As I drive down the streets of Pahrump I am repulsed by the trashy display of numerous signs and slogans from the candidates in our upcoming election. Do you think the candidates could exercise a little taste rather than placing their posters on every vacant piece of land in Pahrump?

As I look at the names of the various candidates and some of their slogans, I can't help but feel a little frustrated. My concern is that although the names and the faces will change, the underlying theme of Pin Head politics will remain. I am not a political commentator and I am not supporting any one candidate.

With regards to a few of the slogans, they insult my intelligence.

Take the sign of a candidate for county commissioner that states "Preserving Pahrump." The obvious question in my mind is what does preserving Pahrump have to do with running our county government? Maybe the candidate should run for our illustrious town board. On the other hand, we Pahrumpians are at the mercy of the county commissioners, so long as we remain an unincorporated town. Or maybe that slogan has a deeper more convoluted meaning, which is to keep us under the thumb of our inept county government.

As long as we are talking about preserving Pahrump, I would like to know what there is to preserve.

Maybe it's our lovely paved streets, the numerous street lights. Maybe it's our police force (there is none, just the county sheriff). Maybe we should preserve and not expand our sewer system. Maybe it is preserving the bonehead way we do things around here. Maybe it is preserving an inept town board that has no authority or the regional planning commission that gets squashed by the local home industry.

Maybe it is preserving the good old boy mentality. Maybe it's preserving the electing of people to our county or local town office that have no real political experience and are just trying to win a popularity contest or have an ax to grind or just to collect a check.

Speaking of axes to grind ...

Do you think there is an ax to grind with the candidate for county commissioner who was just recently fired from the county manager's position for violating a state law that governs the overspending of the county's budget? Are you seeing what is facing us for the next four years in our county government? It's not pretty. Maybe you did not like the name Sunrise City, but what it offered us was a way out of this insanity.

I do believe there are some environmental issues that are worth preserving in Pahrump, and there are some that are not worth preserving, like the dust from all the construction.

What about the other slogan I see that states, "your county your voice"?

Well, if that candidate lives in Nye County (which I believe is a requirement to run for the office), then the proper English would be <u>our</u> county and the candidates' voice.

The question is why I don't run for public office?

I would if I had a collation of people who would be willing to put the hard truth on the table and ask the hard questions and make things happen around here for a positive change. I am for change, and I need and want to support a group of candidates who are not afraid to stand up and say that the lack of infrastructure is a tax-paying crime against the citizens of this valley. I do not want to run into the Pin Head wall that exists to keep progressive ideas just ideas and not reality.

A prime example of the opposite of this position is what Patricia Cox and Gary Hollis did when they dodged the sewer district question.

Neither one had the guts to raise taxes to pay for a sewer district. They did what most politicians do -- skirt the issue even when they know what the hard facts are that face this valley with the numerous septic tanks.

That's what we elect around here, a bunch of no-backbone, special interest, Pin Head politicians.

Just like the recent issue of the request to lower the operation hours of PMC. If the County Commissioners had leased that facility in the proper way, with a public bid and R.F.P. process, maybe they would have leased the facility to a company that could have met the requirements as set forth by the commissioners and not try to back out of their responsibilities just seven months into the lease.

How did the commissioners lease a public tax-subsidized facility without a public bid and R.F.P.? Where was all the concern for the other physicians when they leased that facility to one local physician in a back room without any public input or scrutiny? Not to mention the fact that now my and the other physicians' tax dollars are being used to compete against us.

I just plain despise backroom, dirty, Pin Head politics and special interests.

What are Pin Head politics, you ask? It's when one individual, or a small group of individuals who want to change the way things are down around here, runs into the Pin Heads that do not want change. The individual or small group that wants the change gets tired of the struggle and quits or resigns, not accomplishing doodle squat.

Or worse yet, the Pin Heads (otherwise known as C.A.V.E. people: Citizens Against Virtually Everything) rise up and run that individual out of town.

In summary, Pin Heads are small-minded people who have no real vision of the way things should be or could be and lack the fortitude and the wisdom to make that happen.

So this election, do not vote for the Pin Heads if you can help it. Also, take a stand against dirty backroom politics and special interests.