Letters to the Editor for May 1

Easter message was

a refreshing view

I wanted to comment on Deana Hoover's April 24 column. I enjoyed it very much, as did my husband. She has a wonderful attitude and positive outlook on life. Thanks for a refreshing view, Deana.

Judie Hartwick

Carson City

FAA's traffic controller fix is more costly than useful

When an air traffic controller has so little work that he falls asleep on the job, the FAA fixes the problem by doubling that staff at a cost of $150,000 per person per year.

This solution is perfect for every organization with night or graveyard shifts. Law enforcement, firefighters, hospital emergency rooms, military, casinos and 7-Elevens would all benefit from the increased assistance.

Joe Renner

Gardnerville

Unions are pricing America out of existence

Why are our towns, cities, counties and states broke? Unions.

Why are all of our jobs sent to foreign countries? Unions.

Why do the airline companies have their maintenance and repairs done in a foreign country? Unions.

Why are our schools so inadequate? Unions. How did Obama get elected? Unions.

The unions are pricing America right out of existence. Time to wake up.

Rita Bentley

Jacks Valley

Pundits, president

don't understand how

gas prices work

Lately I've heard many TV and radio personalities cite speculators as the cause of the rapid rise in the price of oil. It appears to me that these so-called knowledgeable people either do not understand the futures markets or they are willingly ignoring what really happens when someone buys and/or sells a futures contract.

To begin with, for every contract someone buys, there is a seller on the other side of the market. Both are speculating; one is speculating the price will go up, while the other is speculating the price will go down. In other words, both sides of every trade are speculators. Also, I should add that oil is not traded on futures prices but on spot prices so futures do not affect the price of oil today but at a future time.

All of these media pundits should do a little research before expressing their opinions. At this time, I might even include the president since he too expressed the fact that those speculators are somewhat responsible for the rapid oil price increase.

John Devenish

Carson City

Chuck Muth is a counterculture warrior

Nevada Appeal columnist Chuck Muth took out an ad in the April 12 Appeal calling out Nevada State Assembly Speaker John Oceguera's plagiarism of other legislators' work. Sounds like an interesting news story. I wonder if any media types plan to cover it while it's still news.

The media used to take pride in speaking truth to power. But if a modern day journalist happens to be an ideological ally of the power in question, not so much. A while back, the Appeal carried a karaoke column tying the Tucson shootings to prominent conservatives, but no outrage for the violence that came from the union thuggery and vandalism in Wisconsin.

A few days ago we were treated to a column justifying the high level of public sector pay. OK, but every dollar they get is first earned in the productive private sector. When are we going to get a column lauding the capitalist schlubs who pay that freight?

The Soviet Union had its useful idiots. At least some in the media appear to be performing that function for the Democrat party and the political left. In the case of Oceguera, he isn't just an Assemblyman; he's the Assembly speaker. Nevada's voters deserve to know.

If you want to see real rage against the machine, pull up Muth's ad on his website and see what drawing attention to the unvarnished truth looks like. Chuck Muth, the new counterculture warrior, is doing the work the media walked away from.

Lynn Muzzy

Minden

Public needs to assist police about possible criminal activity

In a recent letter to the editor, a reader was lamenting the fact that it seems there is drug dealing in his neighborhood. He stated that it appears that law enforcement has taken no actions to curtail this activity. What he didn't state was what he had done to provide information to the sheriff's department that would aid them in an investigation.

Police cannot be everywhere at once, and need the public's assistance to combat criminal activity. When I lived in San Diego, I had the same problem as the reader. During a particular time frame, numerous cars would go down the block to an apartment and then leave shortly afterward. It became very obvious to me what was going on, so I started utilizing my binoculars to take notes: Time of day each car came and went - license plate numbers and vehicle types. I did this from inside my apartment so that I didn't have to confront anyone. After furnishing this information to the police department, a warrant was served on the apartment, and the occupants arrested.

It is up to the citizens of a community to decide what kind of community they want. If you observe something that doesn't seem right, contact the sheriff's department and talk to them about it. They live here also and want to help keep the city free of criminal activity as much as citizens do.

Observe and report is the best policy. It's your choice what kind of neighborhood you want.

David Knighton

Carson City

GOP trying to bring fiscal sanity to the country

Eugene Paslov is the epitome of a left-wing radical extremist. He is a tax-and-spend bureaucrat who never saw a tax or government program he didn't like. He is an expert at distorting the truth and promoting a socialist ideology. Case in point is his commentary in the April 23 Appeal.

The bottom line is that Paslov and his ilk could care less if Nevada and the rest of the country end up in disarray like California and the city of Detroit.

The Republicans are not, as Paslov claims, attacking teachers and our valued public servants. Instead, they are trying to bring fiscal sanity to the tax-and-spend mania that is promoted and endorsed by Paslov and the liberal left. Sadly, there is little chance the Republicans will succeed if union thuggery and government dependency prevail.

Gary Thompson

Gardnerville

Nevada needs to create guardian oversight board

Humanitarian jobs, those considered to need regulation because of their direct involvement with humans, range from physicians to beauticians. There are training, examination, certification and ongoing standards of practice and codes of ethics to be adhered to.

Along with these types of jobs come review boards. When a complaint of wrongdoing is submitted, there is a real investigation - both sides can be heard, evidence of wrongdoing is examined and a decision is made to correct, reprimand or discipline the wrong-doer. This type of oversight applies to almost any profession as a means to prevent poor practice techniques, ward off abuse of power, and in general, to assure that humans are treated with the utmost respect when needing these services.

There is no job more humanitarian than that of guardian. Out of need, many private guardianship companies are in the position to step in or be assigned the 100 percent care, happiness and well-being of a person. These companies have no reporting agency. Their actions over their wards are freely done with an annual written report to one judge who usually just signs it without asking questions or reviewing the report.

Reporting that a guardianship company has done something, or even many things, proven not to be in the best interest of a defenseless loved one, cannot be done in Nevada. There is no agency, no oversight. The public needs to know that they truly can do whatever they want with our wards. How can this be allowed?

Jacqui La Voie

Stagecoach

Writer tracks beginning of 'end' of school system back to the 1960s

I was going to address some of the slanted and somewhat questionable views of Mr. Paslov from his columns on education. But because he's been a government employee in one fashion or another all his life, I already understand where his views come from on education and civil servants. So instead, I choose to relay what I believe to have been the beginning of the end for our school system.

I was raised here in Carson, and back in my high school days in the late 1960s, I remember a student who transferred here from the Bay Area. His name was Erik, as I recall, and he sported a full beard, something not allowed at the time. I believe at least one of his parents was a lawyer from California and they sued the school district over the right of their son to have a beard. They won.

That kind of action, in my humble opinion, was the beginning of the end. The rights of the few trumped the rights of the many. Instead of a school system with the teachers and administrators in control, we had the students and hippies in control. What a shame. Things just got worse from there.

I'm not saying they should all wear uniforms and have the same haircut, but when fashion, fun and cell phones compete for their attention at school, there isn't much time left for learning.

Walter Owens

Carson City