Terrorism not an issue?

Senator Harry Reid was quoted on ABC News as saying; "I think it would be a real tragedy if we tried to make this immigration debate one dealing with terrorism." It is possible that he feels safe in his beltway Washington home.

Those of us closer to the border do not feel quite so safe.

Is it possible that he has forgotten how many of the 9/11 hijackers were illegal aliens? Has he not heard that of the six who planned to bomb Fort Dix three were illegal aliens? Is he so far removed from reality that he sees no danger to our nation and its citizens by the over one million illegals that will invade us this year? If only one percent of that one million were terrorists, ten thousand new terrorists would be here waiting for the time to attack.

Whether Senator Reid is forgetful, unconcerned or merely responding to the wishes of the Beltway insiders, he has ceased representing the people of Nevada. He should do the honest thing and resign immediately so that his constituents may have real representation.

WILL CHRISTENSEN

Open letter to Mr. Liakopoulos

Dear Mr. Liakopoulos: I have a question for you regarding your recent proposal to ban legal carry in the Bob Ruud Center. I am wondering if there will be a special exception for commissioners, allowing them to carry?

It would be sort of like how some judges like to carry self protection in their courts while "regular" people are forbidden from even entering a building while carrying.

Also, when will you start adding other locations to the list? As examples I offer; the DMV, libraries, schools, supermarkets, the VEA building, gas stations, public transit, taxis, concerts, sports arenas, casinos, banks, cars on public roadways, cars parked in driveways, houses where people might live, any street, etc... Oh wait, most of those are already covered, but I think you get my drift.

Democracy has a hard time surviving when "the few" make themselves out to be better than the many. That is exactly what all these restrictions and codes and regulations achieve because there is always a back door or exception for "the few."

I ask that you reconsider your stance on the preservation of our Second Amendment rights. What will your stance be when the Second Amendment is destroyed and "the few" are gnawing away at the others and you are no longer a member of "the few"?

ROBERT G. TRENARY

The line dance is over

Thank you for printing my previous letter regarding the danger of faded yellow highway lines in our darling little town.

This week, I received two very important phone calls. One from Joe Martinez, assistant district engineer from Las Vegas (representing NDOT) and the other from D.J. Rourke, from the local Internet news, www.kptu.tv.

We met May 30 at a local restaurant. Mr. Ramirez brought two associates with him so it was a very interesting and productive session (and I got a free coke).

Mr. Ramirez gave us all the information on the scheduled maintenance plans on highway line upkeep and repair. By the end of the meeting, he said, "Maureen, put away your petitions ... You won't need to continue getting signatures because we will have your highway lines painted within three weeks." That made my day, my week and my year - and I got a free coke (from www.kptu.tv, our new local news program airing on Tuesday evenings at 6 p.m., Mr. D.J. Rourke).

These gentlemen could have handled the problem by phone so I especially thank them for this meeting.

MAUREEN SHERWOOD

Where is the compassion?

What is going on in this town with small animal vet services should be criminal. There is no emergency vet care after hours and the vets don't seem to care.

This is what happened to me. I hope this never happens to you. This is actually worse than refusing to treat a person, as at least a person can fend for themselves, where animals large and small depend on people to help them in an emergency.

June 4, at about 7:30 p.m., one of our dogs on the ranch got hung up on something and ripped open his skin just like a fillet on a fish and tore his side about 18 inches long. Looks like he caught it on something and tried to get away and ripped it worse. Fortunately, it was just the skin and no major bleeding or the dog would have died. Since we use their vet service for all our horses as well as the dogs, we just picked up the dog and drove to the vet's house calling frantic as this slice was severe.

The vets (both) were home and refused to help the dog. Refused to look at the dog and refused to even take a moment to call the vet in Vegas and to let them know we were coming. No help in pain medication was offered or help in stabilizing the dog for transport or advise on how to handle the dog for the trip to Vegas. Now this is after we spent thousands of dollars a year with these vets, between the horses and dogs. The lack of compassion or concern was unbelievable. Don't vets have what is equal to the Hippocratic Oath or haven't they read the book, "All Creatures Great and Small?"

After the drive to Vegas, which was hours after the injury, the skin had started to dry out and it took over four hours for the skin to be hydrated back enough to be sewn back together again. The dog was in intense pain for the entire drive to Vegas, while the skin was drying, just like setting a piece of meat out on the counter and letting the sun bake it. Had we known to keep it wet, we could have at least put a cold, wet compress or something on the meat of the dog to aid in the recovery.

We called all the vet services in town and they all had the messages to go to Vegas. Now if the dog had been bleeding, it would have died during the trip to Vegas. I am sure the town of Pahrump is large enough now to support a night clinic, even if it is in someone's home to save money on overhead.

I do have a solution, if all the vets got together and decided to have a rotating emergency office set up at each small animal's clinics and rotate weekly or nightly, they would have made over a thousand dollars on my visit alone, which surely would have been enough to support the staff for the night job.

This town of Pahrump has a large population of elder persons who can't drive at night, let alone spend hours and hours at the vet clinic waiting on a dog, their best friend to be fixed up. This lack of compassion is shameful, the lack of caring is heartless and the vets' actions have shown me their true colors.

JANIS BROWN

Thank you

An open letter of thanks to all who donated so generously to the Maddera Family Fire Fund the evening of June 2 during the Pahrump Arts Council's family festival at Terrible's Lakeside amphitheater.

The performers were wonderful, the production professional and our audience was very enthusiastic as well as generous. Many thanks.

JAN LINDSAY