Letters to the editor

I wrote a few months back (about three) that some scammer painter came from Sparks and just started painting house numbers on the street curbs without asking permission, then laid a guilt trip to get people to pay him $15.

Well, it seems that this wonderful painter used inferior paint and it is starting to peel off many places he painted.

I didn't pay him, but, if you are one of the people out there that did, you should call him back to paint it over the right way with the right paint. Maybe even get a lot of people on your block and file a class-action lawsuit against him.

RALPH MANSI

Carson City

The secret to the greatness of Washington and Lincoln

The birthdays of Lincoln and Washington have just passed. Why do these men loom large on our list of greats?

One important reason is their Christian training at their mothers' knee. August Washington, George's father, and Mary, his mother, imbued him with the Scriptures. After August's death when George was 11, his mother and half-brothers continued his Christian home schooling. Similarly, Lincoln's step-mother, Nancy Hanks, instilled in him the Scriptures. The Bible, prayer, and focus on Christian morality, it is evident, were the underpinnings of their greatness.

Neither, as has been alleged, were deists, as their speeches and writings attest. Both believed Jesus Christ to be involved in the affairs of mankind and our nation. For example, in a speech to the Delaware Chiefs, on May 12, 1779, Washington said: "You will do well to wish to learn our ways of life, and above all the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are." Not unique in his time, 52 of the 55 Constitutional delegates were Protestant Christians also, not deists (see Dr. John Eidsmoe's "Christianity and the Constitution.")

What will America's destiny be if we permit secularists with their hostility to all things Christian to dominate the political and educational scene by undermining the foundational mindset of this great nation?

BOB SHAW

Carson City

A lesson left over from Valentine's Day

Another Valentine's Day has passed. A yearly event filled with sentimentality, and good feelings. Some professing their undying love for another, and to affirm the sincerity, little gifts are given. It would be nice if the spirit of the day would last all year.

Some women have mixed feelings about the day. Women question if their husband's love is real, the reason given, he is remiss in sharing his love for her, he never compliments her on her appearance or never appears to listen to her when she is expressing her feelings. Unfortunately, some men are self-centered, and seek their own comfort ahead of others.

Love, as opposed to infatuation, has a lasting quality, it's all about caring and sharing, feelings and commitment.

Valentine's Day can be a wake-up call to carry on the feelings of that special day all the days of the year.

Little words of endearment, spoken often with sincerity, are morale boosters. Feeling a certain way about a loved one is meaningful only if you convey those feelings to her by the spoken word.

If you tell someone they look beautiful, they feel beautiful and glow with pleasure. All the cosmetics in the world have no effect on a woman unless someone tells her she looks beautiful. We all strive to be accepted and feel important Ð it really is all about feelings. Happiness is an elusive spirit, you can't buy it, or sell it, and generally you can't keep it for yourself, you can however, give it to others.

If two people live in harmony with each other, caring and sharing concerns and feelings, and live for each other, happiness is bound to be the center of their lives.

It might be nice if on Valentine's Day all women felt secure in saying, "I know my husband loves me because he shows me every day in the little things he says and does just for me."

Just one man's opinion.

JAMES MCMULLEN

Carson City