Letters To The Editor
SPOKANE MATTERS
That was no way to preserve `dream’
Re: Mark J. Richard (“Let’s not concentrate population,” June 23) has it exactly backward. If prospective homeowners are allowed to build out in the county on small lots and then many do, what do you have? Another dense neighborhood!
By creating urban boundaries and setting minimum lot size limits for homes outside those boundaries, county commissioners are actually preserving that sacred, rural space Richard says is “most people’s” dream.
No one is denying anyone the right to buy property, build and live in rural areas. What is being denied is the ability to move into a rural area and ruin the sacred space of those already there. If preserving rural space is your goal, you should support tight, well-defined boundaries to keep urban growth contained. This is exactly the argument presented by the residents of the Glenrose area when they requested their community be left outside the urban growth boundary. Richard Rush Spokane
Smokers’ sloppiness is intolerable
In response to the ongoing complaining of smokers on the June 24 Letters page, get a life. The reason they want to ban smoking has as much to do with secondhand smoke as it does with the inability of smokers to clean up after themselves.
I have been a smoker for more years than I want to admit to. At the same time, the mess that smokers leave (flipping their butts wherever they want, stomping them into the ground and other environmentally disgusting acts) is another of the key factors in why some want to ban smoking from parks.
If we smokers were to clean up after ourselves instead of expecting others to clean up after us, this wouldn’t be such a big issue as some of you are making out of it. Get with the program, folks. I don’t expect anyone to clean up after me when I smoke. Why should I? I made the mess in the first place.
If all of us smokers cleaned up after ourselves, others wouldn’t be trying to ban us from smoking in places where others have to see our sloppiness. If you can’t clean up after yourself, don’t smoke and don’t complain. Steve B. Wegner Spokane
BUSINESS AND LABOR
Truckers taking action to get fairness
On July 5, truckers all over the nation will participate in a strike. We believe the issues they want resolved are valid: speed limits equal to those for cars; traffic lane use the same as for cars; and traffic fines the same as those for drivers of cars.
Who is affected by safety problems caused by unequal speed limits and unequal use of traffic lanes? All of us. Who eventually pays the cost of higher traffic fines for truckers? All of us. Who has friends, relatives or business contacts in the trucking business? Most of us.
Our Legislature must right these inequities which affect us all. Warren and Sylvia Riddle Spokane
Unionizing shouldn’t be bitter pill
After reading the article on the American Medical Association taking the bitter pill, as a union member, I was a little offended.
As union members, we have been fighting large companies forever. The concept that you have a louder voice united isn’t news to us. It’s funny the AMA couldn’t see this until it started happening to doctors. “Union” isn’t a bad word, it simply means to come together.
I’ve been in the Laborers Union for the past 28 years. I know what it’s like to be treated like a ditch digger. My union not only helps me get a good paycheck and decent working conditions, it also has negotiated a good pension and a health care plan that allows my family and I the luxury of seeing a doctor. Most ditch diggers who are not in a union can’t afford to see a doctor.
After the AMA realizes the good organizing will do, maybe the word “union” will be easier to speak. If not, take a couple of aspirin and call me in the morning. Paul W. “Bill” Carter Newport, Wash.
5TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT
Eastern pressure group, get lost
I’ve had it! I am sick and tired of an outsider telling me how to vote. U.S. Term Limits should save its money and stop its ludicrous media campaign accusing Rep. George Nethercutt of being dishonest. Its ads are irritating and thoroughly disgusting.
According to its Web site, U.S. Term Limits is a Washington, D.C., organization headed by Paul Jacob, who lives in Woodbridge, Va. Jacob is another product of - where else? - Little Rock, Ark. Is it written somewhere, in stone, that politicians from Arkansas instinctively know what’s best for Northwest citizens? Apparently so.
If Jacob assumes he can coerce us into not re-electing Nethercutt, he is mistaken. Nethercutt is the ideal representative. He votes as we who sent him to Congress would have him vote. He answers every letter and e-mail with genuine interest and always adds a personal, handwritten note. He is compassionate, honest and conducts his legislative business with honor, dignity, morality and sincerity - rare qualities for politicians these days.
Why on Earth would we even entertain the thought of dumping someone with such exemplary qualities?
Jacob’s million dollar campaign is a waste. We in the Northwest are hard-headed people who take offense at Easterners attempting to dictate how we conduct our business. Donald R. Graham Spokane
Who hasn’t had change of mind?
To the people who object so violently to Rep. George Nethercutt’s running for another term, let the first of you who has never changed his mind cast the first stone. You first, Jim Kershner? Jesse Groff Spokane
OTHER TOPICS
Firms should be stand-up about taxes
In his June 18 editorial, Opinion editor John Webster said college and professional sports should be funded by corporations instead of by taxpayers.
Transferring social costs to corporations may sound good, before considering that corporations get their revenues from the same source as governments. In the end, corporations, like governments, don’t pay for anything. People pay for everything.
Consumers and taxpayers are the same people. Consumers pay for corporate socialism through corporate prices that are padded to include social costs. Taxpayers pay for government socialism through taxation. Taxpayers, at least, know how much they’re contributing.
If corporations would put less effort into avoiding taxes and collecting public welfare, government might have adequate funds for public facilities and services. Then, public administrators wouldn’t have to go, with hat in hand, to corporations. John Smerer Spokane
`Say when’ for safety on Fourth of July
The Fourth of July weekend is a great time to get together with family and friends and celebrate America’s birthday. But when it comes to drinking, Independence Day does not mean independence from responsibility.
Millions of adults enjoy a cold beer at family barbecues. It is part of the July 4th tradition. B&B Distributors Inc. and Anheuser-Busch encourage adults who choose to drink to also choose a designated driver for the ride home.
We all want this holiday weekend to be a fun and safe one, and part of good times means remembering to “know when to say when.” Theodore P. Rusnak, president B&B Distributors Inc., Spokane
Don’t thwart marine officers’ efforts
Have you ever seen a drowning victim being pulled out of the water? Just stop and think about what drowning really means. The last thought on your mind would be your inability to hold your breath any longer, and you inhale water.
Have you ever seen a boat wreck just after it occurs? As the boat crashes, the occupants collide with things like windshields, dashboards, lights, horns or whatever else their body parts happen to snag on. Or they get thrown into the water. There’s lots of screaming, except of course for those headed for the bottom of the lake.
Try to visualize this scene occurring in the dark. When the authorities show up, there’s always someone who’s only slightly injured who’s pleading for them to “Do something!”
It looks to me like the boat cops up on Priest Lake are doing something. It’s too bad that our love for alcohol and our right to get stupid continue to outweigh common sense. What makes it worse is when you have public officials who worry more about whining bar owners than they do about public safety.
Thank you for helping to shift the responsibility for the next alcohol-related boating fatality on Priest Lake away from the boating safety officers to those who really should shoulder much of the blame.
Wear your life jacket and don’t mix boating with alcohol. Dean H. Westerman Loon Lake