Letters to the Editor for February 20, 2021

Support 30X30

As a student studying wildlife ecology and conservation at the University of Nevada, Reno, I have learned the importance of habitat protection. We are currently in the midst of the Sixth Mass Extinction, and we, humans, are the cause of this crisis.

Habitat destruction and degradation are major causes of biodiversity loss. Protecting lands so that they can continue to provide habitat for our wildlife is crucial.

To some people, protecting wildlife may not seem like an important goal when our country is facing many other challenges. But we must remember that humans are not separate from the natural world, we are a part of it, and we need it to survive. By protecting our lands and our wildlife, we are protecting our future.

President Biden has signed an executive order to protect 30% of the land in the U.S. by 2030. In a letter to Biden, 450 elected U.S officials have showed their support of this 30X30 goal. I urge our Nevada senators and representatives to support the 30X30 goal as well. We are losing our lands and biodiversity at a rapid rate, and we must take action today to combat this loss.

Please call Nevada’s U.S. Sens. Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto to urge them to support the 30X30 goal.

Kara Berggren

Carson City

Cancel culture

In her opinion piece of Feb. 13, Ursula Carlson selected quotes from our Founders, men who had the wisdom and vision to warn against, and fear, unprincipled office holders.

But, our Founders’ greatest fear?

Here Carlson takes the easy and predictable turn to the left and employs hyperbole to characterize Trump as “anointed” and a “wanna-be” dictator.

Perhaps it would be beneficial to consider that today our Founders would experience not a great fear of an elected executive limited to a minimum of four years with checks from both legislative and judicial branches of government, but rather a fear of the alignment of a leftist, socialist ideology that threatens our freedoms and punishes those who dare to disagree.

Our Founders, were they here today, could see “Americans being fired from jobs… stripped of services such as banking and social media and {having} their businesses crippled for voicing political opinions.” They would see a “labeling {of} large segments of society as ‘extremists’ and potential terrorists who need to be ‘deprogrammed.’” (Michael Rectenwald, retired liberal arts professor at New York University, at New York, October 2019). Likewise according to Carlson, if you, as a U.S. senator disagree with her, well, you are simply unethical.

Our Founders would be alarmed by the emergence of the cancel culture, the forcible suppression of opposition and the growing censorship.

They would fear this greatly, as do I.

Ruth Ailes

Carson City

The ‘new’ Democrats

According to AAA the needless, untenable and inexplicable spike in fuel prices is directly connected to President Biden’s executive order(s) on Keystone and public lands extraction moratorium.

We are presently in a time of “hyper-abundance” with respect to energy.

A more selfish and elitist policy could not have been put in place in this moment of time.

Americans are under more anxiety and stress economically than at any time since the Great Depression, and yet the president has chosen to throw Americans, like frogs, into a pot of boiling water on energy policy.

Prices are and will continue to spike across the economy.

Wholesale prices are going up now. A bread distributor told me today they are going up now!

It is clear the ongoing gentrification of the middle class is not a concern for the elitists who now call the shots for the “new” Democratic Party.

When we look at the gentrified masses arriving from California it amazes me they still consider today’s “new Democrats” their friend.

What Democrats in California have given them is “poverty by design,” and is now being rolled out as nationals policy.

We are headed to a government dependent population controlled by an autocratic, and authoritarian group of elitists who will continue to tell you to “Do as I say, not as I do.”

Gene Robinson

Carson City