Letters for Oct. 6, 2023

You can reduce Halloween waste

One sure sign of fall is the plethora of Halloween stores that pop up seemingly overnight. These temporary stores, along with big box retailers, sell most of the estimated over $10 billion of costumes, decorations, candy and props Americans will purchase this year for Halloween. Independent studies have found Halloween generates about 2,000 tons of plastic waste each year – that’s equivalent to the weight of six Boeing 747 jets. Recycling Product News reports that human and pet Halloween costumes contribute over 12 million pounds (the weight of the average freight train) to the textile waste stream every year. Plastic face masks, wigs, candy buckets, polyester costumes and assorted decorations are made from fossil fuels and are not recyclable.

While all this waste is a major problem, there are easy solutions that allow people to enjoy Halloween without contributing to the waste and climate crisis. Costumes can be made from items one already owns, purchased from thrift stores, obtained from local online buy-nothing groups, or borrowed from friends and family. Local thrift stores are full of indoor and outdoor Halloween decorations. Locally grown gourds and pumpkins make nice decorations and can be used for cooking or composted after the holiday. It’s time to consider that we can no longer maintain such waste in the era of plastic pollution and climate change.

Tera Lessard

Spokane

Walk a dog and vote for safety

Maybe everyone should walk a dog. That’s how I learned about my neighborhood.

I learned about a six-plex’s despondent disgusted tenants leaving behind everything over an infestation of bugs brought by another tenant’s guests across our alley from an apartment being built.

I learned about a new duplex on our alley shortcut to Maple Street 7-11 with boarded up windows because a back apartment was broken into.

I learned about a neighbor’s house cleaned for two weeks by white paper suit people over too much dog filth by DSHS Adult Protective Services. “A danger to herself,” they said. (And huffing fentanyl isn’t?)

And I learned about a Camp Hope ID card and bus pass under the bedroom window where my 20-year-old daughter lived alone after the snow melted. (It’s where the dog does his duty.)

I learned about illegal pallet and tarp shelter on my property with borrowed electricity to a heater to keep warm. (A small potential repeat of the Oakland ghost ship warehouse fire’s 36 dead?) Safety matters.

Everyone should get a dog to learn how western individualism is the fraud that it is. Or didn’t the seafoam brick Wall Street apartment closure (or the last pandemic) teach us anything? People affect people. We commune things. Choices matter. Everyone’s. Vote for safety please. Or do we vote for safety later by leaving?

Mike Reno

Spokane

Choose experience over extremism

If you required the skilled expertise of a plumber, electrician, doctor, lawyer, pilot, bus driver or any other profession where value and safety are critical to successfully completing a task, I’m positive that you would absolutely refuse to hire someone who brags about their lack of experience and recommends that you hire them simply because it’s time to try something new. This should especially be true when you are choosing people to oversee the education of our precious school-aged children.

And yet, three candidates running for positions on the Central Valley School Board have adopted this exact campaign strategy. Jeff Brooks, Stephanie Jerdon and Anniece Barker are boldly attacking the 32 years, 20 years and 16 years of experience that Cindy McMullen, Debra Long and Keith Clark have accumulated as long-time incumbent members of the Central Valley School Board.

Those paying attention to regional news have recently been shocked by the chaos that occurred in Richland and West Bonner County school boards after candidates with extremist religious agendas obtained majorities and wreaked havoc in their schools, before concerned parents had to resort to recall elections to expel the offending extremists.

Hopefully, voters in the upcoming Central Valley School Board election will be more informed and recognize inexperience, extremism, and unqualified candidates when they see them. Please vote for Cindy McMullen, Debra Long and Keith Clark. Their decades of competent teamwork and successful direction of the Central Valley School Board have earned our support.

Wm. Lamont Worden

Greenacres

Treatment needs to go deeper

In an article published on Sept. 25 regarding the Seattle drug crisis and the astonishing lack of treatment options (“Seattle boosts first response to drug crisis, still lacks treatment options”), treatment is shown to be the biggest gap in the system.

As a former resident of Lewis County, Washington, the drug crisis is devastating our cities, and smaller towns are hit even harder than some would think. Treatment is a constant debate, and different cities have adopted different methods, as the definition of treatment varies massively with every individual.

Treatment on its surface is helping individuals overcome their addictions and struggles, but the core meaning goes deeper. Treatment needs to be focused on helping the core of the individual, and arguing over semantics does not help the individuals that truly need our help.

It takes a lot of strength for someone in that situation to reach out for help, and rather than arguing over payment we need to focus on strengthening and building that individual into a position where they can become productive members of society.

Michael Chapman

Spokane

Be careful with language

Regarding the newspaper’s coverage of the tragic, brutal death of Meela Miller, I have a question about the language usage. Each article mentions that Meela is adopted, and I wonder why you find this relevant.

If my adopted child wins an award or graduates from a university, it would not be noted that they are adopted. If an adoptive parent brings cupcakes to a school event, how they became a parent isn’t important. If an adopted child commits a crime, it should not matter who gave birth to them. Likewise, if Mandie Miller abused Meela in horrible ways that led to her death, how she became her mother is unnecessary and biased information.

Betsy Lawrence

Spokane