Letters

The weekly show

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

Sometimes I hate this weekly deadline. Paper comes out on Thursday, right? Well, it was about noon that I got the word from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart that they’re flying me out Monday to be on air Tuesday. So while I’ll know how it has gone by next Thursday, I’m writing from ignorance right now.

On the other hand, by some measures, I’m the boss, and maybe I’ll just have this column in place in case the plane goes down. I should have enough of my wits about me next Tuesday afternoon to tell you all about how it went.

How did this go down? Well, on Aug. 28, I got this email: “I’m a senior producer with The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and I’m working on a story about the difficulty with finding accurate, objective statistics on fatal police shootings in this country. I’ve read about your work, and I was hoping to see if you had some time to talk about some of the challenges you’ve faced with your Fatal Encounters project. Feel free to call me at your earliest convenience.”

I was so floored, I didn’t even realize he asked me to call him. I certainly lose some cool points there because I waited for him to call me. That’s kind of hilarious. It’s also peculiarly arrogant I didn’t ask where he heard of my work. “Of course, those New York guys know about the RN&R. They probably fly in just to pick it up.” Anyway, we had several conversations, back and forth emails, too, and on Sept. 4, he wrote, “If we wanted to fly you in for an interview (on us, of course), what would your availability be next week?”

I told him I’d check my calendar, but I thought I could work something out, as long as it didn’t make me late for my classes at the university.

At any rate, they left me hanging fire for a whole week, until today, a few hours ago, in fact. Anyway, I hope you’ll feel free to mock me mercilessly if I screw this up.

If I can’t get a column in on deadline, I’ll tell you all about it next week. What’s the proper etiquette, anyway? Am I supposed to take gifts? —D. Brian Burghart brianb@newsreview.com

She said ‘Lymies’

Re “Ticked off” (Feature story, Sept. 4):

It’s great to see articles like this coming about as the controversy continues about the people who suffer from “chronic Lyme.” It is also a shame that the Centers for Disease Control, the holder and recorder, of what they deem are “all” of the Lyme patients really have no idea just how far reaching this disease is. The doctors who treat patients with “chronic Lyme” are scrutinized by the American Medical Association so they choose not to use the diagnosis of “chronic Lyme.” For instance, no where on my medical records does it state anything about my disease because I am being treated with alternative methods by my “medical” doctor, and she is afraid of the repercussions.

So when the CDC throws around these numbers, we “Lymies” just laugh. This problem is much greater than anyone really knows. It’s real and needs to be faced dead on. The AMA and the alternative medicine practitioners need to learn how to play nice in the sandbox.

Merry Lynch Costa Mesa, California

Complicit

Re “Compliant” (News, Sept. 4):

They are so compliant that a teacher not once but twice walked out of an IEP [individualized education program] meeting and bullies my son on a continual basis as well as not following his IEP. Want to know what the result has been for this teacher? Not a damned thing. I have repeatedly phoned the superintendent for special ed as well as her principal and not a one thing was done. She is still teaching students. Great system, isn’t it? Sure, close to federal compliance, especially in regards to IEP’s and the law that it is illegal for a teacher to get up and walk out.

Stephany Watson Reno

The Unfair Tax

Our current national debt is around $17,742,849,500 we owe China and others. Far from Jacksonian democracy, I’d say! To date, Andrew Jackson is the only US president ever to retire the nation’s debt. Though criticized for his treatment of native Americans, the ideal he promoted was to let the people govern themselves rather than government govern the people.

He eliminated the Bank of the United States and returned the funds to banks within the states. During a huge real estate bubble, he sold off western federal lands, took the profit and paid off the debt. You have to wonder if it would be better today if the feds sold off Yosemite, Yellowstone, and other federal lands to private investors—with land use regulations, of course—take that money and at least make a huge dent in the $17.7 trillion debt.

Mike Arp Reno

The gift that keeps on giving

Re “10 things I hate about Burning Man” (Feature story, Sept. 6, 2007):

It’s pretty hard to take someone seriously when they say something as ignorant and childish as this: “Rave culture is for losers and idiots.” Oh, I suppose I’m a loser for enjoying raves and techno music. Man, I’m such an idiot for expressing myself! Burning Man isn’t the same experience for every person. Claiming it’s one big party may have been primarily how you interpreted it, but everyone is free to give/take from it how they please.

Ryan Brand San Diego

We did now

I wanted to make sure you received my submission for RN&R regarding an upcoming production of a show called Wounded. It will be performed in the Veterans of Foreign Wars underground military bunker, and it opens Sept. 25. Half of all the proceeds will be donated to the VFW.

The show Wounded is based on true accounts of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Set in the Fisher House rehabilitation home at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Washington DC—the main point of re-entry for wounded soldiers, sailors, and Marines—Wounded follows four young veterans and their families on their quest to readjust to life back home and get on with lives newly transformed by physical and emotional injury. With their time in the war behind them, these men and women discover that their real battle is about to begin.

More info can be found at www. merrywar.com.

One of the characters is based on U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth, who recently announced she is pregnant.

Chase McKenna Reno

Police need review

Re “Police psychology” (Feature story, Aug. 28):

I would like to comment on police homicides. As long as police departments review their own—or even are reviewed by different police departments—police homicides will continue. We need independent reviews of all police shooting in order to ensure objectivity in the review. Perhaps then police homicides—I read 405 in the U.S. last year—will decrease. Interesting to read that other civilized countries — the U.K., Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, etc.—have 0-5 or so police shootings a year. Yet the U.S. had 405! Of course it helps that in those countries their citizens aren’t armed to the teeth with the assault weapons of their choice. Marcia Cuccaro Carson City Editor’s note: I hate to break it to you, but that number 405 released by the FBI in its Expanded Homicide Data is a lie. The true number is closer to triple that.

This land is our land

Re “Land of the lost” (Letters to the Editor, Sept. 4):

Robert Kessler of Las Vegas asked why the “Feds” own up to 85 percent of Nevada’s land. The answer is water. Most of the state receives less than 10 inches of rainfall per year. There is not enough water to farm or develop most of the state’s land. Based on this fact, the “Feds” determined the best allocation of the land would be multiple use. Cattle ranching has always been marginal in Nevada, but the Bundy Klan and other so called “Sovereign Citizens” believe the federal land should be turned over to the state or its 1,500 private ranches.

There are 2.8 million people in Nevada. It would be unfair to allow these 1,500 ranchers to lock up the millions of acres of public land that we all now share in Nevada. It’s true that wildfires and drought have made it necessary to cut back on ranchers’ subsidized grazing allotments. But the ranchers are often compensated by the Bureau of Land Management for this reduction. Ranchers would likely fare worse under state ownership because of higher and more realistic grazing fees. What this small, vocal antigovernment minority of ranchers and corporate elite ultimately really want is to see this public land (that belongs to all of us) privatized and put into their hands. Ron Schoenherr Reno

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