How appropriate that Congress weighs in on mob museum

To the editor:

It doesn't surprise me that Nevada Sen. Harry Reid and his congressional colleagues support the mob museum planned for Las Vegas (just not stimulus funding for it). It will be a place for members of Congress to visit and see if their pictures are on display there, too.

The way they are stealing the people's money for their pet projects, they should find their pictures on display at the local post office, too.

I'd prefer to see their pictures displayed on a list of people who recently lost their jobs.

S.G. Hayes

LAS VEGAS

Oscar knows best

To the editor:

Lay off Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman. He's got it right. A mob museum would draw tourists downtown from the Strip and its elegant art galleries and small museums. There are probably 20,000 such small museums around the country.

The laughing Washington politicians are against providing federal stimulus funding for it because the potential mob museum doesn't have lobbyists stuffing greenbacks in their pockets ("Obama not thrilled over mob museum," Jan. 12 Review-Journal). Most citizens complaining really don't know Las Vegas if they want everything but a mob museum. People are interested in the mob, as evidenced by the popularity of "The Sopranos" and the "Godfather" movies.

They would come downtown to see the only true mob museum in the country.

It would help even more if it had a section for crooked politicians.

BRUCE ADDIS

ST. GEORGE, UTAH

The value of fine art

To the editor:

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman has made quite clear what he thinks of the intelligence, sophistication and cultural and educational level of the citizenry he rules over. His statement that no one will drive downtown to see watercolors, oils or sculpture is tragic. That he thinks we would drive downtown to see his mob buddies in a showcase is more tragic.

I happen to know which universities his kids went to, and we all know how The Meadows School, which is operated by his wife, is rated. I guarantee you that his kids didn't get into the finest and most elite and expensive schools in the nation based on their knowledge of Bugsy Seigel, Tony Spilotro and Herbie Blitzstein.

I am certain, however, that they had some knowledge and exposure to Van Gogh, Matisse, Cezanne and Picasso. I don't appreciate our children being disregarded as citizens in a community sorely in need of the grand cultural opportunities available to the kids (and adults) in Chicago.

Our mayor thinks us unworthy of admiring a Frederick Hart or a Bill Mack nude. He thinks the only nudes Las Vegans appreciate are those in strip joints? It is not, absolutely not, too much to ask for a mayor who wants to elevate our community and give our kids (and all of us) a great art institute or museum. I doubt that a dozen people in Chicago give a rip about the mob that left them and came here, but millions of people go to the Chicago Art Institute and spend hours there enthralled at the beauty and genius of Chagall and other great artists' work.

The artwork on the ceilings of the Bellagio lobby and The Venetian lobby testify to someone (a couple someones) here thinking that maybe, just maybe, there are people here who would appreciate some fine art. God bless them.

And God help a mayor who finds his citizens unworthy of quality art but instead thinks that studying a bunch of bums who wound up shot in the head and buried in a field will make his city a better place -- and considers spending our hard-earned tax dollars on glorifying thugs a good deal. I hope we will all just say no to thugs being enthroned as part of our culture. I think we'd rather have a Chagall for our kids to see.

Monterey Brookman

LAS VEGAS