Letters To The Editor

IDAHO VIEWPOINTS

Show up for nonviolent confrontation

I am saddened that Coeur d’Alene chose to give the Aryan Nations another parade permit. What a disaster.

I fully respect the Aryans’ right to free speech and peaceable assembly. Although they may have the legal right to march, I grew up in Coeur d’Alene and I have a moral obligation to confront such violent philosophy when it threatens my community.

Last year, most people avoided downtown while Richard Butler and his followers had free reign over the city. He got his lifelong wish while North Idaho received an even greater reputation as a haven for racist activity.

In the Northwest we have the attitude that if it’s not directly hurting me it must be OK and, if I can’t see it, it must not be happening. This is the approach Germany took in dealing with the Nazis before the Holocaust. Ignoring the problem only made it worse.

It’s important that we confront the Aryans at their march and most important that we do it in a nonviolent manner. Should we stoop to their level and confront violence with violence, we might as well give up and declare the Northwest the Aryan’s homeland.

Let white supremacist organizations know there’s no room for violence in our communities and that it won’t be tolerated. We need to do this through nonviolent confrontation at every opportunity. The Aryan Nations march is one such opportunity. Paul D. McPoland Moscow

Create unfriendly climate for Aryans

Richard Butler’s move to advertise for a July 3 parade was testimony that we, the people, can no longer ignore the imposition of violent hate groups upon our communities.

If we ignore white supremacists, they violently throw it back in our faces, often at the wrong times and in very violent ways. To allow the Aryans to march down our streets unchecked is an invitation for more firebombings, more cross burnings, more hate-filled propaganda and more neo-Nazis hanging around our towns and infecting our children. Failure to deal with hate violence will not make it go away.

While the Aryans feel at home in North Idaho, the potential for spontaneous parades exists every day. This is a prime example of how city officials need to coordinate the people to countermobilize when the Aryans try to claim our streets. We don’t have to make them feel comfortable here! Let’s create a climate where we feel safe to live without fear of hate-motivated crimes.

It is unclear if the media prematurely introduced the July 3 scenario. Nonetheless, the city has an opportunity to rescind the Aryan Nations’ “conditional permit” or at the very least participate in a well-organized, on-site counter-demonstration. Please urge our government officials to take action. Jonathan L. Crowell Moscow

Butler could be told to move march

Re: attorney Edgar J. Steele’s June 19 letter, I agree that people have a right to their beliefs, no matter how offensive. However, the Neo-Nazis don’t just express hate speech, they engage in violent, truly criminal behavior. People can and should be locked up when they engage in criminal behavior.

As for their rights, what about the rights of their fellow citizens? Racial hatred, even hatred of others’ beliefs, undermines those rights.

The parade that took place on July 18 last year wasn’t according to the First Amendment, which protects the right of people to peacefully assemble. If stores could close for reasons of security and protest, if the people of Coeur d’Alene could be called upon to take their business elsewhere, if the police had to have a lot of help to prevent violence while the racists were marching, if the racists and protestors acted ugly to one another, this wasn’t something that the First Amendment should ever be interpreted as protecting. And the mayor could demand that Butler and his gang of kooks march somewhere else.

I also understand Butler will force the issue and march his kooks during the kiddie parade. Excuse me, but if Hitler had won his war, flag waving and the Fourth of July would be distant memories. Butler represents everything this nation was supposed to be opposed to during World War II. His thinking is indefensible. Joan E. Harman Coeur d’Alene

Coeur d’Alene should be sued

Well, well, it seems that the Coeur d’Alene police have done it again. Roughing up a bunch of hard-core rioters, commonly known as taxpaying citizens and car-clubbing partiers.

Out looking for a good time? Don’t look in Coeur d’Alene, they are too busy roughing up some old women causing trouble in the Lake City.

The Aryans march up and down the streets shouting hate and racial garbage, but, oh, look out for those masses of park lovers. They might - oh my God - burn rubber.

The word is out. Aryans yes, car shows no. No amount of Spokesman-Review spin can change it. You can spin until the cows come home but the fact is still that the police overreacted to a bunch of people having a good time. Maybe they were acting a little crazy but it’s still not worth busting heads over. You cannot undo the damage. What a shame. I hope they get sued. R.R. Krebs St. Maries, Idaho

BUSINESS AND LABOR

Bilateral reasonableness is key

I agree with the concept in Fern Christenson’s June 23 editorial that “accommodation beats litigation.” I recently devoted hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars to defend Advanced Lifeline Services (AL:S) from litigation brought by Donna Cok, who demanded that she be allowed to leave her job as a respiratory therapist for ALS whenever and for however long her newborn baby needed to be fed. A Spokane jury agreed that her demand was unreasonable.

ALS has been providing respiratory care to Spokane area citizens for eight years and we hope to continue that care for many more years. Our goal has always been to be a good corporate citizen and an employer worthy of the respect and loyalty of our employees. However, our foremost responsibility is to the patients placed in our care, and to the families who trust that we will deliver uncompromising care to their loved ones every day.

At ALS, we accommodate our employees whenever possible, especially in matters related to child care. However there comes a point when accommodation simply isn’t possible. This is true for many employers who provide critical services, whether it be nurses, firefighters, pilots or police officers. There are some professions where employees cannot abandon their job at unscheduled and indefinite periods of time, regardless of how worthy their reasons for leaving.

Employers should be reasonable in meeting the needs of their employees. ALS has always done so. But employees must also be reasonable in their demands. That is the true compromise between employer and employee. William M. Selvidge, M.D., president and CEO Advanced Lifeline Services Inc., Louisville, Ky.

We’re seeking fair compensation

Larry C. Tjomsland (Letters, June 26) is right - a pay raise won’t put spring back into my step. It won’t renew old arches or take the ache out of my lower back. Shoot, it won’t do anything for my gray hair. But it will compensate us for the years and years of increased job responsibilities placed on me and my co-workers.

All postal workers are asking is that a nonprofit agency of the federal government remain nonprofit and share the benefit of modernized machinery. The increased work load is less time in the office and increased time on the street. Instead of four to five hours on the street, now, it’s closer to six to six and a half.

The Post Office posted net profits over the last four years of a little over $1 billion per year because of automation. Carriers didn’t receive a dime, while the number crunchers and managers got a tidy slice of the non-profit pie.

After two years of working for the competitors as a driver, you’d be making $3 an hour more than a postal employee who had worked 12 years. At the end of their new contract, they’ll be $7 an hour ahead of that same postal employee. While our competitors have an 88 percent part-time work force, we have a 12 percent part-time work force and an 88 percent full-time work force. Do the math. They have a small retirement roll, while we have an incredibly large retirement community. Many also fought to protect our country’s interests around the world over the years.

What we want is compensation for a job well done. Randy C. Moyse Spokane

Ironically, skeptic needs a union

Ellen C. Hulslander made some interesting points (Letters, June 13) about Wal-Mart. She wrote that she has worked for Wal-Mart for nine years, so she must know something about her company.

Hulslander wrote that working at Wal-Mart “is an entry-level or second income type of employment and it’s not the best family supporting career.” I hope she has told her newly hired co-workers that their jobs are dead-end, low-wage and not to expect to support their families working at Wal-Mart. Hulslander said Wal-Mart’s part-time associates are eligible for benefits after the first year. How many of those people can actually afford those benefits while making at or near minimum wage?

Finally, Hulslander hates unions. I don’t know who poisoned her mind concerning these workers’ organizations, because she clearly has no understanding of what they do. She should talk to the checkers who have worked at her local Safeway or Excel stores for nine years and compare their wages and benefits with those of checkers at Wal-Mart. Those union jobs are family supporting, the kind of jobs that I’m sure are needed in Colville, just as they are in Spokane. Larry S. Hall Spokane

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Pols pandering at liberty’s expense

Recent posturing over flag desecration is another waste of time by our increasingly irrelevant House of Representatives.

Most of these desecrations involve burning, yet burning is the only official and appropriate way to dispose of an old U.S. flag. Indeed, the leading flag burner in the country for years has been the American Legion, which regularly performs massive flag disposal ceremonies.

So it is not the burning per se which is the desecration but the intent underlying the act. And it is that very intent which moves the issue into the area of free and unfettered political speech, which is what Old Glory is supposed to represent in the first place.

The representatives should concentrate on solving some of our dire problems, stop playing to sentimental audiences and leave free speech alone. Fred Glienna Coeur d’Alene

Our democracy is a circus

Here it comes again - the big, lumbering charade called the presidential election. A special time when we can all turn on the idiot box and watch the elite of the elite tell us the lies we want to hear all the while collecting millions from the organizations that run this country. Ain’t it grand?

As the campaigns progress and we hold open the newspaper’s hallowed pages to read carefully selected and censored articles our media masters have chosen, you can sometimes hear the distinctive snap of the collar being fastened around the candidates’ necks.

As the election nears and we, as educated, informed citizens, decide who will be the best spokesperson for our nation, we head to the ballot box. After voting, we feel we have upheld the standard of freedom. Then, we go home to find out who has been chosen as our new leader. Then, over the next four years, we slowly begin to see who the music men are who make the collared monkey dance. Isn’t it great to be free? Michael Harmon Spokane

GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

Quality jobs actively sought

Is it true, as a letter writer recently claimed, that local businesses do not want good-paying jobs here?

That is definitely not the case, if one looks at the support for FOCUS 21.

FOCUS 21 is a five-year, $5 million effort to bring 10,000 new, higher-paying jobs to the Spokane area by 2002. In its first year, its efforts in business recruitment and business retention and expansion led directly to nearly 2,400 new jobs. Of those recruited to Spokane, more than 90 percent pay more than $28,000 per year.

FOCUS 21 is supported by more than 400 local businesses, small and large alike. It supports recruiting new businesses to the region and helps existing businesses stay here and grow. It contracts with the Spokane Area Economic Development Council and the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce to create new jobs. To be supported by FOCUS 21, those jobs must pay more than average wages.

Both Mayor John Talbot and County Commissioner Phil Harris participate in FOCUS 21.

Yes, Spokane is a low-wage community and that is a source of concern for many of our business people. That is why they are working together to overcome the challenge. Thomas M. White, FOCUS 21 president president and CEO, Empire Health Services, Spokane

Accept low rating as a challenge

How about Yes, in Spokane we can!

The recent Forbes article naming Spokane as next to last on its list of “best places for business” has again drawn considerable attention to facts we have to face. We have long been regarded as the “inland city” or the “other city” of Washington. The isolation is not just geographic but now appears to be seen as social and cultural as well. While being rich in natural resources and heritage, we’re obviously being viewed with caution in many critical areas.

The city is not perceived as having broad ethnic acceptance. Our poverty level is too high for a city our size. Jobs offering a decent, living wage are scarce. Spokane seems to have difficulty being competitive in attracting or keeping desirable businesses. Outsiders often see us as bitterly divided on key issues, with a can’t-do attitude. Opportunities appear to be elusive as miscommunication prevents our reaching progressive solutions.

Ready or not, our good city is experiencing the transitional challenges that any modern society experiences. There is much to be proud of but our identity today and tomorrow depends on the ability of our ever more diverse citizens to formulate sound, long-range plans while attempting to accomplish immediate goals. It requires we have a “can do it together” attitude.

Continuing positive discourse among diverse interest groups and working together by embracing solutions is the key to harmony and long-term goal accomplishment. The Forbes article has pointed out clearly that we, as citizens, need to again find common ground to resolve the issues of communication, vision, direction, racial imbalance, poverty, job creation and, yes, even potholes! Brad Nickle, board chairman Spokane City Forum

SPOKANE MATTERS

When you smoke, you stink things up

Obviously, Charles E. McCollim and Jim Prokop (Letters, June 24) are puffers.

You guys need to be made aware that you stink of smoke, not only in the immediate area of a park concert but also in elevators and in front of buildings that have smoking restrictions. The entire area around the entrance smells! All you have to do is smell your hair and clothing sometime. Y’all stink! Your breath stinks, your hair and your clothing stink.

This has nothing to do with bond issues and what the Park Board dictates. It does have to do with clean air and the respect for a healthy and clean environment for the rest of us. You need to talk to me, who suffered two heart attacks and eventually triple by-pass heart surgery as a result of a dirty, stinking habit I had for 35 years.

The time is today to quit! When you quit, in a short time, you will breathe better, smell better. You will be able to smell the roses, food and clean air better. You will not offend others with your smoky smell. And you will save hundreds of dollars a year. Greg A. Zaccaria Nine Mile Falls