Sunday, October 26, 2003

Letters to the Editor

INITIATIVE 841

State doesn't need marching orders from feds

It would be one thing if the initiative were to remand the ergonomics rule to the state Department of Labor & Industries for revision, perhaps to make it more specific or less onerous to small businesses. But industry got greedy and added a requirement that this rule -- and any future ergonomics rule regarding musculoskeletal disorders due to workplace conditions -- be abandoned unless required by federal law or regulation.

Since when does this state timidly wait for the federal government to tell us how to protect our workers? We have many state labor standards that exceed minimal federal requirements and we certainly do not abide by the pathetically low federal minimum wage of $5.15 per hour.

I feel certain that Washington voters are more discerning than the industry sponsors of this excessive initiative assume, and that they will reject it soundly.

Marcia L. Bailey
Seattle

ELECTION BY DISTRICT?

Make informed decision about city policy change

Take a good look at the candidates running for King County Council Districts 2, 4 and 10 to see what effect districts will have on Seattle.

Kiwibob Glanzman
Seattle

FOREIGN POLICY

Expand the flexibility shown to North Korea

He had previously insisted that the dismantling take place before any guarantee was provided.

Is there any reason why the same approach cannot be taken with Iran, which, along with Iraq and North Korea, was a member of what Bush referred to as an "axis of evil"?

They all had the right to feel threatened, since they were so described and since Iraq has, of course, been invaded. I hope we are embarking on a course that will mean more constructive relationships with all these countries.

Henry E. Perry
Seattle

SMOKE AND MIRRORS

Prohibitionists use secondhand data

One only has to look at the effects of the benighted British Columbia attempt to ban smoking in bars and restaurants to see the devastating results on the hospitality industry.

If the brief Helena, Mont., smoking ban -- the one that you find so reassuring to your beliefs (Monday editorial) -- was so effective why couldn't the same results be seen in British Columbia's eight-month smoking ban? May I suggest that someone on your staff actually read the Environmental Protection Agency and World Health Organization reports on environmental tobacco smoke. That way, they, too, can learn about changing the rules of epidemiological studies so that the data conform to your conclusion.

Bad science begets bad laws.

Bad laws lead to closed businesses.

By the way, what is so good about a business being closed down by local health authorities as opposed to the Department of Labor and Industries in Olympia when both are acting on the basis of flawed information?

See you in the unemployment office.

Gustav Hellthaler
Seattle

Junk science promoted as basis for public policy

Recently, Glantz found an opportune coincidence in Helena, Mont., where a short-lived smoking ban correlated with a small drop in heart attacks (seven to four per month over a six-month span). The tiny sample was well within the realm of chance, so the obvious question is: Has this phenomenon occurred anywhere else? Not in British Columbia, where an eight-month ban was repealed after it devastated the tourism, entertainment and hospitality industries.

Not in New York City, over the six months its smoking ban has been in effect. If the Helena study were valid, the heart attack rate in British Columbia and New York City should have plummeted by 43 percent, generating front-page headlines. The P-I might be embarrassed that it promoted transparently junk science as a basis for public policy, but the error is understandable.

Glantz has a substantial budget for the promotion of his academic activism to news organizations worldwide, courtesy of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. They paid travel expenses for a Helena doctor to attend a media event at the American College of Cardiology convention, where he presented Glantz's statistical prank to enthusiastic applause. What a circus.

Jim St John
Kirkland

BOOKFEST

Reporting doesn't give book lover much hope

John Marshall's articles seem to epitomize the media technique that Noam Chomsky laid bare in "Manufacturing Consent." They give every impression of being fair and balanced reporting, when in fact there is strong negative message in what he chose not to report.

The pieces also epitomize the innumeracy of reporters in general, and their fondness for spouting off business advice that's just embarrassing.

On the numbers front, for instance, Marshall mentions Bookfest's expense budget and debt multiple times and states flatly that "setting the admission at $10 seems a major mistake." But how does he know? Does he think a $5 gate would have doubled attendance? There's no more difficult, important or impossible-to-test decision in the events business.

And he doesn't even mention the real push and shove -- how the numbers worked out this year.

Neither does he report what the exhibitors and sponsors were saying. How were sales? Good qualified attendees? Get many good leads? There's nothing that a trade-show company wants to know more: Will the exhibitors be back next year? But it's apparently not interesting or important to Marshall, even as he predicts (and contributes to) Bookfest's demise.

Steve Roth
Seattle

THE VIADUCT

Editorial not paved with fiscal understanding

The editorial claims that last year's nickel-a-gallon gas tax increase "hit with virtually a ripple." It's clear that the magic wand and ripple school of economics doesn't know that gasoline is a transportation cost and that any tax increase on it is passed along to the consumer in higher-priced goods. Consumers pay a gas tax many times over, which is why it's inflationary.

Twice as inflationary, as well as smarmy, is the advice that the Legislature "index the gas tax so that it rises naturally with the price of gas." In short, a sales tax on top of a tax to which the public will naturally respond.

Taking the high road, the P-I sniffs in disdain at the "squabbling" of politicos over (who'd have guessed?) scarce funds and then jumps at the public trough with the me-first claim that "it's hard to imagine" Seattle's priority being second to any one else. You can wear a halo or mud, but not both.

The editorial's surmise that "perhaps" the viaduct is vulnerable to "even a minor" earthquake shouldn't be ignored by anyone who panics easily.

The Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network reports an average of 1,000 regional earthquakes per year and in 2002 the number greater than magnitude 2.8 was 12. That is roughly the magnitude at which quakes can be felt. The approximately 988 others were detected by instruments. Apparently, none of them as sensitive as the P-I.

The editorial shows little understanding of fiscal policy, tax-planning or self-restraint. It is contemptuous of the reader and has the comfortable indifference that anonymity confers and flattery enforces. Worse, it smells of cronyism.

D.K. De La Hunt
Seattle

PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS

In a year, we can 'right a terrible wrong'

Imagine the right-wing media's rabid reaction to a Democratic administration, installed by a partisan Supreme Court despite an indisputable defeat in the popular vote, as it squandered a hard-won budget surplus through tax cuts and pork-barrel deals tailored to benefit its most dependable campaign contributors.

Imagine the Republicans' derision of a Democratic president who couldn't pronounce "nuclear" and didn't know that "misunderestimate" isn't a word.

Now imagine going to the polls in November of 2004 to right a terrible wrong.

Walter D. Smith
Seattle

TEACHERS STRIKE

Parents say they and their kids are the winners

This strike/lockout ended when the judge ordered the pay scale, terms and conditions of the old, expired contract extended. The Marysville School District told me that a contract extension was not an option when the teachers had to vote in August, and they continued to refuse to offer a contract extension right up until the court said they had to. The court order gave the teachers a contract they could work under while negotiations proceed. The same day the teachers were offered a way to return to work, they voted to return.

I don't think the court order and potential fines for not returning to work did much to affect the teachers decision. These teachers face 20-30 kids in a small room every day. It would take a lot more than a court order to scare them.

Who really won? My kids just came home with smiles on their faces and exciting things to say about the first day in school. In this house, we won and we thank the teachers.

James C. Dunn
Marysville

All teachers, not just some, deserve raise

Teachers in Washington state deserve better overall pay, both for their educational level (most have master's degrees) and for the value of their work to the community. Local districts should be given more freedom, by the lifting of levy lids, to allow voter-approved pay supplements in the areas that have high housing costs. Beginning teachers, who are more likely to use that first teaching job as a stepping-stone, deserve decent starting salaries, but not at the expense of a district's loyal career professionals.

Bill Galler
Redmond

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