Does anyone in Congress know how to read?
To the editor:
Here we go again. First, the 1,800-plus pages of the ObamaCare tax pass through Congress without lawmakers reading a single word. (Remember, Nancy Pelosi said they had to pass it in order to find out what was in it.)
Now, here we are in 2013, and Congress has passed yet another tax bill, this one 154 pages, less than three minutes after receiving it. It is amazing that 100 politicians could read 154 pages in less than three minutes, but they can’t seem to read the Constitution of the United States in all their terms in office.
Then their fearless leader leaves on vacation before signing the darn thing, using an autopen to approve it. The Constitution says the president shall sign – not his autopen – any bill passed by Congress. I must have passed that one up while reading our Constitution.
JOE SCHAERER
LAS VEGAS
No service cut
To the editor:
Clark County is considering allowing Republic Services to decrease trash collection to once per week while increasing recycling collections to once per week.
Now we have 104 trash pickups per year and 26 recycling pickups per year. The commission and Republic Services apparently only want us to have a total of 104 pickups per year. Where is the money going that Republic Services is saving on wages and expenses for the other 26 pickups per year?
Are my Republic Services bills going to be decreased by 20 percent, or are the savings going to re-election coffers of the commissioners?
I need 104 trash collections per year and 26 recycling collections per year. I also won’t use the large recycling bin that is unwieldy for many seniors. I don’t have the space to store it.
Someone from Republic Services ought to come out on recycle days and see how many newspapers and how much other trash is left in the streets after their crews have supposedly picked up the recycling.
If the commission goes to that system, I will stop recycling. I urge everyone who doesn’t want this system to contact the commission and voice their opposition.
MARGE BRAKE
LAS VEGAS
Not the story
To the editor:
The Journal News, serving counties north of New York City, showed a total lack of intelligence and concern for citizens when it published the names and addresses of Rockland and Westchester county residents who possess permits for firearms. This was a misguided effort to show support for more ineffective gun control. By pursuing this reckless agenda, the newspaper not only targeted citizens who cannot defend themselves, but opened the possibility of identifying homes to be broken into in a quest for gaining access to more firearms.
The kicker is, now that the newspaper’s management fears for the safety of employees, they have hired armed guards to protect them. Why are guns OK for them and not for the rest of us?
I must add kudos for Dennis Sant, the clerk of Putnam County, for refusing to honor the Journal-News request for information on Putnam County permit holders. He simply stated that he only cared for the safety of his constituents.
FRANK J. SANTUCCI
HENDERSON
Culture change
To the editor:
Juli M. Moore’s Friday letter is analogous to a spectral shotgun blasting most, but not all, arenas of programmed violence. For that alone, she deserves accolades. I’ll take it a step or two further by comparing most of the American people to the Roman plebs at the Circus Maximus, enjoying, if not hypocritically lamenting the well-staged carnage. Ancient Rome had no qualms with bloodshed and mayhem.
In the United States, spectator sports are all the rage. Movies, TV and video games depict demented, cold-blooded criminals breaking heads, spilling blood, quartering bodies. And they all – almost – get their just rewards. We have watched with bated breath the wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, but not the blow-by-blow butchery prevalent in such patriotic battles. The obsessive hunger to fill the void results in nationwide homicides, mostly, but not always, by deranged individuals possessing guns.
Nevertheless, even the emotionally or mentally disturbed would be much less inclined to vent their rage on others via firearms if not subjected, from childhood, to the cinemascope of deadly violence.
An assault weapons ban won’t solve the mentioned problem. As Ms. Moore stated, “The overall environment of our culture needs to change.”
ZE-EV AMZALEM
HENDERSON
Locked, loaded
To the editor:
The fact that children too often are injured or killed by guns that were “safely locked away” in their homes should give us pause when it comes to the thought of loaded guns – locked or unlocked – in school classrooms. Do we really believe that armed guards at schools would be a deterrent to mass shootings? Do we want to live in a police state?
The Second Amendment was written in the days of muzzle loaders and buckshot. Gun rights have become so skewed in our society, they are now revered without exception and deemed untouchable by constitutional advocates.
If rights groups are so determined to uphold the “intent” of the framers of the Constitution, maybe it’s time to go all the way back to the good old days, before six-shooters, Winchesters and the NRA.
DIANE J. KREMSER
LAS VEGAS
