Letters to the Editor

Minimum wage created to reduce sweat shop labor

In response to the Feb. 27 letter by Ms. Mulkey regarding repealing of the minimum wage, she states she works for a little over minimum wage and it took her a year to get there. She states that "We the people have petitioned to get where we are and now the Legislature wants to repeal it."

It's been my experience that minimum wage is not meant to be able to support a family or a household, it was brought forth in an effort to reduce sweat shop labor. If one wishes to earn more than a minimum wage, then by golly, instead of petitioning for a higher wage, go out and earn it.

Lisa Shannon

Carson City

Nevada has lost a true advocate for education in Phyllis Dryden

Education has lost a true lady and friend in the passing of Phyllis Dryden.

For anyone who ever worked with or knew Phyllis, we have lost someone who truly cared about all things academic. She was a real Southern belle in the best possible sense. Always smiling, cheerful, and ready to do what was right for kids of all ages.

It was a privilege to get to know her, and the Department of Education was blessed to have her for so many years. She impacted many families with her passion for career and technical education. She helped build those programs throughout Nevada.

I will miss her happy spirit and smile.

Barbara Myers

Carson City

Imagine a society without the public sector

When did public sector employees become the pariahs of the nation? When they voice their concerns about cutbacks and furloughs, they are considered whiners and selfish. It's as if all who have lost their jobs went complacently and happily to help the economy.

Public employees pay taxes, buy gas and groceries, and spend their money as all citizens do. Few have six-digit incomes, contrary to what many people believe. They are not all lazy or incompetent. Most are dedicated and skilled in their respective roles as public servants.

So, lay off for awhile on the invectives, and imagine a society without teachers, firefighters, law enforcement and the myriad others who keep the state running, perhaps not always smoothly, but keep it running in good times and bad.

Bob Hilderbrand

Carson City

You would be Meshuggah to miss this play

On several trips to New York City, I had the opportunity to see many Broadway musical hits. In Carson City, it was a mere nine blocks from my home to the Brewery Arts Center on King Street to see the musical, Meshuggah Nuns. Meshuggah means crazy in Yiddish.

The performance and talent of the entire cast, crew, and orchestra was as great as Broadway's best. If you missed it the first time, hopefully it will return in the not-too-distant future. You would have to be Meshuggah not to see it.

Gene Ratner

Carson City

No snow days for this Carson High alum

Oh no, Mark Johnson's daughter had to go to school during a bad snow storm, with more snow on the way.

I was in the middle of seventh grade, 1964, when my family moved from Yerington to Carson City. From 1964 to 1970, when I graduated from Carson High on King Street, we never had snow days. Did I like it? Not necessarily, but I went. During my high school years, my mom and dad would drop us off at the corner of Telegraph and Mountain streets, and we would walk a few blocks to school, no matter what the weather was like. After school we would walk two miles home again no matter what the weather was like. And I didn't get any snow days.

Yes, snow can make the roads a little hazardous to drive on, but it's the people who talk/text while driving, run stop signs, or don't know what a turn signal is that make driving more hazardous even when there isn't snow on the roads.

What is your daughter going to do when she has a job - maybe she already has one - and it's snowing? Is she going to expect a snow day? Maybe you should get a clue and show her life happens, no matter what the weather is.

Lastly, I don't care what happens in Douglas County or Reno, but since it appears you do, maybe you should move to one of those places.

Rex A. Jennings

Carson City

We are all in this economic crisis together

There have been a number of letters to the editor by public employees lamenting they are the ones having to bear the brunt of this economic downside.

I wish to point out that for the past 15-20 years, employees in the private sector have been seeing decreases in their various benefit plans and loss of employment, while those in the public sector have been enjoying increases in their various benefit plans and wages during this period.

Mr. Paslov's column of Feb. 19 states, "if state and local governments die, we will be left with anarchy," but does not mention that should the private sector fail to exist, our government will fail to exist as there will be no income taxes or fees to operate it.

Be it the public or private sector; Democrat, Republican or other; employed, laid off, on welfare or retired; all have to face up to the fact sacrifices have been made, need to be made and must be made in order to recover.

I feel the first approach government should take is to examine all programs, establish actual needs and prioritize them, and then make the necessary cuts.

I feel additional taxation may further decrease opportunities for the free enterprise system which has been the major influence in the growth of our economy.

Some feel big businesses have wasteful and abusive operations which should be eliminated. I feel this is true not only of big businesses but also of big government.

Sanford E. Deyo

Minden

Writer objects to complaint of library 'gibberish'

I find I cannot allow Mr. Jim Charlton's egregious piece March 6 to avoid my comment. Would he reverse God's action described in Genesis 11:1-9 when He confounded the existence of a single language on earth by scattering humans upon the face of all the land? Gibberish, Mr. Charlton?

At 72, by dint of more than 50 years of scholarship in Asian language study, I am fluent in Chinese - Mandarin and Shanghai dialects, and Japanese, which I currently teach at Western Nevada College. For years I have also studied the Washo native American language, not only because it is beautiful and is a tongue with a bit of mystery, but I have found the Washo people to be warm, friendly, hospitable, in favor of education and scholarly advancement, and possessing one of the most sophisticated senses of humor I have ever encountered. During the 22 years I worked and studied in Asia, I grew to treasure my knowledge of local languages.

The surname Charlton hints at an Anglo-Saxon origin for this man's progenitors. I suggest that at one period in time, his people spoke a language which he would now indeed deem gibberish were he to hear it today.

I am sympathetic to your plight, sir, and therefore offer you a quiet corner of my residence in which to read your newspaper. Yet I must announce this caveat: around here we have a ton of Chinese Mandarin, Shanghainese, Japanese and native American interference. Reader beware!

Stephen Vance

Carson City

Illiteracy in our schools can't be ignored

In response to a Feb. 25 article, Democrat legislators have announced that an education reform package is on the horizon. A Nevada Reading Skills Development Center is planned which will help teachers learn how to teach young students to read.

Reading proficiency is the cornerstone of academic and economic success, but the schools have failed in their primary mission of teaching children to read.

On the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress, only 24 percent of Nevada's fourth graders read at a proficient level. That leaves 76 percent at basic or below basic, which approaches functional illiteracy. Students who are promoted to fourth grade unable to read fluently, rarely catch up - even with intense remediation.

The question of how best to teach young children to read has been settled. As the NRSDC is organized, attention should be focused on a federally funded study conducted by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. This overview of reading covers 30 years of research with compelling evidence that phonics-based instruction is the key component of effective reading instruction.

Nevada schools haven't delivered this instruction. A strategy called Whole Language remains the preferred methodology. It rejects the teaching of a systematic sequence of skills beginning with letter/sound mastery and depends on whole word memorization, context and picture clues and guessing.

Every child has a right to read. How long will Nevada public schools continue to deprive children of this right?

Sharon S. Kientz

Carson City

Taxpayer proud to have affordable golf in the community

Golf courses are two different products. It was astounding to read about private golf course interests complaining about subsidies granted to the Eagle Valley Municipal Golf Courses. Jim Kepler was absolutely justified in saying the EVGC "is a different product." It is different because it is a product of a municipality, just like other public park facilities throughout our nation that serve the taxpaying recreational community.

The EVGC should not be compared to the Empire Ranch or Silver Oak Golf facilities. Both were most likely private ventures constructed primarily to sell adjacent property for housing at a profit. Normally, in private ventures, infrastructure and regular maintenance costs are paid by profits from the sale of that property, and from player revenues generated by daily and tournament play from both locals and out-of-town golfers. And, private facilities come with inherent risks that are predicated on the golfing community and other management and private ownership factors.

The community-owned EVGC courses were here long before other private courses. Any infrastructure item provided by our city is a necessary step in preserving its publicly owned investment. As a result, it has helped the EVGC operation to live up to their motto of "providing affordable golf to locals."

As a taxpayer, I'm proud to say that affordable golf is still alive and well in the community thanks to Jim Kepler and his innovative practices, the golf corporation, and any contributions or subsidies by the city to protect your and my public interest.

Doug Sever

Carson City