Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

Vote to continue great experiences

I would like to urge you to vote “yes” for City Parks Sept. 14. If you, your family members and friends can add to my list of experiences in city parks, a yes vote for park repairs and expansion should be on your ballot.

What a visual joy it is to watch elementary children run cross country races in parks like Comstock and Audubon in the fall. I am thankful my boys learned to swim in city pools before they ventured to our many large lakes. John A. Finch Arboretum is one of my favorite places to look at the great variety of trees and decide which one I would like to have in my yard. Watching children and the young-at-heart play in the fall leaves can’t help but make you smile.

People of all ages use the parks for soccer, tennis, cross country running or skiing, kite flying and sledding. Franklin Park is a beehive of activity for adults during the summer. Do you know there are supervised summer activity programs for children in neighborhood parks? Senior and youth centers throughout the city are part of the city parks’ programs also.

I am sure you can think of many more experiences like the carrousel, concerts and fireworks at Riverfront, weddings in Manito, prom pictures at the Japanese Gardens and picnics.

Spokane’s quality of life is closely associated with children and parks. Vote “yes” for Spokane Parks on Sept. 14 and help maintain our quality of life. Jerry J. Hopkins Spokane

Every hurdle cleared for bond

Spokane citizens supporting the Park Improvements Bond issue have done their homework. When the criticism was raised that the appraisal price for the downtown property may not be accurate, the citizens went out and sought an answer. They retained three of Spokane’s most respected real estate experts plus a professional MIA Appraiser and had the assessment reviewed. These four independent experts gave the thumbs up on the purchase price for the north bank property.

The experts also gave us an off the cuff piece of wisdom-“It’s not often you can find an extension of Riverfront Park.” In 50 years, we will be viewed as wise to have put this commercial land into park trust before it is gobbled up by commercial growth in the downtown core.

The next doom and gloom issue to come along was that maybe we shouldn’t purchase this Riverfront Park land because it might be contaminated. Once again, the concerned citizens sought the truth. The Washington State Department of Ecology reported that after extensive studies on the property, the environmental cleanup of this property would be minor.

Every hurdle has now been cleared. Let’s act on this wonderful opportunity for Spokane residents before it’s too late and pass this Park Improvements Bond. Nancy L. Anderson Spokane

Get behind park project

Bravo Spokane! We are bringing some very positive issues to the voters on Sept. 14 that we all, as a community can come together and support.

It is wonderful to see our mayor and City Council vote unanimously for both of these bond issues. The Parks Department has made an outstanding case for the need for this bond, and if anyone has questions each public library and neighborhood community center has a notebook with in-depth information explaining where every penny will be spent.

Come on voters, lets prove to each other that we can get behind projects for creating a positive future for ourselves and our children. Bonnie Zahara Spokane

CREATIONISM VS. EVOLUTION

Compelling evidence for open mind

How about minds open to evolution? How many people who go into hysterics at the mere mention of the word actually know what it means? Do they know how evolution (as a scientific theory) is defined?

Quite simply, the word evolution means change and current theory, as opposed to what Darwin originally proposed 140 years ago, integrates our increasing understanding of genetics and its role in maintaining variation in populations. The modern theory of evolution is defined as the change in the gene pool of a population over time. There, that didn’t hurt a bit, did it?

We also break evolution down into two basic categories: microevolution and macroevolution. Microevolution consists of changes in mean and modal phenotype, and morph ratios in a population from one generation to the next. The peppered moth is the classic example of this (look it up - it can be found in nearly any biology textbook). Macroevolution, however, is concerned with changes above the species level and requires in most, if not all, cases large amounts of geologic time. Creationists usually point out that we have never seen evolution happen (oh, yeah, now they demand proof). Well, yes, we have in fact seen it - what do you think penicillin resistant bacteria are, for example? There are other examples of plants and insects as well.

If your mind is even partially open to reason, the evidence is compelling. For a more comprehensive treatment of this subject, I recommend the website http://www.talkorigins.org. Patricia A. Scot Springdale

IN THE PAPER

Headline disappointing

I was truly amazed and disappointed by your Aug. 21 headline, “Shoppers flood mall’s debut.”

When this news takes priority over 40,000 killed in quake and other more newsworthy items, I guess we know for sure what “family” dictates Spokane news.

Do you think there may be a personal agenda or interest here? Newsworthy, yes; headline news, no! Come on, Spokesman, who do you think you’re fooling? Trevor P. Blount Spokane

OTHER TOPICS

Change telecommunications rules

I am concerned that consumers in the state of Washington may never make it to the broadband Internet unless Congress acts to remove regulatory barriers.

A recent study found that the nation would have twice as many Internet backbone hubs - the high-speed on ramps where users clime aboard the broadband Internet - as it does today if there were no regulatory restraints preventing local telephone companies from investing in the broadband Internet.

At present, the FCC has restricted telephone companies from opening up the full range of their technological capabilities to Internet users. This puts a majority of Washingtonians at a disadvantage when compared to cable television users. The difference is called bandwidth but is best illustrated by comparing telephones allowed to carry one voice at a time to a cable system carrying a hundred different movies at the same time. Phone lines can now carry just as much but by law cannot offer this service to utility customers. It is a good illustration of what happens when government gets in the way.

I’d like to see our Congressional delegation sponsor or co-sponsor legislation to correct this problem and open up the opportunity of the Internet to more and more Washingtonians without access or desire for cable TV service. This is particularly true in rural areas where cable is not available but telephone service is.

I support affordable access to the high-speed Internet for all Washingtonians. Angela M. Port Spokane

Escalator flow a setup for trouble

Re: Sandra Hansen’s letter, “Escalator crush cause for concern,” Aug. 31.

My husband and I also found ourselves in the middle of the escalator crush about 7 p.m. Sunday night following a sold out movie on the fifth floor. We’re wondering if the Hansen family’s experience occurred at the same time because my husband did witness a man falling on the escalator above us.

I found it a very unsettling coming down to the overcrowded fourth landing, when we found the people on the fourth landing at a momentary standstill. You’re thinking to yourself, “where can I go to keep moving ahead?” I found myself being pushed and shoved ahead by the surge of people coming down behind us. A lady in front of us turned to say, “ My God, that’s dangerous.”

A scarier thought: If this is incident occurred under calm conditions, what, then, under panic conditions such as a fire?

The fourth landing is a bottle-necked disaster waiting to happen! Why wasn’t this scenario foreseen in the planning and final inspection stages? Someone had better be looking into this. Diane Nebel Rosalia, Wash.

Read up on gun control

Recent shootings in Georgia and California have caused readers to write letters to the editor seemingly in favor of increased gun control or total elimination of the right to bear arms.

Four years ago the issue of the right to bear arms and gun control was very much the topic of the day in The Spokesman-Review. As a result of the controversy, an editorial was written to offer an educated opinion of the situation. The editorial referenced the Tennessee Law Review, Volume 62, Spring 1995, No. 3. An address was given for interested readers who desired to know the legal aspects of this topic. I sent for a copy of this document and upon receiving it, read it from cover to cover. I now consider myself one of the more educated on this topic.

When I read letters from persons on both sides of the issue, I realize how misguided both sides are. Interested readers should write to the Tennessee Law Review, 915 Volunteer Blvd., College of Law-Dunford Hall, Knoxville, TN 37996-4070. Upon reading the facts, a person may take an educated position and support it with substance, not hot air. That position may be to appeal the Second Amendment, or to promote it. Whichever the position, the debate can be intelligently promoted by knowing the facts and the law. George Rekow Post Falls

Problems go beyond insurance companies

Dr. Ellen Pierce’s (Guest column, Aug. 30) plea for a national health care system would have more impact without the hyperbole and vitriol directed at private insurance companies. The fact is, that blame for our health care woes can be spread between insurers, employers, organized labor, the government, malpractice lawyers, liberal juries, the medical community, and patients, too. As to the medical community, let’s not forget that, before HMOs and managed care, the combination of an unbridled fee for service system, and doctors ownership of hospitals and pharmacies, gave us medical cost inflation in this country, the likes of which have never been seen anywhere in the world.

We have enormous healthcare problems that need to be addressed, ranging from the disproportionately high costs we incur as a society to keep terminally ill patients alive a little longer, to the whole spectrum of medical malpractice issues, to the poor match between our hospital/medical resources and the need for services - too many doctors and hospitals in some areas - too few in others. A single-payer plan may be a good idea, but it is probably the tip of the iceberg.

Insurance companies have become a popular target and the villain de jour. But all parties involved in our healthcare system have contributed to our current problems and need to be part of the solution. Beware the person who says if we only replace insurance companies with a single payer, all our healthcare problems will be solved. John H. Payne Hayden Lake, Idaho