Letters To The Editor

Thu., Sept. 7, 2000

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

For veterans, lip service again

Republican vice presidential candidate Dick Cheney, in an Aug. 31 article, says Gov. George Bush, if elected, would “keep faith with our veterans treating them with dignity and earning their trust in return.” That’s just the sort of pig-in-a-poke promise veterans, especially retired ones, too often get from politicians.

Bush’s Web site, as of Aug. 31, does not mention veterans as a concern on his long list of issues. Interestingly, cutting taxes is listed first and debt reduction is not listed at all. About defense issues, Bush does not acknowledge the problems older military retirees have with health care availability, so he makes no commitment to do anything.

Vice President Al Gore’s Web site isn’t much better. He does acknowledge the medical care access problems of older military retirees. However, although he indicates that he’ll “fight for” all sorts of groups and issues, he only says he’ll “work on” finding an affordable solution. Translation: he’ll try a cheap fix, if he gets around to it.

Our “greatest generation” military retirees - dying at a rate exceeding 3,000 per month; the ones who won World War II, soldiered on for the early years of the Cold War, Korea, the Berlin Airlift and parts of Vietnam - are being denied the health care they were promised while serving.

The presidential candidates appear to only offer more empty words when they could support the Senate provisions of the 2001 defense authorization bill as a start. Deeds, not words, are needed. Charles Latimer Lieutenant colonel, USAF, retired, Spokane

Nader alone not bought and paid for

If you are working for less than you are worth, are a disrespected small shareholder, if you struggle to pay for your health needs, shudder at the incessant attacks on your air and water or are frustrated by unsustainable public policies, the odds are that you are about to throw your vote away.

In other words, according to pollsters, if you are being pounded on at every turn, you are going to either not vote or vote for the very henchmen of those doing the pounding.

The smart money says that if you vote, you will vote for either Mr. Light(weight) or Mr. Heavy(handed). Does this make sense? Can there be any sadder waste of your vote?

One thing is most clear. Rhetoric means nothing when money is calling the tune. Vice President Al Gore and Gov. George W. Bush are puppet candidates. Their backers, oil men or whoever, will be paid, even if in slightly different coin. But Ralph Nader as president will owe no one other than those in search of a just future. Ron A. Myers Spokane

Join Buchanan’s Brigades

I wonder how many are underwhelmed by the two major presidential candidates. Going by their positions on foreign policy and trade, Vice President Al Gore and Gov. George Bush seem to agree much more than they disagree. Both support the World Trade Organization, North American Free Trade Agreement, permanent normalized trade relations with China and fast-track authority to bypass the Senate’s advise-and-consent’ responsibility on treaties.

Patrick J. Buchanan, however, is diametrically opposed to these positions. He has also pledged not to interfere in other nations’ internal affairs and opposes using our military as the world’s policeman. He has promised to never use our armed forces unless justified by vital national interest. He supports fair trade, where America competes on a level playing field. Under free trade, countries such as China and Japan can sell their goods in the U.S. while virtually closing their markets to American products. They often put national interest ahead of trade agreements. Under Buchanan’s fair-trade policy, the U.S. would do the same.

Anyone interested in joining the Buchanan Brigades can do so tonight at 7 p.m. at the North Spokane Public Library, 44 East Hawthorne Road. John F. Christina Spokane

SPOKANE MATTERS

Streets need not be substandard

In the Aug. 29 Spokesman-Review it says it is going to cost us $70,000 because the street department goofed again. I have written letter after letter stating this city, the state and federal governments have no idea about how to put streets down that will last 30 to 50 years. Why? Money - they like to waste it. So it’s not done right.

All the transportation engineers should go to Europe and take a lesson from them about how to do it right. In Europe, they take the cheapest bid, use the best companies and make the companies responsible for their workmanship over a period of time. They also use latex in their asphalt.

Most of all, they take pride in their work and know they cannot afford to make mistakes like this as their citizens would not stand for it.

I am 80 years old and I have seen streets here laid with brick that lasted longer. In fact, on the South Hill there are still brick streets covered with asphalt. The bricks are still in top shape where the cheap asphalt is worn out.

This city needs a champion, not a bunch like this City Council that gets nothing done. Harry M. Davidson Spokane

PRIGGEE

Is this how S-R opposes hate?

Cartoonist Milt Priggee can usually be counted on for the cheap shot, childlike artwork and trite, far-left sarcasm. However, his Aug. 31 so-called cartoon really hits bottom. Calling National Rifle Association members “the beast,” “the devil’s pawn”` and “harbinger of death” goes quite beyond poking fun to outright vilification.

I am the NRA - a registered nurse having worked for years in both critical and palliative care helping to save lives, preserve function and relieve the suffering of fellow human beings. Many of my colleagues - doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, radiology technicians and other helping professionals - are also NRA members. I am not the harbinger of death, nor are they.

Is hunting for meat killing for sport? Perhaps. But what has that to do with greed or lust? Am I greedy to want some venison in my freezer? Apparently, Priggee doesn’t realize that many NRA members don’t even hunt.

My issue is not with Priggee himself, who apparently is at least as impaired as Richard Butler. No, my quarrel is with the leadership of The Spokesman-Review, which quite rightly denounces hatred on the front page yet promotes this ignorant, thoughtless spewing of hatred on the editorial page. How utterly hypocritical. Jim Hundrup Spokane

Cartoon way out of bounds

I find Milt Priggee’s Aug. 31 cartoon totally beyond the limit. I hope you consulted your lawyers before publication. I assure you, I will consult mine.

By publishing this obscenity, you have lowered yourselves to the bottom. Indeed, you have libeled millions of Americans like myself who are members and supporters of the National Rifle Association. We are the kind of Americans who go to work every day, answer the call when our country goes to war and work through the political system to maintain the beliefs and customs we hold dear. I have never, even in war, killed for “lust, sport or greed.”

If you have trouble understanding the language of the Second Amendment, I suggest you check the “modern” language in our state’s Constitution. It should be plain enough for anyone to understand. I conclude that the “ignorant misrepresentation” is yours. Guns in the hands of the good citizens of this nation is not and has never been the problem.

In closing, I must thank you. Charlton Heston himself could never issue a call to arms equal to this one. I’m sure you will find out in your mail that although we haven’t “bred in great numbers” we are many and vocal when trashed in this manner. Monte E. Notton Loon Lake

Many value self-defense capability

Milt Priggee’s anti-NRA cartoons seem to betray a sheltered upbringing. The better the neighborhood you live in, the less likely you will need a gun for self-defense. Approximately half of all Americans own guns. What’s more, Americans use guns for self-defense a million times per year.

Contrary to Priggee’s bloody accusations, in most of these self-defense cases a shot is not fired. The resolve of a law-abiding citizen holding a gun and willing to defend him- or herself is usually enough to thwart a criminal. Often, a police report is not filed. You will never see reports of law-abiding citizens defending themselves that way on national TV because of broadcast TV’s ill-disguised contempt for private firearms ownership

Locally, voters had the chance to assert their feelings about private gun ownership when Initiative 676 was on the ballot. Voters ignored Priggee’s personal problem with the NRA and voted overwhelmingly to defeat the initiative.

We all have a choice. If a bad guy is breaking into your house, you can get a handgun out of an electronic safe in less than 10 seconds - or you can show him Priggee’s latest cartoon and ask him politely to leave. Thanks to the Second Amendment, the choice is yours. G.L. Nelson Colbert

Anti-NRA cartoon `hate speech’

The Spokesman-Review should be ashamed of itself for printing the Aug. 31 of the hate-speech cartoon by Milt Priggee and his views of the National Rifle Association.

Priggee states that NRA members are pawns of the devil and that we kill for sport, lust or greed. According to him, any NRA member should be shunned because we are harbingers of death. I have never read such vicious and hateful statements such as these from any newspaper in America.

I am a hard-working, taxpaying, law-abiding citizen who happens to enjoy hunting. I am also a lifelong member of the NRA. I have never pointed any of my firearms at another human being, nor have I hunted and killed any of God’s creatures that I didn’t eat. I am not a cold-blooded, ruthless “harbinger of death” because I support our Second Amendment.

Priggee, you have just managed to insult and defame millions of law-abiding gun owners in this country with your hate. With your venomous words, one could argue that you are more likely to be the devli’s pawn than I am. Aaron P. Pierce Deer Park

Nazi tactics directed at good people

Milt Priggee’s vicious anti-National Rifle Association cartoons are eerily reminiscent of cartoons distributed by the Nazis to stir up hatred for the Jews.

Priggee’s ignorance about the NRA and the Second Amendment is beyond appalling. Minimal research would show Priggee that an overwhelming majority of modern scholars support the NRA’s individual-right interpretation of the Second Amendment.

Do the NRA’s “devil’s pawns” include local hero Scott O’Grady, an Air Force pilot just elected to the NRA’s board of directors? Or former Presidents Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy - all of whom were NRA members?

It’s inexcusable that The Spokesman-Review and Spokane’s darlings of the left continue to apologize for Priggee’s hatemongering. Priggee, like Bill Clinton and Al Gore, the Democratic Party, America’s gun ban lobby, British letter writer David Davies (Aug. 14) and the police states of England and Australia have no appreciation for inalienable rights and freedom. Curtis E. Stone Colville, Wash.

Why this hateful affront?

I do not understand the reason for Milt Priggee’s intense dislike (hate) for the National Rifle Association but I found his drawing in the Aug. 31 Spokesman-Review particularly offensive and inappropriate.

I have served our country in time of war. I pay my taxes, vote in every election, try to help others when in need and to generally be a good citizen. I have also been a member of the NRA for over 40 years. Priggee therefore believes I’m the scourge of the Earth and should be eliminated.

Is The Spokesman-Review, by printing such drivel, being a good steward of it’s responsibility to the community?

Front page news these days is about Richard Butler and the Aryan Nations’ bigotry and hatemongering. Although the target group is different, is Priggee’s tirade any less bigoted or offensive?

A news story in your paper the same day, about a hate fight on a Coeur d’Alene cruise, ends with the comment, “Hate is ignorant!” Perhaps that explains Priggee’s attitude. Grant Wilder Colbert

Review’s rot trap failed

I read with distress Milt Priggee’s so-called “cartoon” on Aug.31. “Beware the beast”? “Shun them”? “Drive them back into their jungle lair”? Why does The Spokesman-Review print this hate speech?

The NRA stands for law and order. It backs the police officer on the street, as do I. The only “ignorant misinterpretation” going on is Priggee’s.

I thought the editor’s job was to edit out such rot. Would you have allowed this to be said about any minority group? I don’t think so. You really fell down on the job on this one. Dan B. Acree Cataldo, Idaho

Latest in a series of lame outrages

I have lost track of all the times I have been offended by the repeated bashing of the National Rifle Association by The Spokesman-Review and by Milt Priggee, in particular. I usually ignore these insults but can’t allow his latest piece of idiocy to go unchallenged.

I’m sure Priggee thinks his constant maligning of a fine organization is clever and that he is offering some kind of deep, meaningful social commentary. The reality is that his work is sophomoric and demonstrates an unbelievable absence of insight and an appalling lack of appreciation for the complexities of important issues. I have yet to see an original thought in any of Priggee’s work. His depth of thought on this important social issue seems to boil down to a simple-minded, Neanderthal-like, Ugh, guns bad!

Is that what passes for intelligent and substantive social commentary at The Spokesman Review? These constant cheap shots at the NRA require no understanding, no subtlety, no originality, no knowledge of the pertinent facts and no talent. It’s just the same old banal, warmedover mush.

One would expect the only newspaper in the state’s second-largest city would be capable of more sophisticated commentary and deeper insight. Gene Greeson Nine Mile Falls

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