The ‘good’ and ‘honest’ unlicensed driver
To the editor:
How is it that when an individual causes death or destruction, he or she is always a “good” or “honest” kid?
The Tuesday photo of Gary Lee Hosey, shedding tears after being charged with running down and killing four people at a bus stop, garners no sympathy from me or anyone I know. It seems like this terrible, sad incident is the culmination of his past two years of repeat offenses: arrests for obstructing a police officer, lewd conduct and larceny.
How many lives have been negatively affected by this unlicensed driver’s latest efforts at being “good” and “honest”? Hopefully justice will prevail and the spotlight will be focused on those innocent victims rather than the “good and honest kid” who chose to disregard them in the most destructive manner possible.
Crying for your sins or your sentence? Take your medicine.
AL FOOTE
LAS VEGAS
Give up football
To the editor:
I’ve read that the student body at UNLV has experienced another tuition increase.
Unless the university’s losing football program is making money, supporting said sport is simply idiotic. Schools such as Marquette University have opted to concentrate their resources on their basketball programs and have reaped the rewards from this change.
We, on the other hand, continue to spend, thinking new uniforms, higher-priced coaches and larger and more elaborate venues where we can showcase our inept mediocrity are the solution.
History teaches that quality players attend schools where they can receive national recognition. Also, we reside in a community of transients and transplants who support the teams of their former homes, not their adopted home.
Why not invest in the minds of our teachers and students and concentrate on the things that brought UNLV to the forefront?
RONALD LUNDWALL
HENDERSON
Bad set-up
To the editor:
I attended the Obama rally at the Cashman Center last week and walked away very disappointed – not in the president, but in whoever was in charge of the rally.
First, I was absolutely appalled at the temperature inside the venue. It was so hot that people in the middle of the crowd had to leave their places to go outside to get air.
Second, did you ever hear of a “sound check” prior to the event? Those who attended and were lucky enough to get a bleacher seat could see, but could not hear what was said.
Meantime, whoever decided on the stage set-up needs to go back to event-planning school. Only the people on the opposite side of the venue could see President Obama’s head behind the lectern. The Fire Department estimated more than 8,000 people were in attendance. Care to guess how many could even see the president? The media, that’s who.
I specifically brought my 8-year-old granddaughter so she would have the opportunity of seeing our president and hopefully holding that historic memory for a lifetime. Instead she saw backs, backsides, children on the shoulders of fathers who were already over 6 feet tall, along with people wiping sweat off their necks, brows and whatever else.
I kept quiet at first. I thought maybe it was a Secret Service precaution to have the president under-exposed – until I saw a picture from an Ohio rally. Everyone at that rally was able to see and hear him.
There is no re-do. Whoever was responsible for the chaos at Cashman: Shame on you.
JAN TUFTE
LAS VEGAS
Partisan network
To the editor:
As a member of a local trade union for the past 12 years, I have faithfully paid my union dues, a portion of which go to support Democratic candidates more than 90 percent of the time – candidates I don’t support.
This has not been a problem for me – although I’m a conservative, I never complained. It was just part of being in a union.
Eighteen months ago I was laid off. Now I’m looking for a new career until I can go back to the work I love. What prompted me to write is that I have noticed National Public Radio has switched (I’m sure temporarily) from being the “global warming” channel to being the “Citizens United is an abomination” channel.
Every story seems to have a Citizens United angle. Why do I support the Supreme Court’s Citizens United free-speech decision? Why do I want to thank Sheldon Adelson and the Koch brothers and the Super PACs? Because I would dearly love to send the maximum donation to Mitt Romney, Rep. Michele Bachmann and Rep. Allen West to name a few, but unfortunately I can’t send them a dime. I’m positive there are millions in the same boat as me.
I would also like to point out the hypocrisy of the left. There was nary a peep when Sen. Barack Obama broke his promise to take public money. Sen. Obama went on to outspend Sen. McCain 4-to-1. But now Obama doesn’t have such an advantage, and when Democrats are at an even slight disadvantage it can’t be tolerated.
NPR is another entity that I’m forced to fund with tax dollars that work against my interests at every turn. And then they still have the nerve to beg for money every quarter.
JACQUI LENHARDT
INDIAN SPRINGS
Handful of hope
To the editor:
I saw a television commercial today where former President Clinton said President Obama should be re-elected because he has a plan to create jobs and stimulate the economy.
My question for President Clinton and anyone else out there: Why is President Obama waiting to reveal and implement his plan until his second term, when tens of millions of unemployed people and their families have been suffering for the past four years? My hope is that this plan is infinitely better than his “stimulus” plan.
By the way, my 93-year-old father, who voted for FDR, Harry Truman and JFK, is not an Obama supporter. He felt in 2008 that, to quote H. Ross Perot, the man’s all hat and no cattle.
As for the 2008 Obama platform of “Hope,” dad says, “You can hope in one hand and defecate in the other and let me know which one gets full first.”
RICHARD WASSMUTH
LAS VEGAS
