Letters To The Editor

Editor’s note: Every once in a while we publish a letter that creates a storm of controversy. It happened last week. On Thursday’s Roundtable page letter writer Robert Cardwell criticized Attorney General Janet Reno’s handling of the Elian Gonzalez case. Cardwell refers to Reno, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, as “queen of the shakes.”

A copyeditor for the page chose to highlight that phrase in the headline. He could have removed the phrase, chosen not to use it in the headline, or killed the letter completely. But, in his opinion, the attacks against Reno had become so mean-spirited that to sanitize them would not accurately reflect the tenor of the letters we were receiving.

Dozens of letter writers and callers felt that Cardwell’s insensitive reference to Reno’s shaking, and the editor’s choice of headline were beyond the bounds of healthy debate.

On Friday, we published a clarification of the newspaper’s position on personal attacks contained in letters to the editor. However, we continue to get e-mails and phone calls. Including a letter from Cardwell, offering his defense. That letter is printed below along with a sampling of the responses we received to his original Reno letter.

IN THE PAPER

Offense not meant

Re: my “Queen of the shakes” letter of April 27 and the “clarification” of April 28.

For the record, I was not even aware that Attorney General Janet Reno suffered from Parkinson’s disease, until I was told this by someone who read my letter. I had always just noted that she shakes when she is on television. Like when President Clinton smirks and looks nervously from side to side, etc. Body language.

Regardless of my ignorance on this matter of her health, I did not write the headline for the letter which was used, and I would think that if the staff is so aware and sensitive of her medical condition, my own ignorance of it could have been corrected and that phrase deleted from the letter and not used as a headline.

At any rate, had I known about her medical condition, I would not have wanted to offend anyone who suffers from this malady. Robert Cardwell Coeur d’Alene

Writer crawling in ignorance

Re: “`Queen of the shakes’ wrong again” (Letters, April 27).

I thought that over the years in reading the letters to the editor I had read every outrage the right wing could heap onto the Clinton administration. I was wrong! Robert Cardwell’s letter stoops to a new low - but actually a better adjective is crawls or slithers.

To use one’s incurable disease for name calling shows a gross ignorance and vile disregard for human decency that I hope even the most conservative Clinton haters will disavow. Gail Parke Jr. Post Falls

Shocked at `insensitive’ letter

On reading the April 27 letters to the editor, I was shocked and incensed by your heading for one, “`Queen of the shakes’ wrong again.” It wasn’t bad enough that the letter writer used such a phrase in reference to Attorney General Janet Reno, but that your paper would use it as a heading. How insensitive. You not only showed a lack of respect for the office of attorney general but contempt for all who have such an affliction. I suggest you enroll in one of the sensitivity classes offered in the area. Marcella Farrington Spokane

Admiration for Reno

I agree with most Americans who support Attorney General Janet Reno’s reuniting Elian Gonzalez with his father. I was not happy to see the way it ended, but what choice was left? As Reno so accurately portrayed, the Miami relatives kept “moving the goal posts.” They would always find a reason or excuse not to return the boy to his father.

But what I find truly shocking and disgusting is Robert Cardwell’s description in his letter of April 27 of Reno as “queen of the shakes.” I hope he never has to deal with a loved one coping with Parkinson’s or any other debilitating disease. I admire Reno and others like her who cope with such disabilities. Janis Goings Spokane

LAW ENFORCEMENT

Bragdon must take steps to get facts

“ACLU urges police to test for profiling” (April 22) is encouraging, in that some positive action was going to be taken in Spokane. However, your quoted comment of Chief Bragdon that “I don’t think there are a lot of people out there who want to complain about our department” is, with all due respect, at the least thoughtless, or deliberately ignorant, and certainly irrational and disrespectful.

He has already said he has no evidence that profiling is occurring therefore he has no evidence that it is not occurring. That is exactly the point ACLU is making and why it is asking police departments to keep records.

The problem is that people who believe they have been targeted fear police reprisal if they make an official complaint.

If official complaints are what Bragdon wants then he must take specific steps to obtain facts and guarantee absolutely that no reprisals will be taken. Phyllis A. Burwell Spokane

OTHER TOPICS

Area commission laughable

The most vile instrument of transgression against human rights is government. In America, all this and much more has been perpetuated by government: enforcement of slavery, Jim Crow laws, Japanese-American internment, syphilis experiments on blacks, radiation experiments, Ruby Ridge, Waco, Amadou Diallo, Los Angeles police scandals, racial profiling.

In the last 100 years, governments in the Soviet Union, China and Germany have killed a combined 118 million of their own citizens, with governments in Turkey, Cambodia and Pakistan getting runner-up prizes for their brutality.

Given these truths, does Spokane have a Human Rights Commission that advocates limited government, blind justice and the live-and-let-live philosophy that characterizes civilized society? No. Instead we see self-important thought police enforcing a politically correct code of speech and behavior that has become such a minefield that they themselves can’t manage to tiptoe through it without blowing themselves up.

It is laughable. They preach diversity, then they smother it. They wish for healing, but they scratch open old wounds. They hope for progress, yet they live in the past.

Their accusations of racism and insinuations of malice are second only to their indignation at having to share the world with their fellow humans. Freedom of speech and thought, individual liberty and property rights would better appease their sense of cosmic justice, but they are too caught up in their arrogance and dogma to have any sense of perspective.

The Human Rights Commission should be abolished before they give kindness and tolerance a bad name. Greg D. Holmes Spangle, Wash.

Thank you, Sheriff

Thank you, Sheriff Mark Sterk and your administration, for the courage and vision in maintaining the serial killer task force. Your decision enabled the task force to solve these heinous crimes. The Spokane community owes you and your department profound thanks. Gene Ziegler Spokane

Children’s ages, schools unnecessary

I am disgusted with your newspaper. There is nothing newsworthy about printing the ages and the schools of the children of Spokane’s suspected serial killer. These children are the truly innocent victims of this entire mess. They will spend the rest of their lives trying to overcome this devastation, and the last thing they need is your insensitivity.

Pray you never have to endure the shame and guilt associated with a heinous act that you have no control over. I certainly hope you never have to hang your head and hope people don’t recognize you because of another person’s actions.

The next time a situation like this comes up I hope you use a little common sense - and how about a little decency, also? Unfortunately, for these kids the damage is already done. Michelle E. Duryea Spokane

God bless all the victims

I think the Sheriff’s Office and the TV news media are doing a wonderful job showing concern and caring for the Robert L. Yates Jr. family and protecting them from the public. I can’t even begin to know how they must be feeling right now because this whole thing is so horrible.

The serial killings have gone on for a long time, with so many women being killed, leaving many loved ones behind. If indeed Yates is guilty, and only time will tell, his loved ones will have to deal with their own grief and sorrow. They will be victims too.

To them and the other victims’ families, keep the faith and God bless all of you through the ordeal that still lies ahead. Sally Hazlett Spokane