Letters To The Editor

HEALTH AND SAFETY

Fine dining - a la carpet

Carl’s Jr. and its customers are the latest victims of hepatitis A. I wish the best for all involved. After more than 20 years in the hospitality industry, in many Spokane establishments, I finally got out. I’ve seen it all and hepatitis A is just the tip of the iceberg.

You take a test, you get a health card and, periodically, a health inspector visits in hopes of enforcing a clean work environment. This process isn’t enough.

Personal hygiene starts at home but should be enhanced with special training at work. For instance, after using the restroom you wash your hands but if you don’t turn the water off with a paper towel, you put germs right back onto your hands. The door handle is the same.

Restaurant wait staff who double as cashiers are supposed to wash their hands after handling money. This is seldom done.

Cooks move very fast and often drop food onto the floor. The “important” stuff gets picked up and served to the customer. I saw a whole pan of prime rib hit the dirty floor, get brushed off and served for $20 a plate, per management’s directions! As an assistant manager in a fine restaurant, I got in trouble with upper management for telling employees not to serve food that hit the floor. Not using that food cuts into managers’ profit-based commissions.

The name of the game is profit, not health and sanitation. Changes in operating procedures must be forced upon the industry before more innocent people are hurt.

Report unsanitary conditions to the health department. Jan Higdem Spokane

See teasing for the menace it is

On Feb. 14, a 13-year-old girl took her life because she could no longer endure the teasing from her classmates. This is just the latest tragedy of many caused by conflicts at school.

Being teased by classmates has been around forever. It’s a part of life we’ve accepted. Let’s unite as a civilized people and no longer accept teasing.

Personally vow to never tease someone about their imperfections. Stand by someone being teased and politely ask the teaser to stop. If being teased, politely respond to the teaser - my personal favorite. We all have imperfections.

I also find comfort in a song titled “Don’t Laugh at Me” by Mark Wills. Hurting ourselves or others is not the way. I say, stop the violence, unite and be polite.

I’m only one person. This has to be a nationwide effort. Katheryn M. Alley Richland

WASHINGTON STATE

Cougar hunting bill wrong every way

I am outraged that in the face of the voters who put him in office, Gov. Gary Locke would support the passage of Senate Bill 5001, reinstating the use of hounds and baiting for cougar hunting. Never mind that Initiative 655, which banned these practices, was passed by 63 percent of these same voters in 1996.

Apparently, some Washington state lawmakers have little regard for our public rule-making process.

The present law allows Department of Fish and Wildlife officials to use hounds themselves when tracking “problem” cougars. SB 5001 would authorize certain private cougar hunters to use hounds and even bait in some cases - provisions that most likely will be abused.

This bill is clearly an attempt by a handful of state legislators to reinstate a questionable and unethical form of sport hunting.

Concerns about cougars coming into rural and urban areas should be focused on the causes of these perceived “intrusions” instead of on deadly solutions. A lack of habitat combined with high levels of hunting pressures have created unstable cougar populations. These elusive and shy animals are not inclined to move into populated areas unless displaced from their natural homes.

Until we are willing to deal with how we impact and force change on other species, we will forever be locked into a shoot-now, think-later mentality. Not only is this irresponsible and irrational, it breeds a sense of paranoia that is destroying the quality of life on this planet. Marlene Renwyck Republic, Wash.

Democrats going the wrong way

Nowhere is the philosophical difference between the Democratic and Republican parties more clearly illustrated than in their recent state budget plans. The Democrats budget bumps spending $262 million, which is pretty incredible, given their recent crying about how Initiative 695 would force reductions in virtually every budget area. They do this by raiding the state’s emergency reserve, transferring lottery revenues to a new account for schools and moving some items off budget, which is a sleight-of-hand trick to get around the I-601 spending cap voters imposed on the Legislature several years ago.

In Rep. Helen Sommers, D-Seattle, own words, “People were saying with I-695, `You’ve got a lot of money… use some of that.”’

The Republican budget bumps spending only $28 million, would leave the emergency surplus intact and does not violate I-601 but it creates no major new programs. Rep. Torn Huff, R-Gig Harbor, stated, “Voters were demanding belt-tightening.”

So, when you voted for I-695 last year (as most of you did), were you thinking spend more, you’ve got a lot of money! Or were you perhaps thinking, this government is a little out of control with spending, please cut back a little and be more accountable with how you spend my tax dollars.

I know what message I meant to send. I’ll be sending the same message again this November when I vote. And I plan to keep sending it until they get it right. Hal R. Dixon Spokane

OTHER TOPICS

Judge document for yourself

Re: Laura Schlessinger’s Feb. 12 column, “Declaration cloaks positions in religion.”

Before you buy into Dr. Laura’s interpretation of this important document (“Religious Declaration on Sexual Morality, Justice and Healing”) please go to website http://www.religionproject.org/declaration.html and read it for yourself. She is not being honest with her readers or her followers. I’m proud to be a member of the United Church of Christ and I support this declaration. Carol Auvil Chewelah, Wash.

I do … I don’t … duh

Regarding that Feb. 24 TV marriage: Again, I am ashamed of my gender. Darva Conger, who willfully engaged in a televised excuse for courtship, is now proclaiming astonishment because of a kiss given to her by her prize (booby prize), Rick Rockwell.

On recent talk shows, Conger is playing the victim. Why not just apologize for involving herself in a stupid situation and laugh at her folly. No, she must play the victim and look incredibly dense.

Wake up, Conger, and her sisters. You get what you perform for. Claudia S. Steele Spokane