Letters

Being here

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

Well, there went another big chunk of my life, another semester down. I know a lot of you think I’m crazy, and I often hear about how I must be crazy with the workload I carry, but I really don’t feel like I’m killing myself (except that my gym time gets cut out). I think there are three reasons for that. I don’t follow sports, watch television or participate in a religion. My dad used to make a similar point to me years ago. When I was a teenager, I had to go out every night, party with my friends, get friendly with whatever girls would have me. He’d always say something along the lines of “The same exact thing happens every night; you’d miss nothing.” And then he’d sit there and watch sitcoms on network TV every night and drink beer. But it wasn’t the hypocrisy I was trying to get at, it was just this concept of how much of our time living we spend not living.

I mean, I’m all for drinking beer and being merry, but if the time we spend watching TV or watching sports on TV was taken off the end of our lives instead of in increments throughout, there’d be a hell of a lot fewer people getting softly shitfaced on the couch and watching The Voice. And Sundays, can you imagine the pyramids you could build if you just decided to stop pretending that professional sports are something that fulfill you personally or that you can take personal pride in?

I don’t have any answers, maybe going to church on Sunday really does put a chit in some get-into-heaven-free box. But wasn’t there some debate in Christianity whether good works, like volunteering at the Literacy Council or visiting somebody who’s sick, wouldn’t also get you a couple of those secret keys to the pearly gates?

I’m big into investing my time and money into things that will advance me as a human being, and I can’t think of anything that does that better than education. On the other hand, you’ve got to have a hangover every now and then to appreciate all that self-improvement. —D. Brian Burghart brianb@newsreview.com

Why DO we?

Re “Dogs for everyone” (Letters to the Editor, Dec. 11):

The whole gist of my comment was to show, in my opinion, why the shop owners in Ferguson should have defended their property with firearms, while the government stood by and watched their businesses burn. One could hardly call the crimes committed in Ferguson a petty crime. I don’t think a baseball bat and a dog would have saved their livelihood. 99.9 percent of law enforcement officers are good people and do a great job, but if somebody is threatening the life of me or my family, while breaking into my house, they will get a bullet between their eyes! There wouldn’t be time to call 911. No citizen should be a cop, but excuse me, why do we still have the Second Amendment?

Mike Arp Reno

Third World, Nevada

Re “Immigrants are not the enemy” (Left Foot Forward, Dec. 11):

This is in regards to Sheila Leslie column in which she writes that immigrants are not the enemy. I guess that is true. The bigger enemy is our own federal government that continues to turn their back on guarding our borders and who continue to import poverty and disease and crime into our country. Funny how they never use the term “illegal immigrants,” because if they attached it to what they are always ranting about, we’d know as they know that it is wrong. I have grown up trying to get jobs where I am asked if I speak Spanish or we really need someone who is bilingual, knowing I won’t get the job simply because I am asking for too much pay. It is time to truly do immigration reform and once they do then I want both borders sealed off. But we know that will never happen. I moved here from California and one of the main reasons was the third world country my city had become. Now I see Reno and Nevada slowly turning into a third world country as well. Maybe I should pack up and move out of this country before it is to late. Robert Henri Reno

Another devil win

When one supports abortion, isn’t it very likely he/she will also support embryonic stem-cell research? If one doesn’t believe an unborn baby has the right-to-life sadly most will conclude that it’s OK to kill human embryos if others can benefit from the embryonic stem-cell research. What we have here is a warped ideology that has divorced God and fallen for the devil’s deception. God is the Creator of all human life and He determines who lives and when we die, not man!

Michael Rachiele Prairie Village, Kansas

Walking papers

Edward Snowden released classified information and immediately was charged by the Department of Justice with two counts of violating the Espionage Act. And the Department of State canceled his passport. Snowden faces prison and has been on the run ever since.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s CIA report releases classified information, and puts Americans across the globe in danger. Has Sen. Feinstein’s passport also been canceled? Is Justice drawing up similar charges? They’d better hurry, before Feinstein seeks sanctuary in San Francisco. Robert R. Kessler Las Vegas

Tax everyone equally

We now know how much the IRS has been used by our “leaders” for their political purposes. The news keeps coming. We already knew that the IRS had power with impunity. These problems are partly a result of the human condition. Our Founding Fathers, the framers of our U.S. Constitution, knew this. They knew how leaders can reduce liberty of citizens. That is why they forbid an income tax. They said it was the equivalent of stealing someone’s property. So just 100 years ago the income tax (16th Amendment) was sold as a way to “soak the rich.” Within five years, the income tax was imposed on all Americans. This country’s economy did just fine without an income tax.

Jim Lyle via email

Enforce crosswalk laws

Re “Livable community?” (Letters to the Editor, Oct. 10, 2013):

Over a year ago, I wrote a letter regarding the crosswalk one block north of Junkees after the former mayor made such a big deal about not getting hit while crossing, when the pedestrians of our crosswalk just one block north had not been as lucky. I no longer own that business, so I am not there to help the senior citizens across as I once did. I write this letter because just last week, word got back to me that one of my senior citizens in his 70s who must use a cane, and one of many I had to literally stop traffic for so he could cross, was hit in this very same crosswalk. He was dragged over a block before the driver finally stopped. He has two broken arms, a broken collar bone, and his lower back also broken. I cannot tell you how mortified I was to hear this. Until we have true and consistent traffic control in these obvious problem areas I shudder to think how many more people will suffer horrific injuries and even death. I can only hope that my former customer and friend will be able to recover.

Cecelia Soper Reno

Ho, ho, ho, Merry Christmas!

The war in heaven recorded in Revelation 12:7-9 happened in our pre-mortal life with our Heavenly Father (Almighty God, Lord Omnipotent, Elohim, Man, Endless, Eternal, Creator of Heaven and Earth, YHWH, I Am, Allah) and Heavenly Mother of our eternal spirits who is too sacred to identify by names. A savior was needed for God’s plan of salvation to make it possible for us to return to Their presence after our mortal sojourn where we would obtain experience, knowledge and physical bodies of flesh and bones like They have (Luke 24:39-43, D&C 130:22); and get dirty in the process, as no unclean thing can enter into the presence of God, (Eph. 5:5-6, 3 Nephi 27:19). Lucifer was rejected as the savior in favor of Jehovah (Jesus Christ) because Lucifer’s plan was to take away our God-given free agency and force us all to obey God’s commandments, and he wanted our glory and God’s glory and power in return for not losing a single soul (Moses 4:1-4). Lucifer became Satan the dragon (Rev. 20:2) because of his rebellion and anger against God and was cast into the outer darkness portion of the universe, where Earth is now, with his followers numbering one-third of the host of heaven (D&C 29:36-37,133:73). The war in heaven resumed in the Garden of Eden and continues to this day. Michael W. Jarvis Salt Lake City

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