Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

Downtown? But they’d have to walk

Ever since I moved to this city two years ago, I have been amazed at the amount of money being spent to lure people downtown. Everyone says they love their downtown - they just can’t be persuaded to leave their cars at home so they can enjoy it.

A little observation of the habits of Citizen Spokanus would reveal that his major enjoyment in life is driving, and he prefers to stay in his car as much as possible. I’m convinced that a drive-in church might do well in Spokane, along with its drive-in espresso stops and convenience stores (where, unfortunately you do have to hop out of the car briefly).

They scurry around in their cars looking for a place to drive where the traffic is not too heavy, little realizing that they are the cause of the heavy traffic. This seems to be a genetic defect: not realizing that if you’re too close to the problem, you are the problem.

Once a year they all go out and run a race, which proves to a doubting world that they do indeed have legs, even if they don’t want to use them every day.

Sorry, but it looks like an exercise in futility to try to save your downtown core. Dorothy E. Carter Spokane

Critics, keep your eye on the ball

I have read and listened with much interest to the complaints of opponents of the city’s investment in downtown redevelopment. I have read that their priorities are out of place.

The city is currently widening Addison and Wellesley in the vicinity of Northtown Mall to improve traffic flow. This project could also be interpreted as an investment.

This traffic revision will positively benefit of Northtown merchants and owner David Sabey. It comes at the expense of homeowners who are losing their front yards and gaining increased traffic. The downtown project will affect only downtown streets and merchants downtown.

Granted, this project has been the works for several years. However, there were no big public announcements, no media coverage or a hearing before the City Council. I wonder how many of those complaining about the downtown development will benefit from this traffic revision. Many of those complaining about downtown will no doubt use Addison and Wellesley to get to Northtown without a care about what the neighborhood has given up.

The downtown development can only be viewed as a positive. It will keep people downtown and ease the burden on North Side arterials leading to the malls.

I suggest that those complaining focus on the real problem: growth and development creeping into residential neighborhoods where ordinary people are affected. Tom Hattenburg Spokane

Internet restrictions futile, wrong

This concerns the June 19 article,”Library will put limits on Internet access.”

According to the article, “Users won’t be able to download files and no one will be able to print documents unless approved.” This is being done to prevent pornographic misuse of the system.

As a person whose school has unrestricted Internet access, I have used the Internet for purposes ranging from research to downloading previews of “X-Files” episodes. Almost everyone at my school has used the Internet, and I have little doubt that some have used the Internet to view pornographic material. I believe, however, that even without restriction, pornographic use is rare.

Since library Director Dan Walters stated in the article that the restrictions can’t be guaranteed to keep out pornography, applying the restriction seems a pointless and counterproductive measure aimed at a few but affecting many. By preventing users from downloading files, the library is severely limiting the power of this new resource.

Also, the Internet is so huge that regulating its use is virtually impossible. This freedom of speech scares people sometimes and leads to attempts to restrict it. Doing so would violate our First Amendment rights. I am not saying this is in support of the pornography that the library (with good cause) is trying to keep out, but rather in favor of those who value the right to be heard on any topic. C. Michael McWatters Veradale

Yes, watch those commissioners

We agree with Pat Gordon’s (June 21) letter, which says we need to keep an eye on Spokane County Commissioners Phil Harris and Steve Hasson regarding managing growth in our county.

As frequent visitors to Seattle, we are very aware of the damage and cost to a community when growth is not planned. The West Side is scrambling to right the wrongs done in the past so the people there can move forward with good planning.

Righting wrongs is very expensive. Can’t Spokane avoid making the mistakes others have made? I believe it can, but only with good planning.

When Harris and Hasson fired the top planning staff, they sent a clear message that they don’t support the process, which includes all citizens who want to participate. Instead, they support the developers’ agenda. We need to keep an eye on these guys, Harris and Hasson, and let them know we care about this community. They need to listen to the citizens, not the developers. Mariel Van Noy Spokane

LAW AND JUSTICE

Stupid defense mustn’t get by

Once again, Spokane is suffering through another infant brutalization case. This time, the lawyer for the young man who brutalized a 3-month-old child has stooped to the very depth of stupidity with his defense: The man didn’t know what he was doing because he didn’t attend a parenting class.

Did the defendant think of calling the infant’s mother? Did he try to call his mother or an emergency room? He didn’t know that a person can’t throw an infant across the room?

If I were this lawyer, I would hang my head in shame. My wife died carrying my unborn son, leaving me to care for 18-month-old twins. I never had a parenting class. Thousands of new parents don’t have parenting classes, and they don’t abuse their children.

Society wonders what’s wrong with young people today. It appears that no one values children, because the children don’t have much vested in life. It is time for society to wake up make these people who brutalize children responsible - and make the punishment fit! Dale L. Stegman Spokane

Defense excuse won’t wash

My God! What kind of man could read about or see the result of David Pelletier’s actions and say he shouldn’t be on trial or face a 10-year sentence for what he did to a defenseless 3-month-old child? Is he as crazy as his client?

Does he believe that the little girl deserved to be mentally and physically damaged for life, just because her father didn’t go to parenting classes? Anyone with half a brain should know better than to throw a baby, or any child for that matter. That’s just common sense. You don’t learn that in parenting classes, it should just come naturally (for most people).

David Pelletier sounds like the type who, if angered, would take his anger out on anything handy - so what if it’s a baby. Obviously, if a baby is crying there is something wrong. Since babies can’t talk, that is their only way of saying something’s wrong.

Why didn’t Pelletier ask someone for help? Surely someone would have been glad to lend a hand rather than see the child hurt.

Are we going to stand idly by and see another child die? David Pelletier doesn’t deserve 10 years in jail, he deserves something much worse! Betty Randall Moses Lake, Wash.

Officials, take predators seriously

How many women and children have to be raped or killed before our police and judges quit letting sex offenders and killers loose on our town? It’s time for the people of Spokane to stand up, be counted and take their city back from crime. Our children and women don’t deserve to be harmed like this.

It’s got to stop! Isabelle Wilks Spokane

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Keyes of presidential caliber

I had a chance to hear Alan Keyes, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination, give a speech June 21.

Not since Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech have I heard a more heartfelt, moving oration.

As a statesman who brings political discourse to the highest level at a critical time for our nation, Dr. Keyes is perhaps unmatched since Abraham Lincoln. I believe his heart is true and his passion ingrained in wanting the very best for America. His logic is impeccable.

Does he have a chance to win the nomination? If so, he could be, both incidentally and significantly, the first president who is an African-American.

With his understanding of our founding documents and America’s history, Dr. Keyes has insight and clear vision about our nation’s present moral core. If you are a thinking person on either side of the aisle, you owe it to yourself to hear Alan Keyes. Paul Unger Spokane

Rank and file workers get shaft

The subtitle of Business editor Mark Hester’s editorial (“Programs create jobs, energize the economy,” June 16) supporting taxpayer subsidies to corporations was “Rankand-file workers benefit more than the corporate elite.”

I challenge him to explain how “rank-and-file workers” benefit when Toronto-based American Barrick Resources Group extracts more than $8 billion worth of gold from public land in northern Nevada on land the government sold to the company for $10,000 in 1993. Is it a coincidence George Bush is a company director?

How does the public gain when Plum Creek Timber Co., which pays no federal income taxes, trashed public forests in taxpayer-subsidized timber sales?

Corporate subsidies are at epidemic levels and rising. If corporate subsidies help rank-and-file workers, why is it that in 1994, only 49 percent of U.S. corporate employees felt their jobs were secure, down from 73 percent in 1988? Why is it that three-quarters of income gains during the 1980s and 100 percent of wealth increases went to the richest 20 percent of U.S. families, while wages of the poorest 20 percent dropped almost 20 percent?

Why is it that the portion of American children living in poverty increased from 14 to 21 percent and 5 million American children go hungry each month?

As the government spends $257 billion yearly on military subsidies for the rich, why do 35,000 children worldwide die every day of malnutrition or lack of health care?

Corporate subsidies you say benefit rank-and-file workers I say is class warfare aimed at destroying the poor. Derrick Jensen Spokane

End bias against certain parents

Re: the June 20 article, “California took Rachel, sister from mother.”

Dee Wilson, director of Child Protective Services in Spokane, stated, “The agency is not allowed to remove children from homes based on risk alone. Instead, it needs actual complaints or evidence of abuse or neglect.”

As an advocate working for parents with developmental disabilities, I wonder how it is that many of these parents have their children taken directly from the hospital without ever giving the parents a chance to take care of their children? It is often stated in court papers that the child is “at risk due to the parents’ intellectual functioning.” There is no evidence of abuse or neglect because the parent has never even been alone with the child.

I realize not all persons with developmental disabilities make good parents, but neither do persons who abuse drugs, alcohol or are sexual offenders.

It’s time to put a stop to the double standard and provide all persons, regardless of race, creed, color, or disability, the opportunity to prove themselves. Sandie Bledsoe Spokane

Welfare: Rotten to the core

Our welfare system is misused and abused. There is need for major reduction and/or repair.

Proof of need and accountability should be required of recipients. My place of employment has offered space for a welfare financial worker or case manager to see clients during the last six months. I am angry about situations observed directly or confirmed by calling financial workers for clarification.

I’ve heard financial workers screamed at and cussed out. I’m concerned for their personal safety when a client disagrees with decisions over their “right to benefits.”

I observe middle-age individuals, former employees physically capable of work, walking out the door with benefits. I am told that as long as a person meets financial criteria and gives expected (not necessarily truthful) answers, no one can be forced to work. They don’t even have to meet criteria required for unemployment benefits. In fact, the financial worker has to be cautious not to ask too many questions or they can be accused of harassment.

Benefit applicants drive newer automobiles than I can afford. Pregnant women with spouses, full-time employment and health care benefits can still count on welfare to pay deductibles and excess costs if they meet the financial criteria. I observe the frustration in lowerpaid employees when former co-workers walk out with entitlements after not bothering to show up for a full-time position.

So far, the welfare bureaucracy is smaller than the taxpayer populace, but we all need to contact our legislators to demand changes promptly! Vickie Nostrant Dayton, Wash.

THE ENVIRONMENT

Salvage cuts unkind

In response to D.F. Oliveria’s editorial on June 22 (Opinion, “Salvage logging can’t be sloppy”) he clearly does not understand salvage logging and its history of abuse.

Fire provides an important ecological function that is not mimicked by logging. Dead trees have a value to wildlife, soils, streams and for future productivity of the forest.

There seldom is “fair” or “good” salvage cuts on public lands. Sloppy is the norm with violations happening on virtually every sale. For example, the Foothills Fire salvage sales on the Boise National Forest in 1993 and 1994 had hundreds of violations - some small, others large. If given an inch, the timber industry takes a mile to increase profits at the expense of the environment.

The biggest proposed timber sale in Idaho history, the Boise River Fire Salvage Sale, has been challenged by Idaho Conservation League and other groups. The ICL appeal and lawsuit is selective and is aimed at stopping only a part of the total proposal. The lawsuit seeks to protect potential wilderness, wildlife, streams, recreation, old growth and economic stability.

The so-called Best Management Practices in Idaho are too weak and ineffectual to ensure any real protection. The timber industry may not always break the law, but all too often it degrades the resources that the taxpayers have to fix.

Some salvage, if done correctly in appropriate areas, can add to the timber supply, but let’s not sacrifice sustainability of our forest for a fast buck. Larry McLaud Idaho Conservation League, Moscow

OTHER TOPICS

Time changes perception of bombers

Viewing two World War II bombers at Spokane International Airport recently evoked a lot of memories for me. It was great to see those airplanes in their entirety, since I remember seeing only the undersides, and that was at night in searchlights.

I happened to be living in Cologne, Germany, at the time of WWII and remember the bombardments as a child. I hold no ill will towards any of those airplanes’ crews, since they had to do what they were ordered to do - as I had no choice, either, but to hold still, endure and hope to survive.

At the airport, I took the time to crawl into the planes and carefully observe. They were extremely interesting and also nostalgic. I could almost hear the crew members communicating, if I let my imagination go. It seemed to me as if this happened to me a long time ago or even in another lifetime. This viewing, however, was real, but the airplanes didn’t seem to be as frightening as I recalled them from my childhood memories. Martha M. Bennett Spokane

Lives saved, lost, strike chord

In reference to the sentiments (or lack thereof) of Col. W.L. Brooks and now J.M. Jones, (Letters, June 21), the issue is a reverence for life. All life. Even one life.

Our community has come together, galvanized, over one death too many times. There was “Misty” (Rebecca Hedman) and now, Rachel Carver.

We wring our hands over what we could have or should have done. We vow to change things so their deaths will not have been in vain.

Capt. Scott O’Grady brought us together because he lived. There was one mother who didn’t go to the airport to meet a body bag. How many have? Indeed, how many since the beginning of time? Bodies draped over a horse, lying on a shield or simply on foreign soil. Babies born, loved and nurtured only to become fodder for someone else’s testosterone-driven power quest.

The rescuers who risked their lives to save one life were heroes. O’Grady is a hero because against all odds he decided to live. He was shot at for six days, missed by only feet.

I wept for joy at the unfolding story and the pure grace and humility of his words and actions. These are our children - Rebecca, Rachel and Scott. They captured our hearts because they symbolized for all of us parts of ourselves that we have not nurtured or healed, and latent aspects of ourselves that are so noble we want to celebrate them.

In doing so, we make ourselves more whole. Lucy Forman Gurnea Loon Lake