All is not lost in the housing crisis

To the editor:

Your Aug. 11 editorial, "Mortgage help?" was a depressing piece. You said, "The quickest way to stabilize and eventually lift the region's -- and the country's -- depressed housing prices is to churn inventory. If someone is no longer able to make their mortgage payments, let them sell their home to someone who can." Is this akin to saying, "Let them eat cake"?

Homeowners lost more than half of the value of their homes because of predatory lending issues, which your editorial failed to mention. Have you thought about families who are losing homes because of this "churning"?

From the homeowner's perspective, one of the biggest obstacles to loan modification is finding a live person who can provide reliable information about the loan account and who has authority to make decisions. There is enough time lost to navigating voice-mail systems, from one end to another, and receiving contradictory information. The servicers hide the lenders from their borrowers, and they struggle to keep up with the increased workload caused by the crisis.

Many states now allow mortgage holders to bypass the courts and use non-judicial procedures to take away homes from their owners. Nevada should not do the same. These procedures create enormous barriers for homeowners who want to assert legal claims and raise defenses against lenders, servicers and mortgage holders. Nevada should abandon the power of sale method and require judicial foreclosure only.

Furthermore, our state should require that homeowners be given a right to cure a default by catching up on missed payments, without penalty, at least 60 days before a mortgage holder demands immediate full payment. Nevada should join other states that have enacted statutes which provide for this right to reinstate after the mortgage holder demands payment of the entire loan balance.

State laws should also require that no matter which type of foreclosure proceeding is permitted, the mortgage holder must provide proof of personal service of the legal documents on the homeowners. Again, our lawmakers should seriously think about doing away with deficiency judgments in this bad time for all past owners of foreclosed homes.

MALIK W. AHMAD

LAS VEGAS

THE WRITER IS AN ATTORNEY WHO HANDLES BANKRUPTCIES AND LOAN MODIFICATIONS.

Kids today

To the editor:

Your front-page article Tuesday referring to what incoming college freshmen don't know about recent culture was mind-boggling. It shows the ignorance of modern parents and is a reflection of the dumbing down of young America.

How sad.

But not for everyone. When you say "Heeeere's Johnny!" to my 15-year-old nephew, he not only knows who Johnny Carson was, but he gets it as a reference to Jack Nicholson in "The Shining." He knows what vinyl records are, even though he can operate an iPhone with the greatest of ease. He can play Bob Dylan songs on his guitar as well as Linkin Park songs. But for the majority of teens, it's pathetic.

This is not some cute list to be laughed at. How can a kid who wants to be a musician not know Bob Dylan or what recording a backward guitar riff is really about?

On Jay Leno's "Jaywalking" segment, he asked a girl in her 20s how many moons we have. She said four or five. I couldn't believe this wasn't staged. It wasn't.

This isn't a cute list of vaporized recent history. This is the forgetting of everything that came before.

That's why "they" think knowing about wars or medicine or politics is not important.

Allen Williams

LAS VEGAS

Illegal care

To the editor:

After reading the article in your Sunday edition about the excellent care the illegals are receiving at University Medical Center, I have to ask: What is wrong with this picture? We have a generation of legal, law-abiding citizens who cannot afford health care and can't get treatment at UMC. What's the deal?

I think it's way past the time that Clark County should look into this matter. Can't we take care of ourselves first?

My brother was very ill a few months back and I tried to make an appointment at UMC for him. I was told we needed $1,200 up front. Yet these people get health care free.

This is just my opinion, but I, like many others, are done with taking care of this burden. What if we were in Mexico? Would we receive this type of care? I doubt it.

JUDY MONYPENNY

LAS VEGAS

All morons

To the editor:

In response to the Tuesday story, "Concerns rise over uninsured":

Visitors need emergency care. Illegals depend on it. County Commissioner Steve Sisolak wants "research." Rep. Dean Heller wants "discussion." Sen. Harry Reid promises "funding." Rep. Dina Titus feels that reform is "long past due."

Research, discussion, funding (tax dollars) and "long past due" are givens. Illegals are here, illegally. Illegals should be found (maybe receiving taxpayer-provided services is a place to start) and returned to their place of origin. Elected officials seem to have a problem with that concept.

In "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," Strother Martin's character says, "Morons. I've got morons on my team." From the local to the federal level, I know just how he felt.

Gordon G. Carr

LAS VEGAS