Letters To The Editor

IDAHO VIEWPOINTS

Lion killings a travesty

The killing of 16 beautiful, majestic cats in Lava Hot Springs, Idaho, was a wrongful and senseless act, not only against Mother Nature but also against mankind.

The Lord put these cats on Earth for mankind to share their beauty and also to reproduce. The mayor, police chief and all who participated in slaughtering the cats should hang their heads in shame and ask the Lord for forgiveness for their dastardly acts.

I, myself, will not forgive any of them. All of them acted too hastily - they all lost their cool. I wonder if the mayor, police chief and law enforcement officers could handle a real lifesaving incident. I doubt it.

Lava Hot Springs, a town of about 600, is about 40 miles from Pocatello, as the crow flies. One, maybe even two helicopters, could have been dispatched with game wardens or veterinarians with tranquilizers and reached the town in about an hour or less, preventing the tragic, senseless slaughter of these beautiful cats.

According to the news media, the owners had been reprimanded in the past for not properly maintaining the animals, both in Oregon and Lava Hot Springs.

How and why was a permit or license issued to these people? Many questions remain unanswered. Salvatore J. Alpedo Arlington, Wash.

Too many deaths written off

Doug Clark’s May 7 column (“Next of kin learns of death the hard way”) concerning the death of Priest River resident Tim Handy drew my attention. There is more than a usual number of similar cases going on.

Two Sandpoint men, age 44, class of 1969, died under similar circumstances in Los Angeles within a six-month period. Both cases were suspicious and investigated as homicides.

Too often this type of “one-shot deal” is regarded by authorities as one in which someone who years ago had a drug problem relapses and accidentally takes an overdose.

My theory is, folks who know too much about drugs and related community corruption might be eliminated as viable witnesses. This conclusion is not a fantasy. Our first clue came from Orange County coroners when they found a clean white male, well nourished, with excellent body tone and muscular features, dead from a drug overdose. They stated there was no sign of recent drug use and it was suspicious as a one-shot deal.

We have retained private investigators and would be extremely interested in having contact with others who have lost loved ones under similar circumstances. Harold B. Riese Sandpoint

Thanks for food drive support

Coeur d’Alene and the surrounding communities of Post Falls, Hayden, Spirit Lake and Athol participated in the annual National Letter Carriers’ Food Drive on May 11.

Thanks to the generosity of all who donated, letter carriers collected a record 27,000 pounds of food and delivered it that day to local food banks. Almost 16,000 pounds of food was collected in Coeur d’Alene alone.

This food drive was successful because of the efforts of United Way, local food bank volunteers, Tidymans, the U.S. Postal Service and my fellow letter carriers. Ron Farnsworth, president National Association of Letter Carriers, Branch 1260, Coeur d’Alene

WORDS AND DEEDS

This is regulation run amok

I am outraged to read “Realtors under fire for targeting buyers” (May 19). It makes me sick to think there is a taxpayer-funded alliance that cracks down on such innocent, nondiscriminating advertising. Does she believe she is helping those who are truly discriminated against on a day-to-day basis?

Agencies such as The Northwest Fair Housing Alliance discourage me from selling my own home or becoming a landlord. Why should I? I may say or do something wrong, unbeknownst to me, when I attempt to rent, maintain or sell my investment. How do I know Big Brother is not looking over my shoulder ready to extort money from me?

Some might say she is just enforcing the law. However, believing in the law and enforcing it are two different things. An advancement of one’s ideology through the law is cowardly.

Most honest working people in this country can only enforce and advance what they believe in. Is it her crusade to attack hard-working real estate agents and landlords in our community or to protect true victims of discrimination in our community?

The next time I hear someone say the government should step in and regulate an industry, the environment, an organization or a life I will forward the article on to them and remind them to what extreme the government can practice strong-arm tactics.

It is pathetic what some people think is fair and just in our country. Steve Moser Spokane

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

No need to swipe campaign sign

To the person or persons who trespassed upon my property and stole my Larry Irvine-for-sheriff sign, there is no need to bring it back. I have another one. If you wanted one that badly, you could have called Larry Irvine. I’m sure he or one of the many people supporting him would have given you one in broad daylight for everyone to see. Alice Huffman Osburn

Head off looting of Social Security

The Social Security Trust Fund is self-supporting and does not add a dime to the deficit. So, it should not be used to balance the federal budget deficit.

Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole promises to resurrect the balanced budget amendment for another vote soon. The bill he supports jerks Social Security into a consolidated federal budget, violating the 1990 law keeping Social Security off budget. Isn’t that vile? Balancing the budget on the backs of the elderly!

Instead, cut the bloated military budget rather than give an extra $13 billion above its budget.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., introduced a resolution to put the Senate on record excluding Social Security trust funds from the balanced budget amendment. Sen. Dole moved to kill this, and was supported by all Republicans and five Democrats. Such villainy.

Sen. Dole’s supporters want a balanced budget amendment only if it swallows up Social Security revenue into the federal deficit. Since not a penny of the deficit came from the self-supporting Social Security Trust Fund, let’s keep it off budget and uphold the 1990 law. This protects current and future retirees.

Call your senators. Ask them to vote no on any balanced budget amendment that includes Social Security. Vern L. Klingman Billings, Mont.

IN THE PAPER

Crime story added to family’s pain

Our daughter, Jade Moore, was murdered on April 27.

We wish to thank the community of Spokane for an outpouring of emotional and financial support that has been overwhelming. It renews our faith that there are good, caring people in the world. It’s a blessing to know others care so much.

We are outraged at The Spokesman-Review for printing the graphic details of the attack on Jade, Telisha and Venus. We will relive the horror of our daughter’s death every day of our lives. Seeing it in print certainly does not help in the healing process.

People can and should be made aware of the escalating violence in our society without printing horrific details of the crimes. Did the reporters ever consider there may be younger and more vulnerable siblings who are fully capable of reading the paper but not yet emotionally ready for certain details concerning the attack on their sister? Did you ever consider that the details of our daughter’s death are no one’s business? Did you know details in the article weren’t completely correct? Did you ever contact our family for input or ask our permission to print such grisly details?

Did you ever stop to think that a family’s privacy and grieving are more important than a sensationalized article designed to sell more papers and heighten the anger in the community?

Yes, our daughter was raped and murdered. Yes, we want everyone to do their part to help stop violence. However, it can be done without invading the privacy of the victims’ families and friends. Barry and Melinda Moore Spokane

Editor’s note: The Spokesman-Review was able to interview relatives of two of the three victims and reported their feelings in a May 2 story. A reporter’s early attempts to contact the Moores by phone were unsuccessful. Further efforts were discouraged by neighbors, who said the family did not want to be interviewed.

OTHER TOPICS

Writer’s beliefs make me wonder

Re: Paul L. Weis’ May 7 letter, “Unquestioning belief in error.”

Weis stated that most “practicing” Christians believe that God can do anything, but that they contradict themselves by saying that God couldn’t create evolution (the evolving of complex creatures from simple creatures).

I believe the issue isn’t whether God could or couldn’t set up evolution, but rather that He either did or didn’t.

I believe He didn’t. If He had, wouldn’t there by some ancient documentation supporting this theory (such as cave markings or manuscripts comparable with the Dead Sea Scrolls)? Are fossils the only proof?

Weis also believes that Creation (the world and its inhabitants being created in a short time) is impossible; that Creation scientists have no proof. Do the fossils he speaks of support the theory of evolution any more concretely than they support the accounts of major catastrophes in the Bible - such as the flood?

Whatever you believe, Weis, please keep an open mind. And don’t forget, the ancestor of the next dog you see could also have been the ancestor of your future descendents. After all, everyone evolved from the one-celled amoeba, right? Annette Torrence Naples, Idaho

Block tobacco companies’ grab

On May 15, Phillip Morris and U.S. Tobacco asked Congress to enact legislation to restrict the Food and Drug Administration from ever regulating tobacco products. They are making very weak promises not to target young smokers in return.

Unfortunately, their advertising - such as tickets for rock concerts, T-shirts, backpacks, etc. - seems somewhat geared toward the younger generation. Their plan also would allow tobacco products to be unregulated, leaving the industry free to continue to manipulate nicotine levels to ensure addiction for their victims.

My husband started smoking at the age of 14. He has tried many, many times to kick the habit, but never could make it. My husband was diagnosed with lung cancer last week, and now will go through tremendous suffering, as will his whole family - all because of a product designed to keep him hooked and to destroy lives.

It is too late for our family, but there is time for you to protect yours. Write to your legislators about this matter. Save our young people. Scotty Long Otis Orchards

Frogs a bellwether for UV danger

Your May 21 story on endangered frogs certainly belonged on the front page. If anything, you understated a situation that goes far beyond any inconvenience to the Calaveras County frog jumping contest.

Frogs are not merely endangered, they are now largely extinct worldwide. Although this was reported over a year ago in scientific journals, few people seem to be aware of it. When I ask people locally if they’ve seen frogs they invariably mention spring peepers, however peepers are actually dry-skinned toads, not mucous-skinned frogs.

True frogs are an important indicator species, a “miner’s canary” for other life. The reason is because they sample an unusually wide variety of environments during their lives, going from an egg in water to a vegetarian tadpole to a carnivore that can breathe both water and air.

At first scientists thought frogs were disappearing because of increased toxic waste and loss of habitat. While these undoubtedly contribute, the main reason as announced in Scientific American, is an increase in solar ultraviolet radiation reaching the ground because of ozone layer damage.

This convinces me that we had better get very worried about ozone, and soon. Many people seem to consider the ozone problem either a myth or something confined to the South Pole. Sorry, but I think it’s right here in River City. Just notice the number of ads for UV-blocking suntan oil and weather forecasters’ UV warnings you see this summer. Jim McDonald Spokane