Serving the public at UNLV, in politics
To the editor:
I feel I must respond to what I hope will be the last chapter in Review-Journal columnist Glenn Cook’s ongoing diatribe against me as a professor/public office holder (“It’s great work — if you can get it,” Sunday).
For years, he has attacked me with half-truths for being a UNLV professor in politics. Now he is attacking me in like fashion for leaving UNLV, unfairly lumping me in with those who continue to receive public-sector salaries for jobs in Clark County during the legislative session in Carson City, which he knows I never did.
Mr. Cook also fails to mention that while serving in the state Senate and in Congress, I was on leave without pay or benefits, so UNLV and the state were actually saving money.
Nor does he acknowledge that while on leave from UNLV without pay or benefits, I continued to advise students, serve on graduate committees, teach occasional classes, run the legislative internship program and engage in research that led to publication — all for free.
Never has he pointed out that my classes consistently drew the maximum number of students and have thus generated more “full-time equivalents” and revenue for the campus than professors who were there every semester but taught only a handful of students.
Nor does he ever recognize the teaching and research awards I received over the years, which at the risk of sounding immodest, enhanced the reputation of the university and increased the value of its degrees.
My 34 years at UNLV have been personally rewarding, but let me assure you that it was never about the money. If it were, I would not have chosen this profession in the first place, nor been willing to give up half a year’s salary and benefits, every other year for two decades, to serve in the Legislature, which paid less than $8,000 per biennial session.
I sincerely believe that being a political science professor made me a better legislator, and being in politics made me a better teacher, both of which allowed me to better serve the public.
While I welcome debate on my stance on the issues, I cannot allow Mr. Cook’s unfair attack on my integrity to go unanswered.
Dina Titus
Las Vegas
The writer is a former Democratic state senator and one-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
It’s your job
To the editor:
Two recent news items caught my attention.
Last week, Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., walked out of an important meeting on the debt ceiling. Then, Clark County Commissioner Susan Brager objected to night meetings, saying, “We’d be (here at) 2 in the morning in some cases.”
Of course, the folks who can’t attend the day meetings would also be there till 2 a.m.
These incidents leave some question about those elected to office. My thought: You were elected to office to do the people’s business. If you can’t or won’t, then you have no business doing the people’s business.
gil eisner
las vegas
No more pain
To the editor:
As a member of the middle class, I am tired of carrying the load. The rich have everything.
They wanted the economy to heat up, so they made credit easy and talked people into buying houses they couldn’t afford. The fat cats in the stock market sold bad loans and caused the collapse of the monetary system. We taxpayers bailed them out and what did we get? We lost our houses and our jobs, and we can’t get loans.
Now the politicians want us to carry the pain of cuts. Why don’t they really do something about jobs? Let the Bush tax cuts expire for one year, and if a company can show it has increased employment by 5 percent, it gets the tax cuts back the next year.
They should raise the debt limit because we can’t take any more pain. They should fix Social Security, Medicare and reduce expenses where it makes sense. But Congress has to let the tax cuts for the rich expire.
Sue Papiion
Las Vegas
Was it Billy?
To the editor:
Reading the article this week about the Billy the Kid portrait sold at auction — and that the tintype had been taken in 1879 or 1880 — it brought back memories about my Grandfather Garcia.
In Grandfather Garcia’s unofficial biography, he related the story that an unknown “Anglo” had stopped in at the ranch house to ask to be put up for the night. The ranch is located in Manzano, N.M., about 60 miles southeast of Albuquerque on the east side of the mountains. Because my grandfather did not know the man and being somewhat distrustful, he suggested to the stranger that he could spend the night in the barnyard hayloft.
The man accepted, but when my grandfather arose the following morning, the stranger was gone. He took a horse, and it seemed he was headed toward Estancia, a small community in central New Mexico.
When the authorities captured the bandit Billy the Kid, my grandfather and his family saw the picture in the newspaper and were sure that it was the same person who had asked for an overnight stay at their ranch during that cold and rainy night.
Esmael E. Candelaria
Henderson
