Letters To The Editor

IN THE PUBLIC EYE

Chertok being treated unfairly

Current issues with Spokane’s police chief are sad and troubling. I am disheartened at the seemingly unfair treatment of Chief Alan Chertok through the apparent one-sided process he’s been subjected to by his subordinates.

I recall another Spokane police chief accused of using epithets and foul language with citizens. Yet, that chief was not subjected to the same rigorous chastising as the present chief for simply being “rude” with an employee of the Department of Licensing.

I also recall a former Spokane police chief confronting citizens with a shotgun while the citizens were harmlessly on a bunny hunt. Yet, again there was a distinct and different treatment of the chief.

Other equally severe incidents with a former chief of police were simply allowed to pass, including persistent complaints about unfair and discriminatory treatment of the minority community. Yet, an investigation or chastisement were never forthcoming.

So why the different treatment for Chertok? Is it because he’s from the East Coast? Is it because Chertok insists on being a chief rather then a big brother of the Spokane Police Guild? Is it because Chertok is reaching out to the minority community in a manner unlike any other prior chief of police? Or is it some other pernicious and malicious reason?

Regardless of what Chertok’s subordinates wish to tell City Manager Bill Pupo, the people of Spokane should tell Pupo what we should do with our new chief: let him do his job. D.C. Cronin Spokane

Unions’ actions deplorable

I am very disappointed with the reported actions of the two Spokane police unions in response to their concerns about Chief Alan Chertok. It appears that they would rather take their complaints to the media than go directly to the source. I have found this action does nothing to build relationships, instead breaking down or preventing positive relationships from forming.

To add insult to injury, the unions elected to take a comment that, according to what was reported in the press, even the teacher believed was made as a joke and twist it around, resulting in damage to Chertok’s reputation and image in the community. To do this in such a negative fashion was a very poor choice.

Chertok has stated that he has nothing but the utmost respect for our former chief. The union’s actions have tainted the image of the former chief and harmed the relationship between the former and current chief.

With his wealth of experience and knowledge of law enforcement, I hope that the unions will welcome Chertok’s ideas and suggestions for changes, looking upon them as opportunities to grow and improve the department.

I encourage the union leaders to take advantage of the chief’s open-door policy, sitting down with him and discussing their issues. Dealing with this issue in a humanistic and compassionate manner could turn this matter into a win-win situation, rather than the union’s current path of a lose-lose situation. Dave R. Bergen Spokane

End nonsense at police department

I suppose if you searched the whole world you could find somebody willing to serve as police chief who is also a saint. Someone who would never lose his temper or say anything dumb. We ought to get the backbiting and politicking out of the police department. There’s far too much of it. Dorothy E. Carter Spokane

Get off Chertok’s back

I have a few words for Cpl. Cliff Walker of the Spokane Police Department; most of them aren’t printable. So, you feel left out of the process of selecting your boss (Chief Alan Chertok). Well, most of us don’t get to choose who our superiors are on the job. So, you think the general public is too ignorant to comprehend what a police chief’s qualifications should be and, in your opinion, none of the 26 applicants for the job of Spokane police chief was qualified. Pure bovine scatology.

As one of the taxpayers paying Walker’s salary, I think Chertok is a breath of fresh air. He has made himself present throughout the city neighborhoods and community centers - more than most of our City Council members. He demonstrates a solid knowledge of his profession, a hands-on approach to his work and a sense of humor. He is well-liked by the community and respected for his efforts.

If Walker speaks for the rank and file of our police department, maybe the real problem is with the rank and file. President Reagan fired 10,000 air traffic controllers because they were arrogant. If whining Walker and his buds don’t like this playing field, maybe they should find another one. David Bray Spokane

Chertok stays but Pupo can go

Someone should have warned Police Chief Alan Chertok about how narrow-minded and redneck this town can be. Chertok was just speaking with honesty pursuant to his comment about Terry Mangan. Heck, it even hinted that police officers are not above the law. What a concept.

It’s the corrupt who are allergic to candor. I wish the cretins who enjoy these controversies would simply get a life.

Chertok has a very difficult job ahead of him and deserves our full support. I also think he is more than capable of doing a fine job.

With all of this in mind, I will vote with glee in favor of the strong mayor initiative. Maybe then we can give City Manager Bill Pupo a vacation with a one-way ticket. Mark F. Scarboro Spokane

Chertok doesn’t deserve these hassles

I am dismayed by the hatchet job on the police chief. I listened to Alan Chertok and was impressed by his ability to handle criticism in public, his open-door policy invitation to deal with anyone’s issues or anger.

I liked Chertok’s concern for minority issues and promise to make changes. I liked his willingness to take the time to get to know the department’s staff, history, policies, strengths and weaknesses before making the changes he was hired to implement.

I am trying to make that impression jibe with the lightweight and bogus allegations that have lately made so-called news.

Chertok yelled at a police officer about department policy on carrying battery cables. He then cracked a joke in a high school class, with a resulting wasteful sheriff’s investigation and referral to the prosecuting attorney.

A union leader visits Chertok’s boss to discuss the chief’s failure to set direction and new policies. Will he also visit when Chertok sets planned changes in motion? Why did City Manager Bill Pupo hire Chertok from outside to make changes and set him up to fail by cutting the budget and then not signing an employment contract to provide real authority?

Why didn’t Pupo support Chertok by sending staffers to Chertok to discuss concerns rather than split the system by listening behind his back?

Whose issues are driving this farce?

I hope Spokane will support Chertok, give him the benefit of the doubt and ponder the hidden agendas of much ado about nothing. Valerie R. Smith Spokane

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

Also, day for `forgotten mothers’

May 8 was “Birth Mother’s Day.” It is not a day of celebration. It’s a day to remember all the forgotten mothers who’ve lost their children to adoption. I’ve been assigned the label “birth mother” and I don’t consider it an honor.

I gave my daughter up for adoption 30 years ago. In the first few years after that loss, I often experienced sudden outburst of uncontrollable tears that I didn’t understand. I tried to commit suicide twice after the loss of my daughter. The emotional pain was tremendous.

Twenty-four years later, I had a nervous breakdown and began therapy just in time to be “found” by my daughter. After four years of struggling to deal with my grief from the loss and joy from the reunion, and also trying to establish a relationship with my daughter, I found other birth mothers on the Internet. As I read their stories that night, I started to cry and I did not stop crying for an entire year. I cried when I woke up in the morning. I cried at work. I cried when I got home from work until I fell asleep.

After that year of crying, I realized what a terrible mistake it had been to give away my daughter, my flesh and blood, my baby. To this day, I wish I had never heard the word “adoption.”

Birth Mother’s Day is for remembering that for every woman whose heart is filled with joy by the adoption of a child, there’s a mother whose heart is filled with grief from the loss of that same child. For many, that grief will last a lifetime. Kay Russell Spokane

Steinem prescription is pure poison

I applaud Mayor John Talbott for promoting a character education program to help Spokane become a better community. Civility should be embraced by all citizens, regardless of their personal, religious preferences.

If our society expects to survive, we must support a stable family structure with God-fearing values. I was surprised that so many Spokane women attended a recent luncheon which endorsed an anti-family, anti-God, feminist, Gloria Steinem, as a positive role model to help women.

Steinem promoted a racist, male-bashing view that white male teenagers are out of control. Steinem and the feminist agenda are now trying to convince us that they know best how to nurture our youths.

Steinem’s quotes clearly show what she really believes. She advocates raising children to believe in human potential, not God. She wants the institution of legal marriage abolished and reformed. She wants to overthrow capitalism and the whole patriarchy.

Other feminists support the destruction of marriage and love. They openly endorse humanism, female religions such as witchcraft and homosexual sex education in the schools without parental consent.

Thirty years of the feminist agenda has torn our society apart. We need to glue our society back together by encouraging positive, traditional character traits. The program, Character First, should help our citizens become better spouses, parents, grandparents, workers and students. Gloria A. Clark Spokane

Morality, churchgoing not synonymous

Sam R. Anderson’s comment (Letters, May 7) indicates that he believes the only people who give their children moral training are those who go to church. Well, I have not affiliated myself with any religious group and resent the implication that my child is less moral than one from a churchgoing family. My son has never attended a church and I can assure you his moral values are as good as, if not better than, Anderson’s, because his mind is not as closed.

Take a look around you. Watch the news. Religion is not synonymous with morality. Debbie Kitselman Coeur d’Alene

THE ENVIRONMENT

Western white pine’s fate too typical

I was saddened by the May 7 story about cutting of the largest western white pine in Idaho - not because of the death of this great tree but because of the loss of an opportunity to inform the public about old-growth trees and the demise of the white pine.

We are driving the western white pine to extinction via imported disease, overcutting, fire suppression and poor forest management. The so-called blister rust resistant new trees have not been proven effective yet and other bad management practices are still happening. The western white pine is likely to be petitioned as a threatened species soon.

Old-growth trees are disappearing at an alarming rate, along with many animals that depend on old trees, such as pine martins, lynx and goshawks. Past forest management has not respected the importance of old growth. Dead trees continue to supply the ecosystem with life-giving nutrients to the soil and wildlife habitat for many species.

One irony of the story is the new champion white pine is likely to be found in the Floodwoods State Forest, the epitome of a destroyed forest ecosystem. Idaho state forest management is in the running for the worst management of forest lands in the nation. The likelihood of the largest white pine surviving long on state lands is remote.

We need a big dose of humility when it comes to manipulation of forest lands. The loss of the western white pine is only one important example of humans’ inability to understand the forces of nature. Larry O. McLaud Moscow

Watch out for this nonproblem

Early and incomplete reports said a tornado with winds to 250 mph devastated about 10 square miles of Oklahoma City, killing 35 and causing tremendous property damage. Kansas and Texas also had casualties and damage.

Why? No proof, but consider the following:

In 1995, 2,000 scientists from more than 80 countries predicted an increase in violent weather, globally, due to global warming.

Global warming is so evident that opponents, instead of saying it doesn’t exist, now argue that to minimize global warming would cost too much.

Global property damage due to violent weather in the 10 years of the 1980s totaled $55 billion. The first 11 months of 1998 had damages due to such weather of $89 billion. My calculator says the daily damage in 1998 was 17 times as costly as in the 1980s!

About 70 percent of Americans are concerned about global warming. However, our Congress, convinced by donations from oil and auto companies, says there is no problem and that nothing should be done. K. Julian Powers Spokane

Just so we have salmon, right?

Months ago, when I first heard of the idea of breaching dams to save salmon, I thought, “How ridiculous. How could anybody think seriously about such a thing?” As time went by, more and more people were saying that the only way to save the salmon would be to tear down the dams or let the water run around them. These dams cost millions to build years ago and would cost billions to replace at today’s prices.

However, lately, I’ve been thinking that this may not be such a bad idea. After all, we don’t need dams to produce low-cost electricity. Atomic power and coal-fired generators work just fine. What we really need is salmon. We don’t need dams for flood control. People who live and farm in valleys and lowlands should realize that floods are a part of nature, and should expect them every five or 10 years. What we really need is salmon.

We don’t need dams for irrigation. Farmers usually get plenty of rain, but when they don’t, that’s their hard luck. What we really need is salmon.

We don’t need dams for navigation. That’s why we have trains and trucks. What we really need is salmon. Really, salmon taste great. Herbert F. Severtson Coeur d’Alene

Spare us paeans to the good old boys

Your initially excellent coverage of the Clearwater Land Exchange deal is taking an odd plunge into blandness. What started as an informative expose of the issue has devolved into a pointless debate over whether the Clearwater partners are good guys.

Reporter Ken Olsen encounters a malodorous mess and declares that it smells like roses. He meticulously outlines the problems with federal land trades - and with CLE’s land deals in particular - only to conclude that it’s no big deal.

His May 2 business article on Clearwater’s many enterprises reads like a promotional brochure for the good old boy network. It seems to suggest that although CLE has ripped us off in the past and will probably do so in the future, well, at least we can all be friendly about it.

How can the CLE partners be called “impeccably honest” when they’ve been hiding their giant land deal for five years? How can you suggest that the public pays no price for CLE’s facilitation of land exchanges when so many of these deals in fact rob taxpayers by overvaluing private trade lands?

The land exchange issue deserves more serious coverage than these paternalistic assurances that CLE has a “vision” the rest of us are too dumb to understand. No one beyond a very small circle cares whether these guys are fun to have a beer with - the real story is about public lands being treated as a private commodity. Janine Blaeloch, director Western Land Exchange Project, Seattle