Letters To The Editor

IN THE NEWS

Gates a fine Washingtonian

I know of no other man who has had as great an affect on the state of Washington as has Bill Gates. I’m sure the result has been just as great on the rest of the nation as well, but consider what in particular he has done for Washington. He has created untold millionaires. He has helped provide the state (and the nation) with more tax revenue than ever before. He has provided technology that has expanded our knowledge and education faster than at any other time in history. His payroll has added a magnificent bounty to the citizens of Washington.

The door has been open for anybody to have done the same thing. His leadership, in fact, has provided the insight for others to follow, and the entire nation is reaping an untold abundance of growth.

Unfortunately our government is making an attack on him that could be very detrimental to us all. I’m hoping that Sen. Patty Murray’s concern for the state of Washington will lead her to alleviate this problem in any way that she can. Milo Voshell Spokane

Time for some parental control

In the never-ending saga of “unmanageable children,” it’s now come forward that these children may have been misdiagnosed and overanalyzed. Jeez, what a breakthrough!

I could never understand why parents would take the advice of some elementary school psychiatrist, or counselor for that matter, over their very own instincts about what’s best for their own children. If a school authority told me to drug my child or take them elsewhere, I would leave before they had a chance to finish their sentence. Why would I give my child a prescription drug that I myself would never take, because someone told me so?

Kids today are no longer free to be kids! We’ve taken that away from them, forced them to grow up. When they behave like kids, we simply medicate them.

Ritalin is frightening. We give our children prescription drugs at tender young ages. We’ve created robots at school and kids that no longer possess imaginations. We’ve robbed these children of the precious carefree childhood that we were blessed with.

Instead of drugging kids, give them your time. Teachers can handle unruly kids, they’d just rather not bother any more for it makes their jobs to difficult. Parents also, can handle these kids, it’s called parenting, giving up your life for them, the way your parents did for you.

Now that I’m older, I realize what my parents sacrificed to raise me. They allowed me to be a kid, they instilled values and morals, and they disciplined me to build character and self confidence.

Parents need to gain back control in their children’s lives. Jeanie Smith Nine Mile Falls

Money

being wasted on Microsoft case I have a suggestion for reducing the rip-off prices of prescription drug costs.

The drug companies claim that part of their costs are for research and development of new drugs. The Federal government should subsidize this research with (our) money that the government is wasting on the investigation and attempted break-up of the Microsoft Corp.

In the May 2 Spokesman-Review it was reported that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation just allocated $16.5 million to School District 81. This company’s computer innovations have revolutionized the entire world, and it also gives back some of its profits to benefit the community. Microsoft is being punished for this because its competitors aren’t smart enough to compete. The government’s punishment of Microsoft is ridiculous. Kyle Pugh Spokane

SPOKANE MATTERS

Stores should shoulder parking expense

The downtown parking garage is really none of my business, but for what it’s worth I’m going to throw in my two cents.

The stores where I shop provide free parking. They have gone to the expense to buy acres of land, to spend tens of thousands of dollars to clear the land and pave it with asphalt. In the winter, they have the expense of snow plowing. During the rest of the year they have the added cost of keeping it clean and free of litter. They absorb this cost for our business.

I believe that high-faluting parking garage downtown should be paid by all the stores that operate in the vicinity. All the stores. They want your business, yet they don’t provide a place for you to park. Jointly, if they all pitch in with their fair share of paying, then perhaps they will share the rewards of patrons. It’s a tax write off. It’s a business expense.

Free parking. What a concept! I doubt it will happen. Just an idea I had. After all, I’m just a housewife in Spokane. I wasn’t paid $450,000 for a survey of the problem.

It’s really none of my business - which is exactly what they will get. Jeannie U. Greene Spokane

Naysayers need alternate plan

I am disappointed, disgusted and dismayed at the negative downtown parking garage vote by City Council “leaders” Steve Eugster, Steve Corker, Cherie Rodgers and Mayor John Talbott. What is their plan to keep this portion of the downtown renovation project moving forward? The simple answer is nothing.

Real leaders who disagree with a plan offer alternatives. This group has no plan to better Spokane or this region. They are fueled by and focused only on destruction. This manic behavior is not a bad dream, folks, this is real. Ask what they will do for Spokane, not for themselves. Bridget Piper Spokane

Take dog-deposit issue one step further

I have been a pet owner for most of my life and own a dog at present. I would not think of taking my dog to any city or county park without baggies in pocket. I spend a lot of time in campgrounds where you are required to clean up after your pet. It takes all of five minutes.

However, City Councilman Steve Eugster has only tackled part of the problem with dogs in the parks leaving their deposits. Eugster should now get onto his soap box once again and get all dogs, regardless of size, banned from Riverfront Park.

Riverfront Park has three events every summer - 4th of July, Pow Wow and Pig Out in the Park - that draw thousands of people. At these events there is hardly enough room to spread a blanket out to sit on and eat your lunch, never mind a large dog charging around the park because it’s owner let it loose for a run.

All dogs are dangerous in large crowds, regardless of how gentle it is at home. The park is full of small children and people the dog doesn’t know. This can make any dog very nervous and in a split second it can bite someone. All dogs will bite under the right circumstances. Dorothea M. Bennett Spokane

Criticism comes with the post

Re: “Courtesy requested by county” (May 3) and “Roskelley abandons formal rules for forums” (May 4).

The Boston Tea Party was not about tea. It was about taxation without representation. Likewise, critics of County Commissioner John Roskelley have not been critical of Roskelley because he is himself, but because his actions very often arbitrarily favor some people or some policies and oppose others.

It is utterly vain for Roskelley to assert that he and his staff should be above criticism about public issues such as taxes, permits, property rights, etc. This is not a feudal society and Roskelley is not a king, prince, duke or earl. He has chosen to serve temporarily as a county commissioner, an elected official in a free nation. Let him participate in the healthy and necessary debates which arise from the First Amendment. Someday he will retire or be replaced and thus escape from his critics.

Three cheers for County Commissioner Phil Harris, who stated, “Commissioners should be willing to take their lumps.” Sylvia J. Riddle Spokane

Seattle not in Spokane County

Concerning Adam Lynn’s article (“County land plan draws critics”, April 28) on the first public hearing on the draft of the Spokane County land use plan, it’s interesting that people from Seattle have so much to say about how Spokane does its planning. They certainly have their own problems, but Seattle is quite different than Spokane.

It is also interesting to watch how the government is able to take the Pike’s property by devaluing it. I wonder how many other Spokane citizens are unknowingly having their property devalued? I thought there were constitutional guarantees against this sort of thing. Glen R. Pollock Spokane

OTHER TOPICS

Real concern for Elian lacking

About 15 years ago I was volunteering in Vienna to work for a refugee organization. I had also very close ties to the top official of Austrian government in charge of political refugees from Czechoslovakia. I can attest that for at least 80 percent of refugees the motivation for seeking asylum is not lack of freedom but hope that they improve their material status.

The second-largest motivating factor is an attempt to solve family problems, which almost never succeeds.

The belief that Elian’s mother was seeking liberty is naive. To me it seems that she tried to please her boyfriend, recklessly endangering her own child. If we should hold something against Cuba then it should be the fact that this woman had custody of Elian in the first place.

The irrational hatred and exceptional ignorance of some letter writers who attack Attorney General Janet Reno for her correct, albeit a little delayed, action is not an encouraging sign. My suggestion to those writers is this: If you know nothing about Cuba and nothing about the Gonzalez family situation, if all you know is that you hate President Clinton and the “liberals,” then write about that hatred. Don’t pose as an advocate for the little boy. Peter C. Dolina Veradale

Reno showed restraint

Re: the great debate over “Eliangate”

These people thumbed their noses at our attorney general, mocked our laws and refused to obey lawful orders to return a child to his father. Under the circumstances, I think Attorney General Janet Reno showed remarkable restraint. Had it been me, I would have shipped the whole lot of them home to Cuba in a rubber boat!

As for the folks who think the photos were faked, any photographer knows they weren’t. The lighting is what makes the difference in how the child’s hair appeared. One need only to see the smiling eyes of this child with his father to know the right decision was made. It’s easy for everyone to sit in judgment of Reno, but if it was your own child being held by relatives against your will, wouldn’t you be glad if law enforcement was willing to go to your aid? Sometimes, a show of force is necessary.

You can’t compare this to Nazism, as some people have done. The Nazis came to take the children from the parents and kill them. These INS agents took a child from interfering relatives and returned him to his home.

Get real, Americans. Don’t let some liberal political activists cloud your thinking. Lyssa J. Gooch Spokane