Letters

We’re so lucky

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

Oh my goodness. It’s a wild week here at the world headquarters of the Reno News & Review, high above Lander Street.

The grand jury results in the Michael Brown and Eric Garner police-involved homicide cases had repercussions even far away in little, old Reno. Maybe it’s too “inside baseball,” but I know some of you care, so I’ll tell you about it.

For one, something happened on Sunday. It’s one of those hard-to-explain internet things, but all of a sudden, my website, www.fatalencounters.org (dealing with officer-involved killings), went crazy. 39,404 people visited the site, and many didn’t just look, they either added data regarding officer-involved killings or they sent a donation to our new 501(c)3, Fatal Encounters Dot Org.

It’s really overwhelming. With that came a deluge of journalists. Last week, I was in the Washington Post twice, on CNN, on Al Jazeera, on national NPR talking about the need for data on officer-involved deaths. It’s kind of what’s known as a “beneficial cycle,” in which the news reports feed in to the interest in the website, which spurs more interest on social media. It’s the happy version of the better known “vicious cycle.”

The University of Southern California is writing a grant application to fund our collection of this data. That has been a learning experience all by itself. I can’t begin to tell you how many other universities—from Columbia University to Georgia State University to University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill—are analyzing our data.

And it’s into this maelstrom that I’m working on the last Fatal Encounters package for our series. And guess what? It’s finals week up at the university. If you’ll listen real closely, you’ll hear the sound of my brain imploding. Maybe I should rephrase that.

I’ve always said I’m the luckiest guy I know. In some ways, it’s hard to say whether this is the luckiest thing that’s ever happened to me, or whether it’s payback for all the good luck I’ve had before. —D. Brian Burghart

Welcome back, Fred

Re “Free speech” (Letters to the Editor, Dec. 4):

Dear Ms. Morgan, Your letter was of great interest to me because I had chosen to no longer respond to anything in this newspaper as their editorial policy of not editing some of their columnists use of the same words as you write about below, but you need to be encouraged. I believe I can answer your question as to how our society has come to this stage in the use of constant obscenities in their language. I have written several letters to the editor of this newspaper regarding the use of the “f” word in some of their columns. We’re not talking about someone being quoted but strictly the writers perceived need to add an “f” word or two for what I assume to be the misguided effort to make a stronger point. I have pointed out to this newspaper editor that the use of these words are inappropriate in a newspaper that pretends to have impact on the Reno citizens. In fact, it has helped cheapen the language of our society. I would suggest that you research the archives of this paper to find the articles and judge for yourself if they were appropriate or not. You can also research my letters that I wrote to the editor regarding this subject. Good luck on having a positive impact on the editor, my bet is on some ridicule for bringing up the subject as the headline above your letter indicates. I guess that they also thinks it’s free speech to yell fire in a crowded theater. It might be interesting to do a survey of the readers of the paper on this subject.

Fred Speckmann Reno

The great brown buffalo

Re “Land management” (Green, Dec. 4):

The restoration of sagebrush ecosystems is a huge step, pretty ambitious, and I wonder why should mining companies care, because BLM will just greenlight solar and fracking anyway. The Elko Daily Free Press had an essay by a well-known local “renegade rancher” that had an insightful review and summary of all the early explorers’ reports of sage grouse. Very few reported sighting any, and the piece concluded that grazing and settlement—I guess by the railroad—favored the sage grouse. I contacted High Country News about this, and got nary a peep out of them. Now, a local weekly is espousing some complex projects and issues. I support TNC, but note also that their LinkedIn listing for a Range Conservationist requires (mainly) “experience with R modeling”—whatever that is. Is this just more “talking heads” like when the RGJ said UNR was researching “eradicating” cheatgrass? Buffalo chips!

Steve Klutter Sun Valley

Me & Howie

Re “Me & Jon” (Feature story, Nov. 26):

Loved the play-by-play of your Daily Show appearance—but the link to the video was broken when I tried to call it up. Luckily, you mentioned the date of the airing in the article, so I was able to watch it.

I have never watched Breaking Bad, so I don’t know who Hank is, but I always thought the drawing of Mr. Burghart alongside of his column was more of a sinister Howie Mandel.

Never thought I needed to watch more TV.

Leesa Heathman Reno

Dogs for everyone!

Re “Guns for everyone!” (Letters to the Editor, Dec. 4):

Guns for everyone? No. Guns for police and security guards trained to use fire arms and only as a last resort. Any citizen who thinks he’s a cop is nothing more than an idiot.

Reno has first rate law enforcement. We all have cell phones. Cops respond lickety split.

Once, the head of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, said, “Get rid of your guns and get a dog and a baseball bat.” Why did he say that? After World War II men had unfettered access to arms. They’d confront a criminal with their gun, and a battle would begin. What was a petty crime would escalate into a life and death struggle. Roger Dawson Reno

The Unified Conspiracy Theory

Re “Age of Empire” (Feature story, Oct. 9):

I feel fortunate to be an American citizen, but I haven’t felt proud for a very long time. Your “Age of Empire” is right on. Thank you.

Created to protect its citizens by limiting governmental powers, our original Constitution and Bill of Rights specifically stipulated taxation of corporations only. In 1913, a new Amendment to the Constitution was forced upon us with the promise that taxes were to be collected from its citizens in the event of war only, and taxes were voluntary. Since then we have had one war after another. Each new war builds a bigger and bigger military-industrial complex that Eisenhower warned us about. New weapons, each more deadly than the last, with which to destroy people’s lives, their lands, economies and the Earth herself. A monster out of control to make a few very rich, it serves the dark force’s agenda and their arrogant male war-like energies. • In John Perkins’ book, Confessions of an Economic Hitman, he said that as a young man, he worked for Charles T. Main who sent him to third world countries to talk them into accepting loans from our government. • Using American tax dollars [in foreign countries], American corporations built roads, bridges, electricity, water, etc., none of which actually benefited that country or its citizens, but gave American corporations access to that country’s natural resources. • When it came time for that country to pay the loan, it was very clear that they had been tricked and could not pay. • Perkins returned to that country to tell them that because the loan had not been paid, we want/ demand their natural resources. • When that country wisely refused, the jackals went in to assassinate those who would not cooperate. • When that did not work, the military invaded the country. Sold to the naive young as an adventure without consequences and their patriotic duty, they willingly sacrificed their lives and future lives— the karma of murder and rape that will return to them to be paid. • September 11, 2001, was an inside job to justify war. The twin towers imploded from carefully placed dynamite. • Russia destroyed itself with the same economic policies we are following—war at any cost. • Soldiers are victims not heroes: Injected directly into their blood stream, toxic vaccines with the additives aluminum, formaldehyde, mercury and squalene were forced on them, to break down their immune systems. Why? Because the men and women in the military are knowledgeable, skilled, disciplined and viewed as a potential threat to their employer. Forced to fight for their health and sanity, they are now too sick to speak up about what has made their lives a living hell and future lives saddled with karma. • If our leaders believe in war, let them fight their enemy. Our children and their futures are not for sale.

Will we go down in history as a generation of vipers or the generation that said, “No more!”

Dhara Wood Moundhouse

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