Letters To The Editor

Thu., March 30, 2000

Government and politics

Politics no party

To the pollsters, experts and commentators: Independent voters are not “party” persons. “Party” indicates groups or masses of people gathering in celebration. Politics in America is no party at this time. Why celebrate a declining society?

Independent voters are serious, thoughtful persons who review the character, performance and platform of a candidate. The future of our nation is at stake and few wish to see it sold out to the highest bidder or the ones who contribute the greatest amount to the next election via the “party.”

Independents are serious about health care, tax reform, the downtrodden in society, education, morality and ethics. Independents prefer to pick and choose their candidate, not blindly follow the “party” leaders, who lead the line in a macabre dance of deception.

The American voter is sick and tired of business as usual. Congress is perceived (and rightly so, I believe) as being more interested in who will win the next election than serving the people who voted them into office.

So take a good look and be respectful of we independents. Didn’t the the last elections teach you something? Our numbers are growing. We will continue to not be the “party” people in this society. Our goal is to, eventually, help turn this nation around. When our goal is accomplished, we’ll be the first one’s in line for the “party.” Marjorie K. Watts Coeur d’Alene

`Debt today must be paid tomorrow’

Re: “Don’t believe the Democrats” (Letters, March 22).

Mary Nell Jones says that with the Reagan tax cuts, her daughter received a $400 tax refund while under the Democrats she received about $50. Does she know that that refund was charged on the Reagan credit card?

Remember the Reagan administration almost tripled the national debt.

Remember, never in his eight years as president did he submit a balanced budget.

Remember, in eight years never did the “liberal” Congress spend as much money as Reagan wanted. Remember, when you live on credit, some day it must be paid.

The year President Clinton took office, the deficit was estimated at more than $300 billion. With the Clinton economic plan, that deficit was reduced to over $200 billion. Now, Clinton has submitted balanced budgets for two years and has paid down the national debt.

Do you want to go back to deficit spending? If the answer is yes, vote Republican. Remember, debt today must be paid tomorrow.

You conservative Republicans disgust me! LeRoy A. Harbour Spokane

Business and labor

Who’s snowing whom?

Let’s see if I have this right. Ray Milchovich, president and CEO of Kaiser Aluminum, would have the public believe that this labor dispute centers on paying a Steelworker $70,000 a year to shovel snow? And because of this issue, he has let his company accumulate more than $150 million in losses?

Obviously, Milchovich, at a salary of more than $10,000 a week, is doing the better snow job. David L. Knutson member, Steelworkers Local 329, Spokane

Takes truth to heal Kaiser disupte

Ray Milchovich’s ad in the March 22 SpokesmanReview was truly a shameless litany of half-truths and lies, or perhaps just a frightening display of self-deception.

Seventy-thousand dollars a year to shovel snow and mow grass? I only made $35,000 a year at Trentwood as an industrial electrician. And after 32 years at Kaiser as a machinist, my father’s pension is $740 a month. That’s respectable by Spokane standards but far from the indolent luxury described in Milchovich’s letter to the unknowing public.

For there ever to be a lasting and productive resolution to the labor dispute between Kaiser and the United Steelworkers of America, Kaiser’s managers must learn to recognize the truth and then adhere to it in negotiations with the Steelworkers and in communications sent to the public.

Nothing but truth can heal the damage that has been done and bring reconciliation to the locked out Steelworkers, the scabs and the communities we all live in. Nothing but truth can make Kaiser a profitable company again. Vance and Margaret Larive Steelworkers, Trentwood

Seek information about lockout

If the unsuspecting public of Spokane and surrounding areas were to fall for the misinformation of the full-page advertisement by Kaiser CEO Ray Milchovich, I’d be surprised.

I’m the spouse of a locked-out Steelworker employed by Kaiser Aluminum Chemical Corp. in central Ohio. I’m thankful to live in a community that is supportive of the USWA and believe that the Steelworkers who have worked at Kaiser plants in Washington have the same support.

Milchovich would have the public believe Kaiser never expected a strike of union workers. Well, I’m sure it did come as a surprise because in the 40 years of Kaiser’s operation in our state, it only happened once for about five days.

If you are interested in truth about this strike turned lockout, then please approach any USWA member who’s been standing on the picket line for 18 months. This lockout has gone beyond who accepts union workers or who doesn’t. It is now about truth. I can’t rebut each statement made by Milchovich in this limited space. However, I do ask that each person, in order to make an informed stance, first arm themselves with information.

I find it appalling that Milchovich states the negotiating table is where the union and company should work out their disputes, yet sends a letter to the community trying to put one member against another.

Milchovich doesn’t reside in your city, he doesn’t care about health or safety issues that affect you. The Steelworkers do. They are a part of your community. I hope you’ll decide to support your local Steelworkers! Sharon Unger Newark, Ohio

Firearms

Dealer agreement isn’t about safety

So the Spokesman’s editorial board likes the agreement Smith & Wesson made with the Clinton administration.

The 24-page agreement isn’t about safety, however. Section I, A is all about “safety” things, but in the law enforcement/military exception section (2B) all excepted firearms are to be accompanied by a disclaimer that reads, in part: “We are further obliged to request that you not resell this firearm to civilians. This statement is not intended to suggest that there are any design flaws with this firearm…”

No design flaws, eh? If there is no design flaw in the product, what are the grounds for suing?

Politics, as illustrated by other requirements, for record keeping, no gun show sales without full Brady checks for everyone, approved lists of all employees, government training (including how to profile customers) and a mandate that all customers must have passed a training course. Further, stores must keep all persons younger than 18 away. A Smith & Wesson dealer cannot sell legal magazines over 10 rounds, nor any legal “semiautomatic assault weapons.” In short, S&W dealers can’t be dealers if they sell competing products - sort of a government-enforced monopoly.

But it’s probably going to be government-enforced suicide for Smith. Smith’s British owners are eager to sell Smith, a $161 million firm. Of course, no one wants a firm with a zillion idiot lawsuits over its head, but will anyone buy a firm with no sales?

See what happens when you put profit before principle? Dave Skinner Whitefish, Mont.

S-R aids anti-gun conspiracy

Editor Chris Peck’s March 26 editorial, “NRA position has gotten way out of scope,” culminates a two-week period of unprecedented National Rifle Association bashing by The Spokesman-Review and the rest of the media.

Peck contends that we’ll always have private gun ownership in America, yet an incredibly powerful anti-gun lobby is openly calling for a total ban on handguns and imaginary “assault rifles,” for now. Certain legally owned firearms, dutifully registered by honest people, have been confiscated in New York, New Jersey and California.

Could one of Spokane’s urban socialists, who have been flooding The Spokesman-Review with their usual mindless, gun-hating gibberish, explain why the NRA and millions of responsible gun owners are blamed each time a juvenile sociopath, career criminal or gang member misuses an illegally acquired firearm?

The notion that the NRA is opposed to safety, motherhood and the Easter bunny is nonsense. The media have totally distorted why the NRA disagrees with the Clinton administration and Smith & Wesson.

As for gun shows, I have two friends who never miss them. One is a retired police officer and the other is an orthopedic surgeon. I’d submit that they’re typical of the “criminals” who attend gun shows.

Juli Coen (Letters, March 25) is absolutely correct when she says that we are frittering away rights that have been purchased at a great price. Our Second Amendment rights have always been about citizens being able to defend themselves against criminal acts and tyranny. Curtis E. Stone Colville, Wash.

Gun makers shouldn’t be liable

Re: “Gun makers should be made to pay” by Daniel J. Schaffer (Letters, March 21).

It will be a sad day when manufacturers are held responsible for the criminal or accidental misuse of legal, nondefective products. Under that standard, the makers of cars, swimming pools, alcohol, medical equipment - pick any product - would have to endure the same groundless litigation now being pursued against the gun industry.

Cigarettes may be designed to provide pleasure but they are the only products I know of that kill when used as they are intended. The lawsuits against the tobacco companies are valid because they lied for years about tobacco’s harmful effects. Gun manufacturers do not lie about what their products do. Further, handguns have many purposes other than “to kill other human beings.” Although you would never know it from media reports, handguns are used daily to prevent crime and have saved far more lives than they will ever take. I sincerely hope Schaffer doesn’t plan on warding off a criminal attack with a BB gun or a rubber band.

As for whether anyone needs a “.45 caliber cannon,” who needs a Corvette or a Ferrari? If the speed limit is 70 mph, who needs a car that will do over 100? (Don’t reply that cars aren’t designed to kill people - of course they aren’t but it still happens.)

Gun makers provide legal, nondefective products that allow people to exercise a constitutionally protected (not created) right. Lawsuits against the gun makers are poorly disguised attempts to eliminate guns through litigation. Mark A. Laiminger Spokane

In the paper

Great coverage of Zags at the Dance

Thank you, Spokesman-Review, for your great coverage of the Gonzaga Bulldogs! Normally I don’t even glance at the Sports section, but the Zags’ pictures and articles were exciting to follow daily. I clipped all pictures and articles to send to my two young nephews in Iowa who already dream of being Zag players.

The ride was great while it lasted, and you enabled us both near and far to enjoy it. Louise A. Lobb Clarkston, Wash.

People in society

Child rearing starts at birth

A thousand cheers for Lori K. Michels. She hit the nail right on the head (Letters, March 16).

As soon as parents get back in control of their families, most of this bad stuff that young children are doing will go away.

You must start raising children as soon as they are born. Waiting until they are 7-11 is much too late.

Toys, big or small, will never take the place of caring parents. Look back a few years to when parents put their families first and were in control. Did we have the problems that children are having today? No!

As a child, when my mom or dad said “stop” or “no” that’s exactly what they meant. There was no counting to 10 to give me a chance to obey them. I’ve heard moms of this day count to 15.

Children need guidance and rules. Without them our children have no foundation. What happens to anything without a good foundation? It will fall, sooner or later.

As Michels says, why does everyone keep looking for the big answer when the real answer is right there in front of our eyes?

At times we can’t see the forest for the trees. We need to take a step back, look in the mirror. Form a plan and work that plan. Children go in the way that they are raised.

In saying this I realize that there are people out there who will go a different way, no matter how hard parents try to steer them right. Walter O. Nelson Veradale

Parenting our most important job

I must agree with Lori K. Michels (“It all goes back to inept or bad parents,” Letters, March 16).

As I drove to work , and listened to the news report on the 6-year-old killing his schoolmate, my first thought was not of a presidential veto, the Senate trying to pass gun laws or the NRA. My heart ached for the young girl and the 6-year-boy, and I wondered where his parents were. This was before I learned of his home life.

It is our responsiblity to tell our children that it is wrong to kill and that we have to respect each other no matter how different we may be. This is where it starts, not in Congress but in our homes.

My third thought was to hug my children and my grandchildren, and tell them how much I love them and how special they all are in their own ways.

As Michels wrote, it is not easy being a good parent. It is not a simple job but the most important one most of us will ever have. Elizabeth A. Davey Spokane

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Jesse Tinsley

Meet Jesse Tinsley. As a certified drone pilot, this veteran Spokesman-Review photographer often can be seen capturing beautiful aerial photographs of our region. Sometimes though, the job requires getting down with the dogs.
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