Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

Difficult time developing

I was interested in your editorial on the Post Street Bridge project (Opinion, March 20) and that the incompetent and arrogant state and federal bureaucrats could keep us from our well-deserved bridge and in the same breath demand back the money already granted. It seems to me that the city is experiencing just the same kind of treatment that they have been dishing out for years in their building and permitting processes.

I purchased a piece of property six years ago and was planning to build a duplex in a zoned-for-duplex area. When I went to get the permit, I was informed that the city had rezoned the property since the time of purchase, that I was allowed to appeal for a non-refundable fee of $1,200 and that if that failed I was allowed to appeal that decision, which I was told would probably fail, and then I could take out a permit for a single-family house. I paid for a duplex lot and ended up with single-family lot. Does this sound familiar to the situation the city faces with the bridge?

Hopefully our city building and planning departments will never have to be described henceforth as arrogant, indecisive bushwhackers of development here in the beautiful city of Spokane.

Steve K. Peterson Liberty Lake

Bridge idea around for years

I am a retired civil and structural engineer who has lived and worked in the Spokane area since 1966. I have been involved in engineering studies and discussions about the proposed Lincoln Street Bridge since about 1969. Two things occur to me that seem to be left out of the discussions about the viability and advisability of the project - particularly by those who oppose the project.

First, the bridge was originally proposed as a replacement for the old Post Street Bridge, which has some real problems structurally as well as the narrow bridge roadway and the poor approach roadway alignments, therefore no new bridge crossing is proposed.

The second is the intense concentration on the claim that the new bridge would destroy the view of the Spokane River falls. If I recollect correctly, a WWP dam, which inundates the natural falls, was built there just prior to Expo ‘74. Perhaps the people concerned with the view of the falls should be concentrating on getting the WWP dam demolished instead of preventing the replacement of an old outdated bridge.

This project was proposed in a shoreline management study, made by a joint venture of local engineers and architects practicing in Spokane in the late 1960s. The plan was accepted and praised by everyone at the time. The study included a scale model of the area through the downtown area from west of the Maple Street Bridge to about Hamilton Street. The new bridge really isn’t a new idea. Ralph R. Walker, PE Spokane Valley

Saving minutes laughable

Re: “We need North Spokane corridor” by Leif N. Olson (Letters, March 14).

The north-south freeway is a good idea? Think it over again.

Freeways are not the answer. Insisting we are ignorant and egocentric because we don’t believe in freeways is not true. Just take a good look at Interstate 90 through Spokane, which has traffic jams every morning and evening, coming and going, east and west. And all they can think of is to make it wider and wider, not to lessen the traffic.

To cite Seattle as having fewer traffic problems is unbelievable if you’ve been on their jammed freeways at any time of the day.

To say we should spend billions on a north-south freeway to save 15 minutes to get through Spokane is humorous, to say the least.

Really look to the future and change by spending those billions on a mass transit system which would really help solve our traffic problems. Robert L. Wakenshaw Spokane

Card system for teens, R-ratings

I am a sophomore at Mt. Spokane High School and I would like to bring up the issue of activities for teens in Spokane. There are many teenagers in Spokane and many restrictions are placed on the activities they can take part in.

Going to movies is a favorite pastime for people of all ages but it’s becoming much harder to enjoy. All of the restrictions being placed on R-rated movies make it less enjoyable to hang out with friends and go see a movie. The restrictions wouldn’t be so bad, except for the fact that a large majority of movies playing at the theaters are rated R. Not all teens want to go watch a movie with their parents, and it isn’t always possible to have parents/ guardians present.

A system should be created in which teens could be admitted to watch an R-rated movie without parents having to be present. A card system similar to that of Blockbuster and Hastings would allow teens to see R-rated movies without parents’ presence. Parents opposing their teens seeing R-rated movies could simply refuse. Abby Morin Mead

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

No shock in finding traitors

“Frightening, multiple leaks” of U.S. nuclear technology should seem only natural. The Senate and the American people (if one believes poll results) have dispensed with the idea of accountability for dishonor at the highest rank of government. Are we now to be amazed at fraternal infidelity and the dissolution of national security? In the prophetic words of the late Oxford professor and Christian apologist, C.S. Lewis, “we laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.” Gary L. Miles Deer Park

Debt relief bill a good move

Imagine this scenario: Your home has been destroyed, some of your family members are dead and you have no means of support because your workplace is also gone. Where do you turn for help?

Thousands of people in Honduras and Nicaragua find themselves in this situation today due to the devastation from Hurricane Mitch. Many of us responded generously with clothing, food and money, but the situation is still desperate and their governments are unable to help.

Before Hurricane Mitch, Honduras and Nicaragua staggered under a burden of unpayable debt. Honduras owes $4.5 billion and pays $450 million in interest payments alone. Before the hurricane, debt service payments in Nicaragua were two and one-half times their recurrent expenditure in health and education.

Unfortunately, these countries aren’t alone in struggling under a burden of debt. Throughout the developing world, more than 1 billion people are unable to solve problems like those in Central America because of crushing debt problems. Children are dying from preventable malnutrition and disease because their governments are forced to cut funding for health clinics just to pay interest on the debt.

Congress will soon be considering a bill called the Debt Relief for Poverty Reduction Act. The legislation would provide debt relief to the world’s highly indebted poor countries. It would cancel the debt owed to the U.S. government and reduce the debt owed to the World Bank.

It is immoral and unacceptable to require debt repayment at the cost of human life. Please ask your senators and representatives to support this legislation. Jo Austin member Bread for the World, Hayden, Idaho

A promise should be kept

I believe the ads reminding voters that Rep. George Nethercutt is seriously considering breaking his promise to me and others who elected him are very appropriate. I see no connection between Norm Dicks’ length of service and departure to Nethercutt’s consideration of breaking his pledge, unless Dicks has broken a promise.

I am as tired of politicians telling me one thing to get my vote and then doing the opposite, as William Allison (Letters, March 19) evidently is of hearing about Bill and Monica. That’s exactly what Nethercutt will have done if he runs again.

In my opinion, every time we reelect someone who violates a promise as clear as the one Nethercutt made, we are undermining our own credibility as voters and our ability to govern ourselves.

I have mixed feeling about term limits, considering most governors and the president serve under them. To me, it seems that more disruption of government takes place when these office holders change than would if we had a well thought out staggered system of congressional term limits.

Regardless of what time limits we put on what offices, I feel we ourselves are becoming incompetent if we continue reelecting people who know we will do just that, regardless of what promises they break.

Come on voters, let’s wake up. A promise is a promise and should be kept. George C. Ragland Veradale

Clinton’s concern of interest

It was interesting to note President Clinton’s concern over the number of people being killed in Kosovo and his justification for helping them, although he expects our military to suffer casualties. Is this the same guy who refused to serve when his government was trying to save the Vietnamese people from the communist killers? Sadly, we have come a long way to be so far behind. Pat D. Kilpatrick Post Falls

Pray for safety of military personnel

Because of the situation developing with Kosovo and Yugoslavia, I took the opportunity during the last several days to watch CSPAN2, the TV channel which broadcasts proceedings in the U.S. Senate, as the Senate debated resolutions to support or not to support the use of U.S. air power against the Yugoslavians. While this will be a difficult situation, I am convinced that we are belatedly doing the right thing to try to get the Yugoslavians to stop slaughtering Kosovars and doing their ethnic cleansing in Kosovo.

We are, for good or ill, connected to Europe in significant ways that are not true for other areas of the world. Besides the humanitarian aspect, we have a definite interest in a stable, democratic Europe. The Yugoslavian dictator is the major threat to a peaceful Europe.

What was most impressive about watching the Senate hearings is that, regardless of whether a particular senator supported the idea of taking action, each senator whom I heard speak was clear in his or her support of our military personnel who would be going into harms way or participating in any way in the operation.

I hope that all Americans will, in their own way, pray for the safety of our military personnel and will publicly support them as they carry out this dangerous, but very important mission.

I also hope that Americans will, as they learn about the reasons, conclude that it is in our national interest to take the action that we are now taking against the war-making capability of Yugoslavia. Charles E. Latimer Lt. Col., USAF (retired), Spokane

Clinton making up for his past

I have to question the rationale of bombing the Serbs in Kosovo. Why not arm the Albanians or take out the Serbian leader? What is the U.S. national interest in getting involved in this longtime civil war?

I thought the U.S. Senate may show some backbone to another one of Clinton’s military escapades, but it appears they’re going back to the standard “support the troops” line. If they wanted to support the troops, they wouldn’t send them into fight a well-armed and dug-in foe.

Pictures of refugees fleeing the evil Serbs are a daily part of the news. Well, I’d like to point out that there are refugees fleeing evil empires all around the world and the Kosovo ones seem to be taking the center stage. How about Tibet, Burma and about half of Central America and 80 percent of Africa? The United States doesn’t have the troops to monitor every civil war around the world.

President Clinton has yet to tell the American people why he wants to put young Americans at risk in Kosovo. His secret meetings with selected government officials don’t count. Besides putting young Americans at risk, this little war will cost the American taxpayer plenty.

Clinton seems to be trying to resolve his lack of manhood in the 1960s, when he was an anti-war draft dodger, by putting another generation of Americans at risk in numerous locations around the world for no apparent reason.

It amazes me that U.S. citizens aren’t flooding Congress with letters and phone calls in opposition to this man’s stupid decisions. John S. Pardee Veradale

OTHER TOPICS

SCC paper, Clark both wrong

Re: Doug Clark’s March 14 column, “Phony racist finds lesson in misguided furor.”

The Spokane Community College newspaper, the Reporter, has everything to apologize about. Clark misses the point. His innuendo that Dr. Jim Williams had an agenda in calling for a committee to screen articles is disgraceful. This suggestion was voiced to Williams by the students. If Clark knew Williams personally, he’d recant his cowardly accusations.

Should we excuse the use of discriminatory slander because the Reporter staff members are students? Are they not adult college students? Do tact and good taste account for anything? If a child were to use those hateful remarks, should parents say, “There’s no need to apologize, Junior, since you’re just learning”?

Did Clark attend the meetings that addressed the Feb. 26 “Dear Advisor” letter? The hurt expressed in the meetings far outweighed any remorse from the Reporter staff.

Should this community swallow it’s pain because the paper can print whatever it pleases? Does it matter that the words printed in that letter aroused more than anger, that hearts were broken and spirits bruised? Does Clark care? Obviously not.

But, why would he? Clark and the Reporter staff are kindred, stirring controversy and hatred in order to attract readers to their bile. Print whatever you please, regardless of whom it hurts, regardless of the outcome, and sensationalize it all because you can.

What you call journalism is what humanitarians call propaganda. Learn the difference. Tracy A. Langford SCC resident student

Economists view not as rosy

One can appreciate that Sen. Patty Murray would be disappointed in the Congress’ declining to mandate and fund the hiring by local school districts of 100,000 additional teachers, potential contributors to the campaign war chest of the liberal political action committee euphemistically named the National Education Association.

An article in the April issue of Reason magazine, by University of California-Davis economist Thomas Hazlett, offers an instructive perspective on the proposed hiring of 100,000 additional public school teachers. Hazlett notes, using 1994-95 Census Bureau data (the latest year reported), that “there were 3,763,312 elementary and secondary public school instructors on the payroll, serving some 44,111,482 students.” These figures yield a student/teacher ratio of 11.7. Adding 100,000 new instructors would bring this ratio “all the way down to 11.4.”

But Hazlett observes that the 11.7 ratio obviously is unrealistically low, else why would anyone believe class sizes are too large? Assuming that only half of the teachers on the payroll actually are performing classroom instruction (and skipping “the potentially embarrassing question as to where those non-classroom instructors are hiding”), adding 100,000 new teachers would lower the average class size from 23.4 to 22.8. Stupendous, what? And, as Hazlett further notes, “that’s with the heroic assumption that we get 100 percent of the new teachers actually into the classroom.”

It was a great idea, though, for advancing the federal takeover of local and state governmental functions, especially elementary and secondary general education. Leonard C. Johnson Troy, Idaho

One-man show captivating

Hooray for John Davidson’s “Bully” performance. He brought the Teddy we didn’t know to our town and our hearts. Never before have I been so captivated by a one-man show. He had us laughing, and even to the brink of tears, as he depicted a man that I’m sure most of us never knew.

Following the performance, he engaged the audience in a feedback session. He talked to us like we were old friends, and we welcomed him.

The straight-run-through performance was the only way to pull it off.

I hope Broadway recognizes this man’s gift, and gives him a shot at the bigger stage. Until then, I am thrilled that he came to our little stage, The Met. Thanks, John! Lori K. Michels Spokane