Letters to the editor for Sunday, June 22, 2014

Carlson’s column educational, important

Kudos to Ursula Carlson on her commentaries in the Nevada Appeal on May 28 and June 11. Few readers most likely have heard about the outrageous crimes committed by the Soviets (Communists) after World War I. Some years ago I had read about the starvation and deportation programs implemented in the Ukraine, but nothing about the atrocities committed against the Poles before World War II.

I hope Ms. Carlson will continue to detail what the Poles endured during World War II and especially the war crimes — the Katyn Forest incident and the four major deportations of Poles from their homeland.

The Jews and Poles were the real victims of World War II in Europe. In some respects Stalin made Hitler look like “small stuff.”

Stalin and his butchers should also have been on trial at Nuremberg. President Roosevelt should never have helped Stalin with military support during the war.

I was born at the start of World War II in Germany. Our family was stranded there and endured the war in Germany and were lucky to survive. My father was an American and was able to get us back to the states in 1946.

John Adams

Carson City

Let the Marines rescue jailed Marine

President Obama, concerning the Marine being held in a Mexican jail for inadvertently crossing the border, isn’t it about time you stood up on you hind legs? Call the commandant of the Marine Corps and tell him in no uncertain terms go get your Marine back in any manner you see fit.

Let this third world nation know what the business end of an Abrams Mach 2 looks like. Anybody wearing a Mexican Army uniform, a Tijuana police uniform, or a prison guard uniform would just be considered colloquial damage.

Possibly, just possibly, some Americans will be proud to be Americans again. With the completion of that phone call, you can take the golf clubs out of your “you know what” and hit the links knowing the Marines will do their job.

Guy Wooley

Dayton

Be prepared while enjoying the summer

Summer is now upon us and with it comes dry conditions, which if we are not careful can lead to brush and forest fires. Tossing a lit cigarette out the car window could prove expensive in more ways than one.

The cost to fight a fire caused by carelessness can be in the thousands and even millions of dollars, and the fine for throwing a lit cigarette from a vehicle is $1,000.

Many vehicles manufactured do not come with ashtrays. If you own a vehicle that does not have one, you should look at buying an after-market container, which is designed for cigarette use and disposal. It only takes one small ember to create a major incident.

For those of you planning on driving out into the surrounding hills and canyons, remember to take with you a shovel, bucket, and water should a fire somehow get started due to brush contact with your vehicles exhaust system or catalytic converter.

In addition to water, make sure you have adequate food, blankets and warm clothing in the event your vehicle becomes disabled. Although the days are warm, the nights can become cold. A strobe signal light is a good item to carry should you find yourself needing to be located at night by search and rescue.

Cell phones should be carried, but they have limitations as some areas do not have cell coverage. Make sure that someone knows where you are going, what route you are going to take, and when you are expected back so that notification can be made if you fail to return home.

Sgt. Scott McDaniel

Carson City Sheriff’s Office

Ash Wednesday origin debate continues

Response to Mary Santomauro — Mary! Ash Wednesday, Lent/Tammuz and Ishtar/Easter — the apostles did not teach them, nor practice them, and they left their Jewish religion. Nowhere in all of the New Testament are Christians commanded to keep it, and it was not officially practiced until nearly 1,000 years after Christ’s resurrection, like many non-biblical “Christian” customs, it’s heathen.

The Nordic pagan religions do this ash thing. Wednesday is named for Odin/Ygg, the same is Norse for the word “ash,” which has become known as Ash Wednesday.

It’s also found in the Indian religion, believed to be the seed of the Indian god Agni, or fire god in Latin, it’s Ignis, it’s from this root word that in English we get the words “ignite,” “igneous” and “ignition,” through whom Agni was said to have the authority to forgive sins — not!

Its beginnings can be traced to heathen practices; In Mexico, after the vernal equinox begins a 40 day fast in honor of the sun, an Egyptian lent was held 40 days in honor of Osiris, and it goes on and on.

To sum it all up, Mary, Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”

Rosalee Barnwell Hinton

Carson City