Letters To The Editor

Outdoors

Let’s look more closely at Gore

In his column of Oct. 5 (“In two minutes …), Rich Landers suggests that “every hunter, angler, hiker, nature lover and river runner in the United States” ought to “vote for Al Gore.”

He continues by painting George W. Bush’s free-market stands as anathema to the aforementioned, by implication making Gore the friend of the outdoorsman and woman.

Landers seems to have overlooked several of the groups that make up Gore’s core constituency. First, the environmentalist lobby - Landers refers to “the Clinton administration’s bid to protect 40 million acres of roadless areas.” But many of these folks want to protect this land by closing it off to the public. Then there’s the gun-control lobby, no friend to the hunter. The animal rights groups advocate the end to all hunting and fishing. Any politician willing to pander to any of these groups is no friend to those of us about whom Landers purports to be concerned. Either is anyone willing to vote for him. C.L. True Spokane

Not such a good trade for hunters

Rich Landers’ article (Oct. 1) on the trade of 600 acres along the Hawk Creek drainage for 700 acres of scabland in the Swanson Lakes wildlife area points out another bad deal for the sportsmen made by the Washington Fish & Wildlife Department.

The Olsen-Dodd property we lost is excellent habitat and supports healthy populations of turkeys, deer, partridge and grouse. In exchange, we received more scabland that supports a few mule deer and joins an already existing 20,000-acre wildlife area.

It’s interesting to note the WFWD agreed to maintain the guzzlers and other habitat improvements for 10 years.

When I went there to hunt turkeys this spring, the Olsen-Dodd property was posted “Fee hunting only.” What a deal for hunters. Not only do we have to pay to hunt, but we also pay to maintain the habitat! Nice going, WFWD! Another waste of sportsmen’s money and loss of a place to hunt. Earl A. Christensen Spangle

No fan of Al Gore

In regards to Rich Landers’ comments on George Dubya Bush and Landers’ endorsement of Al Gore, I say both candidates stink, but if you vote for Al Gore you may soon not have the right to own a gun and there will be no hunting. Mike Smith Spokane

Hunters, show some respect

“Hunting Etiquette” or “Can a Hunter be a Good Neighbor?”

As another hunting season begins, I post my property with “no hunting” signs and wait for what I know will be another year of hunters/sportsmen who aren’t good neighbors.

I live in a rural area of north Spokane County, large acreage homesites and ranches with open fields and intermittent timber. Yes, you will see deer and pheasant, doves, quail, coyotes and rabbits throughout a drive in my rural neighborhood. You’ll also see kids on bikes, kids on ponies, pets on our property and pastures with livestock, barnyards and homes with lawns, landscaped and lived in, just like the one you live in.

My point is this, please don’t pull up in front of mine or my neighbor’s home, park your vehicle and begin hunting in the field in front of or adjacent to our homes.

Gun fire at 6 a.m. is not only frightening and rude on your part, you frighten livestock, make household dogs bark and generally ruin our weekends with your noise and confusion. Be a true sportsman, go to a truly rural, unpopulated area and hunt the animals that don’t see humans everyday, that don’t clean up the hay and grain the livestock don’t eat, and expect us to put out a salt lick and apples in the winter.

You wouldn’t dream of blasting away at the bird feeder in your own yard, or firing at wildlife in front of your own home, please grant me and my neighbors the same courtesy. Valerie A. Sullivan Spokane

A sportsman for Bush

The Spokesman-Review’s outdoors editor, Rich Landers, has long been identified through his writings with the preservationist movement regarding public lands. Not that such a persuasion is necessarily good or bad, since it helps to strike a balance in management-at times. In his political diatribe (Oct. 5), he assumes the mantle of the Gore campaign, replete with disinformation, dubious statistics, and “fuzzy” math, as Gov. Bush put it.

What’s worse, his column is a total sellout of sportsmen to support his misguided agenda, that hunters, anglers, hikers, and nature lovers should vote for Al Gore. To the contrary, a Gore administration will put gun ownership in total jeopardy and seriously threaten all outdoors activities. Witness the misappropriation of millions of dollars in Pittman-Robinson and Dingell-Johnson funds dedicated to outdoors purposes, by the Clinton/Gore administration. Those involved even referred to these monies as their own private slush funds!

Landers states that caribou travel more than 2,700 round-trip miles to calve in the Arctic National Wildlife refuge. Seward, on the southern Alaska coast, is at latitude 60. Barrow, on the Arctic Ocean is at latitude 71. That’s 11 degrees of latitude at 60 nautical miles per degree or 660 nautical miles, 760 statute miles, 1,520 round trip just to illustrate. Go figure!

The salmon issue? Sockeye salmon returns at River Inlet, British Columbia, recently totaled 3,500 instead of the normal 340,000. What dams caused this? Landers seems to think it’s Slade Gorton’s fault. Go figure!

The Oct. 5 Wall Street Journal raised the issue of credibility within the Democratic campaign and the lack of truthfulness in many instances. It seems Landers is well schooled in that philosophy. Sportsmen for Bush! H.D. Binsfield Spokane

Other topics

Blanchette angers M’s fan

Note to Mariners fanatics: I am flat out disgusted with (Spokesman-Review columnist) John Blanchette’s anti-Mariners attitude.

If you are a fan of the game of baseball and are as sick and tired of reading the slanted, biased columns and articles by Blanchette as I am, you can read something a little more pro-Mariners if you hunt the Web for sports news by sports writers who actually like baseball and the Mariners in particular.

I’ve put up with Blanchette’s bias for years. He made some backstabbing attempts to throw cold water on the Mariners’ sweep of Chicago. Hell, I’m done with him and his slanted writing. I’ll get my Mariners news from the Internet, most notably where I went to read less slanted stories.

You don’t have to check out the Tribune. I’m sure there are other papers on the Internet that can feed your hunger for good stories about the M’s and their quest for the Series. Just don’t depend on Blanchette for your news. Kathy Beaver Spokane

It wasn’t bigoted, it was satire

I am responding to Mark Hoffman’s letter in the Oct. 8, Letters section.

Hoffman apparently took exception to an article written by Tom Powers of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, titled “Cuba fires first.”

Hoffman goes on to express surprise The Spokesman-Review would carry this “extremely bigoted example of reporting.” Interestingly, he then shifts gears and launches into a full-scale tirade about racism being tolerated by The Spokesman-Review, the people of the Inland Northwest, and other media resources. Whew … did we leave anyone out?

My advice to Hoffman would be to search the old medicine cabinet for a “chill pill.”

First, the article was written by a journalist from the Midwest, and carried by newspapers throughout the country. (So it wasn’t written by your average Inland Northwest sportswriting bigot).

Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, the article was actually poking fun at us, not Cuba.

I read the article, and found it to be a rather well done and entertaining example of satirical humor. Power’s comment about opening the missile silos, (the one that so outraged Hoffman), was actually an attempt to say that although this tiny country may well have beaten us on the baseball diamond, we are still the biggest bully on the block. As children will sometimes say, “you may be better than me, but I can still beat you up.”

As is the case all too often nowadays, Hoffman wishes to jump on the political bandwagon at even the slightest hint of perceived “racism” or “bigotry.”

In addition, it would appear he is going to great lengths to support or reinforce his admittedly preconceived notion that our fine city is a place where, “racist attitudes abound.”

Really? If the above article represents an example of the type of bigotry Hoffman takes exception to, the real racists and bigots out there (everywhere … they don’t all live in Spokane) must be dancing in the streets. As people misguidedly scour the newspapers for morsels of information that can conceivably be twisted to reveal bigotry, the very real problems of racial hatred are allowed to remain in the shadows. Steven Brown Spokane

Leave it to the sport, not the court

I would like to comment on the recent sentence of Marty McSorley.

I am in the sixth grade and a big hockey fan. Leave it up to the NHL to decide the punishment. If a pitcher seriously injures a batter or a linebacker disables a quarterback, should it be assault? No. Even though the shot to the temple looks pretty blatant, I feel the NHL should have banned McSorley from ever playing again. Leave it to the sport, not the court. Ryan Horlen University Elementary

AP voters should consider results

First, I’d like to congratulate Oregon State football fans on an exciting team. It has treated me to several great games the past few years. After the games at Husky Stadium, against UCLA, and outstanding Civil Wars the last three seasons, the Beavers are back. I encourage you to break out the check books and keep Dennis Erickson in place. With players like Simonton and Smith, I circle every OSU TV game as “don’t miss.”

Second, I’d like Carter Strickland to fill me in on what appears to be odd rationale for voting in the AP poll. His votes do align with the polls pretty well, so maybe this can be somewhat informative on the entire process.

I understand voters’ confusion when it comes to placing unbeaten teams from all over the country in order. I’m also OK if a once-beaten that has played superior competition is placed ahead of an unbeaten Clemson or Nebraska. What I don’t get is ordering once-beaten teams who have played each other out of the order of finish. Oregon beat Washington on the football field. For now, Oregon should be ranked ahead of Washington. Washington beat Miami, Washington should be ranked ahead of Miami. Miami and Florida State settled their bragging rights on the football field!

AP voters appear to be stubborn and pigheaded. They seem to want to designate an order before games are played, then not be reasonable about being shown they might be wrong in an already imperfect system. That is nothing to be ashamed of. All of this might change this week or next, but for now, Oregon, Washington, Miami, and FSU all remain in my top 12, but in that order.

Come on, AP voters. Bill Mouser Spokane

NFL needs better referees

I am a sixth-grade student at University Elementary. I watched the second half of the Seattle Seahawks and Kansas City Chiefs game on Monday Night Football.

From what I’ve heard about the first half, the refs made some pretty bad calls. Also, I’ve heard most of them were on Kansas City. I don’t really like Kansas City, but I think the refs should make better calls.

Also, when they review the play for a coach’s challenge or for just reviewing the play, they take too long. I mean, did we come here to watch the refs review the play or did we come to watch football? One year, I watched a Thanksgiving game between the Steelers and the Lions. On the coin toss, the Steelers called heads. The coin landed on heads, but the ref gave the ball to the Lions. Three or four weeks later, the same ref ripped off the Seahawks by giving the Jets a touchdown when the ball was on the 1-yard line. Later in an interview, he said “I thought the ball on the Jets’ helmet was the ball.”

So what I’m saying is that the NFL needs new refs or train the old refs to make better calls, because sometimes the outcome of the game can be because of the ref’s calls. Tyler Robbins Spokane

We welcome letters of up to 300 words on all sports and outdoors topics. All letters are subject to editing. Writers are limited to one letter a month. Please include your signature, street address and telephone number where you can be reached for verification. Send to Letters to the Sports Editor, The Spokesman-Review, 999 W. Riverside, Spokane 99201, or fax to (509) 459-5098, or e-mail to sports@spokesman.com.