Letters To The Editor

IDAHO VIEWPOINTS

Bus situation needs attention

I appreciate the attention Marilyn Roberge brought to the serious hazard at Seasons Road and Highway 41 between Twin Lakes and Spirit Lake (Letters, March 17). I, too, live right at that corner, and have seen many near misses and accidents occur there.

My concern is for my child and my neighbor’s children who catch the bus at the end of our driveway just on the south side of this awful corner. What happens when a bus is stopped there dropping off kids and a speeding car comes flying around the corner, ending up hitting the back end of this stopped bus?

Or, in the morning, when my child has to cross Highway 41 to get on the bus that is stopped in the northbound lane, what if someone can’t stop in time because they are going much too fast? These are questions I worry about every day as I send my child off to school.

I have often wondered if at least a flashing light marking an upcoming school bus stop in the mornings and afternoons wouldn’t at least have some effect.

Roberge was right, though. Until someone “important” is affected by an accident at this corner, most likely nothing will happen. I just pray that it is not a child who must suffer here before this situation is remedied. Kristie Y. Mitchell Rathdrum

Legislators’ lack of vision shows

I cannot believe the voters of Idaho could have elected a Legislature made up of so many provincial, backward-thinking, visionless individuals.

I am a lifelong (too long) Republican, but the antics of the party, both local and national, is forcing me to any third party that looks promising.

My view is that government should provide infrastructure and services that cannot be adequately provided by the individual. This includes law enforcement, highways, schools and management of state lands. Why is it we in Idaho can not do an acceptable job in any of these areas?

The latest decision to not fund Highway 95 improvements because they would be in North Idaho is just another glaring example of the provincial lack of vision existing in Boise.

I thought I lived in Idaho, not North Idaho or South Idaho, but Idaho. Apparently not. Maybe the area north of McCall should secede and become North Idaho, or perhaps the state of Kootenai.

Let us put the financing in perspective. For a person driving a car 16,000 miles per year (a high average) and getting 20 miles per gallon, the one cent tax that was causing the uproar would cost the driver $8 per year. How many lives would that save by improving the safety of our goat trail?

I don’t wish bad luck on anyone, but I hope the unconscionable decision recently made by our brain dead legislators comes back to haunt them. Ralph E. Hallock Hayden

Uneasy days with Crider

Regarding the woman juror who reportedly said she thought she had made a mistake in finding Gary Crider guilty (Handle, March 13): She wouldn’t think so if she lived in the neighborhood where it happened. We had several uneasy days while Mr. Crider was running around loose.

I believe in severe punishment for anyone who shoots at a law officer. They are there for our protection and put their lives on the line every day. We should give them the support they deserve and pray for them every day. Virginia Curry Spirit Lake

View belongs to the public

I want to congratulate the citizens of Coeur d’Alene for prohibiting any building on the city parking lots. We certainly wouldn’t want to do anything to block future Hagadone or other private interests on the north side of Front Street from having ultimate view for their capitalistic ventures.

It would be a shame not to allow a few parties to make maximum income from the view potential. Why waste a beautiful view on a public building where any citizen could enjoy it? It must be preserved and saved for those special ones.

Take a drive on Front Avenue and look who we’re preserving the view for between Third and Fourth Streets. Yes, we are a truly generous citizenry. Jan Hansen Coeur d’Alene

New computer will be great resource

On behalf of the board and staff at Big Brothers/Sisters, I want to thank a local business for the donation of a new computer. Falcon, a local log broker business, recently donated a brand new IBM computer to our organization. This will be a great resource for our organization, and we want to publicly thank them for their generosity.

As a recently hired employee of Big Brothers/Sisters, I have been impressed by the generosity of many individuals and businesses that have shared their time, money and resources to help our organization. A special thank you goes to our adult mentors, “Bigs,” who spend time each week with a child in our program. Janna Robnett Executive Director of Big Bothers/Sisters of North Idaho

Efforts made book drive successful

On behalf of St. Vincent de Paul, the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program and the Early Childhood Resource Center, I would like to thank our community and local businesses for the efforts which they made toward the success of the Reading is Family Fun Book Drive.

The Coeur d’Alene Discount Cinema, Skate Plaza, Cove Bowl, Sunset Bowl, Family Fun Go-Kart, The Bookseller, Hastings, Tidymans, Super 1, Albertsons, the Coeur d’Alene school district, the Silver Lake Mall and KVNI all helped our organizations put new books into the hands of local under privileged children.

Our organizations feel it is vital for children to have access to reading materials in their homes. Children who have more opportunities to read consistently excel in school and learn to engage their minds in inexpensive and creative ways. We hope that the support of the community grows with each year that we continue this event. Sara Radcliffe St. Vincent de Paul

Haynes actions challenged

How many children’s lives are in danger because of Chief Deputy Prosecutor Lansing Haynes?

Let’s see, a few years back, before he had the “chief” title attached to the deputy prosecutor title, there was the story about Erland Kautz. Kautz failed a probation policy of polygraph. He admitted to sexual contact with 26 girls ages 2-17 since 1964. After the admission, however, Haynes said he would file a motion to dismiss the case due to Kautz’s failing health.

In an article in the March 13 Spokesman-Review, Chief Deputy Prosecutor Haynes characterized Terry Carr’s crime as “chronic acts of sexual abuse of the child.”

As you can probably guess, there was a plea agreement and prosecutors have agreed not to oppose a withheld judgment. This would land Carr on probation and the charge would be dismissed if Carr successfully completes probation.

I have two questions for Lansing: Do you have kids, grandkids, nieces and nephews? How do you sleep at night? Suzi Kamps Post Falls

LAW AND JUSTICE

Oklahoma bill makes sense

Columnist Kathleen Parker (Opinion, March 13) is “outraged” and I am appalled. Living in Florida, she attacks a proposed Oklahoma law that would define rape as sex with a person who, because of alcohol or drugs, is “incapable of giving legal consent.”

Parker’s outrage presumably applies even if someone has secretly slipped a disabling drug into something the victim consumes. I know of a young woman who was slipped a drug while at a party, lost consciousness and became pregnant from the resulting sex. This is a far cry from the glass or two of wine at a candle-lit dinner Parker writes of.

She complains the law sets the age at which a girl can legally give consent at 16, thus making anyone who has sex with someone younger a rapist. Parker says the girl may request sex. True, but we can’t assume a young teenager has the judgment to know what she is getting herself into.

Parker reveals why she doesn’t want legal protection against sexual exploiters: she has “show-stopper sons who are natural-born chick magnets.” Let her tell her sons that sex is not for young teenagers regardless of what the girl says she wants, and that disabling a person with alcohol or drugs in order to get sex is immoral, regardless of what the law says.

If her boys take this to heart, she needn’t worry about the law. If they don’t, they will have trouble even without such a law. Robert E. Forman Colville, Wash.

THE ENVIRONMENT

Farmers part of equation too

Re: Samantha Mace’s column of March 15.

The main reason there are fewer fish passing over the dams is because our rivers, lakes and oceans have been over-fished for years. Even now the Columbia River below Pasco is full of fish nets. If conservation would have been practiced in the past, the commercial fishermen and the sportsmen wouldn’t be where they are now.

Mace stated that sport fishing brings millions into our economy. I wonder if she considers the millions the farmers spend on machinery, fertilizer and supplies. They also buy their automobiles, food and clothing in surrounding towns. In the 1980s, when crops were bad and prices down, companies in Spokane went broke. Farming isn’t a sport, it’s our livelihood.

We pay 42 cents per bushel to ship our wheat to the coast. If we have to send it by truck or rail, the cost would double. Even with the small amount of grain we ship by rail now there’s always a shortage of rail cars at harvest. Also, the railroads could charge any rate they chose. If we ship by truck, imagine the increased traffic, pollution, accidents and wear on the roads. Someone will pay for all this added cost.

Wheat is less than $3 a bushel. If added costs are piled on the farmer, many won’t be able to continue farming.

It’s ridiculous to spend millions to destroy the dams. This money could be better spent to find the real cause in the decrease of the salmon population and find ways to correct it. Gwen Ruegsegger Otis Orchards

Those meddling environmentalists

I read a great letter in the paper a couple weeks ago about the “multi-billion dollar (sky is falling) environmental business.” I’m with you, pal! In fact, I’m writing my congressman for legislation to outlaw the whole business. A guy can’t make a buck anymore without tree huggers in the way.

Clearcutting was the best thing for streams. I could walk barefooted in the mud without hurting my feet in the gravel or bashing my toe on some damned rock. Fishing, who needs it?

Like Rep. Helen Chenoweth says, I can buy salmon at the store. A little “stuff” in the water and air won’t hurt as long as eyes, throat and lungs don’t burn. No harm, no foul, I always say. I’ve visited the Missouri River and before long the Snake and Columbia will smell and taste almost as good. I love the smell of an outhouse on a frosty morning, don’t you? I like to see and smell the air. The air can be a show-and-tell project for kids at school. So what if Granny can’t breathe. She wasn’t much use anymore anyway.

The worst is, environmentalists want bears and wolves back after we worked so hard to wipe them out. Soon, hundreds will roam the countryside, come into town and eat our children. If we can convince our legislators to ignore the environment, maybe it will go away. Dan W. Semler Colton, Wash.

Beetle project waste of money

The Douglas fir bark beetle project is just another way for man to mess with nature. Don’t you think we’ve messed up this planet enough?

Ice Storm ‘96 brought dead and dying trees that increased the bark beetle population. Man didn’t do it, nature did. The only reason they want to log 153 million board feet is to make a profit. Clearcutting dramatically increases the water runoff and soil erosion which will harm Hayden and Priest lakes.

The beetles do not spread as rapidly as the Forest Service would have us believe and outbreaks only last two to three years. So why not keep the forest the way nature intended it to be? They need to widen their views on this project because they think the only answer is to cut, but all it’s really doing is destroying our forests and lakes.

In ‘97, taxpayers had to pay $1,230 per acre to clearcut the Idaho Panhandle National Forest. The bark beetle project is a waste of our money and of our forests. The forest belongs to everyone and is for everyone to enjoy. Work on this project should stop immediately. Charissa A. Gage Greenacres Junior High

PEOPLE AND ANIMALS

Dog’s owners the real problem

Re: Lewis Henderson’s diatribe on barking dogs (Letters, March 17).

Everyone hates dogs that bark incessantly. They’re as annoying as the kids (and sometimes adults) who tease the dogs or the people who leave the dogs unattended so that they bark out of boredom.

SpokAnimal provides the only protection that barking dogs have, since people like Henderson would just as soon banish or punish the dogs instead of the owners who are the real problem.

People complain about our dogs barking. However, we’re not allowed to complain about the kids and adults who come by seemingly just to annoy them, and spit at them, poke sticks through the fence, try to hit them with objects, yell at them - and yes, even moon them (probably to show where their brains are).

If we have the audacity to ask why they’re being so obnoxious, we run the risk of having a rock thrown through a window or poison treats being fed to them, and we still have no recourse because the perpetrators do these things at night, skulking around like thieves. If Portland is so wonderful, please feel free to move back there at any time. M. Louise Long Spokane

City should consider noise pollution

I strongly agree with Lewis Henderson (Letters, March 17) concerning barking dogs in Spokane.

I know the routine about the three neighbors signing a petition to get any action started, but I ask, why? Why can’t an animal control officer or a police officer leave a letter of pending action on the door of the residence if, after the warning, the barking does not stop? Most of the time it is very easy to figure out where the barking is coming from.

If someone were firing a gun into the air or playing loud music all day or night, the cops and everyone else would be there to put a stop to it right now. Why not with barking dogs?

It’s time the city of Spokane quits worrying about the feelings of the idiots who allow their dogs to bark all the time and think about the hundreds of people tired of putting up with this noise pollution. Ron V. Blank Spokane

Time for an animal-free circus

The Ballut Abyad Shriners in Albuquerque, N.M., have made a decision to sponsor their first no-animal circus in 2000. Following the tragic death of baby elephant Heather in their city (August 1997), the Shriners are working with animal welfare advocates to bring a more wholesome form of entertainment to the public. No longer will these Shriners support an industry that routinely abuses elephants, large cats, bears, monkeys, dogs and horses.

Circus animals travel in miserable confinement in all weather and are chained or caged for their lifetime. They are beaten, whipped, tranquilized and forced to entertain even when sick. How can we justify to our children elephants chained in boxcars when they have just watched elephants in the wild on PBS?

Local animal welfare organizations would like the El Katif Shriners to consider the possibility of a no-animal circus next year. Rather than protesting outside the arena, activists would be willing to help the Shriners promote an animal-free circus. Our vision for the future is that no animal suffers in confinement and all captured wild creatures live in sanctuaries void of cruelty and extreme deprivation.

It is true that the Shriners have a long history of compassionate and life-giving work for children. It is also true that children love animals. The irony is in the Shriners’ choice to raise funds with an industry that, by its nature, abuses animals.

If you agree that it’s time for a change, call the El Katif Shriners and tell them so. Stephanie A. Swan Spokane