Letters To The Editor

IN THE PAPER

Missionaries role to start schools

Jeanne Givens in her guest column (March 27) blames almost all the present Indian problems on the Catholic Church and its missionaries. I could be wrong, but my history of this area recorded that the missionaries only tried to convert the Indians to Catholicism (and many were converted) and to start schools to educate them. I believe it was fur traders and the U.S. Army that took most of the land and converted it into farms and cities.

Chief Joseph was not pursued by the missionaries.

Givens wants Father Point’s paintings given to the Indians because he painted Indian scenes. I have never heard of an artist giving his paintings to his subjects. I doubt that Charlie Russell did. Givens wants Cataldo Mission (which is a National Historical Site under the control of the state of Idaho), returned to the Indians, and also to have Gonzaga University “return to its original mission of educating Indians.” Her mother “attended the boarding school at Sacred Heart Mission from 1928-1935.” Was she there because it was better than home? I’m sure no one held her there and I wonder if anyone paid anything for her keep and education. Thomas E. Groce Spokane

Face responsibility for bad things

I read, with some wonder, about the 3-year-old killed by a 7-1/2-foot “pet” python while his parents slept. “Judge acquits parents after python kills son,” (March 25). The judge said the prosecutor failed to prove the parents knew the snake was “practically certain” to endanger their son.

How stupid can humans get? The snake, a living wild being, held against its will in the confines of a mobile home cannot be expected to lose it’s natural instincts to hunt and kill. I have had it with humans who capture wild animals and enslave them for their own personal entertainment.

Society is forced to kill countless numbers of readily available domesticated dog and cats daily. Although these instances, where people are being mauled, maimed and killed by otherwise wild animals, are not as numerous as those caused by sober and drunk humans in automobiles, airplanes, motor boat, skis, snowmobiles, motorcycles and bicycles, it is still stupid, shameful and hypocritical that society condones and forgives people who own these animals. They are probably the same people who blame inanimate objects like U.S. Highway 95 and firearms for the death caused by irresponsible humans. Society must begin again to accept responsibility for the bad things in our world.

Where is your Page 1 story and mournful outcry for the abolition of this hideous practice? Benjamin J. Newbold Rathdrum

Clark’s column a disservice

Re: Doug Clark’s column on the Primate Center.

Clark is the one with the runaway imagination concerning this building. I bet if Gov. Gary Locke worked here he would get this place closed, but WISHA and L&I can’t seem to get it closed.

Bats, leaking roofs - sound familiar? Yes, it is poorly lighted, it has no running water with which to wash your hands and there is no ventilation in this building, but we do have dead bats, mice and birds. Skunks and raccoons also frequent this building.

Yes, it would be nice if we just used it for storage, but I see labeling, tagging, sorting, testing and dismantling of the computers.

I wonder where all the vials and used needles are coming from, since this building was supposedly decontaminated and cleaned.

Lord help us if there is a fire, since the exit doors are padlocked shut and no one seems to have a key. What a disservice Clark did to my wife, the entire community and me. Louis La Chance Medical Lake

Logging operation eliminated forest

As the owner of a 100-acre forest in Stevens County, I was interested in Eric Graham’s piece (Your Turn, March 15) and Steve Narolski’s response on behalf of Shawn Montee Timber Co. (March 28).

I am contemplating logging my place selectively again, as I have done three times since 1974. After each operation my land has continued to be a healthy forest.

Already familiar with Shawn Montee’s ads for small-scale logging operations, I was interested to see the job in question, and compare my impressions to Graham’s and Narolski’s. Since I have never met either party, I knew I would be objective.

Further, after locating the area, with the help of Department of Natural Resources, I realized I had seen and admired that forest last spring while bicycling in the area.

I was stunned when I arrived to see only a few scrawny trees, scattered on devastated ground, with no brush. Narolski obviously is counting on no readers checking his claims: there are no mule deer, as there is no forest. It is a disguised clear cut. Anybody who walks through the area will not disturb wildlife - there is none. Narolski’s claim that his company “has worked hard to develop positive relationships with the region’s major sawlog purchasers” undoubtedly is correct. But what about timber farmers, and what about the forests?

That land will not recover for many decades. It was a bad logging operation. Keith C. Johnson Spokane

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Just what do we have money for?

It seems we have money for everything except giving the American taxpayers a break. If we lower the taxes, there will be no money for Social Security or Medicare.

Recently, the evening Fox News reported that the cost of President Clinton’s trip last week cost you and me $70 million - that’s for one week. He promised $50 million to Bangladesh and other countries to harness clean energy sources, $97 million for food assistance and $8.6 million to help 30,000 children move from work to school. Last summer, it cost we taxpayers $7 million for the Clintons to vacation in the West for one week.

Something is wrong with this picture, right? Bunny Bippes Tekoa

Shame on legislators

Some of our state legislators should return to pulling wings off butterflies. Imagine cutting funds from Child Protective Services and special needs foster children.

We’re all aware of how many pedophiles and sex offenders are in our area. Now our legislators are going to cut funds for the already overworked and stressed out CPS workers who investigate abuse cases.

As a Juvenile Court guardian ad litem for more than 15 years, I have had cases where the child abuse was so severe it haunted me. CPS workers deal with these dreadful problems day after day, because terrible things happen to children right here in Spokane.

Words cannot express the contempt I feel for the brain-dead legislators, in their cozy worlds, who balance the budget on the backs of abused kids. Sally Jackson Spokane

SOA protests will continue

U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt has done it again, cast a vote to approve funding of the School of Americas at Fort Benning, Ga.

Despite countless letters to him asking for support in the closure of this military training facility for Latin Americans, and pleas from thousands of citizens who have participated in annual protest marches at Fort Benning, he has ignored us.

We will continue to pursue this human rights issue, remembering Archbishop Oscar Romero and other Salvadorans murdered by SOA graduates. Linda L. Lambert Spokane

Funds must come from workers’ pockets

While everyone complains about the increase in gasoline prices, very few speak out loudly about government taxes. Twenty years ago, gas was about $1.25 per gallon and my property taxes were about $800 per year. Today, gas prices are up about 25 percent yet my property taxes have risen over three times!

Education funding takes about 6 percent of federal tax revenues, 40 percent goes to state schools and local levies pour in much more. Washington state is the eighth-highest taxed state in the nation.

Initiative 695 opponents have yet to understand that the funds they all want, for whatever program, comes out of the workers’ pockets, not picked from trees. Consider the hours a worker puts in just to pay for the taxes. That is money worked for to provide a certain standard of living not to bolster a government bureaucracy that thinks it can spend my money better than I can. R.R. McCarthy Spokane

LAW AND JUSTICE

Drug court for first-timers

Ronald Kappelman’s letter about the recent conviction of Tina Pearson-Anderson under the new methamphetamine trafficking law seems to suggest tough punishment is politically expedient to satisfy social concerns. I prosecuted Pearson-Anderson at trial. The new law in Idaho requires mandatory prison time (Washington has for years) for those criminals who make this deadly illegal drug. It does not distinguish between making meth for personal use or selling it for profit, fortunately, because most meth made for “personal use” generally finds its way into the hands of others, including juveniles who get hooked on it in many cases.

Rehabilitation is one goal in sentencing criminals. However, deterrence and retribution are others. Protection of the public is equally of concern in meth cases. This new law is a useful and welcome tool.

I also prosecuted Michael Holstein. Last August, while high on meth, he led police on a high-speed chase in Coeur d’Alene, injuring one officer and endangering many civilians on their way to work. He was out on bail, having been charged with two separate meth labs. He is now serving 10 years in prison.

Kootenai County has a working drug court, designed for first-time drug offenders. They generally are caught possessing meth or marijuana.

Successful completion allows them to avoid a felony conviction. Makers of meth are not eligible. Why? Because they generally sell it for profit. People desperate for money for meth often commit other crimes such as burglary, theft, check forgery and armed robbery. Jim Reierson deputy prosecuting attorney, Kootenai County, Idaho

Let those convicted pay for cleanup

It seems every few days we read about another methamphetamine lab bust. I don’t mind seeing my tax dollars go for education, etc., but I am very tired of seeing my tax dollars go to support the cleanup(s) from the meth lab damage these individuals have caused in our community.

Why are we, the local taxpayers, paying for cleanup? Doesn’t it make more sense to require the person(s) convicted of meth possession to pay restitution to our community for the cost of the cleanup? This could be accomplished by making the following provisions standard among all such convictions: 1) All monies earned in prison, which are paid by the state, would be sent to the cleanup fund of the community in which the individuals in question were convicted. 2) Upon release, the felons would continue to repay the community. Failure to comply would result in additional jail time. A court ordered wage garnishment by the state is another option.

Let the state give back to the community the money prisoners earn while incarcerated and help lower the cost of meth lab cleanups for us all. What will it take to put into place the program outlined about? Action on the part of our elected officials, whose salaries are still paid by us. In an election year, you’d think they jump on this one to score big points with the voters… R.C. “Buck” Bowker Coeur d’Alene

ENVIRONMENT

Initiative doesn’t protect enough

It’s no wonder that Jim Caswell, supervisor for the Clearwater National Forest, would play up the violence that some people have expressed over the roadless initiative (March 17). He caters to a violent industry. The timber beast has been raping our public lands for too many years. They’ve clearcut too many acres, destroyed too many watersheds and have become addicted to public subsidies. They’ve exploited local communities and have instilled propaganda.

Now they’re scared to face the facts. These are our national forests. Forest Service goons have given away our trees, and we’re footing the bill in dollars by building and maintaining roads and in environmental degradation.

If Caswell were sincere about stopping violence, he’d educate folks and tell them that the initiative will not lock people out of our National Forests. It only protects a small fraction of these forests from road building, logging and mining. People can still hunt and recreate in them. The majority of lands are left for the beast. Read the initiative yourself. It’s simple.

The people who are feeling violent should realize that it’s the industry that has put them in jeopardy. The beast has become over-mechanized and has been cutting unsustainably. If I were a logger I’d demand that the timber industry reduce its reliance on large machines, stop clearcutting, heed environmental regulations and be better stewards of the forest. We wouldn’t be in this mess if the industry hadn’t been so greedy. I sympathize with loggers, but I’m more concerned about the long-term health of our national forests. Garrett Clevenger Moscow, Idaho

EVOLUTION

Macroevolution still unexplained

Re: “Tracing the tree” (Spokesman-Review, March 25).

Thank you for your article regarding the newest evidence of “Lucy’s Legacy.” It has been demonstrated that the greatest anthropological minds have struggled in the quagmire of assumptive possibilities once again. It is interesting to note that Brian Richmond and David Strait even go as far as to say they don’t have observable evidence of Lucy knuckle-walking but infer it as an “echo.” Is this science? No. But it is wishful thinking.

Let me remind the readers that Australopithecus afarensis was nothing more than an ape or chimpanzee, for these reasons. There is nothing in their appearance to suggest they were related to human. The long arms are identical to that of a chimpanzee. Their jaw shape, upper leg bone, brain size, shape of skull, etc. are indicative of the shapes and sizes found in chimpanzees. The image of afarensis that emerges from this brief description is far more ape-like than we have been led to believe.

As put by Charles Oxnard, Professor of Anatomy at the University of Southern California Medical School, “… we are left with the vision of intermediately sized animals, at home in the trees, capable of climbing, performing degrees of acrobatics and perhaps of arm suspension.”

What’s the old cliche? “If it walks like a duck…” But then again let’s not get the proverbial cart before the horse. None of this explains macroevolution, evidence sorely missing in the fossil index. Larry Locke Coeur d’Alene

FIREARMS

Political agenda? I think not

Re: “Free gun lock offer refused at last minute” (March 28).

Is the crusade against gun ownership strictly a political agenda? Of course it is! Witness the refusal of the chief of police of Bellevue to hand out free gun locks to resident gun owners. Reason: “We don’t know the donor’s agenda.”

How could putting a free gun lock on a weapon to possibly prevent a child from blowing his brains out, or someone else’s, be effected by the donor’s political views?

No folks, I’m not a member of the NRA, just a voice crying in the wilderness. Herman Littman Spokane