I Saw You | I Saw You | Spokane | The Pacific Northwest Inlander

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I SAW YOU

LEAD BY EXAMPLE? I saw you traveling south on Highway 2 just north of Colbert Road intersection at 12:26 pm on 11/4/22. It was raining hard, and vehicles were kicking up spray. Visibility was poor. All the other drivers had their headlights on except you; a green and white SUV with SHERIFF boldly printed on the sides. Not a good example of safe driving practices.

CHEERS

AZAR’S: Cheers to Katy Azar for 42 years of excellent food. What else is there to say but thank you? Your wonderful restaurant will be missed. Good luck in your future endeavors.

KUDOS TO RESPONSIBLE PEOPLE: Spay, neuter, feed and protect pets and strays!

TO THE WRITERS OF “CHEERS”: I have noticed throughout the years as I grab the Inlander to read the “Cheers” that they are starting to dwindle. Far more people write in the “Jeers” section just to throw jabs at others and vent their frustrations it seems. Although bringing tough, important issues to light is important, I am missing the “Cheers” being just as prominent as well. The ratio of “Jeers” to “Cheers” appears to be unbalanced. Is this an accurate representation of our community? I would like to give “Cheers” to those who see the negativity come through our society and have to report it out to others through our media. Keep your heads up! We are not all complainers I promise! Life is not only negative. There are great things happening in our community, we just don’t see it portrayed as often as we do the painful stories. I hope as people read this that we can devote more time to providing positive feedback to our community rather than always letting the negativity take more space in our media, minds and hearts. My hope is that this post motivates others to submit more “Cheers” because some of us look forward to them.

MISSING YOU: Given that I used to grab you an Inlander every week, I’m guessing that you may read this. It’s me, you can trust me. And I just want you to know that I miss and love you. I’m not looking to go back to where I was before we went our separate ways, but I never thought that you would be entirely out of my life. I’ll just hold on to the small chance that you will be single again one day and until then, please know that I love you, baby. Bye for now.

THANK YOU, NATASHA HILL: Thank you for running against CMR. I’ve never agreed with CMR’s politics but never totally disliked her till she turned into one of the Trumpanzees. I really thought she was better than that, but it’s politics so I guess not.

JUST DOING OUR JOB: Cheers to everyone who remembers that you need to turn off your car when you’re getting gas even if it’s cold outside. For everyone else, we are doing our job by telling you to turn it off.

VERY HELPFUL POLICE: A BIG thanks to the two helpful Spokane police officers who helped a clueless grandmother get the infant car seat installed in her Subaru Forester. I was outside the COPS office at Lincoln Heights the week before last when your car pulled up — and you were so pleasant and helpful — the car seat was installed within 15 minutes. THANK YOU AGAIN

JEERS

HASKELL’S REASONS: Reporters recently caught Spokane County Prosecutor Larry Haskell’s wife using a slur to denigrate a Black person. She also said she was a “proud White nationalist.” After they made the remarks public, Larry stated, “I very much love my wife.” Larry and Mrs Haskell remain happily married, as far as we know. Larry also voted against a nonbinding principle which called for racial equity in the criminal justice system. He has his reasons for opposing even symbolic efforts to make the criminal justice less fraught with racism. Larry’s office charges a disproportionate number of racial minorities with crimes, and racial minorities receive longer sentences. Larry has his reasons why these racial disparities persist despite solid studies showing racial minorities commit the same or less crime than non-minorities do. Since Larry took office, violent crime continues to rise. Larry has his reasons for the continual rising crime in our community, even though he has been at the helm of the Spokane County Prosecutor’s Office for the last eight years. If voters choose to send a message that the sort of racist conduct countenanced by Mr Haskell is unacceptable; if voters say they want equity in the criminal justice system, even if it’s symbolic, because at least that’s a step in the right direction; and if voters decide to say they’ve had enough of Larry’s tired, broken and unfair ways of addressing crime, which have a disproportionate impact on racial minorities and have failed to make our community safe; then, I’m sure they’ll have their reasons.

TURN ON YOUR HEADLIGHTS! Turn on your headlights, especially at dawn & dusk, and check to make sure they work!

UGLY IS AS UGLY DOES: It is disgusting and sickening to read the Republicans’ hate-filled responses to Nancy Pelosi’s 82-year-old husband, Paul, being brutally attacked in his own home by a hammer-wielding Trump acolyte. He received a blow to his head that resulted in a skull fracture that may ultimately seriously impact the quality of his last years of life if it doesn’t indeed shorten his life. The Republican responses of mocking him and his life-threatening injury, dreaming up a defaming and despicable conspiracy accusing him of being responsible for the attack, and making sick and perverted jokes about the attack are truly beyond disgusting and speak to the quality of their character and paint thereof. Is there even an iota of basic human decency in the entire Republican Party? When these God-touting moralists ask themselves, “What would Jesus do?” the answer they arrive at is to descend to the depths of human depravity. As attorney Joseph Welch profoundly said during the McCarthy hearings in 1954, “Have you no sense of decency?” The answer is quite clearly, “NO!” Does it ever occur to any of you that the reason you are so despised is because you truly deserve to be?

MILLENNIAL MORON: To the millennial moron at the Liberty Park Library on Nov. 1 late afternoon. Guess you are really special, eh bud. Felt the need to block the main entrance by parking in the crosswalk. Could be explained if you were waiting on a disabled person. But nope, first you text while and then you actually leave your car parked there and go into the library. Why? You are obviously too stupid to read. Common courtesy and common sense both seem to be a foreign concept for people like you.

JEERS TO FEARS: Why do so many Republicans base their ads on fear? Let’s scare people into voting for me! Why don’t Democrats call them out on the lies? Come on, challenge them on the BS. It will be so nice to get beyond Election Day so the ads go away. No more listening to fearmongering.

RE: SCOOTER PLAGUE: Kudos to the writer of Scooter Plague in last week’s Jeers section. Brilliant! Many of us in my small group have wondered why Spokane (and other towns) allow this garbage to sit all around the city (and in the lakes and rivers). These should be banned for the sake of health of all citizenry as well as that in the water bodies not readily seen (eg, poriferans, cnidarians, amphibians, fish, etc). Not only are our children getting fatter, the city of Spokane is getting fatter. We recently had friends visit from California. They remarked that “Spokane sure has a lot of fat people. We don’t see this kind of chronic obesity where we live.” Besides being thrown into the river, the scooters are left all over the sidewalks and other pedestrian (and biking) areas, interfering with the traffic of others. So, kudos to the author! I wish Spokane would get rid of this garbage, but unfortunately that doesn’t look to happen anytime soon. Asking Spokane people to consider walking (or running or biking)? Unfathomable! We must ride scooters with no physical exertion!

IDIOT NEAR THE AREN: Dear lady in that orange car. I was at the crosswalk, the light said I was good to cross. There is no way you didn’t see me. You slowed down for a moment and then just put your foot on the gas. You almost hit me and had the nerve to give me the dirty look. You are in a giant death machine, yet you think that you have no responsibility for other people’s safety on the road? You are going to get someone killed. I’m astonished that people like you can think of themselves as OK to drive. Either you actually didn’t see me, which begs the question if you should be driving at all because it was clear as day and while it was raining, it had high visibility, or you are just a reckless person who doesn’t really care what their actions do to others. And before you try and tell me I was at fault; I was in a crosswalk and the light to walk was on. I was already crossing before you started, and what seemed like a second of actual reason crossing your mind when you slowed up for a moment; but whatever that was, it stopped and you started again and almost hit me. I wasn’t listening to music, I was aware of my surroundings, I was doing exactly what I was supposed to. Either go back to learn how to drive, or just stop before you hurt someone. ♦