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Free trade, but ...
To the editor:
Anita Sheth needs to listen to someone besides the U.S. Department of Commerce ("Setting record straight on NAFTA issues," Review-Journal, April 13) when citing how wonderful NAFTA has been for this country. The NAFTA trade deficit is estimated to have cost approximately one-half million U.S. jobs -- highly skilled jobs.
We went from a $1.7 billion trade surplus with Mexico in 1993 to a $16 billion trade deficit in 1996. The trade deficit with Canada has increased from $10.8 billion to $22.8 billion over the same period.
Meanwhile, Mexico is facing its worst economic crisis in 50 years. Since NAFTA, 17,000 Mexican businesses have failed. This doesn't sound like a real good trade agreement to me.
I am all for free trade but it must be fair and equitable. This NAFTA agreement is anything but that. As a country, you can't do business with people who don't have any money. Thus our trade deficits.
Ms. Sheth should do what reporters did years ago, beat the bushes for the correct facts, instead of just swallowing some government bureaucrat's swill. Above all, don't mislead the American people with the government party line.
THOMAS G. SHVERHA
Boulder City
Animal lovers
To the editor:
I was sorry to see you give so much space to another falsehood-laden diatribe from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The fact that PETA even has wildlife in North America to argue about disproves its own accusation that hunting has hurt it. Obviously the wildlife is still here in spite more than 100 years of hunting and, in fact, many species are doing just fine.
The trouble with radical groups like PETA is that they do very little if any physical work in the field to help wildlife in any way, and they don't contribute any money to allow anyone else to do it. The hunting public has always paid the bulk of these monies and provided the labor when needed. But this kind of hard work rarely makes a story emotional enough to make headlines.
Hunters will continue to support wildlife despite PETA's ramblings, and I only hope that Theodore Roosevelt's words about hunting are followed. He said, "No nation facing the unhealthy softening and relaxation of fiber which tends to accompany civilization can afford to neglect anything that will develop hardihood, resolution, and the scorn of discomfort and danger."
GARY ZUPANIC
Boulder City
High standards
To the editor:
It seems that the theme for every political candidate is to improve the quality of life here in the Las Vegas Valley. You often hear Nevadans, transplanted from California, say, "I don't want Las Vegas to turn into another L.A." It is, no doubt, the wish of everyone here familiar with the air pollution problems in Southern California.
Now, it seems that the Environmental Protection Agency's efforts to strengthen our clean air laws are drawing criticism and may be rolled back by Congress, in the name of regulatory reform.
I believe that we should strive to meet the new standards. I believe that Nevada's great way of life would be in jeopardy if we begin to compromise our standards and goals. Instead of wringing our hands and saying we have to live with a growing air pollution problem, we should come together and find practical solutions to meet the highest possible quality standards. We owe our community and our children nothing less.
DAN GEARY
Las Vegas
Greedy seniors
To the editor:
The situation concerning the future of the beltway which will eventually pass above Summerlin and Sun City is most disturbing.
I am a senior who lives in Summerlin, and I am perfectly willing to put up with a little dust for the overall good of the valley and the improvement of our transportation system.
I am dismayed to read that a certain portion of seniors living in Sun City claim that the temporary dust generated by the beltway construction is so objectionable that they demand a costly environmental impact study. Their selfish self-centeredness seems to blind them to the real needs of our citizens who still find it necessary to get to work, take their children to school and take care of their families and the needs of others.
These particular greedy seniors are using the dust cloud as a smoke screen to hide the fact that they really just don't want a beltway in their back yard.
RICHARD CLIFFORD
Las Vegas
What if?
To the editor:
Wouldn't it have been wonderful if the wire services and newspapers had felt comfortable writing about the accomplishments of golfer Tiger Woods without repeated references to his race?
JOHN ISAACS
Mesquite
Tax me more
To the editor:
Well, the baby starvers and granny dumpers in the Republican Party are at it again. Now they want to pass an amendment to the Constitution to require a two-thirds majority to raise taxes. An amendment such as this would assure budget deficits as far as the eye can see. It would lead to either the dismantling of the armed forces, the decay and destruction of the highway system, or the systematic starvation of millions of poor and elderly -- maybe all of the above as a radical minority held Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veteran benefits and other necessary programs hostage to their protection of the greedy at the expense of the needy.
The only possible way this amendment should even be considered is if it also required the same supermajority to cut these programs.
There are probably 34 senators who would vote against a tax increase for even the most urgent of reasons. What these right-wing crazies don't seem to understand is that taxes are necessary in a civilized, humane country to protect its citizens from a dog-eat-dog, law-of-the-jungle existence and its government from an armed revolution.
DAN OLIVIER
Bullhead City, Ariz.
Agree or disagree? Write us at letters@lvrj.com
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