Letters to the editor for Feb. 15

Silver Stage Library serves town's youth

I don't wish to take anything away from the need for a Youth Center in Silver Springs " every community needs a place where kids can blow off steam without being out on the streets, bored and looking for mischief.

But to state that there is currently no safe place for the kids of Silver Springs is not correct.

The Silver Stage Branch Library is an after-school base for many elementary, middle and high school students. While waiting their turn at free Internet, they play chess or other board games, work puzzles, check out books and movies, network with their friends and do their homework with all of the research facilities of the library at hand.

On many days there are upward of 25 young people scattered through the small building " and adults, entering the tiny space filled with the happy buzz of conversation, are amazed at what a good bunch of kids our "regulars" are.

As a matter of fact, in our library seniors and kids come together beautifully as the kids show their elders shortcuts on computers and otherwise share their Internet savvy.

I have every hope that someday soon there will be a Youth Center for Silver Springs " including some form of public transportation, as the proposed facility sits midway between the school complex and downtown. But we shouldn't ignore those places which currently, with little space, staff or budget, cater to our local youth with patience and enthusiasm.

I am proud of the accomplishments of Silver Stage Branch Library, proud of our ongoing youth programs and excellent staff-student interactions, and feel we deserve a mention when it comes to addressing the needs of the young people of Silver Springs.

LEIGH ZEVENBERGEN

LIBRARY MANAGER, SILVER STAGE BRANCH LIBRARY

Silver Springs

Center situation not turning seniors away

Paul Lockwood is fixated on having Douglas County provide him with a new senior center. His constant complaint is that Douglas County is "turning away seniors." Nonsense.

My wife and I escaped here from California eight years ago. We never thought to ask if there was a senior center. Mr. Lockwood needs a lesson in economics. The private sector produces wealth, the government sector creates nothing.

It redistributes the wealth created by the private sector. The county would have to tax citizens in order to get the money to build a new senior center. Younger people have a more important need for their money: Educating their children.

In all of his letters on this subject, Mr. Lockwood has never cited any real evidence that seniors are avoiding Douglas County because of an inadequate senior center. Yet he wants to take money from the productive sector and use it for his special purpose.

This is a small version of what redistribution as practiced by central government is. They decide who should benefit from the hard work of the productive, they then tax the more productive and give it to the less productive. The theory has been used in Europe for more than 100 years and has failed miserably. European nations have a lower standard of living.

Increasing the government's ability to "spread the wealth around" as a recent candidate for president suggested has failed wherever it has been tried.

A better solution is for Mr. Lockwood to get together with 50 of his closest friends.

They can go to the senior center and add rooms, or a floor. They can buy new furniture and spiff the place up. Where there is a will there is a way.

I would then like to see his evidence that even one senior citizen chose to move to Douglas County because of the new, improved senior center. I am not asking Mr. Lockwood to shut up, just to get a life.

Mr. Lockwood and Dr. Paslov might want to read "The Wealth of Nations," written by Adam Smith in 1776, to get a better understanding how productive private effort is versus the reverse for the government effort.

DAVID K. SCHUMANN

Minden

Victory for us or them; you decide

As I listen to the news and read the papers I am struck in awe at the ignorance of people failing to accept the fact that we are a nation at war.

No, not a war that Bush started. Bush merely defended America just like he swore an oath to do. Love him or hate him we have not been attacked in seven plus years. A fact that he is seldom given credit for.

Why Iraq? I don't know for sure, but what I do know is that all the intelligence at the time pointed to Iraq and its government.

Iraq was the training grounds for terrorists, as well as Hussein's insatiable urge to create a nuclear bomb.

Most friendly and intelligent nations accepted this as fact and acted accordingly.

With the dawn of change now on the horizon, our commander in chief has decided to close Gitmo. OK, he's the boss why not?

My thoughts are this: Gitmo is not an internment camp, those fences do not hold detainees and there are no constitutional rights for those incarcerated.

We are a nation at war. There are rules of war. The first rule is to kill the enemy before he kills you. To attack, advance, attack. Find the enemy and destroy him before he destroys you, your family and ultimately your way of life.

Detainees? I don't think so. They are enemy combatants. They have killed American civilians and American fighting men. What is so hard to understand about this concept? They are truly enemies of war and they should sit in that prison until the successful conclusion of this war.

As a warrior, I don't like war. In fact, I loathe war. Because it's me and people like me on the battlefield bleeding and dying. However, my family and my country are protected because of our warriors.

Must more Americans die on our own land before Americans wake up and realize that there are no negotiations with the enemy? Just victory. Victory for us or for them, you make the choice.

ROY HUTCHINGS

Minden

Farmer's knowledge of economics questioned

Guy Farmer has a lot of nerve trying to tar the free market system with Bernie Madoff.

Farmer denies the creation of wealth produced by capitalism by equating free markets with criminal greed.

That puts him in the same journalistic league as Stalin apologist Walter Duranty and fabulist Jason Blair. The smallest business owner in Nevada creates more societal value than Guy Farmer ever will.

Madoff's scam was bad, but nothing compared to monumental government frauds like Social Security and public education. Get ready for the coming trillion dollar Ponzi scheme that Rush Limbaugh calls "porkulus."

Given his expertise in government, could Mr. Farmer calculate the economic growth produced by taxing a dollar away from the job creating "rich," subtracting 73 cents in federal bureaucratic waste and "injecting" what's left?

You'll be using your laptop on a stimulus-built park bench on free government Wi-fi to look for jobs from employers that no longer exist.

If you can read this, you know more about economics than Guy Farmer.

LYNN MUZZY

Minden

Nevada should embrace nuclear waste repository

Mark Griffith did a nice job of outlining issues pro and con regarding the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.

Since moving to Carson City in 1987 we have read about infrastructure projects constantly delayed. In 1987, the Carson 395 Bypass was 5 to 7 years from completion. Now in 2009, it is still 5 to 7 years from completion. It can't be getting any less expensive to build as each year goes by. Funding is always cited as the reason.

Many times in the last 20 years we have advocated the building, completion and activation of the nuclear waste repository to support our state's budget. This effort has included letters to the editor, congressman and senators. The response from our elected officials has always been rejection, citing it as a "loser issue with the majority of Nevadans."

Now is the time to go through with this project. Nevada could stipulate its terms in regards to Nevada jobs to support the construction including the expensive transportation corridor required. Additionally, the people who would work there would most likely be Nevadans. The state could require that a substantial state fee be paid by utilities and other states to use this facility.

Environmental controls should be stringent (even those create jobs), but the location is ideal as it is close to where nuclear testing has been conducted for generations. The area will never be suitable for development, other than the infrastructure required to support the repository.

Nuclear energy is "green" energy. Look at the European example (they got it right on this one thing). Maybe we could store their waste safely too for exorbitant fees? This form of energy produces no "green house gasses" and, most obviously, reduces natural resource usage such as coal, oil and natural gas.

It is time to revisit this issue. Embracing it will put the state in a position to set the terms. If the repository is eventually forced on Nevada, the bargaining position is lost.

The race is on. Will the Carson freeway bypass, the nuclear repository or the Ormsby House be the first Nevada project to be completed in the next 5 to 7 years?

JIM STEMLER

Carson City

Special-use permit decision disappoints

I attended the Douglas County Commissioners hearing Feb. 5 and was disappointed in their decision (3-2) to grant the special-use permit to Valley Christian Fellowship. The location selected is poor for a number of reasons.

The planning commission denied this permit in November. Many neighbors worked hours preparing a presentation for the commissioners. I believe the county staff report was flawed with respect to traffic safety, home values and loss of privacy issues.

The driveway for said project is at an "S" curve on Drayton. Turning left from Silveranch is already a problem because of limited visibility. The large influx of cars will exacerbate the residents' problem. We like to walk, as do many neighbors. There are no sidewalks on Drayton and we have to watch for cars coming around the curve. The numbers will increase dramatically; our safety may be in jeopardy.

It is "common sense" to realize that home values will depreciate with a facility and parking lot over one's back fence. It is "common sense" to realize the privacy of homes backing up to this project will be enormously affected. I can't understand how intelligent, informed commissioners failed to appreciate these facts. My husband and I have purchased five homes during our 48-year marriage. We would not want to buy a home backing up to a large project.

I have a question for commissioners Johnson, McDermid and Olsen. Would you want to live in a home that backed up to other homes, or would you want a home backing up to a parking lot and large building?

The neighbors are hoping and praying Pastor Leo and his elders reconsider going forward with building in Silveranch. One of the speakers referred to "location, location, location" when talking about the proposal. This location is completely wrong for the proposed use.

BEVERLY BATDORF

Gardnerville

Return to ideas

that made us great

Wise historians know you can't rank a president a month after he has left office. Only the future will tell us about Bush's legacy.

The statement "Conservatives fought ending slavery" shows a decided lack of historical knowledge. Lincoln, a Republican, freed the slaves. Republicans fought for and signed every major piece of civil-rights legislation and Democrats fought to keep the Jim Crow laws and segregation (think KKK).

Bush is not a conservative, but a moderate. Even if he was, blaming his failures on conservatism is a logic fallacy. It does not prove that an idea is bad just because one person fails to live by it.

What we call "liberalism" is called socialism elsewhere. It has been proved throughout history that these ideas don't work. They always result in oppression and dead human beings.

"Liberals are willing to share." Yep. They are willing to "share" my hard-earned money with those who don't earn it. This results in producers going on the dole and no one producing. Then the country collapses. See the history of Russia, China and Rome. Our current mortgage failures are due to programs started by Democrats, managed by Democrats and it was Democrats who refused to regulate in '04.

The Founding Fathers' ideas that everyone should be responsible for himself, as far as the government is concerned, and that the government's job is army and police and "stay out of my way," have worked when they are actually tried. Even the poor are better off under such a system as they have more opportunities to pull themselves up and successful people give more to charities than those taxed into poverty do. The problem is that only the power hungry who run for office and they are not going to be the ones to give people control of their own lives.

We need to start studying history again and bring this country back to the ideas that made it great.

BETTY SUE TRACY

Dayton

Major change? Dump Harry Reid

John Ensign introduced a proposal to the stimulus package that would have helped home owners across the country. It would have put money in our pockets which could have been used to stimulate the economy. It would have also provided tax relief to business and low- and middle-income families.

It was voted down on party line votes. The Democrats in the Senate voted against it. It seems to me the Democrats are voting against the American public and patronizing their president. And speaking of him, he is trying to put fear in the hearts of the public by saying if his stimulus package is not passed we face doom and gloom. That is not leadership, that is politics, old Washington, D.C., politics, something he was going to change. Don't count on it.

For those who voted for him and put the Congress into a Democratic majority, you should take another look at what you have done. Now you can make a major change in 2010. Dump Harry Reid.

Reid wants to run again in 2010 and, according to an article in the Appeal, his son may run for governor. We have the son of a former governor in office now and with the combination of the Reids it would seem to me to be a political dynasty in Carson City. The people of Nevada deserve "change" and with the Reids and Millers it's nothing more than a Kennedy-type political organization. That is like changing one pair of dirty underwear for another. We don't need it.

Tom Daschle was majority leader and he was dumped by South Dakota Republicans. How did they do it? Simple. They went out of state to raise money. I will campaign with the readers of my e-mail letters to "Dump Reid in Ten."

BILL PYATT

Dayton