MARK SMITH MORE COLUMNS Advertisement

Judge Jim Dawson made a perfectly accurate point in his ruling last week, denying an injunction that would derail the proposed federal detention center in Pahrump.

He said that anyone who wanted to keep up merely had to lift a finger and find out what was on an upcoming agenda.

Nothing was hidden by this paper or, as far as I know, any of the other media. What we learned, you learned. The story frequently appeared in these pages, and often on the front page, since last May 16.

If I were worried about a federal detention center, I would not have let a paper go by after that date without making sure I wasn't missing something.

If you were incapable of grasping the nettle until late, late, late, you can hardly blame the press or the county commission or the feds or Corrections Corporation of America.

The issue was shoved in your face, folks. If you couldn't be bothered, don't blame us.

The suggestion by Nancy Lord and CCSC that somehow "more" should have been done is utter nonsense, disingenuous and should be dismissed with contempt.

I can simply point out that not once during the whole business has anyone called and chastised us for failing to point out something of any significance.

When we got calls on Channel 62's "Best of Pahrump." demanding answers about this or that, we would check with my reporters, and almost invariably we would learn what was being asked had already been answered weeks before.

The whole thing was kept right in front of you.

But of course, that means having it both ways -- on the one hand crying because you weren't notified of every agenda for every meeting and at the same time complaining we didn't tell you what happened afterward.

It's the same complaint one hears about anything that requires individual residents to take some responsibility for themselves. Scratch the resident who blames the school for not incorporating prayer in the classroom and I'm betting you'll find someone who was way behind where CCA and its plans were concerned.

It's the same pattern. People want everything handed to them so they don't have to know anything. A prison? Here? Oh, my gosh, where did that come from?

Uh, it's been in the paper for months, honey.

It's been on the front page, it's been on the inside pages, it's been in the letters to the editor. Nothing about it has been hidden.

Yet Nancy Lord has the nerve to suggest it wasn't made promninent. Should we have printed everything about it in bright red ink? What more could she possibly want?

Lord clearly doesn't understand how the court works. She complains, "Just because the Fish and Wildlife Service did it doesn't mean they did it right."

But Dawson pointed out that she offered no "organized report" explaining why Fish and Wildlife was incorrect.

What was very funny was Lord's comment that "in the Federal Register, this is listed as a Las Vegas prison; there is nothing about Pahrump in it."

Huh? Now pinch me, but does anyone really think the Federal Register is on the average Pahrumpian's reading list? Or that anyone who does run across it would blithely assume the detention center wasn't coming? Wouldn't the average Federal Register reader wonder what the uproar was about here if the detention center were going to Las Vegas?

She also remarks "the average person" didn't know about the detention center "until fall of 2008."

Check out the date on the front page in the photo accompanying this article and then think about the level of illiteracy she assumes for the "average" Pahrumpian. Hmmmm. "May 16, 2008" ... "fall of 2008."

She's insulting most of you.

I have to ask, do you really want Nancy Lord representing you?

The report filed by Christina Eichelkraut didn't say whether Lord stamped her foot angrily or threw down a hat and jumped up and down on it.

I suspect what I've heard is right, that those opposed to the detention center are willing to gum the machinery up for years to keep it out. Lord is already asking for donations to pursue that endeavor.

But given Dawson's attitude toward her efforts, I'd say those who support her may be in for a disappointing time of it.