LETTERS: Casinos should help out UNLV football
To the editor:
Regarding Sunday’s article on the UNLV football team (“Expenses for bowl wipe out windfall”), it’s about time the gaming gurus stepped up and picked up the extra tickets to keep UNLV in the black for a bowl appearance. Surely the major casino owners could put their heads together and buy the extra tickets, and send them to the military bases in Texas to hand out to the troops.
Not only can they write it off, but it would be a great public relations move and a financial fix for UNLV football.
DAVE MESKER
LAS VEGAS
Replacing the sheriff
To the editor:
After reading John L. Smith’s Sunday column (“Ex-sheriffs speaking out on candidates”), perhaps we should look elsewhere for inspiration in voting for the next head of the Metropolitan Police Department. Two previous politicians, er, sheriffs have provided their inspiration on who should be next in line for the position. I suggest that we ignore them both and look to the record of the current office.
Sheriff Doug Gillespie has made a career of whining for more tax money, even when citizens have been in dire straits due to the Great Recession. While I have only lived in Clark County for seven years and do not know how previous sheriffs have acted in office, I have not been impressed with the current sheriff and his handling of the budget. I have noted that Sheriff Gillespie, while whining about lack of funding, has found it appropriate to install expensive signage on the faces of all of the Metro stations trumpeting his title and name. This is done in expensive aluminum letters, requiring that the exterior finish and waterproofing membranes on the taxpayers’ building be penetrated by metal studs. To replace these, the letters and studs are removed, the walls are patched, and the entire wall repainted at great expense.
My suggestion would be that the incoming sheriff be the candidate who eschews such personal gratification and runs on a platform of putting his name on the glass entry door with a simple $30 stick-on sign, which can be easily removed when we boot him or her out of office. Similarly, the office door should have a cheap sign with a slide-in nameplate. That way we can slip in a new sheriff at minimal cost. If this fails, just vote for the candidate with the shortest name.
JAMES M. MAGNUSON
LAS VEGAS
British health care
To the editor:
Regarding Dennis Crawford’s letter on health care in the United Kingdom, the writer states that the National Health Service was a brilliant piece of engineering implemented 65 years ago to cover all citizens, regardless of their ability to pay (“GOP will pay for opposing Obamacare,” Dec. 13 Review-Journal). I beg to differ. Consider the personal story of an expatriate (me) whose niece was diagnosed last May with breast cancer. She is still waiting to see a surgeon and will finally do so on Dec. 19, nearly eight months since she was diagnosed. Is this still a brilliant piece of engineering?
Mr. Crawford did not state that, on average, it takes six weeks or more to get an initial doctor’s visit. I thinks Mr. Crawford knows only of the implementation of the NHS and not the actual details, such as the long waits for the surgeons.
It was recently reported in a British newspaper that some of the local doctors’ offices were unkempt and unclean. I hope that the Affordable Care Act ends up in the trash can. That would be a blessing to the United States and the freedom of its people. To Mr. Crawford, live on in your own little world without making statements about something you have not lived with yourself.
FLORENCE COX
LAS VEGAS
NFR should stay
To the editor:
I always look forward to the National Finals Rodeo, sometimes jealously when I can’t get tickets at face value. The thought of losing the NFR to another city concerns me (Tuesday Review-Journal). The amount of money and revenue this event brings to our local economy is vital. I hope that the two sides at the negotiating table can get together and reach an agreement for a long-term extension.
I fully support an upgraded new multi-purpose facility to replace the old Thomas & Mack Center, so UNLV can benefit from hosting the rodeo in a larger venue. Judging by the number of cowboy hats that fill our casinos, it would behoove the casinos, Las Vegas Events and the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association to get this deal done.
W. TODD CLARK
LAS VEGAS
American Loyalists
To the editor:
The tea party folks of today are very much like the people who rebelled against British abuse of authority in 1775. The Republican establishment, liberal elitists and Democratic establishment are very much like the American Loyalists of 1775 who sided with the British to stop the American Revolution. When the British lost the Revolutionary War, the American Loyalists suffered greatly, and the majority of them left the country.
The American Loyalists of 2013 have a tendency to side with foreigners, but that is not most important at this time. What is most important is that they have become enslaved by the creature they have created, the bloated and incompetent federal government, a government that constantly abuses its authority.
KEN PEDERSEN
HENDERSON
