Letters To The Editor

FIREARMS

Gun control laws clearly do no good

In light of the shooting at Littleton, Colo., there is again a mindless sirens choir singing for either more gun control or a repeal of the Second Amendment.

With all due respect to President Clinton and a local radio talk show host, they completely disregard the fact that present gun control laws and gun-free zones have not deterred school shootings over the past two years. Time and again, it appears that determined urban terrorists target those least capable of defending themselves.

The attacks clearly illustrate futility of more gun control laws when current laws are so ineffective. In fact, gun control laws maybe are doing more harm than good by creating a false sense of security.

Angel Manuel Fitzpatrick, Jr. Fairfield

`Well regulated militia’ - not

The first part of the Second Amendment to the Constitution reads, “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state …”

The events in public places across these free states show that we do not have security and part of the cause is a militia that is not “well regulated.”

Since it is clear we have in our midst those who will abuse the right to bear arms, we as a society have an obligation to protect our right to walk in public without fear. The time for regulation is now, before another innocent person dies at the hands of a deranged individual. Glen D. Jones Liberty Lake

Let’s try for bullets control

Fellow liberals, I appeal to all of you who still hold onto the tired idea of gun control. Forget it! Those right-wing wacko dittoheads will never see saving people’s lives as a benefit of gun control.

No, wait! Hear me out!

Gun owners should be able to keep their little phallic attachments. It’s a constitutional right to, I believe, keep and bear arms and keep them holy, or something like that, according to Moses - er, Charlton Heston.

However, the Bill of Rights says nothing about a right to bear bullets or munitions. Think about this! It’s brilliant.

OK, National Rifle Association members have claimed that it’s not the guns that kill people, it’s the non-NRA members who kill people. Soon, they’ll probably claim that, technically, the shooter didn’t kill the people, it was the bullet ripping through skin, bone and vital organs.

So, my point is, if they can’t have bullets, they would have to use a blunt instrument to kill - maybe a gun.

Let them keep their AK-47 and any other assault rifles or handguns that can fit in their 4x4, all-wheel-drive urban SUV - just take away the bullets.

And maybe the NRA could adopt the idea of Guns don’t kill people, it’s the hemorrhaging that follows a gunshot wound.

So, I ask my fellow liberals to call our members of Congress and ask them to make a law to outlaw bullets. Once they stop laughing, they might just listen to reason, instead of the NRA. Chris Thew Spokane

THE ENVIRONMENT

Land exchanges do benefit public

The ongoing discourse between reporter Ken Olsen and proponents of land exchanges is very interesting. Until recently, I thought Olsen was prejudiced against the process, as he featured only rhetoric from far-left environmentalists. His May 2 articles, while not totally unbiased or accurate, were better.

Public Lands provide recreation, habitat and resource-based products for the nation; their importance will certainly grow, as will our population and its demands for resource products and lands for recreation and wildlife. We need a savings account of natural resource lands to ensure long-term resource availability and productivity. These should be the best available or have potential to provide a resource base. It’s also important to mention that Clearwater Land Exchange doesn’t choose the lands to be exchanged. That’s done by agency natural resource professionals.

Spokesman-Review staff members also have conflicting views. While Olsen writes that land exchanges in general are suspect, Rich Landers writes that more habitat and better protection are needed for wildlife species in jeopardy. Dan Hansen writes of a $380,000 park acquisition on Tower Mountain. These are not mutually exclusive.

It’s nearly impossible to subvert the public land exchange process. Exchanges conducted by public agencies are so embroiled in regulation, process and scrutiny, I cannot visualize a completed exchange that doesn’t benefit the public. Private entities participating in land exchanges also benefit. The foundation of our capitalistic system is that success in business is not a bad thing.

Tax dollars for direct purchase of private lands is not available. Land exchange is the best tool available. Lou Jurs retired wildlife biologist, Spokane

SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION

Keep education policy local

I, like any other 10th grader in the state of Washington, am taking standardized tests in English and mathematics for the next two weeks. These tests are but one way the state and national governments are trying to raise the standards in public schools. However, in a bureaucratic attempt to improve schools, the government has done nothing but lower the standards.

Local school districts should decide what the standards are for their schools. Politicians living sometimes 2,000 miles away from the district should not.

Having taken the PSAT, I was appalled at the difference in difficulty, particularly in the mathematics section, between it and the 10th grade standardized test. I guess the legislators figure we will learn a lot of mathematics in our junior and senior years. The funny thing is, math is not even a required subject for 11th and 12th graders.

Another example of government-regulated curriculum is the three days of AIDS classes I attended last month. The information taught during these classes could easily have been taught during one class, not to mention the fact that the handouts were the exact same ones I had been given in seventh, eighth and ninth grades.

Standardized testing and AIDS education should not be eradicated. Instead, local school districts, who know the abilities and needs of their students, should regulate curriculum. Who do you want to make decisions on your child’s education a congressman in Washington, D.C., or a retired teacher on your local school board? Megan E. Smith Spokane

BELIEFS

God is ultimately responsible

Rabbi Gerald L. Zelizer’s April 23 commentary is just another example of bad theology and incomplete reasoning in a vain attempt to absolve God of blame for the Littleton tragedy. The Bible says God is omniscient - all knowing. Therefore, God knew Adam and Eve would eat the forbidden fruit long before the fact. In addition, the Bible says God is omnipotent - all powerful. Consequently, he also had the power to stop the first couple from eating the fruit. Yet obviously he let them succumb to temptation.

Human free will or no, who, then, is ultimately to blame for the ills that have beset the creation? The Creator, with his absolute knowledge and power, or the merely mortal createes?

Contrary to what Zelizer says, the question, “Why would God allow this?” is the correct question. In fact, it goes right to the heart of the matter. Why did God allow Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit when he knew they would do so and when he had the power to stop them? Why did God even put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden in the first place?

The only reason Zelizer sidesteps this question is probably because he doesn’t want to deal with its implications. God must have knowingly created a flawed creation, filled with flawed beings. In doing so, he is ultimately responsible for both the good and the evil - whether we like it or not. John Adams Spokane

Blaming evolution is copping out

Larry Locke claims that the teaching of evolution is responsible for wars, communism and the Colorado school shootings (“Darwin’s notions foster inhumanity,” Letters, May 1).

By accepting evolution, we are able to advance science and medicine, to learn about our world and to save lives. Knowing that we are kin to the animals at the very least should give us more respect for animals; they are capable of cooperation, affection, self-sacrifice and learning. And accepting that human intelligence arose by chance tells us how rare and precious a gift it is; a gift received by great good fortune, which we’d be foolish to squander.

With our intelligence, we can choose to behave morally because we see that moral behavior is beneficial to us and to our families, friends and societies. We don’t need to act like bratty children, well-behaved only because mommy or God told us to be.

I suggest that it’s insulting and demeaning to claim that humans can only behave morally when we’re bribed with the promise of eternal life, plus threatened with eternal damnation. It’s also blatantly false. Such outrages as the Crusades, the Inquisition and the burning of witches owed nothing to Darwinism. Rather, they can be laid at religion’s door.

Evolution theory isn’t what’s harming our culture, it’s the lack of responsibility for our own minds and decisions and for the consequences of our own actions. We have the chance to make our own purpose, to create our own meaning and to build our own future, because of our nature-given intelligence. Cara J. Plata Pullman

Hart the one who’s right

I am surprised by a statement made by the writer of the May 1 article, “Hart Murmur.” The article explains that Johnny Hart, creator of the comic strip B.C., has become “the most controversial person in the comics pages” because of B.C.’s Christian themes.

The writer, Gene Weingarten, states that Hart’s view of Christianity is “by any measure, an extreme view of Christianity.” Why? Because Hart believes that Christ is the truth and the only way to heaven.

Well, I have news for Weingarten. Mainstream Christians do believe that Jesus Christ is the only path to God. This is why Christians witness, invite their neighbors to church and pray for others. Genuine concern and love for others precludes Christians from keeping silent, knowing that nonbelievers face certain darkness without the Savior.

It’s difficult for popular culture to understand that one can believe in absolute truth, as opposed to relativism, and at the same time truly care for others no matter who they are. But Christians do it all the time. Christ is our example. Lisa M. Wolfe Spokane

IN THE PAPER

Priggee draws wrongheaded conclusion

I am both saddened and sickened by Spokesman-Review cartoonist Milt Priggee’s blame-the-victim approach. Does he know for a fact that the killers became enmeshed in their cult of hatred, violence and Nazism only because of harassment from other students? Does he really believe that cheerful, friendly acceptance would have been enough to coax Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold away from their fascination with blood and death?

As for alienation and ostracism, is it possible that other decent, good kids were avoiding them not because of different hair or weird dress but because of an instinctive recoiling from the depraved philosophy these two professed?

Would Priggee take the same approach with the victims of the Unabomber or Oklahoma City? Ted Bundy? Other mass murderers?

I sincerely hope that none of the survivors and none of the families suffering losses have to see these cartoons. Eleanor Hill Spangle

So, just move B.C.

This is my suggestion to solve the B.C. problem. If it bothers some people to have the possibility of a religious experience on the comic page, why couldn’t it be located on another page? It is a wonderful strip and should not be taken out of the paper because some people do not have ears for the message. Helen K. Yuditsky Sandpoint

Keep comics page for fun

I consider myself a religious person and a Christian. However, I turn to the comics to enjoy lighthearted entertainment. I resent the presence of Johnny Hart’s religious lectures just as I resent the presence of Garry Trudeau’s vitriolic political statements in my comic section. When Hart or Trudeau attempt to persuade rather than to entertain, their strips should be on the editorial pages. Terry Griner Spokane

The good teens go unreported

Recently, I watched “The Sound of Music,” staged by students of Shadle Park High School. These students had worked for months after school to perfect their performance. I didn’t notice any press for these teens!

I could visit any high school campus on any day and observe a great number of teens participating in tennis, softball, track or soccer. Here are teens, after a full day of school, who spend much time and energy practicing their sport. Again, where is the press coverage?

On the sidelines, I see parents there to support their teen, who have driven, bought equipment and encouraged. They have been there day after day, year after year. Where is a reporter anxious to interview these parents to find out what they did right? I see teachers, coaches, band and choral instructors who spend many hours with these teens; no overtime pay, no corporate status, no press coverage.

In March, more than 1,200 teens attended the Music Educator’s Association Solo and Ensemble Festival. Your music students, who had spent hours practicing, gathered together. There was no TV coverage or front page news story for such an awesome gathering of talented teens.

Stories of presidential misconduct, gangs and a small group of disturbed teens are far more newsworthy. What’s wrong with the youths of our country? Mostly, nothing. They just get no press coverage. Rosemary Stewart Spokane

U.S. AND THE WORLD

Pro-Serb protest one-sided, dumb

The April 25 Spokesman-Review reports that thousands of Serbian -Americans demonstrated before the White House to protest NATO bombing of Serbia. Where was their protest against Serbian ethnic cleansing of Kosovo, against the murders, rapes and looting of Kosovars?

Where was the Serbian-American petition to Slobodan Milosevic to stop the ethnic cleansing?

Where were the journalists observing the demonstration and asking a few of the demonstrators to state their views on ethnic cleansing? How mindless! Fred Richardson Spokane

Bother to know what’s really going on

If you are going to support U.S. military troops anywhere, please do some research and know what they are dying for.

Since August of 1965, the U.S. government has bombed, sent missiles or sent military troops into the following countries: Vietnam (1965-75), Dominican Republic (1965), Cambodia (1970), Laos (1971), El Salvador (1980), Lebanon (1982), Grenada (1983), Honduras (1984), Nicaragua (1984), Lybia (1986), Panama (1989), Iraq (1991), Somalia (1993), Haiti (1994), Bosnia (1995), Afghanistan (1998), Sudan (1998), Iraq (again, in 1998) and Yugoslavia. It is interesting to note that the U.S. government made loans to Iraq, and exported oil from Iraq, as late as January 1990, knowing full well that on March 15, 1988, Saddam Hussein had gassed the Kurds - killing more than 3,000 civilians.

All these are well documented and can be found in most bookstores and public libraries.

I almost got killed in Vietnam several times for Johnson’s and Nixon’s political egos, fueled as always by the corporate rich. War is about profits, the love of money. When I returned in 1971, I nearly took my own life because this truth dismantled my belief system. Instead of killing myself, I eventually took out my rage and grief in the corner of a padded cell of a psychiatric hospital. Gone were my marriages, children, buddies and dreams.

I relive these experiences every time our government spoon feeds us with more lies on television. Lying is the most powerful weapon in war. My fellow Vietnam vets, it’s time to speak. Mike Hastie Otis Orchards