Letters to the editor for Friday, Jan. 24, 2014

Newspapers’ role is vital in a free nation

Hometown newspaper reporters are messengers who gather the news, local and national, bring it back for publication to keep the people informed through the local press. Their concern, what they bring back, is what the people want and need to know. They are truth seekers, finders and analysts, making sure it is the truth before it goes for publication.

They are always looking out from the windows of life to gather new events and happenings to keep the people informed. They try to cover everything. Sounds impossible, but they try. They help the police by exposing crimes, criminals, and illegal acts. The reporters work under freedom of the press.

Hometown reporters work independently, free from outside pressure, unlike the media and major newspapers who owe their allegiance to the owner or owners who put forward their views and political leanings.

Thank God for freedom of the press to operate and keep the people informed. If the newspapers were ever silenced, then the heart of freedom would disappear, followed by all freedoms. America would no longer operate within the Constitution and democracy and all that it stands for would disappear. The Nevada Appeal has all the qualities that make it outstanding. Their reporting is factual in keeping the people informed.

James McMullen

Carson City

Failed policies a waste of taxpayers’ money

Legislating moral convictions into law is destroying the very infrastructures meant to keep us all safe. Our lack of understanding in appointing law enforcement to carry out our social agendas has marginalized our police, our prison systems, and our court systems. Mental health has also fallen to the lowest levels since we started tracking it. Overloading our systems until they fail. We have law enforcement and prisons totally overloaded with ineffectual drug laws, as well as receiving the bulk of mental health patients. It doesn’t work!

Spending billions trying to correct things with the wrong resources and wrong personnel is only making it worse and worse. Think about it. Putting people in prison for minor drug violations has not worked. The police are not equipped to cure mental health issues in our population.

Wake up, America! Your tax dollars are going down the tube for naught.

Jim Ijams

Fallon