Wrong about first lady

Mary Heinen made a natural mistake in her June 22 letter to the editor criticizing the first lady, Michelle Obama, for being a non-Christian, self-serving person (along with her husband, the president): She failed to think or write based on even a cursory look at the facts. Heinen apparently composed her whole thought process and letter based on a headline that did not do justice to the content of Mrs. Obama’s actual speech.

Before speaking, perhaps he or she should take the time and be thoughtful, courteous, and dare I say Christian enough to actually read or listen to the source material. I had no trouble at all finding the Obama text on the Internet, and thereafter, no trouble at all seeing that Heinen had no actual knowledge of what Mrs. Obama said. I hope she will go to the trouble of reading the entire text, compose her thoughts, and perhaps send another letter based on the truth, not on an apparent eagerness to condemn others. She would be serving us all, not just her obvious biases, by doing so.

Ray Kosse

Sandpoint

Kudos to Civic’s Hardie

What a masterful job Peter Hardie did designing and building the sets at the Civic Theatre!

Whenever I attended a production at the Civic, I marveled at the magic of the sets and their ability to transport the audience to the locale we were visiting.

A big thank you to Hardie as he retires, and best wishes to David Baker as he carries on this creative work.

Patricia Cain

Spokane

Little for Spokane in coal

Coal trains rumbling through Spokane and the Inland Empire spewing forth dust and toxic diesel fumes! Well, maybe. No one knows for sure yet what the impact might be. What we do know: Rathdrum refueling station over the aquifer, huge problem. Emergency vehicles held up at railroad crossings, huge problem. If diesel fumes are an issue, then we better outlaw all diesel-burning vehicles from our streets and highways. That won’t happen in our lifetime.

Another interesting issue is that some people are eager to disembowel our country of millions of tons of coal and other minerals and millions of barrels of oil and ship it all to other countries. Of course, the almighty dollar comes into play here. How much of that mighty dollar will Spokane receive? I think compared to what some people will receive it won’t be much. What we will get in return, at a high expense, are the wind-borne particles from the spent fuel that we provide these other countries; just like the tsunami that is responsible for garbage being deposited on our beaches. High-level winds will pick up the toxic particulates from China and deposit them right here in River City.

George Britton

Spokane

Man lucky shot not lethal

In response to “Man unsure why SPD shot him” (June 19).

OK, you have a convicted felon with a firearm and out at 4 a.m., trying to shoot someone. In his own words, “I was getting ready to pull the trigger and they go and shoot me.”

If he can’t figure out why he was shot, he’s too stupid even to be classified as an idiot.

The police officer should be commended for showing restraint. He didn’t miss. The man brought this all on himself and should be thanking the officer for not taking the lethal shot.

Marvin Olson

Spokane

Eyes opened to bad choice

Thank you, thank you, Patrick Kirlin for your June 18 letter about abortion (“Life supersedes bad choice.”) Your mother was a wise woman, and she raised a wise man. How the pro-abortion mind works is beyond me. The logic is insane.

As a former believer in choices, I was disgusted with my thinking when my eyes were opened to the truth that an innocent child has to die during a choice. We can’t ignore the fact that over 1 million abortions are performed in our country alone each year, and until we stop making choices like these, we will pay for the carnage of our innocent children. God help us!

Susan E. Teague

Spokane