Letters To The Editor
Spokane matters
Show up to support billboard ban
On Sept. 28, the county commissioners will meet to discuss an issue of prime importance to all the citizens of Spokane County: banning billboards.
Billboards are a visual blight on our beautiful county. As the unincorporated areas of the county grow, the urge to place billboards along these rural and scenic byways will increase. Try to imagine Argonne Road as it winds its way up to Day-Mount Spokane Road and Greenbluff, with the beautiful view of wheat fields and Mount Spokane in the distance - with 672-square-foot billboards placed every 300 feet!
Two out-of-town companies, Lamar Advertising of Baton Rouge, La., and Obie Media Corp. of Eugene, Ore. (ironically from a state that bans new billboards!), own more than 85 percent of all the billboards in Spokane. Let’s not let these companies wreck our views for their profits.
Encourage the county commissioners to enact a ban on billboards! Dan Simonson Spokane
4-H youths appreciate support
I have been involved in 4-H for seven years now. I have been very active with my horses, pigs and public speaking. I’ve enjoyed taking my horse and pigs to the Spokane Interstate Fair each year. For the last four years, I have taken the pigs I raise to the fair to show them and then to sell them at the auction.
I am writing to thank the many people of our community who took the time to come to the fair this year (and every year) to support all of the 4-H and Future Farmers of America kids selling our market animals. It really makes a difference to us when market price for hogs is only about 35 cents per pound and our hogs sell for 80 cents to $3 per pound! A lot of us who are enrolled in 4-H and are selling our livestock at the fair are saving the money we make for college. Without the many supporters we have in our community, I doubt that we would even break even after the sale on the cost of raising our hogs, let alone make any money to save for college!
4-H is a great program that allows kids nationwide to learn about raising animals, keeping good records, becoming better public speakers and, most of all, it helps us learn responsibility. Thanks to all of you who support us in our learning process. Stephanie Tucker, age 16 Spokane
Authoritarianism is not moral
Penny Lancaster has struck again with her personal opinions of what exactly a city of character is. Behind her musings seems to lie an less-than-moral attempt to regulate the morals of others.
Living in the diverse world we find ourselves in causes all of us to acknowledge that there are practices we personally find offensive. However, to assume that our attitudes are the God-given correct ones can lead to the loss of a free society. All of us make personal decisions that we must be responsible for.
Government fails miserably when it or others try to impose moralistic rules on its citizens. We have all witnessed the rigidity of a government ruled by bureaucrats, such as the government of the Ayatollah Khomeini. I don’t believe even Lancaster would want a society so controlled, although her statements leave one wondering. Roger A. Riggs Spokane
Smoke-free `vision’ laudable
On behalf of the American Lung Association of Washington, I am writing to support the county commissioners’ vision of a smoke-free county fair. An important community event like the Spokane County Fair should be an example of what we want our community to be - a healthy place for everyone.
Smoking in crowded public places not only poses a health hazard, it also sets a poor example for the thousands of children who attend this family oriented event each year.
Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death and disease. In the interest of public health, our goal should be to make this the last generation of smokers. One way to help ensure that is by demonstrating to our children that smoking is not cool, that smoking is not socially acceptable and that smoking is not a behavior they should aspire to try. Making our community events smoke-free is a very good example. If it prevents even a few of our children from joining the 3,000 kids who take up smoking each day, it is well worth it.
At the Lung Association, we work every day with people suffering the health effects of tobacco addiction and not all of them are smokers. Some simply have had the misfortune of chronic exposure to smoke from family members or friends unable to give up tobacco. Secondhand smoke is hazardous to even healthy people and especially hazardous to children and adults with asthma or other lung disease.
A smoke-free fair would be a superb demonstration of our community’s commitment to the health of all its citizens, especially the most vulnerable among us. Cindy Thompson, Spokane branch director American Lung Association of Washington
Good to see power play short-circuited
Regarding the quote from Tricia Hughs of Tobacco Free Washington in the Sept. 14 “Fair policy up in smoke,” article, “We feel that the county commissioners are backing down to public opinion rather than taking into account the health and safety of citizens.”
Well, go figure. Elected officials bowing to the opinion of the public who elected them. Imagine that. A special interest group indignant that it failed in imposing its wishes on the majority via the county commissioners’ office. This time, the public had the rare opportunity to express itself quickly and monetarily, prompting the rather comical finger-pointing retreat by the county commissioners.
I quit smoking about five years ago. Whether or not a person smokes is their business. Whether or not a special interest group can impose its views on the majority is everyone’s business. Jeff Clark Newman Lake
Government and politics
Bush right about gun control
I couldn’t agree with Texas Gov. George W. Bush more. Better gun control laws will not put love into the hearts of people filled with hatred. How naive to think so.
There is no way that I would vote for Vice President Al Gore or any other Clinton supporter who is fool enough to think that this would change things.
Clinton thinks gun control would change America? I am so glad he’s so concerned about psychos owning guns. Is this the same gentlemen who let two known terrorist go so his wife could gain the Puerto Rican vote in New York?
Are people in America really that stupid? Are women and minorities who support Clinton that desperate to dump their morals so they can have a say in government? Lori K. Michels Spokane
Bush - the exploiters’ choice
Fred Glienna’s Italian proverb, “When the poor give to the rich, the devil laughs” (Letters, Sept. 17), is a cruel but accurate commentary on the naivete of many of the hardest working people in our society today - young people and older, politically conservative workers who believe if they do their jobs well that their efforts will be rewarded by a fair, if not appreciative, employer.
In their minds, these independence-valuing people appear to envision Republican-supported corporations as practicing Christian ethics. But this is no longer the case - if it ever was.
Atlas has Shrugged. The Republican candidate for president this year, George W. Bush, won’t deny a coke-snorting, boozing past and likes to spout World Trade Organization rhetoric like “in this job market.” Those are the words of someone who understands that each young worker is but a “human resource” to be used and then discarded when he becomes worn or when a more exploitable “job market” is secured.
The global corporations that help fund Bush’s candidacy rival the old communists in terms of human exploitation and oppression. If unions and the working people of this country lose the battle against them, the next century may be a strange new world indeed. Margaret Larive Spokane
Tax cut subterfuge is wrong
Re: Sonny Poirier’s letter, “Estate tax rapacious” (Sept. 15).
Poirier questions the numbers presented in a letter where I berated Republicans for using family businesses as a red herring in their fight to eliminate all estate taxes. Here is some clarification.
A recent issue of Tax Notes (a professional periodical for CPAs) states married couples who own a business can leave heirs up to $4.5 million of assets and $7.4 million of farm property untaxed using current accounting procedures. A 1995 IRS analysis showed that farm property and family owned businesses accounted for only 4 percent of assets taxable by the estate tax.
I believe in tax relief for endangered family businesses. What I dislike are politicians who use family businesses as a screen to obscure their safeguarding the other 96 percent of estate assets from taxation. They mislead the public so as to hide the direct exchange of tax cuts for huge political contributions from the obscenely rich.
If Republicans believe family businesses need estate tax relief, they should present an estate tax cut for family businesses and just family businesses. If they believe the extremely well off deserve an estate tax cut, then let’s debate that on its own merits.
Tax Notes stated that in 1992, the richest 1 percent owned 36 percent of all the assets in America (more recent studies indicate they now own over 40 percent). This concentration of vast wealth strains the social fabric of a democracy. Vern P. Stevens Kellogg
Idaho viewpoints
City mustn’t ruin private health clubs
Individual interpretation of fine lines will often create controversy. There’s little question that a well-designed community center would benefit the youths and community spirit of Coeur d’Alene. But as our community now debates the fine lines regarding the proper role of government, this controversy may consume the worthwhile project.
Government should only intervene to provide a solution when private industry is not willing or able to provide the service. Government should not directly compete with existing private enterprise. Olympic swimming pools and gymnasiums, however, are often cost-prohibitive to build and operate. They are, therefore, good projects to be included in a public community center.
Exercise facilities are already abundant in this area and the city should simply not compete in this arena. If there’s any proposal to include health club equipment, use of that equipment should be limited to youths.
The financial burdens of operating a health club, and the real estate a club is built on, should not be underestimated. It’s not only the owners but also the many employees who are at risk if the proposed community center actually becomes a large publicly owned and subsidized, tax-exempt health club.
The lines are fine in this issue but I believe with the proper concept and design, a first-class community center with an Olympic-class pool can be accomplished. The kids and other citizens of Coeur d’Alene deserve it. But no one should be financially damaged along the way. As we recognize the proper role of government, let us re-define the proposed city-owned health club concept into a true community center concept. Jack Riggs Coeur d’Alene
Health clubs just worried about profits
It seems that certain health club owners do not want a community center in Coeur d’Alene. If health club owners didn’t think they were charging too much for their services, they would not be against the building of a community center, complete with swimming pool, here in the Lake City.
In order to join your average health club around here, you have to be making sufficient funds to afford a down payment, a yearlong contract, plus in some cases, the health club will ask for a first- and last-month deposit before they let you use their facilities. If you want to get in on a guest pass for a day, you are likely to pay upwards of $10. I’m sure the lawyer-doctor-professional community can afford such fees but the average Coeur d’Alene minimum wage earner can’t even come close to having enough money to afford health clubs.
Health club owners obviously are afraid that if a community center is built, they will, in effect, be undersold. The almighty dollar speaketh!
If other cities can have community centers, why not Coeur d’Alene? Many years ago, when Coeur d’Alene had a YMCA, the health clubs did not seem to mind. There was room for everyone and there still is. It is a crying shame that a city the size of Coeur d’Alene does not have a public recreational facility. Dave Holmes Coeur d’Alene