Letters To The Editor

IDAHO VIEWPOINTS

Quantitatively, males are more violent

Re: Robert Cardwell’s “Better Paglia than Steinem,” (Letters, May 10).

I don’t get your point. I think it’s to point out that not all males are bad. I agree. I’ve been married to the same guy for 17 years and we have two boys and two girls. I absolutely don’t think all males are bad. Don’t call me a man-hating feminist. But I pretty much ally with Gloria Steinem.

I don’t think I’m “male-bashing and sexual stereotyping” when I state facts about how many men vs. women kill people. Talk to me about the Crusades, the Revolutionary War, Civil War, World War I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, Desert Storm and the peacekeeping mission in Kosovo. How many men were there as assailants and victims?

Count the number of murders committed by men in North Idaho and Spokane County in the past five years. Count the number of sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape charges committed by men in the same area.

How many were homosexual? My figures tell me that the preponderance of assailants were heterosexual and male.

Something is awry in our culture and stating the facts is harmful to no one. Shading them, however, is not only wrong, it’s harassment.

“The debased state of morality and ethics in this country,” as stated by Cardwell, has to do with more than just one gender. Males and females both have a responsibility. We could be part of the solution together. Mary Jean Tranfo Coeur d’Alene

Swap would doom old-growth trees

Clearwater Land Exchange is putting together large land exchanges in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Wyoming. Half of the land it intends to exchange belongs to the U.S. government.

The public lands we’re about to lose contain some of the last remaining old-growth timber. That timber hasn’t been harvested because it’s protected for environmental reasons as long as the government has it.

Ninety-five percent of our old-growth forests already have been harvested. Old-growth-dependent species will decline further if we don’t stop this degradation.

As facilitator of these exchanges, Clearwater will collect a fee of between 6 percent and 12 percent of the value of the land, amounting to several million dollars.

In order for Clearwater to make these trades work, cash must be generated. Cash sometimes is needed to buy property that the Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management would accept in trade, and of course cash is needed to pay Clearwater’s fees. The cash is to be generated by the immediate and almost total harvesting of all old-growth trees from the public lands being traded off.

Darrel Olson, the brains behind Clearwater, is intelligent, charismatic and thinks in big terms. He is a nice guy, but he scares me. He has the ability to do more damage to the environment than any other single person I know. If these land exchanges occur, thousands and thousands of acres of old growth trees will be decimated. Richard Harris Baker City, Ore.

God’s plan is for humans to choose

Critics assert that God is ultimately responsible for the Littleton, Colo., massacre because he could have created the world without the possibility of evil. Perhaps he could have done that, but what would have been the point? Would you want all your relationships to be with people who had no choice but to obey you constantly?

God created us with the ability to have meaningful relationships with each other and with him. That necessarily involves choice and risk, so he gave us guidance on how to minimize the risks. The more we choose to ignore his guidance, the greater risks we create for ourselves and others.

Each of us is guilty of ignoring his guidance to some degree. But he loves us enough to provide remedies for some of the earthly and all of the eternal consequences of sin. We are also free in this life to accept or reject his remedies.

Real relationships involve real choices, which involve real consequences for which we are offered real remedies. Would you want it otherwise? Joan E. Spencer Cocolalla

WASHINGTON STATE

Give forests-fish bill a second chance

We all have a responsibility to care for the natural resources that make our state a special place in which to live.

During the most recent legislative session, the Forest and Fish Plan provided an opportunity for the Legislature leadership to embrace progressive change, to improve water quality and fish habitat. This plan took a lot of hard work, compromise and negotiation. It is a solution based soundly on science and is very much supported by a diverse array of federal and state regulators, counties, the timber industry and many tribes.

As a private forest owner, I feel good about the Forests and Fish legislation because it is serious about protecting rivers and streams, and about providing stability in an ever-changing industry. It’s the best way to protect families and fish. It’s a long-term solution that’s good for everyone. So, why was it ignored?

Of course the changes are complicated and require courageous leaders to make the right choice. Our leaders in the Legislature should return to the special session ready to make the Forest and Fish agreement a priority. They should be ready to approve an agreement that will protect salmon, protect forests and protect an industry vital to rural economics. Hubert B. Sager, vice president, resource Vaagen Bros. Lumber Co., Colville, Wash.

U.S. AND THE WORLD

This bombing is killing and it’s wrong

Weeks of State Department reporting on the bombing had almost numbed me into acceptance of the popular notion that, apart from Slobodan Milosevic, no person was actually inflicting destruction upon other people in NATO’s war against Yugoslavia. Then came the “accidental” leveling of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade and our president’s proclamation that this tragedy did not compare with Milosevic’s ethnic cleansing. It got me to wondering: Is murder not still murder, even if I kill someone who appalls me? Is manslaughter not still manslaughter, even against someone I distrust?

American service people and the American public must come out from behind the lies. NATO’s war against Yugoslavia makes a mockery of every humanitarian value it purports to defend. The CIA’s dumb maps, NATO’s smart bombs and Western leaders and public opinion must finally face moral account. Ann Le Bar Spokane

Our killing is not just

I have lived under several political systems: the democratic Weimar Republic; the Third Reich under Hitler, who considered himself a devout man, member of the catholic church, having seen him personally; communism under Stalin, ex-theological scholar turned superbutcher and generalissimo for the Soviet Union and its satellites; and America.

I was oppressed by Nazism and Stalinism. I can see the validity of deep concern by many U.S. citizens and others that the United States, by its military power, might turn into a world police force (New World Order?) under the guise of democracy. And, I may add, blindly supported by legions of those claiming to be Christians and by “blind guides” - similar to those of the widespread German-Christian movement under the Nazis - an abject surrender of Christianity to the god of nationalism, becoming stumbling blocks to the noble cause of the Lord Jesus Christ, who told us to love even our enemies and to follow him, though we may have to live with or under them. As the Apostle Peter said, “It is better, if the will of God be, that ye suffer for well doing than for evil doing.”

Where is love and mercy in war, in pitiless bombardment?

The present war - and it is a war - against Yugoslavia is indeed illegal by international law standards.

As Stravo Lukos rightly asked, “Who appointed us world marshal?” (Letters, May 10).

Jesus said, “… yea the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.” Wolfgang K. Paul Chewelah, Wash.

OTHER TOPICS

Nethercutt, the onus is on you

Rep. George Nethercutt’s campaign pledge is significant but a much larger issue at stake is how the leadership of the House of Representatives will be chosen in the future.

After the takeover of the House in 1994, the Republican majority made a good decision to limit the terms of committee chairmen to six years and the speaker’s term to eight. These leadership posts have enormous power and a healthy churning of these positions is good.

In 1994, Nethercutt and the Republican Party won on good timing and a rallying cry for the “citizen legislator” bound to a pledge of term limits. Few off-year congressional elections have been so well focused. It is the height of cynicism that Nethercutt and the GOP are now ready to abandon the one good contribution they made to politics. As for the Democrats, they need to wake up and see the virtue of reasonable term limits.

Nethercutt soon must make a choice. For a lawyer, a former member of the Senate staff and a smart man involved in politics for many years, his dithering is really over the top. His political choices are crystal clear. He can begin a campaign now for some other position or run for the House again in 2002, and stay an honorable man. If he chooses to run for re-election in 2000, he’s a liar and a cheat. Larry Armstrong Spokane

Protect our roadless areas

With the arrival of May, our hearts and spirits as well as spring-inspired bodies are drawn to the national forests and the road-free areas where we and our fellow critters, plants, birds and bees can spend our time in the delight and wonder of nature. As well as recreation, these diminishing wild public forests provide us with clean water, wildlife habitat, salmon and the dollars that all of these can bring to our communities.

It’s time to protect our local roadless areas, such as Mount Bonaparte in the Okanogan, so that we can assure that our children’s children have a beautiful and rejuvenating forest to visit with the first flush of spring. Genna Swan Porter Tonasket, Wash.