Letters To The Editor

Health and safety

Businesses neglecting safety

I was rather amused while reading the (Dec. 19) article on the snow berms in downtown Spokane. I realize the city has a limited budget available to continually remove built up snow but I wonder what excuse shop owners have for not clearing their sidewalks and entrances?

I attended a corporate holiday party at one of the major downtown hotels on Saturday night. The sidewalks were ice-covered and slippery. The parking lots were unplowed. And this is the area where shop owners are always whining about people not using the shops and city center!

There is no excuse for uncleared sidewalks and parking areas.

This problem is not limited to the city center. On Monday, while at a major chain grocery, I observed a gentleman take a major fall while exiting the store. I returned inside to inform an employee of the icy condition and simply got one of those looks that say “duh!”

When did it become chic not to remove snow and ice from public areas? Just wondering. Joseph T. Kennedy Spokane

Tobacco prevention is effective

Tobacco prevention works! California’s program has saved 33,000 lives over the past 10 years. The state’s lung cancer rates dropped 14 percent, compared to a 2.7 percent decrease nationwide. In Oregon, 41 percent fewer eighth graders smoke than four years ago. Both states have comprehensive tobacco prevention and control programs that have been in place for several years.

Don’t be misled by the Dec. 20 Spokesman Review headline, “Smoking prevention is blown off. Despite program, Washington state schoolchildren haven’t snubbed cigarettes.” The article described a well-researched school-based tobacco prevention program in which smoking rates among the teens who went through the program were no different than controls.

The results are no surprise. We’re up against an industry that has spent billions to entice youths to initiate smoking. No single prevention modality can withstand the power of the industry message. The evidence shows that a comprehensive approach to tobacco prevention is needed: counteradvertising, community-based programs, quit lines, enforcement of youth access laws, as well as school-based programs.

Washington now has a comprehensive program for tobacco prevention and control. We’re confident we’ll be replicating the successes of California and Oregon in a few years. It comes none too soon. Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in our state. One in three youths who start smoking will die from tobacco-related causes. It’s time to reverse this trend. Kim Marie Thorburn, M.D., M.P.H. health officer, Spokane Regional Health District

Slow drivers, let others get by

This is a message for drivers who, in an attempt to be extremely cautious, drive five to 50 mph below the posted speed limit on country highways.

If you are creeping along at 35 mph in a 55 mph zone, glance behind you and find you’re at the head of a line of 15 cars following you like the segments of a Chinese dragon, please be courteous enough to pull over, where possible, to let other drivers by.

With the curvy, hilly two-lane roads in the country it really is dangerous to pass in most places and yet people will take the chance to save 15 or 20 minutes on their trip home. Please pull over if you can and let the rest of us past. David J. Peterson Worley, Idaho

The media

Media the bad guys in this story

Last week I listened to two very fine speeches, one in concession and one in acceptance, and I had the sense that either way this election had gone, a new and refreshing integrity was going to come to the White House.

However, the media immediately began to pick the speeches apart. It suddenly dawned on me what has been wrong with this whole election fiasco.

From the beginning of election night, when in the frantic race for ratings they called the wrong winner twice, to the inflammatory rhetoric that inflamed the conflict they thrive upon, our American news media acted like a bunch of vultures waiting to see which carcass would drop first. You had to listen very closely to find out that some of the people who were being viciously slandered on both the Democratic side and the Republican side were actually very honest people acting upon honest convictions in the best way they knew how.

With only one prey left we certainly need to do as President-elect Bush and Vice President Gore suggested: pray for this country and that truth will ascend above the media’s distortions. Stephen Parker Combs Spokane

Media, pundits should pipe down

The recent presidential election was history in the making. I am sure it could not have been any closer or had any more suspense if it had been done by a written script. I am glad it is over and sincerely hope the next four years will be productive for the nation.

I do hope all of the national media have learned a lesson and will behave better in the next election, and not call winners until the voting is over.

I also hope they will discontinue telling us what their supposedly educated pundits think the president, vice president, president-elect, etc., meant in their last speeches. They seem to believe we are not capable of thinking for ourselves.

They also need to stop telling us how divided we are. This is a nation of differing opinions but it is not divided.

I have turned off the national news on television and now read the paper and listen to radio news and good music. It’s much healthier, both mentally and physically. C.D. Bailey Spokane

Simpsons strip doesn’t belong in paper

I can’t believe that The Spokesman-Review included the sickening “Simpsons” comic strip on Dec. 17. Comics are read by children, but this particular strip showed an arrow being shoved through a head, a stabbing, fingers being cut off and an impalement by a tree. How can a paper that endorses such a wonderful thing as the Christmas Fund drive include a strip that endorses such horrible violence?

I was sickened when I saw the pictures. I expect a movie that is rated `R’ to include violence - I am being warned about it. Are you going to start putting an R-rating on the front of the comics section to warn parents to keep it away from their children?

If you can’t permanently pull such an awful comic strip from the paper, you could have at least covered this week’s strip with an advertisement. Penny Hull Spokane

In the public eye

It’s a shame Daniels is leaving

It is a sad thing when some people in Spokane display their insular and parochial attitude by blaming an “outsider” for the firing of Randy Shaw. It should be noted that Penny Daniels sought relief from her contract weeks before Shaw was fired.

From her first day on the air, Daniels brought professionalism and ability to her job. Even Shaw, in a promotion for their newscast, praised her writing ability. I am sad that she is leaving our area. Washington, D.C., will be richer for her presence. Doris M. Holdaway Spokane

Faithlessness not resume highlight

Judge Mike Padden was highlighted in New York Times Magazine this week, and last month in The Spokesman-Review, for being a “faithless elector.” In the 1976 Electoral College Padden voted for Ronald Reagan instead of the winner of Washington state that year, Gerald Ford.

Due to this year’s close election these incidents are being written about. It is not important because, while electors have broken faith during the past 100 years, they have always stayed with the same party. Like Padden, in 1960, a group of West Virginia electors voted for Sen. Harry Byrd instead of John Kennedy.

The point is, when you take the pledge of elector to your party it is important. The party asks only for loyalty.

This week, Padden looks back and tells the New York Times Magazine, “I was using my vote as a protest to highlight Gov. Reagan’s support of the pro-life movement, but it was not going to ever be at the expense of the election itself.”

Even setting aside the lack of judicial temperament in this remark, it is still a whopper. To advance the pro-life cause he stabbed his fellow Republican Gerald Ford in the back.

This should make us all long for the days when we could simply count on a District Court judge to fix a parking ticket. Larry Armstrong Spokane

Law and justice

Justices blew their credibility

I have always had such high regard for the Supreme Court justices. Unfortunately, that high esteem has been misplaced. I mistakenly assumed the Supreme Court was a body of nonpartisan judges, operating to decide difficult decisions in a fair and nonpartisan manner. How very mistaken I was.

My confidence in the Supreme Court will not see the light of day for many years to come. What a waste of power. Eleanor Robson Spokane

Thomas did what law called for

Re: “Justice Thomas needs to speak up” by Alexander Kwamina of Spokane (Letters, Dec. 14).

All races should be very proud of Justice Clarence Thomas as he went by the rule of law and the Constitution, which didn’t happen in the Florida Supreme Court. Since when does a black person have to be a Democrat and can’t have different views?

As far as I and many others are concerned, Jesse Jackson should be considered a major disgrace to his race - not because he is a Democrat but because of how he acts. All he is is a troublemaker between blacks and whites.

I bet Justice Thomas didn’t have any trouble voting and understanding the system. Shirley Hein Post Falls

Government and politics

Officials will serve us well

How pleased I was to see Colin Powell being sworn in as our new secretary of state, standing with President-elect George W. Bush and Vice President-elect Dick Cheney. This to me is an indication of the quality people who will fill the Cabinet under the new administration.

In the same category, we will be fortunate to have Rep. George Nethercutt for the 5th Congressional District of Washington and Mayor John Powers and Council President Rob Higgins for the city of Spokane. They, along with our national leaders, will represent us with knowledge, balanced judgment and dignity.

Here’s to a prosperous and healthy future to all. Micki Saad Spokane

Give new presidents added option

It would best serve the interests of all Americans, especially taxpayers, if the controlling legal authorities of the Federal Reserve Board were chosen and appointed by each new incoming, duly elected president of the United States, just as Cabinet members are. Wesley Storer Spokane

Why not regulated, cheap whatever?

Almost all of Idaho’s and Washington’s politicians strongly oppose deregulating the electrical power industry. Ironically, even the ultraconservatives, who preach and posture about their distaste of federal intervention, are positively begging federal bureaucrats to keep the free enterprise system from becoming involved with our subsidized electricity.

We all like cheap electricity sold to us at rates far below what the free market might dictate. Kaiser Aluminum and a few other industries are thrilled with the concept.

Since, so far, we have the feds convinced that the Northwest needs to be protected from the vagaries of the electricity marketplace, maybe we should ask for more. For instance, the timber industry could be regulated to require lumber produced here be sold to us at below market rates. Maybe silver production could also be worked into the program. Del Pierce Sagle, Idaho