Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

City always puts cart before horse

The City Council is again pondering about South Hill traffic. It’s a fact that 29th Avenue can handle no more traffic. Southeast Boulevard needs to be extended south to flow into Regal between 33rd and 34th. Regal should have been widened prior to businesses being built.

Much time was spent discussing Pittsburg Street. Now, a wide street is not an arterial. Narrow Perry Street has more traffic from Pittsburg as well asfrom the new library that was built with no turn lanes.

Crestline must not become an arterial. Lives would be in danger with two hills at the intersection of 34th and Crestline, not to mention where traffic will go at the 29th end.

Why are projects approved and built before they figure out what to do with traffic? Let’s stop this nonsense. Implement an arterial plan and completion prior to granting any more building permits. Wilma Swartzwelder Spokane

Favoritism behind Howe story

Letter writers Jeannie Wagenman, Dolores M. Allbery, and Alice M. Polignini (Aug. 22) couldn’t understand why staff writer John Craig was picking on Lila Howe (“Candidate broke land-use rules,” News, Aug. 15). I also read that story, but I guessed why Howe was under attack from the moment I read the headline.

I immediately thought of the other unfortunate recipient of the Spokesman-Review’s wrath, George Marlton. You may remember, Marlton made an unfortunate, politically incorrect statement in the presence of a Spokesman-Review reporter.

Since Marlton was not informed that the guy was a reporter, it should probably have been treated as off the record. Instead, it made the front page on several occasions. It was rerun in detail again just prior to the election. Needless to say, Marlton was buried.

What do both Howe and Marlton have in common? Both are running against John Roskelley, a favorite son of The Spokesman-Review. I don’t know Roskelley, but I know he has made a fine reputation for himself.

While my views differ from his, I have no beef with him. My complaint is with the Review. Watch for Howe to get strafed by the Review several more times prior to the election. Hal Dixon Spokane

Editor’s note: The stories about Marlton and Howe were the product of the Spokesman-Review’s longstanding commitment to report on the behavior, views and backgrounds of all candidates for public office.

LAW AND JUSTICE

Parents’ suit just blame-shifting

As the mother of a teenager, I was appalled to read about an 18-year-old’s parent’s abuse of our legal system (“School’s responsibility in fall debated,” Aug. 14).

The Coghlans’ apparent denial of responsibility for their daughter’s actions is utterly absurd. When do we as parents stop teaching our children values? Is it when we send them off to college or when they make the first mistake we can’t afford to pay for?

Did Rejena Coghlan think there would be no consequences for her behavior? Why did her parents wait two years to file a lawsuit? Was it because they had realized they could not afford to take care of her special needs or did they just want to join the sue-happy society in which we live?

These parents and their daughter should take responsibility for circumstances clearly not the fault of the University of Idaho.

As parents, we must teach our children to make good choices. If they don’t, must the blame for their mistakes fall on someone else’s shoulders? No. We all live and learn from our mistakes.

Unfortunately, this young woman has learned the hard way how the wrong choices can affect our lives. Future University of Idaho students should not have to pay for her mistake with higher tuition costs. Sonda A. Woods Spokane

Guilt is culprit’s, period

A former employee is convicted of grand theft for stealing money from her employer and the employer is determined to be partially at fault! That is the primary focus of an Aug. 20 story (“Agency also blamed in grand theft case,” Handle) about Janine Edward’s conviction of stealing $24,000 in child support payments.

Somehow, the logic escapes me. Irrespective of perceived issues relating to management practice and supervision, she was convicted of the crime. She is thus personally responsible for her actions. The behavior was criminal and her conviction should not be diminished by extraneous circumstances, valid or not.

Articles such as this only serve to propagate the notion that circumstances take precedent over personal responsibility, and that the fault for criminal behavior is external. All too frequently, excuses become the cause or mitigating factor for inappropriate or criminal activity.

Portraying those convicted of crimes as enabled victims of circumstance is an affront to society. The real issues should be in both assigning and accepting individual responsibility for actions, and for the resulting consequences. Society deserves no less. Steve McKenna Coeur d’Alene

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Blood and iron still hold sway

I can’t think of anything more pathetic than the ignorant, macho belief that the biggest problem facing Americans today is the ban on assault weapons.

I was telling a young man who lives in a poor section about the benefits of having Susan Kaun as his representative in Congress. I told him she supports the right of citizens to earn a decent living, keeping jobs in America, safe workplaces, adequate and affordable health care, and access to quality education for all.

I told him Kaun opposes corporate welfare, the disparity between CEO salaries and workers’ wages, the devastation of single-industry communities when greedy corporations decide to close and move operations to Third World countries. I told him she’s against a tax system that rewards the wealthy and punishes the poor.

Then the young fellow asked the “really important” question: How does she stand on gun control? I told him Kaun supports the right of citizens to own firearms but opposes sale and ownership of weapons whose primary purpose is to kill as many people as possible in the shortest period of time. That caught his attention.

“Then I’m going to vote for Nethercutt,” he said. “He thinks a man ought to be able to own any kind of weapon he wants.” Go figure. Ed Meadows Spokane

Nethercutt voters appreciative

Unions and other defenders of the status quo based in Washington, D.C., are spending millions of dollars trying to put down the success to which our Rep. George Nethercutt has contributed. While their half-truths disguise their own selfish agenda, our congressman is paying a big price for voting in favor of measures promoting strong economic growth and American jobs.

Besides taking a lead role in farm subsidy reform (Federal Agricultural Improvement and Reform Act, signed into law April 4), he has supported such other measures as regulatory risk assessments based on sound science (HR 1022), product liability-legal system reform (HR 956), tax and spending cuts (HR 1215), a moratorium on new regulations (HR450) and the TEAM Act, which would permit employee involvement teams (HR 743).

Some of these bills have died or await Senate action. President Clinton has vetoed some. But each passed the House with Nethercutt’s support.

While others talk about government reform, our representative has been a critical part of the effort to achieve it and to pass a pro-growth agenda.

I know Washington, D.C.,-based national special interest groups are attacking him locally because he has tried to do in Congress exactly what he said he would do. I want Nethercutt to know that we who actually live in Washington state and voted for him appreciate the fact that he kept his word. Jim Coulson Spokane

One-interest candidate won’t do

Spokane County Democrats will have a choice between two congressional candidates Sept. 17.

Susan Kaun was a freeholder elected to try and find a solution for the many problems besetting our county. The other was president of the National Wheat Growers Association, an arcane group of farmers with only their interest at hand.

Kaun was interim manager of the historic Modern Electric Water Co., where she successfully negotiated an unprecedented five-year contract between Modern Electric and Local 77 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. She recently received a laudatory letter from Patrick E. Lorang, the union’s business representative. Kaun’s opponent is a farmer.

Kaun believes labor is treated unfairly by Republicans, that Republicans intend to reward the wealthy by depriving the poor, that their attitude toward education is appalling and threatens our children’s future, and that our farmers, particularly dairy farmers, have been mistreated by the inaction of Rep. George Nethercutt.

Kaun’s opponent has stated that her primary interest is the farmer’s plight and that her focus will be on agriculture.

Agriculture is important to Spokane County, but other issues are just as important. Kaun wants to address them also. The other candidate depends largely on farmers’ support but couldn’t or didn’t deliver the farm vote Tom Foley desperately needed in 1994. Cathy Hirschberger Newman Lake, Wash.