Letters To The Editor

FIREARMS

Tighter regulations may not be answer

To quote the Associated Press, as reported by The Spokesman-Review: “A stunning report by the prestigious Institute of Medicine last year concluded that medical mistakes kill 44,000 to 98,000 hospitalized Americans a year.”

Checking with the National Safety Council, in 1997, the most recent year for which complete statistics are available, accident fatalities are as follows: automobile, 41,200; falls, 16,600; poisoning, 9,400; drowning, 4,100; fire, 3,700; choking, 3,200; firearms, 900. Accidental death for children under 12 by firearms numbered 12.

Will licensing and regulating the firearm industry as closely as the medical and automobile industry stop crime and death? I think not. William Jose Spirit Lake, Idaho

Moms, it’s up to us to solve problem

As a mom against people using guns in violent acts against our children, I’d like to know how many moms are for violence? It is tragic that so many lives have been affected by violence. It is also tragic that we mothers feel the need to run to Washington begging for our children’s rights be trodden upon that they might be raised in a “safe” society.

The problem of violence committed with guns, knives or baseball bats is too big for the federal government to solve. This fewer-than-a-Million Mom March brings to mind the Temperance Advocates. Alcohol was the problem. It was destroying homes, and families. When the federal government stepped in with the prohibition, it did not solve the problems or we would still have alcohol outlawed for the same reasons. Why did it fail? Because alcohol was not the problem, and the prohibition was impossible to enforce.

The problem of violence is not too big for moms to solve. We must pour our time and effort into teaching our children the value of human life, and that violent acts have serious consequences. There already are more gun control measures on the books than we can ever enforce. Let’s stop running to the government like a bunch of ninnies. Let’s recognize that it is our responsibility to raise our children and be willing to be accountable for the results. Shannon R. Valentine Coeur d’Alene

Giving up arms not that simple

“Times change and gun laws should, too.” Hannah Currey (Letters, May 27) correlates the suggested change of gun ownership to the changes of slavery and womens’ rights. However, I believe that there are more complicated issues at hand.

The individual right to personal protection is one issue, as is sporting use. But the much ignored issue of liberty and the control of our own government is more at stake.

Currey believes that the national Army, under control of the president, is all we need and that the militia is obsolete. Unfortunately, history and human nature dictate otherwise. That’s why the framers of our Constitution were so adamant about maintaining a militia. Every major contributor to the Constitution had feelings similar to Noah Webster: “Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any bands of regular troops…” The list can go on to include James Madison, who said, “Americans have the right and advantage of being armed - unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.”

In America we have a crime problem which society must deal with. But given the evidence of federal agencies including INS, HUD and EPA, who in the last 10 years have armed over 50,000 agents, and with results such as Waco, Texas and the Elian Gonzalez case, I believe that retention of arms is paramount. Mark Liptrap Spokane

SPOKANE MATTERS

Why change a good thing?

Whoever decided not to televise our lovely, entertaining Lilac Parade must have sawdust for brains.

It draws a great many people to spend money in Spokane and they have spent many hours, a lot of money and energy to get their bands, cheerleaders, costumes, horses and other things here only to find out that if you don’t go downtown, you won’t see it.

The powers that be did a great disservice to the sick, elderly and youngsters who can’t go downtown.

After all these years, why the change? What’s the reason? Grace M. Tonani Spokane

Exhibit strengthened community

This is a special thank you to the entire Spokane community for bringing the Anne Frank exhibit to the Schoenberg Center at Gonzaga. As I went through this exhibit, I was struck by the effect of isolation on the Jews. As the Nazis branded the Jews with yellow stars, banned them from associating with non-Jews and placed curfews on their time, they isolated them. By making the Jews other-than, the Nazis caused the Jews to be viewed as less than human. In this setting, atrocities did happen.

The accomplishment this past year was the opposite of isolation: the diverse groups that make up Spokane came together to bring in this exhibit that teaches intolerance of hate. This exhibit was a testament to the strength of the human spirit. The hope and courage of youth reflected in Anne’s writings, the resiliency of the survivors of the Holocaust and the urgency to remember, so that there should never again be another Holocaust, have all been given voice by this magnificent community project.

Thank you to George Critchlow from the Gonzaga Institute for Action against Hate and to Sheri Barnard as co-director of the Anne Frank exhibit for your visions and energy in bringing this project to Spokane.

Yom Hashoa, the Holocaust Remembrance Day, was made richer because of community interfaith cooperation between the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, Temple Beth Shalom and Providence Center for Faith and Healing. Pamela Gee Silverstein president, Temple Beth Shalom, Spokane

Help make Lilac Parade happen

For all you people who have complained about the Lilac Parade not being televised this year, I say go down to the Lilac Festival Association and volunteer your time and money to make the parade, talent show, band festival, royalty selection and scholarships happen.

These things are expensive and time consuming to put on and do for the community. It is an all-volunteer effort and needs all the help and support it can get. Without corporate and business sponsors and hundreds of volunteer hours it couldn’t happen.

Where do you think all this comes from? From people like yourselves who care enough to give of their time and money and help raise the necessary donations from businesses. Those businesses deserve recognition and thanks for their contributions.

Where does all this anger and charge of “greediness” come from? The festival operates on a shoestring. There is no profit for the volunteers except the satisfaction of a job well done and appreciation of the community. Please help to make it happen. Nancy Parker Spokane

Heart goes out to victims’ families

In the faces of the serial killer victims on TV, I see the sadness in their eyes. The faces on TV seem to be silently saying, “Help me. I, too, am somebody’s daughter, sister, mother or granddaughter. I am a worthy human being and I didn’t deserve to die the way I did.”

Every time I hear on TV the words, “All the women who were found shot dead were connected with drugs or prostitution.” It’s as if those words make their demise less violent, less vicious, less senseless. As if it makes their murders more understandable, more tolerable, more acceptable.

To me, nobody has the right to become judge and jury as to who lives on this earth, especially just because of their lifestyles, profession, culture, race or religion. Perhaps if the lengthy search for suspects had not included the homeless or the derelicts of our society, many of those young women would be alive today. Too often we ourselves set up boundaries of who and what is acceptable in our world. My heart goes out to the families of those young women. Please find comfort in that their purpose here on earth was completed. I think they were angels sent here to suffer and die, like Jesus was, to be constant reminders of just what kind of judgmental society we are. And we, finding no compassion for those less fortunate, should always remind ourselves that “There, but for the grace of God, go I.” Doris Mae Aaron Spokane

BELIEFS

Constitution is bible-based

John McCallum’s recent letter (Letters, May 23) on the First Amendment is a good example of how the religion of secular humanism has so permeated our society. While McCallum says he is a Presbyterian, his entire letter is an attack on Christianity and the Bible. For him to say the Bible is not for everyone and is not the basis of our freedom is a secular humanist and not a Presbyterian interpretation of the Bible.

The Bible says many times and in many ways that only where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. The Declaration of Independence makes it crystal clear that the Bible is the basis of our freedoms. It says that all men are endowed by our creator God with unalienable rights and the purpose of government is to secure or protect these rights. These truths, that rights and freedoms come from God and not government, used to be self evident, as Thomas Jefferson penned in the declaration.

Sadly, McCallum echoes the belief of Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, President Clinton and all secular humanists that freedoms come from a government document or decree.

Our Constitution is great because it is unique. As an extension of the Declaration of Independence and based on Biblical law, it does not give or take freedoms but protects God-given freedoms. All Americans should remember William Penn’s warning that “Those people who are not governed by God will be ruled by tyrants.” Steve Dunham Spokane

Letter-writer, logically, has no case

Re: “Constitution is for everyone” (Letters, May 23).

John D. McCallum rationalized that not everyone would agree the Bible is the basis of our freedoms over the last 200 years because many Southerners in the 19th century used Bible passages to justify slavery and many people use the Bible to justify denying rights to women.

May I point out, then, that an extremely higher percentage of people who disavow any belief or proximity to Biblical thinking abuse children and beat their wives or husbands, steal from their employers, deny women their rights and treat those who serve them (waitresses, etc.) like slaves than do those who claim Biblical authority. So, if I follow your logic, you have no case.

Regardless of how anyone used the Scriptures in the past, what occurred in history is not negotiable. That which insults the politically-correct mind of today may, indeed, have been the foundation of our Constitution and our justice system but that doesn’t change the fact.

Truth is, the Founding Fathers, in their commentaries, succinctly justified their Constitutional creations by the common understanding and respect for the principles of the Christian Scriptures.

Another point that must be mentioned is that the Constitution is not, and cannot, be the basis for our freedoms. The freedoms claimed and passed to us came from our forefathers’ understandings of the intrinsic dignity of those made in the image of God. That’s what makes rights unalienable. If they were based on the interpretation of the Constitution, then our rights are anything but unalienable. Bruce Hogan Latah

OTHER TOPICS

Differences nobody else’s concerns

Re: May 24 Spokesman-Review headlines, “State extends benefits to same-sex partners. Republican lawmakers sign letter of protest,” “The Christian Coalition… will try to stop this action.”

Lifetime partnerships are the most private, most personal decisions humans can make. Never mind comparisons; everyone is entitled to their own private, personal standards. Underline that word - private.

No country or population can properly exist unless individuality is admissible. Are you a vegetarian? Music lover? Presbyterian? Republican? Bird watcher? What make of car do you drive? Is your spouse blonde? Brunette? Tall? Short? Whose business is it anyway? Any two humans on earth can have at lease three different opinions on anything. But that does not mean that any one of them must be wrong for the people involved. Unless human choices lead to specific personal harm to others, those differences are nobody else’s concern. With some 3,000 different religious faiths on earth, religion alone can lead to perpetual, pointless friction, with advantages to absolutely no one.

In a country whose Constitution guarantees personal freedom, busybodies who preach that their personal beliefs are the only way to live should be deported to an empty island. The incredible breadth and depth of our people’s individuality is a major reason for our vigor. If everyone believed the same, life would be incredibly dull, stupid, unimaginative and extremely unproductive. Is that what we want? Paul L. Weis Spokane

Three choices available to all

In her May 24 letter to the editor Sabina Milbrath is mouthing the same old anti-choice sentiments.

It’s too bad that these people don’t really know what choice means.

We, legally, have three choices in unwanted pregnancies: abortion, adoption or carrying to term and keeping the baby. No one has the right to remove any of our choices.

I have no objection to adoption if that’s the person’s choice. But they have two other choices as well and it’s an outrage to have one choice removed. It’s kind of like the old communist regime when they could vote, but only for a communist. Jane Teller Spokane

Fluoridation a `quick fix’

The recent front-page article about fluoridation is only partially true. The other side of the coin needs to be presented.

The reason toothpaste tubes say “If you accidentally swallow more than used for brushing, seek professional help or contact a poison-control center immediately,” according to the FDA, is because after ingestion, fluoride mixes with chemicals in the stomach to form highly corrosive hydrofluoric acid, which can lead to serious injury or even death. Since young children don’t control the swallowing reflex very well, they’re particularly at risk.

The American Dental Association has said it thinks the warning overstates potential danger, but studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association show accumulated fluoride also weakens bones and increases the incidence of hip fractures.

This is why we continue to say no to fluoridation of our water. There are safer ways of ensuring strong and cavityfree teeth through our diet. But, then, we Americans seem to always be looking for the quick fix! Mona Benjamin Spokane

Letter from one of the afflicted

America has been suffering from a condition which affects millions of its citizens of every occupation, socioeconomic class, and religious faith.

Robert C. Bullock’s May 23 letter “Southern heritage won’t be oppressed,” exemplifies the writings of one such victim of this disease. And unfortunately, our country was founded upon the principles of this malady, as an affront to morality served in the interest of economics (William Wiecek’s, “Sources of Antislavery Constitutionalism in America: 1760-1848,” indicates 10 provisions in the Constitution which supported slavery and slave holders).

Sadly, Bullock, you would try to convince me that God, St. Andrew and his cross would support the Confederate heritage and your southern “hopes and dreams;” hopes and dreams which were never construed up on the commandments of God, but on centuries of oppression for power and profit. This is not about a piece of cloth, whether it be a confederate flag or a swastika, but about the truth in the hearts and minds of men and women who are willing to secure this heritage by bombing churches and killing little girls on Sunday, who with government authority are willing to deny American citizens their “inalienable rights” for generations until today, and who claim to love God yet hate his children. The most unfortunate side effect of your 300-year-old disease is that there is indeed a cure, yet you would rather suffer in this illness and pass it on to your children, as it was to you. Bertoni L. Jones Spokane