Letters for June 18, 2023

SHS, animals need support

I began volunteering at Spokane Human Society in June 2022. It’s been almost a year, and I enjoy working with the animals and staff. Everyone I have interacted with has the animals’ best interest at heart and are constantly striving to improve.

Recently, there have been many negative comments about SHS, mostly from staff or volunteers that have left. They claim to care about the animals, but all this noise impacts the animals first and foremost.

The current shelter was built in 1974 and needs to be replaced. This is something that is in development. Spokane needs all the animal welfare resources and more to support those animals that do not have someone to care for them.

Here is just one example of SHS efforts: Tuff, a Labrador puppy, was surrendered to us with a serious infection. When our veterinarian staff weren’t able to get the infection under control, they engaged WSU Veterinarian Hospital to assist. Tuff spent 24 hours at WSU and is back being fostered at the home of one of our veterinarian staff and he is improving.

What Spokane needs is support from all the organizations that support those animals that have nobody. For me, SHS is where I choose to spend my time doing anything and everything I can to help the animals and staff move forward and striving to do better. We always need more dedicated volunteers, staff and donations to support our animals in need.

David Morse

Spokane

Former SHS employee agrees with complaints

I was an employee of the Spokane Humane Society until recently, when I decided to leave due to the difficult work conditions. The problems that affect the volunteers there are also the problems of the staff. Yet the staff do not have the security or opportunity to speak out about the environment they work in for fear of retaliation from those who employ them.

There is an extreme lack of care by management for the safety of working conditions, workers living below the poverty line, daily violations of workers’ rights, and an overall hostile work environment imposed by those in charge. Employees are not valued for their work, but bullied and made to feel guilty instead. The animals in their care are not given adequate housing, attention or behavioral training, despite the dedication of the workers caring for them.

Change can only come through management and the board of directors, not those working tirelessly for little pay with no resources.

As a kennel technician, I felt that I could not provide the animals with proper care by myself in a position that should have been filled by two to three people, not one. When I asked for improvements to the working conditions, additional help or better safety practices for staff and the animals, I was met with animosity. These incredible volunteers are speaking out for the animals and people intertwined with Spokane Humane Society who can not voice the wrongs they face every day, and I hope my words can further that mission as well.

Berit Yahna

Spokane

No explanations on medical bill charges

If you’ve been to a hospital recently, other than to visit a sick friend, you either have, or will, receive some kind of bill for services. This applies even to those of you with “good” employer supplied health insurance. What you won’t receive is an explanation as to what those charges are based on. That’s because there is no rational, or value-related basis for those charges. They represent whatever the hospital can get away with charging, based on individual negotiations with each and every insurance carrier, and they can vary by two to four times what Medicare will pay for the same service.

This does not happen in any other major country where rates are established by negotiation and are the same regardless of the payer. There is a place in the U.S. where this same thing occurs. Rather than deregulate in the 1970s, Maryland established a rate setting commission composed of legislators, representatives from hospitals, providers, insurance companies and the public to set rates for hospital services. This can be done in the state of Washington.

To learn more, attend the showing of “American Hospital” at the downtown library, 6:30 p.m. on Thursday.

Daniel Schaffer, M.D.

Spokane

The ugly face of greed

The ugly face of greed.

“Donald Trump has that.”

When the bullets fly and the children die

and the mommies and daddies cry,

then the gun sales go up and the profits rise.

You would think it would make more people wise to the ugly face of greed.

When do we wake up to the ugly face of greed?

Oh, Lord, when do we wake up to the ugly face of greed?

All for the profits, all for the profits.

Too bad all the children had to die and the “Rs” just continue to lie!

Merle Bell

Spokane

There’s no need for street music disruption

FiberTel committed to safety cannot donate an hour to street music.

We were eating our food truck lunch in front of River Park Square trying to enjoy Second Harvest Street Music. We were looking forward to listening to all the great music as we have in the past. Unfortunately, that was not going to be the case. I asked the driver, who was getting ready to light up a cigarette, if they could hold off 30 minutes on the street grinding. He told me that they are behind schedule and need to get work done before Hoopfest. Why couldn’t their lunch or a cigarette break be scheduled noon to 1 p.m. the week of Street Music?

How much did it cost Second Harvest in donations? Maybe FiberTel should make a sizable donation.

Tina Gazaway

Spokane

Why can’t we achieve both?

In response to Paul Grove’s letter on June 11 (“Relieve student debt by cutting military dollars”), I do agree that education is paramount for everyone at all times … not just college.

While I agree these debts college students face are outrageous, I don’t hear anyone referencing the astronomical tuition and fees for these institutions. Students do, in fact, know what their education will cost, “at least ballpark,” and there are ways to help diminish such debt.

I also believe there is tremendous variance respecting accrual of one’s debt. If attending a four-year private school and major in a field that does not really support consistent work, nor that debt, students have a choice. I think it is a little obtuse to draw any proportionality between cost of military spending and education debt. Why can’t we achieve both? Why can’t we advance our military to help protect us and our future, while at the same time, secure the best educational opportunities for all to explore.

I believe our military presence alone has kept others from imposing on our freedoms, while simultaneously assisting our allies with less military means. Peace is measured in multiple ways, but mainly, there needs to be another agreeable party that aspires the same. There is a way to achieve ALL of this, but all people and government leaders need to work together and not instill personal, nor party agenda to solve a problem that is bipartisan.

Mike Kistler

Spokane

Read the indictment

The presumptive front-runner of the GOP presidential race has been indicted on federal charges related to the Espionage Act and it appears when reading the indictment that the evidence is substantial.

This front-runner, however, claims that because he has been indicted that the government is going to now come after his followers. This is a ridiculous assertion, comparable to saying that if he shot someone in broad daylight on Fifth Avenue, that the police would come after those who support him. The law is quite specific for wrongdoers and he is the instrument of his own legal jeopardy.

And just like everyone else in our legal system, he is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

If you believe in the rule of law and that no one is above the law, then at least read the unsealed indictment for yourself and let the slow wheels of justice grind their way to conclusion.

Harvey McKelvey

Newman Lake

Response to shoplifting, watering letters

I usually just skim the letters to the editor, but a couple caught my eye the other day as they are issues I’m personally concerned with.

First, the letter from Dave Barker regarding the “smash and grab” anarchy (“Means to stop the rampant shoplifting,” June 14). Yes, something must be done about shoplifting, but Barker’s suggesting a picture ID is not the solution.

Can you imagine our having to carry a picture ID for every single store we frequent? An unnecessary pain for us honest people and won’t stop these thugs from breaking windows and taking what they want as usual. What’s my solution? Frankly, I don’t have one, at least not one anyone would be willing to comply with.

The second letter was from Mike Noble regarding water restrictions (“Watering requirements,” June 14). What watering restrictions? My next door neighbor waters daily even in pouring rain. I try to follow the city’s water conserving guidelines and this neighbor has the nerve to say my lawn looks lousy, which it does.

It would be nice if there was one set of rules for everyone to abide by, but those days are long gone.

Nadine Joubert

Spokane