Letters

It’s easy being green

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

As people keep asking me questions about my electric car, I figured I’d catch readers up. First, I had my first full electric bill with the car charging off my NV Energy account. My monthly power use went down a little bit in comparison to last year. At first I couldn’t figure out what the difference was. Finally, it occurred to me that the difference was I bought a new high efficiency washer and dryer about last February. Difficult to believe, but that’s the only thing I can pin down. Is it possible the old appliances were costing me more a month than the new ones plus the car?

Since winter snow time is coming up, people keep asking me which wheels supply the power on my Nissan Leaf. It turns out the car is a frontwheel drive (under the motor). It’s supposed to snow on Thursday, so I’ll see how it goes. I’m actually more worried about Hunter, who’s driving my old Jeep, which has all-wheel drive.

Finally, today was my first day parking at Harrah’s Reno. They’ve installed a new electric vehicle parking lot on the corner of Center Street and East Commercial Row, about four blocks from my office. They have a service called “ChargePoint,” which uses 240-volt charging stations. That means, if the car is completely empty, my car will be fully charged in about four hours. So I park it on the way to work and pick it up at lunchtime. I was a little bit nervous about parking there, since I’m not a guest of the hotel, but the man I spoke to in the lot told me, “That’s what they’re here for.” Fine. Cool even. Free fuel.

I really like that casinos in town have taken to greening up. Biodiesel at Eldorado, geothermal at Peppermill (and while I’m on the topic, seems like the Peppermill should have some of those 880 volt stations, since they’re powering from the Earth’s own hot water), and now electric vehicles at Harrahs. Next thing you know, they’ll be putting pedals with generators on the chairs at the blackjack tables. —D. Brian Burghart brianb@newsreview.com

Lost in space

Re “Space is the place” (Film, Oct. 10):

I would hardly consider Gravity a landmark film. While Miss Bullock won the Oscar for Blindside (rightfully earned) that doesn’t automatically qualify her for every dramatic role. Gravity had incredible special effects, but her acting was horrible. Please, just explain why a physician is up in space tinkering with the Hubble?

She should stick to her cheesy comedy movies at best. This movie gave a bad impression of the space program. In fact, it just made it a joke. Maybe all of this hype about it is coming from men just enjoying her floating around in her underwear. Lesley Bordas Reno

Resort to violence if angered

Re “More on violence” (Letters to the Editor, Nov. 14):

If the kid snapped because he was getting picked on by some punks, the incident could have been even worse. His having a gun wasn’t the issue, more than that what these other kids more than likely did to him to piss him off. The sad thing here is that America is bent on bickering over having guns and not paying attention about what happens in our schools. We have people who believe that you need to let the kids do whatever they want, instead of disciplining them, and that fighting is wrong. American society has gone too soft, and sadly since self-defense is bad as well, then kids snap and go postal, not just on their bullies, but anyone who crossed them. Joseph Eguizabal Reno

Our bad choices

Re “The big 2-0” (Editor’s Note, Nov. 14):

Amidst all the war and sanctions talk, we should never forget this speech from a Supreme Allied Commander who knew war and the blow-back to our young folks who have to do the dirty work. I hope we are really winding down these horrific actions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I always felt 9/11 was a criminal act—not an act of war. Hunt ’em down and kill ’em with Special Ops (and don’t tell anyone). We finally got Bin Laden that way, didn’t we?

How many damaged lives, suicides and destroyed dreams would we have saved had we not followed the agendas of greed and profiteering? (Shell Oil just announced a new refinery in southern Iraq.)

Here’s what Dwight Eisenhower had to say about it after WWII: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of it’s laborers, the genius of it’s scientists, and the hopes of it’s children.”

Congratulations on 20 great and meaningful years. Jody Everett Peterson Carson City

You’re to blame

Re “Not careful enough” (Upfront, Nov. 14):

Oh good grief. Really? Let’s dump all the problems of our culture because American women have forgotten their proper place and condition: at home and pregnant. Things are a helluva lot more complicated than that. It just gets tiresome when one of these commentaries are professed without any kind of research, data or science to back up their pronouncements. Maybe he wants to go back to those “glorious” mythological days of where men were men and women were just property, brood mares and punching bags. He needs to find a cave and do some serious meditating.

Karen L. Ingraham Sutcliffe

Buy the numbers

Re “The real problem is prohibition” (Let Freedom Ring, Nov. 7):

Thank you for this column. It is nice to read something that is factually based and not propagating fear and ignorance. Keep on doing real journalism and spreading educated truth. There are far too many prohibitionist articles from northern Nevada, especially when considering how libertarian this state’s laws are in relation to gambling, prostitution and alcohol. The hypocrisy here is very frustrating. Shawn Tamborini Reno

Prevent flu sick days

Re “Modify your sick-day policy” (Editor’s Note, Oct. 31):

Thank you for highlighting the difficult choice many employees face during flu and cold season—go to work sick or risk losing their job. If businesses invested in their employees’ preventive health by providing the simple benefit of free flu shots, they would actually make money! Factoring in direct cost savings (both absenteeism and medical costs), the American Public Health Association estimates an annual flu vaccine can save up to $95 per vaccinated employee. For a company with 150 employees, this could be over $14,000. Instead, businesses lose approximately 111 million work days and spend approximately $10.4 billion on flu-related illnesses, hospitalizations and outpatient visits. If your employer or school provides free flu vaccinations, take advantage of it and prevent the spread of illness to co-workers, classmates and our community. The flu vaccine is recommended for people 6 months and older and is the best protection against the flu this season. You can also visit a free community flu clinic at Hug High School on Nov. 21, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Find additional information about the flu at InfluenceNevada.org. Heidi S. Parker Immunize Nevada Reno

Karma deposit

Re “8 things you didn’t know about being homeless in Reno” (Feature story, Jan. 3):

The homelessness of Reno is just like any other town in America. There are those that have and those that have not. Those that have better give because as we know all go broke in one way or another someday. Chris Ruona Reno

Hail to the leaders

Re “Trainor’s got it going on” (Letters to the Editor, Nov. 7):

I’m pleased to read the words of someone else who’s starting to get a real sense of what’s really going on politically. Hopefully, there’s a few more open minds like Cynthia Kennedy’s out there. I tend to agree with all she wrote and would offer some further thoughts on the matter. The reason we’re still mired in Afghanistan and Iraq isn’t just that we grabbed hold of a political and military tar-baby, though that’s certainly a factor. The simple truth is that our country was overthrown by a political coup in November 1963, and we never truly recovered. It doesn’t matter who is elected president, because both candidates are chosen beforehand. Let me restate that another way: Every single holder of that office from LBJ to Obama has been at least an asset of the CIA, and several have been operatives outright. Because of this and because of AIPAC’s heavy influence in this pre-choosing process, we now find ourselves at the brink of an abyss.

Either we attack Iran—a nation which hasn’t invaded another country for centuries—and it triggers a world ending thermonuclear exchange, or we stay out. If we don’t attack, the collapse of the U.S. petro-dollar is assured and with it our government. Believe it or not, the second choice is the better of the two because it at least allows us a chance of survival. These are the fruits of playing as children within the false left/right paradigm set up for us by the usurpers. We voted for the puppets and paid no mind to the puppet master operating them. Maybe cockroaches deserve a shot at becoming the dominant species of the planet. They’ve certainly shown more common sense. Robert Orlin Franklin Johnson Sun Valley

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This ModERn WoRld by tom tomorrow

President Kennedy: What comes to mind?

Asked at Java Jungle, 246 W. First St.

Michael Taylor

Troubador I was born in ’88, so just pretty much what I learned about President Kennedy in school as well as the other presidents, like Lincoln and Washington. It didn’t really have as much of an impact as the president that was currently involved in my life. … The first one that really had an impact was Clinton. I remember from there on, but Kennedy, pretty much what I remember in history books.

Jim Patterson

Retiree A very interesting man, a little bit loose morals, well liked by the people.

Boycott Thanksgiving sales

The Reno News & Review is a small independent newspaper in the third-largest city of one of the lowest population states in the United States. Sometimes we’re tilting at windmills when we take on topics of national import. We accept this, but we’re Americans, and we reserve the right to bitch without reserve, even when—as with the weather, the government, or the gun lobby—our moaning complaints are only quixotic.

In other words, we know that our objections about stores being open on Thanksgiving will have all the effect of a tear on a flood.

Walmart, which makes a big deal of its anti-American policy of being open at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day by making claims that it will be open “earlier than ever,” is lying. Walmarts are open all day. They just start their Black Friday sales two hours earlier this year.

Comparing Walmart to the communist countries that produce the goods it sells and are also open for business on Thanksgiving Day is cliché. Of course Walmart is a horrible corporate citizen. Of course the company doesn’t pay a livable wage or offer decent benefits to most of its employees.

But to try to make a virtue out of forcing its workers to be on the floor when their families and loved ones are at home watching football or snuggling on the couch is beyond hypocritical, it’s evil.

Look, the only people who have a problem with the fact that Christmas has become a day to worship consumption rather than a day devoted to reflection

and prayer are those devout Christians who want to remember the reason for the season. Walmart’s “Black Friday” policies are surely a reflection and admission of that. Even the phrase “Black Friday” is a play on the Christian “Good Friday,” is it not? We’re not going to change Walmart, or other corporations that open on Thanksgiving. That’s the bottom line. Thanksgiving is a U.S. holiday, and you know how those multinational corporations feel about the United States. We’re not going to change J.C. Penney or Macy’s or Best Buy, either. They’re all open. But we’ve changed a few minds in Northern Nevada over the years. And that’s who we’re reaching out to, our moral, considerate readers. Don’t shop on Thanksgiving Day. Just give it a rest. Have a little sympathy for those poor people who have their patriotic desire Shop local, after to celebrate this most American of Thanksgiving holidays with their family stolen from them. Do it for their children and grandchildren. Every nation celebrates its own birthday. We were the first to have a day just to be grateful for things like family and tofu and turkey and Tofurkey. And when you do venture out for Christmas shopping, don’t spend a dime at stores that are open on Thanksgiving. Know also that all their loss leader sale items will be gone by Black Friday, so you should spend your money at the small, locally owned stores that let their employees spend Thanksgiving home with their loved ones. Ω Nathan Ulmer

Event lighting designer Mostly the assassination and the 50th anniversary coming up. … I’m from Huntsville, Texas, but I wasn’t around when the assassination happened in Texas.

Roberta Hudson

Businesswoman The 22nd is the assassination, and I was in kindergarten when it happened. And then my mom died on the 22nd, also, so that’s what I think of.

Jessica Ice

Bartender The assassination and conspiracy. I’ve looked into it a lot myself and to me, it’s pretty obvious that he wasn’t murdered by Lee Harvey Oswald. [I also think of] the Peace Corps.