Letters to the Editor 5/22

Tea party anger directed at policies

Dear Dr. Paslov: I read your "commentary" regarding tea parties in the Nevada Appeal. Upon finishing the article I was left feeling that you are just another left leaning, liberal educator. While in college I met many of your ilk.

Back to your article regarding the tea parties. I attended the one in Carson City. It was not promoted by Fox News. About 3,000 persons attended; folks from all parties and persuasions. There was no ranting or unseemly behavior. It was a group of people who are very upset with the direction our government is taking. I heard nothing one could call "ugly." They were not, your quote, "Anti-President Obama malcontents whose brains are hard wired to the limbic system where the emotions of anger and hate reside." I saw anger only at administration policies.

The parties were huge. New York 15,000, Atlanta 20,000, Chicago 10,000, Sacramento 15,000. They totaled (researched) more than one million people across the country, no flash in the pan. We'll see more on the Fourth of July. Discontent will grow as more people lose their jobs, businesses fail and thousands more lose their homes. "Government can't solve our problems. Government is the problem."

The government has hired more than 60,000 people to process the spending of this administration; more spending than every administration from George Washington through George W. Bush.

You might attend a "Tea Party" in the future. See how the public really feels.

FLETCHER INGALS

Carson City

Third party success virtually impossible

While I agree with the article that the electoral college gives smaller states an equal vote, it also makes it virtually impossible to elect a third party to president.

Instead of getting rid of the electoral college we would be better served by having all states amend their constitutions to ban lawyers from being elected to any post other than district attorney or judge. If you research it, you will find that the decline of our country is directly proportional to the increase in lawyers being elected.

ROBB COBB JR.

Carson City

Railroad cars morph into wildlife condos

The V&T Commission is up to its old tricks.

As the Appeal headline says, they voted AGAIN to sell the cars being stored in Portola. A closer look reveals an inept sales process. Last year the commission voted to sell these cars. Commissioner Ron Allen was put in charge. It took him a year to realize he had to declare these cars surplus before selling them. How funny to see the government tripping over red tape.

More important is the decaying condition of these cars. The commission was supposed to board up and otherwise secure these cars against the elements. Instead, the broken windows have been left open so that various birds and critters have made these cars their home. Because the cars were not maintained, the commission did not meet its end of the bargain with the Portola Railroad Museum. These cars are an eyesore.

Meanwhile we have Bonnie Weber suggesting the cars be used in a parade. She lives north of Reno but apparently has not taken a trip to Portola to see the condition of these wildlife condos.

Ron Allen suggested a study be made of the cost to restore the cars, but claimed not to know how much that would cost. Last year he pegged the cost at $26,000. What a short memory he has.

Commissioner John Tyson said he was an expert in railcar restoration by virtue of owning a railcar. At the same time he claimed he didn't know the costs of restoration.

JIM LOHSE

Reno

What we care most about can be lost

Recently I have seen people criticized and called angry because they are "tea party"supporters (as in "Taxed Enough Already").

Dr. Eugene Paslov called "tea party" supporters "mostly anti-president Obama malcontents whose brains are hard wired to the limbic system where the emotions of anger and hate reside."

I see in these demonstrations a spectrum of traditional political views coming together. Conservati-

ves, liberals and middle-of-the-road voters are questioning the proposed government "changes," too. I don't think they are all "malcontents."

"Tea party" supporters are not as angry as they are concerned and alarmed by the loss of things that they perceived as the visions of our Founding Fathers. They are dismayed at the loss of our culture and values, and the weakening of individual liberties. They also consider the current direction of our government as a misinterpretation of what our Constitution and Bill of Rights both articulate.

Yes, Dr. Paslov, the "tea parties" have nothing to do with taxation without representation, but everything to do with out-of-control federal spending and a rush to government control. Our kids and their kids will have to pay for this spending by increased taxes, inflation and a lower standard of living. The national debt is $11.2 trillion and growing.

What we care about most, our freedom, our way of life, our values and what we consider as perpetual, can be lost as we sit by on the sidelines watching it change ... never to return.

DOUG CAMPBELL

Carson City