Letters to the Editor

visitors thank cab driver for making
extra effort to return medications

Last week my family came to Las Vegas for a vacation. We come to Las Vegas often, so dealing with cabs in Las Vegas is something we are familiar with. When we left the airport, we got into a Henderson cab. Our cab driver was very pleasant and got us to our hotel on the Strip in a timely fashion, taking the quickest and most direct route to our hotel.

It was not until hours after we were dropped off that my parents realized they forgot a bag of heart medications and other prescriptions in the cab. Needless to say, when it was realized the medications were missing, we got very worried.

The next morning, my mother contacted our pharmacy in Canada to see if a copy of the prescriptions could be faxed to Las Vegas. Much to our surprise, the cab driver had already contacted the pharmacy in Canada and provided his personal contact information so we could get the medications back. When we contacted the driver, his first concern was for the welfare of my father.

I wanted to contact you to tell our story of the nice, unnamed cab driver. I don't think words can say how appreciative my family is that he went out of his way to help out. I asked the cab driver for a card so I could send a note to his boss, but he asked that we not contact his company as he would likely get reprimanded for going out of his way to help out. He said he breached policy by attempting to contact us to get the bag returned. It just goes to show there are still some really good people out there.

-- Ryan Hummel

Spruce Grove, Alberta, Canada

Thrift store's closing shows government doesn't care about people

I read the article about the closure of the Fort Haven Thrift Store ("Shop helped less fortunate," Paradise/Downtown View, Oct.4) and felt compelled to write.

The government is not supposed to be the Mafia, which shuts down honest, charitable, people who go into business to provide opportunity and jobs for those struggling, simply because the store owner failed to pay up whatever arbitrary sum of money they are demanding from you to be allowed to operate. I couldn't help but notice that Mr. Huff had already paid the fee for a business license but failed to pay an additional $1,000 "special fee" for a permit to sell used goods. Why is there an additional fee required to obtain a special permit to sell used goods? 

I assisted in helping a friend open a martial arts business in Las Vegas recently and was floored by the amount of fees and licenses required. Naturally, in addition to all the standard fees, we also had to pay a "special fee" for a "special" permit to practice martial arts. There was no safety check, no verification of our competency or anything of that degree. Just more demands to pay more money to a government that habitually squanders revenue and produces subpar products for ever-escalating costs.

There was a time when people understood that the government was supposed to serve and protect them, not act as a gang of thieves that will imprison you or shut you down if you fail to pay them their tribute. This is one small example of a much greater problem. People left to their own devices can do amazing things. If we wish for an expedited return to prosperity, perhaps it is time we gave serious thought to removing the roadblock to liberty and prosperity that government is and allow people the freedom to discover the best ways to serve one another.

-- Robert Fellner

Las Vegas