LETTERS: Yes to lottery, no to Yucca Mountain
To the editor:
In response to Tom Keller’s letter (“Yucca represents huge opportunity,” April 3 Review-Journal), why does Nevada have to be subject to toxic waste? If Gov. Brian Sandoval and the casinos would approve a lottery and scratch tickets, we would have lots of money for the schools, roads and whatever the state needs.
Why do we have to worry about accidental spills or injuries to the workers at Yucca Mountain? There is not enough money in the world that would make me force people to work there and worry about their health, and the health of future generations.
That was one of the good things that Sen. Harry Reid did for Nevada, keeping the Yucca Mountain discussion under wraps. I thank him for that. He thought of the dangers and threats that opening the mountain would bring to the state and to the water table. The voters didn’t want it then and don’t want it now. Nevadans must refuse to let the Yucca Mountain project go forward.
BARBARA GOODWIN
HENDERSON
Honor gyrocopter pilot
To the editor:
Doug Hughes, the Florida activist who landed his aircraft on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol, demonstrates that all the money we the people spend for protection of our national seat of government is wasted, as is often the case (“Activist lands his aircraft on Capitol lawn,” April 16 Review-Journal). Mr. Hughes flew an ultralight gyrocopter under the radar and delivered 535 letters he wrote to Congress.
This aircraft could have been operated by a terrorist and could have carried dangerous cargo intended to inflict damage. Of course, Mr. Hughes has been charged with violating restricted airspace and no doubt other crimes which, if effective machinery had been in place, couldn’t have happened.
But that doesn’t matter. You can bet that Mr. Hughes is now in deep trouble with the incompetent government “protectors” in the nation’s capital. In our opinion, the government should ensure that all of Mr. Hughes’ letters are delivered to Congress as he intended, and all charges against Mr. Hughes should be dropped.
He and his gyrocopter should be released, and he should be permitted to return home bearing a letter of appreciation signed by President Barack Obama, thanking Mr. Hughes for his contribution to the security of our capital by exposing this flaw in protection.
KENNETH F. HINES
MARY LINDSAY
LAS VEGAS
Broad brush on liberal arts
To the editor:
Thomas Sowell’s column was little more than a shameful rant against English professors, whom he accuses of “trashing” the liberal arts by trading teaching for indoctrinating (“It’s liberals who trashed liberal arts,” April 5 Review-Journal). Really?
As an English professor at College of Southern Nevada who tries to use everything I have learned in more than 20 years of teaching to get students to appreciate the importance of critical analysis, I can only guess that Mr. Sowell must have been wronged by too many English teachers or professors over the years. If students are assigned to read the Quran, does that make the teacher a Muslim? Or if they are assigned works critical of the Vietnam War, does that make them unpatriotic?
I am sure there are teachers who in the classroom fail to distinguish fact from opinion, and who are lukewarm on the need to promote independent thinking — just as there are doctors or lawyers who act in a self-serving way. Does that mean all doctors and lawyers are to be painted with the same brush? I don’t think so.
JOHN ESPERIAN
LAS VEGAS
