown - multi-story parking garages, enclosed walkways and many more costly ideas too numerous to mention. How satisfactorily has Spokane achieved its goals. How cost-effective has it been?

Building anything on that last small piece of open ground, McEuen Field, will do nothing to bring Kootenai County citizens to Sherman, Front and Lakeside avenues to buy groceries, clothing, and other necessities. These streets are for the most part tourist and/or professional areas. Only tourist-type businesses or professionals such as attorneys, real estate businesses and accountants will survive.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that turning McEuen Field into food fairs, amphitheaters, gardens, libraries or skating rinks will solve the problem of empty storefronts. Maybe store owners need to reduce rent, the City Council should provide tax relief to store owners who do provide rent reduction, and local people should continue to be entrepreneurs, work hard, and keep trying. Susan K. Smith Coeur d’Alene

Post Falls pool purchase great idea

I favor Post Falls purchasing the community pool. I have watched its use over the past two years as my children have been involved in the synchronized swim team. I was impressed with the quality and friendliness of the staff and users.

This has been a gift to Post Falls that would be a shame to lose. The pool does not sit idle. Every day I see toddlers learning to swim, school-age kids just having fun, high school kids preparing for competition and seniors keeping in shape. I have been proud to represent our wonderful city at synchronized swimming competitions, as a parent and booster. Our is the only synchronized team in Idaho and we need a home!

Please encourage everyone to get involved. With the right kind of funding to allow the pool to operate in the black, many more friends and neighbors may use it. Call or write to our City Council, mayor or city administrator as soon as possible. The vote comes as early as Feb. 2. Don’t let this opportunity pass by. This community needs this pool for good, clean fun and exercise. Debbie Mykkanen Post Falls

Target only misusers of implements

Re: Kim Marie Thorburn, M.D. (letters, Jan. 13.)

To your question, “Doesn’t it make sense that industries that make products that kill, maim and cause illness contribute to those public costs?” the answer is a resounding no!

The list of such products would be extensive indeed. To name a few: Buicks, Stanley claw hammers and the Chicago Cutlery kitchen knives.

Your attention is directed toward individuals who elect to misuse an otherwise inanimate object of any description. These are the individuals who should contribute to “those public costs.” Society (you and I) should demand severe and unwavering contributions from the abusers of this republic’s freedom. A. Edward Farr Laclede

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

The Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations asked participants in Monday’s Martin Luther King Day celebration in Coeur d’Alene what they desire for their community. Here are some of the replies:

My dream for the community is:

That more diverse cultures can live peacefully in our area. The opportunities will be boundless, not only for us now, but for our future generations. - Willi Buerge

To walk down the streets of Coeur d’Alene and see many different shades of skin colors and have many different languages. - Judy Whatley

That everyone will be treated equally. That you’ll be judged on your inside, instead of your outside. That people won’t be afraid to have the courage of speaking out for who they are. - Helen Nordlind, age 13

To provide encouragement, direction and respect to the area’s young people through mentoring programs that will help them reach important goals in their lives. - Cathy Schaefer

That everyone will have the courage, the strength and the hope to walk down the street without the fear of somebody judging them by the color of their skin, but for people to acknowledge them by who they actually are. - Kathryn Custer, age 13.

For the community to unite and fight prejudice and injustices. We need to love our neighbors and give each other a hand. - Mary Zichko

Where the citizens can feel safe from harm - where especially the children can play freely out of their parent’s sight. - Katie True, 52

That we will realize that accepting differences in others leads to the development of better people and the enlargements of our spirits. - Wes Hanson

That this world will be able to live together in peace and love for each other. We are all God’s children, so that means we are all brothers and sisters. - Rocky Zabel

That hatred will be changed into understanding among all of us. That the cocoon of ignorance and fear will split apart, allowing the dazzling butterfly of peace to fly upward in expression of all our better natures. - Jane Brooks

For everyone to like each other no matter what color their skin is. - Sophia Armstrong, age 7

That we can rise above the reputation we have been given by a very, very small group. - Richard Kingsley

For a world where my children and future generations will be able to make racism and bigotry a part of our nation’s past. - Bob Spring

A quality of life that provides peace, happiness, opportunity and appreciation to all citizens so they can work, play and live together in harmony. - Janelle Burke

That we will grown in diversity as we also grow in love. - Judy Hyatt

For monthly community activities dedicated to promoting the various aspects of human rights and relations. - Lyn Danting

To work together, offer more education and training for the poor and single moms. - Jane Reid

That some day there will be no homeless people. Where they can have shelter, food and a good education no matter what color they are. - Vanessa Mares, age 13

That North Idaho can become an area known not for hatred and intolerance, but for its dedication to human rights and human equality. That people of every race, religion and sexual orientation would feel free to come here, knowing they are being welcomed with open hearts and open minds. - Jennifer James

That we may inspire each other and enjoy the uniqueness inherent to every person. - Mary Anderson

That all people can be free from the injustice of discrimination from economics, gender, race, age, religion, disability and sexual orientation - only then Dr. King’s dream will be complete. - Josh Buehner

That all our community members, regardless of age, race, sex or religion, would take the time to share their individual talents with the children of our great city. - Cassie Brag, 35

That we all can continue to have dreams. That our freedoms in this country will be preserved to allow our dreams to come true. That our childrens’ futures will be met with assurance that their rights will be preserved and their dreams realized. - Dan Austin

That all faith communities will recognize, accept and demonstrate respect for one another. - Bob Hasseries

That those members of our community and state who believe that injustices are being done will not be afraid to speak out for fear of retribution by those persons who would choose to enforce their will upon them. Just as the black people endured the oppression of the white majority, so must those who disagree with Idaho’s dominant political party also endure and speak out. - Starr Kelso

That we begin to realize the importance of teaching our children from birth through school and on into society that all people are equal. With each new generation, we would achieve a kinder, more caring society. - Carol Casey

That the small beginning that we have made tonight may continue to grow without opposition until we don’t need to think about it - it will become a second nature! - Ray, Leslie, Megan and Zack Theander

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Beware the homegrown mullahs

I am, for the first time in my life, frightened for my country.

I was a boy during World War II, a serviceman during the Korean conflict, worried through the agony of Vietnam and Watergate. It is not the impeachment, or even the prospect of the removal of a twice-elected president that frightens me.

What has me more concerned than any of the scandalous trash of the last year is that one of our great political parties is either under the control of or is being intimidated into doing the will of a minority of right-wing social conservatives. These fundamentalist religious right-wing zealots not only want to tell us what’s moral, they wish to impose, by law, their moral values on the rest of us.

Somewhere in all their zeal for right-to-life, school prayer, three-strike’s-you’re-out, the death penalty, etc., they have forgotten the moral values that bring out the best in humanity: tolerance, forgiveness, kindness, charity and, most of all, respect for those with whom we disagree.

I think many GOP voters support conservatives thinking in terms of fiscal conservatism but too often get the religious, intolerant brand. The GOP seems to be embarked on an agenda of cannibalism and selfdestruction, i.e. Reps. Newt Gingrich and Bob Livingston.

Can anyone who has any leadership ability, Republican or Democrat, be pure enough for these zealots? I doubt it. If we don’t stop these so-called conservatives, can we be many years from a fundamentalist Christian Iran? Gail Parke Jr. Post Falls

Clinton subversive of all that’s good

The continuing popularity of Bill Clinton despite his barnyard behavior and prevarications over the years shows that the moral paradigm has shifted in this country. Bill and Hillary Clinton’s ‘60s values of moral relativism are triumphant and most see little untoward in philandering, perjury, defalcation (viz., Webb Hubbell) and the like.

A worse thought still: Could Clinton have set out from the start with a political mission of cheapening and degrading the presidency to match his ‘60s standards? Some of his misbehavior seems compulsive, and yet much seems defiant and downright deliberate. Clinton personifies what Joe Klein has called “the moral decadence and banality of the national culture.” If Clinton is but the mirror image of our own culture, that is alarming and tragic. Robert G. Cardwell Post Falls

REMEMBRANCE

King Day `for all Americans’

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a day for all Americans to celebrate. Martin Luther King Jr. was not a man driven by political power. He was not a man driven by popularity. He was not a man driven by a belief in racial superiority, money, fame or any of those worldly things. He was a man driven by his deeply felt belief in God.

King was moved to great compassion for the social conditions, not just of African Americans, but all Americans. King really cared about people. He didn’t just use them as pawns in political manipulations, as is the habit of so many “concerned” politicians of today who “feel” our pain. King cared enough to give his very life for the cause of freedom, justice and equal rights.

King was truly a great hero in American history, not just a hero for the black man, but a hero for all men who love freedom. In a speech in Chicago in 1963, he summed up his own life when he said, “To be a Christian, one must take up his cross, with all of its difficulties and agonizing, and tension-packed content, and carry it until that very cross leaves its mark upon us and redeems us to that more excellent way which comes only through suffering.”

King is a hero of mine, and I celebrate his life, his ministry and his legacy. I look forward to meeting him one day in a place where “all of God’s children … will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!” Steve Cunningham Bonners Ferry

King Day - don’t make me sick

Monday marked another sad day when our nation glorified a low-life - Martin Luther King, Jr. In a day when prejudices are to be put aside and we are to value the worth of all men and women, the nation gives honor to this man because of his color. This month also marks the anniversary of the legalization of the murder of the unborn - even to taking their lives when they are partially born.

Where are all these liberal, “I have a dream,” human rights advocates when these children are having their brains sucked out? They are too busy in marches and public meetings on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day proclaiming equality - love the gays and lesbians, and hate the haters. Those who promote this so-called equality have an agenda of lies and will produce nothing but death. Steve Tanner Bonners Ferry

CHURCH AND STATE

`Sorry, you cannot have it both ways’

It’s too bad Patrick Carroll (Golden Pen, Jan. 11) feels diversity needs to include the advertising of religion in public schools. The public schools should not be a forum for or the place to advance religious beliefs. There are more than 350,000 churches, mosques, temples and private places of worship in the United States for that purpose.

Carroll misunderstands the intent of our founding fathers, who unquestionably confirmed the role of the church as not one with the government. Religion does not and should not need the power of the state to justify or validate its existence, provide support for its failings or promote agendas for the church.

Carroll’s term “religionphobes” is nonsense and fosters intolerance for opposing views. On the contrary, we do not hate or fear religion. We feel religion has its time and place, and it is not in our public schools where students of different cultures and backgrounds would be subject to proselytizing.

Carroll says he is not advocating teaching religion in public schools. Actually, we should be teaching religion in our schools. We should teach critical examination of religious texts and we should teach the alternatives to popular religious dogma. But we can’t. Why? Because the churches (and parents) would cry foul and demand that teaching religion is their job.

Sorry, you cannot have it both ways.

Moreover, I am sure the Supreme Court will be contacting Carroll to get a better understanding of the First Amendment the next time a case comes up. Kay D. Hayes Inland Northwest Freethought Society, Coeur d’Alene