LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Charleston and the Rebels
The recent shooting at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., was tragic. When 21-year-old Dylann Roof pulled out a gun and began slaughtering church members during Bible study, America was outraged. These senseless rampages continue unabated in our schools, movie theaters and now our churches.
When is enough, enough? When are we as a society going to do more? Nowhere is safe anymore. It is morally indefensible that we sit back and allow these senseless killings to continue.
Which brings me to Michael Mas‘ letter ("UNLV mascot now morally indefensible," July 6 Review-Journal). Mr. Mas seems to suggest that as a result of the Charleston incident, it is "morally indefensible" for UNLV to continue using the "Runnin‘ Rebels‘" as a nickname. I disagree -- the two have absolutely nothing to do with one another.
The original UNLV mascot was a Southern rebel wolf wearing a gray military field jacket and Confederate cap. That mascot, Beauregard, lasted until the 1970s, when a group of black athletes approached Don Baepler, then vice president of academic affairs. The athletes expressed their concern playing for a team which seemed to celebrate the wrong side of the Civil War. It made sense -- when you start hurting people, you stop.
Some time after that, Hey Reb was born. The UNLV mascot does not wear a gray military field jacket or Confederate cap and doesn‘t carry a Confederate flag. So I ask, what does Mr. Mas really find "morally indefensible" in this beloved UNLV mascot? The term "Rebels"? Shall we now remove that word from our lexicon, and instead say, "a group in opposition"?
Equating the UNLV team nickname and mascot to the senseless terrorism that occurred at the Charleston church is disingenuous at best. Rather, a real discussion on stronger gun laws -- especially limiting one‘s access to guns because of age or mental deficiency -- and tougher background checks should be a conversation in every American household. That is the morally defensible thing to do. Meanwhile, the killing continues.
Michael Lehr
Las Vegas
Reid and racial healing
Your editorial on Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and the UNLV nickname got it right ("Rebel-rouser," June 28 Review-Journal). As the piece concluded, "If Sen. Reid wants to promote racial healing in this country, we can think of a much better approach than changing UNLV‘s nickname. Sen. Reid could try keeping his mouth shut." Hooray for that!
Nicholas Rosal
Henderson
Collapsing society
A great empire‘s collapse usually starts from within. The United States is no exception. We have two major elements at work within this country that are slowly but surely undermining our way of life.
First of all, the media are so biased to the left that any outsider reading, watching or listening to events taking place in this country must think our nation is terrible. Perceived problems (which a majority of us do not see as problems) such as the Confederate flag, the "Rebels" mascot name, guns and uttering the word "God" in our schools are magnified and portrayed as unresolvable issues within the framework of our current form of government. The many successes our country has achieved are diminished or ignored.
Second, unelected judges are making decisions that go against the will of a majority of the citizens. The judges make these determinations without the fear of penalty. Abortion, capital punishment, property rights, affirmative action and gay marriage are among the many social issues in which the courts have become involved, much to the chagrin of many citizens.
Leftists use the media and the courts to create as much chaos as possible, with the intent of imposing their solutions on the rest of us. Most of those solutions are not what the majority of Americans want. If these people prevail, the greatest country the world has known will become just another Socialist-Marxist cesspool.
Harry Long
Henderson
