Letters for May 22, 2008

Jesus got the death penalty
Re “Death penalty supports human rights” (Know You’re Right, May 15):

After reading “Death penalty supports human rights” my only response is: What?

Poor little Amanda has been drinking too much Kool-Aid or something. To put human life in dollars and cents is obscene. Yes, it surely costs society money to maintain prisons/inmates, and yet we as a people continue to imprison people for victimless crimes, i.e., drugs. Why not put money into treatment? To believe state-sanctioned murder is the answer is something else. While I am sure this may be way beyond Amanda’s expertise is she able to name one, any one, victim who thanked the state for murdering? WWJD?

Charlie Webster
Reno

GOP wants money
Re “Convention railroaded” (Upfront, May 1):

Yesterday, my husband and I received two phone calls from the Nevada State GOP. Today the phone rang again with the same request—a donation to the state party. We answered these three entreaties with questions of our own. If the state GOP needs funds so badly, why was our state convention “recessed” improperly, long before convention business was finished? We were told the party only had the room reserved at the Peppermill until 6 p.m., but word has it that this statement from Chairman Bob Beers was untrue. Now, the convention will have to be reconvened at great expense to the party and the delegates, volunteers and guests who want to attend. These three callers from the state GOP stressed how important the upcoming elections were to the party, and how imperative it was that we have a Republican majority in the legislature.

We asked these callers that if this majority was so important, how come at least half, if not more, of the delegates at the state convention were treated in such an unwelcome fashion? Did the party not want these people to help in a campaign that’s so important? If the party did want their participation, why was a “walk-out” orchestrated, leaving this contingent in the hall, dismayed and wondering why Sue Lowden, Bob Beers and their followers would just up and leave when a ballot count had not even concluded? My husband and I were thoroughly confused when this happened.

So, Nevada State GOP Committee, we wonder how you can hold your heads up and make these solicitous phone calls when you wasted the party’s and individuals’ money and time by walking out?

How can you call for party unity in next fall’s elections when you couldn’t even stay and work out differences with a group that has brought new blood and vitality to the GOP? When we have honest answers to these questions, then we would consider supporting the State GOP with a donation.

Cynthia Kennedy
Virginia City

Facts temper sanctimony
Re “Illegal immigrants sap our resources” (Know You’re Right, May 8):

Your column about illegal immigrants said, “Our country was founded on legal immigration.” Partially true. But another historical truth is that it was also founded on illegal immigration. This is not news among historians. But it is becoming a mainstream idea.

Recently a Texas historian on the History Channel said, with a smile, that the American invasion of the U.S. West was “a triumph of illegal immigration.” He was referring to the hoards of English speakers who arrived before the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo made them legal in 1848.

Historical facts are inconvenient. But they can make us less sanctimonious in our opinions about the Hispanic people in our community.

Ted March
Fernley

Tax slaves

I see where the state is considering a toll road scheme for “lucky” drivers on some of the highways in Nevada that are supposed to be paid for by gas taxes we are already forced to pay.

According to NevadaGasPrices.com, we are currently charged 32.5 cents a gallon in state taxes plus 18.4 cents a gallon in federal taxes.

The insatiable beast called government is never satisfied, never. It is time Americans wake up to the fact that soon the state will own everything, including us. I believe that’s called slavery.

Bruce Feher
Las Vegas

Correction
In “Sinema” (Art of the State, May 15) we incorrectly identified the screenwriter of Pyramid Highway as Ken Block. His name is Ken Locke. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.