Letters for November 22, 2018

Works for us

It seemed during the recent election all the Republicans were running against socialism and Nancy Pelosi. Pretty funny since Nancy is a nice lady from San Francisco, and we are surrounded by socialism. Let me comment on socialism.

Police, fire and the military appear to me to be socialists. When a cop busts into an active-shooter situation, risking his life, he has no capital investment in his employer, nor is he expecting profits or a favorable tax rate for his efforts. This police officer, fireman or soldier risks his or her life for the common good, which means you and me—you know, “we the people.” They do not charge in expecting wealth. They do this for their community, friends, and family. These workers risk their lives for us all. That’s socialism.

Don McKechnie

Sparks

Taught

Oscar Hammerstein: “You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear/ You’ve got to be taught from year to year/ It’s got to be drummed in your dear little ear/ You’ve got to be carefully taught.”

It is not an honor to fight, not in the wars going on today. It is a death sentence. We call our men and women heroes. They are not heroes. They are stupid.

Start picketing recruitment offices. Tell your friends not to sign up. You don’t sign up, either. You will not go unscathed. Very rare is a soldier free after fighting in a war. …

Our children are fighting and killing.

You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear. Everyone is affected. Talk is cheap.

Helen Howe

Lemmon Valley

Sport

Re “Good grief” (Arts of the State, Nov. 8):

A very fair review, and very much appreciated. I know there’s a natural rivalry between theatricals and reviewers, but I also know you walk a fine line between fair and snarky. Your comments were well presented and I couldn’t argue with any of them. I think the word “awkward” is in the stage directions about 20 times.

If I was a little heavy handed on the awkwardness, it’s my fault. Thanks for coming to see Be a Good Little Widow, and keeping people interested in live theatre.

David Zybert

Reno

Editor’s note: Mr. Zybert directed the play.

Hammers and nails

Re “Missing peace” (Family guide, Oct. 18):

In the “Forever wars” portion, you quote the line, “To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” Instantly came to mind the robotic, lunatic, power-mad ignoramus currently sitting—looking like a character out of the original Mad Magazine—in the White House, who is not trying to pound into total disintegration every kind, decent thing that has ever existed in America, as well as every rational human being, any person that he cannot con, or buy, or intimidate into submission.

But that, of course, is secondary to what might happen when he realizes that the only certain way to hold on to Supreme Power is to do what all dictators or would-be dictators who know how to use “nationalism” have, for thousands of years, always done—plunge the nation into another major war, and then accuse everyone who fials to support him of treason, so that they can be imprisoned or shot, just as they are in that nation run by Trump’s closest friend (next to Vlad Putin), the proven mass murderer Kim Jong Un. … As you doubtless know, Trump recently said on television that he “loved” Kim, and especially loved his love letters. Boy, would we love to read the letter exchanges between those two illiterate louts. We daresay nothing on Saturday Night Live could match it.

As you pointed out, even some congresspersons have acknowledged that they were totally unaware of the fact that our troops were fighting in certain relatively obscure foreign locales, and of how many different wars the U.S. military is currently involved in at the cost of thousands of lives and trillions of dollars. … What I’d really like to know about is how many politicians in the Senate and in the House do know about everything you mentioned, but are so heavily invested in the arms industry and all the many industries closely associated with that industry that, in order to keep putting millions in their bank accounts, they will do anything Trump tells them to do, even if it does turn America from a democracy into a fascist dictatorship.

Paul Allen Smith

Reno