Taxpayers shouldn’t pay for Cheney visit
To the editor:
Vice President Dick Cheney was in Las Vegas on Thursday, ostensibly to raise money for the Nevada Republican Party. When he arrived in Summerlin, the streets were all blocked off and he was preceded by a motorcade of Metro officers.
My question: Who pays for all this? Will the Nevada Republican Party foot the bill, or will it fall on all of us, Republicans, Democrats and Libertarians alike?
Consider this for a moment: Vice President Cheney was in Las Vegas not to address a convention, not for any other legitimate public purpose, but to raise funds for a political party. That does not appear to me to be a mandate of his office, therefore it seems that he was acting as a private citizen. If any other private citizen asked for, and got, a motorcade, would he not have to pay for the privilege?
I believe that if Mr. Cheney, or any other official, comes here as a function of his office, we should all pay for this service. But when an official comes here for the sole benefit of a political party -- not for governmental reasons -- it would be reasonable to ask that the benefited party pay for the extras, such as the motorcade.
Think of it as part of the cost of doing business.
Marshal Taylor
LAS VEGAS
Educational mess
To the editor:
No child should be subjected in any way, shape or form to any abuse in the classroom or school, let alone by a teacher ("Parents: Teacher abusive," Thursday Review-Journal). No wonder people want to send their kids to private schools in Nevada. At least there is a little more accountability.
What is sadder is that we as taxpayers are paying for this educational system (mess).
The entire district needs a thorough housecleaning, beginning with the top executive. His office needs to have a "vacant" sign hanging above the door demonstrating his lack of vision, direction and accountability.
ABBIE GRANT
LAS VEGAS
Garbage day
To the editor:
The main reason this valley is at the bottom of the nation in recycling is obvious. We are embarrassingly wasteful and have shown the country that we do not care about the open landscape.
All we have are three little boxes for recycling items, which are picked up only twice a month. The idea that this is enough to hold all the recyclables of a family is a joke. As one individual, I can fill up all three easily.
While we create only a specific amount of trash, there are very few options that we have to dispose of it. Every single house should have a large trash container specifically for recycling. When there is less actual trash, it will be easier for Republic Services to have more pickups of recyclables.
I should be able to put both trash cans out twice a week, instead of having to wait forever to do the right thing.
Will Henson
LAS VEGAS
Great books
To the editor:
Phyllis Schlafly's attack on the study of literature in colleges today echoes those of 20 years ago (Review-Journal commentary, Friday). The basic problem with these attacks remains the same. They are trying to isolate literature from history and culture.
They react against the progress of college teachers beyond narrow engagements with literature such as what was called "New Criticism," or the "Great Books" approach favored by Allan Bloom. Yet a liberal arts education traditionally has and should emphasize the relations between literature and life, including law, psychology, philosophy, religion, society, and yes, politics. And it should do so in a spirit that is at least as questioning as it is reverent.
As a professor of English at UNLV who teaches authors such as Shakespeare and Milton, I find a profound irony about these tired right-wing attacks. If you apply the unrestrained free-market model generally favored by the right to the literature curriculum in college, you would have to eliminate all the requirements and force professors to conform to the model of free competition, including dreaming up ever-catchier course titles to boost enrollment. Yet that is exactly the trend that these culturally stuffy free-marketeers are complaining about! This grain of truth in their criticisms stems from the influence of values they themselves hold dearest.
I am happy to report that the UNLV English major features both required courses and area requirements. And, as at hundreds of other universities today, Shakespeare is alive, well, and definitely not required. We offer several Shakespeare courses every semester because of a demand that is greater than our distinguished specialist in Shakespeare could possibly handle.
And if everybody had to take Shakespeare, I'd have to teach more of that and less of my courses on other great writers of the English Renaissance.
Charles Whitney
BLUE DIAMOND
Fiscal fat
To the editor:
Rather than labeling Sen. Barack Obama's plan to cut taxes for the poor and increase taxes for the rich "class warfare" -- as you did in your Sept. 20 editorial -- I would label it an attempt to address another obesity problem in our society.
While physical obesity risks the health of our bodies, fiscal obesity risks the health of our souls. The latter is more dangerous than the former, since its presence is celebrated as a virtue rather than recognized as a disease.
Fiscal obesity is a cancer on the body politic, malignantly feeding on the cells of the soul, moving us toward spiritual death.
PETER EDIGER
LAS VEGAS
