Letters for August 21, 2003

I have to say that I am very impressed with the way your article “Family outings” was written. It shows that we are regular families, just like everyone else. My wife and I are a lesbian couple, and we have four kids, two in high school and two in elementary school. We have never had any problems with any teachers, neighbors, etc. I think when the public reads about us and gets to know us as their neighbors and friends, they realize that our families are normal and just like their families. Keep up the good work.

Deena McDevitt and Gigi Morgan
Reno

Liquor curfew benefits casinos
So the liquor stores downtown can’t sell liquor after 8 p.m. during Hot August Nights. What is to stop someone from going into a casino and getting a drink? Who is [the] Reno Police Department trying to fool? Who is in charge here, the police or the casino owners who must be paying someone a lot of money to be able to get away with this one? I find no logic in denying the liquor stores some of the Hot August Nights revenue. The casinos already triple the cost of the rooms for the event. The casinos are sold out and making plenty from the gambling. Why do they have to be so greedy and monopolize the sale of liquor at night? This makes me lose any respect I may have had for the Reno good ol’ boy hicktown justice system.

Name withheld
via e-mail

Check your facts
Re “The recall circus” [RN&R, Editorial, Aug. 14] and “Lobster tale” [RN&R, Letters, Aug. 14]:

Your editorial describes California Republican Darrell Issa as an “anti-choice Christian fundamentalist,” when in fact Issa is Jewish. Also in the same issue, Walden and Betty Joura in their vitriolic letter list Paul Wolfowitz as a Christian fascist, when in fact Wolfowitz is also of the Jewish faith. I think you and some of your uninformed readers need to do some homework before throwing these wild statements around.

Gary Sorensen
Sparks

Editor’s note: Darrell Issa is an “anti-choice Christian fundamentalist,” as reported. Wolfowitz is Jewish, as Mr. Sorensen noted. We are sorry for any confusion the incorrect statement may have caused.

More memorable car moments
Re “A car for all seasons,” [RN&R, Arts & culture, July 31]:

Is Bob Grimm ever grim? Most memorable car moments in movie history highlighted? He did a fair job, I grant you. But, there are many cars he forgot. Possibly because many were around before he was. Still, how could he forget Grease or Pink Cadillac?

He probably didn’t ever hear about The Yellow Rolls Royce with Ingrid Bergman and Omar Sharif? Sahara, a race in the desert with Brooke Shields? How about the Green Hornet and Batman serials? Early James Bond super, super jobs? Oh, yes, The Grapes of Wrath with the whole family and belongings in the old truck. There are many, many more. These and other movies, which I can’t now recall, made impressions on me during my lifetime of almost 76 years (My birthday’s Aug. 29, 2003).

I called Bob Grimm the other day about some of these movies. He told me to write you a letter, and you would give him a bad time.

I did like his article, and I like cars and Hot August Nights.

Jean E. Sullivan
Sparks

Editor’s note. Darn you, Bob. Happy birthday, Ms. Sullivan.

Religious freedom rules
Some elements of the radical religious right are trying to warp our nation’s history to saythat the framers of our Constitution intended to create a Christian nation in this country. Several historic facts refute this notion.

Thomas Jefferson and James Madison first pushed for our rights as Americans was to be protected from “an establishment of religion.”

The Constitution includes a provision in Article VI: “The senators and representatives…and the member of several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers … shall be bound by oath or affirmation to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office …”

This seems clear. That “no religious test shall ever be required” explains why the founders did not state that they were creating a government founded on Christianity or any other religion.

I am religious (a Unitarian Universalist) and believe religion to be important, but the government’s duty is to protect religious freedom, not force religion on anybody.

Elmer R. Rusco
Reno