Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

Keep parks out of politics

Spokane’s 56 beautiful parks, 1,500 acres of conservation land and nationally renowned public golf courses are not a product of chance. Our superb city park system - a defining element in Spokane’s enviable quality of life - is the outcome of the policies and vision of the Spokane Park Board, an 11-member, nonpolitical decision-making body, working with a dedicated, professional park staff.

Since 1907, the mayor-appointed Park Board has been empowered by the City Charter to act independently of the City Council in order to focus on what’s best for our precious park lands and golf courses. This system has provided continuity of leadership and has insulated the park system from turbulent City Hall politics. Appropriate checks and balances exist. Large projects, for example, require City Council approval and often a vote of the people.

For the last 93 years, Spokane’s parks have thrived under this decision-making system and have earned the support of the citizens they serve. Last year, 81 percent of voters supported selling the NorthPointe property to finance construction of a diversified sports complex near Joe Albi Stadium. A few months later, 62 percent of voters approved a $15 million park bond.

Despite our park system’s success, City Councilman Steve Eugster has proposed replacing the 11-member Park Board with five elected commissioners. The change could, in effect, hold our park system hostage to political agendas.

Please send our mayor and City Council a message: Don’t tamper with 93 years of success. Preserve our current nonpolitical system of park decision-making. Jeff Halstead Spokane

Questionable way to achieve diversity

Re: the April 17 Steven Jones and Steven McNutt guest column (Roundtable).

They say that the Park Board has diversity. How many attorneys are on the board? Diversity? They say the mayor and City Council appoint the board but the board recommends who should be appointed. They say the present system ensures a mix of fresh ideas and long-term perspectives. But if they recommend new board members are they really getting new ideas or just people who agree with the leaders of the park board? Dick Morton Spokane

Park Board working well as is

Like Steve Jones and Steve McNutt, the chairman and vice chairman of the Spokane Park Board, I am opposed to the proposal to reduce the size of the Park Board and to make it more “answerable” to the City Council, not only because the Park Board in its present form works but because it is work - a lot more than the council realizes.

The Park Board is a coordinated combination of 10 committees on which individual members of the board sit. The best known committees are for land, Riverfront Park, recreation, golf, finance, urban forestry and North Bank. I became a member of the Park Board in 1983 and served as liaison member while I was on the council. At different times I have been a member of every one of the committees - each of which usually held two meetings each month in addition to tours and field work. The agendas of monthly Park Board meetings are principally reports and recommendations of each of the committees, with discussion and motions for approval.

While I was on the Park Board, council members Dick Gow and Sherry Barnard made the same proposal that is being made now. With wide citizen support “we” beat them then and we will beat their successors now. Robert D. Dellwo Spokane

Crime Check doing hard job well

I want to give a “good job award” to our Spokane Crime Check Division. These last two months I have had to call them several times for problems in the early morning hours at my apartment complex. They have responded with speed and professionalism.

They should be recognized and I thank them so much for being there when needed. I would not want to handle the difficult situations they handle every day and night. I commend them for excellent service!

Thank you so much, from a very grateful citizen, for all your hard work. K.M. Morris Spokane

WASHINGTON STATE

Sound off about insurance gouging

I was surprised there were so few letters protesting the insurance premium increases.

I was outraged and called the insurance commissioner’s office to register a complaint. I was told by a very nice young man that I need not be concerned as my Premera Blue Cross premium was a Medicare supplement and was not affected by the increase. What about the thousands of individuals who will be affected? What percentage of that increase will go to the greedy administrators’ salaries and exorbitant bonuses?

I suggest that every one of the thousands affected call the governor’s office and insurance commissioner’s office and register a complaint. Bunny Bippes Tekoa, Wash.

BUSINESS AND LABOR

Kaiser produces wrecked lives

Re: “Conflict takes toll on families” (Letters, April 15).

After reading Nicole McIntyre’s letter, I cried. Here is a 15-year-old young lady watching her family suffer and break apart all because of Kaiser - Ray Milchovich and Charles Hurwitz.

I myself can see firsthand what this lockout has done, not just to other families but also to mine. My husband has been a Steelworker-Kaiser employee for 22 years. For the past 19 months I maybe can count on one hand the times I’ve seen him, maybe five months altogether. He’s trying to get this whole thing over and done with, so every Steelworker can go back to work.

It has definitely taken a toll on our marriage of 18 years. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth every time I hear the names Kaiser Aluminum, Milchovich or Hurwitz. I get physically sick every time I go to the United Steelworkers’ union hall on Trent, because all you hear about is death, illness or divorce. Thanks, Kaiser. Yes, I am putting the blame where it belongs: on you. Denise Zook Post Falls

Steelworkers pursuing safety goal

Re: “Strikers have bad attitude” (Letters, April 15).

The newspaper headline, “Steelworkers win power play,” means to this Steelworker that we have done the responsible thing for the communities we live in by convincing the Bonneville Power Administration that it should hold companies to a good-corporate-citizen behavior standard.

An individual citizen who commits a felony loses the right to vote. Three strikes and the person goes to prison for life. Now, because of this new BPA policy, if a company commits crimes against our community the owners will lose profit by losing low-cost access to our chief natural resource, electricity. Maybe this will encourage Kaiser to obey the law in the future. If not maybe it will encourage Kaiser owner Charles Hurwitz and his gang to leave town before causings a catastrophic industrial disaster in our region.

The environmental fines levied against Kaiser in the past year and a half portend such an event. Will it be a massive chlorine leak costing thousands of lives or more chemical pollution of our aquifer? Why wait until this happens to encourage this robber of pension funds, living wage jobs and natural resources to leave town?

Instead of criticizing the Steelworkers, Jean Sherman should thank us for our effort to stop Hurwitz, even at the possible expense of our own jobs. Margaret Larive Steelworker, Trentwood, Spokane

LAW AND JUSTICE

Young writer shows good grasp

I compliment Nowell Bamberger (Letters, April 14) on his understanding of the Constitution. As a 15-year-old he is coming into constitutional matters without preconceived prejudice on what he would like the Constitution to say, as opposed to what it actually says.

As a constitutional right, I agree with Nowell that “arms” are anything that can be used defensively. Why the hangup with guns? When the Constitution was written they were the primary defensive weapon, but there are much more destructive ones today. It wasn’t a gun that blew up the Alfred Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City; it was explosives in the hands of “patriots.”

I don’t believe that anyone has the unfettered right to carry any sort of weapon that they choose.

Frankly, I am more concerned about a prospective government run by “patriots” and unregulated militia than I am of one run by elected representatives.

Keep up the good work, Nowell. Bob Grant Spokane

Noise abatement law overdue

I agree with Jim Wilbur wholeheartedly (“Noise abatement law needed,” Letters, April 11).

I, too, live next to a business and on a very busy four- lane street. My neighborhood consists of many seniors who must find this obtrusive noise an irritant. At times the windows in my home rattle.

I feel everyone should be able to enjoy their music. However they do not have the right to inflict it on others. Could part of this be an attention-seeking device? Most of what I hear is not music but the vibrations of the bass with no melody, or rap with its bad language. Should I “share” with them my love of Luciano Pavarotti?

A noise abatement law is long overdue. Ilene Brandenburg Spokane

THE ENVIRONMENT

Join in celebration of Earth Day

Most of us are aware that the term “global warming” has negative implications. But many of us aren’t aware that we, as individuals, can do a lot to remedy the problem.

Earth Day 2000 is the 30th anniversary of a historic event - the first time the nation came together in recognition of our responsibility toward the environment. That event has grown to include 500 million people in 170 countries. For the first time, Earth Day has one theme - Clean Energy Now!

Tomorrow, people all around the world will have the chance to learn about the causes of global warming, the new technology available to combat the problem and how their own choices can assist in keeping the planet healthy and safe.

In Spokane, that opportunity will happen at Riverfront Park from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. There will be various blues, folk and reggae bands playing in the Clocktower Meadow. The compost fair will be held in the Japanese Gardens from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Procession of the Species will begin at 1 p.m. at the North Bank Shelter and wind through the park ending at the Clock Tower at 2 p.m. Immediately following that there will be an Earth Day program, including a proclamation, awards and a ceremonial tree planting.

The annual Easter egg hunt will be held at noon and there will be more than 30 various displays from environmental groups, government agencies and local businesses.

Come join us for our piece of what could be the biggest global gathering ever. Visit earthday.net for details. Curtis Durrant Spokane Earth Day 2000 Planning Committee

Take care of our Earth every day

I’m sure you’ve heard it before but every day is Earth Day. Whether you like it or not, nearly every action you take has political and usually environmental consequences.

Do you recycle? Do you support organic farming, ride your bike or car pool to work? Are you a member of your local conservation group? And if not, why not? Although the choice not to pay attention to the environment may have become rote, it reveals political and environmental value statements about yourself.

The point is, we have a choice. We can choose to be conscious and minimize our individual impacts on the planet and its natural ecosystems that support human life or we can ignore our responsibility to be stewards of this magnificent blue planet. Either way, Earth Day is a very real and daily part of our lives. Happy Earth Day! Lupito Flores Spokane

OTHER TOPICS

Miami family defying law

What price freedom for little Elian Gonzalez?

It never ceases to amaze me as to whose definition of “freedom” we allude to in dealing with certain situations. Whose freedom rights are the Miami Cubans alluding to when they defy a direct government order to reconcile Elian with his father? The relatives are holding Elian hostage and in essence saying they have more rights to the boy than his own father just because they are in America.

If they were truly for the child’s happiness and saying this is a family matter, then why not hasten a peaceful solution? They say meetings will be on their terms. They’ve only had the boy four months, not four years.

It appears the only freedom they will honor is the freedom rules they are setting down.

I am not so sure who the dictator is here. Maybe Castro should be afraid of the Miami clan. Doris Mae Aaron Spokane

Random computation - believe it

Ken Clark (Letters, April 14) argued that evolution is a “fairy tale” because random genomes, like random computer programs, are probably nonfunctional. There are two errors in this argument.

In my research, I simulate evolution to create both programs and circuits. I begin with random sequences of bits and then mutate them, mix them and measure their “fitness.” A fit program does what I want slightly better than the rest, even if it isn’t perfect.

I then randomly select survivors with a very slight bias toward the more fit ones. Then I repeat the process.

Notice how randomness permeates the process. I have used this technique to design stock market portfolios, robot control circuits, image classification circuits, twostroke engines and much more.

This field of computer science, known as evolutionary computation, shows that randomness can indeed produce computer programs. To learn more, I invite readers to enroll in my class on evolutionary computation at the University of Idaho.

How can random processes create order? Creationists point out that it can’t, and they’re right. But natural selection, which is not at all random, does create order. Randomness only provides the raw material from which selection preferentially selects better individuals. That is how evolutionary computation works, and that is how natural evolution works.

Clark’s assertion that evolution requires all atoms to be arranged “by chance” is a fundamental misunderstanding of evolution. To learn more, attend any course in modern biology or read any of the excellent books by competent biologists on evolution. Dr. James A. Foster University of Idaho, Moscow

Review validates play’s point

I take issue with the newspaper’s negative review of the Interplayers’ current production, “Taking Sides,” by Ronald Harwood. I found the play engaging and challenging.

The play, set in 1946, involves a conflict between a German symphony conductor and an American Army major who is investigating the conductor’s behavior during the Nazi years. The newspaper’s reviewer was particularly critical of the major and, among other things, of his use of four-letter words. This character is disturbing to encounter, but not because, as the reviewer suggests, of the ineptitude of the playwright or actor. The character is disturbing because he embodies American cultural traits that are not admirable. The principal one is that of anti-intellectualism, a strong current of which Harwood is not alone in detecting in American culture.

In the play this anti-intellectualism manifests itself in the major’s inability, or unwillingness, to attribute any value to classical music or works of art in general; and it is evident in his effort to explain all human motivation in terms of elemental, visceral responses (for which the use of vulgarisms is quite appropriate).

It is unsettling to have one’s cultural assumptions challenged and that is what the play does. But that is the nature and function of good literature, good art - to force you to see things anew.

So don’t be put off by the negative review. If you want to see an excellent play, get a ticket to “Taking Sides.” William P. Safranek Spokane