R-C Dec. 16 Letters to the Editor

Gardner for special interest

Editor:

In case you haven’t noticed, a revised Gang of Three — Gardner, Tarkanian and Rice — may have emerged on the five-member Douglas Board of County Commissioners, replacing Penzel, Walsh and Rice. Didn’t the former three give us 2,500 Park homes, RDA2, a taxpayer-funded event center and bond among many other bad decisions favoring special interests at our expense?

During his campaign against Larry Walsh, and in meetings after he was elected, didn’t Mark Gardner tell us, over and over again, how he allegedly represents Douglas citizen constituents and not special interests? During the BOCC meeting of Dec. 2, weren’t petitions signed by Nevada citizens in opposition to the rezoning presented to the board? Wasn’t the total number of signatures 111 for the first and second readings, including 20 from owners and employees of businesses in Meridian Business Park adjacent to the 8.98 acre Light Industrial parcel to be rezoned? Didn’t the owner of a specialty coffee roaster, food manufacturer and distributor at Meridian oppose the rezoning during public comment? Didn’t an attorney, Amber Handy, for 2241 Park Place Association also request a no vote on rezoning? Didn’t a high-end loudspeaker manufacturer at Meridian submit written opposition to the rezoning?

Aren’t these all constituents?

At the Dec. 2 meeting of the BOCC, didn’t Commissioners Gardner, Tarkanian, and Rice vote to rezone an 8.98 acre parcel across the street (Heybourne Road) from the Minden Tahoe Airport for construction and operation of a 26,200 square foot facility favoring a California demolition contractor, concrete crusher, and flattened vehicle carcass compactor? Won’t the California special interest haul asbestos-laden concrete debris, demolition waste, scrap metal and flattened vehicle carcasses to and from his facility in big rigs spreading air pollution and adding to the already terrible traffic congestion on 395? Also, won’t the massive 26,200 square foot facility being built for the California demolition contractor be surrounded by an 8 foot high concrete wall? What a sight to behold.

Perhaps bus tours at the airport can be arranged like those for the Hollywood homes of the stars. After all, won’t this be the only known demolition waste and car carcass plant surrounded by an eight foot concrete wall across the street from an airport?

Also, won’t this facility not be open to citizens for their waste, but only to commercial businesses, such as Douglas Disposal? 

Didn’t Chairman of the BOCC, John Engels mention during the Dec. 2 meeting, before he and Vice Chairman Nowosad voted no on the rezoning, that a major motion picture special effects company may be considering Meridian Business Park? What impact do you think a massive junk vehicle compaction and demolition load processing facility will have on this decision?

Roger Adam

Genoa

Who is the enemy?

Editor:

My first job was in the aerospace industry in the late 1950s. The computer our department used took up a whole room that was specially air conditioned and had limited access. And it couldn’t do nearly what the small thing you hold in your lap today can do.

Later, I thought “computers have been designed to make us crazy.” My thoughts haven’t changed – just expanded. Little did I know how the whole industry would escalate.

Now your Operating System automatically updates (it feels like monthly). That means your “old” programs/apps won’t work so they need to be upgraded, too. Also, your “old” printer doesn’t work with this OS so you need to buy a new printer (which is OK, because they aren’t making ink cartridges for your “old” printer any more anyway). Last time my OS updated, I lost all my Previous Recipients from my email program. Why? Was there a reason? Or did they just not beta test?

Their thinking seems to be: how can we change this program. Not for the better, just change it. The program I’m writing this with has a spelling feature which means it “corrects” a word it thinks I want from what word I intended. Trying to find a way to turn off this feature, I lost everything I’d typed up to this point. Will do a save after each paragraph now.

Needless to say, I’m becoming a cranky old person who doesn’t like change. I’ve told myself that I don’t need anything more for so long I’m starting to believe it: no new clothes, no new appliances, no new car! 

Now our government is trying to make it mandatory for people to get COVID inoculations. I think the health care people and airline employees who are leaving their job are thinking the same as me. Maybe not “no new clothes,” but there are other things they can live without when they make their decision. 

I keep saying “life is too complicated.” It used to be all you had to do was climb up on the roof to adjust the antenna so you got a good picture on the TV. Now you need a college degree to operate it. 

My daughter works at a high school and she said you can’t believe the anxiety kids feel today. They’re sent home if they have more than two symptoms; then their parents then yell at them for coming home. If you haven’t heard, there a new web site that encourages kids to vandalize their school; even assault their teachers. It’s no wonder there’s such a rise in the suicide rate for teens.

Life in the 21st Century is challenging. In my lifetime you used to be able to identify the enemy. They looked different or lived far away. Today with the enemy living here, it’s a challenge to identify them. Could be anyone. Who is it?

M. A. Richardson

Gardnerville

Heller damaged me

Editor:

During recent days our mailboxes have been bulged by a deluge of campaign materials from a cast hoping to become governor of Nevada or U.S. senator. Swarms of political lepers have exited their caves, hoping to bask again in the glow of elected office. 

Ex- Sen. Dean Heller is among the perennial hopefuls, asserting that he is “the true conservative choice to lead our state as governor.” Nothing could be further from the truth. The facts are that Heller could best be characterized as a “Republican in Name Only.”

Then-Sen. Heller stated many times that Obamacare should be repealed. “The repeal of this law will not only reduce federal spending, but it will also allow Congress to address problems within the current health care system.” But then-Sen. Heller joined six other Republican senators, including Sen. John McCain who was suffering from aggressive brain cancer, in voting against legislation to repeal Obamacare. One might have forgiven the ailing McCain for his mental limitations but not so the malignancy that perennially plagues Heller who lost his bid for re-election to represent Nevada in the Senate.

Heller suffers from acute self-aggrandizing political ambition that manifests itself most often in fence-sitting and at best avid periodic grinding of the issues one might expect to be the grist in the windmill of a crusading freshman congressman or a struggling candidate for governor.

As a partially disabled veteran I applauded his efforts to clean up the Veterans Administration; but these efforts pale in comparison to the damage he has done to me, and to hundreds of thousands of others, who must continue to suffer the financial burdens of Obamacare. U.S. Rep. Mark Amodei systematically debunked the myth perpetrated by the supporters of Obamacare. Sadly, Heller could not find the wisdom and fortitude to act on the facts and compromised his earlier vow to Nevada voters.

Heller’s campaign flyer urges us to assert that “While you were in the U.S. Senate, Nevada was always able to count on you to keep your word and to represent our conservative values.” Heller’s record in the Senate is clear evidence nothing could be further from the truth. Before you think of opening your wallets to support his campaign, before you consider ever voting for him, I urge you to refresh your memory on his voting record. We cannot count on Heller to adhere consistently to any set of values. Compare Heller’s campaign material assertions, assertions I believe to be lacking in veracity, to the solid platform and integrity being offered by Dr. Freddie Simon. 

Freddie Simon is not a career politician, a hackneyed leper climbing out of a cave. He promises to bring us a fresh new perspective, viable solutions to the issues facing Nevada.

DeVere Henderson

East Valley

Maybe not that pro-life, after all

Editor:

On the same day the Supreme Court took up a case that will most surely be the end of Roe, a 15-year-old opened fire on his classmates at a Michigan high school killing four children. The cognitive dissonance on the right must be deafening. For a party that identifies as pro-life they seem much more concerned about the mythical teaching of critical race theory then the terrorizing and cold-blooded murder of our children in our public schools.

We have a gun violence epidemic in this country that some folks have come to accept as normal. Children are just the collateral damage for someone’s unfettered right to bear arms. Never mind the rights of the children and parents, never mind the lifelong trauma and PTSD that the survivors must endure, and never mind the twisted psychosis of the shooter. Please, I implore you, join the real world and help us solve real world problems.

Then there’s the pandemic, we have more tools available to us now then we’ve ever had before to save lives. We have therapeutics, vaccines, and masks. Yet many on the right persist in putting lives at risk by rejecting vaccines and masking. They would rather go to school board meetings and scream about mask mandates or ingest horse de-wormers or engage in other fringe behavior. Many on the right argue, ironically, they want bodily autonomy. They want to make their own choices about their bodies without fear, violence, or coercion. Huh, imagine that. That’s exactly what the majority of women in this country want. Reproductive rights without fear, violence, or coercion.

I used to believe that people were sincere in their beliefs but wrong. Now I believe they’re just dishonest and they conveniently cloak themselves in the sanctity of life argument. This is about patriarchy and the subjugation of women. After nearly 800,000 deaths from COVID it’s pretty clear people on the right don’t care about saving lives and they show it by refusing vaccines and mask mandates. In an interview with Tucker Carlson, Bill O’Reilly said (about the elderly) who cares, they’re on their last legs anyway. These words and behavior are anything but pro-life. You’re just being dishonest.

In response to Lynn Muzzy: I stated that Don Ahern is the owner of Ahern Equipment Rentals (there’s one right here in town) and that he is a prominent Trump supporter. Both of these statements are true. Slander, on the other hand, is a type of lie. A lie would be claiming some evil doer voted for your dead wife, like the one that resulted in Ahern Equipment Rental Chief Financial Officer Don Hartle being convicted of voter fraud.

Alice Meyer

Gardnerville

Visiting Pollock Pines on Thanksgiving

Editor:

What a splendid drive on Highway 50 to the tiny village of Pollock Pines over the Thanksgiving Holiday. Just being out after such an arduous, intensive pandemic and fire period, brought a ray of hope under the blue sky and affirmation that our beautiful trees are making an extremely passionate effort to regrow.

Meraki – a wonderful Greek word - describes the bright yellow-jacketed workmen along the route as they cut, stacked and piled up log after log diligently to bring our forests back to a healthy life. Meraki refers to the love one pours into what he is doing. As we saw with the months of explicit determination of the many, many firefighters, policemen and community helpers who gave of themselves during the turbulent fire battles, the workmen are doing the same and appear to be quite proud of their efforts. 

The cutting of fallen logs and stacking them to perfection … the removal of charred growth … the blue painted stripes diligently applied to those massive trees designated to be thinned out and protect the revitalization of the Sierra Nevada forests, brought a sincere appreciation for the monumental tasks these yellow-jacketed workmen were performing. Aristotle, the famous Greek philosopher, believed that happiness depends upon ourselves.

Observing the faces and body language of the forest workers, it was obvious that they truly take pride in their tasks and are happy with their sincere efforts. 

In addition to the genuine appreciation for all of our workforces, let’s not forget to give a personal thanks to these men and women day in and day out who start at dawn and continue until dust. They are rebuilding our forests better and with greater precision to make sure the Sierra Nevada regain and retain the splendid glory as recognized by not only our Native Americans but those persistent pioneers who crossed them. We have much for which to be thankful. And once again, tiny green pines are sprouting.

Robin L. Santoros

Gardnerville

The president is the economy

Editor:

The Russian dictator Putin better be worried when Biden warns him about economic ruin over Ukraine; look what he’s done to our economy in 11 short months.

Terry Davis

Gardnerville