Letters for June 20, 2019

Reno rodeo fan

This year the Reno Rodeo will be observing it’s 100-year anniversary. A country is proud to celebrate a centennial. A business would celebrate 100 years of staying in business. A person has reason to celebrate 100 years of healthy life.

But 100 years of animal abuse? Not so much. But rootin’ tootin’ rodeos are fun, right? There is nothing “fun” about rodeos for an animal. A terrified animal confined to a chute or a holding pen is subjected to an electric prod, a sharp stick and a pinching “bucking” strap. Kicked, hit and beaten.

When released into an arena, it is frantic. The roping of calves causes their necks to be snapped back by a lasso and can result in terrible injuries. Then they are sent to the slaughterhouse. Entertainment? The Reno Rodeo is an archaic competition that is best relegated to the annals of a shameful history. Let its 100-year run be just that.

Alexandra Brenke

Reno

Las Vegas fan

Re “North versus South” (Bars & Clubs Guide 2019, March 7):

You missed an important difference between Reno and Vegas. Vegas is an unapologetically gaudy and philistine, sleazy shithole filled with shallow cackles of deluded bachelor and bachelorette parties dressed up like they fell out of a ’90s Middle East discount boutique that wraps all their clothes in plastic, not to mention the glut of overpriced corporate beer and spirits engineered with corn syrup and GMO adjuncts and generously dusted with glyphosates. Vegas can seriously go f#ck themselves in the a## like they do to all the gluttonous tourists.

Ed Park

Reno

Democracy fan

I’ve had three opportunities to ask semi-large groups of people, “Who’s read the Mueller report?” and in each case it was a resounding zero. There were different demographic groups represented in each case so a total zero response indicates a very scary situation.

Topics covered in the report—an overt attack on our electoral system, unreported interactions between one of the campaigns and the Kremlin, and a potential cover-up of crimes and corruption at the highest level— should be a high priority for any American, but a propaganda campaign based on preserving ignorance seems to be working. The forefathers had a vision of a nation where the people ran the show. But it required an educated electorate that actively participated.

If we the people would rather watch the crap on TV than take time to read a document that has the potential to expose a fraud that in my mind is the equivalent of a coup, what does that say about our future? All folks need do is read the summaries in the report to know which side has been blatantly lying to you. Then ask, “why” with an expectation of answers.

Michel Rottmann

Virginia City Highlands

California fan

Re “Give the legislature a grade” (Streetalk, June 6):

[For the benefit of online readers who don’t see our print-only features, in answer to the street question, Neil Crowley said in part, “I left California and don’t want to see Nevada become California East.”]

Did anyone get as big a laugh from Neil Crowley’s comment as I did? When I was born in Ely in ’48, there were about 110,000 people in the state at that time, according to the 1950 census. Do you think, Neil, that the state’s 3.3 million current residents all came from a massive procreational orgy from those original 110,000 residents? Ask around and see how many native relics like me you can find in these parts. I think the joke is on you. Maybe you should have thought about the remaking of Nevada before you moved here.

Michael Mirich

Reno

Conduit fan

Taking this conduit, allow me to get two things off my chest.

1) S. Virginia Street should have been repaved after crews tore it up. S. Virginia may be one of the bumpiest streets in any larger city in Nevada. A visitor might think he or she is not in a tourist destination, but the poor side of town. “Midtown?” The street is more like shanty town.

2) The ad for the Reno Rodeo. What is with the use of the word “damm?” Totally over the top. Everyone respects the toughness and roughness of rodeo participants. Language should be polite. Ask any cowboy.

Samuel Margolies

Reno