Flag flapping: patriotic or noise nuisance?
To the editor:
Isn't it funny how different people interpret sounds so differently? I am referring to U.S. flag at Dan Towbin's Hummer dealership and the people who live nearby (Wednesday Review-Journal).
Those neighbors hear noise when the flag flaps. Personally, when I hear a flag flapping, it sounds like the voice of American freedom telling me how lucky I am to live in a country where flag flying is our American right.
To the neighbors complaining, think about that for a while.
Tom Saitta
PAHRUMP
Commercial act
To the editor:
In response to everyone being upset over the Las Vegas City Council not letting Dan Towbin fly his flag in front of his car dealership to sell a product:
To anyone thinking for one second that this is about patriotism rather than commercialism, let's imagine this. Instead of this flag being in front of Towbin Hummer, let's pretend it's in front of an adult superstore.
Is it still about patriotism? Do you still support it?
Thought so.
BRIAN BENOIT
LAS VEGAS
Loud noise
To the editor:
Having lived across the street from a model home in Summerlin with those rather small Summerlin flags flapping in the wind 24/7, I can attest to the sound. When the wind gets whipping and the flags get to flapping, the noise will wake you up and keep you up.
The noise is louder inside the house than outside. The noise comes down through the vents in the kitchen and the bathrooms (next to the bedrooms!). It seems like it gets amplified by the vents.
Those people who live near the giant Towbin Hummer flag have my sympathies. I have heard the giant flags on a windy day and they are loud.
If the owner of Towbin Hummer wants to be patriotic, he can paint the flag on the side of the building.
Jan Jenkins
LAS VEGAS
Lawbreakers
To the editor:
Bravo to the Review-Journal's Vin Suprynowicz for his May 13 column, "Illegals push citizens to boiling point."
I believe illegals are arrogant, and that our elected officials have no backbone in allowing the illegals to freely break our laws.
Walter Gunther
LAS VEGAS
Immigration charade
To the editor:
Whenever one returns to the thought that the federal government is working in the interest of the American people, something like the "comprehensive immigration bill" miraculously appears to bring us back to reality.
A "reform bill" crafted in secret by a select number of senators, Cabinet officers, representatives of immigration advocacy groups and big business consultants has produced a "compromise" bill that is "as good as we can get," we are told. As usual, there was no representation of the American people in this select group, just special-interest types.
Every one of the politicians and media talking heads recites the absolute need for reform legislation with the simple proposition, "The current immigration system is broken!"
While admittedly the current immigration laws are ineffective at best, are these laws and the immigration system "broken" or conversely ignored and not enforced? Can anyone recall when a federal administration actually secured our borders or enforced our immigration laws?
It hasn't happened under either George W. Bush or Bill Clinton.
And our Congress, with its sacrosanct "oversight responsibility," has quietly acquiesced in this charade by ignoring the 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens who have crossed our border with understandable impunity. Yes, this same Congress which holds oversight hearings at the drop of a hat, has conspired to serve the special interests of their respective parties, again without concern for the American people.
If this federal government would enforce our current immigration and naturalization laws by securing our borders, prosecuting unscrupulous employers of illegal aliens, and arresting and deporting those here illegally, would there be a need to "reform" these existing laws?
What do these politicians really want? What party agenda are they working on now? Is there anyone dumb enough to trust these tinhorns again?
john Tobin
LAS VEGAS
Four bad years
To the editor:
In response to Jimmy Carter's recent comments about George W. Bush:
Every time ex-President Carter opens his mouth, he continues to prove he is a man who has been educated far, far beyond his intelligence. He had the most inept presidency in U.S. history.
He was building his Habitat for Humanity houses with money being laundered through an Atlanta bank. He sent servicemen to their deaths in Iran by ordering them to go up in helicopters in a blinding sandstorm -- and he was so inept that he couldn't even stop his brother, Billy, from urinating on the White Houses bushes.
These are his only accomplishments during four years in the White House that I can come up with.
Albert Wengert
BOULDER CITY
Right thing
To the editor:
Vin Suprynowicz's May 13 column was the very best presentation of the illegal immigration issues I've read to date.
Mr. Suprynowicz paints no rosy picture, and instead states the facts as they are -- and it's not pretty. As a matter of fact, after absorbing his straight-talk, no-nonsense style, I was truly embarrassed and finally angry about the gutless way our leaders in both political parties have approached the development of a lawful immigration policy.
None of our leaders has exhibited the guts required to preserve the laws on the books from our early history, and instead they are consumed with efforts to satisfy those who have broken our laws so as to develop future constituents for their political parties.
Please provide our Republican and Democratic leaders with a copy of Mr. Suprynowicz's column for their review. Perhaps, then, they might all step up to the plate and do the right thing for America.
Gerard Franzo
LAS VEGAS
Under oath
To the editor:
Your May 15 article regarding the right turn being used by aircraft departing McCarran International Airport contained a quote from Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, which immediately followed the statement I made that the right turn procedure is safe. The mayor's quote was: "I'd like to interrogate him under oath."
Let me remind the mayor and the good citizens of Las Vegas that I indeed did make that statement under oath. As a civil servant, I took an oath of office when the U.S. government hired me. I raised my right hand and promised to "well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God."
My duty as the Federal Aviation Administration's top management official in the state of Nevada is one I take very seriously. I have the utmost regard for the safety of air traffic, and I am offended that anyone would challenge my integrity or truthfulness in discharging my critical responsibilities. So help me God.
Del R. Meadows
LAS VEGAS
THE WRITER IS THE FAA'S AIR TRAFFIC MANAGER FOR THE LAS VEGAS DISTRICT.
