Which ones are ripping me off the most?
To the editor:
Thursday’s edition of the Review-Journal had two articles on the front of the Nevada section that should, frankly, disgust everybody in Clark County.
The first, “No action on sick leave abuse,” indicates that three weeks after Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak sent a written complaint to Metro about possible criminal sick-leave abuse by more than 200 county firefighters, police have yet to investigate.
The second, Jane Ann Morrison’s column, “Embezzlement doesn’t seem to bother police supervisors union,” is best summed-up by the third paragraph. She writes that the union representing police managers and supervisors reinforced “the suspicions that dirty cops are protected by the law enforcement brotherhood.” She goes on to point out that union members voted against filing a criminal complaint against former Lt. Paul Page for misappropriating $38,521 in union funds.
So not only is the public being ripped off by members of the agencies paid to protect us, but the groups paid to oversee and ensure these events do not happen are willing to bury, or at least delay prosecution of, illegal activities to protect their own. What a sad state of affairs.
In the case of the firefighters, I used to admire the profession and what I considered the noble and honorable members of the organization. Now when I encounter them shopping in Smith’s, for example, I wonder which ones are ripping me off the most.
They should be prosecuted and fined the amount they gained by fraud; the major abusers terminated. There are many qualified and dedicated people unemployed right now who could admirably take their place.
Jim Robins
Las Vegas
Local advocate
To the editor:
Frank Perna ceaselessly met with politicians and other government officials to press for decent treatment of homeless people. He wrote many letters to the editor that were published in the Review-Journal and other Las Vegas newspapers and magazines. He advocated for more shelter space, better social services and, indeed, for the housing of homeless people.
He was tireless in his efforts to stir the conscience of our community and its government leaders, so that we don’t ignore human suffering within our midst. This is the way he chose to spend his retirement years.
What would upset him like nothing else were any deficiencies he found in our treatment and care of veterans, especially those returning from Afghanistan and Iraq, and especially homeless veterans.
When Matt O’Brien interviewed him for CityLife in 2006 about his advocacy, Mr. Perna said: “I’ll stop when I die.” Frank Perna never stopped until the moment he passed away last week.
Mr. Perna was a true patriot who loved his country. He believed that every individual mattered, and that no homeless person should be demeaned or excluded from the community, or left unattended to suffer or die in the streets of Las Vegas. He insisted on pressing Las Vegas and the American community to live up to the ideals of the country he loved.
If sometimes people were annoyed or irritated in the process of his advocacy, then so be it. He made no apologies, and he was not embarrassed. He believed that what he was doing was merely the duty and obligation of any good citizen, and he took his responsibilities as a citizen very seriously. He volunteered to help agencies working directly with homeless people, he personally helped homeless veterans on an individual basis, and he frequently attended government meetings.
On a monument Mr. Perna helped to erect at Veterans Circle in Woodlawn Cemetery, he had the following words inscribed: “To those homeless veterans who have been forgotten and buried without recognition or honor.”
Just last month, in a letter to me, he wrote that he felt “politicians of both parties have failed in their duties to homeless Americans.” He enclosed one of the many pieces of art he liked to make. This one contained many images of the American flag and quotes from Thomas Jefferson, one of which read, in part: “I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves ”
Mr. Perna, a Republican in his political leanings, added in his own words: “Do not pledge your allegiance to the Republican or Democratic Party, pledge it to the United States of America.”
Frank, there are homeless people, there are advocates for the rights of homeless people, there are politicians and other government officials, and there are newspaper readers who will miss you. And so will I. Rest in peace, my friend.
Leroy H. Pelton
Las Vegas
The writer is a professor in the School of Social Work at UNLV.
What ifs
To the editor:
In a commentary last week in the Review-Journal, Nat Hentoff explains how he came to change his stance from pro-choice to pro-life. I commend him for his open-mindedness.
But I have had it up to here with his final comments; to wit, “Who knows? Someone whose life is saved … might someday be on the Supreme Court. Or, if ObamaCare is repealed, another survivor may find ways to significantly improve health care for many of us.”
I am fed up with these specious examples of might-have-beens. Ever think that an aborted fetus might someday have become an Adolf Hitler or Josef Mengele? How about a Charles Manson or Jeffrey Dahmer? How about the possibility of becoming a “Jihad Jane” or a Bernard Madoff or the most recent monster who kidnapped a child, held her (with his wife’s full knowledge) as a sex slave living in his back yard and by whom he has two children?
So I hope never again to hear or read about an aborted fetus that “might someday” have become a hero or savior of one kind or another. Enough is more than enough of this chosen blindness.
HELEN RICHMAN
LAS VEGAS
