Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

We regret cause for dissatisfaction

In response to Bill Siler’s May 21 letter concerning the Lilac Festival Parade, we are genuinely sorry he was offended by the Army National Guard’s performance in the parade.

The Washington Army National Guard has been in our parade for well over 30 years. Every year they conduct this performance to a crowd that loves it. They have always received thunderous applause. We have never felt it was a problem because they have taken all safety precautions to do their performance.

In response to Virginia Burger’s May 24 letter about women veterans in the parade, this year, WAVES were in the group of veterans that the International Military Vehicle Museum provided. This unit consisted of Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Vernon Baker, ex-POWs, Pearl Harbor survivors, Korea and Vietnam veterans, the WAVES and nurses from some of the conflicts. The festival goes to great lengths to find men and women for the Vehicle Museum Unit. Women are such a major part of all our military engagements; we would never forget them. Russell E. Brown, vice president Spokane Lilac Festival Parade

More wrong around here than Chertok

Alan Chertok’s resignation says volumes more about City Manager Bill Pupo and the Spokane Police Guild than it does about anything else. It’s hard to believe so much money, time and effort have been wasted on recruiting, retaining and then removing a police chief while serious crimes go unresolved. A pox on all your houses. Angel M. Fitzpatrick, Jr. Fairfield, Wash.

WASHINGTON STATE

Weak penalty for awful crime

Re: “Man accused of abusing wife for 17 years” (May 27). This is retributive justice?

For 17 years the woman was living in horrific conditions, filthy, hidden from neighbors so well they believed she did not exist. Both arms had been broken and healed, with no medical attention.

As abhorrent as it is, this is not what surprised me. What made me blink and wonder whether I had read it wrong, was the maximum sentence the man could receive if convicted. Ten years in prison is the most this man would serve if a jury rules guilty. After time off for good behavior and probation, how long would he actually serve? Certainly, not anywhere close to the 17 years he is accused of terribly abusing his wife. Darsha J. Olsen Spokane

BUSINESS AND LABOR

Get facts in order before accusing

Yes, James Harlan (Letters, May 27), you are confused. Did you check the facts before you wrote for publication?

Did you check the article in the April 28 Spokesman-Review to see where and who caused the damages mentioned (during the Kaiser strike)? Did you wonder how much normal damage is sustained in an eight-month period by a fleet of vehicles? Did you ever think to check how much vandalism was sustained in the past? There were no specifics as to who, where or how those things happened.

The Review also reported (Feb. 6) tire damage to a private vehicle in Idaho - with no suspects. The owner stated an opinion as to who might have done it based on a spouse’s employment as a scab for Kaiser. Are you blaming us for that as well?

A Steelworker was arrested for waving a stick at a scab guard, another for blocking a road with an automobile (Review, Jan. 5), and yet another incident involving a Teamster supporter ticketed for honking a horn (Review, Jan. 23).

Likewise, a scab was arrested for assaulting a Steelworker with a pipe (Review, Jan. 5) and another scab truck driver arrested for brandishing a loaded .44 caliber weapon at Steelworkers (Review, Feb. 17). As for the number of people present at specific events, the last time we gathered for a rally, we were accused of almost rioting. Check out that story, complete with no arrests and no injuries. Richard M. Prete Steelworker, Chattaroy

Officials want wages kept low

A May 25th front page article reports that Spokane came in 161st out of 162 cities in the United States as one of the worst places to operate a business. This assessment was 100 percent on target.

We have lived in the Spokane-Coeur d’Alene area on and off for 19 years and I can’t remember one time when local elected officials have tried to attract high-tech industries that offer good-paying jobs. It is obvious that these elected folks really do not want good paying jobs to come to the Inland Northwest.

The obvious reason is that they are supported by local businesses that don’t want good-paying jobs available here because that would force them to raise their pay scales and hinder their bottom line.

To all you elected officials in Washington and Idaho, your silence is deafening. Tom Akren Post Falls

HEALTH CARE

As a bonus, we get Puget Sound prices

A few days ago my husband and I received new cards for our medical insurance. The note accompanying these cards for our family said the reason for the new cards was that Group Health Northwest had been acquired by Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound. That’s all there was to it. Just a new logo on the card.

Upon further inspection, my husband noticed that the amounts noted on the card for services had been changed not for the better. Surprise, surprise! Our office visit amount stayed the same. Our hospital and pharmaceutical costs have increased. With a call to our insurance provider we were told that there are those increases as well as the premium.

Now mind you, these increases probably have to happen every so often. Last year it was an amount of $32 per month. This year it’s an astounding $83 more per month!

I was told that our Washington physicians aren’t making much money. (Or rather - not as much as they used to). Sorry, docs, nobody is! I guess my only recourse now is to start training my 9- 7- and 5-year-old boys for the NFL, NBA or PGA, so that when I am in my senior years, someone will be able to afford my health insurance, because at the increase rate of $115 every two years (if not more), we won’t be able to.

I have now entered HMO hell. I’m not enjoying my time here. Kathy Minnerly Spokane

VIOLENCE

Keep that light shining

Re: “Quit belaboring school violence” (Letters, May 25).

How do you get rid of a shadow? Shine the light. This is the media’s job in American society. Television and print news people have taken a hit for their coverage and commentaries of shootings in Littleton, Colo., Moses Lake and other cities around the nation over the last few weeks and months. Many people have criticized coverage of the bombings and shootings as glamorizing school violence.

But don’t the media just give us what we ask for? Even though I’ve heard about the shootings, I still don’t know all the details I would like to know. And I don’t believe Americans have become fed up with school shootings quite yet. The issue of teenage violence is one of the most serious issues facing Americans today. If we refuse to shine the light on the shadow of teen violence, that shadow will persist. By repeatedly putting down violence, whether teen, domestic, or racial, we get the idea into people’s heads that violence is wrong.

As long as these senseless acts of violence continue, they should receive coverage. Joel R. Ewen Cheney

Parents, override media influence

Don Holschen (Letters, May 20) presented the idea that all faculty members of schools should be armed to protect the school and its occupants, as well as to intimidate terrorists.

Is arming school authorities really the solution? What would arming faculty members say to our kids? The tragedy in Littleton, Colo., is what we’re trying to get away from.

We’ve covered the idea that guns must be regulated and shouldn’t be sold to minors. But where do kids get the idea that they can engage in acts of terrorism? The answer lies within the media. By watching TV, kids see how violence is portrayed. Movies, TV shows and videogames are the greatest contributing factors to violence in children, according to Lawrence Alloway in “Violent America: The Movies 1946-1964.”

Television and movies have a way of numbing our emotional reactions and our compassion for others. As James T. Hamilton states in “Television Violence and Public Policy,” the percentage of programs containing violent humor between 6 and 9 a.m. and 3 and 6 p.m. is almost 50 percent. More television violence is being channeled toward kids than ever before. Most children don’t know how serious violence is and tend not to think twice about it.

Parents need to play a more active role in monitoring what their children watch. Parents have an obligation to educate their children about the consequences of violence. The basis of every child’s learning and growing starts at home. Amber D. Curtis Cheney

Rights, yes, but not license

Re: “Littleton fears put students’ rights at risk,” May 5. Arizona American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Eleanor Eisenberg said,“Schools are saying that school safety comes first and students’ rights second. That’s wrong.” She revealed a common misunderstanding of human rights.

It’s a misconception that all people can have all their individual rights at all times. Granting your individual rights may cost me mine. Granting your child’s rights in school may cost my child’s safety. Get real!

This comment smacks of an immature I-me-my mentality. The true measure of maturity isn’t how self-centered but how other-centered one is. Our children need to grow out of self-centeredness, not be encouraged to hold onto it. Self-centered people don’t care about anybody else. If offended, they don’t get better, they get bitter. And some get violent.

We’ve learned to combine the I-me-my attitude with violent revenge, as depicted in videogames, TV shows, movies, music lyrics and other printed and Internet materials that promote violent retribution. We don’t need to learn self-centeredness; we need to unlearn it.

At times, individual rights must defer to common good. Neither the right to bear arms nor the First Amendment were intended as a license to destroy. Freedom needs to be balanced by responsibility toward others. Unlicensed, violent revenge is not an all-American, God-given right. We need more effective controls on the media and tighter school security. Reacting to students dressing like the latest child-killers or to their mouthing off about gross methods of revenge isn’t an infringement on their individual rights; it’s a common sense security measure. Mary L.E. McDowell Chewelah

WILDLIFE

Wolf money could be better spent

Re: “Wolf money running out,” (May 26). I would prefer that they fill in freeway potholes instead of spending all that money baby-sitting a bunch of wolves nobody wanted in the first place. And next, they want to reintroduce grizzly bears. If you think wolves are a problem, wait until they release 1,000-pound bears. The thought makes the idea of backpacking in the wilds a whole new experience. William A. Larson Pocatello

Reintroduce grizzlies in Idaho

Early in this century, a large, healthy grizzly population still roamed the isolated Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. As the nation expanded west, the bears’ numbers quickly faded, due to unchecked hunting and trapping practices. Now, the National Wildlife Federation is working to preserve these endangered animals by reintroducing them to their natural habitats.

A five-year survey indicates the Bitterroot ecosystem in central Idaho still contains suitable grizzly habitat that could support 200-400 bears. Deep snow and mountainous terrain are good for denning. Favorite grizzly foods, such as huckleberries, deer and elk are plentiful. Also, garbage and human foods that might attract bears are limited to a few small towns and back country users. This ecosystem would make an ideal grizzly recovery zone.

Nevertheless, both Idaho and Montana’s senators oppose reintroduction. They justify their opposition by stating that more time should be spent studying the grizzlies before they are reintroduced. Yet various extensive tests have already been done that show grizzlies in the Bitterroots would be isolated in an ideal habitat. Only four to six would be released. This restoration could be called a nonessential, experimental population. Most importantly, recovering bears in the Selway-Bitterroot would cause populations in the lower 48 states to rise significantly.

To reach a recovery zone, we must reintroduce these bears. Erin Anderson Spokane

IDAHO VIEWPOINTS

Parade right not unlimited

On May 11, in “Our View” the writer wrote “Finally, Coeur d’Alene officials have conceded the obvious: the odious Aryan Nations group has a constitutional right to march in their town.”

On May 30, in Hot Potatoes, “It wasted money (CdA City Council) searching for a constitutional way to block the Aryan Nations’ march this summer. (There isn’t one.)”

The First Amendment, Article I, states that: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

The Constitution doesn’t read that a person or group has the constitutional right to march down any city street. Allowing such privilege is given to local government. The U.S. Supreme Court agrees. Events that put the public in harm’s way have been denied and these laws have been upheld in other communities.

The city was forced to provide protection after approving the permit.

There are many persons with threat assessments against them. Few are allowed to openly march at a municipality’s peril. Two are the Pope and the President of the United States.

What form of common sense is it that reasons the Constitution implies a community should be placed in peril when alternative locations could be provided to protect those who wish to express their rights? Richard D. Welts Coeur d’Alene

Avista rate increase way out of line

Contrary to information printed in the May 29 business section, Avista Utilities is requesting a 15 percent rate hike for its residential customers, not the 9.4 percent the article leads one to believe. That figure represents the average increase of all its rate hike requests, not the figure for the specific category of residential.

I don’t know about the rest of you but I haven’t gotten anything even close to a 15 percent increase in salary or benefits, even in the distant past. I agree it is fair for Avista to get something similar to a cost-of-living-increase in its rates but this is pure greed.

The huge amounts of money the company spent on its name change, advertisements and $1 million signing bonus plus $750,000 salary for its CEO tells me that Avista is not anywhere near the poorhouse it claims to be in order to require that sort of a rate hike from most of us who are left with little breathing room in our bills as it is.

Please turn up for the hearing in Sandpoint on June 8 at 7 p.m. at the Edgewater hotel. If you can’t and still want your views to be considered by the Idaho Public Utilities Commission, you need to get a letter to them by June 8. The address is IPUC, P.O. Box 83720, Boise, ID 83720-0074. Lucy Foeller Post Falls

Renters pay for schools, too

Re: “Nonparent property owners gouged” (Letters, May 26).

Nicholas P. Fiorovich, it would he reasonable to assume that parents who do not own property must therefore be renting. It would be rare indeed to find a rental property owner who does not include in his or her rental charge all costs to maintain the property, one of those costs being property taxes.

As a property owner, I do not believe my tax obligation ended with the graduation of our children. We have grandchildren in the public school system and may someday have great grandchildren there also. If I had no children, I would still rather pay taxes today to help educate someone else’s child - a child who may tomorrow be in a position to influence, directly or indirectly, the quality of my life.

You would be better served to complain about a system that takes your tax dollars, refuses to police itself and allows inferior teachers to obtain tenure. Judith A. Robbins Spirit Lake, Idaho