Letters to the Editor for August 12, 2020

Thank you for letter

Thank you Teri Cotham for your letter Aug. 1, “What is happening to our country?” which was right on. I totally agree and thank you again.

Paula Morton

Carson City

Communists are greedy

We know how Red China is conquering the world. They analyzed capitalism and use its flaws to destroy it and individualism in Western culture. The major flaws China exploits are greed, our private property society, our corporate cultures, our institutional weakness and our media madness.

Greed comes with capitalism because that is why capitalism works. Communists are greedy, but they operate in a closed society inspecting every move of every person and institution. Only the CCP is allowed wealth.

Greed drives the NBA and NCAA to collapse when China demands criticism of it to be eradicated, that they emblazon the Communist slogan “Black Lives Matter” everywhere and kneel for our national anthem.

Our private corporate structures allow China to buy stock, then take control of company trade secrets. China infiltrated our universities with Communist progressives, then turned students against America by lying about its history and purpose.

Undergraduates believe private property and capitalism are evil because, they claim, many people fail and few succeed. Thus, capitalism and private property are unjust and oppressive.

To impose justice, capitalism, private property, the Constitution and law itself must die.

The lies are working. Arise, America, or lose the world’s best hope for freedom.

Alan Dale Daniel

Carson City

Outcome in hands of voters

Hopefully our Appeal subscription dollars are not paying for Fred LaSor’s right-wing rants where he repeats the Trump alternative-reality lies that any Democrat is a radical “supporting lawlessness, destruction, and dirty streets.”

The only truth in Fred's rants is that the majority of voters do in fact wish to reverse “the results of the 2016 election” that placed an ignorant, lying, sycophant and would-be dictator in the White House.

A president who's apparent goal is to destroy any semblance of effective and responsible government and, in the process, doom even his supporters to unnecessary deaths by the current pandemic.

It is truly incomprehensible how Fred and other followers of the “Dear Leader” can listen to Trump's incoherent babble and still support him as the president of the United States. The rest of the world believes that we are suffering from an intellectual and moral “social virus” in addition to COVID-19. That we are consciously abandoning our former positions of international moral, economic, and scientific leadership. Will we recover? Or will another four years of “Trumpism” complete the destruction of our constitutional democracy? The outcome is in the hands of our voters.

Jon Nowlin

Carson City

Dear Gov. Sisolak

A little over a year ago my wife and I escaped California’s political and cultural morass. We now live in beautiful Carson City. We are both registered to vote.

We recently received a voter registration packet in the mail. It was addressed to our youngest daughter in her maiden name at our address, even though, she has never lived at our current address nor has she ever been a resident of Nevada. She is also married and goes by different last name.

I am wondering why the State of Nevada is mailing voter registration packets to non-residents? I do not think Californians should be registering in Nevada. That is an invitation to fraud.

Mike Rodgick

Carson City

When it hits home

I don’t need to look to Portland, Chicago or Seattle to challenge Fred LaSor’s recent episode of acid reflux spewed on the Opinion page of the Nevada Appeal. Far right instigators were identified in both Las Vegas and Reno as having disrupted peaceful #BLM events in June and July.

I personally participated in a #BLM event in Carson City on July 4, where I held one end of a banner commemorating multiple Black lives recently lost to police violence. People armed with assault weapons and Trump signs rearranged themselves to directly oppose us across the street. One middle-aged woman crossed the street back to us without a mask, shouting — and spraying — in our faces that all lives matter — without any sense of irony. We asked her to put on a mask or to stop shouting in our faces, to which she challenged, “Are you going to make me?”

I learned many years ago that I can’t make anyone do anything. But I can try to be a decent human being. And regardless of what LaSor spews, I do remember who George Floyd is, and I will continue to join with others to say his name, and the names of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arberry, Miciah Lee and others whose lives were lost to police violence.

Laura Hale

Carson City

Opinion columns were scary

Yikes! Your op-ed page is kind of scary. Social Darwinism as a cure for systemic racism? There is some enlightened 19^th century thinking. Let God sort ’em out. Maybe we can bring back the Inquisition, catch some of those Antifa guys, put them on a rack and covert them to Trumpism.

Black Lives Matter is a Marxist plot behind an Obama coup attempt? Now I'm confused. We don't need a coup, we have elections. If you want to vote for a malignant narcissist, pathological liar, racist sociopath without a shred of human decency or compassion that's your business.

As for the bloviator in chief, Farmer, you need to resign as president of the Tucker Carlson fan club, put on your big boy pants and move to Seattle, so the sane people around here can read some commentary without feeling queasy. The jack booted thugs are gone, it should be safe. If no one knows you there maybe you can pretend to be a Democrat again.

Patrick McGuire

Carson City

Mail in ballot?

Please tell me why mail in ballots for everyone is better. Our old system would have accommodated anyone uncomfortable voting in person because of the virus and less costly. Here are my concerns of how the primary was done: Each balloting envelope and security sleeve had a dime size hole through them. Why?

My signature and political party were on the outside of the envelope. Why?

Wouldn’t my personal information be safer from identity theft on the inside of the envelope? The number of persons handling my mail in ballot is unknown. The more something is handled the more chances for problems. There are no checks and balances. I do not know if my ballot was received, counted or rejected. The number of ballots rejected because of problems wasn’t considered a problem, however in the past some elections were won or lost by a small number of votes. I believe the only reason for approving mail in ballots for everyone is not to prevent problems with the virus, but someone has something to gain by this new system over how the old system was done. It is difficult to find a problem with mail in ballots for everyone if there isn’t a sound way to track the mail in balloting process. To top things off under the new system anyone can take anyone’s ballot in and cast it for them. Is that like stuffing the ballot box?

Bill Knight

Carson City

Virus not governor is the enemy

I feel so awful for what our world is going through with the coronavirus. This is the worst, unprecedented, global health crisis that we have ever faced. We don't know when or if it will ever be fully eradicated.

However, please don't be so quick to judge Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak. Yes, I understand how very frustrated Nevadans are right now. They want him out of office because he imposed some unpopular restrictions that we simply don't agree with. People want to completely reopen Nevada, even at the risk of being way too soon.

I don't personally know the governor. I have never got to directly hear his side of the story about why he chose to shut down our schools, casinos, bars or restaurants. Nor do I understand his reasoning for having two special legislative sessions. However, I do not think that he is a bad or mean spirited bully at all.

So, for the record, please keep in mind that our governor has some greatness inside of his heart. We all need to give him the benefit of the doubt, not cast him as the enemy.

Joshua Dealy

Carson City

Lack of compassion

In response to the letter of Aug. 8 by Ron Landmann. How nice for you to have the physical capacity to stand in lines at Home Depot, Trader Joe’s, Costco, Harbor Freight and the DMV. Not all folks are so fortunate. There are many reasons they are unable to do so. You are not privy to judge their needs.
Thankfully, our legislature and our governor did work for the people of Nevada to provide them a way to cast their vote that otherwise would have been denied them.
Patriotic citizens recognize that all registered voters have the right to cast their ballot. It is unfathomable why any persons, such as yourself, would wish to obstruct, circumvent or otherwise try to prevent anyone from that right.
Congratulations that you are able to stand in those lines or at a polling place.
Congratulations that you are not a caregiver of an immune compromised person that you are trying to protect.
Congratulations that you yourself are not susceptible to catching the COVID-19 virus.
Congratulations that you are not one of the 161,000 persons that have died because someone shared the virus to them while being close to them standing in a line somewhere.
Shame on you for your self-centered lack of compassion.

M.J. Newman

Carson City

Defunding will cause more issues

Defunding police will not solve problems; it will cause more problems. Having fewer police will create more crime and more reckless drivers.

Instead, police methods should be reviewed and changed to help eliminate the injuries and deaths that have occurred. The No Knock Warrant, allowing officers to break down a door and rush in with drawn guns, creates a volatile situation and should be voided in all states.

Restraining anyone, regardless of size without using force or chemicals, is very hard. A solution would be to restrain them with a rope or strap then wait until they agree to being arrested without a struggle.

It might take, awhile for them to calm down, but it would stop the killings and should appease the protesters.

If the person being restrained won’t stop resisting, call an ambulance and strap them in a gurney for transportation to a police station.

Walt Ratchford

Carson City