Letters for May 31st, 2023

You can call it legislative malpractice

I can’t help but see the similarities. The malfeasance, political partisanship, inability to work together, financial mismanagement, failure to consider logical compromise and hubris of our elected officials, both legislative and executive as well as judiciary, is injuring their constituents. This is identical to medical and legal malpractice. These incompetents should be sued and removed from office with any license to return revoked.

Robert Grant

Spokane

Use your blinker

Hello, fellow drivers. Just a friendly reminder that the little lever protruding from the left side of your steering column is the turn signal, aka “turn indicator” or as my wife calls it, a blinker.

Pushing it down activates the left taillight, making it flash. Flicking it up does the same thing to the right taillight. Using this devise lets those sharing the road know, anticipate and adjust the operation of their multiton vehicles accordingly. This makes for a safer, more pleasant driving experience for all.

William Baxley

Spokane

SHS volunteers have had enough

I was a Humane Society volunteer until informed by management in February that my “volunteer services were no longer needed.” My services were terminated because I was disruptive in advocating for dogs locked in kennels and by not adhering to the managerial vision of corporate development.

I contested during my six-plus-year tenure as canine coach that dogs were not getting out of their kennels frequently enough, resulting in stressed, frustrated and overstimulated dogs. Dogs living long term in a shelter chaos without socialization have adverse mental health, poor kennel presentation and low adoption turnover.

I suggested that if SHS were to coordinate and manage volunteers into schedules to facilitate getting dogs out of kennels on a daily organized program for exercise, training and social exposure, their mental and physical well-being and subsequent adoption rate would improve. Despite this philosophy being an industry standard among forward-thinking rescue shelters nationwide, Spokane Humane Society was disinterested and I was considered a troublemaker.

SHS volunteers themselves developed and operated several highly productive programs which became the backbone of activities benefiting the dogs and building volunteer commitment. Neither acknowledging nor contributing to these volunteer achievements, management instead criticized and micromanaged our successes focusing instead on corporate growth, financial gain and development of executive office space.

The lack of communication and respect handed down from management to the dedicated volunteer core resulted in many resigning and moving their successful program to SpokAnimal.

Phillip Broadbent

Nine Mile Falls

CMR has done nothing for us

The base salary for members of Congress is $174,000 per year. That breaks down to $14,500 of month. So 10-term Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers earns $14,500 a month. She also received $577,150 from energy and natural interests just in the past election cycle and $134,000 last year from Big Oil, and $97,000 from Big Pharma. Her net worth is just under $2 million.

After 10 terms, what has she done to earn all this money? The faked outrage and grievances are not accomplishments. What has she done in 20 years? Has she brought jobs to Stevens County? Or brought jobs to Spokane? Factories are springing up all over the country, yet we aren’t getting any locating here.

As chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, where is her fake outrage? Last year, oil companies reported $200 billion in profits. So that $5-plus per gallon we all paid was gouging. Today, oil is at $73-$77 a barrel, which should be about $3.25 per gallon. Yet gas is approaching $5 per gallon again.

Time for CMR to do something for us, or go.

Richard Trerise

Spokane

LGBTQ+ support can snuff out hate

A letter isn’t enough. Threats of violence, hate-fueled rhetoric and blatant bigotry from a proclaimed person of faith? A letter seems inadequate. As a community, there is more we can do. Jason Graber cannot claim the mantle of religion and expect his hatred to go unanswered.

Society has witnessed the consequences of unchecked hatred: the KKK, Armenia, Nazi Germany and Rwanda, to name a few. When hatred goes unchecked, great atrocities can occur. We don’t want one person in Spokane to be harmed because of his encouragement of hate and killing. He needs to be held accountable, to the law and the community.

So what can we do? We can celebrate. Pride events abound in June and we can turn out. Support our LGBTQ+ community to remind them and us to love one another. Support policies that encourage diversity and reject those that silence differences amongst us. Report and expose those who would tear us down and unite across communities to reject division. Turn away. Bullies like Graber need an audience. It’s the oxygen that fuels their hatred. Don’t follow online, don’t attend this “church.” Snuff out the hate.

Paul Schneider

Spokane County Human Rights Task Force and the Spectrum Center