LETTERS: Reid did right by Jewish community

To the editor:

Regarding Sen. Harry Reid’s decision last week to not seek re-election in 2016 (“Sun setting for Reid,” March 28 Review-Journal), the senator’s leadership has done much to build Nevada and our nation.

Sen. Reid has always been a close friend to the Jewish community. He has been a passionate, ardent and consistent supporter and advocate for Israel and its special bond of friendship and strategic alliance with America.

ELLIOT B. KARP

HENDERSON

The writer is president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Las Vegas.

Funding medical school

To the editor:

Thank you, Michael Kreps, for your excellent letter on the UNLV medical school (“Medical school money,” March 19 Review-Journal). I am willing to put my money where my mouth is. I will contribute 10 percent of my net retirement income for one year if three local gazillionaires will likewise contribute 10 percent of their adjusted gross income to a UNLV medical school fund. Yes, I’m willing to “give back to the community that provides for (me).”

GIL EISNER

LAS VEGAS

Ringling elephants

To the editor:

I would like to thank Ringling Bros. for the many years of providing family entertainment for legions of children. However, Ringling’s decision to move its elephants from performing to its center for elephant conservation is a loss for us all (“Activists push Ringling Bros. to end elephant acts,” March 5 Review-Journal online).

No longer will our children, grandchildren or even grandparents be amazed by the elephants’ size, agility or speed at the Ringling performances. Most of us had our first glimpse and subsequent love affair with elephants at a circus. Not only will we not see these wondrous animals, we will lose our immediate concern about their well-being, the catastrophe of their natural habitat decreasing and the resulting culling of elephant families, and the continuing slaughter in the wild for tusks.

Money and involvement is needed to curb these actual criminal activities, but without the circus bringing elephants into our immediate world, they will soon be forgotten, which is not only their loss, but ours. How sad that a few people who think they have all circus animals’ welfare at heart dictate what we can see and do. When faced with decisions about the fate of rescued domestic animals, this same group — People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals — was cited in Richmond, Va., for an 81 percent kill rate at its shelter.

JAN BIGGERSTAFF

LAS VEGAS

Audit the Fed

To the editor:

Kudos to Sen. Rand Paul for introducing his Audit the Fed bill this month. The bill calls for a long overdue comprehensive audit of the Federal Reserve System. Republicans attempted to push through such an audit in 2012 and 2014. These attempts got through the House of Representatives with bipartisan support, but got sidelined by then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Many of President Barack Obama’s top officials are now very nervous should an audit of the Federal Reserve System move forward. Shouldn’t our president, with his self-professed most transparent administration ever, welcome such an audit?

With Sen. Reid out of the picture, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should have no problem advancing this legislation. My prognosis is that the bill will be sent to and then vetoed by President Obama. Some transparency, huh?

CLARENCE LANZRATH

LAS VEGAS