Who do the Democrats really care about?

To the editor:

Isn't it interesting that Sen. Harry Reid shows up at a rally for people who have illegally entered this country, taken jobs away from U.S. citizens and abused our social services, yet he promises to ignore their lawbreaking because they are "hard workers."

Meanwhile, we Tea Partyers -- who have spent our lives living by the laws, paying our taxes and working to make America a better place to live for our children -- have been ignored and vilified by our elected representatives.

Michelle Duncan

Las Vegas

Nuke safety

To the editor:

The Review-Journal's Thursday editorial, "Nuke danger," questioned the importance of the Obama administration's Nuclear Security Summit. However, securing nuclear materials has bipartisan support and will help to protect Americans from deadly terrorist attacks.

Countries around the world possess 500,000 kilograms of plutonium and 1.6 million kilograms of highly enriched uranium. Significant quantities of these materials are located in places such as Nigeria, Pakistan and Uzbekistan -- often protected by little more than a chain-link fence.

Al-Qaida and other terrorist groups are pursuing nuclear capabilities. And the International Atomic Energy Agency has reported numerous cases of nuclear smuggling. It takes only a few kilograms of fissile material to produce a primitive nuclear weapon.

Last week, 47 nations agreed to comprehensively secure their nuclear materials within four years. Ukraine agreed to eliminate all of its fissile materials. And Russia, which has been criticized for lackluster nuclear security, pledged to eliminate several tons of plutonium. These are just first steps, but in 2012 there will be a second Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul.

Republican or Democrat, it is difficult to see how efforts to secure global fissile material stockpiles -- no matter how modest -- will do anything but enhance U.S. national security.

Stephen Herzog

Washington, D.C.

The writer is an independent security policy analyst and an arms control consultant to the Federation of American Scientists.