Letters to the editor

Regarding Amy Sinisterra's article, "Rating the (Bloomsday) T-shirts," in the May 3 edition of The Inlander, I beg to disagree with the rather arbitrary and very subjective judgement of the writer and the local designer.


It seems to me that what really matters is that the people who run the race like the T-shirt. And I don't think it's absolutely necessary to have a runner on each T-shirt in order to make it a good shirt.


For instance, on the '83 T-shirt -- which has flowers that are blooming and growing toward the sun, something that happens every day during the spring, the season in which Bloomsday is run -- you can easily construe, with a little thought, that the design signifies Bloomsday.


The '87 shirt, another one of the ones you chose as "Not So Top Five," depicts the runners going over the bridge and up Doomsday Hill. The runners are shown in colors, much like what such a large number of moving persons actually looks like from a distance. These two shirts leave a little to the imagination, just as much of fine art has done throughout the ages.


And what about the '78 yellow and green finisher T-shirt showing two figures running through the blossoms on a sunny, spring day? This design became the official Bloomsday logo, recognizable to all of us -- it is the essence of Bloomsday. There is not a shirt among the other 23 that carries a stronger "graphic element" than this one does.


Your choice for the best (the 1996 T-shirt with the discarded cups on it), well, I'll take art over a cartoon any year!





Candice Henderson


Spokane, Wash.





I am an organic farmer from Davenport, and I want to comment on the proposed comprehensive plan for Spokane County, even though I don't live there.


I commented because Spokane County's comprehensive plan will act as a model for nearby counties, including Lincoln County, where I live.


Also, in my 10 years of marketing organic produce in Spokane, I have become very concerned with the future of agriculture in the region, and I believe I also understand the concerns we farmers share.


I am generally very supportive of the current draft of the comprehensive plan, but it doesn't go far enough in taking the future of Spokane's agriculture into account.


Without food, there can be no human life, no economic production, no society and no culture. Agriculture is far more than an economic activity. We can live without aluminum, but we cannot live without agriculture -- it is in a class by itself in the catalog of human endeavors. Therefore, extraordinary measures need to be taken when considering agriculture in the 20-year comprehensive plan, and that's not clear enough in the current plan.


Land, which is appropriate for farming, should not be denied to future generations because of shortsighted development decisions of this generation.


Food production and the fruits of that production must be available to all members of the community -- and be produced within close range.


Local food production provides quality jobs for many folks in our growing region, it keeps more dollars at home and may even help turn around sluggish local economies.


Spokane County will be accepting written comments on the draft comprehensive plan until the end of May. Please write the Spokane County Planning Commission with your support for the current draft and mention that they could improve the language with respect to agriculture.





Chrys Ostrander


Davenport, Wash.





I am writing you in regard to your article, "The Fleecing of Florida," which ran in the May 3 edition of The Inlander.


You liberal Democrat commies are just so transparent that it is almost hysterical! If there was a GOP plot, it would have been a plot to counterattack the liberal media's plot of the premature announcing of the winner of Florida's election as Al Gore.


The article states that the Secretary of State Kathryn Harris is co-chair of the Bush campaign. Well, she just happens to also be secretary of state in Florida, and she was just doing her job!


She alone saved our country from a disaster that would have brought us to the lowest of lows. The Democrats are the ones who are responsible for the voting machinery in Florida.


"Oh, what a web we weave when we first start to deceive." We did not done get you -- you done got yourself.


One thing that I notice about liberals is they will not accept the responsibility for their own errors. The spin is to put the blame elsewhere. Another thing I notice about the liberals is they make up the rules as they go along.


Thank God we have the Constitution, a base to work from. Our Founding Fathers knew what they were doing years and years ago. I even believe they foresaw this hoopla way back then.





Margaret Wold


Spokane, Wash.