Letters To The Editor

WASHINGTON STATE

Tell agency to preserve Hanford Reach

We have a national treasure that’s at risk of being lost to development. It’s the Hanford Reach - the last free-flowing section of the Columbia River in the United States and the home of the last healthy wild salmon population in the entire Columbia system. Rare, endangered and newly discovered plant and animal species thrive in this unique shrub-steppe habitat.

The Reach has important Native American archaeological and religious sites. Petroglyphs and fossils of mastodon, bison and camel are entombed in the magnificent white bluffs that loom 600 feet above the river.

But all this could be lost if the local counties and U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings get their way. They plan to sell off 60,000 acres of public land to large agricultural interests. Irrigation on these lands has been shown to cause the white bluffs to erode into the river at a critical place where salmon spawn. Grazing is also planned for these sensitive, arid lands.

Right now, the U.S. Department. of Energy is taking comments on its 50-year land use plan for the entire ecosystem. Please speak out at the public hearing June 3 at the Ridpath Hotel (information meeting at 6 p.m. hearing at 7 p.m.).

Tell the Department of Energy you want the entire Hanford Reach ecosystem protected as a national wildlife refuge. Send comments to the department, before June 7, to Tom Ferns, U.S. Dept. of Energy, Richland Operations Office, P.O. Box 550, Richland, WA 99352. Guadalupe Flores Kennewick

SPOKANE MATTERS

Bragdon still good choice for chief

City Manager Bill Pupo should be praised for seeking the best chief of police for Spokane, even searching outside Spokane.

But employing an outsider instead of promoting from within is a gamble. Professional qualifications are easy to evaluate but personality and judgment are often based on surface impressions. It worked with Terry Mangan but Alan Chertok’s personality, good enough to pass the interviews, seems not to meet the test of daily work. This is no shame; most of us are uneven in our talents.

Roger Bragdon was not considered for the chief’s job because he lacked a college degree. The criterion is discretionary and not performance related. Many high achievers lack a degree and many incompetents possess one.

Bragdon is no gamble, he’s been on the force for years, was groomed by Mangan to be chief and has demonstrated his competence. In Chertok’s current absence, Bragdon is acting chief. He should have been considered along with the other candidates and, I believe, his record would have dictated his choice.

Two other factors, not controlling, nevertheless add weight to selecting him.

First, promotion from within strengthens moral.

Second, Bragdon omitted the final courses for a degree because it would have taken time from his family. Chertok, choosing no family, perhaps feels family values less strongly. I wonder if a family may not promote or even result from a less self-centered outlook, precisely the area where Chertok’s difficulties might lie.

Readers supporting Bragdon should inform Mayor John Talbott. Fred Richardson Spokane

DOT was forthcoming to our group

I was accurately quoted in “Volume lowered on hearings” by staff writer Ken Olsen on the issue of using the open house format by public agencies and its drawbacks. However, I would like to correct the impression that the Department of Transportation had to be “persuaded” to attend one of our Garden City-Mead Neighborhood Coalition meetings.

In fact, early on, project engineer Keith Martin offered to appear at one of our meetings . We accepted his offer after the DOT open house because the department staff was overwhelmed by the turnout and was not accessible to all of our members, who were frustrated by the open house format.

Contrary to the characterization by John Freeman, our group is not a “savvy special interest group,” but a group of homeowners who are confronted with the destruction of our neighborhood. We are novices in the political arena.

Florence Heffron is quoted, saying that “public hearings revert pretty quickly to adversarial procedures.” Our meeting was not a public hearing and no official record of the interaction was kept. The interaction was courteous on both sides, albeit not without disagreement. David D. Kirkman Spokane

Spokane not a place for light rail

Re: “Spokane-Coeur d’Alene needs light-rail line” (May 23).

While it is true that light rail has found success in Washington, D.C., and Portland, we must keep in mind that Spokane is neither of these places.

Quite frankly, investment in such infrastructure in Spokane seems like a poor use of funds. The Portland and Washington metro areas have larger populations, greater population densities and substantially greater traffic problems than Spokane. Moreover, both metropolitan areas had widespread use of public transportation before the introduction of light rail. Spokane cannot make such a claim.

Look at Seattle, which is in the midst of planning a light rail system. It’s a messy task that has exposed long-held community tensions. Is it really worth it? Especially in Spokane, where the economic viability of such a transportation system is doubtful, light rail seems like an exceptionally bad idea. Anthony P. House Seattle

OVER THE LINE

Refueling station worth consideration

It was refreshing to read D. Dean Haagenson’s rebuttal to D.F. Oliveria’s editorial on the proposed Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad refueling station, especially the portion that concluded, “All the project’s benefits are on the railroad’s side.”

To the list of public benefits cited by Haagenson I add two more:

Lives to be saved by the addition of grade-separated crossings between Hauser and Rathdrum.

Affirmation of that quaint, anachronistic, old common law concept of a property right.

The BNSF refueling station might be a disaster waiting to happen or a safe, reasonable boost to the still much depressed Hauser-Rathdrum-area economy. I don’t know. Only a fair examination of the specifics of the proposed design would allow anyone to make that determination.

Most of us spend a good part of our lives teaching our children not to make glib pronouncements out of ignorance. Our county commissioners might or might not be well advised to kill the project, but it shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand. Paul S. Matthews Rathdrum

Careful determination called for

Re: “First, determine facts of the matter” by Spokesman-Review editor Chris Peck (Opinion, May 7).

Finally, a voice of reason. Peck’s call for looking at the facts of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe fueling facility proposal - before passing judgment - is the right way to determine whether our drinking water will be safe with this project.

As someone who drinks from the aquifer every day, I’m as concerned about its safety as anyone. However, every house, every gas station - in reality, everything built over the aquifer - presents a potential threat to the aquifer. Yet they are built because the risk is acceptable.

Safety measures built into the BNSF project clearly indicate that the environmental risks would be minimal. In fact, contrary to opponents’ contentions, there will be environmental benefits from this project. It’s well documented that trains provide the safest and most environmentally friendly mode of transportation there is. From what I see, this facility will help take more trucks off the road, provide good-paying job for our community and pose much less risk to the aquifer than would a modern gas station.

If BNSF can demonstrate reasonable protection for the aquifer, the project should be supported. Thank you, Peck, for bringing some reason to the discussion. T.W. Mackenroth Nine Mile Falls

Prosecutor pulls punch, big time

Congratulations to the Kootenai County prosecutor. He managed to reduce Aryan Nations member Edward Warfield’s sentence from 25 years to two or less.

I guess just dropping the charges would have been too obvious of an endorsement for the Aryans. So with a wink and a nod, Warfield is slapped on the wrist (but not too hard now!).

I’m sure the prosecutor will say a trial on aggravated assault with weapons enhancements would cost the county too much or take too much time and effort away from really important cases like parade protesters with peanut butter and jelly in their backpacks.

I can only hope the pending litigation by Morris Dees of The Southern Poverty Law Center is successful. If that trial is held in Kootenai County, I’m sad to say it will be a replay of “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Chris H. Miller Spokane

U.S. AND THE WORLD

Urge U.S. support, funding for U.N.

Problems confronting the world today exceed the ability of any nation, even the most powerful, to advance all its interests. Without cooperation and compromise among some 190 countries, problems with trade, international finance, globalization, the environment, human rights, regional conflict and wars threaten the future of international society.

No person and no nation stands alone. We are all in this together.

U.N. agencies are saving lives (UNICEF), improving health (WHO), helping refugees (UNHCR), advancing agriculture (UNDP), protecting the environment (UNEP), safeguarding and advancing culture (UNESCO), and removing land mines (UNOPS). The list goes on. And all of these benefits come at a fraction of what the world spends annually on weapons. The United Nations (the name was coined by President Franklin D. Roosevelt) is an American-inspired organization, established 54 years ago in San Francisco.

No country has permanently left the United Nations. On the contrary, U.N. membership is highly valued by rich and poor nations alike. Of course, the United Nations is not perfect. It is a complex system of many agencies dedicated to the welfare of people everywhere. Is our own government - national, state and local - without faults?

Please write to Rep. George Nethercutt, 1527 Longworth HOB, Washington, D.C., 20515; Fax 202-225-3392, and ask him to not co-sponsor HR1146. Instead, urge Nethercutt to insist that the U.S. Congress appropriates the necessary funds to pay our U.N. arrears now and without strings attached. Ernst W. Gohlert Cheney

NATO bombing campaign illegal

NATO was created in 1949 as a regional arrangement of the United Nations, as defined by Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter. The NATO Treaty states that the alliance shall safeguard the freedom of its members in the North Atlantic area. There is nothing in the treaty that authorizes its forces to intervene militarily in a civil war being waged in a non-NATO nation.

Article 2 section 7 of the U.N. Charter states, “Nothing in the present charter shall authorize the U.N. to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state.” Since Kosovo is a province of Yugoslavia, much like Washington is a part of the Unites States, the civil war taking place there is an internal domestic matter of the nation of Yugoslavia.

The U.S. Constitution says only Congress has the power to declare war, not the president, NATO or the U.N. Since Congress has not declared war, our bombing campaign against Yugoslavia is unconstitutional and in violation of the NATO Treaty and U.N. Charter.

With no U.S. or international legal authority, what makes our bombing of innocent people in Yugoslavia any different from students murdering students at school? Ideas have consequences. How can we expect our children to be moral and obey the law when we allow the president and Congress to disobey the law? Steve J. Dunham Spokane

IDAHO VIEWPOINTS

`Jail issue is not going to go away’

My wife and I voted today. She voted no and I voted yes on the half-cent sales tax increase for the Kootenai County Jail expansion.

I really hate to vote for tax increases, and I was torn apart about this one. Sales taxes are regressive and hard on lower-income people. Yet, sales taxes capture income from visitors. On the other hand, it does seem to be a present to large companies.

The jail issue is not going to go away and it is something we all use. Every violent misfit who spends a day in the crossbar hotel is not threatening the rest of us.

What swayed me was that the elected officials paid for ads out of their personal funds. I know most of them personally and they are honorable men and women. Because they are on top of the issue, I felt that it was necessary to defer to their judgment.

I wonder if the sheriff could put up tents in the mild weather months and if the courts could order sentences served at the pleasure of the courts. Carefully screened prisoners could be offered the option of living in tents, perhaps with incentives to do their time quietly and perhaps reduced time for not causing any problems. Being restricted to one spot is no picnic under any conditions and would help solve some crowding problems.

I have seen prisoners sentenced to serve their time on weekends in San Diego County, Calif. Bob Hunt Post Falls

How just would death penalty be?

Re: “Trooper killer admits he shot first,” (May 20).

This is a very difficult letter I write, since I went to school with Scott Yager. I ran into him about three years ago after nearly 16 years. The first thing he recalled was a teenage prank I’d played on him, making him and a friend walk home in the rain. I knew then that he was not really stable and ask myself if I could have changed the outcome of his actions by answering him differently, or whether what he did was predestined.

I know that he stated he is sorry and I believe him. I just don’t know if sorry is enough at this point. But I know that remorse is the first step toward penitence, and isn’t that what we ask of our killers today, to be penitent?

If Yager gets the death penalty, where Tom DiBartolo didn’t, will true justice really have been served? James C. Comfort Hauser Lake

EPA expectations unreasonable

The proposed new standards for the Coeur d’Alene River are an outrageous attack on the health of the economy of the Silver Valley. A pristine water quality standard is unattainable and the Environmental Protection Agency has no evidence to show that its water quality goals can be met or are warranted.

These proposed standards target local employers and our sewage treatment plants, all of which discharge a minor amount of metal to the overall system. Forcing them to spend millions of dollars to remove even more of their outflow will not significantly improve water quality. Yet, these strict new guidelines will cripple our local industries and raise our sewer rates to astronomical levels, while threatening the very livelihood of citizens.

The standards EPA and the state of Idaho have proposed expect the South Fork water to be cleaner than our drinking water. The standards, developed in a lab in Atlanta, are based on organisms and fish that don’t even live in our rivers and streams.

The EPA and state have ignored site-specific work, authorized under the Clean Water Act, that can clearly demonstrate healthy fish live in most of our river system. The area that actually needs to be addressed is the EPA’s own cleanup site.

The measures are too restrictive and don’t take into account that we live in a mineralized zone, where the first miners could scoop up with their hands galena, gold and silver ore out of the river beds. This area always has been rich in minerals and it is ludicrous of the EPA to suggest otherwise. Rep. Larry Watson Idaho State Legislature