Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

Underfunding of prosecutor is wrong

In the Oct. 17 article, “Prosecutors, city in pay impasse,” City Attorney James Sloane is reported to have said the city prosecutor’s office is a launch point for young attorneys, not a career stop. I suggest that citizens think about the implications of that statement.

First, the city is paying good money - taxpayer money - to recruit, hire and train attorneys who, after a short time, quit and move on to other jobs. Wouldn’t the public be better served by retaining experienced attorneys in the prosecutor’s office? Ones who use that taxpayer-funded training in the interests of public safety and justice?

Secondly, how serious is the city in prosecuting criminal cases? The city is proposing a budget which includes more than $1.4 million for the public defender’s office, yet less than $840,000 for the prosecuting attorney’s office. In effect, Sloane and city leaders are telling us that the rights of criminal defendants are more important than prosecuting individuals who may have committed crimes against citizens. If you’re the victim of a drunken driver or the owner of a small business that’s constantly getting ripped off by shoplifters, your case is less important than the rights of the criminal defendant.

The proposed budget isn’t cast in stone. However, the City Council is set to adopt it tonight. I urge all citizens to contact the mayor, City Council and Sloane to demand that the city fund the prosecuting attorney’s office at a level that ensures criminal defendants are held accountable for their actions. Brice E. Cox Spokane

Don’t penalize kids for parents’ folly

Phillip Zammit (Letters, Oct. 27) would like to see three other categories added to the food bank survey: Do you smoke, drink alcohol or have cable TV?

Are we then supposed to deny food to these people?

I would like to know if Zammit is willing to tell the children of these people, “I’m sorry, but your parents smoke or drink and we cannot give you any food.”

Children have no control over what their parents do. If you think parents who drink will quit so their children can have food, you’re living in a fantasy world. Unless you have lived it, you will never really understand.

When I donate to charity, I do it for the children, regardless of their parents’ lifestyles. Victoria Nicodemus Spokane

Do scrutinize aid recipients’ habits

Re: “Do we subsidize bad habits?” by Philip Zammit.

Great idea, I often wondered about who was eligible for free food. What debt do some of these people have cars, trucks, trailers, motor homes, motor boats, ect. I would even go so far as to require a drug and alcohol screening tests. After all, it`s my money their asking for. Jack H. Bunton Millwood

Ban opposition’s interest vested

A recent letter writer’s claim that the billboard industry is supported at Spokane County’s public hearings by “a viable cross-section of the community” is ludicrous.

People in attendance have informed me that pro-billboard speakers, with few exceptions, were either employees of billboard companies and/or ad agencies, or recipients of public service billboards whose favors were called in. The vested interests were obvious, the supposed facts completely self-serving.

Citizens for a Scenic Spokane does consist of the aforementioned cross-section, including teachers, a former mayor, university administrator, photographers, high-tech company employees, psychologists, lawyers, contractors, CPAs, small business owners, designers, physicians, architects and neighborhood activists. Our interest: the good of the community as a whole, long-term economic viability, attracting industry and tourism, and preservation of the scenic heritage that makes Spokane the beautiful place it is.

Compelling facts presented by CSS included traffic-accident increase studies in areas with abundant billboards (they are specifically designed to distract drivers) and the national trend to clean up billboard blight by hundreds of communities, including Olympia, Seattle and Bellingham. Hawaii, Alaska, Vermont and Maine have no billboards and they are thriving. Last year, Kootenai County banned new billboards after seeing the damage along Interstate 90 between State Line and Coeur d’Alene.

Scenic Spokane asks commissioners to consider the big picture and support the planning board’s recommendation to ban billboards.

Watch Channel 5 Nov. 2 at 5 p.m. and see history being made. Annette Simonson Citizens for a Scenic Spokane

Why ruin city’s draw as test market?

Only a person of shallow perception would believe that wiping out billboards would affect only the jobs of those directly employed in the billboard industry.

For years, Spokane has been used as a test market and many of the ads we see and hear are for products that are being test marketed.

For example, we thought that Jell-O Pudding Pops were known everywhere but few outside Spokane had ever tasted them or heard of them. The Jell-O folks spent a ton of money in our town, fine-tuning their product and their Bill Cosby ads before going global.

Wholesalers, retailers, transfer and storage, hospitality and many other local industries all benefit from this clean and little-known source of revenues. Test marketers often choose Spokane because they can easily buy all types of media, where other cities often have a media backlog, most commonly in outdoor advertising.

If one media option is missing, all other media and nonmedia businesses lose.

If our county commissioners demonstrate contempt for peaceful commerce by destroying billboards, test marketers can easily find other counties who will appreciate the business. If we kill billboards, we can kiss yet another piece of our struggling local economy goodbye.

This is a good opportunity for our elected officials to break the tradition of forsaking our economy by pandering to a handful of vocal anti-business activists. Perhaps we could someday provide a few more decent jobs for our many young adults who are forced to move away to make a living wage. William D. Robinson Spokane

OTHER TOPICS

School’s dishonor roll a killer roster

This November I will be traveling to Columbus, Ga., to protest at the U.S. Army School of the Americas. This school has produced many now-famous graduates, such as Manuel Noriega, a number of Agusto Pinochet’s top generals and Gen. Hector Gramajo of Guatemala, who was responsible for the murder, rape, torture and displacement of hundreds of thousands of indigenous people in Guatemala.

The men who raped and murdered four American nuns in El Salvador and the men who killed six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her 12-year-old daughter at a school in El Salvador were also graduates of the SOA.

Also known is the fact that Mexico (currently involved in a conflict in the region of Chiapas, trying to silence the Zapatistas) and Colombia (at the forefront of our “drug war,” and currently embroiled in a bitter civil war) claim the highest involvement at the SOA.

What is not widely known is that there are currently bills in the House of Representatives and in the Senate to close the SOA. HR732 and S873 are both very reasonable bills that need to be passed.

Please, learn more about this issue. The Peace and Justice Action League is an excellent resource, at 838-7870.

Contact your representative and tell them Nunca mas! Never again! Close the SOA. Eric J. Robison Spokane

Heroes deserved salute on page 1

Too often we see stories about the mean, evil side of human nature. I just finished reading Rich Landers’ Oct. 21 column and am heartened and thankful for people like Ron Vineyard, Bob and Linda Stephens and their daughter, Heather, who took heroic measures to save the life of a Canadian canoeist in September on a British Columbia lake. This story belonged on the front page of The Spokesman, not just the sports page.

A round of applause for the heroes and heroines - Ron, Bob, Linda and Heather. Gail Gordon Harrison, Idaho

Your letter didn’t run? Sunday was the last day The Spokesman-Review will publish letters making recommendations about Tuesday’s election. This results from our policy not to facilitate election-eve attacks. During the last few weeks the volume of letters far exceeded the space available to publish them. Many good letters did not make it into print. In choosing letters that do appear, we strive to select a representative sample of the letters received. And, we strive to publish letters from both sides of every issue. This fall, letter writers were unusually late in submitting their election-related comments, which intensified the last-minute crunch. We do thank all of you who wrote. Your participation enables us to produce a vigorous and interesting Roundtable page.