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Letters for Aug. 10
To gerrymander or not to gerrymander, that is the question
The current situation in Texas politics has direct consequences for Spokane and the entire nation. Texas is undergoing political partisanship gerrymandering the congressional districts to eliminate five Democrats from their congressional delegation. One of the current districts will change so that the sitting Democratic congresswoman’s position will be eliminated since it will be redrawn to be heavily Republican. The Supreme Court ruled that it was legal for states to decide their congressional districts.
Currently Washington has two Republican districts, one of which is here in Spokane. Although constitutionally legal, the plan being set in Texas is a dangerous action. If this plan stands then each state will do the same. The current government of Washington state is heavily Democratic. The Washington redistricting could eliminate the two Republican-controlled districts, and Michael Baumgartner would be gerrymandered out of his post. More importantly, on a national scale, the same could happen in every state. The party in power would manipulate districts to keep and even increase their power. This has all of the earmarks of an authoritarian dictatorship.
California could eliminate 15 Republican districts and across the country the populous Democrat-controlled states could do the same. This would be a disaster for every part of the country, not just for Washington and Spokane.
The next step would be that each president would undo every executive order signed by the preceding president. This would create a whiplash effect on the population as well as the stock market and the economy in general.
Barry Bauchwitz
Spokane Valley
Switch to SCRAPS was a mistake
In 2013, the city of Spokane made a mistake when it decided to contract with SCRAPS to handle animal control rather than continuing with SpokAnimal. The city should go back to SpokAnimal for animal control rather than attempting to set up a new system or organization.
Pamela Fremd
Spokane