Letters To The Editor
WASHINGTON STATE
Fair pay attracts quality teachers
Over the past six years, school employees in Washington have lost 15 percent of their salary due to inflation and increased cost of living. Teachers’ salaries have increased 8 percent during this time, while per capita income in the state has increased 26.5 percent.
As teachers fall farther and farther behind in compensation, they are being asked to do more and more. It is no wonder we are losing many beginning teachers to other professions. There are more bright college students who would never consider teaching as a profession because they can earn a more fair, livable wage doing something else.
If we want quality schools and quality teachers, we have to pay for them. Voters in the Spokane area have made it plain through their passing of bond and levy measures that they are willing to pay for quality education.
Legislators need to follow suit. I encourage all voters to contact their legislators and encourage them to vote for quality education: vote to increase teachers’ salaries so we can continue to attract and keep the brightest possible professionals in the classroom. Kathlyn M. Moore Spokane
Tell legislators to raise teacher pay
I have been teaching third grade for 10 years at Lincoln Heights Elementary School. Since 1992, we have lost 15 percent of our salaries to inflation. This makes our field a tougher profession to stay in and not look for higher-paying jobs in other professions. Many of our gifted teachers are leaving the profession. Many young people are looking at other fields because they are able to earn a more fair and livable wage doing other things.
Voters and parents have let us know they want a quality education for their children. We need to pay school employees a fair and competitive salary to keep these bright and talented teachers in our schools. Please contact your legislators and tell them to support quality education in our community. Linda Katke Spokane
Sign up to push license cost down
I recently retired and so bought a new pickup last year. I got my license renewal notice a few days ago and it’s almost $600. This encouraged me to write my first letter to the editor.
We pay one of the highest license fee rates in the United States, so I’m asking everyone to sign Initiative 695, which would reduce these fees to $30 for everyone. You can sign at any Alton’s location or call 467-5467 for details. Monte C. Iten Spokane
Support Initiative 695 effort
I urge everyone to sign Initiative 695. This initiative really makes sense because it would replace the outrageously high license tab fees that we presently pay and set the fee at $30, regardless of the make, model, value or year of your vehicle. It also gives people a voice in how much and what kind of taxes they pay in the future.
Thirty dollars for tabs on my car, motorcycle or motor home sounds like a winner to me. I am tired of the tax-and-spend mindset in Washington. More taxes for fewer services.
Let’s put this initiative on the November ballot. Let’s tell our representatives we want more than TSG - tax, spend, get re-elected. Look the for the initiative and sign it. Tell your friends, neighbors and relatives to sign. Alex Crosswhite Spokane
IN THE REGION
Project cost burden not that steep
I was pleased to read staff writer John Craig’s balanced article, “Stevens County towns fear becoming roadkill,” in the March 3 Spokesman-Review. However, he got one important fact wrong.
To his credit, Craig captured the importance of the Colville 2000 project as a way for Colville to rebuild a vital, walkable, shopper-friendly downtown. He also accurately portrayed local concern that improvements to Wynne Street might work too well, stalling the actual truck route, which Colville expects to see built in the railroad corridor on the west edge of town around 2008.
But Craig’s last paragraph wrongly states that downtown property owners may be asked to shoulder most of the $8.5 million cost of the downtown revitalization project. Whoa! Nothing could be further from the truth. The local share of a project like this is typically 15 percent to 20 percent. State and federal partners usually cover 80 to 85 percent.
The Colville 2000 plan includes a menu of project options giving the downtown revitalization a cost range of $5.4 million to $8.5 million. Therefore, after the city’s $300,000 commitment, the share paid by local property owners is likely to be in the range of about $510,000 to $970,000, not $8 million. If the local improvement district is drawn large enough, it won’t place a great burden on anyone and will be a great investment for all. Chuck Darst, member Colville 2000
LAW AND JUSTICE
Violence cannot be tolerated
Re: “State seeks bail boost; Prosecutor will ask judge to rethink reduction for Warfield,” March 2.
There is no room for violent hatred in this world. If a philosophy of violence against any being is preached and acted on, we must have laws to curb if not eliminate it.
It is not wrong to have personal beliefs against anything but it should be unlawful to turn those beliefs into violence against other persons. Jim A. Wilbur Spokane
IN THE PUBLIC EYE
No winners in Clinton debacle
The cover of Newsweek reads, “Why Clinton won.” He didn’t win, he cheated. There’s a difference. He cheated all of us, of course, by lying. He continued to cheat to bail himself out.
Do you know how easy it is to skew polls? More semantic games! Then, he uses his fabricated numbers to intimidate senators and representatives. An intricate web of lies. I think even he is beginning to believe them. Propaganda is a very effective tool used in times of war to turn us against the enemy. It’s scary to think that it’s used so extensively by our leaders and the media in times of peace.
Democrats are now mad at Republicans. Isn’t that shooting the messenger? Clinton got himself in his own messes, by his own choices. The prosecution brought those messes out in the open. Now the attitude is, I’m going to get you because you caught me doing something wrong. Good logic.
Everyone knows he lied. He lied on national television. He lied under oath. Redefining the words in the English language doesn’t change that fact.
Part of the job of the Senate and the House is to uphold the law. They did not do that. They’re supposed to be leaders, to stand up for what is right. In this case, those voting not guilty lacked backbone. That’s where the party politics comes in. They were pawns, not to mention rather dense, to not recognize how they were being manipulated.
No, Clinton didn’t win. We all lost. Suzanne Metzger Greenacres
Remember who stood by Clinton
The impeachment and trial of O.J. Simpson will go down in history as the two famous trials of the decade. They have a lot in common.
Both were about popular people. Both had well-documented evidence that should have brought about a guilty verdict. Both juries based their decision upon how they felt the people they represented wanted them to act, not upon evidence or judicial justice. Both were politically motivated. For the blacks, it was a statement that, We have been mistreated, exploited, therefore, we are innocent of any “crimes” against white people. Democrats were saying, We are doing so much good for the country, it really doesn’t matter what the president has done. Both felt justified.
Rather than denounce it and separate themselves from it, saying, This is not us; we are not like that! they sided with it and excused it - attaching themselves to lies, corruption and cover-up. Few had courage to stand alone for right.
Now isn’t the time to retreat, withdraw or feel sorry for ourselves. All that we have today is the result of men and women who sacrificed themselves to oppose wrong and stand up for right. If we do not stand alone for truth and justice, what right do we have to criticize others for the same?
It’s our turn. Edwin Kopf Veradale
GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
Term limits: First, keep your word
The issue of term limits for elected officials is again generating much rhetoric from both the pro and con camps. Persons elected to Congress with the voluntary promise to remain for not more than a stated number of terms are now often rethinking whether or not to keep their promise.
Columnists Cokie and Steven Roberts (Feb. 25) argue that term limits are a bad idea. Billboard leasers offer their hopeful thanks to Rep. George Nethercutt for keeping his word on leaving Congress after three terms. Nethercutt is apparently wavering on the wisdom of his promise, although it’s clear his promise was a major factor in his 1994 victory over Rep. Tom Foley.
Elected officials should keep their promise on the maximum number of terms they will serve. If the official later decides term limits are not all that wise, let him or her vacate the position within the time frame promised. Then, two or more years later, this person would be ethically free to be a candidate again, but this time, making no term limit promises.
Future candidates should be very careful about term limit promises. If you don’t mean it, don’t promise it! Howard G. Wilcox Spokane
Term limits bad news wherever tried
Recently, a friend sent me a magazine article regarding term limits. They have yet to find a state where limits are a success.
In California, term limits have “reduced the California Legislature to a Greyhound bus station, where some people arrive, some leave and few have any loyalty to the place.” The writer points out that “over two years there were five different Assembly speakers, eight special legislative elections and protracted stalemate over the budget.”
Rep. George Nethercutt, we need the leadership of people like you. I hope you will run again in 2000. Doreen M. Hendy Spokane
Seniority is an asset - value it
Members of the Legislature, Congress and the Senate receive most of their committee chairmanships through seniority. Committee chairmanships give your elected official power, to put bills before the body or to pigeon hole the bill so it will not be acted on.
If the Inland Empire is to receive benefits from our elected people, it’s important that those people have seniority. Newly elected people begin at square 1.
To get the most benefit from those we elect, we need to keep the same ones in office so they will have the power (seniority) to give our area the benefits we hope to receive from our officials. The only logical reason to replace officials is if they have lost touch with the area they represent or are in some way corrupt.
In the year 2000, do we want to forge ahead or to go back to square 1? The choice is yours. George Stahly Colville, Wash.
Nethercutt doing `a good job’
I am writing in response to the letter from Sara Thorn (“Neglected words left impression,” Feb. 27) concerning Rep. George Nethercutt’s meeting at Corbin Center.
Nethercutt did an excellent job. He arrived early for the meeting and went around mingling and greeting people. His information was informative. After the meeting was over, he remained at the front, talking to people and answering questions.
As we came in, we were given forms to fill out with questions to ask him. Our names and addresses were on them. The forms were taken and questions answered as there was time. We were told that questions that didn’t get answered would be addressed later, in a letter.
I was impressed by Nethercutt and believe he is doing a good job. Lila M. Wieber Spokane
BURMA
Beauty is as beauty does
“Beautiful Burma,” a syndicated column in Travel, Feb. 28, was an unfortunate piece to read in our local paper. Obviously designed to lure the unaware and well-heeled traveler, it minimized the truth about this notoriously corrupt and repressive regime in Asia.
Well-researched articles have been published in the Seattle Times (Paula Bock, February l998) and the Portland Oregonian (Mark O’Keefe, October 1998). Regular reports in the San Francisco Chronicle detail the politics of Burma, the horrors of refugee life on the Thailand border, the genocide of Christianized Burmese who support Aung San Suu Kyi, under house arrest in Rangoon.
The Wall Street Journal (Feb. 26, 1999) outlined problems: the unrestricted flow of heroin out to the west and north through China to the Mideast and Europe. Col.
Tin Hlaing tries to blame the huge demand worldwide for the poverty of the people, yet it is the narco-dollars which flow in to support the regime and few attempts are made to reduce production or distribution of drugs.
Rather than glorifying travel to Burma, let the media spend time and resources educating the public about the dangers of this untrustworthy government. Dollars spent on travel do not trickle down to relieve the plight of the Burmese. Joan G. Craig, M.D. Spokane
Article `excellent’
I commend you on printing an excellent article on Burma (Myanmar) in the Feb. 28 Travel section, written by Fred J. Eckert. It was one of the most factual articles on the country I have seen in quite some time.
I visited Burma in 1996 and found it to be one of the safest and most exotic countries imaginable. I agreed with the author in his comments about the trip being a trip back in time. The Burmese people are gentle, inquisitive and friendly. It was one of the trips of my lifetime.
Thanks again for daring to show the truth about a country, not the propaganda offered by so many others. Anne Hite Spokane
U.S. AND THE WORLD
War easy for Clinton, brutal to others
The escalating air strikes against Iraq are an insult to the intelligence of most thinking Americans. It looks like our pilots have been given permission to attack targets of opportunity, rather than targets that present a clear and immediate danger to the patrolling aircraft.
What does the administration hope to accomplish by pursuing an undeclared war?
Also, the so-called economic sanctions against Iraq should be halted immediately. Perhaps if President Clinton could look in the faces of the real victims of this farce he might not be so anxious to keep on trying to punish Saddam Hussein. Saddam isn’t being punished at all. He isn’t doing without food, medicine and shelter as his people are. He isn’t wandering the streets in ragged clothing as the Iraqi children are.
I’ll bet even money that if Clinton had gone to Vietnam like so many other Americans did, and if he’d seen firsthand what war does to children and old people, he might ease off the trigger. He’s never watched children rummaging through garbage for a morsel of food. He’s never watched a child die because an American bomb blew his leg off. He has never witnessed the slow, painful death of an American soldier bleeding from a stomach wound. And I just know he’s never seen a child suffer malnutrition because someone decided to blow up the family farm.
If our so-called leader cannot bring himself to corral his penchant for letting others die in a conflict that he perpetuates, then maybe it’s time to rein in his war powers. Edward B. Hanson Airway Heights