Letters for Thursday, Dec. 11

Why are we resurrecting the arts office?

Spokane has a spending problem. We are running a deficit, but instead of reducing spending we are increasing taxes. Worse, we are now adding more spending along with taxes to pay for it. Mayor Brown is recreating the city arts office that was decommissioned by Mayor Condon a decade ago. Have you been missing it? Me either! Do you have the faintest notion of its purpose? Me either! Do you know what if any economic benefits it will provide? Me either!

Our mayor and council should not be making these kinds of choices with our tax dollars without public input. The correct process is to define what the arts office will do, what it will or won’t add to our economy, how much it will cost, and how we will pay for it. Then we vote on it. Note that any mention of it was conspicuously absent in our election just a few weeks ago.

The only proponents of this debacle named in the article have one thing in common; they benefit in the form of salaries or other benefits such as personal grants and projects.

We just voted in a nearly full slate of progressives to run our city for the next two years. So far, their actions have not shown they have any interest in governing responsibly.

Hal Dixon

Spokane

SPS buses

So, now that their bond passed, the school district thinks it needs its own fleet of buses? Is there a garage to service them? Mechanics? An area to keep them? I thought the money was for operation but not new capital purchases. Get ready for more taxes Spokane. It never stops!

Wendell Smith

Spokane

Veteran health care

As an Army veteran who receives his care at Mann-Grandstaff Hospital, I want to thank The Spokesman-Review and your reporter Orion Donovan Smith for doggedly pursuing the saga of the botched software system that was tested at our hospital.

By the VA’s own admission, the new medical records system has been implicated in six deaths. That is six too many, but how many more would there be if a bright light hadn’t been shined on the issue?

Spokane has a rare gem in our paper. On behalf of all veterans who rely on the VA, thank you.

Kevin Lingow

Spokane Valley

Baumgartner must speak against hateful rhetoric

I am deeply concerned about the horrific language Donald Trump continues to use to dehumanize immigrants and refugees in this country. Our House representative, Michael Baumgartner, has spoken up for immigrants in the past and visited Spokane area organizations that welcome and support refugees such as Thrive International. I implore him to publicly denounce the words and sentiment recently used by the president against the entire population of Somalia, along with congresswoman Ilhan Omar:

“Ilhan Omar is garbage. She’s garbage. Her friends are garbage. … They complain, and from where they came from, they got nothing. … But when they come from hell, and they complain and do nothing … we don’t want them in our country. Let them go back to where they came from and fix it.”

As a public school teacher who has taught the Pyramid of Hate, which describes actions that lead to genocide, this language and the belief that a certain group of people are not human but “garbage,” is exactly what leads to the horrors that we have seen in world history, such as the Holocaust.

I challenge Baumgartner to choose supporting the dignity of all human beings over partisan politics. History will not be kind to those elected officials that chose to be silent when dangerous, racist and hate-filled rhetoric was spewed by this president:

“We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” – Elie Wiesel.

Joan Brown

Chattaroy