Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

Outflanked, his nibs shoots from the lip

Before Councilman Steve Eugster attempts to explain the universe and give three examples, please, for the benefit of all concerned, let’s sit back, take a deep breath and work up the courage to place a short leash on this most obvious megalomaniac - before he tears apart and bankrupts the city.

Eugster is that rare blend of grandiose delusion coupled with hypocrisy. He has displayed a willingness to meddle in everything from dog waste to public prayer. Most practiced dictatorial personalities attempt to convince the voting public they stand on principle. Not Eugster. At the July 31 City Council meeting, he readily admitted to being the culprit who drafted Ordinance C32673 expanding the multiple family housing property exemption program to the Peaceful Valley neighborhood for his developer friend Bob Cooke with absolutely no effort to bring our neighborhood into the process.

Fortunately, residents from Peaceful Valley and Browne’s Addition caught him in the act and mounted opposition to this ordinance and to the process used to bring it before the City Council.

Fifty one residents/property owners from these neighborhoods signed up to give testimony against this stealth act and a council vote was pushed off to allow neighbors to finally meet with developers.

During Eugster’s summation of his stand on the issue, he mixed me up with Terrence Knight (writer for the Local Planet) and accused me of calling him Satan. Sorry, Eugster, if there was any demonizing at the Aug. 21 council meeting, you did it to yourself. John Thamm Spokane

Provide transportation planning input

Our city planning office has been working diligently to come up with a plan that will help determine how our area will look for the next 20 years. Each plan offers the people a choice of three options for public comment.

The leave-it-alone plan is the most objectionable and the’ big-city plan is incomprehensible to most in a town the size of ours. That leaves the centers-and-corridors plan as the most logical option.

Most agree that, like it or not , use it personally or not, public transit, bike trails and walkable areas are vital and necessary parts of a livable community. Ensuring the availability of safe, walkable, bikeable areas and public transit-accessible neighborhoods is carefully spelled out in the centers-and-corridors plan.

That brings me to a problem: We the people are not commenting.

The planning department is pleading for comments on its proposals and the response continues to be dismal. Without comments that approve of plans to increase livability, our elected officials will feel justified in choosing or modifying plans that will reduce walkable, bikeable areas and transit availability. The result could be an increase in faster roads with higher volumes of cars throughout our neighborhoods.

Please take the time to write or call in your comments. CJ Tyler-Watson Cheney

Wilkinson has own agenda

I sure hope the good residents of Spokane County are paying attention to the race for county commissioner. A realtor-developer who has raised $49,000 primarily from realtors and developers wants to be your county commissioner. Does anyone see a conflict of interest here?

I think Karl Wilkinson wants to be county commissioner not because it’s good for the people of Spokane County. Wilkinson wants to be county commissioner because it’s good for Wilkinson. Robert J. Bly Newman Lake

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

`White people assume too much’

There’s an inherent flaw to anyone deciding what’s best for Native Americans. The theory that might makes right is becoming a definite thorn in the natives’ side.

Who’s the authority who decides how best man should interact with his environment? Is it the same one that allows this society to plead ignorance to every mistake it makes? This authority must seem very virtuous to those who uphold its so-called standards.

Native people don’t seek to change others’ perceptions and they are less than inclined to abide by those who would benefit or gain from the natives’ loss. White people assume too much. White society has always assumed its way is best. Anything that goes against that becomes a target they attack and destroy.

I don’t know why, but they never have seen the true profit to be made by coexisting with the environment. The people who would allow the Earth to rot are the same ones trying to deny the native his chance to enjoy what little is left of what Mother Earth has to offer.

At least for now, allow us, our Earth’s children, to brighten our little niche that is left. Allow us a soul to breathe from. You who assume we are better off with you will never understand what’s before you. You see only the short-term benefit of being able to destroy more, take advantage of more, and then wonder why the native will share no more, give no more - why we refuse to be taken advantage of again. Keith Williams Airway Heights

See domination in larger context

Re: “End archaic tribal sovereignty,” Letters, Aug. 26.

S.S. Howze’s well-written, though flawed, letter. European absorption of tribal peoples into modern states was the work of the Roman Empire. Roman rule for a thousand years was the source of modern-day racism. It was not tribal governments!

A Roman citizen was the ideal. Other cultures and peoples were considered inferior and commodities for exploitation. The Roman colonial influence affected later European nations as southern Britain. Although the Roman legions could not conquer the Northern Picts and Celts, centuries later their colonists met success. The Scottish people were devastated by forced relocation and cultural suppression.

These same successful tactics were carried to the New World and used on its residents.

The tribes are very American, now but not by choice. Until the last 20 years, Native American children were forcibly taken hundreds of miles away from their families, not allowed to speak their language or express their culture, often kept in leg irons to prevent running away. The American Indian Movement startled “the reasonable person” of the United States about government policy. Changes were enacted as tribal schools, language awareness, tribal police forces and tribal governments with political clout.

Ruling culture doesn’t mean that others aren’t valuable and worthy of continuance. The community of Spokane is enriched by both the Highland Games and the Powwow in Riverfront Park. I am thankful both survived. S.R. Robinson Spokane

Gender bias, even on Pulau Tiga

The final ballot on the CBS show ,“Survivor,” which determined whether Rich or Kelly would go home a millionaire, wasn’t all that hard to predict. The men voted for the man and the women voted for the women. Oh, sure, there was one crossover vote on each side. The burly truck driver, Sue, voted with the men and Gervase, the charismatic jester-family man voted with the women.

That aside, the final choices were made on the basis of gender. Even Rich and Kelly revealed this subtle bias themselves. When they were asked if they couldn’t be the finalists, who would they like to see in that spot, Rich named two men and Kelly named two women.

This show may have been called “Survivor” but a more accurate title would’ve been “Battle of the Sexes.” If the glass ceiling that has plagued women in the workplace, in their churches and in the political arena is going to manifest itself in all the wild corners of the world where this show proposes to play its game, it’s going to get really boring really fast. I doubt I will watch it next time.

Kelly won the final five immunity challenges on this game and if that wasn’t proof enough that she is, and will be, a “Survivor,” what’s it going to take for a woman to capture the next million-dollar prize? Sondra L. Wildman Spokane

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Democrats out to destroy freedom

The first Republican Congress in 40 years gave us the first balanced budget in years and put a lock on the Social Security trust fund. It legislated welfare reform, resulting in some of the lowest unemployment ever and gave us the capital gains tax cut that unleashed the greatest economy in the history of this country.

We have the highest standard of living because of our capitalistic system. Why change it to a failing socialist society? Socialism and its cousin, communism (Cuba and China), sacrifice individual freedom for collective poverty.

Democrats want to preserve their power by taking tax money from the workers and their employers, and distribute it, less the service charge of big government, to as many dependents as possible to buy votes. They want to control our schools, our businesses, our private property. Our founding fathers fought for freedom - are we going to give it up? Helene A. Klebba Vancouver

Democrats’ drug help bill lacking

Re: “Seniors challenge Gorton on drug vote,” Region, Aug. 25.

Sen. Slade Gorton asked if the demonstrator had read the Republican bill. Chances are that he hadn’t even read the Senate Democrats’ bill.

A feature of the Democratic bill I find difficult to accept is the provision that controls the drugs that will be paid for. They divide the nation into 12 districts and appoint a person to the post of overseer of the list of drugs approved for payment. There is no indication that he be a doctor, no provision for current or newly released drugs into the list. Indeed it appears that the seniors will be served by a list of generic and older prescription formulations. This is hardly a real solution to the drug question under Medicare. William C. Roberts Spokane

THE MEDIA

Maybe KGA will think again

Jim Miller, in his Aug. 26 guest column, was rather kind to KGA’s Rick Miller, calling him animated, agitated and shrill. Since he came on board replacing Richard Clear, I have become a fan of 590’s music. I cannot understand KGA having interviewed Rick Miller and hiring him over any of the Richard Clear replacements. I hope it is not a long-term contract.

G. Gordon Liddy, Rush Limbaugh and Dr. Laura Schlessinger are brilliant people. It turns me off and all of my friends, too, who otherwise listened to KGA all day to have Rick Miller run down these people as if he were of the superior intellect. Maybe this is an experiment with campaign finance reform whereby each hour of conservative talk has to be balanced by an hour of liberal speak. KGA has logged its three hours of that.

Goodbye and good luck. Kay Morse Spokane

WILDLIFE

Wolf hybrid breeding is cruel

The Aug. 24 photograph and front page article, “Wolf hybrids holed up at shelter,” was absolutely heartbreaking. The people who breed wolf hybrids are the ones who deserve to spend their lives crammed into tiny cells with no hope!

Hopefully, people will find it in their hearts to donate to the Kootenai Humane Society wolf fund and a solution will be found for these poor victims. Unfortunately, the only long-term solution is to stop the breeding. As long as there are animals living and dying in the shelters, it is just not acceptable to continue to breed more. Kerry L. Masters Liberty Lake

Agencies create fire danger

The various federal agencies that march to the drumbeat of the Endangered Species Act are on a mission to save every creature the agencies deem to be under siege by citizens. Water rights in the Methow Valley region of Washington state have become endangered.

The environmental elite demand that the four Lower Snake River dams be removed to save the salmon. Road construction, street light installation, new well permits and home construction are some of the victims of ESA.

Now comes an even more dangerous form of creature abuse than humans: fire. The tragic fires that continue to spread across and devastate the western United States are causing the destruction of habitat for the endangered species. Who is to blame for this wanton destruction? The same federal agencies that are trying to take away our water rights, dams and irrigation for farms, that’s who.

Because of the new regulations for forests and range land, dead brush, branches and dead old-growth trees are not being removed. Logging is being shut down. Roads into the forests are being closed. The result? The forests have become timebombs of dead, dry materials. Fire! Raging fires that are difficult to extinguish because of restrictive federal regulation.

Are these fires possibly destroying the very habitat and/ or creatures these agencies say need to be saved? If so, who will the agencies blame when this fire siege is ended? Probably YOU, the American citizen! Robert Lonn Davenport, Wash.

IDAHO VIEWPOINTS

That was just a first stone, Schroeder

Thank you, Sen. Gary Schroeder for asking for a special session of the Idaho Legislature to deal with the urgent problem of sex on Idaho Public Television. Although sodomy, which is a crime in Idaho, was neither portrayed nor even explicitly mentioned on either of the two programs that have been shown to date, it greatly offended our guardians of public morals, who seem to have a perpetual interest in other people’s sex lives.

But the Legislature should not stop with the crime of sodomy. It should also deal with adultery, which also is against the law in Idaho. Here they will have a field day for censors. Many Public TV programs involve the crime of adultery. And, nearly every day there are news programs where adulterous lawbreakers are portrayed in a favorable light.

There is more to this issue than secular crimes. Many Christians believe they are also crimes against God. But here there is a difference. God considers adultery to be so abominable that it is specifically mentioned in the Ten Commandments, whereas sodomy is not.

Most Idahoans, Christian and non-Christian, would not vote for a homosexual. But they gladly, nay, eagerly vote for adulterers.

Legislative censors certainly have their work cut out for them, don’t they? Ralph Nielsen Moscow

Dim viewpoints on Sun Meadows

Re: “A stitch in time can cost you nine” (Opinion, Aug. 19).

Tom and Linda Janson did get what they deserve but not soon enough and at an added cost to them. If the hearing had been limited to what was intended, i.e. whether zoning requirements were met, there would’ve been no costly, drawn out affair for anyone. It should have been approved unanimously.

Commissioners placed no “tough conditions” on the project at the second hearing. All conditions had been met and voluntarily exceeded when they got the first approval. The sole problem arose from those few who refused to become informed about a nude lifestyle. Rather than research and learn about it, they chose to condemn it.

It’s interesting to compare the Coeur d’Alene Tribes’ statements against the project when one has seen its casino and the additions under way there. Which is more harmful to the environment and wildlife, a brightly lit casino, lots of traffic, adding a golf course and bridle path, with another resort on the lake shore, or a smaller resort that has returned nearly 80 acres of eroding farm land to forest? Deer are seen nearly every day in Sun Meadows. How many are seen in the casino parking lot?

Editorial writer D.F. Oliveria’s sense of justice is sadly lacking and it’s obvious he’s uninformed. He suffers the same misconceptions as Commissioner Ron Rankin, who shouldn’t have voted against it on moral grounds. He was elected to be a commissioner, not a misinformed morals policeman. Randy and Linda Crockett Rathdrum

Thanks for a swale time

Kudos to he who conceived the swale. Not only is it probably ecologically correct in that it provides migrating geese and ducks with a wide variety of options for their layovers, and new nesting grounds for mosquitoes, but it also provides a diversion from the mundane task of mowing one’s lawn by helping him to hone his balance and obstacle avoidance skills. Is that great, or what?

The question that often races through my angry mind while mowing is, does that environmental engineer have one in his yard? One can only hope. Keith Cotter Coeur d’Alene

Dunn - `Give him a break’

Re: “Parks employees rip work conditions,” News, Aug. 18. I guess Maurice Dunn has changed or something. I worked for him during the summer when I was a kid, in the late ‘70s. He was great to work for. Maybe the people working for him now are just bent on getting rid of him. Both sides of the story will come out eventually. Until then, give him a break. Scott Spray Careywood, ID