Letters for March 24, 2022
Public defense is honest work
Upon the president nominating Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to fill a vacancy on the United States Supreme Court, reliable news sources report that a specific senator on the judiciary committee preparing to vote on this nomination finds it “a little concerning” that Judge Jackson once served as a public defender and represented accused terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay.
The senator’s remarks are outrageous. Public defense is honest and critical work. Perpetually underfunded, outgunned, overworked and misunderstood, public defenders nevertheless stand up to the government, probing its evidence and making it prove its claims.
Public defenders don’t hail from a separate coven. They attend the same churches and celebrate the same holidays as the rest of us, and like the rest of us want the streets to be safe for their children. We should all be thankful for those who use a relatively privileged profession and education to hold accountable the most powerful government in the world as it incarcerates more people for longer sentences than any other country. For a United States senator who graduated from Yale Law School to imply otherwise is stupefying.
John T. Rodgers
Spokane
Gas and inflation
Everyone has a take on why gas prices are so high and who’s to blame. The following are some fun facts pertaining to this quandary:
Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Shell, in 2021, posted their highest profits in seven years. BP posted their highest profit in eight years and gas prices are the highest in seven years. The amount of profit in dollars announced by the 25 leading oil and gas companies exceeds $205 billion and instead of spending those profits on more production that would ease prices at the pump, they’re putting it toward shareholder & dividend stock buybacks. So, I guess the reason for high prices at the pump is inflation, huh?
Joe Speranzi
Spokane
Large capacity magazines
Sigh, it’s time for Shawn Vestal’s gun control rant, this time on large-capacity magazines and mass fatality shootings.
The study he uses is excellent, except it glosses over and Shawn leaves out how, from 1994-2004 there was a federal ban on LCMs. After 10 years, you’d expect a huge difference, but not really, kind of like the success of prohibition. If you take out those 10 years and compare states, Texas had the most and has no ban, yet California, with bans had the same amount. Again, how can that be? Every state with no mass fatality events has no ban. How? It doesn’t distinguish between planned shootings, like Las Vegas, versus random or family shootings, like in Tyrone, Missouri. Why, why does anyone persist in the idea of attacking the shooter while reloading? Does it happen? Yes, and it also rains 2 inches in 20 minutes in Spokane. Consider in Orlando, the shooter walks in, fires 30 rounds and reloads, again and again, no one attacks him. Same in Aurora, Colorado, or all but one school shooting (Springfield, Oregon, students stopped the shooter).
Even the study admits mass fatality shootings are really rare, around two a year, and they might have overestimated the results. This law will join the change of fire arm possession law as oxygen thieves of the RCW. They take up space, are unenforceable and will not stop or prevent any shootings.
Steven Stuart
Spokane
What is going on in Idaho?
So, the Legislature in Idaho refuses to remove faith-healing exemptions for child abuse. If a parent refuses to let their kid get medical treatment because they want to “pray away” their cancer, there’s nothing the state can do about it.
For the kids who are protected from their parents abuse, the social workers and doctors who save them have to fear retaliation from Ammon Bundy and extremists like him. It seems like Idaho is the parents-rights capital of the country. Except, of course, you just affectively banned abortion.
Do you believe children are just snot-nosed brats and fetuses are pure and magical? Are you more comfortable with a parent killing their kid if you know they’ve had to look it in the face first? Maybe it’s just that abortion is something that women do, but child abuse is something men can participate in. I know I’m not the first to point out this irony, but … wow.
Joshua Isbey
Spokane
CMR loves veterans
Of course Cathy McMorris Rodgers loves veterans.
She married one!
Cliff Borns
Spokane