Letters To The Editor

WASHINGTON STATE

AIDS program should continue

Kudos to Gov. Mike Lowry for pledging additional funds to give lifesaving care to low-income AIDS patients. Some will bemoan this and say AIDS comes from irresponsibility or that we lack the money to pay for such expensive care. They’re wrong.

HIV-AIDS isn’t a disease of irresponsibility. AIDS targets outcasts. It is a disease of poverty and no one is immune. The cost of caring for persons with AIDS may be high but it’s a bargain compared to the loss of their gifts and our humanity. That’s why this low-income AIDS drug program is so vital.

As with other health issues, prevention is vital. That’s why many gay men in Spokane like myself have joined the Friend to Friend HIV-AIDS prevention program to promote safer sex and responsible behavior.

Thanks to similar programs, new HIV infections in San Francisco dropped from a high of 8,000 in 1982 to only 650 new infections in 1994. Through such efforts, we’re stopping HIV among men who have sex with men here in Washington.

Rather than bash Gov. Lowry for his courage, critics should join the fight against AIDS. The best way to fight AIDS and save money is prevention. Abstinence is 100 percent effective and condom and lube are 98 to 100 percent effective at stopping HIV transmission. If we help our friends and loved ones make the right choices when it comes to sex and substance use, we can win the battle against AIDS without losing our humanity.

David R. Johnson Spokane

Yes, Foreman’s deeply indebted

Tidbits that don’t show up in Eastern Washington newspaper:

The Washington Association of Realtors and the Building Industry Association of Washington recently endorsed Republican Dale Foreman for governor, to which he replied, “I appreciate your endorsement. I’ll never forget it.”

Well, that’s the point. Ring up a purchase of that candidate on the political cash register. Betty G. Shreve Wenatchee

Legislators out to lunch?

Why are all the state representatives and state senators from this area sitting around doing nothing when the Washington state Horse Racing Commission and the racing interests on the West Side are trying to trash Playfair so it won’t operate anymore? It is a disgrace to the people in this area for them to do that. John Llewellyn Spokane

School vouchers really a non-solution

I am addressing the issue of vouchers to give parents a choice between public and private schooling for their children.

Vouchers will not work simply because the private schools will be forced to raise their tuition. With so many more students applying for a limited number of positions, the private schools will increase tuition to keep the enrollment limited. The increased cost will offset any help the vouchers offer.

If private schools begin to increase the number of students they enroll, to meet increased demand, the individualized and specialized educational atmosphere that make them so desirable to begin with will be eliminated.

There is nothing I would like more than to have the ability to send my children to a private school. I feel they would both benefit tremendously from a lower student-teacher ratio and from a more-individualized curriculum. However, the cost involved is beyond our means. We will have to use the public schools and continue offering our children whatever help we can at home. Luckily, my children are in the Cheney School District and have capable, caring teachers and support personnel in their school.

Education should be the first and primary concern of every citizen. Vouchers aren’t the answer. The answer lies in better equipped and staffed public schools. R.D. Bierley Cheney

GRASS FIELD BURNING

Grass smoke, complacency persist

Grass burning season soon will be upon us. Soon, we will look in three directions and see great plumes of white smoke billowing into the sky.

Soon, our eyes will start to water and burn, and we will find it harder to breathe.

Soon, mail will flood into your newspaper from the medical community and from those with weak lungs complaining about the situation. Soon, there will be deaths associated with, but not directly linked to, the burning.

Soon thereafter we will start thinking about Thanksgiving and Christmas, and nothing will change. John V. Gregory Spokane

THE ENVIRONMENT

Demand end to forest pillaging

For those of us who follow what our Republican-led Congress is up to, it’s been a long year. This Congress’ attacks on our public health and public land protection laws are hard to fathom.

Most of the outrageous efforts to weaken environmental safeguards were blocked, mostly by President Clinton’s vetoes and public pressure. But one law, the so-called timber salvage bill, slipped by and still threatens our healthy public forests.

July 27 marks one year since Clinton signed the “salvage logging rider,” which was attached to a budget bill by our radical, ani-environmental Congress. Using new industry buzzwords like “forest health emergency,” members of Congress managed to pass this atrocious bill to pay back the big timber corporations that got them elected.

All environmental laws have been waived, and the industry is clearcutting indiscriminately, as if those laws never existed. Salvage logging destroys fish habitat, punches new roads into healthy forests and removes snags and downed logs that serve important ecological functions. Even our ancient forests - the natural heritage of the Pacific Northwest - are falling victim to this “lawless logging.”

These are our public lands. They belong to all Americans. Call the White House and Congress. Tell them you want our forests protected. Tell them to repeal the “salvage rider.” And think about this when you get to the polls this year: Behind all their political rhetoric, which candidates have the public’s well-being in mind, and which are motivated by profit and greed? Guadalupe Flores Spokane

Timber industry man’s case faulty

I write to refute misleading statements in Joe Hinson’s guest column (“Timber industry does not have one foot out the door,” Roundtable, July 18), particularly, because Hinson is one of the most powerful special interest lobbyists in Idaho. His column should have been labeled an advertisement for the Intermountain Forest Industry Association.

Hinson asserts, “The cut-and-run mentality of the past has given way…” to sustained yield forestry. I disagree. Hinson underscores my viewpoint by implying that timber industry access to remaining unlogged forests determines “whether the forest products industry shrinks” in our region.

Hinson’s assertion that industry currently practices sustained yield forestry loses credibility when he suggests that the size and structure of the timber industry depends upon access to remaining unlogged national forests. With millions of acres of previously logged publicly and privately owned forest lands available for logging, why would a sustained yield industry need continued access to unlogged forests?

I must point out that Hinson is very careful not to use such words as “remaining unlogged forests” when referring to such forests as “trees.”

I am disturbed that Hinson claims industrial logging has not significantly damaged and degraded forests by writing, “after a century of logging…we now have clear streams, abundant wildlife.” How absurd. The Clearwater River isn’t always so clear anymore. Salmon have virtually disappeared from the Salmon River. Many fish and wildlife species populations have declined severely. The forest products industry shares some responsibility for this. Wade Gruhl Moscow, Idaho

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Rebuff special interests again

In politics, if you follow the money you will know the truth. As we move into the election season, we need only examine the Public Disclosure Commission reports to know which candidate for Congress in our district has the respect and support of the public and which candidate wants to be a puppet of special interests in Washington, D.C.

Rep. George Nethercutt has raised almost 70 percent of his campaign funds from individual contributors in this district. Many contributions consist of small amounts from people who respect him and the job he’s doing.

Nethercutt’s opponent, however, has accepted almost two-thirds of her funds from special interests in Washington, D.C. The same special interests recently ran ads that were so blatantly false they were pulled from the airwaves.

Big labor bosses, out of step with their rank and file, are spending union money to distort Nethercutt’s record because he doesn’t agree with their narrow political agenda.

When you see or hear future ads condemning Nethercutt for things he hasn’t done, just remember they were paid for by the same special interests we rejected in the last election. Angry at losing their power, they will say anything and spend any amount of money to take our representation away from us again.

This is our district. Let’s keep our voice in Congress. Support George Nethercutt. Rick Melanson Spokane

Dole has elephantine disadvantage

Bob Dole can’t understand why he’s 20 percent behind President Clinton in the various polls. After all, the president’s ratings aren’t much higher than the 43 percent he was elected with in 1992.

Is the problem Bob Dole? I don’t think so. Here’s a man who’s given nearly all his life to public service. A decorated and disabled war veteran. A man whose experience and political skills would probably serve the country well as president.

So, what’s the problem? He’s a Republican. Let’s look at their recent agenda under House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s leadership.

They promised reform of Medicare and Medicaid, then immediately announced that the savings would be used to fund a tax cut for wealthy Americans.

They promised campaign finance reform, then discovered the current loophole-filled law benefits them. They promised a family values agenda, then promptly cut spending for education, low-income housing and funding for legal aid, family planning and other programs that affect lower middle class and working poor people.

They promised a strong anti-crime bill, then promptly attempted to gut the president’s plan to put 100,000 more policeman on the job. They also want to end the assault weapons ban.

They promised “gridlock-free government,” then shut the government down to blackmail the president.

They promised to cut government spending overall, then increased defense spending beyond even what the president wanted. They then spent untold millions to investigate President and Mrs. Clinton for everything under the sun.

Dole should step aside. A truly honorable man shouldn’t and couldn’t win a campaign based on the Republican record. Walter Lane Spokane

Addicts, find work in high places

For those of you who can’t find a job because you can’t pass a drug test, not to worry.

The Clinton administration is hiring and will guarantee that you will work in a drug-test-free environment. Smoke, sniff or inject what you want, on or off the job. If you’re caught, just say you don’t inhale.

The Clinton administration is an equal opportunity employer, whatever your drug of choice. If you don’t do drugs, the administration will provide training to get you started. Bill Klein Nine Mile Falls

OTHER TOPICS

I resent fawning over Israeli thugs

As a Republican voter, I have noticed an alarming tendency of contemporary conservative media personalities to canonize Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in hopes of currying favor with Likud Party supporters among the pro-Israel lobby and those employed in the opinion-forming sanctuaries in the United States (see Cal Thomas’ column, “It’s peace through strength all over again,” July 17).

This cynical bit of Realpolitik would like for us to ignore Netanyahu’s latest Cabinet appointment, Ariel Sharon. Sharon is a territorial expansionist thug who was field commander of commando unit 101 on Oct., 14, 1953, when it massacred 66 villagers in the Palestinian village of Qibya. Most of the victims were women and children.

This is the same Sharon who led Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of innocent Lebanese civilians and Palestinian refugees who had never done anything to harm Americans.

Reagan’s choice of military intervention as opposed to a cutoff of financial aid to Israel was a tragic exercise in political pusillanimity.

The distinguished Sharon is not a defendant in any war crimes tribunal, nor is he even on the State Department’s watch list. Instead, he is a frequent visitor to Capitol Hill and an occasional talk show guest, where he gets “grilled” with “softballs” by poltroonish pundits.

I don’t care if Republicans think me a renegade for these disclosures. I grew up in an era when foreign policy was determined by American interests rather than obeisance to domineering foreign lobbies. Jim McCurdy Otis Orchards

Good riddance to cruel facility

Hooray for the closing of the Primate Center in Medical Lake. Taxpayers are grateful for the demise of another costly, wasteful and cruel boondoggle.

Those intelligent, feeling primates are kept in small cages for years, sometimes decades, while “researchers” do their experiments on them. To what end? To find out information that we already know (affects of alcohol on the brain? Come on!) or information better learned though clinical studies of humans; or useless information.

Those so-called scientists don’t give a hoot about the animals. Witness the deaths through neglect - and those are the abuses we know about. The primates are just a meal ticket for federally funded grants that go on for years for doing the same experiments.

Trying to cure AIDS or any other disease in animals is not and never will cure for human AIDS or other disease. The money would be better spent on educating young people about AIDS and following the millions of AIDS patients and monitoring their diets and drug regimens to discover why some survive longer.

The public needs to know that animal experimenters often don’t want a cure because if they were to develop one, their incomes would dry up. Deanna Kuhn Spokane

Wrong to end Native Life program

Regarding “School board cuts Native Life program,” July 25: It saddens me to see such a valued program go down the tubes.

My children have attended the Native Life program for two years. It offers culture, tutoring and counseling if needed. The program keeps some of our children off the streets and in school, where they belong.

People complain about gangs and how bad children and violence are these days. Then they cut programs that give our children options and self-esteem

Children are our future. We need to keep our priorities straight. Education and acculturation are the main foundation for our children. Without programs like this the pride of our culture is lost, education is lost, our future for our children is lost. Robin Swanagan Spokane