Give and Take: Letters

Don’t let Hawks get you down

Each week, with eager anticipation, I await the Seahawks games.  Sometimes the team excels, and I’m enthused.  Sometimes their play is uneven, penalty-laden and less than inspired. 

It’s the penalties, the porous offensive line, the undeserved and frantic scrambling of Russell Wilson, the dropped balls, the lack of a pass rush, the collectively poor to mediocre play against the Chargers, Redskins, Cowboys and Rams that frustrate me and goad me to yell at the TV. 

At such times I find that I have to step back, catch my breath, and say to myself, “In five years, what difference will it make?”

Dick Avery

Spokane

Patriotism every day

Bobby Brett’s response when members of the Spokane Chiefs hockey team were disrespectful and disruptive during singing of the U.S. national anthem was very appropriate (see letters, Oct. 19).

Usually the Chiefs roster is populated with many Canadian players, which may partially explain the players’ behavior. I am employed at a Valley high school where each school day begins with a pledge of allegiance to the flag of the U.S. Each classroom has a properly draped U.S. flag. Many of our students were born in either Russia or the Ukraine and have immigrated to America. I see them stand and recite the pledge with the same fervor as do those students born in the U.S.

I remember the cold, rainy day in 1972 at Kadena AB, Okinawa when I stood at attention and saluted, in uniform, as the U.S. flag was lowered and the Japanese flag raised. Okinawa had just reverted back to Japanese ownership approximately 27 years after one of the bloodiest battles of WWII had been fought. Singing our national anthem, pledging allegiance to our flag and, otherwise, showing respect for our flag. May our nation’s patriotism never wane.

Gordon Spunich

Spokane