Letters To The Editor

WASHINGTON STATE

How nice of DSHS to think of us

Re: “Sex offender solution may be our problem” (Nov. 21).

Wow! I didn’t know Spokane had such a gleaming reputation for housing sex-pervert creeps. The state Department of Social and Health Services (Deviate Sex Housing Services) sure has us pegged. I think the agency’s people must be very happy with the rehabilitation of all these sex perverts who have been released to Spokane County in the last seven years. Our favorite porn shops must be delirious with all the new clientele. Just think, we can rub elbows with these deviates and thank God the DSHS has Spokane high on its Christmas gift list.

The PPFP, or perfect place for perverts, would be in downtown Olympia, next to the DSHS building. After all, the perverts would receive much better rehabilitation than by being shipped off 300 miles to the east, to Spokane.

But, I forgot, we live in a more kind and gentle society today. So, let’s welcome our new neighbors! Mike Forster Spokane

SPOKANE MATTERS

Amends and justice are in order

I’m sure I speak for many of us in Spokane when I say that we deeply regret what happened to our Japanese student guests. One of the greatest fears a parent can have when they send part of their family overseas is that something like this might happen.

We as a community need to assure these people and their families that this is not what Spokane is about. The humiliation and embarrassment to our decent, hard-working citizenry is great as well and I hope no one leaves Spokane thinking this is representative of our treatment of our foreign guests. We are better than what was done to these students and it may be time for us, corporately as well as privately, to express our sincere remorse at this type of treatment.

I just hope we deal with the culprits quickly and appropriately, because our reputation and good name are on the line. Bob Sanborn Spokane

Other programs also help women

I read with interest Fern Christenson’s (Nov. 18) editorial on the wonderful ways that the YWCA provides front-line service for families experiencing domestic violence. We are so fortunate for the YWCA’s strong leadership, creativity and education on this issue that tears too many families apart.

What happens to women after they leave the Alternatives to Domestic Violence program? Some seek additional help through such programs as Transitions.

Transitions is a nonprofit organization in Spokane which takes women and families disrupted by domestic violence and works with them to acquire the tools they need to re-ground their families in respect, community, growth/wholeness and justice.

One of our programs is the Women’s Drop-In Center. Many women drop in there daily to experience a safe, welcoming presence. Specifically, Transitions also has two residential facilities where women come to live to refocus their lives and their children’s lives. One site is Miryam’s House that does healing case management for women. The second site is Transitional Living Center, where homeless mothers and children come to live and grow beyond this cycle of violence. TLC has multiple services for the mothers and a licensed child care facility for the children. Women can stay at both of these programs for at least a year to get their grounding and then move on with healthier lives.

Isn’t it great that we have front-line services to flag the need and follow-up agencies such as Transitions to help families move into wholeness? K.C. Young executive director, Transitions, Spokane

Powers, here’s hoping

Congratulations, Mayor-elect John Powers. You won. Before you lie the hopes and future of an entire city, a city that I and many others hold preciously in our hearts.

You’ve made a lot of promises to get where you are. You’ve sold the majority of the voters on your message of great positive changes to come quickly under your leadership. Though I didn’t support you, I look forward to those “better jobs now” when you take office. I’m also sure all of us are anxiously waiting to see how you fix the roads and build our economy into one that lifts our citizens out of poverty. And of course, I’m glad you have a way to stop the River Park Square garage financial drain on our taxpayers and a solution satisfactory to all the people involved.

Many have worked for years to try and accomplish what you promised you will do in a very short time.

I’m not trying to be sarcastic or contentious. You see, my parents didn’t have the foresight to move here and give birth to their children in Spokane, so 10 years ago I moved my family here. We came because we saw wonderful people and tremendous possibilities. The possibilities have yet to be realized but I and many others have faith that someday Spokane will be all that it can be.

Are you as good as your word, Powers? I hope so.

We will wait and we will see. David Bray president Taxpayers for Accountable Government, Spokane

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

Too much TV is bad for kids

Where are the kids? They aren’t getting out to play sports like they used to. They are just sitting in front of the television.

Kids don’t need to watch television when they have friends. They can play basketball, baseball, football and other things like that. If kids always watch television their brain will not be as active as it would be if they interacted with others.

One day I came home as usual from school and saw my sister sitting on the couch watching TV. I asked her why she wasn’t playing outside. She said, “Because I am watching `Rocket Power.”’ I suggested she go outside and play instead. What about the kids who don’t have anyone to make such a suggestion to them? When those students get to school will they have few interactions and learning skills? Are these our future dropouts?

I suggest we teach kids to monitor their TV viewing before it is too late. Michael Pomeroy Warden, Wash.

Don’t let TV raise your kids

Too often these days the media get blamed for violence in teens (and preteens). It seems to me that too many parents don’t want to take full responsibility for their children.

I’m not saying young children should be allowed to watch violent programming until they become neurotic but I am doubtful that violent movies will turn kids into gun-wielding psychopaths. The real problem isn’t the media, it’s parents letting the media raise their kids.

When children don’t have a parent around to clear up right and wrong, and moral issues, they will turn to the nearest information source - television. TV is fine for entertainment, as long as someone explains that it’s mostly fiction, and that someone also tells children, “You would never really do this to anyone; it’s not nice.” If no one does, kids may have trouble telling the difference between the real world and TV

There are things kids shouldn’t watch but rather than whine at Hollywood for making it, just don’t let your kids watch it. After all, Hollywood only makes stuff that’s going to sell. If you don’t want your kids renting R-rated movies, help them pick one out.

Parents, take responsibility for your kids. Don’t let the TV raise them. To those of you who are taking care, good job.

Very little is more annoying than people forcing their beliefs onto other people and seeking censorship. Angela Bonner Pullman

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Don’t change rules during a game

If Vice President Al Gore truly has respect for our system of government and its laws, as he claims, he wouldn’t allow his spokesperson to liken the election to a game through analogy. Now our country is in overtime, the ball is almost touching the goal line and Gore is calling time out so the rules can be changed before the last play is allowed to take place.

Meanwhile, Gov. George Bush is being portrayed as an enemy of the people because he has the nerve to legally request that Gore follow the rules.

Our democratic system may have minor flaws but respect for and faith in it have held us together for over 200 years. Recounts are a valid part of our system and occasionally result in an election being overturned. However, they have always been done within the existing framework of laws. If the system needs changing, it should be done after the game is played, not during overtime.

The democratic system as we know it today is being challenged. Could one past cartoon have envisioned this day when it stated that we have met the enemy and the enemy is us? Paul McBride Spokane

Cartoon `outrageously insulting’

Your selection of the Nov. 19

Opinion page cartoon is outrageously insulting and despicable. Portraying the governor of Texas as the equivalent of a murderous despot, one responsible for the deaths of thousands of people and a war that put U.S. servicemen at risk, is beyond reprehensible. To impugn Gov. George W. Bush with this kind of virulent demagoguery is utterly vile. You owe an apology to him and to every decent American supporting this honorable man in his lawful bid for the presidency.

If there is a Milosevic-like character in this whole sordid mess, it has to be Vice President Al Gore. It is he who refuses to abide by the results of the Florida election.

There’s been a vote, a mandatory recount and the addition of properly executed overseas absentee ballots - and Bush has prevailed every time. It’s only because Gore and his hack lawyers are blocking every lawful attempt to certify the results of the election, with endless legal maneuvering and desperate court appeals, that this insanity is allowed to continue. It’s transparently obvious that their only hope for holding onto their parasitic need for power is to stall and recount for as long as it takes for Bill Daley to manufacture enough Democratic votes for Gore to win. God help us all if they succeed.

This cartoon is repugnant and insulting. As for your decision to print it, Joseph Welch put it best, during the Army-McCarthy hearings: “Have you no sense of decency?” John M. Lyons Spokane

Whole ballot must be evaluated

Regarding the validity of “dimple” votes.

The notion that a partisan person can differentiate between a voter’s intent to vote for, or to not vote for, a particular candidate by looking at a dimple on a punch card is ludicrous.

The only reasoning that is even plausible to determine if a dimpled punch card should count as an intent to vote is if you examine the entire ballot and find that more than half of the ballot is not clearly punched out (chads are not removed). In that case it could be argued that the person was not a very good puncher/chad eliminator and was not able to physically express their intent to vote, perhaps due to a unique handicap like arthritis or Parkinson’s.

However, if only the presidential vote is not punched out clearly on the ballot, but all other votes for candidates of other offices are clearly punched out, then it would be fair and accurate to conclude that the intent of the voter was to not vote for any of the presidential candidates - dimple or no dimple!

Let’s not create a vote that was not intended for either candidate. Doug Moser Veradale

Harris vs. Clinton in 2004

As mayor of Fish Lake, I nominate Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris as our Republican candidate for president in 2004. Undoubtedly, she will be running against Democrat Hillary Clinton. Prediction: Harris will run away with it.

If she doesn’t make the cover of seven magazines this month, the sleepwalking at the polls continues. Hal Meili Cheney

Republicans should try candor

The Nov. 19 AP article, “Votes for Libertarians hurt,” quotes GOP strategist Brett Bader, who said, “The Republican Party needs to find a way to attract voters drawn to Libertarians.”

May I suggest a fresh approach? Tell the truth about the still growing national debt. The U.S. Treasury site http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdpenny.htm - lists current federal public debt as $5,697 billion. The debt on Sept. 30, 1999 was $5,656 billion. There is still no surplus! In the booming economy of the last 14 months the burden grew by $41 billion.

Why does this matter? Because government cannot spend this money as wisely as it would be spent by the individual choices of millions of free people. It means that government is ever more intervening to give average children a worse education than their parents.

It means medical care will continue to cost ever more and be less readily available for all but the truly rich. Most retirees will have a less-abundant life.

It means more people will have less chance for meaningful contributive work.

A little honestly will help voters realize the tragic costs of giving up liberty and personal responsibility. A little honestly may attract those who still honor our national ideal of freedom. Bodhi Densmore Spokane

Gore values chad life, ironically

I misjudged Vice President Al Gore and Democrats, thinking they had little respect for pregnancy. The judicious hand count of ballots in Democratic Florida counties changed my mind. The Democrats have shown sacred respect for the barely pregnant ballot with chad, while totally disregarding the barely pregnant mother with child. They have a new mantra to respect and honor even the smallest sign of chad life. Even a dimpled chad in their view is equal to a full-term , fully born, delivered, counted chad.

Gore opposes the bill to ban partial-birth abortions. Gore believes in the sacredness of an unborn chad, but not an unborn child. Is this who you want for your president? Gloria Anne Clark Spokane

OTHER TOPICS

KHQ should reinstate Shaw

To open our Spokesman-Review on the morning of Nov. 9 and read that Randy Shaw, our very favorite newscaster, had been fired as KHQ anchorman was indeed a shock. “KHQ General Manager Lon Lee provided no further details on Shaw’s firing and declined to name the co-worker referred to in the statement,” as quoted from the Review.

After more than 17 years in his position as anchor it seems to me that more consideration is owed to Shaw. We as viewers and friends of this outstanding newscaster and announcer need to know more about the reason for this decision.

This matter of “harassment,” stated in the subheadline, has in my opinion gone much too far as a reason for job dismissal.

I hope I speak for the majority of KHQ viewers in my request that Shaw be reinstated as KHQ anchor and newscaster. I look forward to reading many more letters from viewers supporting my backing for Shaw’s reinstatement in his position with KHQ. Zona P. Gookstetter Spokane

If dam removal’s the only way …

I am pro-salmon. If this means removing dams, then I am pro-dam removal. Please do not let Clinton politics get in the way of good sense. Consider all threats to the salmon. All endangered species of salmon should be considered.

I can respect a plan that removes dams after five years if other means are not fully and completely successful, without further opposition.

The government should take responsibility for advising the public adequately on the issues. Stop this being a science vs. politics re-election debate and make it common sense instead. Robert Swanson Spokane