City Center: Many questions remain

I am so thankful that all the Ph.D.'s have weighed in to explain our system of government and suggest the intentions of others. I applaud the Appeal for allowing OPEN discussion about the so-called Nugget Project. When the intelligentsia attack the newspaper's First Amendment rights, one knows the press is courageously doing their sacred duty.

The Ph.D.'s would like you to think NO taxes are going into the project. They may have a strange definition of what is a tax. There is around $30 million of OUR money earmarked just to get it built. Then we have to maintain it. It has to come out of OUR pockets somehow.

The Ph.D.'s would like us to think we don't understand how our government works. Many of us think it doesn't. At least not for us little people. My take is that we hire politicians to manage our public affairs. We expect them to follow the law and our direction, as any employee should. When they stray, we can try to correct them and, if they don't listen, fire them. We also can put items on the ballot that require them to follow our will as the People. Nothing in our founding documents prohibits or discourages that. Why do they?

Why would anyone build a gathering place for children in a casino district?

Why would anyone build a new building when we have plenty of suitable empty ones at better and safer locations?

Why does the design emphasize "naming opportunities?" Do the elite need more adulation?

Why are we paying for the Nugget's parking garage? Ever not find a place to park downtown?

Is the project an arm's-length transaction or brokered out of the public's eye?

Will it benefit ALL of us or is it just a feel-good project and/or a business opportunity for an elite few?

Regarding the so-called "gift" from the Adamses: Just because wide-screen TVs are a bargain this month doesn't justify taking food from your kids' mouths or not replacing their worn-out shoes. The project is an extravagant luxury of little utility that we cannot afford right now.

The petition reads, "No public funding shall be used for the proposed Carson City Center Project ... without a majority vote of the people approving such funding." What's wrong with that?

Sign the petition so YOU can be heard. What are they afraid of? We, the People, are coming. Go to www.carsoncitynuggetpetition.info.

• Richard Schneider of Carson City was a supervisory special agent with the FBI before retiring, serving throughout the U.S., Puerto Rico, Greece, Saudi Arabia and Tanzania. He has degrees in economics and management, and he describes himself as a malcontent.