Roberts needs lesson in history, English
To the editor:
I find it hard to believe that John Roberts, the current U.S. Supreme Court chief justice, is ignorant of both United States history and the English language.
In Wednesday’s “The Final Word,” he is quoted as asking, “If it is limited to state militias, why would they say ‘the right of the people’?” (Referring, of course, to the Second Amendment).
First the history part: In 1789 the United States did not have a standing army, or a National Guard, or the Army Reserves. What we did have was a series of state militias, each made up of ordinary people who could be called up to serve in an emergency.
Now the English part: Here are three definitions of “militia”:
1. A body of citizens enrolled for military service, called out periodically for drill, but serving full-time only in emergencies.
2. A body of citizen soldiers as distinguished from professional soldiers.
3. All able-bodied males considered by law eligible for military service.
I am not a constitutional scholar, but to me, it is pretty obvious that in 1789 the people were the militia, and the militia was the people.
Bob Litt
LAS VEGAS
Rein in casinos
To the editor:
Robert C. Jablonski’s Wednesday letter to the editor, “Casinos shouldn’t prey on addicts,” emphasizes a point that is totally disregarded in Nevada: Casinos make a minimal effort to control addictive gambling.
A small sign at cashier cages does not help those addicted. The industry needs to be addressed as any other addictive industry. Cigarette ads are banned from television. Alcohol is limited in its advertisements. Why should the gaming industry be allowed to advertise freely its misleading messages?
Alcohol awareness? What a joke. Who is benefiting by having employees, serving alcohol, pay money to obtain a license for alcohol awareness when casinos do nothing to inhibit alcohol consumption, thereby limiting reckless gambling? The gaming industry polices itself and thereby fixes the game to their advantage.
The tobacco companies survived the restrictions placed on them. The alcohol industry has survived. Force the gaming industry to live up to its obligations by making their product safer. Eliminate media advertisements. Restrict marketing strategies that promote excessive gambling (i.e.: “The more you play, the more comps you earn!”) and enforce alcohol awareness by penalizing noncompliance in the same manner as underage gambling.
David Huntington
LAS VEGAS
Mercury exaggerations
To the editor:
Tuesday’s commentary by Dani Doane regarding the dangers of mercury in compact fluorescent light bulbs was surprising, coming from an employee of The Heritage Foundation. Usually it’s liberal environmentalists who exaggerate the dangers of various toxins. You would think those light bulbs were manufactured containing ricin or anthrax, not mercury.
The amount of mercury in one of those light bulbs is miniscule, and the vapor emanating from them at room temperature is insignificant. The dangers from mercury are primarily due to its ability to concentrate in tissue over long periods of exposure, primarily in fish and other edible species. Like all toxins, concentration and the degree of exposure are all-important. Even salt can kill you if you take it in large enough doses or drink it in seawater.
Until quite recently, mercury was handled in science classes, included in toy chemistry sets and available pervasively in thermometers, switches and other gadgets. I can remember handling mercury routinely as a kid, smearing it on coins to make them shiny. There is mercury in amalgam teeth fillings.
None of these practices should now be encouraged, in light of our greater knowledge of the dangers of mercury. But to go through what the author went through when her new light bulb broke and to document it as necessary is bordering on fear-mongering.
Or is The Heritage Foundation so set against any energy conservation measures that it uses such examples to discourage them?
Elwood Anderson
LAS VEGAS
Prison problem
To the editor:
With reference to Harry Pappas’ Wednesday letter concerning a high school teacher’s comment that “it was the tyrannical, the dictatorial, the evil governments that had prisons stuffed full with their people”: I think it’s a shame Mr. Pappas is still carrying that comment as an absolute. How about a country undergoing moral decay or one lurching toward anarchy?
Considering he said it was many moons ago, I can possibly forgive him for not having heard of Pol Pot’s Cambodian government or more contemporary tyrannical governments, but he should have learned about Mao Tse-tung and Josef Stalin. The common thread of these oppressive governments is the number of dissenters who ended up in mass graves.
Mr. Pappas should consider the difference between prisons full of lawbreakers as opposed to those full of government dissenters. Hopefully, his old teacher would have recognized this.
Usually Americans don’t care what other countries think about our internal affairs, but I hope they learn how destructive the flight from personal responsibility can be to a society.
Although our government is far from perfect, the problem of the full prisons isn’t the government. It’s the people.
Robert Spriesterbach
LAS VEGAS
