Monday, January 06, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

LETTERS: Our public lands must be religiously neutral

To the editor:

I've read with great interest the two letters submitted by Mike Miller.

In his first letter, Mr. Miller states that because he believes an omnipotent being created the Earth, Christian crosses belong on federal land and monuments to the Ten Commandments belong in courthouses. In his second letter, he states that he accepts a supernatural explanation of our world because life is just "too complicated" to have evolved on its own.

It is obvious that Mr. Miller has very little knowledge of science. He would rather put his faith in invisible supernatural beings than in the scientific method. Although his point of view relies on some kind of magical being, it is his right to believe it if he wishes. What Mr. Miller believes or does not believe, however, is really not the point here. Mr. Miller and other religious folks can believe in whatever god or gods they want, but the reins must be pulled when they try to force their religious views onto the rest of us.

You see, Mr. Miller, not all of our citizens believe in your god, not all of our citizens read your religious books, and not all of our citizens accept a magical explanation of this world. And whether you like it or not, public lands belong to all citizens, not just religious ones.

The common-sense bottom line here is that public lands should remain religiously neutral so that all Americans, whatever their beliefs, will feel welcome and comfortable when visiting. Now what is so complicated about that?

TERESA HARRIS

LAS VEGAS

Immigrant kids

To the editor:

I was watching the Las Vegas retrospective on the past and the future of this city the other night. I listened to the superintendent of schools threaten the Las Vegas residents. He said that since we did not support any new taxes to pay for more and better schools, we would be sorry, and that sports, art, music, etc., would be a thing of the past.

I think there are a couple of things that are being overlooked by our officials in this city.

First, we have about 27,000 immigrant children in our schools. If the federal government won't tend to the borders, it should be made to pay for these children's schooling. Or we should stop fighting the repository and take the money for storing the waste at Yucca Mountain and put it into our schools.

Why should our children suffer because our government can't or won't do what it should? The 27,000 illegals in our schools will fill the 30 new schools that the superintendent says we must have in the next couple of years. It is fine to educate these children, but at the expense of our own children's education? I think not.

PAULINE KENNEDY

LAS VEGAS

Identity politics

To the editor:

So, letter writer Yasser Moten (Jan. 3) is upset because the U.S. government has the gall to try to locate five Middle Eastern men who illegally snuck into this country. He breaks out the "racial profiling" charge and complains they don't do this to Mexicans who enter the country illegally.

While I will agree this country needs to do more to stem the flow of illegal Mexican immigrants, so far they haven't hijacked airplanes and slammed them into buildings, killing thousands of people. What do people such as Mr. Moten really want, that the government should just ignore these men after what happened on 9/11?

Middle Eastern males carried out this attack and there is no getting around that no matter how much some people want to scream "racism." Sounds like Mr. Moten has put racial and ethnic identity politics ahead of security for this country.

ROBERT GLANCY

LAS VEGAS

Police chases

To the editor:

I'm glad that the new sheriff of Clark County, Bill Young, has finally decided to join the 21st century and look at the pursuit policy of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. But I'm also dismayed at the complete lack of interest he showed on this important issue during his election bid.

As a sheriff candidate in 1998 and 2002, my platform proudly announced a 12-point program of promises to the public. One of those promises was the formation and implementation of a new pursuit policy. All police departments, including Metro, need procedures in place to give their officers a form of guidance during a chase. When a police pursuit begins, the adrenalin starts pumping in an officer's veins (especially the rookie), and caution is often thrown to the wind to get the bad guy. Unfortunately, killing pedestrians and other innocent civilians (or officers themselves) is a poor trade-off to apprehend a criminal who in all probability never killed anyone.

Unless an officer can somehow come to the conclusion (as best he can with the facts he has at the time) that a bad guy will kill someone else if he escapes, then that officer should carefully weigh the notion of what purpose a high-speed pursuit will serve, and just what risk is necessary to stop the criminal. High-speed pursuits are usually not necessary. While the 30 mph pursuit of O.J. Simpson looked ludicrous on television, much to the Los Angeles Police Department's credit, no one got hurt.

In today's population explosion, we are all at risk. No one deserves to be killed because a frightened teenager without a driver's license decides to run from the law. A police officer should not be made to feel that he "has lost face" or "not done his job" because he let such a person go.

Will we know how many lives can be saved by such prudent thinking? Probably not. But we will know who is killed as a by-product of a reckless chase. It will be either you or me. As far as I'm concerned, that's two people too many.

RON MOERS

HENDERSON

Sharp contrast

To the editor:

The Jim Borgman editorial cartoon you ran on New Year's Day comparing the AIDS epidemic in Africa to the murder of 6 million Jews by Hitler is unconscionable. AIDS is primarily a sexually transmitted disease. It is an affliction directly related to the behavior of its victims. In a world -- perhaps Utopian -- of universal monogamy, AIDS would be rare indeed. This is in sharp contrast to the Holocaust in which Jews were murdered to satisfy the genocidal goal of an evil megalomaniac.

STAN AMES

HENDERSON