Fast-food jobs used to go to teens, students

To the editor:

In response to Monday’s op-ed by Capriotti’s Sandwich Shop President Patrick K. Walls concerning Immigration reform, it sounds like Mr. Walls is purely self-serving and only looking to hire cheap labor. When have guest workers been essential sandwich shop workers? Assembling a sandwich should be an entry-level position, an excellent start in the workforce for high school and college students, not a position to sustain a family and provide permanent, life-long employment.

There’s a direct correlation between Nevada having the fifth-fastest-growing illegal alien population and the state’s dismal school test scores. The illegal aliens who Mr. Walls touts so highly aren’t the best and the brightest that their native countries have to offer. The best and brightest are applying for immigration in accordance with current immigration law, not hopping the fence and disregarding the laws of our nation.

I do agree with Mr. Walls that immigration reform should happen, but I believe we should increase the allowance numbers for those currently on waiting lists around the world. These are the types of immigrants who will follow the law and grow our economy with their desire for a better life, not the illegal aliens who seem so eager to take a handout and use their anchor babies to drain our struggling economy.

The estimated 11 million undocumented illegal aliens are not a result of a broken system, but of a broken fence and a broken system of employers who continue to hire them, and a broken criminal justice system that doesn’t deport them.

DOUG FARMER

LAS VEGAS

Deadly factors

To the editor:

The horrific car crash in Nevada on Interstate 15, which killed five members of a family and seriously injured two others, reveals the dangers in driving today (Sunday Review-Journal). It shows that the mixture of younger drivers (the driver accused of causing the accident was 18-year-old Jean Soriano of California), drunken drivers (Soriano was arrested on suspicion of DUI), people who don’t wear seat belts (many in the van who were killed or injured weren’t) and driving late at night (the accident happened at 3 a.m.) is a very deadly combination.

If Soriano wasn’t drinking (beer bottles were found in his SUV) and the people in the van were all wearing seat belts, perhaps the deaths and injuries could have been minimized. Both the driver who caused the accident and the accident victims are from California, and thus should have known better, as driver safety including wearing seat belts and the serious consequences of driving while drunk are stressed all the time on TV, radio and in other public service advertisements.

KENNETH L. ZIMMERMAN

HUNTINGTON BEACH, CALIF.

Legalize pot

To the editor:

In response to Michael O. Kreps’ March 23 letter, “War on drugs does nothing but harm”:

I couldn’t agree more. After countless studies of the effects of marijuana, starting with President Nixon’s commission, not one has reported any major harm caused by the use of this natural plant — unlike the gateway drugs tobacco and alcohol, I might point out. There have been many books written, “Marijuana Myth, Marijuana Fact” for one, by renowned physicians dispelling these myths created by critics.

Mr. Kreps is entirely correct in pointing out that our intolerant laws have created the drug cartels. I would like to add to his statement by pointing out that not only have our laws helped create them, but they have made billionaires of them. They gladly take the money without paying one red cent in taxes on it and instead buy weapons, killing thousands of people who are infringing on their businesses while fighting the law.

What’s more, billions, if not trillions, of dollars are going out the other end of this spectrum not only trying to stop them, but to pay the cost of processing through our legal system those who are enjoying the use of the plant, and then incarcerating them, sometimes for years. Many innocent lives are ruined over this harmless pastime, and all at taxpayers’ expense. Talk about unnecessary costs sapping our revenues while making criminals of out of our ordinary citizens.

Finally, we’re coming to our senses with the passage of laws allowing medical and recreational use of marijuana. Imagine, if you can, the lives saved, the money saved and the revenue earned once the regulations are put in place across this great nation. Let’s not waste more time and allow this intelligent, common-sense approach to spread like prairie fire across the land and around the world. Guaranteed, people will be more mellow, and perhaps a new peace will settle for all.

DAVID RAMEY

LAS VEGAS

Confirmation

To the editor:

I want to thank Sen. Dean Heller for submitting Jennifer Dorsey’s blue slip, moving her along in the judicial nomination process. But her journey is far from over, and she will need his support if she is going to be confirmed anytime soon — or confirmed at all.

Nominees, and especially judicial nominees under President Obama’s past four years, have been historically obstructed, causing harmful backlogs in cases in our state. We hear senators say that we need to enforce the laws that we have, but we cannot do that if we have an understaffed federal bench. We need to start properly staffing our judiciary, and it starts with getting Jennifer Dorsey a timely confirmation.

JOCELYN TORRES

LAS VEGAS