Letters To The Editor

WASHINGTON STATE

Gambling has way of spoiling things

The April 20 Spokesman-Review includes an Opinion piece by Jamie Tobias Neely about Gov. Gary Locke’s new proposal to reduce gambling. I agree with Neely that gambling has questionable economic and social effects that are usually disregarded.

The gambling obsession not only hurts families but businesses as well. It is very expensive and with 40 nontribal casinos in this state, it takes money earned by the Indian reservations.

The Mars restaurant presents a good example of gambling’s negative effects on a business. Before it added a casino, the Mars had a good reputation as a fun, friendly atmosphere and a provider of good food. Eventually, the casino took over the entire establishment. Bright, flashy come-and-gamble signs dominated its windows, covered with black paper. No more fun nights out with the family or comfortable dinners. Comparing what the Mars used to be to with what gambling made it is sad.

Surely, the state can find other ways to improve economic growth than gambling. Locke’s proposal should open people’s minds to the consequences of gambling and cut down the number of non-Indian casinos in the state. Anna Sowa Spokane

Teachers work hard amid adversity

I feel I have to respond to Linda Becker’s statement that 45 years ago, teachers taught without computers (Letters, April 23). She stated that classroom sizes were 30-40 students and they graduated high school with all the needed skills.

To compare today’s classroom with a classroom 45 years ago is ridiculous. Forty-five years ago, almost all kids came to school prepared to learn and desired to get an education. There were a few who didn’t and they were dealt with quickly and decisively. Today, a teacher may have as many as five or six students who daily refuse to work, constantly disrupt the teaching, are disrespectful and argumentative. Often, this behavior is due to the fact that many, not all, of them do not have their innermost basic needs met at home.

I work as an educational assistant for six teachers and every one of them works many hours of overtime to help their students be successful. I can tell you that they care deeply for all their students and work at trying to encourage them to learn, including the ones who have no desire to.

I have been asked by students why I don’t go to school to become a “real teacher.” I can tell you it’s because I don’t have the courage or stamina to face, day after day, the things a teacher faces. Teachers deserve a pay raise. If any of you could spend even a month watching what teachers deal with, I believe you would agree. Marylou Peck Spokane

IN THE PUBLIC EYE

Steinem murders the truth

It should be no surprise to anyone that Gloria Steinem took some liberties with the facts when she said, “almost all the mass murderers are men, and all the sadistic serial killers are white men.”

I get tired of supposedly knowledgeable people misrepresenting facts in the interests of pushing some wacko agenda. I submit that Steinem knows the facts and chooses to ignore them, as so many other liberals do.

The facts are: Wayne Williams, a black man, killed 27 young black boys. Aileen Wuornos, a white lesbian, killed at least seven men. Belle Gunness, a white woman, killed at least 14 people. Elisabeth Bathory, a white woman, killed more than 600 girls in the 1500s. Mary Ann Cotton killed between 14 and 21 people before she was caught and executed. Except for Wuornos, none of these killers used a gun.

Steinem would have been correct if she said that the vast majority of serial killers and mass murderers did not use a gun. She also would have been correct if she said that a disproportionate number of serial killers are homosexual. She would have been factually correct, but not politically correct. Mike Scalera Spokane

Better Paglia than Steinem

Phooey on Gloria Steinem and her own brand of male-bashing sexual stereotyping (“It’s not our violent children, it’s our violent sons,” etc.).

I seem to recall a mother who drowned her two children in a South Carolina lake not so long ago; a female hitchhiker who offed the men who picked her up in Florida; a woman in the Chicago area who tortured her kids to death. I’m sure there are plenty of other examples to disprove her absurd generalization of white male-equals-violent killer.

Next time the so-called Women Helping Women have a conference in Spokane, let them get Camille Paglia to speak as an antidote to Steinem. She’s a great burr under the pants of leftist feminists, poking wonderfully logical holes in all their supremely flawed generalizations.

As one might expect, Steinem had little to say about the debased state of morality and ethics in this country, nor the behavior of her sex-addict hero, Bill Clinton. Robert G. Cardwell Post Falls

OTHER TOPICS

War effort misbegotten

Hang your flags upside-down at half mast. The warhawks demand blood for Yugoslavia. We’ll leave this century as we entered it.

Are we allies with the Albanians? Has Serbia attacked us? What’s our interest in the Balkans? Humanitarianism? Then, let’s avenge 1.9 million Tibetans butchered by the Communist Chinese. Call for attacks throughout Central Africa, too. Return Turkey to Greece, Armenia and Kurdistan.

War cannot be civilized. Bombs cannot distinguish foe from friend, regardless of technology. Bitterness and hubris are impervious to weapons. The longer Serbia persists, the more inevitable is a land invasion. For what? Did the death of hundreds of Marines quell the hatred in Lebanon? Is Somalia safer for democracy? Do we even know what’s going on in Kosovo? Are Albanians guiltless? Who appointed us world marshall?

Don’t spout jingoism. Keep us out of foreign entanglements. If you’re so concerned for the welfare of Albanian rebels, join them at your own expense. I do not support this unconstitutional, unjustifiable war; neither do I support any American troops who partake in this illegal action. Our red-clawed, bloody-fanged Congress has heard from me. It’s your turn. Speak out or sell out. Stravo Lukos The Free State Alliance, Spokane

Hatch Road hill a menace

Praise for your May 3 editorial, pointing to the grim death toll on U.S. Highway 95 so far this year. U.S. 95 is the road former Idaho Gov. Cecil Andrus contemptuously referred to as a “goat trail.” Your piece confirms the title is still appropriate.

Spokane’s goat trail is the Hatch Road hill. Considering this dangerous street is a conduit for thousands from the South Hill going to Cheney and south to Pullman, and considering the many on bicycles who use the hill road (which has no shoulder for bikes), this piece of roadway is a disgrace and an accident waiting to happen.

I invite City Manager Bill Pupo and others who make road improvement decision to drive Hatch Hill road. But please be careful. I’m confident Hatch Road hill will move up the priority list - hopefully, before the inevitable tragedy occurs. Ross Woodward Spokane

Blame media, ACLU, not guns

Everyone has opinions about the school massacre in Colorado. I sincerely believe that unless our entertainment industry takes a responsible and serious look at the correlation between Arnold Schwarzenegger-type blockbusters and what happened in Colorado, we are in for more of the same. The ACLU and the rest of the law profession must also realize that victims and their families have rights also. This organization has done more to jeopardize the American people on their own soil than any other attack in force, all under the guise of the Bill of Rights and shameful courtroom decisions.

Don’t blame the guns; it goes much deeper than that. Someone else is supplying ammunition and it isn’t the local sporting goods store. James A. Nelson Spokane