Letters for Tuesday, April 14

First Amendment extends to everyone

I appreciated The Spokesman-Review’s coverage of concerns raised by Browne’s Addition residents regarding the new church in their neighborhood (“Church chain causes chaos in Spokane,” April 12). Issues such as parking, lighting, noise and safety are legitimate and deserve thoughtful attention and appropriate enforcement.

At the same time, it is important to distinguish between concerns about a group’s actions and concerns about its beliefs or associations. Our community is strongest when we uphold both standards – ensuring that all organizations follow local laws while also protecting the fundamental freedoms that allow people of differing viewpoints to gather, worship and express their convictions.

Religious freedom, like all First Amendment rights, is most meaningful when it extends even to those with whom we may strongly disagree. If we begin to condition those freedoms on whether a group’s views are popular or align with prevailing community sentiment, we risk eroding protections that ultimately belong to everyone.

Spokane has long been a place where diverse perspectives coexist. That coexistence requires both mutual respect and a shared commitment to fairness. Let’s hold all groups accountable to the same civic standards, while also ensuring that our response remains rooted in principles, not preferences.

Chelsea McKell

Spokane

Baumgartner’s support of Trump

Rep. Michael Baumgartner’s recent defense of Donald Trump as a “Machiavellian” genius in launching the Iran war is a nauseating lie inflicted on his constituents after Trump posted an obscene Easter Sunday rant threatening a war crime – the mass murder of Iranian civilians.

For many Americans, Trump’s conduct has triggered deep concerns about the president’s mental state. It also has sparked calls for Trump’s cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove him from office.

The supplicant Trump cabinet is unlikely to act, and the silence of most Republican House members is telling. House Speaker Mike Johnson sent them home for a two-week vacation; after Trump launched his attack, Johnson refused to recall them to weigh in on a war which Congress is supposed to approve or reject – undercutting their own powers.

Baumgartner continues to tell us he’s “working for us,” but our voices on this bungled war are being stifled when House Republicans refuse to do their constitutional duty.

On April 8, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bob Woodward called Republican politicians “shockingly spineless” for not pushing back against Trump’s dire threat. “No other president talks this way. It’s horrifying,” Woodward said in a TV interview.

I urge Spokane citizens to use your votes to oust Baumgartner this fall. Republicans are already losing most special elections around the country as citizens react to escalating prices of gas and consumer goods and realize that Trump lied when he pledged to end foreign wars. We can take back the House in November.

Karen Dorn Steele

Spokane

Letters critical of Baumgartner

There has been an overwhelming number of letters of criticism, directed towards Rep. Michael Baumgartner, within days of him taking office. I call it “Baumgartner Derangement Syndrome” – BDS, very much like TDS.

Janet Peterson

Spokane