Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

We need Character First program

I absolutely cannot believe that the Human Rights Commission chose not to endorse the Character First program. What are they doing to make Spokane a better place to live? Who in their right mind wouldn’t want to encourage people to improve themselves by adopting a different value trait each month? We as a community would benefit. We’d probably have extra money to spend on improvements, rather than on police, juvenile and jail expenses. We wouldn’t need to make so many laws to compensate for people’s bad behavior.

We are battling rebellious teenagers, drive-by shootings, road rage, children shooting children, adults shooting adults, referees being yelled at and hit, drugs, pornography, gambling, stealing, lying, cheating - the list goes on. My hat’s off to Mayor John Talbott for introducing the program. He is truly interested in his community and trying to make it a better place to live for all of us. This is the first step in the right direction in conducting the business of any city government.

Ask any schoolteacher, business owner or parent if they’d like to see orderliness, forgiveness, punctuality, obedience, patience and attentiveness in their students, employees or children. Of course they would!

We have nothing to lose by endorsing the Character First program - and much to gain. We should get behind this program 100 percent and watch the integrity of this city change. Sandy J. Ogle Chattaroy

Help United Way improve our future

In the rush to understand recent incidents of youth violence, some will focus on access to guns, others will address school security and still others will attack the media and video games.

Through it all, there is one understanding we know - violence can be prevented if we provide youths with constructive activities that help them develop into physically and emotionally healthy individuals. If we give them the skills they need to cope with life’s challenges; if we share our time and teach through example; if we support resources that promote community involvement; then our children won’t ever have to wonder how something so tragic could happen to them.

Our community’s United Way and its member agencies have been involved in healthy child, youth and family development for many years. Programs provided through the MLK Family Outreach Center, Camp Fire, YWCA and Girl Scouts help youths value themselves, others and our community. Success by Six prepares children for learning, while the Youth Volunteer Corp promotes community volunteerism.

United Way is not alone in its efforts. It has partnered locally and nationally with leaders and organizations to work toward healthy lives for all children. It encourages you to become involved.

Make a difference in our community. Support activities and organizations that help Spokane County become a better place for everyone. Barbara J. Umbdenstock, chairwoman United Way of Spokane County, Spokane

Shine light on all public service

After hearing the City Council feels the need to expend resources on the court ruling to make the city manager’s job review public, at a time when Spokane has fallen so far on the list of desirable cities to live in, it would seem the city is being mismanaged. I have believed this for some time.

Any elected official or manager should encourage scrutiny of their position. What happened to men and women of principle and integrity who stand up for what they believe and are not afraid to be heard? If they feel they can’t be candid on a job evaluation because someone will look at it and see how they think, they need to find another job. It’s government of the people, by the people for the people. It’s not government of sheep for sheep!

With sales tax of 8.5 percent and sky-high, rocketing property taxes, the council people better believe they work for us! If you’re proud of your job and being diligent in your service, there would be no need to try and keep citizens in the dark. Gerald N. Stibbs Spokane

BUSINESS AND LABOR

Carrier raises: Let’s try alternatives

Re: “Carriers want pay increase” (June 10).

So am I to believe that a pay raise is going to make the weight of the mail to drop? Cause older carriers to become younger in step and stronger in back? Will it reduce the number of on-the-job injuries by 33 percent?

Why not drop the pay raise and hire more, younger employees? Larry C. Tjomsland Spokane

Steelworkers’ ad not objectionable

After having seen the United Steelworkers of America insert in The Inlander, I think it would be interesting to know exactly what The Spokesman-Review advertising department found “demoralizing and libelous.” I think the position of the advertising department in rejecting the insert in its current form may be overly vigilant. Any legitimate means that could help properly resolve the strike more quickly is worthwhile. Sharon Leon Spokane

Consumers, be fair when complaining

Re: “Airlines feeling the whip,” (June 18).

Like all big industries, airlines get their share of criticism from the public - some certainly being warranted, some not. Who bears the brunt of the criticism? The reservationists, flight attendants and ticket agents - the employees who, in most cases, are least responsible for the problem.

For instance, when flights are canceled for whatever reason, who is the target for the complaints? Again the reservationists, flight attendants and ticket agents. Yes, I’m sure some of the employees in these positions can be, and are, discourteous. Maybe Congress and the administration should produce a package of measures to address the verbal abuse these employees often endure.

Kudos to these employees who keep their cool and bite their tongue to keep their job.

I’m guilty of having complained, jumping the wrong person just because they were there, afterwards feeling guilty for my unjust behavior. From now on, I will try to be more aware of the other person’s feelings when I have a complaint and will try to address my complaints to corporate headquarters or an on-site manager.

I have never complained to any airline because I have always been treated with the utmost courtesy from any airline I have chosen to travel. Kay M. Cameron Hayden, Idaho

FIREARMS

Bill revealed gross misunderstanding

Your June 20 article, “High-power rifle evades legislative control,” echoes the blatant lies put forth in Congress in HR 2127. I’m thankful Congress did not enact it. Space limits prevent a refutation of all the lies stated in this bill. Here are a few.

The intended use of these long-range firearms … is the taking of human life and the destruction of materiel, including armored vehicles and such components of the national critical infrastructure as radars and microwave transmission devices.

These firearms are neither designed nor used in any significant number for legitimate sporting or hunting purposes and are clearly distinguishable from rifles intended for sporting and hunting use.

The facts, in contrast, are as follows. (Additional information is available on the web at http:// www.enol.com/fcsa/.)

As to the first statement, in fact, the original intended use was for competition. The military later adopted the competition rifles for their own uses.

The second statement claims no sport or hunting purpose. In fact, these rifles were designed originally for competition. There has been no criminal use of the caliber; there is significant competition and hunting use. Therefore, it can be concluded that there are only sporting and hunting uses of the rifles, at least by civilian owners.

There are many calibers used as military sniper rifles. If they ban so-called military sniper rifles, why stop at .50 caliber? And why stop at rifles? Norman Samish Spokane

Times change, and so do definitions

John McCallum’s (Letters, June 24) first mistake in defining “regulate” and “militia” in the sense of his letter is that he consulted a 1999 dictionary when he should have consulted a 1776 dictionary. The words do not mean the same thing today that they meant then.

Furthermore, we know exactly what the intent of the Second Amendment was at the time it was written. Then, “regulate” meant a trained condition or skill in the use of arms. “Militia” meant all of the people capable of bearing arms.

We have considerable documentation of what the founding fathers meant in the Second Amendment. We have the Federalist and Antifederalist papers, the records of the ratification conventions and the state legislatures’ discussions prior to ratification of the Bill of Rights, records of speeches and not least the newspaper accounts of the times. Federal Gazette (Philadelphia) June 18, 1789:

“As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people duly before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow-citizens, the people are confirmed by the next article (the Second Amendment) in their right to keep and bear their private arms.”

It does not get any clearer or more definite than that. Henri L. Geier Otis Orchards

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Limits could reduce accountability

One of the things that most pro-term limits people don’t seem to think about is the significant expansion of the lame duck congressional sessions which come with term limits.

Normally, a lame-duck elected official is one who sits in a legislative capacity after being defeated at election time.

Elections are held to maintain some degree of accountability to our voting public. With a three-term limit, our representatives would have a full two-year term wherein there is no requirement to face a voting public at the end.

If all of our representatives in the House are limited to three terms, it is possible that one-third of our House of Representatives could be lame ducks. Remember, too, that our House of Representatives controls our government’s purse strings. That is the reason they are to stand for re-election every two years. They need to remain accountable!

Why, then, would an intelligent voter want to expand the lame duck session with term limits? George Durkee Spokane

As usual, Clinton’s got some nerve

It’s a sad day in America when our government reneges on its obligation to the nation’s veterans.

As a U.S. Army veteran with a service-connected disability, I find it sickening that President Clinton can at any time waltz into Walter Reed Army Hospital and receive the very best of medical care. Clinton does not have to take a number and wait. He does not have to wait several weeks or months for an appointment. Money is also no object for Clinton.

Yet, this nonveteran who loathes the military has the nerve to use a medical facility that was earmarked for those of us who proudly served our country in the armed forces.

This draft-dodging president wants to cut $4 billion from the VA budget!

Also, Clinton is constantly sending U.S. forces all over the globe. Yet he wants to cut the funding that would look out for these future veterans.

Our nation’s veterans and those who are currently serving should be the No. 1 priority of our government. Our veterans and current members of our military are all that stand between our freedoms and fruitcakes like Hitler, Stalin and Mao. Therefore, out nation’s veterans should not get the shaft when we only want what we earned. Nothing more, nothing less.

America is No. 1, thanks to our veterans. Sadly, Clinton and some other members of our government don’t think so. William A. Hall Spokane

Don’t talk to us about outrage

President William Jefferson Clinton has expressed his outrage at a “dead of night” gun vote and has condemned the House of Representatives for passing watered-down gun control legislation, saying the result was a “great victory” for the NRA and a defeat for the American people.

President Clinton, I will join you in your outrage and condemnation of the NRA and the House of Representatives if you will join me in my outrage and condemnation of a draft-dodging commander in chief who has disgraced and denigrated the office he holds and who has brought shame upon himself, his family and his country. Bill R. Klein Nine Mile Falls

OTHER TOPICS

A shame that fine school must close

It was a matter of deepest sadness for me to learn that St. Francis School will be closing. That is the school in which my son had his best education experience, one that he and his parents will always treasure most.

We can’t speak highly enough of the dedication and vision of Principal Richard Winkler and teacher Shannon Egan, in particular, who both did most to shape my son’s outlook. Nor do we want to overlook the similar influence of teacher Judy Albrecht of John A. Finch Elementary. We regret we are unable to remember the names of some other teachers who were also helpful. While there were others we were less in accord with, I’ve always appreciated the difficulties of their profession and the sacrifices that most make in remaining dedicated to such a noble vocation.

I’ve long been mindful of Voltaire’s admonition to build more schools than prisons. Philip J. Mulligan Spokane

Racial reference a bad habit

The Spokesman-Review has done it again. It has placed African Americans outside the norms of American society.

The June 18 paper held a headline which read, “Black man found dead of gunshot.” Black man - not a man, as he is, not his home, not his education, not his occupation but his race.

What thoughts does such a headline put into people’s mind? Bear in mind that in an entire special section of the Review on Bloomsday, the only people of color that were pictured were the race’s winners. I guess the paper does not notice or acknowledge that people of color participate in such community events. We are simply found dead. “Black man” is not a father or a son or a husband, not even listed as a man.

I hope that readers are as tired of my responses to such reporting as I am of having to respond to it. Nancy J. Nelson Spokane

Land use concern encouraging

Re: “Civilization called threat to wild areas” (June 21).

Good to see a concern about the problem of the checkerboard pattern of ownership in the timberland of the Cascade Mountains. It would be nice if the environmental groups that appeal many of the Bureau of Land Management land exchanges in northeast Washington had similar concerns.

It’s hard to understand why they oppose land exchanges that consolidate government ownership into solid blocks rather than scattered tracts.

With these exchanges, the BLM obtains valuable recreation and wildlife habitat in the Crab Creek and Channeled Scablands area of Lincoln and Spokane counties. The public now has access to lakes and streams for fishing, etc., that they didn’t have before.

The down side is that livestock grazing operations are being destroyed or made uneconomic and the price of grazing land is being forced upward by those who are buying additional land to try and stay in business. The ranches are having to compete with the government for grazing land. Jim Pritchard Wilbur, Wash.

How about plugging local sources?

I noticed in the June 23 Food section an article, “Some kitchen gadgets prove useful,” that describes some goodies for the kitchen and lets readers know where they can purchase them. All of the sources were Internet sites. I assume none was Spokane-based.

If you are going to be promoting products and encouraging readers to spend their limited discretionary funds, why not take a few minutes to research local sources for these products so the dollars can stay in this area and support the local economy? Bob C. Arnold Spokane