Letters to the Editor June 17

Writer dismayed about the future of the country

As we focus on (Sarah Palin) as she kicks off a bus tour for unknown purposes, I have never been as dismayed about the future as I am today.

We have idiots like Paul Ryan and Eric Cantor, wholly ignorant of economic history dictating the economic debate. These fools dismiss decades of empirical evidence indicating the efficacy of Keynesian pragmatism to pursue the folly of Hooverism and austerity which have driven other nations into the toilet.

We are endangering our very existence as a species by poisoning ourselves with myriad chemicals, radiation from perfectly predictable disasters like Fukushima and our continued reliance upon carbon-based energy which is wreaking havoc on the planet's health.

What we need to do is end these counterproductive wars which are bleeding us white, restore tax rates to the level of Reagan, and institute programs like the Works Progress Administration to rebuild the infrastructure necessary to facilitate a 21st century economy. We need an Apollo- or Manhattan Project-level effort to build high-speed rail, wind, solar and geothermal alternatives.

As the people suffer, while more Americans are on food stamps than ever, while millions are kicked to the curb, I can only think of Steinbeck's stark warning: "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, heavy for the vintage."

Vince Coyle

Carson City

Yucca is a business opportunity

Recent op-ed pieces by Cobb and Strolin were interesting. Now that the positive overall conclusion from the NRC staff's review of the license application has been revealed by House members, appealing to the 300 scientific objections from Nevada seems spurious.

Also spurious considering the current downturn in tourism, is the charge that a repository would have a negative impact on tourism. Blowing up nearly a thousand bombs didn't deter tourism, so why would a boring, passive system like a repository? The National Academy of Sciences said spent-fuel transportation was thousands of times safer than transportation of some chemicals coming through Las Vegas.

But really spurious is the idea that there is no money in hosting a repository. Watching the video of the Carlsbad, N.M., meeting of the Blue Ribbon Commission on the fate of U.S. nuclear waste, the local community is overwhelmingly in favor of expanding the mission of their current DOE geologic repository - already operated safely for 12 years. There is a state senate resolution urging repository expansion, signed by every state senator.

Is there a pot of gold? No, this is not a get-rich-quick scheme, it is a sound business-development opportunity that brings infrastructure improvements, many decades of good jobs, education and ancillary business opportunities, and little risk.

Providing a benefit to the nation seems to be an idea valued only by counties closest to Yucca Mountain.

Abe Van Luik

Las Vegas

What one person took away from the debate

I listened to the Republican (presidential) debate last night, and I heard a message of "Let's rush to the bottom, so we can compete, on a world status, of third world countries. Please vote for us, so we can totally eliminate the middle class, and survive in a two-class system of 1 percent opulence versus 99 percent in poverty/serfdom."

Our middle class was created by primarily two presidents, post World War II, Truman, and Eisenhower, both strengthening the Constitution, "of, for, and by the people."

Look up the Republican platform of 1952 and 1956, before you rebuke what I just wrote.

Anneliese Puthe

Carson City