Letters for June 21, 2018

Read forever

Re “Immortal toil” (cover story, May 10):

We have to stop wasting money and resources to keep people living forever. It was not meant to be. Sure, it makes doctors rich and pharma even richer. What is wrong with passing that wealth to our offspring where it belongs, or to a worthy cause that benefits others and/or society?

Robert Mort

Reno

Migrant issue

Re “Trump’s anti-family policy” (Left Foot Forward, June 7):

It truly is a heartbreaking situation to see children ripped from their parents. Why, then, have you singled out those entering the country illegally exclusively for your pity? Every day, hundreds of people are sent to prison and ripped from their children. Why haven’t you spoken before, and why do illegal immigrants qualify for special heartbreak?

Your article is factually misleading. By international law, anyone seeking asylum must do so in the first country they enter, which for those crossing our southern border would be one of several Central American countries or Mexico. By international law, they cannot pick and choose the U.S. Also, prior administrations have the same or worse record on such children. And it has been clarified throughout the media that these children aren’t lost. Very often the custodial family wasn’t home when called, didn’t respond, etc. You have blatantly misrepresented facts and grossly mischaracterized the situation as being unique to illegal immigrants and not one shared by everyone sentenced to prison for the sole purpose of fomenting pity for those entering America illegally. And I am the child of two immigrants.

Jay Kay

Reno

Editor’s note: The concept is known as the “first safe country” principle, not the “first country” principle. Numerous nations in Latin America, including Mexico, have been made highly unsafe by our war on drugs. And those in charge in other nations—Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, Juan Orlando Hernández of Honduras, Evo Morales in Bolivia, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua—make it a judgment call how safe those nations are. In addition, some international law experts have argued the principle is obsolete. See the brief “Understanding the ‘First Safe Country’ Concept and Why it’s Obsolete” by Toronto attorney Shelley Levine.

A student’s view

Re “Lethal fiction?” (letters, May 31):

Hello, my name is Brenden Bass, and I am a 14-year-old who lives in Reno. Let me start off by saying to Mr. Turner that if you are a veteran (it sounds like you are based on the tone that you take in the letter), I would like to thank you for your service. I would then like to jump right to the point that for a long time, politicians did leap to the “video games are too violent” response, so this isn’t an issue that is completely ignored. While you are right that many Democratic members of Congress do go to the “gun control” response, most Republican members were able to strike the proposed legislation down.

I am not saying that violent video games do not affect some children, because that simply isn’t true. The 1999 shooting at Columbine High School is one example, where one of the students said that he wanted the shooting to be like a video game that he enjoyed. I doubt, however, that the video game was the entire reason for the shooting, as the student’s journal described him wanting to get revenge on the school. This evidence points to violent video games encouraging some students who have pre existing issues, but not actually causing anything. My last point is about myself and my friends. My friends own violent video games, such as Call of Duty, which I have played about five times with them. We still think that anyone who even aims a gun at another is a horrible person and that killing is wrong, no matter what circumstance.

While I do think that you make valid points, I just would like to give my two cents into the issue. I do realize that I am just 14, and therefore, I don’t have the experience that adults have, but since I am old enough to be shot in school, I believe that I should at least be listened to.

I believe that gun control is the only way that we can fix this problem.

Brenden Bass

Reno