Letters To The Editor

Spokane matters

Yes, know them by their foes

After reading staff writer Adam Lynn’s article about the Raymond Hanson-led “PAC attack” on Commissioners Kate McCaslin and John Roskelley, one wonders what it is about the time-proven economic wisdom of smart planning that these so-called developers don’t understand. Why don’t they get it that times have changed; that sprawl kills the economic and social vitality of city centers and destroys neighborhoods; that lack of effective planning over the last 25-30 years is a major factor in our community’s failure to capitalize on this change; that people who read or travel are fed up with the type of irresponsible, unsightly and sprawling development that has contributed to our region’s economic stagnation?

Where is it written that a large pot of money and a construction permit entitle Hanson and his stuck-in-the-past cronies to decide what kind of development is right for our half-million fellow citizens?

One gets the clear impression that Hanson and his special friends are like unruly children, pouting because the rules have changed and now all the other kids also get to play. Unlike this narrow-minded group, most contemporary professionals in industries related to economic development support sustainable development that benefits everyone, not just the privileged few.

As a repatriated Spokanite who worked in Seattle’s booming economy and witnessed the mess created by unplanned growth, I find it ironic that Spokane’s development community remains isolated, refusing to expand upon the lessons learned by their fellow brethren on the West Side.

Thank you for bringing to light the arrogance and irresponsibility of the forces aligned against Roskelley and McCaslin. C.G. Greg Sweeney Spokane

Very well, then, comrade Hanson

Re: “Developer PAC slams county duo” (June 23).

I’ve been puzzling over Raymond Hanson’s attack on County Commissioner John Roskelley. Hanson’s position paper claims that Roskelley is promoting a “socialist environmental agenda.”

Having just returned from a delightful stay in Italy, where we had to drink bottled water at every meal because the water supply is not reliably safe, I am now considering the possibility that clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, a few trees left standing and an occasional bird chirping in one of them might be considered “socialist.” If Roskelley is a socialist because he wishes to balance the environmental needs that keep us all alive with the wishes of developers to build their businesses, then some huge number of people here must be socialists according to Hanson’s reasoning.

But then, what is Hanson? If we look at the countries that have turned their back on environmental quality in the name of industrial development and progress, the most outstanding in this regard are the Eastern Bloc countries. The former U.S.S.R. and its satellite countries are now dealing with the horrifying results of this policy.

So, I guess, if Roskelley is a socialist, then Hanson is, by his own reasoning, a communist. Louisa Rose Spokane

Some gifts are something else

I work for a nonprofit organization which operates a thrift store to help fund its activities. We depend upon the public for their kind donations of salable products. For this we are very thankful.

Upon arriving at work Monday morning. we were greeted by two unusable refrigerators and a couch-recliner set which had been dumped out front over the weekend. To dispose of these items legally at a transfer station cost us $55. Add to this the cost of the vehicle fuel and a driver’s time.

One would like to think that the “donors” intended to help us and not cause us to incur unnecessary expenses. They might be well reminded that it is also illegal to leave items at thrift stores without permission.

Thanks again to all who give good used items to the many fine thrift operations in our area. Ted P. Baker Spokane

Be realistic about what 29th is

I sympathize with (letter writers) Margaret Watson, M. L. Opsal and the Comstock-Manito-Cannon Hill neighborhoods for wanting to return 29th Avenue back to the bucolic lane it was in the 1920s to 1940s, when cars were not as common and many walked and rode bicycles. But their desires fly in the face of reality.

When 29th and High Drive were connected to the Ash-Maple couplet, 29th Avenue became an arterial used by thousands of citizens from all parts of Spokane - not just “outsiders.” That is reality.

Twenty-ninth is no longer a quiet residential lane but a very active thoroughfare that must be shared by cars, buses, delivery vans and 18-wheelers. Painted lines on the road will not stop illegal passing or road rage. That is reality.

I agree that a center left-turn lane will help with the road rage. Adding a bike lane will not. Encouraging bike riding on a street like 29th will only promote injuries and possibly death for the riders. Are the neighborhoods ready to be parties in a lawsuit for encouraging a dangerous activity? That is reality. Margaret Jones Medical Lake

Law and justice

Court releases Just Desserts 1.0

Regarding your June 11 editorial decrying the Microsoft decision, antitrust laws help keep our markets not just free but fair. Predatory monopolies don’t succeed because of their own worth but because they have power to distort the free marketplace. Microsoft’s case is a classic example.

You say “Microsoft’s dominance in the marketplace was won on the merits of its products.” Antitrust laws don’t forbid that. They forbid maintaining that position by predatory practices that stifle potential challengers. That’s exactly what Microsoft did. It tried to become dominant in the browser market not by competing with Netscape but by demanding that PC makers include its browser rather than Netscape’s - on pain of losing the ability to offer Windows. That isn’t competition, it’s extortion.

Bill Gates’ “naked competitive spirit,” which your editorial extols, wasn’t directed toward developing a better browser than Netscape’s but toward barring Netscape from a fair fight. Complaining that others break antitrust laws, too, is like the ticketed speeder’s complaint that others were speeding. It misses the essential point: Were you?

Microsoft tried to eliminate its competitors through abuse of its monopoly power, despite already having been chastised for such abuses. Smart people learn from their mistakes; Microsoft refused to. Software and Internet companies might be able to defy the laws of Adam Smith, as you suggest, though those who’ve ridden the Nasdaq the past few months may wonder. But they can’t escape Lord Acton’s observation that power corrupts. Microsoft couldn’t, and now it must pay. Richard L. Hutchinson Pullman

Church and state

Separation is a protection

Writers of the Constitution were learned men, products of the Renaissance and Reformation movements, and influenced by many ideas. The Bible was certainly one influence but so were popular philosophies of their era, such as humanism with its emphasis on human dignity, worth and the premise that we all have the capacity for truth and goodness.

People arguing that the Constitution is solely Bible-based aren’t seeking to clarify historical facts. They want to theologically link the two documents, i.e. since the founding fathers were Christian, the Constitution is a Christian document, and therefore, our government can sponsor Christian Bible instruction and prayer. This link enables them to push their theological agenda on those who don’t share the same biblical interpretation.

Bible-based-Constitution folks overlook the fact that most challenges to government-sponsored religion come from Christian groups. A Pennsylvania Unitarian family brought the suit that led to the 1962 Supreme Court decision. Roman Catholic and Mormon families in Texas are the litigants behind the recent court decision banning prayer from football games.

Matthew 6:5-15 tells us exactly how to pray. I believe this passage, coupled with the humanist philosophy referenced above emphasizing respect for others, forms the basis for the First Amendment’s separation clause.

Christians are asked to develop a personal relationship, from the heart, with God and Jesus. No one can prevent us from praying silently. But a government-sponsored demonstration of public prayer and religious instruction violates this relationship. This cannot be allowed to happen. John D. McCallum Spokane

The environment

Money can’t buy everything

I’m compelled to respond to the debate of the proposed ban on new roads in federal forests. With respect to the forest industry, attention ought to be paid to what sustains all of us.

Forest fires, as harsh as they can be, are natural events.

Human-caused fires can be called natural. A recent ad suggested that wildfires might happen more without new roads. Easier access for more folks would only increase that possibility, in my opinion. In the ad, “wild fires” is an inflammatory remark. How terrible, not to make more roads.

Can money replace a wilderness in a world of diminishing resources? Peter Lucht Sandpoint

Industry ad an outrage

The timber industry is up to its old tricks of fear and intimidation, as demonstrated by their political advertisement in this paper on June 22. Telling the public that the few remaining wild, roadless national forests are sick and can only be cured by logging them, as in the case of the forest health ruse, is one thing. But inciting arson is quite another.

This ad invites, even encourages, illegal actions by showing a match titled: “Al Gore’s roadless policy - lighting the forest on fire.” Outrageous!

Just as in the case of arson, the spineless perpetrators of this ad don’t even have the integrity to put their signature on it. Why did The Spokesman-Review permit this to happen?

An airplane ride over private industrial forests or the Colville or Idaho Panhandle National Forest reveals the real forest health problems: corporate greed and a preference for timber management over all other ecosystem benefits.

Preserving the forests for present and future generations to enjoy, for wildlife and fish to find refuge and as a producer of clean water and air, is good for all. However, narrow-minded timber corporations and their PR firms will find fault with that. They’ll even call it a catastrophe.

Don’t let ‘em fool you, it’s about their financial health, not the forests’.

For millennia, human cultures throughout the world lived in harmony with wilderness. I think ours can too - perhaps only if we recognize how little of it remains. Timothy Coleman Republic, Wash.

Trees are a renewable resource

I read the letter from Jane Cunningham, who, among other things, claimed that national forest logging is an “unsustainable extractive practice.”

Sorry, Cunningham, but trees are a renewable resource and there is more growth in the national forests each year than there are trees removed by logging.

In response to her mention of the Ione mill closing because of a multimillion dollar fine, I know little about that but believe that such a fine for a so-called “wetlands violation” is excessive. If the government wants real improvements in behavior, it should not fine the offending company so much that it is forced to fold.

Lastly, Cunningham claims that between 1988 and 1997 Pend Oreille County experienced an increase of 1,000 new jobs, and that logging has decreased in that period so the new jobs must be independent of logging. Cunningham neglects to mention that in 1988-1989, a chip mill and a newsprint plant were built in Pend Orielle County. Those two mills alone, which are heavily dependent on logging of pine, hemlock and fir, directly account for at least 250 of the new jobs that Cunningham claims were created from 1988 to 1997. Dan Robinson Usk, Wash.

Idaho viewpoints

See to public’s water access interests

Every several years, our community has to wait nervously and hope that yet another piece of public Coeur d’Alene Lake waterfront is not taken from them forever. This season it has been the encroachment of their swimming rights near Independence Point and Sanders Beach, and their public boating rights near Tubbs Hill.

We expect our elected officials and the directors of our public spaces to understand that there can be no compromise in surrendering these spaces and that they are gone forever if these rights are given up.

It seems, however, that whenever these public space assaults surface, our city government lacks a comprehensive plan and set of guidelines upon which to rely. Those choices are often then left to the opinions of the person sitting in the council chair on that day.

I ask our mayor and City Council to work with the state in setting down more comprehensive rules for our public water rights and work vigorously to ensure that we do not lose these rights needlessly. Public spaces and waterfront rights are the most important issue for the long-term heritage of our town. Steve Badraun Coeur d’Alene

Vote your own interest - Democrat

In the 1996 general election here in Idaho, doctors and hospitals donated large amounts of money to finance the election of all Republican candidates. Republicans got so much money, it was embarrassing and they had to send some of the money back as it wasn’t needed.

Republicans cleaned house that year, winning 85 percent of the seats in the Idaho Legislature. The effects are still being felt throughout the state. Democrats can’t go up against Republicans, who get all the money they need to win an election.

The doctors wanted from the Legislature - and got - a bill passed to stop any HMO from ever coming to Idaho. And this kept the doctors and hospitals earning a disproportionately high fee for their services.

Just this week, a local mother took her two boys into a local hospital to be checked for the flu. A doctor looked them over, took their temperature and did not treat them. He didn’t even give the mother a prescription. He took all of 10 minutes to see these patients and the mother had to pay $170 as she left the hospital.

What happened was, the doctor and the hospital got some of their election donations back, right out of the pocket of a mother who hardly could afford the $170. The point is that if you are a Republican, you are being tricked by the politicians and being forced to pay these exorbitant medical fees. I guess if you are rich this is OK but if you aren’t, you ought to be vote Democrat this November. Tom Akren Post Falls

How about deputizing me, too?

I read an article in the June 27 Spokesman-Review saying that Sheriff Rocky Watson is going to deputize veterans for one day so they can carry guns in the Fourth of July parade, as a ploy to countervene Judge Lodge’s recent order.

As you may know, I was arrested for carrying a stick handle on a picket sign as I protested the Neo-Nazi parade on July 18, 1998. Allowing the veterans to march and carry guns while denying me the right to carry a traditional picket sign is discrimination against me.

Where would this country be without protesters like Nathan Hale, Patrick Henry and George Washington, who protested British authoritarianism? An old guy who places his life on the line and carries a stick on a picket sign to protest Nazis is just as much in the tradition of an American hero as those Marines who retreated from the Chosin Reservoir.

Why can Ron Rankin carry a gun on the Fourth of July and I can’t carry a stick? I am writing Watson stating that I would also like to be deputized for the Fourth of July so that I can carry my picket sign with a stick handle. Gary A. Edwards Coeur d’Alene