Can environmentalists find a little balance?
To the editor:
Reading Shane McVittie's Wednesday letter to the editor on environmentalists' thoughts made my heart flutter. I could almost hear Tiny Tim singing "Tiptoe Through The Tulips" in the background.
Mr. McVittie and like-minded environmentalists probably do feel a "cosmic connection" to all living things, including pine trees, herbs and animals, but they always forget to mention one thing. How do you provide for the 100 million new Americans living here since his club's heyday in the 1960s?
We need to increase our production of everything, but we are being held back. We need more housing, food, clothing, fuel and everything else to maintain our living standard.
I am not advocating that we break out the bulldozers and to hell with the planet. I don't believe there are any sane people who would want to do that. Somewhere between the bulldozers and Mr. McVittie's position is a place we can all live.
The real problems in getting to that place are people such as Nevada Sen. Harry Reid. People with money and power who, for their own purposes, block every attempt to rectify the situation. We need to take steps now for people living now, here, today. Planning for 10 or 20 years in the future is good, but we also need to act now for today.
We were given this planet as our home, and there is enough here for everybody. It needs to be shared. The basic needs of all people everywhere must be met or we will have consigned ourselves to a planet at war forever.
At one end of the environmental stick is Mr. McVittie in his tutu, and at the other end are those dripping with greed and self-importance. You and I are in the middle over the fire.
Jerry Ernst
LAS VEGAS
Garbage day
To the editor:
I guess ignorance is bliss. As residents of both Las Vegas and the Seattle area, we see a lot of differences in the cost of living between the two cities.
Consider this: Up north we pay the local garbage company more than twice as much per month for half as many pickups. That's for one 32-gallon can -- if the lid will close. There are extra fees if the can is overflowing or you leave bags alongside. If they don't like what you've left out, they won't take it.
Just because they're the only game in town doesn't mean Republic Services shouldn't be allowed to make a profit. Last I heard, they have to fuel those trucks. Checked the price of diesel lately?
Mike Corcoran
EVERETT, WASH.
Share the road?
To the editor:
On the front page of Wednesday's Las Vegas Review-Journal is an article and accompanying photograph about the proposed Route 159 bike path from Summerlin to Blue Diamond. The photograph illustrates quite well the need for the bike path: two bicyclists, "serious" riders apparently, who are about to get someone killed. One is riding on the white line while the other is riding next to the line.
If a segregated bike path is constructed, then the shoulder currently used by bicyclists should be marked for emergency parking only -- no bicycles or pedestrians allowed.
There is no reason why "serious" bicyclists can't use the proposed bike path -- none whatsoever.
Charles Wise
MESQUITE
Good intel
To the editor:
The recent rescue of hostages from the confines of the Colombian cocaine army known as the FARC is another example of strong intelligence playing an important element in a global hot spot -- just as intelligence is crucial to American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, important in the hunt for war criminals in the Balkans and required in the hunt for Osama bin laden.
Kevin Beck
LAS VEGAS
Lady O'Connell
To the editor:
Jane Ann Morrison's July 3 column explained the essence of the woman we know as Ann O'Connell. When the great coiners of this world coined the word "lady," they had Mrs. O'Connell in mind.
N. Thompson-Jones
LAS VEGAS
Fireworks patrol
To the editor:
That was a dandy cartoon about fireworks stands by Jim Day (July 4 Review-Journal).
As a weekly traveler to Pahrump, I was truly amazed at the police presence along state Route 160 to stop the "influx" of illegal fireworks. All the manpower spent on this effort leads me to ask a simple question: Why not do this for what really troubles our city: drugs, illegal firearms and illegal immigrants?
Jay Petrick
LAS VEGAS
Blame game
To the editor:
I really enjoy Jim Day's daily cartoons. But his July 3 offering, seemingly blaming the Bush-Cheney White House for the explosion of oil prices, was just dead wrong.
The United States is responsible for about 8 percent of the world's oil production. To say that 8 percent of the market is to blame for the recent increase in the price of a barrel of crude is at best ignorant and idiotic. This is a problem that has taken 30 years to show its ugly face.
Blaming our current administration is not approaching the problem. We need real action to solve this dilemma, not just the same old partisan blame game that is tearing this country apart.
Kyle Otto
LAS VEGAS
Spike term limits
To the editor:
Term limits are neither a useful nor necessary policy ("Term limits cases argued," July 2 Review-Journal). The voters always have the choice to not re-elect a politician they do not approve of. Forcing public servants from office because of term limits robs the citizens of many hard-to-come-by honest and valuable representatives, regardless of party affiliation.
The attempt to disallow certain long-time Nevada public servants from running for an additional term that they were led to believe they had the legal right to is unfair and pointless. They would be gone after that term, anyway.
Both the original term limits amendment and this recent flap smack of party politics backfiring on both sides. It would seem that Secretary of State Ross Miller and Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto have not only shot some people in the back, but they may have also shot themselves in the foot.
I would like to have both Clark County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury and Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman serve us for as long as they and the voters wish.
E. Krieger
LAS VEGAS
Unequal justice
To the editor:
It is a miscarriage of justice that two citizens can be treated with such disparity by the Municipal Court of Henderson ("Trials' differing verdicts spur high court appeal," July 7 Review-Journal).
A retired Navy commander was found guilty of domestic violence and given 90 days jail time for defending himself against an admittedly "very drunk" wife who was hitting and pushing him. The supposed "victim" recanted her accusations, under oath, before Henderson Municipal Judge Douglas Hedger, but the judge chose to ignore this testimony and found the man guilty. This judge's actions are not only ludicrous, but border on criminal.
Conversely, Family Court Judge Steven Jones was acquitted of domestic battery by the same Municipal Court. The circumstances of these two cases are glaringly similar, except in the verdict. The Henderson judge who heard Judge Jones' case believed the victim's recantation and found Judge Jones not guilty.
The discriminatory issuance of justice by the Henderson Court should be cause for grave concern. I hope the Nevada Supreme Court will send a clear message to the Henderson court that "justice for all" means the same justice for all.
Carol Woods
HENDERSON
