Letters for Oct. 25, 2023
Betsy Wilkerson shows up
I attended two events for City Council president candidates, the first sponsored by NAACP, KYRS and the Spokane Public Library, the second by Northwest Passages.
Kim Plese did not attend the first and was underwhelming in her presentation at the second.
It is no accident that Betsy Wilkerson is consistently chosen to be president in her extensive volunteer activities – boards of Carl Maxey Center, Women Helping Women Fund, Innovia Foundation, Association of Washington Cities – all of these recognize her superb leadership skills. She is astute, composed, articulate, practiced in finding commonalities to unite disparate people behind a shared vision. All of these are qualities needed for the City Council president.
Betsy owns the oldest African-American-owned business in Spokane, Moore Assisted Living, for persons with mental health challenges, an experience that has honed her exceptional skills managing people.
Best of all, Betsy Wilkerson shows up!
Mary Ann Murphy
Spokane
Head Start deserves funding
In September, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers voted for a 30% cut to Head Start. As an advocate for Save the Children Action Network, I am disappointed she tried to cut a crucial program that supports parents trying to work and overcome poverty for themselves and the next generation.
Head Start benefits our entire society. Studies have shown that for every $1 spent on Head Start, the return to taxpayers is around $7 because children who are more ready for kindergarten are more likely to graduate high school, finish college, be employed, and make higher incomes. They are also less likely to end up in the criminal justice system. Families that might otherwise remain dependent on the government to meet their basic needs are able to support themselves because of Head Start and its wraparound services.
The congresswoman voted to keep more children and families in poverty, since a 30% cut would result in fewer children served. Thankfully, the 30% cut our congresswoman voted for failed.
In November, McMorris Rodgers has a chance to redeem herself. She can ensure vulnerable children have access to an early education when their brains are growing the fastest. She has the chance to save Washington billions of lost dollars from lack of child care, parents unable to work and generational poverty.
I hope next time she will do what is right for children and families – and the future of our community and nation.
Kyla Scott
Liberty Lake
Children don’t want to be shot
The Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock, Democratic U.S. Senator from Georgia, is senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, formerly the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s church.
Warnock’s own children were put on lockdown during a shooting in Georgia not long ago.
Afterward, Warnock said it best about people invoking “thoughts and prayers” after mass shootings while still opposing gun control measures:
“But I hasten to say that thoughts and prayers are not enough. In fact, it is a contradiction to say that you are thinking and praying and then do nothing. It is to make a mockery of prayer. It is to trivialize faith. We pray not only with our lips, but we also pray with our legs. We pray by taking action.”
What will it take to end our insanity, and particularly the Republican opposition to an assault weapons ban? A majority of congressional Republicans having a child or grandchild killed? A majority with child or grandchild overly anxious about attending school?
Like my teenage grandson recently expressed, “I don’t want to go to school; I don’t want to be shot.”
Norm Luther
Spokane
Congress must do better
Fascinating to watch the Republican party destroy itself with infighting and the same kind of deliberate sabotage that they once reserved for “big government.” Once Ronald Reagan declared government the enemy, Republicans worked overtime to weaken our institutions of government, to prove that government can never do anything right. The corollary of this was that unregulated private business and the rich should be the substitute or default rulers of our nation.
As of today, all that’s left of a GOP agenda is to attack and undermine public trust in virtually all social institutions, save business and certain kinds of religion, while trashing public education and public libraries, transportation and communication, health care and science, and most especially, programs that help working families, children and the poor.
We are failing our allies by allowing a historically incompetent Republican majority in Congress to engage in a mass tantrum that wouldn’t pass muster in even a normal kindergarten class, with aid to Ukraine and Israel stalled by these supposed leaders. We are failing our nation also, with the basic functions of government upon which children, working families and retirees depend at risk of collapse. We must do better.
Chris Norden
Moscow, Idaho