Letters for Nov. 5

Business leaders need to be heard

I attended the “No Kings” rally in Spokane. Thousands attended. The large crowd was inspiring, but absent were folks in their prime working years. People are still hesitant to express resistance, not wanting to cause a riff with established relationships. Some of this is excusable. But I openly question why I am not hearing more resistance from our business leaders.

Businesses, whether for profit or nonprofit, are getting knocked silly by trade disruption, inflation, regulatory uncertainty, termination of contracts, and the realization Trump just does not have anyone’s interest besides his own.

However, employers are largely frozen. Sure, they don’t want to alienate employees or customers. Perhaps owners make calls to their representatives regarding a particular tariff. But this political “agnosticism” is stalling the needed resistance movement. Employees are waiting for employers to open up.

Odd, because both parties know that their country is on fire. Whether their employees are being snatched up and deported, their product markets being radically disrupted, or their medical insurance premiums are becoming unaffordable, there are many reasons to shred their silence.

Employers can openly discuss the various problems. They can support their employees through collaborations with nonprofits at food banks, raising money for immigration defense, providing medical care options for those who will shortly be tossed off of their health coverage. Employees should be encouraged to resist in their own ways without fear. The longer we wait, the harder it will be to regain our way of life.

Dale Damron

Spokane

Prisons should focus on corrective education

In 2022, the Washington State Department of Corrections reported having spent $174 per incarcerated individual every day. I look at this believing that this expense is taken out of our taxes, because incarceration prevents crime and recidivism, right? Wrong, it doesn’t.

In 2024, nearly a quarter of all incarcerated people returned to jail or prison three years after their release. It’s not just Washington’s problem – in fact, we rank comparatively low on recidivism rates in the U.S. States like Alaska, ranking highest in the U.S. for recidivism with a 58.5% reincarceration rate, tend to fund and provide fewer educational programs inside prisons and jails.

Although Washington has a lower reincarceration rate than other states, I believe Spokane deserves better. We deserve a real, data-based solution to recurring crime. If we want to solve this issue, we need to focus on what works, and education is what works.

According to the National Reentry Resource Center, corrective education reduces reincarceration rates by 43%. During our current local election, many politicians are making their campaign focus on reducing crime with more officers and stricter ordinances. What if we focused on making our prisons and jails actually effective in preventing recurring crime in the first place?

I implore you to consider asking these candidates what their plans are to make our county jails more effective and rehabilitative before casting your vote.

Liam Hathaway

Spokane

Trying for answers about the shutdown

Early in the government shutdown I spotted a Spokesman-Review story in which Rep. Michael Baumgartner claimed that Republicans were right in stopping the business of government for one reason: Democrats were proposing allowing illegal immigrants free health care.

I wrote Mr. Baumgartner, asking him to find any document or news story supporting the Republican claim. Even one would suffice. My reason: I found no instance where anyone of any authority makes that claim other than Republicans.

I waited nearly three weeks for a reply. When it came, it didn’t answer the question, being just a letter filled with boilerplate justifications and self-congratulations similar to those other members of Congress rely on.

This is being attuned to the concerns of this district? Can Mr. Baumgartner not find time for a personal answer while awaiting the resumption of real work in Congress?

It brought to mind the frequent times years ago when I had problems with my Windows computer. Contacting tech support by phone, I’d sometimes be assigned to a tired, unprepared or distracted employee. Almost always in those cases, the suggested “support” advice was: “Reboot your PC. Turn your computer off and back on.”

Which is similar in tone to what Mr. Baumgartner told me: “Go away, I’m not interested in the question. I’m doing more important things.”

I got tired of using Windows PCs, choosing to use Macs ever since. I’ll do the same with Baumgartner and find a better congressman.

Tom Sowa

Spokane

Administration damaging public trust in medical science

Thank you for this well -written article about the actions of the CDC and related comments from Dr. Gretchen LaSalle.

“ ‘Trust is being eroded’: Spokane physician shut out from federal RSV vaccine committee after CDC shakeup,” by Amanda Sullender, Oct. 29.

It is very important that Americans be informed about how the current federal administration is damaging public trust in medical science and giving out bad advice about vaccinations.

Fortunately, Washington state is stepping up and helping people make informed decisions about vaccinations and health care. I have met many caring and well qualified physicians in Spokane who continue to follow the science and look out for their patients’ health and welfare – in spite of what is happening at the federal level.

Please keep writing about this topic.

Deidre Allen

Mead

Spokane families deserve better than do-nothing politicians

I’m tired of watching our do-nothing politicians in Washington, D.C., (the worse Washington) make life harder every day for working families. The government is shut down and our representatives are on vacation. It seems like Rep. Baumgartner fits in quite nicely because he has joined the do-nothing club, going along with everything that’s wrong about D.C.

They promised us they’d lower costs, but everything is getting more expensive. The only thing they are delivering on is terrorizing our neighborhoods with their ICE agents. Meanwhile, groceries, gas, rent, everything is going up. Now, health insurance premiums are set to skyrocket because Congress is letting the Affordable Care Act premium tax credits expire. Health insurance is unaffordable as it is, making it even more expensive is sinister. That means a lot of us will have to make impossible choices, like choosing between paying for insurance or paying rent.

I know what it means to have to make impossible choices. I grew up in a working-class immigrant family where opportunity always had to be fought for. My mom, a single parent, worked as a teacher, and nannied kids on the side, but it was Medicaid and SNAP that helped keep our family afloat. Like many of you, I know what it means to have to work and fight for every single thing you have. That’s why I’m a labor organizer, and that’s why I have a job that helps nontraditional students start community college.

Instead of focusing on lowering costs, politicians like Baumgartner are on vacation. Our politicians only care about the interests of their rich donors, they have forgotten who elected them. Enough is enough. Spokane families need leaders who will stand up for us, not their rich donors. We go to work every single day to provide for our families, it’s time for Congress to get back to work too and finally do something to lower costs for Spokane families.

Manousos Jacobsen,

labor organizer and community college worker

Spokane

Need due diligence before Spokane buys 2 LRAD to disperse crowds

At the peaceful “No Kings “gathering Oct. 20 – with 10,000 participants – I saw how collaboration between the Spokane Police Department Dialogue Team and volunteer peacekeepers from PJALS ensured safety, trust and joyful public participation. Not one arrest was made.

That success raises a question: What problem are we trying to solve with the proposed $88,000 purchase of two long-range acoustic devices ?

LRADs can transmit messages over long distances, but they can also emit extremely loud, high frequency sounds capable of causing pain, disorientation or psychological distress. While they have uses in emergencies or maritime security, their deployment for crowd control raises health, ethical and civil-liberties concerns.

I don’t claim to know whether Spokane needs LRADs, but I’ve asked City Council and city leaders to publicly address five key points:

1. What protocols will govern when, where and by whom they’re used?

2. What independent studies confirm safety for hearing and health?

3. Have less-invasive options been considered?

4. How will oversight, documentation and public review work?

5. How will residents and civil-liberties advocates be involved, especially near Riverfront or BA Clark Park?

Please join me at the Spokane City Council meeting on Nov. 10 at 6 p.m. Sign up in advance to provide public comment in person or over Zoom. Learn more about the pros and cons. Let’s approach this decision with the same transparency and collaboration that made No Kings on 10/20 such a success.

Lisa Bessen

Spokane

‘War is good business’

Council members propose spending $88,000 for two sonic cannons for “crowd control.” I suspect that the crowd targeted is that of the activist community, whose ranks recently swelled to thousands for the “No Kings” rally.

Over the past two years, we members of Jewish Voice for Peace have worked with other local progressive groups to protest the genocide of the Palestinian people by Israel and the U.S. and the arms industry. Despite a phony “ceasefire,” it still continues daily through killing and starvation.

We also collaborate on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israeli and other industries vital to its aggression. One of those is the U.S. firm Genasys, which would sell Spokane this deadly equipment. Do we want the police to possess/play with this anti-civilian toy? Leaving it up to an officer’s whim to use it?

“War is Good Business.” It’s the biggest chunk of the federal budget, prize to the plutocrats. I submit that the greed of the arms industry underlies most of the wars raging around the world today. These expenditures are primarily to benefit the munitions industry, not the client nations in its grip. Domestically, the victim is the U.S. with its notorious rank of No. 1 in civilian deaths, most conspicuously school children, from unregulated sales of assault weapons.

Dr. King described us well. “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”

We’ve arrived.

Morton Alexander

Spokane