Thanks to Secret Santas

West Star Ranch and Thrift Store wish to thank all the "Secret Santas" who donated food and supplies for our dogs and cats.

Your kind support is greatly appreciated.

TERRY DOUGHERTY AND STAFF

Nathan Adelson recognized

On Friday evening, Jan. 16, Nathan Adelson Hospice, Pahrump, was honored by the Pahrump Valley Chamber of Commerce with the Cornerstone Award for Non-Profits during the awards-installation of board members celebration at the Pahrump Nugget.

On behalf of management, staff and volunteers of Nathan Adelson Hospice, we would like to thank the chamber for this very prestigious recognition and thank the community of Pahrump for its ongoing support of our organization.

We were both humbled and proud to be given this recognition and award especially at the beginning of our 10th year in the Pahrump Valley.

We recognize that there are many important and valued nonprofit organizations doing wonderful things for the citizens in our community, so to be chosen over all of these is truly a high honor.

Nathan Adelson Hospice strives to be an active member of the community as well as providing the best possible care for those who count their remaining time on earth in months, weeks and days as opposed to years.

Our team concept in medical care and community is seamless and very much a part of the Nathan Adelson Hospice philosophy.

Again, thank you for this cherished honor, community support and recognition.

SHELLY HEPPLER

Administrator Nathan Adelson Hospice, Pahrump

Gangs, violence in Pahrump

In response to the recent murder at the Pahrump Stop Convenience Store I would like to warn all Pahrump residents that if tougher laws are not put into place our community will be experiencing a lot more violence at the hands of these gang members.

When I first came to Pahrump in 2001, the biggest visible problem was the graffiti by the Vatos Locos gang. Now I see more of these thugs on a daily basis with their baggy pants, gang tattoos and low riders.

I'm of Hispanic descent and I'm ashamed of the image my race portrays to the rest of the country. It's becoming more and more difficult to defend my culture when all I see are Latino males becoming gang members, being disrespectful, uneducated, violent criminals and then everyone is angry when American citizens want them out of our country.

It makes the hard-working Mexican people look bad and puts us in the same category.

I come from a small agricultural town in central California, a predominantly Hispanic community. For being a small town with a population of about 14,000, we had a high concentration of gang members and violence, and it has only gotten worse since I left.

It started too, with a handful of wannabes and before we all knew it the violence escalated and we had a full-blown gang problem.

At first the local police department approached the issue with the same vigilance as jaywalking, and when the issues became more violent and required faster and more excessive force, they found themselves unable to make the town a safe place.

This gang problem is the sole reason why I decided to move to Pahrump. My son is now 11 and enrolled on one of our local schools, and he is an all-around happy boy until an 8-year-old Hispanic female pulled a box cutter on him and attempted to slash his face on the school bus last year.

When the mother of this girl was called to school and told of the situation, I was overcome with anger to hear the, "Oh, not my daughter," statement even when she was informed that her daughter's act was caught on video.

It brought back so many memories of growing up in a town where parents were in denial of what their children did even when the proof was right in their faces.

When it came time to punish this child the legal system let us down and further victimized us by giving this child probation and not making her parents responsible for paying for counseling for my son because of their financial hardship and "welfare status."

This young girl most likely comes from a family where gang violence was a way of life and she thought she needed to behave the same way.

Oh, and by the way, the state of Nevada is providing welfare and low-cost medical insurance so her parents can raise a criminal.

Hmmm, I guess she'll have to take a gun to school and shoot someone before the legal system decides she is violent enough to be punished accordingly.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that we, the citizens of Pahrump, should put an ordinance into place that bans all gang activities or status.

If you are a gang member we will prosecute you on the grounds of our "no gang tolerance policy" and if you are a minor then your parents will be financially responsible as well.

So maybe future recruits will think twice before they join a gang when they know that an automatic sentence will be given just for being affiliated with a gang, and parents will be more aware and notice what their children are up to.

I would like to see all gang members punished for making the rest of our country live in fear. It's time to wake up, America, and stop worrying about being politically correct and do what is best for our country. Pahrump could be the first town to enforce a policy that allows its law abiding citizens to live without fear that some gang member is going to target us because they need status or money or whatever the reason behind such hideous crimes.

If people don't like these types of laws it's because they directly affect them and, we don't want those kinds of people in our town, anyway.

Same goes for the meth problem in this town. We could enforce policies for that problem, too. If you look like a junkie, 99.9 percent of the time you are a junkie, and we could do away with them, too.

We could make a statement and create a safe place for our children.

ANNA MADRID