We’ve become a ‘pass the buck’ country

When you see a crime being committed, who are you suppose to notify? Recently, I witnessed two men driving through my neighborhood checking everyone’s mailboxes for outgoing mail. As I watched, the men continued down the street checking each and every mailbox.

I called the police. The operator told me they didn’t handle mail theft and that I should contact the postmaster general, which I did. The postmaster general told me to contact the police.

I’m a bit confused. It is my understanding that mail theft is a federal offense. Yet no one wants responsibility for taking care of the thieves.

Identity theft is a huge problem. Millions of people are forced to fight with banks, credit-reporting agencies and any place they are trying to get credit because some jackass stole mail and got their information.

We are supposed to report crime when we see it happening. But why report it when no one listens or tries to stop the individuals committing the crime? When did we become a “pass the buck”country?

Joie Weikel

North Las Vegas

Agency dysfunction

I watched the Aug. 7 episode of “60 Minutes,” which featured a story on “Heroin in the Heartland.” If you want to see how your tax dollars are being wasted, I urge you to find this show on the Internet and watch it.

The federal Drug Enforcement Agency was created in July of 1973 with 1,470 agents. It now has almost 5,000 agents and an annual budget of $2.03 billion. Just like all governmental bureaucracies, it has grown and grown since it was formed. Yet if you do a little research and watch the above mentioned broadcast, you will find out that drugs are more available today than in 1973 — and they are cheaper and purer than in the past. Heroin has now infiltrated the middle class suburbs and is no longer a “street” drug.

Of course, marijuana is now legal in two states and the DEA is not doing anything about that — yet the federal government still puts “pot” in the same class as heroin.

Why do we keep funding ineffective — even dysfunctional — agencies with our tax dollars? No wonder Congress is held in such low regard.

Walter F. Wegst

Las Vegas

Clinton failures

In his Aug. 20 letter, Reginald England invoked the Greek mythology of Sisyphus, asserting that an “absurd follower” of Donald Trump like me will have the fate of pushing a boulder forever.

But Hillary Clinton, Mr. England’s alternative, voted for the Iraq war that killed more than 4,000 Americans and thousands of innocent Iraqis. Her Benghazi fiasco resulted in the deaths of four more Americans, including an ambassador. Her ill­-conceived foreign policy has destroyed Libya’s dictatorial but stable government, leaving the nation in chaos.

Mrs. Clinton’s advice of inaction on Syria to President Barack Obama has perpetuated a bloody civil war in that nation. And her Iraq war cost trillions of borrowed money.

Personally, I prefer holding a rock to holding an IOU to communist China. And I would rather roll an immense boulder up the hill for an eternity than see American, Iraqi, Libyan and Syrian families hoisting the coffins of their loved ones who died thanks to Hillary Clinton’s bad judgment and failed policy.

E.C. Lin

Joliet, Ill.