Test scores further proof of failure
To the editor:
The apparent new excuse line is that budget cuts are the reason students cannot pass the high school proficiency tests ("May test daunts seniors," Thursday Review-Journal). Since when? Especially given that the article notes the success rate on the tests for the 2005-06 school year -- well before the current economic crisis -- was lower.
Why can't educators and administrators simply admit that our education system has failed? Students are not being taught reading, writing, science and arithmetic -- and, further, when students are in a classroom to be taught they are not learning because it's more important for them to network socially.
That is the real problem. We have failed these children because we are so afraid of damaging their psyches that we are not requiring them to actually learn what we are attempting to teach them. And that is what needs changing.
Kathleen M. Stone
Pahrump
No will
To the editor:
I agree with Harry Reid that the illegal immigrants should be given a chance at citizenship, but should have to go to the end of the line and learn English. Of course, they should be waiting at the end of the line in Mexico while learning English.
When President Dwight Eisenhower told his aides to round up the illegals and deport them, it was done at once. It is just a matter of will. Mr. Obama has no will to follow existing laws.
GERALD P. KELLY
LAS VEGAS
War service
To the editor:
By his own admission, Richard Cohen avoided any discomfort during the Vietnam War (column, Wednesday Review-Journal). Now he feels "betrayed" because one of his fellow avoiders got caught pretending to be the combat veteran he is not.
In addition, Mr. Cohen regrets the current lack of conscription because that means only volunteers shape today's military. He seems to feel that involuntary servitude will set things right.
While I feel for Mr. Cohen, I can't quite reach him. Civic militarism is a vital ingredient in any republican form of governance, an indispensable pillar of western civilization and of species survival. He had his chance. He blew it.
He has nobody to blame but himself.
Vietnam was the wrong place to commit troops. But, still, my comrades and I bought enough time for corrective measures to be applied both here and abroad. Without our efforts, many more people would have perished in communist holocausts, there could not have been a Reagan presidency, the USSR would still be in business, and it would be impossible for the United States to campaign in necessary places like Afghanistan and Iraq.
Therefore, I am content with the overall course of human events and our role in shaping things. In this regard I am rather typical of those who went and did. Sorry if others have self-created demons they cannot exorcise.
And as a bonus in 2004, I got to see the Man From Midland re-elected with a little help from a Swift boat torpedo that took a dirtbag amid ships. Don't just love it when a plan comes together?
Dave Hanley
Las Vegas
Blue Angel
To the editor:
Everybody has a story of something that happened to keep him or her in this town despite all it can deal out. You caught me in your May 20 article, "Retail development planned for busy site." The story addressed the plan to demolish businesses at the crossroads of Fremont, Eastern, Boulder Highway and Charleston -- in particular, the Blue Angel Motel.
When I first thought of moving to Nevada to live, I spent a few miserable days in the coldest, cliquish, snootiest town I have ever been in -- Reno. I almost gave up on the state, but decided to give Las Vegas a go first. When I first arrived, the motel I stopped at was on Fremont and was full. But the desk lady asked me to wait because she had a friend down the street who worked at the Blue Angel and they might have a room.
They did and she directed me to it.
Upon checking in, the employees of the Blue Angel were warm, friendly and accommodating. When I mentioned I was thinking of finding work here they gave me a weekly rate far below the daily one and they gave me coupon books with free buffets, discounts at clothing and grocery stores and entertainment and directions on how to find each one. They even offered me a job as a night clerk there to tide me over.
I found work elsewhere in town but ever since then I have kept those first few welcoming days in my heart through all of Vegas' reinventing itself (including the new "urban ghetto" persona). That was more than 30 years ago.
Periodically I find myself driving past that area. And when I spy the Blue Angel against the skyline, I kind of feel I'm at the core of what this place really was and can be.
If they must tear down this spot to build something more practical and up to date, I guess it's OK. Nothing lasts here, anyway.
But I do hope some spot is left to display that Blue Angel statue for people to tie a memory to.
KENT RISCHLING
LAS VEGAS
Business plan
To the editor:
Are you one of those wondering why we have not seen any change in our economy?
Are you waiting for that stimulus money to "kick in"?
Do you believe it will be only a matter of time until unemployment begins to get back to normal levels and then as employment rises, the housing crisis will end?
Well, friend, trust me. It is not time, but policy that is prohibiting economic growth. If you own or run a business, you understand. If you don't, pretend you did and ask yourself this: Is this the time to hire? Will my profits expand in the near future? Won't it cost me more money in taxes and insurance due to the new health bill?
An expanding government has a direct link to a shrinking economy. Only our great private capitalist system with limited regulation can get us on the road to recovery.
After all, isn't that system the reason all our ancestors came here?
CARL PARILLO
LAS VEGAS
