Letters To The Editor

Unpublished correction: The correct address for the North Spokane branch of the Spokane County Library is 44 E. Hawthorne Road.

LAW ENFORCEMENT

Sterk’s prescription idea is dumb

I sympathize with our local drug enforcement people about the problem of meth labs. But to keep over-the-counter cold drugs like Sudafed off the shelves for hundreds of thousands of Washington residents so a few hundred meth makers won’t have access is crazy.

Sheriff Mark Sterk wants the cold medicines to be a prescription. Baloney.

Can you imagine the thousands upon thousands of people having to call their doctor for a prescription for Sudafed? Oh, yes, you have to get an appointment to see the doctor! Medical insurance corporations would really scream. The pharmaceutical companies would jack up the cost of Sudafed dramatically - prescription-style.

The meth makers will say, “We have to drive 15 minutes to Idaho now to get the stuff. No sweat!”

This is kind of like the gun craze - ban all handgun sales and the crooks won’t have them.

And where are all these meth makers and users who have been arrested in the last couple of years? You can bet they are on the streets after a quick hand slap from our judicial system. Patrick Forster Spokane

SPOKANE MATTERS

Higher pay, higher taxes - whee

Wouldn’t it be great if all the businesses in Spokane gave their employees or themselves a 70 percent raise? Thirty-thousand dollars a year is a hefty chunk of change for a part-time job! That is what the Spokane City Council is considering giving future council members.

If all business owners took a raise that large they would be eaten up by the competition in a heartbeat because they would raise bids and prices to make more money. The average raise is between 3 and 6 percent where I work and those raises are based on performance. We do not get a cost-of-living raise on top of that performance raise. Maybe other people in Spokane get bigger raises and cost-of-living raises. I don’t know.

I do know that I took note of who voted no and who voted yes. Those who voted to take that big raise will not get my vote at election time.

Now they want to raise our property taxes. I don’t know how long my raises are going to keep up with the rising cost of property taxes, groceries, gas, etc. It’s a vicious circle. Pretty soon, I’ll be selling my house because I can’t afford the taxes. Maybe one of the council members can afford to buy it and, hopefully, they can pay the taxes each time they raise them! After all, they make sure they get enough money to keep up with inflation. Maybe they could pass a law forcing all business to give the kind of raises that keep up with the cost of living.

Steve Eugster, take note of this! Debbie Lewis Spokane

County library’s staff outstanding

Attention all retailers, all government employees, all state, county and city officials and employees, all employees of private corporations in daily contact with the public - anyone who wants to learn firsthand how to respond to people in need at any level. I invite any and all of you to visit the Spokane County Library at 443 East Hawthorne Road.

There you will observe the most efficient, willing, professional, informative, helpful employees and volunteers you could ever hope to have serving your needs. There is no task you can give them that is too small or too large and they will persevere until a solution is reached. All of this with a smile, plus conveying a feeling that it was kind of you to allow them to help you.

If you have forgotten what it is like to be politely and cheerfully catered to when you are in need of expert help, give yourself a treat and allow the ladies and gentlemen of the library to show you how it is done. John P. Campo Colbert

LAW AND JUSTICE

Babinskis pulled a fast one and paid

I continued to read, with increasing amazement for the last four days running, about the deported Polish family.

Although I respect and admire staff writer Rob McDonald, his background and his writing, I find it hard to understand why he is championing their cause. These are people who came here expecting to have all the privileges and benefits of being American citizens without accepting the responsibilities or obligations. (All this without a Social Security card?)

Yes, half the world would like to come to this country. However, they must do it the legal way or suffer the consequences.

I spent most of the month of September in Poland. Believe me, it is not as they depicted it. I did not go there as a tourist. I traveled and lived with my exchange students and their family.

True, there are not the opportunities and advantages of America, but most Polish citizens are proud of their country and heritage, and are making an effort to help it become a better nation.

I do wish the family well, especially the daughter. As they have demonstrated, now all they need to do is roll up their sleeves and go to work. There is much to be done in Poland. Dorothianne B. McDowell Lind, Wash.

INS should make exceptions

With the Christmas Fund, Toys for Tots and food drives going on, I was shocked to read about the Babinski family.

I don’t know them. But here we have a hard-working couple who have been in Spokane for 10 years, trying to make a good life for themselves, and in steps the Immigration and Naturalization Service taking everything away from them.

Their daughter, Martyna, sounds like a very well-rounded young lady. To read what the INS agents did to her was horrible and for them to make a joke of it made me sick.

There are a lot of people over here who aren’t citizens and are getting welfare, etc. This family wasn’t.

If President Clinton signed an elementary school diploma for Martyna, why can’t someone try to get him to give the family a pardon?

The INS says all illegal immigrants are treated the same. But are all of them hard-working people trying to better their lives? No, not all of them.

Thank God for family and friends here trying to help out.

No, laws are not made to be broken but sometimes there is an exception to the rules.

Now a young lady and her family will have no Christmas. Think about that when you are giving to others at this time. Think about the INS’ grinch that stole Christmas - and everything else. Sally Hazlett Spokane

INS, U.S. laws in the wrong

In its inimitable fashion, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service has again shown its compassion and caring. Locking up Martyna Babinski, then putting chains on her to take her to the airport. Ah yes, just as “compassionate” as removing a terrified boy from his home in the wee hours at gunpoint and returning him to communist tyranny.

It’s time to end this immigration madness. If it weren’t for immigrants the majority of us would not live in America today. Immigrants have much to contribute and it’s a shame that we make it so difficult for them to flee tyranny, oppression and poverty.

It was one of our nation’s darkest hours when Franklin Roosevelt prohibited Jewish refugees from Hitler’s Germany from landing on our shores.

Now, the INS breaks up a family, destroying the life they have worked hard to make here - all in the name of “protecting” our culture, our jobs or our beloved welfare state - and to enforce our misguided federal laws.

“The land of the free and the home of the brave”?

The truth is that immigrants do not take jobs away from Americans. They generally work at jobs Americans will not take or are not qualified to do. And we wouldn’t have to worry about how much money an immigrant might soak out of our giveaway programs if we did away with our welfare state.

Can it really be that only the Libertarians want all people to be free? I say, let the Babinski family come back. Janice M. Moerschel Spokane

Empty head meets chicken head

Re: “Fried chicken head amid chicken wings has whole town cackling” (Dec. 3).

I have always been amazed at the level of pettiness, even silliness, concerning most of the civil lawsuits allowed for consideration in our present legal structure. But this suit compels me to think we are witnessing the certain deterioration and demise of our present social structure of “dialing for tort dollars.” It would appear we have long since given up on fair, kind and socially equitable notions of justice and are apparently satisfied with capturing the quick buck in court, regardless of the effect we might have on the whole of society.

What did this woman think she was eating? Tofu wings?

Katherine Ortega should become a vegetarian if she is so easily offended by less attractive parts of the dead animals she chooses to ingest. The ironic part about this is that chicken heads are a delicacy in some cultures. The only thing a judge should award Ortega is a vegetarian cookbook.

If Ortega’s lawsuit, like so many other frivolous suits clogging up America’s courts, is any indicator of the late stages of social entropy, I fear the vultures may be circling. Chris G. Bowers Liberty Lake

It’s a lawyer thing

What great entertainment the circus of lawyers in Florida has become for voters and nonvoters alike in America. No one who has ever hired a lawyer wonders why the process is taking so long. Lawyers write the laws and then other lawyers try to figure out ways to challenge and circumvent them.

It’s almost like football, with the offense creating new plays and then the defense countering with a new defensive scheme. I wonder if the game the lawyers play is as much fun to them as football is to me. Ron Marsh Pullman

BUSINESS AND LABOR

Kaiser hype can’t overcome record

Regarding Kaiser Aluminum’s television, radio and newspaper ads, ask the relatives of workers who lost their lives at Kaiser’s plants to see how great they think Kaiser is.

Ask the people who lost their jobs because Kaiser contracted their jobs to outside companies if they think Kaiser is so wonderful. Ask the people who were laid off because Kaiser sold its cheap electricity to other businesses if they regard Kaiser as a good community citizen.

Ask the people who are retired and were promised the medical plan that they retired on until they passed away how great Kaiser is. Now, Kaiser wants to place retirees, most of them on fixed incomes, in an HMO when they reach 65 or the retirees have to pay more to keep the plan they were promised would never change in price.

Who does Kaiser think it’s fooling with these ads?

Why doesn’t Kaiser change its name to Maxxam Corp. and stop degrading the name of Henry Kaiser? He did more for Spokane, and America, than this outfit ever has or will.

Please note that only company managers are making these commercials, not the working-class laborers, the union members.

As Kaiser’s ad says, “We want you to know.” Donald DeLong Veradale

OTHER TOPICS

Symphony’s effort deserves praise

This concerns Susan English’s review of the Alberta Ballet and Spokane Symphony’s version of this season’s “Nutcracker,” not by way of disagreeing with her but by pointing out something I think she missed.

I agree with her that the more serious tone of the new choreography may have kept audience members in their seats instead of on their feet. This is unfortunate. The dancing was exquisite. But I don’t know how English could write a review of this wonderful event and never once mention the contribution of the Spokane Symphony. Its performance was truly world-class. I wonder if she realizes how often, even in major markets, “The Nutcracker” is performed to a recording? Perhaps the reason the symphony’s contribution was overlooked was that it was so wonderful, it sounded like a recording.

From one who was thrilled by the orchestra’s lush, immaculate performance, let me say thank you. You were wonderful. Barbara Lambert Spokane

Thanks, Yoke’s, Mid-City

I thank Yoke’s for the great feast they furnished to the seniors, families and friends recently. The food was wonderful; the tangerines and candy, too! What a nice way to give back to the community.

I also thank Mid-City Senior Center for providing the space for this event. S.A. Caldwell Spokane