Letters To The Editor

HEALTH AND SAFETY

Impraired driving a willful wrong

Having just attended a MADD candlelight vigil on Dec. 1, I was dismayed to read the regional news briefs Dec. 2 relating to two local incidents of impaired driving. Both described the collisions as “accidents,” even while stating alcohol was involved.

Surely, we know through common sense, education and statistics that the likely outcomes of impaired and reckless driving are no accident.

Both items listed factors too commonly familiar to those of us who have been touched by this crime: drivers impaired by alcohol, illegal driver (suspended license), faulty equipment (headlight out), recklessness (driving in the wrong lane/against the direction of traffic).

This past summer in Spokane a young man working as a pizza delivery driver was impaled by a piece of rebar that pierced the windshield and his head - truly an unpredictable, freak accident. Sometimes drivers skid out on black ice, wildlife darts out from along the roadside or some other unforeseen event occurs which results in fatal or injurious consequence. Those events are surely accidental. But impaired-driving incidents and the reckless actions of drivers who are speeding, tailgating, distracted by cell phones or other diversions are not.

Language is important in framing perceptions. Impaired driving is no accident. Please, don’t minimize or misstate the reality of collisions, crashes or wrecks that injure, maim and kill people due to drivers who are impaired, reckless and illegally driving. The resulting carnage is a preventable tragedy and crime. It is no accident! Marilyn Darilek Spokane

Cuisine haut but not so healthy

Leslie Kelly’s review of Patsy Clark’s in the Nov. 24 Weekend is so true.

I like to go to Patsy Clark’s to celebrate special occasions. I have to ask the chef to prepare me something other than what is on the menu. I do not tolerate salt. I would never order soup there without tasting it first.

The chefs in higher-end dining need to realize that the majority of their patrons are not 20 years old; they are 50 and up. Many patrons in this age group have health problems such as heart problems, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, kidney problems and Meniere’s disease. We still like to eat out and get tired of chicken. Shrimp is fine if not dipped in salt-laden batter and deep fried.

Chefs in Spokane need to clean up their sauces and specialties, using less salt and more spices and herbs. Lock up the salt and let the dinner patrons add their own salt at the table. Darleen Willmering Deer Lake

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Only Republican clout counts?

I note that Rep. George Nethercutt has lamented Sen. Slade Gorton’s defeat and the resulting “loss of clout for Washington” and the “loss of his institutional memory.”

I do not remember Nethercutt’s concern about these issues in 1994 when he was running against Tom Foley. Eugene Johnson Spokane

Your support is appreciated

Now that the final vote count has been tabulated, I congratulate Representative-elect John Ahern and wish him well in his service to the people of the 6th District and the region.

This election was extremely close. I, of course, publicly thank all of my family, friends and colleagues for their hard work and support. We nearly made history - the first Democrat in the 6th District since the 1930s, and the tie-breaker race in an evenly divided state House of Representatives. But, politics being what they are these days, it just didn’t happen.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the special support my campaign received from people concerned about public education (particularly our teachers and the WEA-SEA); from all of those hard-working men and women of organized labor; and from those who crossed party lines in support of a bipartisan agenda of progress for our region.

To all of you I say thanks, and our work isn’t over yet. Jack Geraghty Spokane

THE MEDIA

You’re doing a good job, S-R

As a regular reader of The Spokesman-Review over the past 35 years, I would like to offer the main reasons why I continue to read and enjoy your paper.

While most media seem to lean far to the political left, The Spokesman-Review presents a surprisingly balanced coverage.

Despite being the only full-service newspaper around, The Spokesman-Review is only 41 cents an issue delivered to my door, including Sundays.

Your coverage of local sports, especially the State B basketball tourney and Bloomsday, is exceptional.

The Spokesman-Review Christmas Fund is an uplifting and spirit-filled act of kindness each year.

I can reliably find out each week how the fishing is at my favorite lake.

Reading your paper each morning is far more enjoyable than listening to the blaring TV or radio, or burning my eyes out staring at a computer.

Thank you for your efforts and please keep up the great work! Kim Crumpacker Spokane

KHQ got it backwards

KHQ has been our news station for more than 30 years. We watched Debbie Wilde’s first appearance as weather “girl” and enjoyed her progress to news anchor. She and Randy Shaw were a delight to watch. They were “family.”

We were saddened when Wilde was removed from the evening news. We were sadder still when Penny Daniels was hired. Her personality came across as smug and condescending. It was impossible to warm to her. It was a relief when she left the station and we were hoping for a warmer personality to work with Shaw.

We were shocked when Shaw was fired. What is wrong with management?

There seems to be a new approach in management of “even if it ain’t broke, we’re gonna fix it.” We have seen many a smooth-running operation go through the trials of this theory. Many talented people have had careers ruined because of this faulty reasoning. It seems to us that the person who should be fired is the one who made the decision to break up the most popular news team in Spokane. Sharon and David Seitz Coeur d’Alene

KHQ yesterday’s good news

I’m glad to hear other people are disgusted with KHQ-TV for firing Randy Shaw.

I used to get a bang out of him, Debra Wilde and Dan Kleckner. They’d get laughing so hard sometimes they couldn’t go on with the news. It just wasn’t the same after Penny Daniels came on board.

After Debra Wilde left, if I tuned in to channel 6 and Randy Shaw wasn’t doing the news, I always changed channels. Now, I never watch channel 6 news. I have a large extended family and they don’t watch channel 6 either.

It’s too bad the viewers have to pay because of the way this problem was handled. Gwen Ruegsegger Otis Orchards

OTHER TOPICS

Bad situation before crook arrived

I am responding to the Dec. 6 article about the 13-year-old youth who, with a 12-gauge shotgun that was a Christmas gift, confronted an intruder in the youth’s Valley home.

I can’t believe it when parents believe it is OK to leave their children alone in the house with any gun. I am not a believer of guns in the home with children, especially unsupervised, but that is my opinion. I understand that this youth was in hunting safety classes and probably is accompanied by his dad or some other adult when using this gun for hunting. But to leave a gun with ammunition where it is accessible to the boy at any time? I disagree.

I do not believe that the Burgers are bad parents. I just believe this could have been prevented and I thank God their child was not physically harmed. Good luck to them on seeing Nick through this traumatic event. Anne M. Bordwell Spokane

Young pay for our getting ahead

Re: “Assignment from Columbine High” (Opinion, Dec. 6).

There is little to add to Jane Eisner’s column about Columbine High. Too many kids today, variously known as latchkey kids, aren’t kids any longer as they come to realize that they have been emotionally abandoned for years. Ever since many of them were raised at a day care at a tender age, they have been told in subtle terms that they are a forgotten commodity in get-ahead America. And, after they have basked in a decade of freedom (i.e. benign neglect) they figure out that they have indeed been abandoned and they are mad and all too easily led by negativity.

Affluence is not a compensating factor. Race and gender have little to do with it. They see revenge as a solution as they become bored with their indolence. They know they have been ripped off but don’t know what to do about it, exactly.

Unfortunately, they seek power in self-destructive rage, violence and weapons. They have figured out that money and so-called quality time do not add up to selfconfidence and happiness. Maybe it’s time we invest more of ourselves in our kids and less in our portfolios. Bob Sanborn Spokane

That head was part of your chicken

I am amazed at reports that a woman in Newport News, Va., has had trouble sleeping after finding a chicken head in her box of McDonald’s chicken wings. What was this woman thinking? That chicken wings grow on a chicken wing tree?

The head was only a reality check that the chicken wings are the body parts of an animal that had a face. An animal that experienced pain and suffering, just as we do. An innocent animal condemned to death after a lifetime of imprisonment in a filthy, toxic shed, so that her wings could be served up to a McDonald’s customer.

It’s high time for American consumers to wake up, find out where their food comes from and learn to live with the consequences. Peter L. Irwin Spokane