Letter To The Editor

Health and safety

Double standard behind home burning

I’m confused and frustrated regarding issues of credibility, mistrust and mixed messages passed to citizens from all levels of government.

On Sept. 14, the Washington State Department of Transportation burned a large home to the ground at the intersection of Highway 395 and West Hatch Road. In attendance were two fire rigs from the local fire district. It was evidently more cost effective and expedient to burn this home rather than move or demolish it, and haul the debris to the waste-to-energy plant, as would have been required of a private citizen or contractor. A substantial amount of permits and paperwork (including asbestos assessment) would have been required, along with months of waiting for final approval.

On-site burning of this home obviously released large amounts of pollutants and carcinogens into the atmosphere. Had firebrands been carried by winds into nearly brush and trees, the potential for a major wildfire was great.

I seriously question the judgment of all government employees who carried out this irresponsible act. This was done under the auspices of the same agencies that require strict auto emissions testing, regulate no-burn days for wood and pellet stove use, regulate yard waste burning, prohibit small warming fires at construction sites - the list of regulations and regulatory agencies appears endless. That is, unless a government entity takes the attitude of “do as I say, not as I do.”

I’m amazed that this act, with the potential threat to lives and property of nearby citizens, occurred. No wonder a large majority of the American population distrusts the bureaucracy their taxes support. Rhon Holm retired deputy fire marshal, Colbert

Older drivers are not a menace

Re: the Sept. 20 editorial, “Driving tests must be given to elderly.”

Like most journalists, Fred King is shooting from the hip, not really knowing what he is talking about in his editorial suggesting mandatory testing of older drivers. Sure, older drivers have some problems. Very seldom does an older driver drink and drive, nor do they use illegal drugs and drive. Most older drivers know they have limitations and live within these limits.

The Alive 55 program teaches that some over-the-counter remedies can impair driving. King, do you know the names of these drugs?

Best yet, King, why not go down to the Department of Licensing and take the driver’s test? Take someone with you for a ride home. R. Stuart Kirk Ritzville

Spokane matters

Suffering? Not in Green Bluff

My husband and I are the owners of a farm on Green Bluff and members of the Green Bluff Direct Marketing Association. Kevin Blocker’s article of Sept. 15 about the Green Bluff Harvest Festival left me feeling rather ill. I wasn’t aware that some people think that the commercial activities engaged in by the farmers on the bluff was a “competitive thing,” and because of this “competitive thing” Green Bluff suffers as a community. That attitude is absolutely ridiculous!

There is very little competition between the farmers here. We are not a bunch of vultures. We rely on each other and help each other tremendously. We care about each other’s successes and failures, because when one succeeds, we all succeed, and when one fails, we all fail. If that isn’t “community,” I don’t know what is. If some people would get out more and become a part of the community themselves, I think they would know more about what is going on. Joyce S. Hunt Green Bluff

Another season of wonderful music

My life has been filled with music, and I feel blessed. Long ago, a perceptive music teacher told me, “Son, there are three kinds of musicians: those who create melodies and harmonies and write them down; those who read the written notes and interpret them in sound; and those who listen with the heart to hear what the creator and the interpreter are saying. No one of them can live without each of the others.”

He was right, and I learned to listen to jazz and swing, to chorales and chants, to symphonies and concertos. Only on rare days have I not been filled with the beauty of music through the magic of audio electronics and, years ago, the talents of my children and their friends.

Nevertheless, at each summer’s end, when I again return to sit before a stage filled with the persons and instruments of a fine symphony orchestra, the energy of a talented conductor and the almost overwhelming skills of talented soloists, I find a lump of joyous expectation rising in my throat, just as it did more than 60 years ago.

At the Opera House last Friday night, I was not disappointed. The lump in my throat returned on schedule as the Spokane Symphony filled the stage. When the last thunderous chords of Respighi’s vision of Rome had responded to Maestro Mechetti’s baton, I rejoiced again for the opportunity to listen with my heart. Jack Poole Nine Mile Falls

Our group will recycle materials

In response to Sarah A. Caldwell’s letter of Sept. 12, “Could old fixtures be recycled,” Habitat for Humanity- Spokane is concerned about the recycling of used building materials and is opening a new Habitat-Spokane Builders Surplus Store later this year. We are currently accepting donations of new and used building materials with resale value that might otherwise be discarded.

Materials that cannot be used in a Habitat house will be sold to the public at thrift store prices. The “profits” will support Habitat-Spokane’s efforts to eliminate poverty housing in our community. Ross R. Stapleton, board member Habitat for Humanity, Spokane

Government and politics

Square 1 not the place to be

All the “flap” directed at Rep. George Nethercutt about keeping his word, dismays me.

Many of us, like Nethercutt, believe in term limits but (and this is a big but) the Supreme Court ruled that term limits for Congress can only be imposed by amending the Constitution. Accomplishing that is highly unlikely.

Three terms is too little time. Who needs a rookie first termer? Second term, getting experience and making a difference. Third term, we have a congressman really able to make a big difference for the betterment of Spokane. Then, out of office? Back to the rookie. Think about it.

Instead of this juvenile nit-picking, why not give a good look at the man’s voting record. Look at committees he serves on that are so important to us and listen to his platform and issues. They make term limits so unimportant.

Sometimes it is wise to change one’s mind, as important things occur, to enable one to move in different directions.

If that doesn’t change your mind, think what the alternative may be - back to square 1! Why not let this decent, honest, sincere and experienced man finish what he started? Betty A. Button Liberty Lake

Law and justice

Otter denied his legal rights

D.F. Oliveria’s snide and shallow editorial, “Eighty thousand wise-up reminders” (Sept. 14), at least makes the issue clear. In Oliveria’s opinion, the government can ignore the basic law of the land and make private landowners use their property in any politically correct way it sees fit.

But the U.S. Constitution specifically forbids this unless the owner receives due process and fair payment. The legal process is called “condemnation.” If an owner won’t sell property rights voluntarily, then the government must go to court. There, it must prove that the property right it wants is necessary for the public good and that the price offered is fair. None of this happened in the case of Idaho Lt. Gov. Butch Otter’s wetland, which Oliveria admits was improved by removing car bodies and noxious weeds. The EPA fined Otter $80,000 simply for failing to get its permission to do something on his own land without harming the environment or anyone else. That scares the bejabbers out of me.

Preserving wetlands benefits the public. But unless a property owners voluntarily relinquishes his rights, the government should have to prove in court that the public needs the rights to a particular property and pay what those rights are worth. Some say the public can’t afford to pay for all the property rights it wants. I say we can’t afford not to.

Few of us want to live in a country where the government decides what rights a citizen has. Edwin G. Davis Spokane

A plague upon the land

Re: “Where there’s a lifer, there’s hope?” (Hot Potatoes, Sept. 16).

The most recent spate of lawyers taking on the plight of lifers and the like only points out the overabundance of lawyers. They are sucking the lifeblood of the hardworking people of America, either by their frivolous lawsuits or countless appeals. Philip E. Resa Spokane

Education

Bad choices undermining education

Polls say that education is the No. 1 issue which a voting public wants politicians to address. Consequently, we can expect a host of educational schemes in days ahead.

Candidates without imagination will offer the usual remedy: more money for buildings, equipment and salaries. It’s the same old welfare mentality that says the only thing wrong with past remedial efforts was insufficient funds.

What we’re faced with really is a societal defect that most politicians will not look straight in the eye. It’s much like doctors treating an obese patient with high blood pressure. A lifestyle change is called for, but pills are the prescription - all because physicians bold enough to propose weight loss can expect a diminishing clientele.

Neil Postman, in his book, “Amusing Ourselves to Death,” looked at our television-ridden society and concluded that different types of media encourage different ways of thinking. Communication via the printed word requires sustained attention, logical analysis and an active imagination. However, television, with its fast-moving images, encourages a short attention span, disjointed thinking and purely emotional responses. Is it any wonder that the current shortage of public school teachers is mainly in science and math, where students must keep plugging before they reach intellectual success?

One private school official said he recruits parents more than students. He looks for homes where parents have gone against society’s grain and established a learning environment for their children. Such recruiting may sound elitist but the realism underlying it should banish thoughts of universal educational success without cultural transformation. Edwin A. Olson Spokane

Other topics

Gates’ gift is racism in action

Recently, Bill Gates gave a very generous $1 billion contribution to establish a scholarship based on a child’s race - nonwhite. It would be nice if he would give a similar, proportional, gift for the exclusive use of white children, especially for lower class or middle class white children.

I am not aware of any scholarships that are currently for white children only. Although they may exist, I am sure they are not as large as the one Gates has just established.

If white people who wish to contribute to a scholarship fund do not contribute to a white-only fund, I fear the time will soon come that non-minority children from lower or middle income families will have little chance to obtain entrance to college based on merit. If no one else will give our children a chance, we must provide for their needs based on nothing more than their race.

I call on all white people who are concerned about the educational excellence of white children to give to whiteonly scholarship funds. I am not a member of, nor do I support the concepts of white supremacy groups.

It does appear to me that to establish an opportunity exclusively available to children of only one race is a very racist act. John W. Axtell Valley, Wash.

More fuel on the anti-guns fire

Oh great, we got another sicko, lonely psycho who shouldn’t have had access to anything more lethal than a paper clip, so we’ll have more anti-gun hysteria in the media and Congress, which will result in more restrictions that hurt the law-abiding citizens, not the criminals or psychos determined to kill.

We need to find out what’s happened in our society to have produced all these violent shootings recently so we can correct what’s wrong, instead of only focusing on the guns they used. Charles Bezold Kettle Falls, Wash.

Psychologist should be `a good fit’

Re: Joan Harman’s Sept. 16 letter concerning Dr. Laura Schlessinger’s counseling practice policies.

A psychologist is not under the same obligation as a medical doctor concerning the treatment of patients with no regard to personal, political or moral concerns. A counselor, in order to be effective with a patient, must be a good fit for that patient. Persons who may not have the same degree of moral conviction as Schlessinger would not likely benefit from her perspective as a counselor and therefore would probably be referred elsewhere. I doubt anyone who know s Schlessinger would seek counseling from her if they did not share similar moral viewpoints.

And, I differ with Harman’s assessment of Schlessinger (i.e. the statement, “That doesn’t mean she is an exceptional person where her first priority, being a psychologist, is concerned.”) because Schlessinger’s first priority is ethics.

By the way, her degree as a doctor is in the field of physiology. Her counseling degree is a master’s in family therapy. As far as I know, she no longer works in private practice. She earns a living from her radio program and writing books. Lyssa J. Gooch Spokane

Millennium starts with 2001

The year 2000 is not the start of a new millennium.

Everywhere we look, we see signs telling us that the year 2000 is the beginning of a new millennium. The Postal Service has a countdown clock in many of its larger facilities. Exide Batteries is hyping a contest to get some lucky person into the first race of the next century. Robin Rivers, a Spokesman-Review writer, wrote about the Class of 2000 being the first graduates of the new millennium. These are just three examples. I hate to say it, but every one of them is wrong. The year 2000 is the end of the century and the millennium. The next century won’t begin until Jan. 1, 2001.

All it takes is a minimal use of gray matter to realize this. The calendar did not begin with the year zero. It began with the year 1. Count to 10 on your fingers, that’s a decade. Notice that it ends in zero, not one. Whether it’s a decade, century or a millennium, the last year will always end in zero.

Why would intelligent people do such a thing? Mostly, it’s just money. For others, like Rivers, it’s a matter of simply following the lead of these scammers and not using her own brain. For myself, I’m tired of it and I will do whatever I can to stop it, or I will boycott any company that’s involved in ripping-off the people. John R. Slaughter Spokane

Protester the one who has it right

With all the murders being committed in schools and churches lately, the liberal press refuses to accept responsibility for its tacit approval in the disparaging of life.

One case in point was the article, “Police arrest anti-abortion protester” (Sept. 18). Apparently, you feel free to portray this woman as a maniacal person when actually she attempts to save children’s lives! Your uncharitable depiction aids the death technicians who exterminate small, nonvoting, helpless unborn children.

If people of her character are impugnable by the press, Edmund Burke’s statement will follow, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” It does say in the good book, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Jack Raleigh Spokane

Killing bear a pathetic lesson

Re: “Teen tags first bear in yard” (Sept. 17).

Regardless of how properly it was done - with the sheriff present and the blessing of the Fish and Game Department - shooting a scared, young animal out of tree reeks of cowardice. Having a valid bear tag indicates that there might be a fair hunt, at least.

Shame on you, and the lesson you went out of your way to teach your grandson. Laura A. Wagner Spokane