Procreation isn’t just a gay marriage issue

To the editor:

Regarding Sam Wright’s Thursday letter, “Protect marriage,” I have two comments.

First, if the ability to procreate is the concern, then the issue shouldn’t be limited to gay marriage. Using Mr. Wright’s argument, should the U.S. Supreme Court also ban infertile people from marrying, which would affect any woman past menopause while allowing men to procreate until they drop dead from old age?

What I fear, Mr. Wright, is the never-ending legislation of morality, with the all-important question of whose religion decides what rules are imposed upon everyone else. It’s called separation of church and state.

Second, Mr. Wright states that there’s a growing threat of persecution of the church for publicly stating their beliefs. While it has subsided considerably, during the ’70s and ’80s we were always on guard, looking for the self-anointed with their arsenal of rotting garbage, crowbars, chains and nail-studded lumber while the police and courts ignored what was happening.

Mr. Wright, I’m sorry if you feel you’re being persecuted for your beliefs. While there are gay folks out there taking it to extremes, there are multitudes like me who are voicing our arguments and hitting the polls on Election Day. We’re not persecuting you, just disagreeing with you vocally and politically.

STEVEN HIZA

LAS VEGAS

Renewable energy

To the editor:

Up until now the cost of renewable energy has been hard to see because it has been such a small part of total power consumption. But now NV Energy proposes to make it a major part of our power supply — and double the price of electricity over the next 20 years to pay for it (Thursday Review-Journal).

Tens of billions of dollars would be taken out of consumers’ and businesses’ pockets, and the economic hit would mean major job losses throughout the valley. We need to understand the complete economic impact of this proposal before committing our future to it. Someone with a more comprehensive knowledge of economics than NV Energy should be responsible for that evaluation.

TOM KELLER

HENDERSON

Opiate shortage

To the editor:

Unfortunately, as Vin Suprynowicz wisely discerned (“Making life worse for those in pain,” March 10 column) there is a shortage in my opioid pain supply. After more than three years of filling my prescription at one pharmacy, this mysterious shortage began in December 2012.

This caused me to find another pharmacy — great fun when you need pain relief because you’re aggravated by all the run-around. This happened again this past month, making it four straight months of claims that the new supply would be in soon. I called my doctor — whose facilities drug-test patients at random — to see if others from my clinic are experiencing the same trouble. Needless to say, the answer was yes.

My worry is that something will go wrong on a Friday. Try University Medical Center on a weekend and mention your pain medicine is out. The goon squad will come and remove you. This happened to me because no one warned me that Fentanyl, a transdermal pain patch, will not last three days in 110-degree weather. More like a day and a half.

Mr. Suprynowicz was right, so I guess I will move to Oregon, present all my problems — skin cancer, “size and nature of polyps removed requires you to have another colonoscopy within five years,” hietal hernia, inguinial hernias on both sides and left ear bone pain that keeps me from ever resting five minutes on it — and try for assisted suicide.

Keep up the fight so we can someday restore this country to a God-fearing nation.

WES BARTON

LAS VEGAS