Letters To The Editor

Spokane matters

Some memorial, that Spokane Arena

Can anyone tell me where the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena is? A few years ago we were asked for millions of dollars to build a new sports complex. We were told that the new arena would be dedicated to the memory of area veterans. My dad was a veteran, having served in the Philippines during World War II. I was glad to support the new memorial.

When the B-basketball tournament came to town, I went looking for the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena. I couldn’t find it. I couldn’t find single sign for it. There are lots of signs for a Spokane Arena. I guess “veterans memorial” is just too many words to put on the building, or even a road sign. I guess once the promoters got their money, it was easier to hype Spokane rather than to remember the veterans.

Sorry, Dad. Gary Hartford Cheney

In-depth coverage encouraging

Re: Adam Lynn’s “Business group gets one-on-one with planners.”

Hurray, some in-depth reporting! While I don’t particularly like the story, I vigorously applaud Lynn’s work to dig below the surface. We need more stories that tell the people what is going on in their government, to hold officials - elected, appointed and hired alike - accountable. And I can attest that accountability can be a little painful.

I would have preferred a different slant on the story, one that better reflected the concerns for fairness that we commissioners were centering our discussion around. I would also have preferred a little expansion on my comment about hating public hearings: I like less formal settings where I can ask why someone feels as they do and gain insight into how to resolve their issue. It’s really difficult to ask many questions in formal hearings because others may perceive that you’re giving the individual extra time or, conversely, that you’re badgering them.

I prefer the Jeffersonian model of civic (and civil) engagement to the often uncivil, antagonistic model we currently employ in our society. I like what Daniel Kemmis has to say in “Community and the Politics of Place.”

If anyone out there in readerland thinks the Spokane County Planning Commission won’t listen to them, I invite them to come and tell us about it! We have an open public comment period at 1 p.m. at every meeting. (Next meeting: April 13)

Spokesman-Review, I appeal to you to give us citizens a lot more depth-reporting. It’s what a good newspaper does. Thomas D. Hargreaves member, Spokane County Planning Commission

Graffiti cover-up a bad move

I watched the Fox 28 TV News report on March 27 and was shocked when I saw graffiti or “ghetto art” of my own being covered up by local know-it-alls. I was under the impression that the skate park was offered as a place where it was OK for “taggers” to showcase their art. I was not under the impression, as a contributor to the display, that graffiti tags are really gang markings. In fact, a lot of people take great pride in their work. A more savvy city would have known what they were covering before they acted.

The skate park offers a conducive environment to keep tags off other private and public property where it is not appropriate. This city has just stopped short of daring graffiti artists to find other, less desirable, locations to display their work.

The person interviewed in the broadcast made the statement that the amount of graffiti in a community directly relates to its health. I would implore this ignorant individual to understand the issue he was talking about before broadcasting inaccurate and negatively slanted information to this community. James L. Wilson Spokane

Valley Kids at `play’ another irritant

Re: “Taking aim at panhandlers” (March 19). The last time I was downtown, several years ago, put an end to my twice-a-month shopping and luncheon trips.

Waiting to cross Riverside at Wall, I was hit in the back of my head by a large, full plastic soft drink bottle, one of several being thrown by a group of 15 or 20 “kids playing” while blocking the entire corner. Since I had in the past had a detached retina, a blow to the head was not a good idea from my point of view. Panhandlers and parking are not my only reasons for staying away from downtown. Ilene Nelson Spokane

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

Inscription is historically correct

As a longtime member of the community and subscriber to your newspaper, I found your front page article of April 1 infuriating. Mark Lanterman’s concern children might get a “mixed message” from the word “savage” on the inscription on the downtown statue seems ludicrous.

First, savage in this context is used as an adjective to describe the foes. It is not a noun describing a race or ethnic group. Webster defines the adjective savage as “wild, rugged, fierce, ferocious, primitive, barbarous, cruel, pitiless, furious, ill-tempered” etc. I am sure that 100 years ago, victims of the armed Samoans would’ve agreed. I define anyone coming at me with guns and spears as savage, regardless of race, creed or color.

Second, it’s important that the words be left as they are to preserve the historical context in which they were written. If children are concerned about the words, explain the historical facts and why those words were used. We can’t change history by simply changing a few words to suit our insane desire for political correctness. We can, however, learn from it and move forward. Susan Peterson Spokane

Business and labor

Alleged balance all in company’s favor

Don Brunell, representing 3,700 Washington businesses (Opinion, March 29), objects to extending unemployment benefits to locked-out workers because it amounts to a financial penalty to Kaiser.

When employees strike, they pay a penalty: no paycheck, no unemployment benefits, the very real possibility of no job to go back to. Kaiser workers struck and paid these penalties. When companies strike, it’s called a lockout. All union employees are locked out - even those who crossed their own picket lines. But there is no penalty for the company that strikes its workers. It continues to operate with replacement workers, gets rid of expensive benefits to longtime employees and eventually has a good chance of getting rid of the workers’ representative altogether. In short, the company not only names the tune but decides what the piper is worth.

Brunell would have us believe this is equitable. Baloney! If we want equity, our Legislature should pass the unemployment insurance extension bill and get to work on banning permanent replacement of locked out workers. When there are penalties for all parties, it becomes cheaper to settle than escalate the argument. Susan Walker Spokane

Destruction of unions is the goal

We learned in school that slavery was bad and it ended in 1865 with the Civil War. Well, not exactly because the robber barons then demanded more work for less money by pitting workers against each other for jobs. That drove wages down until “free men” worked harder for less than the slaves they replaced. It was the bloody labor revolts and the formation of unions that created the middle class and brought true democracy to America.

Maxxam-Kaiser and other corporations are trying to destroy the unions to revive global slavery. Education, organization, strikes and lawsuits are the only tools we have to resist this trend. We struck Kaiser because the contract they wanted would have cost us many jobs and the increased workload would have cost us safety and the quality that we needed to compete in the marketplace. Kaiser only competed on the basis of quality. We were never big enough to compete on price. J. Steven Dodge Chattaroy

Tipping balance would be a mistake

The media have had a field day reporting on the striking Kaiser employees, their recent pleas for increased unemployment benefits and their sleep-in protest in Olympia. I have great sympathy for the plight of these people but I strongly oppose providing additional benefits to them.

There are federal and state laws that govern the rights of both employes an employees in labor disputes. They have been developed over many years to assure that both sides have a level playing field. To pass legislation now forcing Kaiser to pay additional unemployment benefits to striking employees tilts the field strongly in favor of the employees. It would be about as unfair as passing a law requiring the workers to return to work at half their former wages and with no benefits. Large companies that pay good wages are scarce in Spokane. They’ll become even more scarce if this type of legislation passes.

What is absolutely astounding about this entire circus is the fact that Sen. Lisa Brown, the legislator who sponsored the bill, is an economics instructor at Eastern Washington University. An economics instructor, of all people, should certainly realize the consequence of this type of legislation. I have to wonder how objective Brown is in her classroom when dealing with the subject of labor disputes and capitalism in general. Hal R. Dixon Spokane

Kaiser CEO like boy crying wolf

After reading the Kaiser plea-for-sympathy letter to the community, I was sickened.

In 1985, Ray Milchovich asked the Steelworkers to give up many benefits in order for the company to remain open and operating. This required an individual vote and when Milchovich realized he had suckered in 51 percent, he became an instant millionaire. The workers have never been compensated for the concessions they gave up. Well, it ain’t going to happen again!

It has been 18 months now that the Steelworkers have been on strike. With each passing day without a fair and decent proposal their solidarity only gets stronger and the animosity builds. Once upon a time, Kaiser had respect for its work force. Those days ended when Milchovich came on the scene. Kaiser had two record-producing years prior to the strike but, apparently, this wasn’t important. Now, for some reason the company would rather lose money.

Things have been very difficult and challenging for all the families of the locked out workers and Kaiser would love to again take advantage of their vulnerable situations. If Milchovich ever decides to end this labor dispute, I wonder how he plans on ever gaining back the trust and respect from his work force? I guarantee it won’t come too easily.

I don’t know how much money a person thinks they need in their lifetime. People don’t live to be 150. Milchovich and I just might end up in the same nursing home. Vicky L. Anderson Spokane Maintain balance of force

OTHER TOPICS

Congress votes the money

Re: “Debt today must be paid tomorrow” (Letters, March 30).

I suggest that Leroy Harbour and others who think like him should read the Constitution and/or get their facts straight. President Reagan did not increase the national debt and President Clinton has not balanced anything. Congress makes the laws of the land, levies and collects taxes and no money can be withdrawn from the national treasury other than by law. Which party was in control of Congress while the national debt was tripled? Which party was in control of Congress when balanced budgets where finally achieved?

If you want to go back to deficit spending, high inflation and an ever-increasing national debt that will never be paid down, vote the Democrats back in control of Congress. George R. Knapp Addy, Wash.

McDonald is not a racist

Your March 30 article about U.S. District Judge Alan A. McDonald suggest that he is a racist, as if that fact had been established. It has not, in any way, shape or form.

Having had the privilege of working in Judge McDonald’s court, I can say with absolute confidence that nothing could be further from the truth.

The man I know respects the dignity and character of the human spirit in all people, of all walks of life. He has proved that fact by his conduct, rather than mere words, throughout his life.

Admittedly, McDonald has little patience for arrogance, mediocrity or lack of integrity in the attorneys who appear before him and has bruised some fairly large egos through the years as a result. That impatience, however, has nothing to do with race. In the dull roar of calls for condemnation being made by all sorts of people who have never even met the judge, I thought someone who actually knows him should set the record straight. The man I know is honorable in every sense of the word. John Ray Nelson Spokane

Cuban boy a hostage of politics

I am disturbed by the attitude of the family of Elian Gonzalez and their supporters. Not because they wish to keep him in the United States but because they seem to intend to defy the law to do so.

I can understand their wish to keep him here. I can also understand his father’s wish to bring him home. Which of you would not want your son returned to you under the same circumstances?

Poor little Elian has become a political pawn for the Cuban exile community in Florida. Now even the authorities in his community say they don’t intend to assist the Justice Department in enforcing any decision to return the boy to his father.

Elected officials take an oath of office in which they swear to uphold the Constitution and the laws of the land. Whatever has happened to the sanctity of an oath? It seems that political expedience - future re-election perhaps? - has taken its place.

Is this the civics and moral lesson we want to teach our children? Peggy Faust Hayden, Idaho

`Wishful thinking’ is not science

Paleontologists, much embarrassed by National Geographic’s latest antics, have recently tried to reassure the public with some new discoveries, as reported in this paper.

From a quarry near Shanghai and one tiny bone found therein, they have now conjured up the earliest primate, complete with “nocturnal lifestyle,” dating it at 40 million years old. The reason its bones were found so fragmented, they said, is because it was probably eaten by an owl.

Another article tells us that a small dinosaur found in Montana, dating to 85 million years ago, is probably the ancestor of birds.

Some quick math will show this allows some 45 million years to devise the avian breathing system out of lungs, and distinguish the owl’s features from those of other birds, and redesign the reproductive system without losing function, in the meantime. That is not long enough time by far.

Anyone who begs to differ should calculate the amount of mutations at the genetic level that would be necessary for these and other changes, an amount we can estimate from our knowledge of DNA, and consult a statistics text on random odds. Pretty quickly, the claim that dinosaurs changed into birds starts sounding like “pigs will fly.”

As for our supposed primate ancestor, let me get this straight: they find a bone fragment and know enough from that to fill two newspaper columns about the animal it’s from - all of it confirmation of evolution theory, of what an early primate ancestor should be like. That’s not science, that’s wishful thinking. More dinochicken, anyone? Jitske Hart Spokane