Letters for September 20, 2018
Inoperative
Does the truth matter? My mother thought so and she let me know. I tried to teach my kids to be truthful and honest. I thought it was important. But our Republican leaders have another view. Kellyanne Conway said there were “alternative facts,” Rudy Giuliani said “Truth isn’t truth,” and President Trump says, “Don’t believe what you see or read,” and he thinks the news media is the “enemy of the people.”
Holy crap! These people are leading the country and trying to make fools of us all. We can change that with the coming election. You can vote for Dean Heller and continue the insanity and the fall of America into a cesspool of corruption, or you can vote for Jacky Rosen and return America to the people.
Don McKechnie
Sparks
Middowntown
Another fine mess you’ve gotten us into, Ollie, with the latest plans to shut down Virginia Street until 2020.
So, all that traffic can clog up Plumas, and Keitzke Lane and Wells—which are all pretty much busy now as it is—and with a net loss of parking spaces in midtown; but at least it will look “pretty.” It’s gonna be a nightmare.
God save us from pretty, please?
Craig Bergland
Reno
A letter with a signature
For 25 years during the cold war, the BBC aired a radio program called “Letters without Signatures” presented by a gentleman named Austin Harrison. It was a reading of letters penned by east German citizens from all walks of life that were smuggled across the wall in various ingenious ways. A quote from a letter written by a teenager said, “We’re being educated in lies. I can’t tell truth and lies apart any more. The whole world is dishonest. Politics is just a lying contest. What’s the point of life?”
Sound familiar? We live in a world of corporate/governmental-sponsored lies that would make Hitler’s propagandist Joseph Goebbels proud and Niccolo Machiavelli blush. Luckily, we still have a relatively free press where the truth can be known.
We must keep in mind a quote of Edward R. Murrow, in regards to editorializing: “Bias is OK as long as you don’t try to hide it.” I believe this thought includes the fact that any words written by man will have at least some small amount of bias and can only represent the point of view of the author, even if it’s only in the subject matter chosen.
Although your editorial staff seems to lean a bit to the left, thank you, RN&R, for allowing free speech to be presented from so many points of view remaining basically uncensored.
John Bogle
Fernley
Nevadan
I have lived and worked in Reno since 2001. I came from Southern California. I loved it not the first few years. I hated the spaghetti bowl, the smoked-filled restaurants, the lack of diversity, the stores always out of goods, shoes, clothing, no internet to order online like today—and yet I remained.
I love the growth I see, the smokeless restaurants and bars, the spaghetti bowl has been redone—twice, I think—and diversity is still not here. However, I found better work, no income tax, beautiful homes I could afford, friendly people, and shopping came to us via Summit Mall.
As I look around, I love the growth of Reno. I lived for a short time in Las Vegas. I found it was like L.A., crowded, lots of tourists, all for the casino trade. Reno will never be a Las Vegas, nor should it be, and no matter how many California folks show up here, it never will be. Las Vegas can go for miles and miles, so it may, but why be concerned, it will grow and progress like other desert cities in Arizona and New Mexico.
The “West is the best” and neighboring states will have their relocations for various reasons. Some come in, some will go, and pass away. My family was four, now only one (me) here in Nevada. I do hope to move my daughter out of L.A. and move to Las Vegas. So all in all, my friends, we are far from overpopulated, and adding our education and money and diversity here to Nevada. This is a good thing. Nevada has improved already, which I will take full responsibility and credit for. If you think you would not have grown without us Cali Folk moving here—LOL.
Romona Eggenberger
Reno