What’s so bad about becoming wealthy?

To the editor:

President Barack Obama and his re-election campaign staff say I should be concerned with Republican Mitt Romney’s wealth. It’s almost as if Democrats are pointing at Mitt Romney and saying, “Look! He’s rich!” – as if there is something bad about a private citizen accumulating wealth.

What is wrong with being rich? Isn’t that something most people want for themselves? Isn’t that part of the American Dream?

While demonizing Mr. Romney, Democrats are overlooking the fact that many Democrat politicians and their supporters – including Sen. Harry Reid, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Shelley Berkley, Sen. John Kerry and many others in Congress – are also wealthy.

So, what? I don’t care.

I don’t care how rich other people get through their own efforts. I don’t care how many millions of dollars Sen. Reid or Rep. Pelosi or Rep. Berkley or Sen. Kerry or anyone else accumulates. Nor do I care what they do with their personal money.

I do care, however, what President Obama and other politicians do with my money. If you are a taxpayer, how do you feel about the way politicians are spending your money? Are you angry? I am.

November is coming, and many politicians should be worried.

Steven G. Hayes Sr.

Las Vegas

Kettle, meet pot

To the editor:

In his Friday commentary, Thomas Sowell presents us with a picture of race riots – of mobs of black people attacking white people all across this country and no one talking about it. What rot.

To support this contention, Mr. Sowell points to a “race riot” that supposedly occurred in Milwaukee during its Fourth of July celebrations in 2011. Even a cursory examination of this event, using Google, will show that the so-called race riot resulted in a couple of folks beaten, one store robbed, no deaths, no hospitalizations, and the local police unwilling to state that anything of any consequence had occurred.

This was not because the police were afraid or trying to cover up anything, but simply because the events were nothing more than what happens at many large gatherings of individuals across this country, no matter what races are involved.

Mr. Sowell’s article is nothing more than an attempt to raise racial fears in the white populace, and he does this clearly for political purposes. He ends his essay by calling Al Sharpton a race hustler and mob inciter. Talk about a kettle calling the pot black.

Richard L. Strickland

North Las Vegas

Green market

To the editor:

I agree with everything Warren Willis Sr. says in his Monday letter on green energy (‘Money laundering”), but he tells only half the story. There is no market for green energy. NV Energy and other utilities across this country purchase “clean” energy because state legislatures have mandated its use. Therefore, not only are our tax dollars used to subsidies these companies, but we pay again with higher utility bills.

Some day people in this country will wake up.

Nick Arnone

Las Vegas

No kickbacks

To the editor:

In response to the letter written by Warren Willis Sr.:

According to my research on energy.gov. it was not the Democrats who supplied money to Amonix, but George W. Bush in March 2007.

According to energy.gov, the Department of Energy selected 13 solar energy projects for up to $168 million in funding. “These cooperative agreements, to be negotiated, will be the first made available as part of President Bush’s Solar America Initiative, a component of his Advanced Energy Initiative, announced in his 2006 State of the Union address.”

If anyone was getting kickbacks, it sure doesn’t seem like it would be the Democratic Party.

James Andrews

Henderson

Arrogant agencies

To the editor:

The July 7 article on Marion Brady and her care of ailing hummingbirds impressed me so much that I cut it out to send to an out-of-state friend, noting, “Beautiful!” on it.

But on July 14, the Review-Journal reported that the Nevada Department of Wildlife had shut down Ms. Brady’s operation, confirming my general disgust with agencies which have an all-powerful attitude toward those who do good and act as though the taxpayers have anointed them.

If one needed proof that no good deed goes unpunished, the actions of the Department of Wildlife should remove all doubt. In order to spread the word, all subsequent articles and letters concerning the department’s arrogance have also been sent to my friend.

Joan Downey

Pahrump

Shameless liar

To the editor:

I am astonished that you printed Mike Murphy’s letter in support of Sen. Pat McCarran and praising Sen. Joe McCarthy (Friday edition).

Sen. McCarthy was nothing but a liar as a person and a politician. He used his position to ruin myriad lives completely without reason. Everything he did to “blacklist” people all over the United States has been proved over time to be false. He was a shameless liar and among the biggest racial and ethnic haters ever. If Sen. McCarran was a supporter of him, that alone is reason to remove his name from any public project. Sen. McCarthy was so far from a “patriot” to be laughable. He was simply a redneck hiding behind his political position.

I was born and raised in Wisconsin. We were embarrassed by the actions of Sen. McCarthy and have tried to live that down since. We cringe when we hear his name and would prefer to never hear it again. We also consider that to be the blackest period in our state’s history and that of our country. All reason had disappeared during that period. One can only imagine the trash he would speak today, given the way politics has deteriorated even further.

Robert Stanelle

Las Vegas