Illegals and the public schools? Don’t ask

In response to your Friday editorial, “Counting illegals”:

Short-sighted, small-minded, mean-spirited, and bigoted — these are but some of the adjectives that could be used to describe your bullying of Nevada’s most powerless group: its immigrant children.

In suggesting a witch hunt into the legal status of the state’s English Language Learner children, you neglect to point out that regardless of whether they are legal or unauthorized (shame on you for implying that English Language Learner is synonymous with unauthorized immigrant — many of these kids were born here and are by definition U.S. citizens), these are the children of a great many of the state’s construction, restaurant and hotel workers. Without these folks, the state would never have been able to realize its massive economic and real estate expansion nor be able to lucratively profit from America’s escapist desire to have “what happens here stays here.”

A much more productive course for your newspaper and others who insist on hateful rhetoric would be to recognize the indispensable contribution of this immigrant work force and to identify the state’s responsibility to effectively educate its next generation. If you are unable to see how this fits into Nevada’s self interest, let this “educrat” point out to you (since you are so committed to the enforcement of federal law) the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1982 Plyer v. Doe case, which requires a nation’s schools to serve all children living in its territory regardless of immigration status.

Hence, education is a right that cannot be taken away regardless of short-term economic downturns or the ignorance of newspaper editorial boards.

Adam Sawyer

HENDERSON

On the trail

To the editor:

With regard to recent stories about burglaries:

In a perfect world there would be enough detectives to aggressively investigate every case. A co-worker of mine was recently in this position and helped the police solve the crime. He had all pertinent serial numbers of his belongings, he contacted pawnshops and reviewed “for sale” ads on sites such as craigslist.com. He found his property, alerted the police and not only got the guy arrested, he recovered much that was stolen.

The police are doing the best they can, but we citizens have a responsibility also. Record your serial numbers and do a little looking. It’s not hard to do.

JOHN DEVINE

LAS VEGAS

Shooting park

To the editor:

With regard to your Thursday story, “Neighbors denounce planned gun range”:

It’s amazing to me how many people want no involvement in the governmental process except to snivel and complain. Clark County has been working on plans for a shooting range for well over two decades. The county Web site has a complete history of the efforts and all the public meetings that have been held regarding the installation of a world-class shooting facility.

The rude and uniformed people who disrupted and heckled the Feb. 13 meeting must be living in a vacuum. They only react to their environment and do not participate in its positive growth.

A world-class shooting park will stop the dangerous practice of people parking on roads too close to houses and blasting away in all directions. This type of unmonitored shooting poses a bigger threat to our safety than hearing a few muffled shots more than a mile away. At least those shots are aimed in a safe direction.

I wish the county had not spent millions of dollars planning the park in its current location. I would suggest they build it near my home.

So to the sniveling and ignorant not-in-my-back-yard folks, wake up and pay attention to what’s happening around you.

Alex Swayze

HENDERSON

Sucked dry

To the editor:

Regarding the Review-Journal’s Feb. 13 article, “Study gives 50-50 odds Lake Mead will dry up by 2021”:

The Southern Nevada Water Authority’s project to construct Intake No. 3 (the so-called “third straw”) was planned and approved to draw water at an elevation of 860 feet above sea level — well below the “dead pool” elevation of 895 feet above sea level.

However, at the authority’s Board of Directors meeting of May 17, 2007, Amendment 17 to the Capital Improvements Plan was approved; “Intake No. 3 will maintain the SNWA’s ability to draw upon Colorado River water at lake elevations as low as 1,000 feet above sea level, assuring system capacity if lake levels fall low enough to put Intake No. 1 out of service.” Also, this amendment approved a significant cost increase (from $650 million to $817 million) and a year’s delay in the completion of Intake No. 3.

A significant capability for the new intake will no longer exist since the proposed Intake No. 3 elevation will be at 1,000 feet. That is well above Lake Mead’s dead pool elevation of 895 feet.

In light of the report by the University of California, San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the authority may want to reconsider the criteria for the elevation of the “third straw.”

Pat Russell

LAS VEGAS