More of the same from Harry Reid

To the editor:

Once again, Harry Reid has attacked the truth and veracity of others using "facts" that are totally unsubstantiated (Sunday letter).

Sen. Reid claims that the stimulus bill will bring $2 billion to Nevada and has already created 6,000 jobs. Yet he provides no evidence.

Sen. Reid goes on to say that he created 7.600 jobs in Nevada state and Local governments. Absurd. Sen. Reid seems to think that he now runs the state and local government and the Clark County School District.

Sen. Reid says nothing of the only provable fact: Nevada suffers an unemployment rate second only to Michigan.

Further he takes credit for saving jobs at Harrah's, some 31,000 to be exact. Sen. Reid says nothing about how that was accomplished but apparently Harrah's received special Reid support that resulted in last week's press statements by Harrah's in support of the senator. Money does, after all, buy support. Unfortunately, it is our money, not Sen. Reid's, yet he treats it like it is his to dole out wherever a vote might be purchased.

The bottom line is that government does not create jobs. Government can provide temporary support for its disadvantaged and struggling citizens, yet in the long term government must get out of the way and allow business to prosper so that permanent, well-paying jobs are created and sustained.

Gary Doyle

LAS VEGAS

Reid between the lines

To the editor:

After reading Sen. Harry Reid's response in Sunday's paper ("Stimulus has saved thousands of Nevada jobs") to a recent Review-Journal editorial, I wonder: How ignorant does Sen. Reid think we "evil mongers" (to use the senator's own term for us skeptical citizens) are?

These so-called newly created jobs that he mentions are government jobs, whose salaries are paid by the taxpayer and create no wealth. As for his numbers on so-called saved private sector jobs, they are capricious and cannot be proven.

In reality, Nevada's unemployment rate is second highest in the nation (behind Michigan) at 13.2 percent, and it is increasing each month. How many jobs did Sen. Reid lose for the Ely area when he canceled that clean coal power plant? Or how many jobs did he lose in the local real estate and housing sector when he and Sen. Christopher Dodd filibustered a Bush administration bill back in 2004 that would have tightened the mortgage lending standards?

Sen Reid mentions "failed economic policies of the past administration." May I remind him that we had a national unemployment rate of only 5 percent in 2007, which his party considered "full employment" under Bill Clinton. He also do not mention the cost of this American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. You know ... part of that astronomical $1.42 trillion deficit his party ran up this past fiscal year.

Warren Willis Sr.

LAS VEGAS

Play words

To the editor:

What is objectionable content as it relates to a high school play? Attorney Cory Hilton and the parents he represents in a case regarding Green Valley High School's selection of the plays "Rent" and "The Laramie Project" feel they know the answer (Review-Journal, Friday).

Am I as a parent allowed to object, and thus bring suit against the school district, for excluding my child when they decide to put on the play "Gobbledeegoop"? I do after all have strong objections to the portrayal by the media of "Gobble" and "Goop." The way they throw those words around and try to indoctrinate all of us into believing that "Gobble" and "Goop" are OK in a tolerant society... it really just makes me sick.

Anyone can find something objectionable in anything. Maybe I see the brutality and senseless violence of football objectionable. Because it is a school activity that I can't condone my son or daughter participating in, does that mean I should sue the school district?

Of course not.

Green Valley High School and its theatrical students should be able to perform their selected scripts of "Rent" and "The Laramie Project." They are reflections of the real world that we all live in and have important stories to tell.

If Cory Hilton and his ilk succeed in bringing down these productions, perhaps the students should write an original play based on the intolerant actions of these concerned individuals. Unless, of course, someone objects.

Martin Elge

LAS VEGAS

Classic works

To the editor:

Parents who object are correct in trying to ban students at Green Valley High School from performing "Rent" and "The Laramie Project." High school students should not be exposed to such plot lines.

There are other "classic" works that should also be banned because their plots involve: murder and conspiracy to commit murder; murdering one's uncle; rape, and state- and church-sanctioned torture; rape, murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to cover up murder and attempted kidnapping; murder and underage sexual promiscuity; unwed parenting, murder, conspiracy; and adultery, unwed teenage pregnancy, conspiracy and murder.

Those classics are, in order, "The Wizard of Oz," "The Lion King," "Man of La Mancha," "To Kill a Mockingbird," "West Side Story," "The Grapes of Wrath" and the "Gospel According to Luke."

I hope the objecting parents will act as aggressively in the future to remove this list of nefarious works as they righteously are now.

Paul Speirs

LAS VEGAS