Letters for June 30, 2023

Embers in Fire

Looking Into Campfire

All tend to See

Deep and Be

Your Eyes get Fixated on bright colors

But You Simply Focus on being

These Colors Bring Back

Wonderful Memories you Once Had

Always Seeing Once Had

You Poke the Fire

To see something different

What you see almost

Begins to be

But once had

Mike Sweeney

Medical Lake

Vote accordingly

Ten years ago, no one thought national topics would include which pronouns needed to be used or that “white supremacy” would be declared the No. 1 threat to our country. I doubt most Washingtonians thought our Southern border would be completely open for anyone to come through or that the governor of the state would require employees receive a new vaccine or lose their job.

As citizens of this amazing country, we must relearn how to discuss political issues civilly and at times just agree to disagree. Instead of confrontations, we need to have conversations. We also must develop longer memories.

Under Trump, we were energy independent; on Jan. 19, 2021, Spokane gas was around $2.20/gallon. Under Biden, we rely on Iran and Venezuela for gas and our National Strategic Reserve is at an all-time low. Vote accordingly.

In fiscal year 2020, a near-record low of 400,651 people were apprehended trying to illegally cross the border. In fiscal year 2022, approximately 2,760,000 illegally crossed the border, not including the “got-aways.” Vote accordingly.

The U.S. national debt has grown by $8.2 trillion since 2020 and is now $31.5 trillion. Biden has proposed a budget framework that will allow the national debt to grow over the next decade by $19.8 trillion, according to his own administration’s projections. Vote accordingly.

The average inflation rate for 2020 was 1.2%; for 2022, 8.0%. Vote accordingly.

Jacalee Michaelis

Spokane Valley

The man who saved the Clocktower

In the early planning for Expo ’74, all the railroad structures, bridges and tracks were planned to be removed to open up the island and river to the city. This included the Great Northern Clocktower.

Architect Roland Colliander, who was part of the team preparing design and drawings for the fair, asked if we could save the clocktower. Maybe due to the difficulty required to restore it and the pressure to have the fair open on time, he didn’t have support from other members in our planning group. Roland persisted and drew a perspective of what the structure would look like restored. His drawing and his vision of how it could be saved drew everyone in to supporting him. Roland assumed responsibility for the design and working drawings required to adapt it to the honored place it now enjoys. He designed the clocktower entry on the North Side and created a new brick skin needed after the adjoining buildings were removed on the east and west sides. His work blended into the existing exposed tower so well it appears to have been built as a free-standing structure.

Roland was co-author of the “Spokane Sketchbook,” a book about Spokane’s architectural history, and he also worked to save Expo ’74 after the bond issue failed. Roland lives in the Seattle area, but due to medical issues will not be able to attend next year’s Expo ’74 50-year celebration. Thank you, Roland.

David Ellis Evans

Chief Site Designer, Expo ’74

Spokane