Letters

Piped in sound

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

One of these days, I’m going to invite you all over to my house to see what I do when I take time off of newspapering, childrearing, studying and teaching. I went into this weekend buried. I had this week’s cover story roundtable to transcribe, four stories to read and responses to write for my speculative fiction class, a must-do project to work on for my data journalism class, and my friend was coming over at 6 a.m. on Saturday to finish my hardwood floor.

It was a series of tasks impossible for anyone to complete. And there was also the little thing irritating the back of my mind. So, I got a bottle of wine, a few fittings for copper tubing, and I went straight from work to my home improvement project.

I have this room that’s detailed with copper: outlet plates, door knobs, ceiling light. The walls are basically that aquamarine that was a popular color for Chevys back in the mid-’50s. The floor is stained concrete, about the color of fall peach tree leaves. The ceiling is white, until I install stamped copper.

Since it’s on a slab, if I want to hide speaker wires for my surroundsound movie system, I’d have to run them through the wall—a helluvalot of work. So a few weeks ago, I had the bright idea to install copper waterpipe around the room and run the wires through that.

Well, that was also a helluvalot of work, particularly because the ceiling was one-inch lower at one spot than it was at the place I started. No matter. I’d hung the tubing without missing a stud before I was even halfway finished with the bottle. But then, that’s when things got complicated. I had to buy a couple of hundred feet of 16 gauge speaker wire, which, of course, was all silver-colored on one side and copper on the other.

Well, that whole bottle was gone before I had even one speaker hooked up. And things went a little slower on Saturday morning when my buddy showed up for breakfast at 6 a.m.

But you should see and hear it now. The low ceiling and concrete floors make the movies sound great. I’ll have to have you over to check it out. —D. Brian Burghart brianb@newsreview.com

My definition

Re “Support marriage equality” (The Liberty Belle, April 4):

Marriage wasn’t conceived to take anybody’s freedom away, or to be discriminatory or exclusionary, or to be anti-gay or to espouse inequality, or to be unfair or mean-spirited. Plain and simple, it was conceived to be a union between a man and a woman. And that’s true for cultures all over the world, from centuries ago to now. Nobody forced that on anybody. It’s the only kind of marriage that is universal. It doesn’t matter if you’re American, Mexican, Canadian, Asian, white, black, Latino, straight, gay, lesbian, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, agnostic, heck, you can even be an atheist. Everybody can agree on a marriage between a man and a woman. It’s common sense and doesn’t need, and there shouldn’t be, a need to define or redefine it. Not everything is about equality. It it were, we should let 18 year olds drink. They can vote, they can fight for this country if they want to, but they can’t drink. Or if it were, anybody should be able to climb Cave Rock if they want to. But it’s restricted to climbing out of respect for the religious freedom of the Paiute tribe, even though the majority of people don’t think the rock is sacred. But here we are, we have a group of people, forcing their concepts and beliefs on the rest of society, in effect, forcing it on everybody else, without respect to someone’s sensibilities and beliefs.

Samuel Thickering Reno

Really unite

The Nevada Legislature is addressing a number of historical issues this session—most on a local or statewide basis. However, there is one outstanding national issue that is crucial to whether America continues to be a functioning democracy. This bill attempts to stem the corrupting influence that corporate and political action money has on our elected representatives. Our legislators must now devote much of their time raising countless amounts of money to get elected and then find themselves under the thumb of their donors when they win. The recent Supreme Court Citizens United decision has opened the floodgates for political contributions by outside interests and made the outrageous determination that corporations should have the same (or more) rights as people. Nevada’s legislators have brought forth legislation that will join with other states in an effort that will eventually amend the US Constitution and put control of our government back into the hands of the people. Please join in urging your Senator and Assembly person to support this truly patriotic legislation, Senate Joint Resolution 11. Ron Schoenherr Reno

Eponymous

Re “Secret life” (Musicbeat, April 4):

Chandelle, how right your name proved to be; excellent choice on the part of your parents. You were a gifted young person in the fourth grade; your writing was outstanding. I well remember your darling freckled nose and intelligence. I’m so happy for your success. Mary Covington Carson City

Talk about sex

Re “Let’s have sex education” (Left Foot Forward, April 4):

This article needs to be read by all! Statistics will show two significant things. Abstinence education does not work. Although non-secular schools will debate this point, hormones win. As a result, often those educated this way are not aware of the options to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Comprehensive sex education does work in reducing STD’s and pregnancies. Last time I checked, the couple in the back seat does not pull out their notes on abstinence. Foil or Bible? Seems a reasonable choice if educated on the options. I know some teachers are reluctant to implement this with their students. If it is structured and presented like any science curriculum standard some of the reluctance can be trained out of the teacher. I realize some parents will object. Usually this will be based on their perception that this is violating their biblical principles. No doubt a hot topic and parents can be informed and given the opt-out opportunity for their children. I will wager one of their daughters will come home with the tingling statement of “Mom, I need to talk to you.” Hormones will win. This is one case where statistics can speak volumes if you look at them. Bottom line is that comprehensive sex education does work, abstinence is one part, and by itself does not work.

Ted Beecher Reno

Mining should pay more

Re “Mining pays more” (Guest comment, April 11):

So the mining industry pays more taxes. There is a reason why these extra charges are there. The mining industry in general has this habit of rearranging the landscape and walking away when they don’t find, or stop finding what they started digging to find in the first place. Take a drive in any direction, pick the loneliest, most deserted spot you can find, and look around. Somewhere you will see the tell-tale scars of a tailing heap, the ubiquitous white posts of survey markers. When the big deposits play out, the public is left with the now-toxic runoff from those millions of cubic feet of disturbed rock. Mining is dirty work. Those extra taxes are there because it brings the corporations that benefit from all this a bit closer to their fair share of the impact. Rick Woods Sparks

Diss is that

Re “Milking the land” (Green, April 4):

I would like to additionally note that the City Council, UNR administration, and UNR Board of Regents dissed their constituents.

There has been an overwhelming and unprecedented response by the people of Reno opposing the rezoning that varies from the UNR undergraduate and graduate student bodies, the College or Agriculture, farmers, restaurants, and up-andcoming businesses, etc. I would suggest that people read or at least scan the agenda packet from the meeting and see all of the information (from UNR and the appellants) that overwhelmingly opposed the rezoning.

I would also like to suggest that people watch the archived video of the meeting on the Reno City Council’s website. Not only did UNR ignore the arguments put forth by the appellants, but they boasted their “outreach” and “action” which vehemently opposed the rezoning and spectacularly failed, respectfully. The meeting ended with public comment by farmer Mark O’Farrell on the “action” that President Johnson proudly highlighted during his opening comments. O’Farrell was the subject of President Johnson’s “action” and O’Farrell scolded the UNR administration: “I’m here to testify that the assertion that the university has supported this project and worked hard for over a year to make it happen is just blatantly false.”

As a Reno citizen, graduate student of UNR, and graduate student body Vice President, I am offended and appalled by the action taken by the UNR administration, the Board of Regents, and all other supporting parties. Christopher Moore Reno

Our Mission To publish great newspapers that are successful and enduring. To create a quality work environment that encourages people to grow professionally while respecting personal welfare. To have a positive impact on our communities and make them better places to live. Editor/Publisher D. Brian Burghart News Editor Dennis Myers Arts Editor Brad Bynum Calendar Editor Kelley Lang Editorial Intern Sage Leehey Contributors Amy Alkon, Chanelle Bessette, Megan Berner, Matthew Craggs, Mark Dunagan, Marvin Gonzalez, Bob Grimm, Michael Grimm, Sheila Leslie, Dave Preston, Jessica Santina, K.J. Sullivan, Kris Vagner, Bruce Van Dyke, Allison Young Design Manager Kate Murphy Art Director Priscilla Garcia Associate Art Director Hayley Doshay Design Melissa Arendt, Brian Breneman, Vivian Liu, Marianne Mancina, Skyler Smith Advertising Consultants Meg Brown, Gina Odegard, Matt Odegard, Bev Savage Senior Classified Advertising Consultant Olla Ubay Office/Distribution Manager/ Ad Coordinator Karen Brooke Executive Assistant/Operations Coordinator Nanette Harker Assistant Distribution Manager Ron Neill Distribution Drivers Sandra Chhina, Sean Karp, John Miller, Jesse Pike, David Richards, Martin Troye, Warren Tucker, Matthew Veach, Sam White General Manager/Publisher John D. Murphy President/CEO Jeff vonKaenel Chief Operations Officer Deborah Redmond Human Resource Manager Tanja Poley Business Manager Grant Ronsenquist Business Mary Anderson, Tami Sandoval Systems Manager Jonathan Schultz Systems Support Specialist Joe Kakacek Web Developer/Support Specialist John Bisignano 708 North Center Street Reno, NV 89501 Phone (775) 324-4440 Fax (775) 324-4572 Classified Fax (916) 498-7940 Mail Classifieds & Talking Personals to N&R Classifieds, Reno Edition, 1015 20th Street, Sacramento, CA 95814 or e-mail classifieds@ newsreview.com Web site www.newsreview.com Printed by Paradise Post The RN&R is printed using recycled newsprint whenever available. Editorial Policies Opinions expressed in the RN&R are those of the authors and not of Chico Community Publishing, Inc. Contact the editor for permission to reprint articles, cartoons or other portions of the paper. The RN&R is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts. All letters received become the property of the publisher. We reserve the right to print letters in condensed form.