From our readers

Teachers' raises before athletic programs

Oh, yes. Spending money on gas to get students to athletic events is so very much more important than giving teachers a raise.

I was baffled and infuriated at the article printed in the paper Sept. 22. A 2 percent raise isn't much, but every teacher in this state pretty much deserves it.

If you don't have money for gas to get kids to sporting events, Humboldt County School District, I suggest you do what my sister's culinary program did when their budget was cut by two thirds: fundraise. Because nothing is more important than these teachers. Teachers have the most important job on the planet, and yet they're some of the lowest-paid professionals.

Don't believe me? These people are teaching our future, which is a thankless job when you consider the attitudes of most of the youth nowadays. These people are teaching our future. How are athletics more important than that?

I understand that a lot of people think that football and other such sports programs are more important than actual schooling. I mean, Fred Perdomo cut my sister's culinary program by two-thirds to give that money to the athletics program. But, jeez. When the Legislature approves the money, and you snatch it away from them ... well, I'm amazed there hasn't been an outcry from the teachers. Because if I were in this most important position, and this happened to me, I'd get pretty vocal about it. I wouldn't be surprised if your teachers are a little less cooperative than usual this year, Nevada. And it's not their fault.

Just tell me, how are the athletic programs more important than the teachers, who are, I may remind everyone, the reason schools even exist? School is not supposed to be about football and baseball. Those are just nice extras. School is supposed to be about learning, which only teachers can provide. I don't think a 2 percent raise is too much to expect.

NATASHA GONZALES

Carson City

Judges must follow law, not political correctness

Judge Roberts will make a great addition to the Supreme Court. He is a strict constitutionalist and will dispense justice as our founders intended. Unfortunately, we have a large number of liberal judges who flout the law by legislating unconstitutionally from the bench. No wonder some individuals are concerned about the loss of freedoms. Yes, freedoms have already been lost, but not in the conventional. Since a more insidious approach is at work:

Liberal judges throughout the country have overturned and/or modified a number of voter-approved initiatives, as in our own Proposition 200, and most recently, the Pledge of Allegiance case in California. Also, rendering the 5th Amendment (the illegal taking of property) moot, because a municipality saw an opportunity to increase revenues by condemning property and handing it over to a developer.

Passive courts turning rapists, murderers and pedophiles loose on the public through plea bargaining or soft sentencing. Agenda-driven courts quoting phrases that don't appear in our Constitution, such as "separation of church and state." However, it does appear in the Communist Manifesto.

Prostituting the 1st Amendment by expanding the meaning of "speech" as to fit a square peg into a round hole. The burning of the flag is not speech, but a personal "act." When most of us went to school, speech meant to verbalize. Make no mistake, this country is upside down, and that's why it is so important to select judges who will use the rule of law, common sense and not falling prey to political correctness while judicating from the bench.

D.C. CAPP

former Carson City resident

Sierra Vista, Ariz.

Dr. Mattoon's charges just sour grapes

The more I read of the article "Carson City chiropractor disciplined by board" in the Oct. 1 Nevada Appeal, the more I became upset. I have been a patient of his for 10 years. He has helped my back problem immensely! How many of his cohorts would go to one's home, give a treatment, and not even charge for his visit? You could probably count them on one finger.

Dr. Mattoon is a very compassionate person, and I feel the charges against him are sour grapes from disgruntled chiropractors who are jealous of his many patients and the friendship he has always shown us.

The so-called dispensation of a non-Food and Drug Administration product which can be purchased at any feed store, liniment for animals and human beings, I have used it personally, and it was not prescribed by Dr. Mattoon.

KAY RUTMAN

Carson City