How about turning police into teachers?

To the editor:

Perhaps a rational discussion between law enforcement and educational personnel is in order.

I believe safety in schools can be addressed in a meaningful way. How about having a law enforcement representative(s) become a member of a school's teaching staff? We can address the concern of safety by teaching it, strengthening a culture where children learn early on that police officers are helpful, knowledgeable, approachable and provide a needed service besides instruction. You'd have an armed, trained, fully equipped professional with a uniform and a marked squad car in front of the school and, most importantly, you'd establish a cultural change that impacts all concerned. They could have access to weapons they are trained to use (if needed) besides their sidearm, radio contact for assistance and a presence that speaks for itself.

Simply having an armed guard does not change a culture in a positive manner, but rather adds to the perception of fear-based solutions. Having law enforcement personnel partner with educational personnel sets up an entirely different perception and likely easier acceptance even among the liberal segment of society.

Much like community policing has demonstrated a more positive and accepting view of police presence, so, too, would a police officer teaching classes and offering students insights, education, support and guidance. We could begin to teach future generations about how law enforcement is an integral part of our society, along with specific courses that clearly would add to the curriculum and help children view police with a respect not seen for some time - with safety issues addressed from Day One.

BOB THORUD

LAS VEGAS

Outdoor tourism

To the editor:

Every year, folks flock to Lake Mead and Red Rock Canyon for outdoor adventures that help keep local businesses in business ("Outdoor tourism growing in Las Vegas area," Wednesday Review-Journal).

We can keep these folks coming back again and again if we diversify our recreational opportunities. One way to enhance tourism in the region is to better care of wild places like Gold Butte, our state's piece of the Grand Canyon. This rugged area is home to awe-inspiring rock art and unique desert animals. It's also a prime candidate for protection, either as a national conservation area with wilderness or a national monument.

Either way, it's a worthy goal and worth supporting, especially for businesses that need public lands to thrive.

Ann Bley

mesquite

You're fired!

To the editor:

I read Ed Graney's interesting sports columns every time they're in the newspaper, and I sometimes agree with him. However, I must disagree with his Tuesday column, "Patience not virtue for NFL owners." He lists the coaches and general managers of the NFL teams who were canned Monday. Mr. Graney then goes on to say that the team owners are impatient.

Let's see how this works. The owners - the guys who have all the money - interview prospective coaches and GMs and explain the job at hand. Then the coaching or GM applicant tells the owner what he can do. If the owner likes what he hears he hires him and pays him a lot of his money. If not, he keeps looking.

Fast forward to the end of the season or the end of several seasons. If the results are not to the owner's liking or there are bad relations with the players or upper management, the owner fires the coach and/or the general manager. The firing occurs because the owner doesn't get an acceptable return on his investment. After all, it's his money that is paying for everything.

It's a hard, cruel world out there, Mr. Graney, one in which you must produce or you will be fired. The only jobs where this axiom doesn't seem to apply are politician and, in some cases, sportswriter.

BILL WILDERMAN

LAS VEGAS

Bucket list

To the editor:

As our elected lemmings in Washington kick the can down the road by continuing to cling to their myopic ideologies, job creators are no longer passionate about the future of their businesses. While most of us only live once, apparently voters continue to give our brain-dead politicians nine lives.

Spoiler alert: The commoners are catching on to those of you who choose to continue obstructing progress, holding the country hostage while the economy tanks.

A word to the wise for these politicians: You had better begin preparing your bucket list. Come 2014, you can bet that your prospects for re-election are trending down and out. All those special superfoods like boneless wings that the congressional kitchen support staffers have been preparing for all of you do-nothing representatives and senators may soon be a thing of the past unless you turn yourselves into born-again tax and economic gurus.

Save yourselves now. Start thinking more about reality and about less ideology before it's too late. 2014 will be here quicker than a news commentator can say "breaking news."

RICHARD RYCHTARIK

LAS VEGAS

Suing the NCAA

To the editor:

For Pennsylvania's governor to sue the NCAA over sanctions against Penn State University is to minimize the seriousness of Jerry Sandusky's crimes and the university's complicity in one the most heinous crimes against children ever committed at a college (Thursday Review-Journal).

If I were the Big Ten commissioner, I would throw Penn State out. These crimes against innocent children go from Sandusky all the way to the top.

This governor should be impeached. Penn State ought to humbly and shamefully take what is relatively light punishment for what it did.

DAVID N. VIGER JR.

HENDERSON

'Dundee' death

To the editor:

Vin Suprynowicz spoiled his Dec. 30 column, "Just a few 'reasonable restrictions,' " by repeating a lie when he wrote, "The real-life Crocodile Dundee - Rodney William Ansell - was killed by cops when he resisted turning his [guns] in."

It is true that Mr. Ansell was killed by police in a gunfight on Aug. 3, 1999, and it might also be true that he refused an order of some kind to surrender the weapons he was using at the time. However, Mr. Suprynowicz deceives his readers by implying that the gunfight and Mr. Ansell's death had something to do with gun control. Not true. But it did have a lot to do with drugs.

Mr. Ansell had been injecting himself with "meth" or "speed" for some time. It created in his mind a delusion of "Freemasons" conspiring to harm him and his family and friends. Convinced that the "Freemasons" were closing in, he armed himself with a borrowed rifle and began a counterattack, shooting up a farmhouse and acquiring a shotgun in the process. Then, instead of simply slipping away as he was fully capable of doing, he ambushed more of his imaginary foes, who were actually police about to end a roadblock. He killed one officer before another finally shot him.

Mr. Ansell's former wife, Joanna van Os, powerfully describes his drug-crazed state of mind in her book, "Outback Heart," published in Australia and New Zealand in 2005 by Bantam. This is a gripping story about their life in Australia's Northern Territory and about Mr. Ansell's real problems with government regulations (not gun control) and his eventual demise.

In an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that year, she said, "if my book made one person think maybe amphetamines are really bad or maybe smoking too much dope is really bad, then I think it's been worth it."

STANLEY CLOUD

HENDERSON