Letters To The Editor
GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
Bush clear about justice, abortion
Re: “Bush not altogether pro-life” (Letters, Feb. 27).
Gib Keithly has “pro-life” issues mixed up. To compare abortion to capital punishment is the result of wrong thinking and a skewed understanding of the processes involved in each. One is an issue of the taking of innocent life, the other an issue of justice (and let’s not be confused about which of these is actually afforded due process).
George W. Bush is not confused about which one is which. And neither is Norma McCorvey, the former Jane Roe of the Roe v. Wade 1973 case that gave women the right to abort their unborn babies. McCorvey gave her life to Jesus five years ago and now spends her time speaking out on behalf of the pro-life movement.
Keithly and other pro-abortionists ought to get their issues straight before maligning a political candidate from a personal motive. Just once, I’d love to hear a pro-abortionist stand up and admit that they understand they are aborting (killing) something that had the potential to become a human being. Just say it straight out, no doubletalk about tissue, just a straightforward statement that fits with the scientific facts, not political rhetoric. I’d have more respect for them. Lyssa J. Gooch Spokane
Fetuses aren’t guilty of anything
Re: “Bush not altogether pro-life” (Letters, Feb. 27).
It’s really a sad and disgusting sign of our times when someone questions George W. Bush’s pro-life stand because his home state of Texas leads the country in criminal executions.
Is Gib Keithly really suggesting that we should compare the execution of someone who makes a conscious decision to take the life of another innocent human being with the murder of an unborn baby whose only “crime” is being the result of someone’s irresponsible behavior? Is he really trying to convince us that we should be more compassionate for a wanton killer than we are for an unborn baby? Criminals in Texas may think twice before they murder. I pray the same were true in the case of abortion. Thomas J. Marszalek Spokane
Vote for Keyes sends a message
We haven’t heard “A choice, not an echo” in a political context since Barry Goldwater’s campaign in 1964.
Now, a generation later, it again seems appropriate. We have the establishment candidate, Gov. George W. Bush, and the media candidate, Sen. John McCain. It is difficult to tell which is the voice and which is the echo.
On the other hand, we do have a choice, a conservative candidate, Alan Keyes - the only Republican candidate who endorses and speaks forcefully and consistently for that platform.
I hear over and over, “I agree with Keyes. He most truly represents conservative family values but he can’t get elected. So, why waste a vote?” A vote for Alan Keyes is not wasted. Sending delegates to the Republican national convention pledged to Keyes sends a strong message to the convention in support of maintaining and enforcing a conservative, pro-family, pro-patriotic, God-fearing American platform. It takes primary election votes to get Keyes delegates, so no vote is wasted. I will proudly vote for Alan Keyes in the May primary. Ron Rankin Kootenai County Commissioner
SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION
Principals have become front men
The closer we get to April 20, the anniversary of the Columbine massacre, the more I’m reminded of a question a reporter asked the school’s principal the day after the shootings: “Did you know that there was a club in your school called the Trench Coat Mafia?”
The answer: “No.”
My first thought was, how could the principal lie? Certainly he knew. There were even pages in the school annual dedicated to the Trench Coats.
I thought the answer was a lie because I was judging the principal of Columbine against my principal. My principal knew every student, every adult, every event that went on at his school. The student enrollment was 1,700, adults 67.
Today’s principals, I’m told by my teacher friends, are off campus attending chamber of commerce, Kiwanis and district meetings or luncheons. Public relations. Principals are not required to know what goes on in their schools.
My “hero” principal would take on the responsibility of the student parking area and buses. He or she would walk the grounds and halls, and pick up paper. This principal would visit the school annual, PE and drama departments. He or she would talk to students, teachers and staff. This principal would be visible, fair and friendly.
Today’s PR principals are paid more than teachers, yet are not required to stay on campus to gain rapport, to say, “Good morning,” “Good job” or ask, “How’s it going?”
What a shame. Ann Lawrence Yakima
HEALTH AND SAFETY
Drivers’ rudeness sets bad example
Recently, my daughter started drivers’ education. As a parent, it’s my responsibility to make sure she’s a good, safe driver. I do not want to bury my daughter at an early age, or ever, and I don’t want her to cause harm to anyone.
Recently, we took a drive to prepare her for higher speeds and curving roads. On our drive to and from Nine Mile, she obeyed all road laws, including the posted speed limit. After all, one day soon she will be driving a car without me at her side. I could not believe the rudeness, dirty looks and the flipping of middle fingers my daughter got from grown adults. A horn is meant to be used as a warning sign of danger or in an emergency. It certainly isn’t meant to tell a young driver to ignore the posted speed limit so speeding cars can get where they are going quicker. The rudeness of these adults took place because she was driving the posted speed limit.
I hope all the rude adult drivers she encountered that day will never have to teach their children or any child to drive. Are these people aware that 137 people die each day in auto crashes and that 80 percent of these deaths are due to speeding?
My child has enough peer pressure in her life. She doesn’t need adult pressure trying to get her to break the law. Jerry Deuser Spokane
Drivers’ disregard disconcerting
A truck driver strikes a cyclist, thinks he hit a deer and keeps going. A woman runs over a cat that is clearly visible on East Empire on a Saturday afternoon and keeps going. (I didn’t get her license number because the cat was still alive. It died in my arms.) In both cases, a life was lost - and neither driver looked back or stopped.
I know that a human life can never be equated to that of another species. However, it’s a sad testament to the mentality of today’s drivers when getting to where we’re going takes precedence over the safety of others who share the roads. Louise Long Spokane
Seat belts save lives
Theodore M. Keith (Letters, Feb. 26), I have been in law enforcement for over 26 years. In that time I have been involved in countless vehicle crash investigations. Of those, numerous crashes involved the death and injuring of vehicle occupants.
Many of those would not have been as severely injured if they had only worn their restraints.
With nearly six years of training on the state and federal level, my experiences and the instructing about the proper use of adult and child restraints, I have come to this conclusion: seat belts and shoulder restraints work.
If you don’t wish to take my word for it, look at testing done by car manufactures, The Insurance Institute and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Look at annual fatality reports and the number of people who died because they chose not to wear the safety equipment.
There is neither violation of your religious rights nor of your freedoms in the restraint laws. They are as important to everyone’s safety as the statutes covering vehicle speed, stop signs, red lights, etc. If you don’t want to think of yourself, think of your family and friends. Mark S. Knight Spokane
Restraint use not personal matter
Re: “Let’s eliminate seat belt laws” (Letters, Feb. 26).
As taxpayers, we don’t want to have to pay Theodore Keith’s medical bills if he is maimed in an accident because he wasn’t wearing a seat belt.
Some people have health insurance but many do not. If the state has to pick up the tab for the uninsured, we taxpayers have to pay for it. The same holds true for the wearing of motorcycle helmets. If you want to take your life into your hands, that’s one thing. If you want us to foot the bill when you’re left a quadriplegic, forget it.
On the freedom of religion argument, we suspect God thinks seat belts are a good idea. Christ is the source of all grace. Sometimes He even applies grace to stupidity but he’s also been known to use very tangible means of grace, i.e. brakes, air bags and seat belts. Kyrsten and Daniel Weber Spokane
Help plentiful in scalp lice fight
Re: Jeannie Greene’s Feb. 21 guest column, “Beating scalp lice scourge requires community effort.”
Controlling head lice in a community does take everyone’s efforts, including the parents/guardians, schools, child care centers, health care agencies, social services and more. Staff at the Spokane Regional Health District convened a Spokane Head Lice Committee to discuss the barriers to management. Resources were then developed to educate individuals on how to get rid of head lice.
Call the information line at 323-2847; look up www.spokanecounty.org/health for website resources; call to get a copy of the Examine, Treat, Comb (ETC) brochure and Spokane County Guidelines to Live Control at 324-1530, and check out the video, “How to Comb Out Head Lice,” from the Health District, room 401. Effective metal lice removal combs and treatment are available at the Health District clinic.
Information is available to the public to help beat head lice. Lyndia Vold, health program specialist Spokane Regional Health District
Veracity of food testing overrated
Henry I. Miller’s recent column about the benefits of denying consumers the right to know which foods have been genetically altered predicts the damage such labeling will cause and supposedly defends free market choice.
Health issues are scoffingly dismissed. We are told yet again that laboratory tests prove that there are no harmful effects from the use of chemical fertilizer (from whatever source), pesticides, irradiation, hormone-generated or genetically altered foods. What is never mentioned is that there are no tests analyzing what actually exists in the real world: the multiple interactions between the huge variety of chemicals currently used in the production of food. There are no tests because the variables are far too complex to measure.
Miller suggests that naturally raised, minimally treated food, such as our grandparents used to eat, be labeled and sold as specialty market products. Suppose we turn that around and demanded that this kind of minimally processed food again be sold as the standard. Then, the appropriately labeled “biotech” foods could be segregated and allowed to create their own free market niche.
If such foods were really cheaper and not supported by government subsidies, people who, like Miller, prefer them would surely rush to purchase the gene-spliced, artificially fertilized, heavily pesticide-treated, hormone-produced, chemically enhanced products.
That would really be free market choice. Joanne V. Hirabayashi Priest River, Idaho
OTHER TOPICS
Salmon welfare lost in struggle
Before the salmon vs. dams hearing in Clarkston, Wash., I wasn’t certain breaching the four Snake River dams would benefit salmon restoration.
These amazing fish must already overcome ocean changes, waterway pollution, stream silt sedimintation, commercial overfishing, sport fishing, gill netting and excessive predation.
I learned little science from the hearing but found it to be like most other such processes - reduced to a standoff between environmental concerns and economic interests.
Some anti-breachers were incensed that a few Nez Perce Tribe dignitaries were allowed to speak, ahead of them, in favor of breaching. Yet there were no complaints about a number of politicians being allowed to speak, ahead of them, against breaching. This whining was silly since all testimony, verbal or written, will receive equal consideration. Salmon, sadly, are receiving the least consideration. Very few special interest contingents involved in this process seem willing to give up any “rights,” even for a short time.
All contentions may ultimately become moot. How can we save a species that must swim through waterways-sewers twice to complete its life cycle? Why catch and eat a fish poisoned by cyanide, chloroform, formaldehyde, arsenic, dioxins, pesticides, herbicides, feedlot waste, raw sewage, etc.?
I am now convinced the dams should be breached but there is much more to be done if we are serious about salmon recovery and our health. Dan W. Semler Colton
Power tripping the great outdoors
The conflict between back country skiers and snowmobilers (Spokesman-Review, Feb. 27) is not simply about defining adequate space for two distinctly different activities. More broadly, it concerns the conflict between those who value preservation and enjoy the natural environment on its own terms and those who feel the need to subdue and force nature into a form more accessible and easier to handle.
Those who truly value nature approach it with an attitude of humility and a quiet openness to learning some of its deeper secrets. They realize that having a successful outing is largely a matter of luck coupled with a certain amount of skill and varying expenditures of physical and mental energy. In a sense, they seek to negotiate and build an ongoing relationship with nature.
Falsely claiming an equivalent experience, those who would tame nature attempt to dominate it through the deployment of power. Control is the primary value. Machines and fossil fuels are often relied upon in the mistaken belief that these external sources of energy can deliver the users from unnecessary risk and expenditures of time, energy and thought. Among those clinging to this value, there is a persistent belief that great experiences can be had without learning, work, luck or concern for the many side effects of one’s actions.
Seen in this light, the conflict between snowmobilers and skiers becomes much more relevant to one of the most pressing issues of all time: our relationship with nature. Cris M. Currie Mead
Kershner column worth sharing
I am writing to compliment Jim Kershner for his fine Feb. 19 column, “Don’t take this column for granted.” I have made copies of this which I will give to my friends. Kershner’s column contained many words of wisdom about how to live that could be used by all of us. Jo Babin Coeur d’Alene
Doctor Laura botches another case
Re: Dr. Laura Schlessinger’s Feb. 12 column attacking the recent SIECUS declaration is an example of religious fundamentalism at its darkest, so caught up in doctrinal seriousness that love, service and compassion are utterly missing.
Through taking out of context, misquoting and adding material that is not present in the declaration, she produces a lie and reports that lie as being supported by certain national religious groups.
What she spreads is hateful and divisive arrogance, quite at odds with the ideals of healing, reconciliation and love expressed in the document she slanders. She tries to suggest the document is a declaration of freedom to have sex whenever and however one wants. Not so! It is a statement recognizing and affirming a God-given aspect of our humanity, that we are sexual beings. Within this recognition and affirmation we have responsibility to God and each other to celebrate such a gift by promoting sexual morality, justice and healing.
I’m saddened to see a person with the audience Dr. Laura has use her position to pull down rather than build up. She maintains a siege mentality of “it’s us or them.”
As long as we forget our commonality and continue to fear our differences there will be oppression and a need for healing statements and actions. As a Christian I am appalled with the self-righteous, know-it-all attitude that Schlessinger presents. Are we not commanded that we should believe in the name of his son Jesus Christ and love one another? Mitch Freeman member, United Church of Christ, Chewelah, Wash