Letters To The Editor

IDAHO VIEWPOINTS

Pendulum due for pull to the center

If you’ve never heard of the political pendulum, it’s where in some states, one political party gains enormous power from winning a huge majority in the last election. It’s what we have now in Idaho. Republicans have 85 percent of the state Legislature and are busy doing whatever they want, passing laws they want.

A good example is the recent term limit law passed by voters. Now, Republicans are busy trying to repeal it using their political clout. The political pendulum has swung way over to the right and the politicians are busy doing whatever they want, because they have the votes.

Well, voters are watching what’s going on and they don’t like it. Sooner or later, voters will get rid of these self-serving politicians and get that pendulum swung back to the center or the left, to make things equal. All we are waiting for is to see what outrageous trick they try to pull next.

If you voted for a good, clean state government, I am afraid it isn’t happening yet. Maybe it will happen after we rid our Legislature of these people who think they are above the law. Tom Akren Post Falls

Take career service out of government

I voted for term limits and take exception to editorials calling those who are trying to create a government responsive to the citizens’ needs “unknowing and/or uninformed.” I don’t consider myself unknowing and uninformed. I pay more attention to what my elected officials are doing than most and that’s why I voted for term limits.

We must get their attention. Government - national, state and local is not always responsive to the voters. This is a wake up call. Most of us are now paying attention, so legislators should be concerned with their constituents’ ire. We’re not uninformed and are willing to get involved to try and remove roadblocks. Entrenchment on all levels of government of officials making decisions based on their ability to get themselves re-elected is wrong. Term limits say that you have this long to serve - long enough to make a difference but not long enough to make public service a career.

Public servants don’t grow on trees but perhaps good people would step up to the bat if the career opportunity was removed. Then, cutthroat campaigns would become a thing of the past. Who would want to put up with all the abuse of current campaigns for a low-paying public service position? True public servants would step up. This might be a hardship for small communities, but so is death of an incumbent. In such cases, a new treasurer, clerk, assessor, sheriff or coroner is found and life goes on. Mark W. Cook Hailey

Manson should’ve been shunned

The Spokesman-Review is supposed to be a family oriented newspaper, right? Then how could you give space to the accumulation of trash you printed about the Marilyn Manson group (Feb. 26)? How can the city of Spokane feel compelled to invite such a group? Is money the bottom line, or is it prestige, that a place the size of Spokane can command such a “name” group?

I read every day about the fight against drugs and sexual crimes. The groups that came that weekend certainly didn’t alleviate the problem. Words used in the article were “satanic” and “demonic.” This is not healthy.

Even if Spokane sees fit to add to the problems, a family newspaper would refuse to advertise such a tawdry event that exploits their youth. I’m disappointed, although certainly not surprised.

To balance your coverage, on Saturday, the Handle showed a photo of a lovely, wholesome young family. The piece was about VeggieTales, the morally upgrading and popular children’s videos that my teen and 20-something grandchildren give to each other for birthdays and Christmas!

It was a great article and made one feel there is hope for society. There are far more families who watch VeggieTales than go to the Manson fiascoes.

It is wishful thinking, but it would be wonderful if the next time Manson is in the vicinity, the city of Spokane would say, “Let those who wish to see this caliber of show travel to see it.” We won’t promote such degradation. Shirley Hethorn Oldtown, Idaho

Fuhrman put-down uncalled for

I subscribe to your paper because it is the best source of news in the entire area, and on most occasions, truly enjoy it. For the most part, your writers are quite good, very articulate and enjoyable to read.

However, I take exception with Jim Kershner’s Spotlight column in the March 7 paper regarding Mark Fuhrman’s radio show. This was the rudest and sorriest excuse for responsible journalism I have read in a long, long time.

Fuhrman is a personal friend of mine and a really good person who takes his police background experience very seriously. He most certainly does not deserve the blatant slam job that Kershner did on him. You have no idea how offensive that column was to me. I was always taught (and raised my children to do the same) that, “If you don’t have anything nice to say to someone, then do not say anything at all.” Kershner owes Fuhrman a profound apology for his column. Richard O. Williams Cocolalla

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Morality in public policy’s the thing

How can those of us who care about honesty and loyalty know which candidates we don’t want to vote for when the media seem to wait until after the election to report on moral rumors? Then, after years of denial, the politician is forced to admit the ill deeds and subsequent lies. How do we choose our next leaders if the vast majority have skeletons in the closet?

I don’t know that answer, so I’ll just have to keep voting the way I have been.

I vote against the candidate who has expressed contempt or a callous attitude toward people in need or toward the health of the environment. I vote against those who seem to think that helping (giving welfare to) businesses or tax cuts for the wealthy will somehow aid the poor, let alone the average worker and family. Making money should never have priority over well-being. I vote against candidates who believe punishment is better than prevention and treatment. I also tend to vote against those who claim God is on their side. How egotistical and scary. God’s children know that God’s side is the one to be on.

Or maybe I just won’t vote for anyone who has been elected before. Maybe all new faces in 2000 would finally reform the government and discontinue business as usual.

As for other people’s morality, that’s God’s business, not mine or the government’s. I’ll let God handle and judge that. Donna J. Kubiak Santa, Idaho

Trustworthiness is crucial

If you can’t see beyond the Washington, D.C., Beltway, term limits may be dead, as claimed by Cokie and Steven Roberts (Opinion, Feb. 25). Rep. Scott McInnis of Colorado suggests seniority is important so small states can stand up to big states. Jill Schroeder tells us “voters don’t care about term limits.” The Roberts state that running the government is a demanding, professional career and that it’s time to play “Taps” for term limits.

Closer to home, Ken Lisaius , Rep. George Nethercutt’s chief of staff, said our congressman will decide whether to honor his pledge only after conversations with the people of Washington state. OK, let the conversations begin. But let’s confine them to voters of the 5th Congressional District.

Congress was designed so that small states would be able to stand up to the big states in the Senate. Each state, including Colorado, has two senators, and that’s where states’ rights should be protected. So much for the seniority argument.

I’m a voter and I wish people would stop telling us what I don’t care about.

If we didn’t expect so much from the national government and returned to the limited, federal system the founders established by our Constitution, running that government would not be a demanding, professional career.

It may be time to play “Taps,” but the issue is no longer term limits, it’s trust. God help us if trust is dead, but don’t hire a bugler for the 5th Congressional District just yet! Jon J. Tuning Spokane

THE ENVIRONMENT

Same old no longer good enough

How does the Forest Service respond to this? “An outbreak of the Douglas fir bark beetle is known to last only about two to three years. The Forest Service wants to declare an emergency to log now because the trees ‘could start to lose commercial value in as little as two years.’ So this emergency isn’t really about ‘forest health.’ It’s about money.”

How soon can the Forest Service produce answers to the following: “The bottom line is the productivity and overall health of the land … any proposal to actively intervene in the drainage must be backed up with solid comprehensive supporting data.” The first quote is from the Lands Council Forest Watch, reviewing the background of the haste to log, with sad consequences for the forest, the Forest Service, and for us. There’s the despoiling of the forest, no market for the logs and a taxpayer burden.

The second quote is from Mark Sprengel’s study for the Selkirk Priest Basin Association. It outlines damage done by past road building and salvage, impact on the cutthroat and bull trout, pollution of streams, destroyed soils and materials for soil recovery removed off site. Among other amends, Mark urges a fine scale soil study before further logging.

It’s not time for more of the same. The Forest Service would do well to take time to do what needs to be done: restore the watershed. Kate Batey Nordman, Idaho

Commercial vision is bankrupt

With the March 3 editorial by Opinion editor John Webster, “Policy thinking off by a country mile,” the editorial board of The Spokesman-Review continues to spearhead an attack on the natural world. The “decades-long assault on the natural resource industry” poses the industry as the victim. This portrayal, whether by newspaper, politicians or the corporations themselves, obscures the true victims - the people who benignly use our national “resources” and the land itself.

The West is what Lewis and Clark saw, not a short-term resource extraction run labeled a tradition. The West envisioned by the editorial board is one of clearcuts, mining Superfund sites, overgrazed federal lands and streams without salmon in the name of short-term economic gain to benefit a few at a cost to many.

A locked gate may be the only thing that can protect us from ourselves. Jeffrey G. Hedge, D.O. Spokane

Good old days? Bring them on

So The Spokesman-Review editors want to return to the earlier days when a man could go out into the forest and take what he found there without government interference. When the government did not bar the way or regulate usage.

Ah yes, the good old days. When massive stands of old-growth forests covered most of the continent, when millions of salmon swam from the oceans to the mountain streams without encountering dams, when the population was one-third of what it is today and the cities did not butt up against the forest and 3,500-square-foot homes were not built in cougar country. When ecosystems were not protected because they needed no protection. When regulations were simple and people obeyed without the use of tank traps and other barriers. When forest-assaulting SUVs were not the top-selling vehicle in America. When timber corporations were not bought with junk bonds paid off through clearcutting.

Ah, the good old days, when newspapers had competition and the editorials were written with care by men of vision. Let’s go back to those days. Terrence V. Sawyer Spokane

Salmon: New data most enlightening

Rich Landers’ column of Feb. 18 and Dan Hansen’s front page article of Feb. 21 lead one to believe all Snake River dam supporters are anti-science. There is arguable evidence to the contrary.

National Marine Fisheries Service Administrator Will Stelle has stated powerful new data are being evaluated that are beginning to give results. Although findings are still preliminary, the new work shows that fish survival in the hydro system has improved 20-25 percent over the past 20 years; that (smolt) mortality past the eight major dams downstream from Idaho is about 50-60 percent, and new data on transport (barge) survival shows a two-to-one benefit over river migration.

An article in the Jan. 14 Tri-City Herald quotes Bill Muir, a NMFS fisheries biologist, as saying the overall smolt survival rate past the four lower Snake River dams is at least as high today as it was in the 1960s, before the dams were built.

To put this mortality in perspective, 50-60 percent of all smolts from Idaho, in their downriver migration, never reach Lower Granite Dam.

Nearly all Western Washington and Oregon rivers without dams show declining returns of steelhead and salmon. This indicates the ocean habitat is the main problem, not the dams. There is much more data available, such as bird predation down river, decadal climate cycles and drought-induced mortality, that question the analytical skills of the so-called “objective” scientists. Elwin Fisk Richland

OTHER TOPICS

Wake up to wrongs of abortion right

Come, let us reason together should be the heart cry of this generation.

Mankind throughout history has justified deplorable deeds; but through the miracle of time travel, current generations see callousness for what it is.

Examples abound. Blacks, prior to the Civil War, were no more than property to be bought or sold. What were people thinking? Pagan priests convinced followers in a “much less civilized” era that deities required children to be sacrificed on burning altars. People complied. Hitler murdered 6 million Jews after swaying followers that Jews were the source of Germany’s problems.

Currently, if we would allow our minds to grasp what is happening in 1999 with perspective posterity will have 100 years down the road, how would we judge ourselves? Balancing life or death of an infant on one side of a scale with timing or inconvenience of a mother on the other, which would have greater value? The answer to that says something about our ability to reason.

If we would trade life for choice, privacy or timing, we are using incredible deceptions to fool ourselves into thinking we are just!

Another mind bender is the fact that 38 million lives - all innocent - have been lost since abortion was legalized in l973.

Barbarians historically cannot touch what we are doing in America with legal partial-birth abortion. Stabbing scissors into skulls and sucking brains before smashing heads of infants being born is beyond belief!

Please awake, America! Let us reason; see what is really happening! Let us change hearts and laws. Mary Ellan Moe Chewelah, Wash.

Dancing is fun with a fringe benefit

Paul Turner’s story, “Dancing is antidote to rain, aging,” was a fine testimonial not only to combat the weather, but for health and pure fun. More and more singles and couples are finding that ballroom dancing is making a tremendous comeback. Dance schools and studios are catering to the increasing number of places where big band music is being played for dancing.

An excellent example is the BOF Club at Third and Monroe, where every Friday and Saturday night, from 7 to 11 p.m., members revel to the wonderful music of the Expo Four, a group of Spokane’s truly great dance musicians. Dancers feel free to express themselves in any dance style they prefer, and there is never a critical eye. A warm, friendly spirit prevails in a group that comes together for the pure, simple pleasure of dancing to live music - enjoyable and it’s wonderful exercise. Gene Bronson Spokane