Letters to the Editor

by Inlander Readers


Good Rep Gone Bad -- Our worldwide reputation, which took over 300 years to create and maintain, has vanished into thin air via the actions of the most corrupt presidential administration in the history of the United States.


Courageous actions that had those roots with General George Washington and on through the centuries, that had created the hard-won respect of every nation in the world, are now forever tarnished by the actions of the present administration in its war against Iraq.


As a retired military, who was privileged to serve this nation in every area of World War II, and was personally treated to that respect, I am sickened by the actions of the head of our military in seeking self-serving goals via the efforts of our military.


Sexual abuse via high-level military officials, plus their ignoring sexual abuse of our female military, has now led to abuse and torture of military prisoners that has apparently been sanctioned by many areas of our military leaders in seeking to please their superiors in Washington, D.C.


That they have ignored actual photographs of such abuse is no longer deniable or acceptable. It will take years, possibly centuries, to restore both the foreign nations' respect, as well as our own.


Bush and Rumsfeld loudly claimed their support for both our active duty and retired military, yet slowly diminished the benefits they earned, slowly closing Veterans hospitals and centers.


Since the disclosures of their non-actions to correct any of those tortures of prisoners or the sexual abuse of our female troops, they (Bush and Rumsfeld) have now, in an obvious attempt to blunt their actions, deferred the closing of the Vet's hospital in the Tri-Cities area.


However, the big question is, "how will we ever regain that respect, both internationally and at home?"


Yes, our so-called leaders in D.C should now lead the way in resigning and let more honorable members of both national political parties try to salvage the almost irreparable damage they have created.





Andy Kelly


Spokane, Wash.





Drawing on Originality -- While I agree with the basic subject of city signage of Robert Glenn's letter (6/3/04), his comments about commercial artists leave a foul taste in my mouth. To quote Mr. Glenn, "most commercial artists 'lift' ostensibly original ideas from trade mags." It seems that Mr. Glenn believes that most commercial artists (the modern term is graphic designer) lack the talent or ethics to create fresh and new designs on their own, but instead "lift," or to put it bluntly, steal, their ideas from other sources.


My first question would be, Who do you think created all those sources that graphic designers steal from? Second, why would you even think that graphic designers lack the talent to create their own material? Some copyright infringement does happen, but that's from a minority of designers. In this digital age, copyright infringement is difficult to pull off and easily detected by anyone looking.


So my suggestion to Mr. Glenn would be something in the manner of, please don't apply your ethics to the greater population of graphic designers. I, for one, am much too ethical to "lift" ideas from someone's copyrighted material. And I deeply resent the very idea of such behavior. It is comments like that that besmirch graphic design as a whole.





Brett George


Spokane, Wash.





Q & amp; N will return next week





Publication date: 06/24/04