Careful: We don't dare offend

Across America we are being especially careful not to offend "the sensitivities."

Women have "sensitivities," people of race have sensitivities, even people who don't eat meat get their knickers in a twist if we say something afoul of their sensitivities.

The state has taken down a memorial to a slain 9-year-old because someone with sensitivities about the separation between church and state threatened to sue.

Those of us who have sensitivities to the slaying of innocent children will now have our say. Though there is no legal foundation for us to stand on like those with sensitivities on the separation between church and state claim, the Nevada Department of Transportation has seen fit to allow us to comment as part of its policy process.

Those comments are being accepted from 4-7 p.m. today at the NDOT building, 1263 S. Stewart St.

Though there has been much said and threats made over the sensitivities over the separation of church and state, the public didn't seem to blink an eye when our legislators signed up to serve as elected officials while at the same time being state employees.

Apparently, our sensitivities aren't as affronted by failure to uphold the separation of our three branches of government as they were those between the government and the church - well, at least no anonymous person threatened to file a lawsuit.

In an opinion issued March 1, Attorney General Brian Sandoval said that it's OK to be a public employee and a state legislator as long as your public work isn't with the state. You can be a county road engineer and represent your constituents, but you can't work for the state's college system and get a shot to vote on the state's education budget.

Sandoval reaches back as far as the Federalist Papers to help form his answer.

In those papers, No. 47, James Madison noted "there can be no liberty if the power of judging not be separated from the legislative and executive powers."

Conflicts exist in six out of 64 of our elected legislators. Not many, but as Sandoval - and those with sensitivities - the framers of the U.S. Constitution and those who wrote Nevada's constitution argue, the conflicts arising from the lack of separation, if continued unchecked, could lead to one small group of people running the state. When in fact the Constitution gives that power to the people.

In the Senate, Ray Rawson, R-Las Vegas, was a professor for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He has resigned his professorship since Sandoval's opinion was issued. Sen. Dina Titus, D- Las Vegas, is a UNLV Political Science professor.

In the Assembly, Ron Knecht, R-Carson City, is an economist with the Public Utilities Commission; Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, is an outreach coordinator with the Community College System of Southern Nevada; Mark Manendo, D- Las Vegas, is a recruiter for the CCSN; and Jason Gedes, R-Reno, is an environmental systems officer at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Nevada's determination to operate on a part-time system of government could be the cause of this. In most cases, a legislator must every other year find some form of employment, but the alternative - full-time legislators - is only something they do on the west side of the Sierra Nevada.

But we don't want to offend someone's sensitivities.

Kelli Du Fresne is features editor for the Nevada Appeal. Contact her at kdufresne@nevadaappeal. com or at 881-1261.