Letters To The Editor

Washington state

Budget priorities too hard on poor

Gov. Gary Locke’s proposed budget is terribly unfair to the poor. The governor’s Office of Financial Management has requested that the Medical Assistance Administration program reduce its budget by 2 percent, or $86.1 million. The MAA must make cuts in medical and surgical services, the initial thinking being that funding of life-and-death services cannot be curtailed so less vital programs must be deleted. Targeted are eye and dental care for adults.

I understand the rationale, but it’s a bad solution.

Most people during their lifetime will need glasses. Many are unemployable without glasses. Many could not obtain a driver’s license. Many are legally blind without glasses. Shutting off access to eye examinations and glasses is not only unfair, it’s economically counterproductive.

In regard to dental care, the cost of neglected oral disease, in financial as well as human terms, is significant. Adults with advanced tooth and gum disease occasionally must be admitted for hospital care. Such admissions cost $2,000 on average. In addition, it takes little imagination to visualize the difficulties and embarrassment associated with eating or applying for a job without dentures

I’d like to see my help provide better roads, cleaner air, conservation and education. But if supporting those programs means the working poor and elderly will suffer a large drop in their quality of life, we should realign our value system.

Poverty provides sufficient hardships without the loss of eye and dental care. One-third of families with annual incomes less than $25,000 are uninsured.

Write your legislators and Locke. J. Terrence Coyle, M.D. Washington Academy of Eye Physicians & Surgeons, Bellevue

Teen licensing rules could be better

The new graduated licensing law applies to me and it made me mad at first because I can’t wait to drive. Then I thought about it. I agree with the law because I know it will save lives, which is more important than teens getting their full license.

I don’t agree with the part that says no teen friends can be in the car with you. They should at least let you pick up your friends and take them to and from school. I guess they don’t care about air pollution. If teens can’t ride with each other more cars will be on the road and there will probably be more accidents.

I agree with the law because it will save lives. But I wish they would make you have harder tests in driver education so responsible teens with good driving records could get a full license sooner. Molly Cole Spokane

Government and politics

Democrats’ goals not extreme

Contrary to popular belief, Democrats do not want to blow up dams or take guns away from law-abiding citizens. What we want is a president with common sense.

We tend to want clean air and water. We want our children and their children to have the chance to live long and healthy lives. North America has gone from an untouched, pristine environment to what it is today in only 300 years. People seem to live for today with no vision for the future. If a minuscule tax break is your vote for the future, we feel sorry for you. Mike and Traci Naccarato Spokane

Electoral reform clearly necessary

OK, folks, do you really understand what went on here? Forget partisan politics or affiliation; this is about our rights as voters, as Americans, and about the responsibility and mandates of each state in how to protect and uphold those rights.

In many states, including Florida, electors are selected by the legislature with the freedom to choose whoever they want. Voters have no say in the matter; their votes are invalid, anyway, circumvented by 18th century politics. Very little has changed, even considering emancipation, amendments to the Constitution to allow women to vote and for the people to elect their U.S. senators. Electors are still selected by legislatures and are misproportioned among the states.

As Americans, we now have an opportunity to revive the true spirit of a Constitution of the people, by the people and for the people. We have a responsibility to examine how we vote and how our votes are counted. We have the resources to make our voices heard and to make the changes necessary to strengthen our democracy. Kathy Sterling Spokane

Winning isn’t the only thing

I don’t know who wrote it or how accurately it is recorded but here is a quote that, in my opinion, is applicable to this past presidential election:

“When the final scorer comes to mark against your name, he marks not that you won or lost but how you played the game.” Josephine J. Lannen Spokane

In the public eye

It’s what the traffic will bear

In response to Douglas A. Britton’s letter of Dec. 22, yes, we have gone mad as a society. But I don’t think that Alex Rodriguez’s salary of $252 million is too much at all.

Anyone selling their services is worth only what they can talk some fool into paying them, and he found a fool who would meet his demand. His wages are paid to him voluntarily, so the sky’s the limit, I say. It just proves that A-Rod is just a little bit smarter than the people he now works for.

The reason he can command so much is that there are millions of people out there willing to buy the $30 ticket, the $6 hot dog or the $6 beer (or whatever the prices are) and TV sponsors galore that have more money than they can spend, to make it worthwhile for the aforementioned fool to pay that kind of money. Therein lies the problem, not with A-Rod. He’s just trying to make ends meet.

It makes no difference whether it’s a contact sport or a noncontact sport. They are entitled to however much they can negotiate. Our only alternative is to not support them financially if we object. As for teachers, I’m sure that we could vote for higher wages for them. But then sports fans wouldn’t be able to afford the $30 tickets, the $6 hot dog or the $6 beer - priorities, you know. Pro baseball is not a kid’s game or even a sport, for that matter. It’s strictly big business. Keith Cotter Coeur d’ Alene

Other topics

Assault on Christmas mostly rhetoric

As a Roman Catholic, I hope I understand the meaning of Christmas as well as Elmer C. Jorgensen (Golden Pen, Dec. 25) does. But I can also understand my Chinese-American Buddhist wife taking exception to his letter, as much for what it omits as what it says.

If we understood it correctly, Jorgensen’s letter seems to infer that religions other than Christianity are allowed to preferentially exhibit at any public place. If that is true, hard examples of this should be cited to bolster this point.

Further, when he speaks of the separation of church and state, I’ve been of the understanding that separation policies apply only to publicly funded institutions and not all places of public accommodation. One letter to the editor in the same edition that features Jorgensen’s letter praises the East Valley Choir’s performance at NorthTown Mall. While I missed it, I’ll bet that “Silent Night” was in their repertoire (having heard it in similar venues around Spokane).

I agree that Christmas is about Christ. But while that message often gets displaced by mass marketing, I doubt that either government policy or other religions are trying to undermine it in the eyes of Christians. Philip J. Mulligan Spokane

Libraries should filter Internet

Re: Filtering the Internet in libraries. This is a volitional issue.

Children have to make a conscious choices to look at pornographic pictures in a book they sneak. And libraries don’t put hard-core porn in the children’s section. The Internet changes all this. Lewd, graphic pictures can easily pop up without a child desiring to see it.

Porn pops up when a kid innocently clicks on a banner, “Your friend Nancy has something for you.” An unfiltered Internet is like having pedophiles hang out around the school. Or topless bars on the school block. Foster W. Cline, M.D. Sandpoint