Thursday, January 23, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
LETTERS: Not all tax payments are equally galling
To the editor:
Saturday's front page presented us with an interesting contrast.
First near the top, there is a very telling photograph of Enrique Hernandez, the brave young Metro officer who sustained serious injuries and came within a fraction of losing his life performing his duty to protect our community.
Then near the bottom, we saw a photograph of former Clark County Recorder Judith Vandever, who -- despite missing more than seven weeks of work last year -- claims she was never absent and seeks more than $19,000 in compensation for unused sick leave.
No one enjoys paying taxes, especially when we see our tax revenue wasted shamelessly despite an almost constant reduction in government services. I would, however, gladly pay any tax necessary if I knew my money was going to compensate and care for Mr. Hernandez -- for the rest of his life if he were unable to perform his duty as a police officer.
In contrast, I would risk attachment of my property for nonpayment of my assessed taxes if I found a single dime of my money was given to Ms. Vandever in compensation for her claim.
I wonder how many others within our community feel exactly as I do?
GEORGE H. COX
LAS VEGAS
Master plan
To the editor:
In response to the Jan. 18 article, "County Commission: Changes in zoning debated":
Kudos to commissioners Bruce Woodbury, Chip Maxfield and Yvonne Atkinson Gates. Are these the only commissioners who understand the value of planning?
A master plan needs to be exactly that: a plan on how to best accommodate all our needs for a growing population to live, work, go to school, play and get around in the Valley; and our needs to have open space, parks and healthy habitats. A good plan would not stop growth or economic development -- it would encourage it in a way that takes all of our needs into consideration.
In the past, it was abundantly clear that the only needs being met were those of the developers -- not neighboring homeowners, not environmentalists, not town-centered small business folks. It took busloads of local folks from Blue Diamond to get the message across to the commission that we did not want John Laing to build hundreds of homes on top of Blue Diamond Hill.
But what about all the failures -- the neighbors who were exhausted after attending commission hearing after commission hearing and being told nothing more than, "Go back and work out a plan with the developers ... "
We are tired of fighting waiver after waiver after waiver. We're tired of settling in a nice rural neighborhood only to have a "neighborhood casino" built next door to us. We are tired of losing open space and habitat to developer's bulldozers. We are tired of bad traffic and bad air.
We want a master plan that makes sense for all our needs. We want a master plan that keeps our rural spaces rural and encourages our cities to be vibrant, livable cities. We want a master plan that doesn't have to worry about being eaten away with waivers at every turn. Management by waiver is not management at all.
If commissioner Mary Kincaid-Chauncey and Myrna Williams don't know how to manage in this manner, then they are not the right commissioners for the job that we need them to do.
JANE FELDMAN
LAS VEGAS
The writer is conservation chair for the Southern Nevada Group of the Sierra Club.
Drugged up
To the editor:
If you go back 50 years or so, most classrooms had nearly 40 students. There were no special-education classes, and children were not on stimulant medications. Many classrooms contained two grades, and desks were in rows. If such conditions discouraged learning, as their critics suggest today, how did students of that time learn to read and master arithmetic?
Today, as your recent commentary stated, more than 6 percent of our children are popping pills on a daily basis. We have kids on antidepressants. Why? They come home to an empty house all day or are at after-care rather than at home playing. When their parents arrive, tired from their commute and jobs, they are not ready to listen to their children, help with homework or read a bedtime story.
Some years ago, I heard a psychologist tell parents to spend 15 minutes with each child, one-on-one, a few days a week. The response? They didn't have 15 minutes to give each child. No wonder more than 600,000 children are on anti-depressants.
A noted pediatric neurologist in Chicago a few years ago published information that states that Ritalin "and other stimulants seem to play a major role in precipitating or exacerbating tics and Tourette's Syndrome (TS) in children in the USA. (The drug) should be avoided in patients with a personal or family history of TS, and dosage in treatment of ADHD should be conservative."
Over the years, there have also been articles stating that some of the drugs prescribed for ADHD can cause liver damage and produce cardiac side effects.
Parents, do more research on the medications and then look further into alternatives to the medications. There are many that work.
Also, many students show behavioral symptoms because they are frustrated in school. They know they can't keep up with the reading and arithmetic. If they can't read, they can't do the science, social studies, etc.
The solution isn't to give them a pill. It is to teach them properly. It is amazing how much better a child's behavior might become once he feels he has mastered a concept being taught in school.
BARBARA PAVONI
LAS VEGAS
Water shortage
To the editor:
The Southern Nevada Water Authority board has discovered that we live in the desert ("Water restrictions likely," Jan. 17). Now that 30,000 acre-feet of surplus Colorado River water is no longer available, we suddenly have a water shortage.
While it may be convenient to blame the U.S. government for limiting us to Nevada's 300,000 acre-feet allocation, doing so ignores the failure of our local officials to plan sensibly for the growth of the Las Vegas Valley.
With each of the 22,000 new homes sold last year demanding one additional acre-foot, we are facing a 50,000 acre-feet shortage this year. If growth continues at the current pace, the shortage may be 75,000 acre-feet next year.
Our local officials who eagerly approve new residential and commercial developments ignore the fact that we have no more water.
BRUCE RUGAR
LAS VEGAS
FINAL WORD
"If that's a basis for someone to call you a Democrat, then on those issues I guess that's what I am."
Republican Gov. Kenny Guinn (left), commenting on suggestions that his agitation for massive tax hikes makes him sound like a Democrat.
