Letters for Dec. 18, 2024

DNR needs to look in mirror

The Department of Natural Resources suing Inland Power for negligence is laughable. DNR denuded 542 acres of its land in the Newman Lake foothills in a 2015 timber sale only to negligently allow it to become an off-road vehicle park until just a few months ago.

It wasn’t until a month -plus after yours truly and other neighbors finally emailed Public Lands Commissioner Hillary Franz that DNR finally put in some Kelly humps, barricading the 2015 logging roads over nine years later. DNR finally understood if its brush-covered land burned, so would ours.

DNR also allowed high -powered -rifle target shooting of trees on this same 542 acres with tree trunks so bullet-riddled that the trees finally tipped over. It was a shooting gallery up there that neighbors finally got tired of bullets whizzing by their homes that enough was enough. All this while East Valley school buses went by.

So yeah, absolutely DNR … preach to us about negligence!

Mike Reno

Newman Lake

Bible critics use extreme examples

It is hard to read editorials that answer ignorance with more ignorance. The Idaho Statesman’s horror at school children being required to read the Bible should be reassured that perhaps they will read Jesus before Pilate declaring that his kingdom is, “not of this world.” Hopefully, they will grasp that Christian nationalism is a completely man-made philosophy not found in the New Testament.

For supposedly intelligent and well-read professionals, however, to discredit this bad idea by trying to make scripture sound absurd is unworthy of them. As a person who had spent his life studying to understand the Bible and trying to live by the standards it teaches, their critique is what in debate is called a “straw man argument.” That means taking the most extreme, minor and irrelevant examples of something and using it to discredit the whole.

I am, of course, appalled at the idea of anyone being forced to read the Bible. The early educational systems of America used the Bible as a basic textbook. This was a time when the moral and civilizing influence of the Bible was widely understood and supported. It was supported because its basic teachings were clearly positive influences on society.

I always find it interesting that those who enjoy the freedom to despise Christianity so much take little note that their freedom comes out of Western-read, Christian-based culture. They would do well to take note how little this freedom exists in other cultures around the world.

James Becker

Spokane

City will respond to abandoned vehicles

I’ve seen lots of posts regarding the city not enforcing the abandoned vehicle law. Don’t blame the city. It doesn’t know about these cars until someone reports it. You can file a complaint with the Spokane Code Enforcement agency either on the website (helpful website, by the way) or by email (codeenforcement@spokanecity.org). I have single-handedly rid my neighborhood of numerous abandoned vehicles and piles of “free junk” left on sidewalks (city property) simply by filing a complaint.

It’s a process, but it definitely works. If everyone in the city did this, it might actually start to make a difference.

Jenny Payne

Spokane