Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

Why stop with smokers?

The smoking ban at this year’s Spokane Interstate Fair is evidence of another out-of-control bureaucracy trying to protect you from yourself.

My family has been to the fair numerous times and has never been offended by smokers. Almost every ride operator I have seen smokes cigarettes to pass idle hours watching the same ride go around on their shift. Will they be fined and arrested?

If the Spokane Regional Health District board was really worried about health, it would shut down all the rides because of the diesel powered generators, close down the concession stands with all of that lung damaging smoke from the barbecued and fried foods. And let’s not forget all of the cars coming and going, emitting carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide.

This ban is just a power play by non-elected bureaucrats passing laws to frighten law-abiding citizens into submission by fines or arrest.

Laws should not be impressed upon us to pacify a specific group. Eric M. Wilson Nine Mile Falls

`No fair’ really sums it up

I’ve understoond and put up with smoking bans at malls, restaurants and office buildings. I’ve been polite in asking permission of a nonsmoker before lighting up. I’ve put up with rising taxes on cigarettes and haven’t bought them in Idaho!

Now, Spokane County commissioners have decided that smoking outside is banned too. I feel my constitutional rights as a citizen are being taken away.

I was looking forward to attending this year’s Spokane Interstate Fair but the commissioners can have it. Their decision is discriminatory and wrong. Kevin D. Sutton Spokane

We salute river cleanup crew

Upon reading “Cleaning up of others’ mess” (Aug. 29), my husband and I would very much like to thank the more than 300 volunteers for their efforts Saturday morning.

We are of an age that we can no longer participate but we are still of an age that we can write our thank you to everyone who helped clean up our Spokane River’s banks. We are very proud of all of you who gathered the garbage. Arthur and Phyllis Heinel Spokane

Will ours be a moral community?

I don’t think any of us would consider ourselves models of morality just because we were given character awards at the town hall meeting on Aug. 18. Each of us, including the stripper, the cocaine addict and especially myself, thank God for his mercy and grace in overcoming the chains that have bound us. Maybe that is where character really comes from.

The real question is: Is Spokane a city of character?

I believe Spokane is at a crossroads. This city and its leaders have some important decisions to make which will determine the character of our city:

A city of character protects the weak and vulnerable. It will not exploit those weaknesses by encouraging and benefiting from gambling revenue.

A city of character protects the safety of its families and the innocence of its youth. It draws a constitutionally strict and very limited line on pornography, recognizing the demeaning, destructive nature of obscenity. Libraries, schools, grocery stores and gas stations will choose to make the prudent decision to practice corporate responsibility by keeping indecent material away from minors. A city of character will choose to protect and uphold the right of all people to make decisions about what is best for their businesses and property based on personal convictions of morality.

A city of character will uphold the worth and dignity of every person, just because they have value in the sight of God, not favoring one segment over another because of political or economic appeal. Penny A. Lancaster Spokane

WAR ON DRUGS

Make double standard official

A few suggestions regarding the abuse of drugs:

Drug trafficking should be partially legalized to allow for top brass people like George W. Bush Jr. to make mistakes in their youth so that in their later years they can point out the dangers of drug abuse to our children.

Children should be allowed to experience drugs so that later, when those children are parents, they can point out to their children how dreadful drug abuse is.

State and federal laws should be passed to allow for drug traffickers who cater to the needs of past, present and future parents to actively carry on their important enterprise so that future generations may not be deprived of learning from their fathers’ mistakes.

Great models like Bill Clinton and George W. Bush should be elected president so that every American can emulate them.

The term “drug use” should be legally and technically used for young people who experience drugs. However, when these young people become parents, they should employ the term “drug abuse” to caution their children against drugs. Homayoun Abghari Spokane

LAW ENFORCEMENT

Reno should step down

When the Waco fiasco occurred, Attorney General Janet Reno said that she took full responsibility for the actions taken by government forces in the attack on the compound. Information now at hand suggests that either she was part of a cover-up or was so incompetent that she had no control over, or knowledge of, the activities of those who were supposed to be under her control. In either case, she should resign. Terry Griner Spokane

How far before you go too far?

Regarding the Waco-Branch Davidians fire, every American will have to ask themselves this question: Would you shoot into a house knowing it contained women and children? Would you ram a tank and shoot gas into a building that contained children? Paul A. Reimann St. Maries

IDAHO VIEWPOINTS

Teach morality at home, not at school

The video “It’s Elementary” shows how teachers deal with homosexual issues in the classroom. This program is scheduled to air Sept. 7. It shouldn’t be shown on Idaho Public Television.

Elementary schoolchildren do not need to be subjected to this type of video. Morals for children belong in the home. Idaho Public Television should not air this kind of video on TV funded by our tax dollars.

This video was made by a lesbian group out of San Francisco that wants to promote greater tolerance for their homosexual agenda and push it into the schools to teach young children who are too young to understand what is being taught to them. Kids go to school to be taught an education, not morality. This video promotes tolerance which should be taught at home and not in the public school systems.

Please stand up and stop this video by calling your legislators and the Idaho Public Television station and let your opinion be known. Marilyn A. Solamito Post Falls

Time for a change at City Hall

We got quite a laugh the other day. We picked up the paper and saw where our mayor and City Council want a raise. Why?

What have they done in the last year to deserve a raise? We will give them credit for one thing - they sure wasted a lot of our money.

How about the guy they brought to Coeur d’Alene to stop Richard Butler from parading? He didn’t get the job done but did we get our money back?

How much has it cost us for lawsuits because they screwed up? How much did it cost us for them to harass our city workers?

Now, our mayor wants to build an expressway on Northwest Boulevard for Duane Hagadone. The old saying is that you can’t bite the hand that feeds you.

City workers should keep their ears and eyes open and watch their backsides. This guy they just hired for big bucks was for hire because he couldn’t get along with the employees at his last job. We just wonder if the city hired him to harass our city employees.

It’s starting to smell at City Hall, so maybe we should clean house next election. In order to be mayor of Coeur d’Alene, you have to be mature. Oscar S. Peterson Coeur d’Alene

Don’t blame animals for tragedies

Although it is unfortunate that children in this area are threatened by wild animals, we should take the recent cougar attack as a sign of our own wrongdoing. Encroachment on wild animals’ territory is the cause of animals lashing out violently.

If a burglar were to break into your home, you would do what it takes to defend your property, family, and yourself. Animals are only doing the same, and it often ends in death for the animal because to test for rabies the animal must be killed.

Rather than curse the cougar for committing such a vile act, we should look at our own actions and realize that we are only asking for trouble when we animals’ habitat. Hannah M. Currey Post Falls