Letters to the Editor for November 2, 2019

Can the U.S. rise to the challenge?

Humans on Earth face many challenges every day. Some problems are enormous and we feel helpless to find solutions. Global warming is a huge problem, but there are many ways that we can diminish its effects on the Earth. Shouldn’t we at least try? Science, technology and medicine have advanced the world with new inventions.

Yale Environment 360 with Tom Daschle and Tim Worth have said that we should “encourage an approach that builds on national self-interest and spurs a race to the top in low carbon energy solutions … and change the likely outcome from one of hand-wringing about failure, to excitement about tangible action to build a better world.”

It’s a challenge! With all of our inventors, surely the U.S. can rise to the challenge.

Can Congressman Amodei and Sens. Rosen and Cortez Masto encourage research and development?

Nancy Scott

Carson City

Defending the indefensible

Every day it becomes more obvious the current occupant of the White House is not the “real stable genius” he claims, but a foul-mouthed buffoon possessing not a single credential that would qualify him for the presidency. The very antithesis of a statesman, this is a man who is so in love with himself he can’t resist flouting his narcissism at every opportunity, a man who brags about “falling in love” with North Korea’s Kim Jung-un, one of the world’s bloodiest dictators; who congratulated Xi Jinping of China on becoming “president” for life (“maybe we should try this”); who claims “victory” after abandoning our allies, the Kurds to the brutality of the Turks and Russians and then sends U.S. forces back into Syria to defend Assad’s oil fields; and who proclaims “there are good people on both sides” after a deadly rally of white supremacists. And, what of the mindless sycophants at his “mega” rallies chanting “Lock her up, lock her up,” “Send ‘em back, send ‘em back” (think, “Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil”).

I have participated in every presidential election since I became eligible to vote (at age 87, that’s a lot of elections!) and obviously have lived under many presidents for whom I didn’t vote. Indeed, most Americans have lived and survived under administrations that were not of their choosing, but in our lifetime, there has never been a more chilling scenario than the one now unfolding in our country. History, I believe, will not view kindly those who continue to defend the indefensible.

John O’Neill

Minden