Letters To The Editor

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

Wait until we get to cannibalism

In Alex Tizon’s front-page expose, “Makah hunt stirs up racism” (May 30), a gallery of presumably white letter-writers are held up for ridicule and analysis for the “thought crime” of racist hate speech. And several “experts” from the soft-science discipline of sociology are trotted forth to tell us how this, of course, leads inevitably to genocide and the Holocaust (the usual hyperbolic play on white guilt).

No doubt there are many conscientious whale lovers and tree huggers who would abhor such racist sentiments. On the other hand, it’s sorrowfully amusing to see self-appointed human rights spokesmen like Bill Wassmuth getting caught between a rock and a hard place, and having to defend the Makah whale slaughter. At least they’re being consistent.

Wassmuth and others who carry the torch of the secular religion they call cultural diversity will find they have a hard row to hoe in the future. Let them celebrate not only the Makah whale killings but the slaughter of sheep and goats in urban areas; animal dismemberment and distribution in Santaria and Voodoo (“cultural enrichment” from the Caribbean); cannibalism (parts of Oceania); slavery and female circumcision (Africa); and the complete disenfranchisement of women (Afghanistan). There are many more such examples and they are being transplanted to our shores.

The multiculturalists and cultural relativists who condone whale killings are simply being consistent. They’ll have many more unusual practices to condone as their brave new world blossoms. Choosing which of these we might allow would merely be more cultural elitism or imperialism imposed on minorities by the predominating culture! Robert G. Cardwell Post Falls

You don’t know real barbarity

Cherie Linquist and Larry A. Wood (Letters, May 21), I wonder if you know who your ancestors are. If you do, where are they buried? Where did they live before they came to this land?

And if you have the ties, would it be acceptable to you for me go to your land, to your family’s home, and tell them to stop carrying on a tradition that goes back as far as you could imagine? Maybe they are sharing a meal from an animal that I know something about or maybe having a ceremony for this animal but I don’t believe you should have taken its life. Therefore, I tell them to stop. I come all the way across the ocean to tell them I don’t like the food they are eating.

Remember what buffalo are? We had so many among us before foreign cultures practiced slaughtering them by the numbers and leaving them.

Remember what huckleberries are? And do you know what camas is, and bitterroot, and clean water and clean air? We honor these foods, celebrate with them and thank them for giving their lives so that we, who abuse our Mother Earth in so many ways every day, can eat. How much food do we throw away each day, just toss aside?

Knowing that many of our loved ones’ bodies were mere trophies to some of these foreigners, it doesn’t surprise me that you should ask if we should go back to this tradition. It only worries me.

Is there hope? No, you say to do such a thing would be barbaric. I think it is rather barbaric of you to even refer to such a thing. Diana L. Brooks Nespelem, Wash.

Effect, you ask? Here’s an answer

Stephen Hayes, I found your June 1 letter regarding Aryan rights intriguing at the very least, unenlightened at the most.

You tell us you don’t have a direct effect on our lives. When I look at the beautiful faces and the innocence of my grandchildren, with their Jewish heritage, the thought of organizations such as yours makes me physically ill.

You don’t have to spit at us, place obscene phone calls or shoot at us to insult our intelligence or assault us emotionally. You just have to be.

It’s sad that people like you are allowed to bring children into the world and teach them your sick credo.

Please make sure you impress on them that this country was founded on ethnic and religious freedoms but that people such as yourself are trying to destroy that. Don’t allow any children’s books in your home that depict anything but Anglo children uncontaminated by anyone foreign or of a different skin color. Make a point of stressing Hitler and his uniforms, as they surely will want to emulate him with like clothing and swastikas.

We do judge you on what you do in the community. We live in dread each year that your Aryan parade will again put a stigma on our downtown and on North Idaho.

It seems to me that many of you are people who live on the fringe of society and need a cause to increase your importance. The only good thing you do is remind us of the horrors of World War II. And we pray to our God that it will not reoccur. Dolly Robinson Coeur d’Alene

IDAHO VIEWPOINTS

Officials do own thing, not people’s

Mayor Steve Judy selected an ex-member of the Coeur d’Alene Downtown Business Association to fill another seat on the council. What a surprise. I wonder how many of the seven people he had to choose from weren’t members or ex-members of the association.

In his first words, Dave Walker said he isn’t sure the City Council needs a public hearing on the final plan for the public waterfront and McEuen Field. This just proves that the elected and selected officials don’t have the community’s interest. The council’s actions toward the community are control and manipulation, as they’re under the misconception they are all-knowing.

The many who’ve expressed a difference of opinion from the council have been completely ignored. I’m not the only one who’s tired of having issues pushed at me that I don’t want or believe in. Not to mention the thousands of tax dollars the elected officials have wasted without community support.

The elected officials don’t want a public hearing because they don’t want to hear - again - what the community feels would be best for their waterfront. Just because it’s labeled public land doesn’t mean it’s owned by the mayor, council members, downtown business and Duane Hagadone. The council should listen to public input because the majority is supposed to rule, not just a select few.

Maybe editorial writer D.F Oliveria was right when he said the council is drifting into recall territory. I believe also that if this council tries to ram through greenbelt changes without a public hearing, it deserves to be recalled. Misty A. Koskimaki Coeur d’Alene

Tax arguments don’t hold up

As Idaho is the only state that I have been in that charges sales taxes on groceries, I don’t understand this paper and Kootenai County Commissioner Ron Rankin’s view that charging 20 percent more for a poor family’s food and living expenses is good for people of Idaho, instead of rising property taxes for large corporate buildings.

This comes a couple of weeks after the state gave Post Falls a $500,000 grant to put in a sewer line for Albertsons. Sales tax is a poor man’s tax. Robert Gibson Post Falls

Tax vote `not too smart’

Well, the people of Kootenai County did it again. They voted not to raise the sales tax, so we can have higher property taxes. Not too smart.

It’s a shame when only 6,000 out of 50,000 registered voters went to the polls.

Too many people listened to the poor car dealers and made a very poor choice. I guess most of the residents in this county just don’t care. Frank “Red” Cozzetto Hayden, Idaho

Selfishness fuels oil depot debate

Let the Burlington Northern Sante Fe Railroad build the refueling depot west of Rathdrum!

I attended the hearing regarding the depot in May 1998 and feel BNSF has taken the necessary precautions - perhaps extra precautions - to safeguard the environment.

The real reason most people don’t want the installation is because they don’t want the additional growth. However, I know for a fact that some of the testimony given at that hearing was from individuals who have developed their acreage and now want to stop the influx of people additional jobs will bring.

We all want good-paying jobs for ourselves and our children but don’t want the growth that jobs will bring.

If I were to be concerned about anything it would be what the railroad transports on its trains. However, it has a very good safety record. So, let ‘em build.

For you people who are anti-growth, channel your efforts to something worthwhile, like stopping teen smoking or encouraging young people to vote. Tony Myers Rathdrum, Idaho

SPOKANE MATTERS

Numbers don’t add up to good idea

The Roundtable column by Chris Marr of the Washington State Transportation Commission (May 31) paves the way for a new freeway with some loose statistics.

Marr cites an average of 300,000 vehicles traveling each day along 17 routes in Spokane and compares it with a 244,000 vehicle average on Interstate 5 in Seattle - a sure sign, he says, that we have big-city congestion. He’s using an apples-to-oranges comparison that won’t work.

Even the most ardent Seattle wannabe would have trouble explaining how all our transportation needs would be magically assuaged by one short ribbon of freeway.

And what about the cost of that freeway? He estimates $892 million. The monies currently promised should give us pavement from Wandermere to Market and Francis. Link-up with Interstate 90 could bring the tally to $2.1 billion. Meanwhile, vehicles will wander through those neighborhoods that Marr purports to protect. If the West Side needs a new ferry, those vehicles will still be wandering through neighborhoods 20 years from now and I-90 will remain forever linkless!

A Washington State Department of Natural Resources publication indicates a $7 billion shortfall for maintenance of existing roads over the next 20 years. Doesn’t sound like the time to build more roads. The headline on Marr’s column says, “We’ve done enough talking; it’s time to build.”

I disagree. If building a freeway is the only answer so far, there’s a lot more talking, and listening, that needs to be done. Jeanne A. Rees Spokane

Light rail not the way to go

I have noted that Spokane is considering an expensive light rail line. If there is a need for a rapid transit line, bus rapid transit would be a good option.

There are two main advantages. First, the cost would be up to 50 percent less, even if a dedicated bus way was built. There would not be the need for expensive tracks, especially in the downtown streets.

The present bus maintenance facilities could be used. An expensive new maintenance facility for light rail vehicles would not be required.

Flexibility is another important advantage. Buses could use the exclusive bus way, and at the end of the bus way or at intermediate points the buses could use present streets. Passengers would not have to make a change. The bus way would not have to be built into the downtown area. Buses could use regular streets before entering or exiting the bus way.

If capacity is a concern, bi-articulated buses are a possibility. If pollution is a concern, electric trolley buses could be an option.

In the case of light rail, a power or track failure would stop the service - not so with a bus way.

There are many other advantages. Anyway, a bus way could save millions of dollars. Maybe we taxpayers would be entitled to a tax refund. If so, I would be willing to donate my refund to helping schools. William A. Luke Spokane

Here’s the solution: Fire Pupo

There comes a time when civil servants stretch themselves so far from reality that they need to be given the boot. City Manager Bill Pupo is such a person. The syntax that he uses would put the novel “1984” to shame.

“Hiring Chief Chertok was the right decision at the right time”? That was nine months ago. The Spokesman-Review headline reads, “Pupo says Chertok was slow to act.” In the real world, most employees need at least a year before their performance is brought up to par and assimilated into the workplace, let alone a supervisor with a large budget and hundreds of employees.

The guy who needs to be fired is Pupo. James C. Allen Spokane

THE MEDIA

Points well-made, well-taken

Re: June 4 Opinion page.

My compliments to Opinion editor John Webster for a very well-put editorial (“Bottom feeding can be poisonous”). It needs to be better heeded by the electronic media.

My compliments to staff cartoonist Milt Priggee. What a clever way to dish the wannabe Nazis. It took a moment to understand the blank space, then it became obvious to me: No space, no news for their vile propaganda. R. Terry Lynch, Spokane

Aryans’ hostility understandable

Re: “CDA shifts Aryan march over to old town dump,” June 3.

No wonder the world is a powder keg. Read the article’s first line, “down by the old dump.” When they say the media are part of the everyday problem, you can see why. I don’t support the Aryan Nations, but you can sure see where this is fire for thought.

Wow, you sure blew this one, big time. Lawanna J. Watts Pinehurst, Idaho

`How inflammatory’

Re: “CDA shifts Aryan march over to old town dump,” June 3.

How inflammatory! It sounds to me as if you’re trying to add fuel to their fire. I am a member of the Kootenai County Task Force, and that irritates me. No wonder Milt Priggee’s cartoon is in the “Ramsey Road section.” Kay Hayes Coeur d’Alene

Story shows bias against mining

For budding journalists who want to reshape the world according to their own biases, I offer a fine example of how to do just that: Susan Drumheller’s article in the May 27 Spokesman-Review.

First, the headline. While strictly true, it is the view of only one faction in a controversial issue (your faction, of course). The headline on Drumheller’s article reads, “Mine waste discharge feared.” To find out who is afraid, you read on and discover that it is so-called water-quality watchdogs, going by the high-sounding name, Tri-State Implementation Council.

The article then proceeds to tell how many millions of gallons of water the proposed Rock Creek mine will put into Western Montana waterways each day and what “pollutants” that water will contain. At this point, the average reader probably stopped. The article’s end is near and this just must be another case of a greedy mining company fouling the environment. So why read any further?

I’ll tell you why. Because the supremely objective Drumheller finally gets to the truth that should have permeated the article from the outset: “But scientists (at the Montana Department of Environmental Quality) say the mine’s impact would be so small that it couldn’t be measured; it could only be calculated on paper. `The ultimate result is there is predicted to be no measurable change in the chemistry of the river,’ said Wayne Jepson, Montana DEQ hydrologist.” Edwin A. Olson Spokane

More than news, we want decency

Regarding the June 1 article concerning the death of Robert J. Wood at his own hands.

One paragraph states that Wood’s ex-wife and Christopher’s mother could not be reached for comment. How insensitive can reporters be? What would you expect at a time such as this? Try walking in that person’s shoes.

The same goes for TV reporters and their camera people. They are right there with their cameras in people’s faces. How about some respect and privacy? Lila M. Wieber Spokane