Letters for March 6, 2022

Parent vs. student bill

Recently, Chris Cargill, Eastern Washington director of right-wing Washington Policy Center, advocated for a parents’ bill of rights to improve our educational system. But how would that help?

Shouldn’t students themselves, especially at the high school level, have at least equal voice to their parents since their education most strongly affects their own lives? Maybe Cargill thinks students and their parents agree on what would improve their education, but is there evidence of that?

Polls show considerable disagreement between high school-age students and those of their parents’ age on Trumpism, for example. Whereas disagreement between Democrats and Republicans 30 years ago was less severe and emotional, that is definitely not true today.

Parents disrupt school board meetings protesting vaccine and mask mandates for students and teachers, whereas recently Seattle students joined nationwide protests to call for stronger COVID-19 protocols. Angry parents demand the ban of books and the teaching of U.S. racial history against students’ wishes. Few parents insist on more instruction on global warming which is uppermost in many students’ minds.

And most tragically, white parents opposing the accurate teaching of U.S. racial history apparently don’t care at all about their negative impact on the social-emotional growth and academic achievements of students of color. Students of color undoubtedly agree with their parents on full coverage of such history.

Should we instead have a students’ bill of rights, at least at the high school level, promoting their measured input into final educational decisions made by their teachers and schools?

Norm Luther

Spokane

Supported release story

The Spokane County commissioners’ commitment to supported release is questionable. They secured a $400,000 grant from the MacArthur Foundation to fund supported release, stewed on it for months, and did nothing to launch it – until they recently found themselves in the hot seat.

In their grant application, they committed to program administration by an outside agency to ensure the trust of participants. But, in recent months the commissioners twice withheld permission from their former law and justice administrator to fulfill that pledge – because the prosecutor’s office wanted to run the program internally, contrary to their grant application representations. Now, with the MacArthur Foundation questioning the county’s commitment and threatening to ask for a grant refund, the commissioners gave Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich the green light to abide by their original pledge and seek a third-party agency to run the program.

Giving Knezovich this assignment is puzzling. Recently he said he didn’t know anything about the program. Days later he presented himself to the commissioners as an authority on it, convinced it’s a bad idea, says it’s unnecessary, asserts that it’s Marxist, and illustrated his concern with video of violent criminal activity that is completely ineligible for the program. Mystifyingly, he concludes by saying he’s “more than happy to work on these type of programs.”

Really? Yep, really. And the commissioners agree he’s the right guy for the job.

Amazingly, Knezovich, the county’s chief incarcerator and longtime advocate for a bigger jail, is perfect to lead the charge on justice reform.

Steve McNutt

Spokane

Tesla police cars

I read the article about the failure of the Tesla Model Y police vehicles.

What I am questioning is, did anyone think to ask police officers, who spend hours per day in their vehicles, to give an evaluation before the Teslas were purchased and modified? An officer just going and sitting in a Model Y would, within a couple seconds, be able to say, “Ya know, the laptop is going to block the car’s computer screen.” That would’ve saved the city thousands of dollars in the cost of the vehicles and modifications.

My suggestion is to send a couple officers to dealerships, such as the VW/Audi dealer in Spokane Valley, and have them sit in the Audi E-Tron and VW ID-4 and evaluate them before a vehicle is purchased. There are plenty of Tesla Model S in Spokane, and one could be used to let officers, the people who will be working in the cars, to evaluate them.

Lonnie V. Scott

Spangle

Wake up!

Can’t you see?

Don’t you notice?

What is happening?

A small country

Standing up for their

Young democracy.

While a large prosperous country is

Throwing their hard earned

Democracy away

Through the extinguishing of

Voters’ rights and

Lies

Lies that are perpetuated

By selfish, greedy, power hungry people.

Wake up!

Go back to that basic God-ness that

You were born with.

Priscilla Hawkyard

Spokane

CMR not the direction forward

I was disheartened to see our own Cathy McMorris Rodgers photographed smiling as GOP Reps. Lauren Boebert and Margorie Taylor Green heckled the president. No chance this candid moment can be taken out of context. The two admonished representatives from Colorado and Georgia have a long history of extremist views not representing even the most conservative of their party. McMorris Rodgers continues to be an embarrassment for the 5th District.

Lee Evans

Loon Lake

President’s State of the Union speech

Oh! Did we really expect Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers to say anything positive about President Biden’s speech on the State of the Union? Sen. Risch from Idaho begrudgingly had a few halfway positive things to say.

It’s the nature of the GOP at this time to be against anything from the Democrats, even if the GOP thought it first or introduced a bill in the past along the same lines. I hope the GOP listens to some previously respected conservatives like Steve Schmidt, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, who see the treasonous activity of many of their previous peers.

CMR wanted to vote to not accept the election outcome, but changed her mind when she saw the horror unleashed. I was at her town hall in Spokane last year and saw what also looked like surprise and almost fear at what the GOP has wrought in its base. She was not right wing enough for them. They were generally rude, up-in-arms, wanting whatever was needed for them to feel victorious over the “libs.” It was sad.

Karen Miller

Nine Mile Falls

McCaslin as county auditor

Here we go. I’ve been wondering when the radical squad that used to be the Republican Party would make their move in Spokane County to put a Trump zombie in office, and here it is. The anti-democracy party formerly known as the GOP wants to put a Big Lie apostle in the Spokane County auditor’s office before the 2024 elections. As Nancy Reagan used to advise. Let’s just say NO.

It’s pretty clear from his actions in the past year, that Bob McCaslin isn’t interested in majority rule or free and fair elections. If elected he will do everything he can to undermine voter access. We can’t afford to put one of Matt Shea’s buddies and a 2020 election Big Lie advocate in charge of our county election system. Like the Secretary of State, the County Auditor’s job needs to be executed in a completely nonpartisan manner regardless of the initial after one’s name on the ballot. We know from her years of scrupulously nonpartisan service, that incumbent Auditor Vickie Dalton gets that job requirement. Bob McCaslin does not. He is incapable of accepting fact. His embrace of the Big Lie clearly demonstrates this.

Republican or Democrat or independent, you don’t want a partisan hack in charge of local elections. Just say no to Bobby. Call Vickie Dalton and encourage her to run again. Let’s keep our honest and clean elections in Spokane County.

Jim Wavada

Spokane

Inslee’s climate change battle

Let’s talk about electric vehicles and “running out of time.” Transformation to electric transportation in urban areas is a good thing, particularly to eliminate carbon monoxide pollution, as well as carbon dioxide emissions.

But to do this on a countrywide scale, enormous amounts of metals such as copper, nickel and lithium need to be produced. And almost unimaginable amounts of electrical energy will be required to mine and process the minerals, produce batteries and to power the charging stations.

At present, there are four major copper projects ready to be developed in the U.S., and each one is being blocked by environmental activists such as Gov. Inslee. And a major lithium development is being challenged because of a supposedly endangered flower (Tiehms Buckwheat), which is also threatened by squirrels gnawing at its roots. If time is a concern, might we move these projects along?

Morris A. Kaufman

Spokane Valley