Diamond choking downtown

While the Downtown Spokane Partnership laments retailer moves to the Valley (April 28), many city dwellers avoid downtown for a simple reason: Diamond Parking. This operation has cornered most of the private parking space downtown and squeezes hard, especially at evening events.

It might cost $15 to attend an event but Diamond, with no other parking available, will double its rates to $10 for a parking space. With no bus service downtown at night and early closure of a large, and reasonable, major parking garage – what a coincidence! – a monopolistic and predatory parking situation has developed, and it’s choking downtown.

Art McGinn

Spokane

Poor paving decision

The city of Spokane has a citizens board to advise on using tax dollars for street projects. The city could hire new workers, train those hired, get mediocre work for the first year (some to be redone), pay union wages and medical benefits, and give them regular staff increases forever because you cannot lay off public union employees. Also, pay a very nice retirement after years of service.

Or, the city could hire a contractor who has employees with years of experience, that has placed a winning bid, needs only one or two of your engineers to supervise, and you pay them (with retainage) at the conclusion of the project. End of cost.

City workers: materials plus labor and benefits for 20 years plus retirement.

Private: material plus labor and profit – once.

P.S. Maybe we need new advisers on the board.

Veronica Van Woert

Spokane

Pray for solution

My heart and prayers go out for the daughter of Rob Leach (April 28). He is correct: Many liberals label the unborn as fetuses or viable tissue masses. This is an unfortunate sign of the times.

Virtually every political issue on the dockets is there because special-interest groups are working day and night to push their agendas. Whether it’s the construction of a new casino, gay marriage, or even the rules regarding wolf hunts, it comes down to a few attempting to use the government to force their particular practices and/or beliefs on the many.

I am curious as to whether or not professing Christians are kneeling day and night to avert the disaster that awaits our nation should the materialistic liberals get their way. While I am grateful for those who write letters to warn of God’s wrath, you will accomplish more by prayer and fasting.

Rather than beating them over the head, we should be hammering the gates of heaven. Focus your dialogues on the love and mercy of Christ. Everything else is moot.

Douglas R. Benn

Spokane

Hoping to vote for Roskelley

As you correctly say in your editorial of May 23, a successful lawsuit to remove John Roskelley from the ballot over his brief and temporary residence away from his home district would both violate the intent of the law regarding residence requirements and be unfair to the voters who deserve a choice at the ballot box.

I am looking forward to voting for John Roskelley in the general election, when I will be able to do that. I worked for Spokane County when John was a county commissioner before. He has the good qualities of both a conservative and a moderate and lacks the bad qualities of either. He is fiscally cautious and morally firm. He prefers that issues be debated publicly, including those which are unpopular. He listens to people including those who disagree with him. He is a strong family person and he keeps his word. His experience with balanced public budgets is golden. He knows Spokane County and understands how Spokane County government works.

The voters need an opportunity to demonstrate their support for or opposition to John Roskelley.

Allan deLaubenfels

Spokane Valley

Good riddance to Treppiedi

There have been recent letters praising former Assistant City Attorney Rocky Treppiedi for his tenacity on the job. Obviously, the authors of these letters have never been on the receiving end of this tenacity.

I, for one, sleep better knowing Treppiedi is no longer on the job.

James MacPherson

Spokane

Ultrasound bill was sound

Often, in a vacuum of information, mothers choose abortion and later wonder in anguish why nobody told them the truth. The ultrasound bill had the potential to prevent that and save the life of their baby.

Ultrasound: the unbiased picture worth a thousand words. Women have a right to choose and should have a right to see all the facts.

Abortion is an elective procedure. It is very common for medical requirements to be in place for any number of elective decisions a citizen can choose.

Ultrasound is nonjudgmental scientific information that can empower a woman. So empowered that she might exercise her freedom of choice and terminate the abortion procedure.

Abortion businesses cannot tolerate women walking out the door; neither can the entire pro-abortion ideology.

Planned Parenthood, the ACLU and some reporters blasted fear, misinformation and chaos into the dialogue.

Senators who cast a “yes” vote did so responsibly. Their calculus included facts, knowledge that women deserve the truth, and pro-woman, pro-life principles.

We can be proud to have them represent us.

They knew that the ultrasound bill could protect Idaho women from the agony of an uninformed decision and protect unborn babies from a silent scream.

Julie Lynde

Cornerstone Family Council

Boise

Whitworth graduation ignored

For more than a week now, I have searched for a mention in your paper of the commencement services held May 13 for Whitworth University graduates. Admittedly, I was disheartened to see the Monday headline, “Nobel winner tells students to keep dreaming,” with Desmond Tutu decorating the front page.

You see, there was a big event at the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena that afternoon, too. Over 500 students representing a variety of states and nations received their undergraduate degrees from Whitworth. Why is it that this private college established in 1890 in Spokane was overlooked in favor of the grand attention displayed to another private university, Gonzaga?

Isn’t there room for both universities to receive accolades? I, for one, know that Whitworth offers an outstanding education, and the majority of graduates go on to become successful in their fields of interest.

Additionally, the friends and family that come to Spokane in affiliation with Whitworth stimulate our Spokane economy in a variety of ways. As a daily subscriber to The Spokesman-Review for nearly 30 years, I think you owe Whitworth, its family, friends and relatives a huge apology for overlooking the distinguished Class of 2012.

Judy Jordan

Spokane

Need to tackle debt

For 50 years, European socialist democracies and our own republic have incurred debt they can never repay, primarily by promising entitlements that exceed the value of their gross domestic product. Vote-hungry politicians have deluded voters that continually accumulating debt won’t result in economic collapse. French and Greek voters reaffirmed that delusion recently, probably assuring collapse of the euro.

The United States now borrows 42 percent of what it spends, including a portion of entitlements no longer covered by payroll taxes. Our current deficit exceeds GDP. Longer term, we owe $65 trillion for Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, an amount even the most extreme tax increases cannot begin to cover.

Default is inevitable, through failure to pay or through money-printing inflation and eventual currency collapse, and will dramatically reduce living standards, especially for the poor, elderly, disabled and young – the very people we are supposedly overspending and borrowing to protect.

Pain is unavoidable at this point, but the U.S. could suffer less by eliminating ineffective government programs, reforming our ridiculous tax code, redesigning our social safety nets and reducing regulations and bureaucracies that stifle private-sector growth and reduce revenue. It’s our choice.

Michael D. Sullivan

Post Falls

No compassion for Duncan

I noticed in the May 19 edition that ol’ Joseph Duncan was feeling very poorly for his family! He surely felt they would be further harmed if he were to be put to death for his heinous crimes against society.

Now, we do not know how many people he has kidnapped, raped and killed. He is a real lowlife who deserves whatever happens to him.

He disregarded his victims’ right to life. Too bad the two states that had him nailed for various sexual crimes let him go.

He has smirked all the time since his capture. He said he was “only returning the kidnapped child to her family.” Well, he had killed them. So what a lie to ease her fears of what he planned for her. If I remember, he was already scouting out his next victims and was probably going to discard her, to continue his evil heinous path of destruction.

Probably best that if a person is accused of sexual crimes or kidnapping they be denied bail to protect further victims. They cannot be out in polite society!

Pat Corbin

Mead

Colorado grows a solution

You go, Colorado! Colorado projects a $25 million annual tax boon, and growing, from medical marijuana. By comparison, progressive Washington state marketed, and literally banked on, greater consumption (by way of greater access) of grain alcohol – and, predictably, increased DUI revenue. Look it up.

It’s time to shift the dominant paradigm to the 99 percent, and away from corporate America. The Drug Enforcement Administration lets your doctor prescribe Marinol (active ingredient: delta 9-THC, same as – wait, wait, guess – right: pot). How many unsuspecting patients will go on to sue their medical providers? And all brought to you by, guess who? Right: the DEA and U.S. pharmaceutical companies, their benefactors.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it, fellow Washingtonians. We’ve been punked.

John Arnold

Mead