Letters To The Editor

IDAHO VIEWPOINTS

Minor emissions problem fixed quickly

“Idaho firms face tougher clean air rules” (May 22) contained a sidebar with the statement: “Eight North Idaho companies are among those listed as `air emission sources in violation’ by the Idaho Division of Environmental Quality. Not all will be charged as violators. The companies include IMCO of Idaho, Post Falls; date of violation, March 1999.” It was said the situation was “under investigation.”

Not all points in this article regarding our Post Falls facility were 100 percent correct. Some were misleading. We did not have such a violation in March and we are not under investigation for any such violation.

During our routine emissions test in 1997, we found we were exceeding permit levels of volatile organic compounds on one of our baghouses stacks due to a piece of equipment being slightly out of adjustment. The problem was corrected and in a subsequent test, VOC emissions from that stack were found in compliance. This issue was closed by IDEQ and is not under investigation.

IMCO takes its environmental responsibilities very seriously. Recycling is an environmental business and IMCO strives to operate each of its recycling facilities in compliance with all environmental regulations, using environmentally sound management practices.

I am a North Idaho native. I take great pride in running a clean operation that not only makes a substantial economic contribution to my community but also provides an environmental service to the country by recycling millions of pounds of beverage cans and other aluminum materials every year. Mike Gill, plant manager IMCO, Post Falls `Consideration’ part of 1908 deal

Fred Glienna’s June 13 Street Level article reminds me again that in a free society, everyone has the right to their opinion, even if it is full of misstatements and inaccuracies. Glienna may be bucking for the title of Master Storyteller this time. Let’s just hope he doesn’t fish.

His claim that local timber-dependent communities are burdening taxpayers is only one of the things he got wrong. When Congress created federal forest reserves, it recognized that these lands need to be used to support local economies because the federal government would not be contributing support to local schools, roads and infrastructure. It was promised in 1908 that federal lands in the West would be utilized to provide resources to local communities that would otherwise have no way to provide jobs and an economic base. That’s why people involved in the wood products business receive some “consideration.” The commitment the federal government made to local people and communities is binding and should be respected.

Glienna needs to do more homework before spinning a yarn. At the very least, he ought to provide truth in labeling and tell us it is a work of fiction. Linda Mullin Hayden Lake, Idaho

Disturbance part of bigger troubles

I have just returned from Normandy, France. I took my 12- and 11-year-olds to Omaha Beach and the American cemetery where thousands of young Americans were massacred in 1945. I explained to my sons this is why America is a great country - because of the young men who fought and died for our freedoms in the world.

The June 19 event in Coeur d’Alene is a microcosm of our society today. No one wants to obey any kind of authority. It was lawlessness. America has forgotten what comes with rights - character, responsibility, integrity and respectful behavior to others who are in authority. Gina Cummings Coeur d’Alene

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

Look for the humanity in everyone

I salute white pride. I also realize that I am more powerful than any group of Aryans because I have pride in who I am and I respect who they are as well. I respect white supremacists because I know that they are brothers and fathers, and each of them also once was a little boy or girl who held a beautiful secret. And although years of confusion and frustration have made them forget that secret, I know it still resides somewhere within each of them.

The secret is this: We are human. Each of us has a little innocence which never can be poisoned, no matter how many times we are disappointed or abused. It is this connection we share that makes life precious. We all once were frightened children with a skinned knee, waiting for someone to reassure us. We each have turned out differently depending on what happened when we cried for help. But the truth is that we all still are children who need love and we all also are mothers who can kiss it and make it better.

It takes a vocal group of individuals to bring to light something many of us have forgotten. I ask each of you to seek out that beauty which resides within you and within the person sitting next to you.

When the Aryans march I will be thinking about that part of them that they’ve forgotten exists, and it is just like me. Kasha H. Ho Coeur d’Alene

Homosexuality is a disorder

All churches should welcome gays. After all, these are folks like you and me, except they suffer from a disorder called homosexuality. That’s not politically correct but it is true.

Read “Homosexuality, a Freedom Too Far” by Charles W. Socarides, M.D., and “Homosexuality and American Psychiatry,” By Ronald Bayer, for riveting eyewitness accounts of how, in 1973, homosexuality was removed from the American Psychiatric Association’s list of disorders - by politics, not scientific means. A 1978 survey by the “Medical Aspects of Human Sexuality” journal showed that the majority of APA members still considered homosexuality a disorder. A 1998 APA survey reported in the Psychiatric News that the majority of psychiatrists in 125 countries agreed on this diagnosis. Hundreds of published papers by respected psychiatrists and psychoanalysts verify this fact.

Therefore, churches should not condone sexual disorientation as normal and acceptable, nor validate the self-delusion that gays cannot and should not change. Self-delusion is one of the major problems which make homosexuality so hard to treat. When churches recognize the truth about this, they can give gays and lesbians true hope, based on true facts.

Meanwhile, we should all be patient and loving but informed. Homosexuality is a disorder and a disorder is treatable, however difficult it may be. Mary L.E. McDowell Chewelah, Wash.

BELIEFS

`Evidence’ naught but a chimera

Re: “There is evidence in support” (June 12). Once again, P. James Dishon states God works primarily through natural processes. Hopefully, other readers have taken the initiative to refute this statement. But in the event they don’t, I do.

The nature of God is supernatural , existing outside the bounds of this universe or any other. Spiritual being is not corporeal or physical being. This is the beauty of God, who can reach the heart and consciousness of mankind and perform miracles outside the bounds of science. Of course, faith is essential. My dictionary defines this as complete confidence in someone or something which is open to question. This does not mean God is unrecognizable in nature but is/can also be found most often in what is not seen.

For example, math and logic are unseen principles which we take on faith - one and one equal two. It lies in the definition of what we believe “two” to be. The same holds true for the color blue. It is simply the light’s reflection on the retina.

God is the reflection of truth, love and goodness upon the mind and heart. Cinda L. Smaagaard Spokane

Logic lapse makes case for truth

Peter C. Dolina asserts that the statement, “There is such a thing as absolute truth” is dangerous nonsense. Apparently, he believes there is no absolute truth.

If “There is no absolute truth” is a true statement, then it would be an absolute truth! Therefore, it must be a false statement, and there is at least one absolute truth. If one absolute truth exists, why not others? Our mission should not be to deny absolute truth but to search for it.

Granted, truth has been corrupted since Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. It is this corruption of absolute truth that caused many heinous acts throughout history and today. But it is not the belief in the existence of truth that caused them. Each of us can seek truth, however, and God has promised we will find him when we seek him with our whole heart. Suzanne K. Schulz Reardan, Wash.

EXTENT OF THE LAW

How to create a black market for guns

Prohibition did not work 70 years ago and restricting gun show sales will not work today.

Honest Joe Citizen takes his guns to the show and displays them. In walks Creep Criminal and looks at Joe’s gun, and picks out a semiautomatic pistol with a 20-round clip. He says to Joe, I will buy this gun but I don’t want to go through all that government baloney so I will give you $10 if you put it under the table. Call me tomorrow and I will give you the money for the gun.

So, like bootlegging, this law is baloney. The only way around this is to have honest Joe Citizen register all his guns.

If any of them are dumb enough to do that, I would like to have their names, because I have a whale of a deal on a bridge in New York for them.

Show me any country where the government has taken the guns away from the people and I will show you people intimidated or controlled by that government. Hitler knew that and did that.

Any gun control, no matter how small is the first step in this process. Paul A. Reimann St. Maries

Current prohibition a disaster, too

It has become obvious that America’s drug policies are a dismal failure. We cannot solve every problem with more laws, nor can we legislate morality. The health issues, treatment and education are where we need to look for solutions.

What has happened is that prohibition is turning this country into a fascist police state. And the black market, in turn, is too tempting for those in control; it is corrupting law enforcement, prosecutorial power and the judicial systems.

Property seizure, snitching and mandatory minimum sentences have turned true justice into a nondiscriminating deaf ear and the Constitution is being picked to death.

Please, be a voice. Represent the freedoms America is believed to embrace by calling or writing to dismantle this monster created by the war on drugs that is really on the American people and for profits in privatized prisons.

Speak in favor of HR 1658 ending forfeiture seizure and policies consistent with ending the corruption and devastation caused by current legal policies involving incarceration for victimless, nonviolent crime. Gail Barton Kettle Falls, Wash.

Lawmaking knows no bounds

Lap dancing, cigarette ads, billboards - what’s next? Must everything be legislated? Mike Robb Spokane