Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

City makes quieting dogs too difficult

In my youth, I lived in West Spokane for several years and was tormented by a dog next door that barked constantly. I tried everything to get the city to help me get the dog’s owner to care but the city was reluctant to help. After several years of frustration, I sold that house and moved my family to Portland, where barking dogs are not tolerated the way they are here.

I came back to Spokane with my 14-year-old son one year ago. I bought a home on North Monroe and - guess what? - two barking dogs next door. Yippee.

Thinking that the city could help me, I went to it. The people I spoke to said they cannot do anything without me getting at least two of my neighbors to sign complaints with me. Then the complaints are filed and a court date is made. If my neighbors and I don’t show for the hearing, the dog owners will not be cited.

Are they kidding? Do you mean to tell me that when SpokAnimal is called to the same house over and over, it can’t do anything? Instead, we get to clog up our already flooded legal system with more bull?

Why does Spokane allow this type of behavior to continue? I won’t disturb my neighbors with this. I’m sure if something could be done, they have already tried, and I don’t have time to go to court. Like most decent people in this city, I work. So what happens? Nothing. Lewis Henderson Spokane

No Expedition in our department

I read with interest the Feb. 26 letter, “How about that county-owned SUV?” in which a citizen of the Valley reported seeing a county fire district-owned Expedition and was concerned about the expense to the taxpayers for this top-of-the-line vehicle.

Being a taxpayer myself and concerned about the prudent use of our tax dollars, I would like to ensure the citizens of the Valley that Fire District 1 owns no such vehicles. We make do quite nicely with Explorers and Astro Vans, which, under the bid process, are very reasonably priced and perform their designed functions quite well. Spokane Valley Fire Department will continue its practice of prudent expenditure of taxpayer dollars and quality service. Harry Larned, fire commissioner Spokane Valley Fire Department

SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION

`Transitioning’ seems to mean stalling

As I read the brief of March 2, “Feds say … program has aided poor kids” up to the tune of $8 billion, I was shocked and dismayed to learn of the state officials’ and education scholars’ report contending that “federal education programs hinder significant school reform at the local level.” This is nonsense!

The truth is that because of federal programs like Head Start and Title I, poor people have a voice regarding reform at the local level. This is threatening to administrators’ power and control, even though they know parents are children’s No. 1 educators.

Parent involvement is at an all-time high nationally. Administrators are scrambling to come into compliance with state and federal mandates.

For far too long, administrators have been competent in creating grant applications for funding and after obtaining funds, contending they are “transitioning to that.”

Laws that govern poor people also govern administrators. It’s time to come into compliance! Be it the Americans with Disabilities Act, the 1972 Education Act, Title I or the 1994 updates. The contention that we are transitioning to a state or federal mandate is unacceptable.

It’s time for administrators to transition - into compliance, retirement or on to the unemployment rolls.

Spokane children and families have had enough “creative writing.” What we need are the five Rs: reading, ‘riting, ‘rithmetic, respect and responsibility.

I guess it boils down to what my mother used to tell my brothers and myself: “I may not always see what you are doing but God does.” Robert A. Christensen Spokane

District 81 car use irksome

How many taxpayers have an $18,000 company car at their disposal to get to and from work?

I don’t know how many Spokane School District 81 cars are being driven for just that purpose, but for several years we had two in our neighborhood. Recently, it has only been one. But that one sits for weeks and does not move. When it does leave, it is for only half a day.

Since it appears as though District 81 has enough money for new cars to be used for personal use, maybe it should lend its excess money to some of the small districts that need it so desperately. Or better yet, get some people into District 81 who have a little better idea of how to spend our tax dollars - equipment, books, salaries, etc. Or drop the tax level and give us all a break. Walt Holderman Spokane

FIELD BURNING

Stubble burning an ancient practice

With apologies to the writer for his breathing problems, I laughed so hard that I almost fell off the turnip truck (er, make that the wheat wagon) at John E. Jordan’s assertion (Letters, March 2) that stubble burning has only been around since the 1960s. I watched stubble burning when I was a child in the early 1950s.

Old pioneers here reported watching Native Americans in the Pendleton area in the 1860s and 1870s burning grass in the early spring to stimulate growth to attract game animals to hunt.

Burning stubble has occurred for more than decades, probably centuries. Why? It eliminates excess residue (straw and chaff), kills hard-to-control weeds and disease microorganisms. All this happens without chemicals or dust-producing tillage. This also decreases the amount of silt carried off the fields, to be deposited in streams, which is soil erosion and water pollution.

Perhaps Washington residents prefer more chemical use; more tillage, which wastes valuable moisture and burns fossil fuels; or more soil erosion and runoff water instead of some smoke. If so, they need to carefully examine the trade-offs and consequences.

Since I have asthma, I am curious about whether Jordan has difficulty breathing when the Forest Service burns slash to prevent dangerous fuel loads or has difficulty with the auto emissions, road dust and wood stove smoke I notice in Spokane, or if his only difficulty is stubble smoke.

There’s always the old urban threat that if eliminating stubble burning forces up the price of commodities, consumers can bypass agricultural producers and just go directly to the grocery store for their food! Linda Marler Pullman

Ruin farmers and you’ll be sorry

Re: Gary D. Burgess’ March 2 letter, “Field burners the ones doing wrong.” You have to check out the prices on agricultural commodities today, along with the cost of land, equipment and labor, then compare them to those of yesteryear. Farmers can’t pass on their costs the way most industries can, although he assumes they can. They are subject to the whims of speculators, public demand and government policies regarding sales to foreign lands. This has forced me off the family farm of four generations into the city.

Who’s going to feed your grandchildren once this generation of farmers is gone? Wait - who is going to feed you and your children because you want to put my family and all our neighbors into jail? Stanley T. Wright Spokane

Hang in there, Hoffman, you’re right

I support Patricia Hoffman, founder of Save Our Summers. Hoffman, a veterinarian, has paid a high price for her efforts to end health-threatening crop burning. This summer, while photographing what she felt to be illegal burning of wheat fields, she was arrested for trespassing, then convicted, jailed, and fined.

Our judicial system failed Hoffman and hundreds of thousands of people in North Idaho and Eastern Washington by not prosecuting the real culprits, those who endanger the lives of others with hazardous smoke.

Unfortunately, as long as we continue to elect politicians such as Sen. Clyde Boatright, R-Rathdrum, and Rep. Wayne Meyer, R-Rathdrum, we will continue to pay with our lungs for the ignorance of our votes. Boatright and Meyer are grass growers, dedicated to preserving profits at the cost of our health. They are the ones who declare health-threatening smoke “legal” through their legislative efforts, bludgeoning the hands of justice.

My family has grown wheat in the Midwest for a long time. Never once has any member of my family burned fields. As staunch Seventh-day Adventists, they would not endanger the lives of their family and friends to wring out a bigger profit.

Hoffman, I pray, will not give up the battle due to her agonizing status as a political prisoner. I hope she derives comfort from the words of Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Nancy Lynne Coeur d’Alene

AGRICULTURE

There’s another side to low prices

When are we going to wake up? We presently enjoy the greatest quantity of fresh farm products at lower prices than any society has ever enjoyed in the history of the world and we are presently in danger of losing this.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently announced that the basic milk price received by our dairy farmers would soon drop from $16.27 to $10.27 per hundred pounds of milk. The news article out of Washington, D.C., in the March 6 paper was headlined, “Consumers may soon see lower dairy prices.” It said this is good news for consumers, who will see lower prices for milk, cheese, butter and other dairy products. Never mind that those farmers are already in a depression, with many being forced to leave their farms.

Wheat prices are lower now than they were 30 years ago. Hog prices recently hit a record low and cattle prices aren’t that much better. Our dairy farmers have been enjoying the one and only bright spot in agriculture. I hate to think what this is going to do to the already-depressed prices farmers are receiving for their hay and feed grains. How many businesses could survive a drop of almost 50 percent in prices they receive for their products?

We are told this is good news for the masses, that we are going to get cheap milk. Meanwhile, I see that a half a gallon of milk is on sale for $.99 (1 cents per ounce) and most pop is selling for about $3 for 12 cans (3 cents per ounce). As for cheese and other dairy products, they are presently much cheaper than they were 30 years ago. Dick McInerney Spokane

BUSINESS AND LABOR

Kaiser stubbornly unreasonable

Kaiser Steelworkers have claimed since day one that the strike is because Kaiser is trying to bust the union. As every day goes by, more proof this is true comes out.

Kaiser has paid scabs more than Steelworkers, claiming it could afford this because scabs were not getting insurance. As of April 1, Kaiser is giving the scabs insurance. Kaiser says it wants to negotiate anytime but refused to meet when given dates by the union. When the sides did meet, the union wanted to meet for eight days but the company would only commit to three.

Steelworkers were willing to return to work during negotiations but the company refused to let the union in. The federal mediator even stated he had never seen a company so unwilling to negotiate.

While Kaiser reports all is great, managers are quitting, partly due to stress. They have even sent supervisors to Seattle to try to recruit new managers. Apparently, they can’t get anyone here willing to do the job as it is now.

They say accidents are not happening as much now, as in the first three months. But when they are telling scabs to work 12-hour shifts, seven days a week, they will surely rise again.

If the scabs don’t want to work, they fire them and hire new scabs. Most foremen have gotten used to firing dozens of scabs. With such a turnover, skills are not learned and quality will suffer. When quality suffers, customers will take their business elsewhere. It does not appear this is very far away. Thomas L. Fury Spokane

Spokane, get behind Steelworkers

After reading the March 7 article about Charles Hurwitz, king of Kaiser, and his golden rule - the one with the gold rules - I realized we as a community may not be doing enough to back the Steelworkers.

A man like Hurwitz could come along and we, as nonunion or union workers, could be faced with the same problems the Steelworkers are dealing with.

Please, Spokane, let’s pull together and back our local workers. They are our neighbors and friends, and Spokane is their home. We need them and they need us.

One more thing. If Hurwitz isn’t behind this strike, why is he the king? Think about it and think about who deserves our loyalty. Henrietta Wolfe Spokane

IN THE PUBLIC EYE

Make that the fuehrer of Kaiser

I was heartened to read that Charles Hurwitz, CEO of Maxxam Corp., parent company of Kaiser Aluminum, is such a booster of humanitarian causes (“King of Kaiser means business,” March 7). Here is a man who in one fund-raising effort manages to raise $1.5 million for the Houston Holocaust Museum.

This is a wonderful gesture, as the lessons of the Holocaust must not be forgotten - that one small but highly motivated and “creative” group of individuals led by a “smart, witty, visionary” can so utterly devastate an entire group of valuable, productive citizens. That common ethical and moral standards can be sacrificed to accommodate someone with the “reptilian calm to make a killing.” That an otherwise intelligent, compassionate and caring community can sit idly by while a great and obvious injustice is perpetrated against its neighbors.

The move to break local Steelworkers’ unions and the takeover of pre-World War II Germany by fascists are similar in the words used to describe their respective leaders. “He’s not one to back down in the face of very harsh criticism if he thinks he’s right.” Timm S. Ormsby Spokane

Lewinsky really is a fallen woman

Re: Monica Lewinsky’s recent TV interview: If I was Lewinsky, I would have been embarrassed to show the whole world my character.

Lewinsky showed she’s a woman of very weak character who has much learning to do in life. I only pray that women both young and old do not emulate her.

God has blessed women with beautiful, unselfish characters. We can give to the world and make it a much better place to live in by loving those unselfishly who come into our lives. Lewinsky needs to truly look within at the weak qualities she is portraying.

Because of her weak character, a nation was greatly embarrassed, a family may be destroyed and our joy was let down again. It didn’t seem like it even mattered to her. She was only concerned about herself.

We need women who love God first and display love, joy, patience, peace, gentleness, kindness, loyalty, humanity and service to others. A true woman of God is not selfish. The character of Lewinsky I definitely would not follow. I won’t even waste my time or money on her book. There are much better books to read, by women who truly have something to say and offer to the world.

Lewinsky truly needs to put her heart in the right place. Kathy M. Morris Spokane

Clinton really is a low-life cad

So now we know. Monica Lewinsky - portrayed as the evil other woman, the temptress, the hussy who seduced poor Bill Clinton - is really just another young woman with stars in her eyes and low self-esteem. At her age, everything can be exciting, fun, thrilling - just for the experience of it. That’s what being 22 years old is all about.

And, now that we’ve heard her side of the story, I bet most of us can remember a horribly painful love affair. She fell for the oldest line in the book. She’d never been involved with a president of the United States before, so she had no idea what could possibly happen.

Sadly, though, Clinton, the older man who took advantage of her availability and enthusiasm, had numerous women like her in his life, and he knew exactly how it would end. He played around with her, knowing that at the drop of his pants, he was capable of destroying her to protect himself. Through his powerful office, using people as weapons, he started to claim she was a liar, a stalker, an unstable, disreputable woman out to hurt him. This, after carrying on with her, giving her gifts, calling her some 50 times and having some form of gratifying sex with her for more than a year. These are not the actions of a good man.

Although Clinton may have saved his presidency, he should always be known as a calculating heartbreaker, a cad, a user and abuser of women. Darlene Call Brice Spokane