Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

Position on U.N. document sensible

After reading Lucy Lennox’s letter regarding the county commissioners’ response to the signing of the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, I was genuinely curious as to why two commissioners did not want to sign the document. So I did the only fair thing to do. I picked up the telephone and called Commissioner Kate McCaslin for clarification. After all, I’ve watched McCaslin adamantly support funding for the Domestic Violence Program and the Children’s‘ Waiting Room.

Additionally, during McCaslin’s three-year tenure as a commissioner, she has supported the appointment of three female department heads and Spokane County’s first female county administrator. That’s a pretty impressive record for supporting women’s issues and darn good indication of open-minded thinking.

Apparently, the document is very vaguely written and McCaslin has trouble with the confusing wording. She felt her signature would reflect approval of the entire document. She further stated that had the resolution been a simple, straightforward document instead of 30 pages of obscure language, she would have no problem signing it.

McCaslin provided me with a very thorough explanation that left me confident with her decision. It’s too bad Lennox didn’t speak to McCaslin prior to writing her judgmental letter about commissioners McCaslin and Phil Harris. Gosh, that’s what they used to do in the Dark Ages. Ann Marie Schultz Spokane

A case of selective hearing loss

Ah yes, “County planners cry for input on drafts” (March 5). Why? So that they can boast that they “listened to the people” and made their decisions accordingly?

One big problem - they “listen” to the people, then proceed to ignore the rights, concerns and pleas of the little people and cater to the desires and whims of the big shots. It happens over and over again! Ken Campbell Deer Park

LAW AND JUSTICE

With justice for not quite all

Scenario: A “father” stands accused of leading police on a 110 mph chase with his three young daughters in the car. Regarding this, his lawyer stated, “We don’t believe the kids ever were at risk.”

What? Speeding over 100 mph and the kids were not at risk?

This, as the March 9 story detailed, involves an individual who has had numerous citations in the past, including 10 for speeding. In another case he was charged with driving without privileges. That case was dismissed by a judge who ruled the man could’ve been unaware that his license still was suspended. Give me a break.

It was also noted that no drug or alcohol test was made after this latest incident. Why not? Instead, in an agreement with the county prosecutor, Alex Ray Smith pleaded guilty to a less serious charge - inattentive driving, avoiding jail time but paying a fine. In addition, a second reckless driving charge was dropped.

What justifies such preferential treatment?

Oh wait - his family owns a big car dealership. Bingo! C.M. Cameron Hayden, Idaho

Gun stored properly - say what?

Re: “5-year-old points gun at playmates” (March 4), in which Chehalis Police Chief Randy Hamilton explained that no charges were filed because the gun had been stored properly.

Shouldn’t the definition of “stored properly” be that a 5-year-old can’t retrieve the weapon and its ammunition? Heather M. Kauer Spokane

Service assists unmarried parents

Thank you for illuminating the unique legal issues facing unmarried parents in Joan Lisant’s article, “Nontraditional” (March 6). For these parents, establishing paternity and determining how responsibility for raising the child will be shared are critical to providing a strong foundation for their child’s future. The author may not have been aware that unmarried parents in Spokane County have a valuable resource available to them. The Parenting Enrichment Program, a joint project of the Division of Child Support and the Spokane County Prosecutor’s office, helps parents who established paternity by affidavit obtain legally enforceable parenting plans.

The free service not only provides mediation but also facilitates the opportunity for their agreement to be filed in Superior Court as a legally enforceable court order.

Interested parents can call 477-7564 for more information about this program and other available resources in our community. Susan Tyler-Babkirk, program coordinator Parenting Enrichment Program, Spokane

OVER THE LINE

`This situation is ludicrous’

The decision to build a refueling depot over our aquifer has potential catastrophic implications. This underground lake extends across an area of some 325 square miles, from west of Spokane to east of Coeur d’Alene, north to Lake Pend Oreille in North Idaho. This area encompasses a population of approximately 500,000 people and this aquifer is our only source of drinking water.

While I applaud Kootenai County Commissioner Ron Rankin and his vote against the depot, I am appalled by the affirmative votes of Commissioners Dick Compton and Dick Panabaker.

I made a personal visit to the Department of Ecology in Spokane on March 7. People there informed me that they have records stating Burlington Northern Santa Fe’s cleanup records in Pasco, Mandan, N.D. and Livingston, Mont., are extremely poor to nonexistent. Were these records ignored by the commissioners?

There are conditions imposed on BNSF regarding the depot. For example, the railroad is going to provide alternative drinking water for anyone whose water is contaminated by the depot. Now, if your only source of water is contaminated, how do you provide alternative drinking water for up to half a million people? In a word, this situation is ludicrous. Ruby Niemeyer Spokane

Peace of mind takes a hit

Re: “It’s our water, too, says Spokane depot suit,” (March 8). The aquifer is an incredible natural resource that should be protected from all possible contamination. Now, our sole drinking water supply is at risk. Doug F. LaPlante Spokane

CONSUMER AFFAIRS

Costly fuel is world reality

I just received yet another copy of an e-mail encouraging me to join in a “Boycott the gas stations because gas prices are too high” protest day.

I have a hard time with everybody complaining about the high gas prices. Our prices are lower by far than those in most of the world.

We drive our kids to school instead of letting them walk. We drive to the gym to work out. Most of the cars have one person in them because we don’t share commuting. We cut back on bus routes and don’t pursue mass transportation. We insist on keeping up with the Joneses by driving the currently popular SUV’s, mini vans and trucks that get poor gas mileage.

The e-mail exhorted me to join in the protest and pass the e-mail on because we have a right to low gas prices and “we can make a difference.”

We don’t have a right to low gas prices. How spoiled and silly that is! What about our responsibilities to use our natural resources wisely, to protect our environment and to lead a lifestyle that would benefit us in more ways than saving at the gas pump?

On one point, the e-mail is correct. We can make a difference. Cutting back our use of cars, using mass transportation, car pooling and using more economical vehicles would make a difference. Gail Gleason Spokane

BUSINESS AND LABOR

Strikers remarkably free of hatred

Re: “Strikers’ tactics dangerous” (Letters, March 9).

Throwing nails in the road is not a “tactic” of the locked-out Steelworkers at Trentwood. It is the personal action of a few individuals whose lives have always been centered on hate and destruction. As a woman employee of Kaiser, I knew them well. I saw their hateful looks often at work. What would it be today? A bad job assignment? The occasional death threat? Or perhaps just muttered insults or cut tires. Some were Steelworkers; others, Kaiser salaried employees. But all were brothers and sisters under a skin seething with hate. They hated me, my minority coworkers, people older than themselves and workers with a disability that made them easy to single out for attack. Scabs crossing a picket line make ideal pawns for their game.

Despite this, I have only seen nails on the road at Trentwood’s east gate a few times since the lockout began. And one of those times, the nails appeared to be dribbling from the back bumper of one of Kaiser’s more hateful supervisors as he drove out through the gate.

Mundane though it may sound, the one thing which has impressed me most about people during this lockout is the degree to which most Steelworkers, even in financial ruin, don’t hate anyone. Not the scabs who are determined to steal our jobs and not even the Kaiser supervisors who will use any tactic to encourage scabs to think they are doing the right thing. Margaret Larive Steelworker, Trentwood, Spokane

NOTHWEST DAMS

For clean air, cheap power, keep dams

If the four dams on the lower Snake River are breached, an additional 4,186,804 tons of carbon dioxide will be put into the air annually along with 6,108 tons of other pollutants. The dams, on the other hand, produce clean, cheap, renewable energy without polluting.

Since most people want clean air and cheap energy, why are we even considering breaching the dams? Greg Jones Colfax

Pro-breaching people get around

It just blows me away to keep seeing the same names and groups of people testifying at all the dam breaching hearings. Aren’t the hearings held at different locations to give different people a chance to be heard? Yet it’s the same old song and dance by the same singers and dancers everywhere. It’s sort of like ballot stuffing, isn’t it?

Why not try an absolute ban on fishing for salmon and steelhead bound for the Columbia and Snake rivers for three years? If breaching were the answer, why wasn’t there an increase in number of fish returning after the drawdown experiments of a decade or so ago?

Remember, people, this is the same group of environmentalists who said the spotted owl couldn’t live in second-growth forests. Then, after mills were shut down and thousands of people lost their jobs, it was proven that the spotted owl can and does live in secondgrowth forest.

And all the environmental community says is “oops.” David L. Porter Clarkston

OTHER TOPICS

Protesters believe in free speech

We, “the protesters,” are a free speech organization. We believe in the First Amendment - adamantly opposed to unauthorized censorship. We believe we are on the right side of the argument because we are exercising our right to engage in the debate.

We are working with laws that are already on the books in this country to regulate sexually oriented businesses (SOB’s), wipe out obscenity and that which is not protected by the First Amendment.

Others claimed their moral “rights” have been violated. Morality isn’t the basis for the discussion. Pornography causes real harm to real people. Having once walked in the shoes of these women, I know firsthand that objectification and dehumanization play a significant role in the way a dancer feels about herself and others. For those who patronize and work for SOB’s, it affects them on the relational level. Affecting how they view their spouse, children, co-workers and even themselves.

Numerous precedents in other communities document urban blight, declining property values and crimes that prevail. Every citizen has a responsibility to the community. This responsibility isn’t mutually exclusive because, if it isn’t affecting your life personally, you know someone who it is affecting.

We must decide what kind of a city we want to have. We must dedicate our time, efforts and resources to create the kind of community we want to live in. It’s very important that we do something and do something meaningful.

Edmund Burke states, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.” Kimberly Drake director, Spokane Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families

TV Week cover reeks of drug culture

The Spokesman-Review has published some vile photos and articles but the cover of the March 3 TV Week is one of the most disgusting. There is absolutely no reason for putting a picture of a half-naked young man, obviously under the influence of drugs, on the cover.

Then to insult us further, you print an article about him and his group, and print a picture of four pitiful young men smoking what appears to be marijuana.

And what is especially shocking is to think you would publish such disgusting material on the week Spokane is hosting the Class B Basketball competition. Shame on you! We just hope the visitors have not had time to read your paper. Please have someone on your staff monitor what you print. Your paper influences young people and this was an especially bad example. Al and Jackie Daniels Cheney

Conclusions about fish just faith

John Arnold (Letters, Feb. 19) believes the lung fish “was an early transformational life form from aquatic to terrestrial habitats millions of years ago.” He’s welcome to believe that but it’s not science; that’s his faith. He trusts in that.

No one has ever observed an animal changing into or producing any fundamentally different kind of animal. There is no empirical evidence for macro-evolution. There is no fossil evidence of past evolution and no present evidences of present evolution. Teaching macro-evolution as fact in our tax-supported schools is government sponsoring a religion - the religion of humanism.

By the way, the lung fish was the “index fossil” for the supposed 325-million-year-old rock layer of the geologic column until, in 1938, the lung fish (coelacanth) was found swimming around in the Indian Ocean, where they are still found today. Bonnie M. Shannon Spokane

Eternal life available to the saved

Thank you for printing Matthew W. Monroe’s letter, “The aborted receive no justice” (March 7). This should make absolute sense to anyone who reads it. If it does not make sense to you, look both of these up in the Bible: 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 and Ephesians 4:18-19. Get right with God and you will see everything differently. God is love. If a murderer receives Jesus Christ as his or her savior, even after being convicted by justice in the world, eternal life still awaits. M.M. Gleeson Spokane