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Thanks to the PVT

Thank you for printing the Meet the Candidates segment.

What a boon to those of us that cannot attend the "Meet and Greets."

And it arrived before it was time to mail in the absentee ballot.

PVT is improving and thank you for that also.

GERA MILNER, SUBSCRIBER

In response to the PVT

This is a direct response about two articles that appeared in the PVT on July 25.

A few fact corrections that your reporter Christina Eicheckraut reported in the article "Dolan Named To Board."

She stated that according to Mr. Kieckhefer from the governor's office, that he said I did not submitted an application for appointment to the governor. When in fact I was asked and I did submit a 16-page application and I have the fax confirmation from that application that was submitted to Nick Vanderpool in the governors office.

I was quoted as saying that I declined to say who recommended me for appointment, I never declined or refused. What was said is the person who asked for my name to be forward has no ties to the town of Pahrump or to Nye County an if you really need to know then feel free to call the governor's office and ask.

I also want to set the record straight that Nye County Commissioner Gary Hollis had nothing to do with my appointment and his comment was correct that we first meet over the 4th of July weekend.

In the article "Who Is Bill Dolan" your reporter again misquoted me as saying I was an aid to Mayor Mike Montandon of North Las Vegas, when in fact what was said is that I served at the mayor's will and had been appointed to the North Las Vegas Parks & Recreation Board by his honor.

I was also quoted as saying I was not concerned about the appointment process when in fact what I said was I was asked to serve and I said yes, I also said if a process was not followed I was not aware of it until that day.

I also pointed out to her that I felt it very rude to the four sitting town board members to have her approach me during an on going town board meeting for a photo and interview and I asked her to please never do that again but to instead wait until the meeting was finished to ask for any quotes.

Now, "Who Is Bill Dolan": My wife and I moved to the town of Pahrump from North Las Vegas just over two and a half years ago. I am a registered nurse and I work and commute each day to a Las Vegas hospital where I work in the department of surgery. My wife and I have raised 10 children and have 15 wonderful grandchildren, we also own two dogs and a horse. I am a member of the Association of Operating Room Nurses (AORN), a member of the American Legion Post 22 of Pahrump, a member of the Volunteer Homeland Reserve Unit (VHRU), which is a group of past and retired law enforcement officers, and I served in the Army from 1972 until 1982 when I left the Army to care for a family member until their passing.

I as I have said many times before I believe it is important to give back to the community in which you live, if your not willing to get involved to solve the problems you find then you have no right to complain about them either. Once the town has set up my e-mail address and a phone is programmed for my use they will be posted and available on the town of Pahrump web-site and I look forward to hearing from the citizens of Pahrump with there concerns.

BILL DOLAN

(1.) Dolan was not quoted saying he declined to say who appointed him. There are no quotes in that sentence. He did not, however, say who appointed him, as he himself admits in his letter. The statement is accurate.

2.) Dolan was cited as an aide to the North Las Vegas mayor in several articles written for this paper giving background information on him when he unsuccessfully applied for a vacant RPC position. Until now, Dolan has not taken issue with that attribution.

3.) Dolan did not say during the post-meeting interview that he had been appointed to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board for North Las Vegas. That was information the reporter found out for herself. Dolan only mentioned working for the mayor and the second-largest homeowner's association.

4.) The reporter apologized several times for interrupting Dolan during the meeting, where he was sitting as an audience member. Due to people leaving abruptly before the meeting ending or directly afterwards, it is common practice to ask for information when the discussion is over. He would most likely have been more insulted if his name was not spelled correctly, which is what the reporter asked him during the meeting.

It is Eichelkraut, not Eicheckraut and is in print at the top of the articles to which the above letter refers. -- Ed.)

Open letter to the governor

Gov. Gibbons:

In a country where our trust for politicians seems to be waning, it seems to me that you, the leader of our state government, might be willing to wait long enough to at least hear who the people of Pahrump wish to fill the vacancy on our town board.

The state is far beyond being a territory of the United States and thus you need to step back and realize you are the governor of a state. That means you need to listen to the people and those we have elected to serve us on our town boards, city councils and county commissions.

There is a great deal of controversy as to how things were handled in the appointment of Bill Dolan to our town board. Perhaps you wanted to intervene and appoint someone who would make a difference on our board, but the way you did it has reduced the trust the people in the town of Pahrump have for you.

"The governor and his staff jumped the gun," some people cry.

"If he wasn't going to even consider the nominations of our town board anyway, he might as well just go ahead an appoint someone and not waste our time and taxes," others said.

These are quotes from residents from the town of Pahrump. As I have worked to decide whom I agree with, I felt that perhaps you should be given a chance to explain. I checked your Web site only to be disappointed because this appointment is not listed among the other appointments you did in the month of July.

The town understands that you have the right to appoint someone to the board without considering nominations. However, it concerns us that you did not respect the laws of our town when you chose to take this action.

I am hoping you will take a minute to explain your actions so we can understand your decision. While it may seem that we are just a tiny town full of uneducated people hundreds of miles away from you, it is important that you realize that your choices affect our lives. We are not as uneducated as you may think. We expect to have representation in our government all the way from our town board up to our state representatives.

If you are not willing to listen to our representatives, you have not listened to us. In that way, you appear to be a tyrant who ignores the laws of the towns in your state.

I give you the opportunity to answer the concerns of the people of Pahrump.

We expect that we live in a republican government. You are elected by the people and thus need to listen to the people and respect the governments of each town and county that are in your jurisdiction.

Without doing this, we will look at you with suspicion and question your motives. I hope your motives for this action were justified.

DEELLEN STOWELL

Typical Californian

Well, Mr. Crooks, you are incorrect on many levels, which is typical for Californians.

First, California isn't missing although most of us wish it would go away.

Second, your statement that "the way it goes, so goes the rest of the country" is laughable.

It is obvious you haven't kept up with the news very well, as New York City was the first big city to ban trans-fat in restaurants, so California isn't the leader. My Midwest hometown has had limits or bans on certain types of restaurants for as long as I can remember for a variety of reasons.

As a Republican, you believe you stand for our freedoms, yet if you vote Republican you have voted against a woman's freedom of choice and many other freedoms. So what you really mean is that you want us to vote Republican so you can keep the freedoms you want, but not the the ones I want.

The Republican party is closely tied to the Christian religion and has frequently tried to force those beliefs on the rest of us, but what about my freedom of religion?

The Republican party has supported the war in Iraq, but what about my freedom to believe that war, like the Vietnam War is a huge mistake?

Mr. Crooks, you sound just like every old white male who is feeling disenfranchised in the new global world. California has a Republican governor so you voted for him, but it sounds like you don't like him.

It is also obvious that you don't spend much time outside of California because the Midwest and East Coast do not follow California in anything. In fact, most people in those areas shake their heads at California antics.

I lived in the Midwest for almost 40 years and still spend considerable time there. Most of the folks there could care less about California, but if California is a topic of conversation there, it is primarily about how arrogant, alienated, self-inflated and ridiculous most Californians are compared to the rest of the country.

Annie Lennox said it best: "I knew I was going to be a legend in my living room." Only Californians think Californians are important. The rest of the country considers California and Californians to be a pestilence or a joke.

Mr. Crooks, if you pity your sons for living in California you should take the blame for everything about California you don't like. You lived there for 40 years so you helped make it what it is today. Unfortunately, you have now moved to Nevada and are trying to ruin it too (just like every Californian I've ever met).

Frankly, I want to fence off California, padlock the gates and throw away the key, after we deport all Californians back to California.

Frankly, I would vote for an chimpanzee before I voted for a white, male (old) Republican.

BELINDA HENDRICKSON

Congress needs a good Smack

I'm writing to urge support for James Smack in the Republican primary race for Congress.

I've been following Dean Heller (his incumbent opponent) for some time and am very unhappy with his record in Congress. He was a co-sponsor of HR362 to create an embargo on Iran as he felt this was the best way to deal with this Iran -- to make it more of an enemy and rattle the saber for another potential war.

This action also insulted Iran's allies, China and Russia. Talk about stupid policy-making.

Heller also voted yes on FISA, which essentially did away with the requirement for a warrant from a judge for wiretaps on our telephones. Has Heller read the 4th Amendment?

Then there's his "yes" on the recent mortgage company bail-outs, which had the added feature of allowing the IRS to have records of yours and my credit card transactions on the Internet.

Another violation of the 4th, plus you and I paying for bad lending practices.

James Smack is a constitutionalist and none of the above issues would have had his vote. He'll be a congressman of whom we can be proud.

CYNTHIA KENNEDY

Look to the Old West

What can we do to help the small business owners in Pahrump?

People who own small businesses get robbed and vandalized over and over again in Pahrump -- the bar, convenience store and restaurant people who put their businesses in the area so the neigborhood people would have some place nice to go.

The people who, no matter how much they try to keep their businesses going, get broken into repeatedly.

Then they have to spend money to get their doors and/or windows fixed because someone decided it would be a good idea to break the windows/doors and take whatever they wanted. They do this because they know the sheriff's department will not catch them because they do not have enough manpower to take care of all the people in Pahrump.

The people who go to sleep at night praying that when they get to work the next morning they will not see a broken window or door and everything inside a mess. The people who say "Okay, I give up," and close their doors and move away from Pahrump because there is no police protection here.

Maybe the neighborhoods that have a small business in the area should get together and say "enough is enough" and help each other. A Neighborhood Watch would be a great start.

I know we pay taxes -- a lot of taxes -- but yet we cannot get the help we need when we need it because they do not have the manpower necessary.

So the taxes we pay go for, oh, yeah -- the new set of lights we now have at 160 and Homestead.

Good choice -- let the small business owners suffer so that someone can line their pockets.

Hello, Pahrump is growing.

Why is the sheriff's department so small it cannot take care of the people of Pahrump. Protect and Serve -- yeah, right. Maybe we should go back to the old west ways -- if you did something wrong you were put in jail or you were hung. The people back then took care of each other -- they cared.

CHRYSTAL CASTRO

Lambasting Harry

To Sen. Reid:

Your approval rating is now 10 points below President Bush, and many people are mad at you.

Instead of attempting to lower our gas prices, you dismissed the Senate and left for a long summer vacation.

Speaking for myself, I don't mind you leaving. I'm just afraid you are planning to come back.

GARY MARCHINKE

Don't we deserve better?

A high school senior was engaged in a conversation with a senior citizen, "Man, we've got all kinds of sophisticated high tech-computers, Ipods, gpses, you name it -- what has your generation brought us?"

The sly old goat paused a moment, finally responding, "Son, I believe we invented most of those gadgets."

Back in 2001 a friend invited me to join him and four other men to serve as crew on his luxurious 70-foot sailing sloop for a journey from Long Beach, Calif. to Victoria Island, British Columbia.

This indeed was a beautiful, luxurious yacht possessing all of the most advanced electronic navigational aids imagined by humans. The owner was absolutely enthralled with his expensive toys.

So much confidence did he have in these robots that he advised us, "You guys don't have to stand watch at the tiller -- come down in the cabin and enjoy its comfort."

Being somewhat of a non-conformist and old-fashioned to boot, my pea brain started working overtime. "Why on earth do airliners have windshields if radar is so reliable?"

Having owned boats in the past but not having the affordability nor desire to invest in such playthings, I am thankful to God that this old salt had reservations, which resulted in saving a valuable plaything and precious lives.

It was about 1:15 a.m. on a clear night when the son of the captain informed me that the radar showed nothing but clear sailing ahead. It was only 15 minutes later when all hell broke out.

A large white light suddenly appeared on the horizon, approaching our bow. Without hesitation I jammed the wheel as far to port as possible and noticed a freighter passing us in the opposite direction, at a speed of approximately 35 knots just about 15 feet off our starboard beam.

The wake from the freighter caused us to rock and awaken everyone. The skipper was extremely embarrassed, after learning of what took place and having insisted that human eyes were unnecessary -- that he missed giving me an atta boy.

With these two stories of interest serving as backdrops, mightn't it be timely to peer into the flawed fallacy of electronic voting machines, which have forced patriotic voters to mark their ballots for years in favor of the lesser of two evils?

Evidence exists that such gadgetry is quite simple to manipulate, which certainly puts a damper on exercising our precious freedom of choice in electing honest, patriotic individuals to seriously important leadership roles.

Which begs the question, how different are United States election processes from the known criminal frauds repetitiously taking place in such totalitarian entities as Zimbabwe and communist Cuba?

Moreover, isn't it ridiculous for Americans having to limit their choices to Democrat and Republican candidates, or "none of the above?" And why cannot I vote, as an example, for my favorite, current hero, Ron Paul -- by writing his name on my ballot?

Seems to this dummy that it may be, in fact, that because the various TV channels are responsible for this mess, due to their insistence of meeting their 11 p.m. deadlines in reporting the results of the election.

There are approximately 78 days between election day and the inauguration of a president, so what is the beef and emergency in the counting of votes -- if this time is, with due diligence, more positively used to assure us that in fact an election is above-board and free of fraud and manipulation?

Years of allegations and rumors that dead people are still voting in such places as Chicago, Boston and Washington D.C. are common. Don't we voters deserve truly free elections in the land of the free?

VINCE BOGDAN

Substitute teachers

We have about three weeks left before a new school year starts again.

Monday, Aug. 25, the doors will once again be opened and the bells will be ringing. Time for all teachers, administrators, parents and all of the other supporting staff to begin the daily routine of educating and safely protecting all of Pahrump's students.

But did you ever stop to think about the overlooked person who is known as the substitute teacher?

What? Who? The substitute teacher.

Who are these people? I'm here to tell you exactly who they are.

Many are retired teachers and educators who want to supplement their income and still have a great love of teaching and are not quite ready yet to hang it up for good.

Many are also college-graduated adults seeking meaningful employment and who enjoy working with students of all ages.

Unfortunately, the word "substitute" has a negative connotation in this town.

The kids think it is an automatic pass and time for a free day to goof off in class and become troublemakers.

Some teachers view them as being inferior and worthless. Many parents throw their hands up in disgust and say not again.

I'm here to tell all of you and state the facts as something to think about and to view things and attitudes differently.

Don't get me wrong, yes, there are teachers as well as substitutes who fail to understand and do their job. However, every substitute in the state of Nevada undergoes the same fingerprint background check, drug test, college transcript check before given a license to be in that classroom.

They are treated no different than a full-time teacher.

A substitute teacher also has to fulfill certain educational requirements with a deadline before they can renew their license.

And yet, they are not paid the same, do not have any benefits whatsoever, are disrespected, used and abused, no paid holidays or spring break pay, and forgotten when the school year is over.

As a certified substitute who has taken on long-term successful assignments and has been there faithfully, let me leave you with this thought as we begin the new year.

If you find out as a parent that your child has substitute for a day, a week, a month, for even a long-term, pick up the phone and call her or him and introduce yourself. Find out what they are all about and work together.

After all, it takes a team effort from everyone to be on the same page and get our children educated as they will be the leaders for the future.

JAN RUBIN

Nye County certified licensed substitute teacher