Letters To The Editor

WASHINGTON STATE

Support Initiative 45

Initiative 45 will be good for Washington State. In 1987, the governor took control of the Department of Fish and Wildlife by appointing its director. Wildlife management shouldn’t be left to our politicians.

It didn’t work in the early part of the twentieth century when some species were depleted, even to extinction in some cases. Political intervention has led to a confused and ineffective department. A strong commission system of wildlife management served us well from 1933 to 1987.

Initiative 45 would reinstate the commission’s authority, including appointment of the department’s director.

I’ve had the privilege as a concerned citizen to work with the Fish and Wildlife Commission for the past 35 years. I have always found those who are part of it to be dedicated, knowledgeable, respectful, responsible, caring and effective. It’s imperative we reinstate their power to appoint the department’s director.

Please support and vote for Initiative 45 this November. James B. Johnson Spokane

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Waco one more government foul-up

The Waco situation is a classic example of a case where both sides are at fault.

It’s hard to sympathize with people stupid enough to give their lives to someone like David Koresh. Bringing their children into such a mess is even more contemptible.

Yet what could possibly justify the government’s use of military force against this group? The average career criminal probably does more damage to society each year than the Branch Davidians did during their entire existence. Still, we don’t attack ordinary criminals with tanks and gas.

Several years ago I heard a military man wondering why some of his colleagues were critical of the Vietnam War, given that many of them owed their careers to the war. Could there have been a similar attitude at Waco and Ruby Ridge? After all, what better for a law officer’s resume than to have directed a successful assault in a high profile case?

We also need to understand that government doesn’t do anything efficiently or well. This is true of everything from growth management to street repair to protecting us from violence and fraud. Waco is simply a highly visible example of the incompetence which occurs on a daily basis at all levels of government. This occurs despite the generally high quality of our government employees.

No matter how hard we try, government can’t be structured to do things well. This is why it’s such a mistake to give government the amount of power and authority it now has. Jim Shamp Cheney

OK, Chenoweth, here’s my idea

I was disgusted to read Rep. Helen Chenoweth’s July 28 response (“Skip name-calling, offer ideas”) to Mary Margaret Smith’s July 21 letter to the editor. If Chenoweth is not anti-government, I can’t imagine who is.

Chenoweth’s statements and actions concerning the Northwest salmon population speak for themselves. Anyone who would make jokes, like her “endangered salmon bake,” shouldn’t be blaming the media for misrepresenting her position.

If Chenoweth is so concerned about economic survival, why doesn’t she care about the people who rely on the Northwest salmon runs for their economic survival?

Anyone can read between the lines of Chenoweth’s statements and deduce she represent the interests of big business and the white supremacists. If Chenoweth is soliciting advice on the Endangered Species Act, maybe she should listen to all the people, not just the timber industry.

Here is some constructive advice from me on the ESA: She should leave it alone. Eric Ingram Spokane

Cut guns, not butter

There is quite a contrast between the medical and defense portions in the current Congressional budget resolutions.

While Medicare and Medicare expenditures amount to six percent, at the most, of the deficit, those programs are expected to absorb 35 percent of the funding cuts. On the other hand, the defense program, amounting to some 37 percent of the same deficit, is slated to undergo no cuts in its funding during the next fiscal year.

These lopsided percentages are projected despite many base closures that mean considerable savings in operating our military establishment.

In addition, at least two weapons procurement programs have been dropped, namely tanks and helicopters, since Russian tanks and helicopters are less expensive to manufacture, and are having their electronics systems updated in this country.

I intend to write to my representatives in Congress to protest this disparity in targeted programs for budget cutting, and to instruct them to correct it by making much smaller cuts in medical spending and substantial cuts in military spending during the 1995-96 fiscal year. I urge you to write or phone them to express your opinions in these vital areas. Mary Wieman Kellogg

How to fix what’s wrong, fast

Recently, I wrote to Sens. Slade Gorton and Patty Murray, and to Reps. Doc Hastings and George Nethercutt to make this request:

Introduce a Senate bill and House resolution to reduce by 10 percent the salary of all members of Congress and the President for each year the federal budget is not balanced. This should be extended to include their respective staffs.

This proposal will eliminate the need to amend the Constitution. It would increase Congressional efforts to control costs. These efforts could include voting against all pork amendments attached to valid legislation, combining agencies so duplication of effort is eliminated (including the 140-plus agencies providing aid to children), demand accountability for all expenditures from all remaining agencies and eliminate all unbelievable and unreasonable practices in effect in many of these agencies, barring federal agencies from paying bonuses to upper management.

This proposal would also reduce the tendency to vote themselves raises or to have automatic annual raises.

Typically, Congress has been long on words but slow to act on cost-cutting measures. With their feet put to the fire, they’ll be less reluctant to play flim-flam with our tax dollars.

This can come about if you’ll take time to write or call your congressman or congresswoman. This country can be returned to having plenty of jobs at good pay. By balancing the budget and paying off the national debt, your taxes could easily be cut in half. Kirby Sheets Ephrata

Government keeps showing bad side

The U.S. Forest Service owns about five acres of land adjoining our big lake in the Talache area. People come there from all walks of life to enjoy themselves - scuba divers, motorcycle clubs, weeklong campers, etc. A call to the Forest Service to ask why there were no sanitary toilets was answered: “No money.”

The Forest Service is spending many tax dollars on the grizzly bears and now talks of rejuvenating one of our creeks at a cost of how many millions of tax dollars that they are ashamed to tell us.

There is not so much as a garbage barrel to put trash in at the site.

This came out on a news program a few nights ago. Not too many years ago, Uncle Sam had 3,000 rules and regulations for us to live by. Now there are 350,000 rules and regulations that are being forced upon us. Even our county commissioners are busy making more ordinances to force upon us.

It is no wonder that in some parts of the country, the Forest Service folks are gun toters. In a little town not too far away in Montana, the people are making fun of so many of these laws and the lady judge is running scared all the way to Congress, which made all these laws in the first place. They sure must have had lots of help. Ellsworth Brown Sagle

THE ENVIRONMENT

President sells out forests

Thanks, Bill! Our illustrious leader has just sold out our public forests, watersheds, wild salmon and myriad wild creatures.

Last week, President Clinton flip-flopped and signed the rescissions bill containing Sen. Slade Gorton’s destructive salvage timber amendment, which takes the public out of managing our forests and replaces it with “chainsaw law.” Even after a tremendous outcry over this blatant industry bailout and disregard for forest health, Clinton handed over public lands to corrupt timber barons. This is the biggest giveaway of public lands since World War II.

Look forward to a logging free-for-all on America’s public lands. Look forward to trashed forests and rivers. And look forward to losing my support in 1996. Marcie Oppenheimer Spokane

No, you don’t know best

I’m glad you published John Osborn’s letter (“Term ‘conservation’ misused,” July 27) of misinformation, which also illustrates the uncompromising timber attitude of the Inland Empire Public Lands Council he chairs.

The letter, using their We Know Best theory, stated a timber “amendment sponsored by Sen. Slade Gorton applies to most forests, not just to dead trees in burned forests. Included are “dying trees,” whatever those are, and “associated green trees.”

To see dying trees, doctor, just fly the Kettle Crest or many other Northwest forest areas. You’ll see many thousands of bug-infested, dead or dying trees. And you will enhance your knowledge.

We Know Best shows up again in a July 1 SpokesmanReview article quoting Dr. Osborn regarding President Clinton supporting a timber industry position. “We warned him there would be holy hell to pay if he did it and we plan to deliver.”

Not much compromise there.

The We Know Best applies to communities, businesses, and people in timber areas as well. With IEPLC-advocated restrictions, timber employees would face unemployment, so IEPLC suggests they seek non-timber occupations.

Well, what or where?

IEPLC implies forest industry shutdowns would have little economic effect on communities; tourism would make it up. I doubt tourism can offset the year-‘round dollars from weekly paychecks of 3,000 to 4000 area timber families.

A majority of people northwest, north and northeast of Spokane, on finding that good forest management practices are being done by most timber operations, would question the Osborn/IEPLC We Know Best theory. Earl Davenport Colville

Environmentalism is Christian

Edwin Davis, vice president of the Umbrella Group, submits in a July 27 letter that environmentalists are not conservationists.

In response:

1. Mr. Davis states a half-truth when he says Webster’s defines conservation as “the planned management of natural resources.” Webster’s actual definition: “the planned management of a natural resource to prevent exploitation, destruction, or neglect.”

2. He states environmental groups are opposed to intervention. As a member of both the Sierra Club and the Inland Empire Public Lands Council, I know these groups are opposed to federally subsidized overlogging. They encourage sustainable logging.

They fit the unexpurgated definition actually given by Webster’s.

3. In labeling environmentalists/conservationists as theosophists (I have also heard pantheists, treehuggers and wackos), Mr. Davis is demonizing those he disagrees with in order to frighten and win support from the uninformed.

Re-read Mr. Davis’ letter. Is he really interested in conservation? Could industry spokesmen have more than conservation on their minds when they attack the “acolytes of the religion of environmentalism”?

As a Christian, I have a duty to protect our environment. Should we encourage a few people to make a fortune from the gifts God has given all? Should we allow them to do this without regard to the health and welfare of our population? Or, should we conserve our resources, allowing present and future generations to make a living from God’s wonderful gifts?

I urge all Christians to help support a conservation/ environmental organization. John Griffith Spokane

OTHER TOPICS

Bring along common sense

In response to Jack DeBaun’s July 31 letter to the editor, one might agree with him if one had never read the Bible.

Read the Bible for yourself and you will find it easy to understand why a woman’s place in society has improved wherever the Bible has gone.

As for Promise Keepers, it doesn’t take much thinking to realize any woman is better off with a man who keeps his promises than with one who does not. Elizabeth Kohl Bayview, Idaho

Critic has Promise Keepers all wrong

This is in response to the July 27 letter from Edward Thomas, Jr. (“Promise Keepers dollar reapers).

First, it costs a lot of money to hold a convention, and Promise Keepers’ convention is no an exception.

I can assure Mr. Thomas money is not the motivating factor behind this movement. The motivating factor is the call of God on men to be the godly men he created them to be. As far as Promise Keepers being a “Ponzitonic” for what you describe as the “sicker segment of society,” maybe more of us “sick men” will be better off for it, not to mention the world in which we live. Dave Carlson Spokane

Quitting is up to the quitter

I’ve never responded to any article in the newspaper, but felt I must on “Smoking mad” (July 30).

Joanne Scribner is putting the blame in the wrong place, society, for not helping her to quit her nicotine habit.

The blame should be squarely with her. A person has to want to quit smoking, patch or no patch. If she thinks a patch helps, so be it. Instead of purchasing 10 cartons of cigarettes, she should put that money to good use and purchase her own patches and have some money left over for a doctor appointment each month.

I smoked for 40 years and quit without the use of patches. It was strictly on the will to clean up my lungs. It will soon be five years since I have had a cigarette. Jeanne Dault Spokane

Think about hand you’re biting

It’s appalling to me that in the United States, where we have the cheapest, most plentiful food supply in the world, there are those who would bite the hands that feed them.

The purpose of the farm program should be to assure a dependable and adequate supply of the basic food requirements for the people of the world, both now and in the future.

Cereal grains provide not only the basic ingredients for breads, pasta, cereals, etc., but are essential in the production of beef, pork, poultry, lamb, eggs and dairy products. Cereal grains may be stored for years or transported anywhere in the world without refrigeration. They are clearly the basis of the world’s food requirements.

Tomatoes, celery, radishes, peppers, cauliflower, plums, etc., don’t meet these criteria. Neither do tobacco, peanuts or wool.

Taxpayers also foot the bill for federal, state and county employees. Why are paid vacations, holidays, sick leave, bereavement leave, dental care, eye care, medical care and pensions with cost of living allowances called benefits, while the farm program is called, at best, a subsidy and, at worst, welfare?

Is the farm program perfect? Certainly not. Are there abuses? Absolutely. Should we improve it? Definitely.

Should we eliminate it or gut it? To do so would be to make a shortsighted mistake, one we would all pay dearly for in the long run. Glen Bundy Chewelah, Wash.

Better to be honked at and safe

I fully sympathize with L. Esther Park’s complaint (“Dumb to honk at bicyclists,” Letters, July 24), about motorists who honk at people on bicycles.

It is indeed annoying when someone driving a car blares his horn at you. Given that I have expressed my sympathy to you, you might likewise show me the same consideration. I understand a bicycle rider is at a tremendous disadvantage in a collision with an automobile. Unless I can see you’re looking directly at me, I have no way of knowing if you know I’m there. As someone who used to enjoy riding a bike, I know how easy it is for you to forget that operating your vehicle on the street is potentially dangerous.

The problem is, a rude Honk! is the only way I, as a motorist, can warn someone on a bike of my presence. When I do it, I’m being courteous. I just don’t want to hit you.

The same goes for dogs and cats that appear to be about to venture into the road or for children who are playing ball as I approach. If you get annoyed when I honk at you, too bad — getting annoyed is better than getting killed. So live with it! George D. Maloney Spokane