Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

Streets receiving substandard care

What will be done about the chuckholes and extended ruts in our streets? The solution that would have cost many homeowners $100 per year for lo these many years was not the ease-it-down proposition that our counselors set forth.

We have to get back to the question of how the streets got into this shape. I don’t blame any of our newer commissioners, but I’d surely like to ask some of the old-timers (and possibly our departing manager) how they managed to overlook the problem that has been growing for years and years.

We have street after street that has been ripped open, block after block, and left with only a temporary repair. The procedure seems to be to drive out with a truck and shovel a mix of dirty oil-soaked fluid into the hole and pat it sown. It looks just fine. The sad part, of course, is that a few days of traffic tears up the covering and we are back to the roughed-up hole in the pavement.

I challenge any supporters of the defeated street bond to take a 20-minute trip with me on the North Side. Drive down Ash from Francis to Boone. Whether it is sewer lines or any other reason to open up the pavement, there are strips over a block in length that have been torn up and not properly repaired. Proper repair is fundamental. Carlton Gladder Spokane

Vindictiveness works against city

I was sorry to learn that Riverfront Park Manager Hal McGlathery has been “punished” for his courageous stand against placing a science center in the Riverfront Park Pavilion.

McGlathery was hired to represent the best interests of the citizens of Spokane. He did, and his concerns for the park were confirmed by the voters’ decision in September 1995.

McGlathery loves Riverfront Park. His staff respects him and has worked hard for him. Any reason, other than political, to remove him from Riverfront Park insults our intelligence.

In my office, an official of the community group supporting the science center said that both McGlathery and I should be fired for disagreeing with the Park Board’s policy. Well, that community leader got their way.

I am sad that in Spokane we don’t have a community that respects differences of opinion and wants to punish citizens who use the democratic process to express their desires concerning city policy. I want a Spokane where we can work with a group on numerous projects and yet disagree on another matter and not be accused of sabotaging Spokane’s future.

If Spokane truly wants to be a great All-American city, we ought to stop proving continually that, politically, ours is still a small town. Steven Corker Spokane

Work release center safe enough

In regard to the work release center at Second and Browne, everyone is overlooking one very important fact. If the day care workers are doing their jobs properly, which is watching the children, no one would ever have a chance to harm the children in any way. If a work release prisoner were to escape from any center, I’m sure the last place the escapee would go is two blocks away to a day care center.

Residents and businesses in this area should be grateful that someone is refurbishing that building. This area has been a dangerous and disgusting eyesore for many years. Some people who have trespassed in that building seeking free shelter have probably been far more dangerous than any work release inmate who might be housed there.

Do the day care workers realize that there is a hospital psychiatric unit two blocks away, a drug and alcohol halfway house a half block away and that a drug bust was conducted just recently in the near vicinity? If everyone who is responsible for caring for children is paying attention to their work and not their neighbors, there should be no problems. Sharon Leonard Spokane

Chief talks out of turn

After the recent debacle with the Hells Angels, Spokane Police Chief Terry Mangan is noted as having said, “The outcome of the trial might have been different if Eitzen had ordered tighter security for the jurors.”

Where does the chief of police, in his official capacity, get off telling the judges how to conduct their business?

Then he goes further and says, “It’s a matter of what’s right and what’s just. It’s a matter of not letting them feel they can be immune from the law on a technicality.”

Since when did it become the responsibility of the police chief to determine what is right and what is just?

This is usurping the responsibilities of the Legislature and the courts. And as to Mangan’s comments about the “technicality,” he should be reminded that the technicality he refers to is the law, which he is sworn to uphold.

What next, Mangan, vigilantes? D.R. Andrews Harrison, Idaho

SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION

School initiatives not the way

Initiatives 173 and 177, which would completely overhaul our public school system, must be the result of total frustration with our system. This would bring unthinking change without adequate safeguards.

By comparison, I am one of those who cast a losing vote for the strong mayor proposal for the city of Spokane. I did so out of the same frustration with an existing system. But, while the ingrown city system is beyond tweaking up, the state school system is not.

Let’s bring about sensible change within the present school system. Radical change without some control on the “new” system will certainly give us a far worse system than the one we have. We all should vote no on initiatives 173 and 177, then go out and get involved in the citizens’ advisory groups that are waiting for our help. Karl W. Mote Sr. Spokane

Teach financial savvy at home

In response to the Oct. 8 letter from Suzann R. Nelson (“Schools should teach financial savvy”):

Since when did it become the responsibility of schools to teach children how to use money and manage their finances? Isn’t that a parental responsibility, such as morals, ethics, etc., that schools are expected to teach these days? Linda Wilcox Spokane

School critic fumes at a nonissue

In response to Ken Bryant’s letter (“Schools shouldn’t teach manners,” Letters, Oct. 4), how dare he refer to the school district and the teachers as a group of unintelligent social engineers?

Did he receive a direct order to discontinue teaching his children social graces in his home from the school or from the district? He ought to know he can continue to teach children social graces at home, even though the lessons might be duplicated at school. A double dose might be just the ticket.

District 81 is doing a tremendous job. How could it miss when it’s richly staffed with qualified teachers. Irene Schmidt Spokane

Errant parents make lessons vital

Recent letter writers have complained about schools teaching manners and values, arguing that that this is for parents to do. I agree, except that many parents are not doing their job.

A Department of Health and Human Services study reported on Sept. 19 estimated that almost 3 million children were abused and neglected. Their parents certainly are not reaching manners and constructive social values. It is even worse when parents teach antisocial attitudes, like the mother in the Oct. 4 story on teenage vandalism in Springdale, Wash. She was quoted as justifying her son’s behavior by saying, “Everybody else is doing it, and it’s their town.”

Of course, it’s everyone else’s town, too, and the residents have a right not to have their new sidewalks destroyed. Certainly, our children need exposure to manners and community values, and the school is the only sure way of seeing that they get it. Robert Forman Colville, Wash.

WASHINGTON STATE

Know which politicians back burning

I have been following with great interest the evolution of field burning.

Being a local amateur singer, I find I cannot perform while this takes place. No amount of allergy medicine or antihistamine helps. After the burning stops there is sometimes a cold and/or sore throat to deal with, then all returns to normal.

I find it interesting that no field burning took place during my formative years. Now a few greedy farmers are ruining not only my health but yours and that of every man, woman and child in the area.

I took it upon myself to call state legislators to ask opinions to better inform myself how to vote in the upcoming elections. George Orr answered directly and opposes burning. Rep. Larry Crouse returned my call and opposes burning.

Rep. Mark Sterk did not have the decency to return my call, nor did Frank Galizia or Sen. Bob McCaslin. Kate McCaslin and Lila Howe have publicly declared support for field burning and ruining our health. Jim Peters Spokane

Moyer pro-business, pro-jobs

You can’t afford to ignore this election. Your jobs are at stake, especially in the 3rd Legislative District race between Sen. John Moyer and Rep. Lisa Brown. We can’t afford to lose John Moyer.

Moyer votes 90 percent of the time to keep jobs and businesses open. He votes his conscience. We can’t afford to have Brown replace him. She voted against your jobs and businesses 90 percent of the time.

Am I biased? You bet! Who isn’t in the voting booth? My bias is for keeping my business open and running, for my employees working and earning to stay off the welfare rolls. My bias is for a healthy business community, Spokane’s economy and job availability.

Support Moyer with your vote and financially, if you can. He’ll save jobs - yours, others’ and the job you may be looking for. He’s for the workers. Geneva Nash Ward Spokane

Brown caring but no push-over

Critics claim that 3rd Legislative District Senate candidate Lisa Brown recklessly raises taxes without concern for accountability or a thought for the welfare of working families in Spokane.

Yet Brown made a conservative decision a few years ago to raise fees for state services, such as tuition, to preserve education programs that fuel the state’s high-tech economy. While some students were irritated, she and her colleagues realized that students needed to sacrifice somewhat so Washington could avoid the kind of Draconian cuts that have devastated Idaho state colleges, diminishing learning opportunities.

There is a social contract that those with resources should help those who are disadvantaged. In modern industrial society, the state is in the best position to preserve society’s character and values - such as confronting the ills of abject poverty. Even Bob Dole knows government has a certain role in this area. Yet it sometimes seems state bureaucrats forget that their primary objective is to serve people effectively in the way lawmakers intended.

Republicans, given the chance, thirst to eliminate wholesale most programs that they claim diminish human initiative. Yet there is a moral duty for lawmakers to support a social safety net and demand accountability from state employees to move state beneficiaries to opportunities. Brown, who can be a voice for forgotten Spokane among the Seattle-Tacoma lawmakers who dominate Olympia, will be a conservative force for the 3rd District, to demand that state agencies serve the Spokane people in a cost-effective, dignified manner. Bureaucrats should fear a lawmaker who cares about basic human dignity. Jonathan Feste Spokane

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Gloomy predictions didn’t pan out

Just two years ago the air was filled with all kinds of negative comments from my liberal fellow workers. “Oh if we lose Tom Foley there goes Fairchild Air Force Base.” “Foley is the only reason that Fairchild is still here. If he is voted out there goes our economy for this area.” “There go hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars from our region. If Foley is voted out, Fairchild will be gone within a year.”

Well, my liberal friends lost their idol to George Nethercutt, and isn’t it amazing - Fairchild Air Force Base is still here, with all of its job intact and the millions of dollars of economic wealth is still flowing into our community. As a matter of fact, Congress just passed an $18 million construction project for our region - namely Fairchild AFB and North Idaho Naval Station. And all without Tom Foley. How amazing.

Not only that, but Slick Willie signed it. Why? Because it’s again an election year and he is playing the part of the middle-of-the-road Democrat. Bruce Chandler Newport, Wash.

Reject trickle-down; Vote Democrat

I have been reading The Spokesman-Review for some 60 years. During that time I have seen a lot of editors and other contributors come and go, and the Review has steadfastly maintained its rigidly ultraconservative beliefs. But never in those long years have I seen such blatant statements against the liberals, Democrats and currently, the Clintons. Such vicious-tongued persons as William Safire, Tony Snow and Pat Robinson’s mouthpiece, Cal Thomas.

It seems as though your cartoonist tells it like it is, i.e. his barbs against granddad Dole and his $300,000-per-year salaried wife.

Dole’s plan for the United States is undoubtedly Reagan’s trickle-down economics. Even Bush called them voodoo economics. With Dole, we could most assuredly expect a revival of that nightmare of the Sagebrush Revolution. God, deliver us from such a fate.

Let’s vote smart in November. Vote for our environment, clean water, clean air, enhancing and protecting our public lands. To do less would be a national tragedy.

Vote Democrat. A.K. Stirling Spokane

Clinton critics conveniently forget

Republicans have been saying President Clinton has no right to involve the United States in Arab or any other countries’ internal affairs. Yet, how can they explain their own very active campaign (under President Bush in 1991) when the CIA was up to its neck in supplying funds, arms, ammunition, food, medicine and vehicles to the Kurds, dissident Iraqis and anyone interested in harassing Saddam Hussein?

According to the Washington Post (Sept. 25) the CIA, egged on by Republican lawmakers and policy officials, found it hard to say no to anyone asking for assistance to oppose Saddam.

Iraqi dissidents and Kurds alike set off U.S.-supplied bombs, recruited defectors, fought a brief military skirmish with the Iraqi troops, took hundreds of the Iraqi army as prisoners - not at the CIA’s explicit direction but with its strong encouragement, financial and material support.

After spending over $100 million on its “anti-Saddam” campaign, the CIA has little to show for its efforts. In fact one of the principle Kurdish forces, funded by the CIA, abruptly switched sides from the CIA and allied itself with Saddam.

The Washington Post says, “Although no direct orders were given to kill Hussein,” the CIA provided funds to groups that the CIA knew were trying to do so. A U.S. finding, authorizing covert action to topple Saddam, was signed by Bush in May 1991.

Bob Dole has little cause to criticize Clinton for actions similar to past actions of his own party, a la the Persian Gulf, Kuwait, Iraq, Panama, Grenada, Central America, etc. Andy Kelly Spokane