Letters To The Editor

Government and politics

Arrogance unacceptable in candidates

I cannot remember the last time that I have seen two politicians display such arrogance toward democracy and its citizenry. If presidential candidate George W. Bush would OK a TV advertisement that contains a subliminal message referring to government bureaucrats as rats, why should I as a government employee vote for him? If he thinks that I am stupid enough to fall for such manipulation, why should I respect that he is intelligent enough to be president?

If vice presidential candidate Dick Cheney thinks electoral democracy is of so little importance that he only bothered to vote one in out of the last six elections in Texas, why should we vote for him? Please, at least try to give the impression that you respect the intelligence of your constituency and that you think voting is important to democracy. Bryan E. Burke Pullman

Want change? Vote Libertarian

The Libertarian Party will have candidates on the ballot in more than half of all U.S. House races this November, making it the only third party this year - and the first third party in 80 years - to accomplish that feat.

If we don’t like the big-government direction in which our country is heading, we have the opportunity to fire Congress in November and replace them with Libertarians. Consider the options and vote Libertarian. A.M. Willging Springdale, Wash.

I-745 offers alternative to more taxes

Initiative-745, the transportation initiative, will provide an alternative to the huge tax increases to be recommended after November’s election by the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Transportation. Reports show they plan an odometer tax (a tax on the miles you drive), an increase in the gas tax and a retail sales tax on gasoline purchases.

I-745 puts more money into the roads without increasing taxes. I-745 forces 90 percent of all transportation funds to the roads and directs all gas tax and property taxes (identified for the roads) to the roads.

Transit gets 3.75 percent of all the sales tax collected in their area of operations. They say I-745 will take 90 percent of that money from them. That is not true. With I-745, transit statewide will get 10 percent of the state’s total transportation funds plus fares collected and other revenue generated by them, not 10 percent of their present operating funds. Transit management should concentrate on providing more efficient service instead of scaring their riders with threats of less service. Smaller buses are one answer.

After all, even buses need good roads. Leo J. Fagan Spokane

Voters must focus on real issues

I am responding to the Sept. 16 letter by Chris Marr, local car salesman, regarding the tone of Spokane County Commissioners race.

By the time this response will appear, Marr’s prediction regarding the outcome of the race between Sylvia Riddle and Kate McCaslin will be known. I agree the distraction from real issues is fueling the candidates’ catfighting. I am astonished by Marr’s expectation that these campaign tactics will continue into the general election. It’s hard to tell if Marr is nurturing a negative campaign just to fulfill his prophecy, or if he is really concerned about his candidate’s performance record.

Community and individual prosperity should come before government prosperity. It’s one thing for incumbents to talk about not increasing taxes. It’s another to collect and hoard the taxes until election time and brag about the surplus.

It has been said that we get what we expect. Marr is saying voters should accept what we’ve got. Individually, voters are not better off than we were before the last election. In fact, we’re losing ground. If we want more, we’ve got to expect more, and that means we’ve got to make a change.

Will readers of this newspaper take the time to register, become informed and vote? Your guess is as good as mine. Val Workman Spokane

Enough with the blitz

I am truly tired of the TV and radio ads, the brochures and flyers, the signs and the telephone calls from politicians. This visual and verbal blitz goes far beyond a voter’s need for information and only contributes to the proliferation of junk mail, litter and sound pollution.

Enough, already! Carol Shaw Spokane

Environment

Decomposition needs conducive weather

In response to Dr. David Demers as to why the farmers in the Palouse do some field burning as opposed to those in the Midwest.

The farmers in the Midwest have two distinct advantages. First, they are dealing with residue from wheat that yields 40-80 bushels per acre, whereas the farmers on the Palouse regularly deal with 80-120 bushels per acre residue.

Second, the weather needed for natural decomposition of the stubble is more conducive in the Midwest. Heat and moisture are both needed in combination for natural decomposition of the residue. The weather in the Midwest has high heat in combination with high humidity which favors natural decomposition When our weather is hot, it is usually dry. By the time that moisture comes in the fall, the temperature has dropped below the point needed for decomposition to begin.

Although not every acre needs to be burned, we farmers need the use of fire as a management tool. There are times when burning the stubble is better for the environment than tillage, which can result in greater soil erosion. Art Schultheis Colton, Wash.

Stop burning for community’s sake

How many more lives will have to be lost or ruined before the grass growers of this area wake up and smell the smoke? In 1996 a Sandpoint woman died of an asthma attack following a day of field burning, and now Marsha Mason has died from similar circumstances.

I moved here 12 years ago, and 5 years ago I developed asthma. Coincidence? I’ll never know. But what I do know is that every time fields are burned, I suffer. And for the past several days of heavy smoke, my asthma attacks have rendered me unable to work or function properly. I wonder - will I end up like Marsha? Will my life end because I can’t breathe in the smoke?

Grass growers claim that to make a profit they must burn. But to you grass growers, I say that as your smoke rises, my ability to breathe falls. You say you have the right to burn, but what about my right to breathe? And what about the rights of my family to have me around as a wife and mother?

Grass growers, stop field burning! Don’t put your profits above the health and lives of others anymore. Don’t wait for a lawsuit to decide. Don’t be the cause of one more person’s death! Please listen to your heart and make the changes that will benefit our entire community. Rachel L. Hill Coeur d’Alene

Science disproves cartoon

The Sept. 12 editorial cartoon showed a caricature of President Clinton in front of a forest fire looking at a document titled “Forest Policy.” The caption read, “Bill Clinton’s eternal flame - U.S. National Forests.”

Political opportunists and much of the timber industry are blaming the intensity and scope of this summer’s wildfires on the Clinton administration. Do they also blame the president for the drought that was a contributing factor?

Fires in Western forests are a natural occurrence. They are essential to the long-term health and existence of our forests and are one of the major forces that rejuvenate Western ecosystems. Fire is a necessary component for old-growth forests of ponderosa pine and Western larch. They cleanse the forest of diseases and insects and thin the forest.

The cartoon and the rhetoric from some politicians imply that reduced harvest levels are a factor in increasing fire intensity. Scientific documentation indicates otherwise. The Sierra Nevada Ecosystem project states, “Timber harvest, through its effects on forest structure, local microclimate and fuels accumulation, has increased fire severity more than any other recent human activity.”

Looking at the Interior Columbia Basin, scientists state, “The primary causative factors behind fire regime changes are effective fire prevention and suppression strategies, selection and regeneration cutting, domestic livestock grazing and the introduction of exotic plants.”

Instead of focusing on ways to get the cut out under the premise of fire suppression let’s focus on methods to decrease the danger to humans and buildings in the forest/urban interface. Hal Rowe, outreach coordinator Kettle Range Conservation Group, Spokane

People in society

Fewer morning puffs thanks to police

I would like to congratulate the Spokane Police for stepping up to the plate. As I drop my kids off I have seen officers in front of Ferris High School nearly every morning since school started. There are no longer hundreds of students standing around smoking and littering the sidewalk. Even if you only stop them from smoking a few morning cigarettes, you’ve added time to their precious lives!

It’s for your own good, kids!

We can take pride in the improvement on our campus and hope it continues. Martha A. Agnew Spokane

Other topics

Speech overlooked by `good paper’

Last Thursday (Sept. 14) the prime minister of the world’s largest democracy gave a 20-minute speech before a joint session of Congress, which was interrupted over 20 times by applause. He was accorded a standing ovation at the end of his presentation. On Friday he met for several hours with the president.

How do I know this? Not from The Spokesman-Review. In accordance with its myopic isolationist outlook, the good paper provided no news at all about this meeting of the leaders of the two largest democracies in the world. After all, it wasn’t taking place in Hayden Lake.

I find it curious that the ultra-right wing gun-nuts would think of The Spokesman-Review as a liberal paper. As astutely observed in a letter from Tera Inman (Aug. 13), the Review shows, in this case by omission rather than commission, “its usual right-wing conservative nature.” Fritz Blackwell Pullman

Writer expresses narrow viewpoints

As a home educator for the last 11 years, I have learned mostly to ignore the misinformed or biased opinions of others. After reading Joanne Hirabayashi’s letter of Sept. 19, I felt that some of her points needed addressing.

She states that national geography and spelling tests are based on simple rote learning and are, therefore, unimportant as a measuring rod to quality education. If this is the case, why are publicly educated children present in the competition? My instinct tells me that if a publicly educated child had won, she would be first to use this as proof of the kind of superior education public school kids are receiving.

She goes on to ask, “What evidence proves that homeschoolers excel” in the ability to analyze and compare, combine ideas and evaluate information daily? From the tone of her letter, she infers that they don’t. She also states that, judging from her experience, many parents home-educate to control children’s access to ideas. This is a very narrow and biased viewpoint. Applying her tests to her own letter, I was left wondering if she, herself, was a product of a home-education. Carla P. Marshall Post Falls

Good customer service vital to success

I respectfully disagree with Kevin Nord’s comments that customer service representatives are people, like you and me. To say that customers are unreasonable and unfair at times is indeed true; but to say that customer service workers should be forgiven for unfriendly attitudes or inability to manage angry customer requests is absurd.

The title of customer service representative implies that you are there to make customers feel welcome and find solutions to their concerns. This includes assisting all of the rude, angry and overbearing customers that perhaps blame you personally for the problems they are having with your company’s products or services. If you personally cannot solve the problem then it is your job to find someone in the company who can help.

I am personally fed up with companies and individuals who do not take the position of customer service representative seriously. Customer service is often the only personal contact that customers may have with a company. In order to be effective, customer service representatives must convey the attitude that the customer is always right and treat every interaction with the customer as a business opportunity. Companies, in turn, must provide incentives and an atmosphere of support to their important front-line customer service work force. To accept a lesser philosophy is to ensure building a company reputation of zero value and eventual failure. Good customer service is great marketing. Kim Stearns Stearns Communications, Coeur d’Alene

Drug adds burden to mother’s mind

The logic of Janice Tilley, Planned Parenthood public relations coordinator (Letters, Sept. 6), confounds reason and common sense. She calls RU-486 “safe,” yet labels thalidomide “one of the most notoriously dangerous drugs.”

Thalidomide, a drug prescribed for morning sickness in the 1950s, was taken off the market because it caused birth defects in the unborn child. RU-486, on the other hand, causes a baby to starve to death within its mom. This is safer than thalidomide?

Even if RU-486 were completely safe, it places a tremendous burden on the woman’s mental health based on the description women give of their encounters with their aborted children. Newsweek and the Boston Globe report that women who have undergone RU-486/PG abortions talk about seeing tiny fists and eyes, or seeing their aborted babies laying in the toilet bowl or swirling in the shower drain. Counselors at abortion clinics indicate it is common for women to express a desire to bury the baby, to perform some sort of ceremony to deal with their strong feelings.

RU-486 is not safe. It is one more weapon in the army of death stalking women and children. Mary Runkle Valleyford

Tax, tax and tax again

I was taxed all my working years as a builder, carpenter and cabinetmaker by the U.S. Government and the IRS, this was so that I would have an income after I retired, if I lived that long. Then I was 62-65 years old. Now that I have lived that long, here is the problem. I worked for WSU the last 27 years and earned a pension of $2,766 and TIAA of $7,128 and was taxed by the IRS. Also I retired in 1977 at the age of 64. My IRS pay was approximately $440 per month. Now after 23 years, when I am too old to work, with all this inflation, my check is $1,005 after the government’s $45.50 is charged against it. Now this is fully added again to my pension and TIAA’s. Idaho does not include IRS payments to arrive at their annual tax rate. Elmer F. Tonn St. Maries