Letters for August 31, 2017

Bird cage

Re “Learn it” (editor’s note, Aug. 17):

You are far too quick to throw around the “racist” label. You attack Peter Cvjetanovic, a young student at University of Nevada, Reno because he chose to avail himself of his First Amendment rights to express his beliefs. There is a real problem with folks like you who think it is OK to attack the messenger just because you don’t like the message. Where was your venom when the Black Lives Matter bunch were advocating “kill all whites”? Why have folks like you not made a public condemnation of a black Missouri Senator who called for “the assassination of President Trump”?

I may not agree with Mr. Cvjetanovic’s stated beliefs but I will defend his right to express his beliefs. You have certainly been granted a license by the News & Review to express your own one-sided opinion, but that is what I have come to expect from people who only see things one way. They aren’t interested in debating, all they want is to out-yell anyone else.

You state that some are circulating petitions to get Mr. Cvjetanovic fired from UNR. For what—exercising his First Amendment rights? You state “that dude needs to be taught a lesson.” By whom? You? Such an impartial and vocal person who is filled with such wisdom that it allows you to be both judge and jury. You must certainly live on a one-way street because your thinking certainly leans that way.

I personally consider the News & Review nothing more than a liberal rag that has surrounded itself with mediocre wannabe journalists who can’t get a job with a reputable newspaper. Years ago, it would have been relegated to the “outhouse” to be used as toilet paper. Why the News & Review allows both you and Bruce Van Dyke to hold space in the paper for your own leftist and sometimes vulgar opinions is a mystery. Well, not really. The News & Review is best suited for the bottom of a bird cage.

I don’t expect to see my opinion piece in the News & Review. I’m not a liberal.

Thomas Gargus

Sun Valley

Word choices

Re “Time to do the hard work” (editorial, Aug. 17):

I might have made it all the way through your ridiculous rumination on the site selected for the City of Reno’s otherwise heartfelt vigil on behalf of the victims of the Charlottesville tragedy—which was held in front of the BELIEVE sign in downtown, one of the few venues available in Reno for such a gathering—but for the utterly unsubstantiated and untrue statement that was made at the conclusion of the editorial. You wrote: “The United States is recognized both inside and outside of our borders as an anti-intellectual society.”

That cannot explain why intelligent and forward thinking parents of all kinds from all over the world strive to enroll their children in our universities, yearn to bring them up in our schools and communities, and risk virtually everything to have them raised as Americans. Yes, we believe that our country offers the best and brightest future, the greatest hope for peace and prosperity, the inherent, if not fully evolved, aspiration for equality for all people in the land. Clearly, we did not elevate a worthy example of our collective intellectual population to the highest office in the land, but that is hardly sufficient reason for you to vilify what we believe. Adding insult to injury, you added that this supposed and acknowledged anti-intellectual banner was “a quality we can afford no more.” What the hell are you smoking?

When you put down that joint, please pick up a thesaurus. Just because some people overuse the word believe does not mean that it is the only word that works in this context. Consider, deem, hold, opine are all options, but when you mentioned think and reason I suspect that you may indeed have consulted a thesaurus, but jumped ahead to the very next entry, which is belittle.

Terri Thomas

Reno