Letters to the editor for Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Give us facts on Ormsby House

With all the aspirations of a re-vitalization of downtown Carson City, I must ask specifically: What are the true facts about that huge structure (called the Ormsby House) that occupies a large downtown lot and towers up to be seen by all? I remember when it shut down in 2000 for “renovations,” and it has been squatted there like a huge tomb ever since. There has to be a reason (political or financial) as to why this “nothingness” has been allowed to continue year after year. Is it that the city has decided that a dormant building is better than a large gaping empty lot? Is the city getting any revenues from this structure and its “owners?” What are the benefits to the owners of this oversized relic (tax breaks, incentives not to pull out and condemn the property)?

Yet, it’s true that it really isn’t any of my business to ask these questions, except that I live here and love it here and wish that someone truly responsible would fess up and actually do something about this giant mausoleum. It seems that this issue comes up every year, and the owners grace us with a few utterances of BS and then seem to fade back into the vast unknown (like Rip Van Winkle). So, I am asking again.

Jonathan Brown

Minden

Do Obama backers shun truth?

With at least three significant scandals now afflicting the Obama administration, we’re no longer talking about a cancer on the presidency. Now we have to talk about a cancer on the whole government. And which do you suppose is easier to treat?

But hold on. There may be something more troublesome yet. That situation comes when the people being governed, themselves, no longer own the kind of moral compass that helps them judge between good and evil. That may be because they simply no longer care and have become numb to such distinctions. Or it may be because they, too, have been taught that all morality is relative — and out of conviction they simply aren’t ready to pass judgment on anyone or anything.

But what if we learn that the millions of voters who put this lying crew into office don’t care about truth telling any more than their government does? If much of the society proves rotten to the core, who’s going to be left to write up those articles of impeachment?

David Sheppard

Carson City