Las Vegas and hypocrisy on prostitution
To the editor:
Geoff Schumacher’s Sunday column about prostitution is correct as far as it goes — but it doesn’t go far enough.
There are two things to note about Las Vegas, Nevada and prostitution. First is the hypocrisy of a town that bills itself as “Sin City” and uses the “What happens here, stays here” ad slogan while pretending that prostitution either doesn’t exist or is a terrible sin. I guess it means Las Vegas wants to pick and choose which things are OK, while advertising topless and nude clubs; hotel rooms with poles for dancing; and glorifying over-hyped, bleached-blonde sexpots flaunting themselves all over town.
The other item to consider is that while we may no longer be Victorian, we haven’t changed all that much. No one will ever make me believe that a young, beautiful woman will live with or marry an ugly, balding, obnoxious man 40 to 50 years her senior unless he is very wealthy and paying her. Now, that payment comes as a million-dollar lifestyle, but frankly, we all know she is selling her body and face to the highest bidder. That young woman just makes a lot more money than the prostitute on the street or in the brothel.
I believe that as long as sex sells and women make less money with fewer opportunities than men, we will continue to have prostitution. If men will buy it, women will sell it.
I also believe that as long as that is true, I would rather prostitution was legal, controlled and taxed — thereby taking the drugs, alcohol, abuse, disease, etc., out of it.
Mr. Schumacher was very right about Pahrump versus Las Vegas. After 15 years of living in Pahrump and working in Las Vegas, I can tell you that I have never seen a streetwalker in Pahrump, which is not true about Las Vegas.
B.A. Hendrickson
PAHRUMP
Two Oscars
To the editor:
I have news for Geoff Schumacher concerning his Sunday column about Oscar Goodman’s views on prostitution: It’s not just the local “politicos” who despise our illustrious mayor, as pointed out by Mr. Schumacher. There are also many other Las Vegas residents who have grown weary of the mindless rants of an admitted heavy drinker who will forever be tied to organized crime.
If Oscar Goodman was any more narcissistic, there’d be two of him.
Jeff Silverman
LAS VEGAS
Bush’s war
To the editor:
It is ironic that as we observe the sixth anniversary of 9/11, Review-Journal Publisher Sherman Frederick laments in his column of Sept. 9 that “people around the globe remember Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo but not the atrocities of bin Laden.”
Perhaps Mr. Frederick should remember that George W. Bush made the decision to invade Iraq, a country that had nothing to do with the atrocities of 9/11. That is a fact Mr. Frederick conveniently ignores.
After 9/11, instead of pursuing Osama bin Laden full-speed, Mr. Bush’s administration sold the invasion of Iraq to the American people in no small part on the basis that the war would be a cakewalk. Instead, American troops are now in their fifth year of policing a sectarian civil war.
Now, six years after 9/11, perhaps Mr. Frederick needs to wake up and smell the coffee.
He needs to ask why bin Laden continues to be free to make videos while Mr. Bush plays for time in order to pass on his quagmire to the next president.
Jerry Villela
LAS VEGAS
No news
To the editor:
Is there any reason why your readers have to be subjected to the likes of Britney Spears as front page “news” (Review-Journal, Monday)? The MTV Video Music Awards may be news, but certainly not front-page caliber.
And if you put it on the front page to feature Ms. Spears, shame on you. She is everything a parent does not want her daughter to become or any child to associate with.
Then, on Page 3A, in Norm Clarke’s column there is a picture of Pam Anderson being groped by Tommy Lee with the same excuse for the picture — the MTV Video Music Awards.
You are a metropolitan “news” paper, and this kind of trash does not belong on the front page or page 3. What are you promoting or condoning with these stories?
J.R. Wiley
LAS VEGAS
No tears
To the editor:
Your “Final Word” quote Monday regarding Supreme Court Justice David Souter weeping after the 5-4 decision to stop the endless recount in the 2000 presidential election just goes to show that we should weed out liberals from the judicial selection process, as they make decisions based on emotion and personal feelings rather than the rule of law.
R.A. Salter
HENDERSON
