Letters for May 2

Baumgartner does not lead

A leader is elected to serve. Service by definition is thinking and acting for the welfare of others. A leader understands that humility, virtue, and morality are indispensable to popular government, thus he stands for justice and integrity. His goal is to achieve the greatest good by helping others, not himself.

A leader is willing to discern what is true from what is false and communicate that which is true, unobstructed by partial truths or falsehoods. Most important, he has the courage to do what is moral and right in all situations, whether easy or difficult. To do otherwise is cowardice.

The truth is that Donald Trump’s tariff war is one of the largest and most regressive tax hikes imposed by the government on American consumers. It has and will continue to severely impact farmers, small business, retirees and families. Rep. Michael Baumgartner knows this. He could sponsor legislation to curb or eliminate Trump’s tariffs, but he lacks the courage to do so.

The truth is that the Republican budget resolution is nothing more than a shameless and despicable giveaway to the ultrawealthy, bought and paid for by the ultrawealthy. It makes drastic and unjustifiable cuts to essential government services adding trillions of dollars to the national debt. Baumgartner knew this to be true but chose to vote for the ultrawealthy and against the vast majority of his constituents. He did so because he believed that to do so was in his own self-interest, not ours. He is not a leader.

Dave Carter

Otis Orchards

Stop bashing Baumgartner

I am so sick of the Baumgartner bashing in the letters, I just skip the section like many Washington Post and New York Times articles (and there are so many). Spokane was a conservative city, but The Spokesman-Review appears to be taking an over-liberal approach. It will probably get worse when it becomes nonprofit.

Sure wish I could get my sports and local non-Baumgartner news somewhere else as my subscription dollar goes to pay for this other stuff. I have many friends expressing this sentiment.

Rich Penna

Spokane

City should care for trees downtown

I just read the article in The Spokesman-Review (“Downtown L.A. has seen its share of violence. Then someone went after its trees,” April 28) about someone randomly chopping down the downtown trees in Los Angeles. That kind of senseless vandalism is deeply saddening, and it also makes me think of our own downtown trees here in Spokane.

I have noticed for some time that many of our downtown trees are sick or dead due to neglect of watering, or even more often, allowing the metal or concrete surrounding the base of the trunk to girdle (essentially choke) the tree as it gets to a certain diameter, thus killing it. It takes years to produce a beautiful tree, so why does the city allow this waste of resource? Why bother planting at all? (Check out the many dead or dying trees along Monroe or Lincoln streets between Main and Third avenues). It wouldn’t take much to liberate these trees from their girdling confines.

And then there are the new trees that the city (or their contractors) plant but don’t care for. It should be common knowledge that one doesn’t just stick a new tree in the ground and expect it to thrive. It takes a few years for the tree’s roots to get established and this takes attentive watering.

Either the city maintenance department, or the business owners, are (or should be) legally responsible for the trees’ care. It’s not that hard.

Gary Jewell

Spokane