A brilliantly dumb solution to illegal problem

To the editor:

A brief article in Tuesday's Review-Journal headlined "Report: One in four children born in 2008 in Nevada to noncitizen moms," really deserved more attention than what was provided by an obscure spot on Page 4B.

It appears that children born to "noncitizen" (i.e., foreign national or alien) moms tend not to learn English very well before starting school, requiring a whole array of bilinguals embedded into the educational system. Furthermore, "Health care representatives said noncitizen patients often lack health insurance, which puts a strain on providers." My gosh, what a surprise. Who could have possibly known these surprising facts? I sure wish somebody had brought this up during the past few elections.

But fear not, fellow citizens. A spokesman for the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada proposes a solution: just make the noncitizens into citizens. Then apparently these new citizens will magically know English and no longer be a burden on the medical system -- or any other system for that matter. Who knew? What a brilliant solution.

But why stop there? Let's take this just a little bit further and make everybody in the whole world a U.S. citizen. Then every person in the world will instantly speak a common language and will be a productive, contributing non-burden. All we need to do is pass some legislation and enjoy the resulting utopia.

James Moldenhauer

North Las Vegas

On target

To the editor:

Rarely do I agree with a Review-Journal editorial, particularly on education. Sunday's editorial on ending social promotion, however, was on target.

If I applied to medical school, I shouldn't be accepted, because I do not have the necessary skills. I would be lost, and I would fail.

Social promotion puts kids in a position where many are basically drowning, while teachers may be discouraged from allowing their grades to reflect this. That, in turn, misleads parents into believing their kids are proficient or higher.

It is a maddening situation. Too many students lack prerequisite skills. More and more hours are required of teachers yearly, it seems, in an attempt to meet the literally impossible demand of bringing these students to proficiency level. Many, including our governor-elect, Brian Sandoval, call for our pay to be tied to student achievement. The problems with that should be obvious.

But Mr. Sandoval has also spoken about supporting retention for younger students who have poor reading comprehension, we'll soon have a new superintendent, and the Review-Journal and I are actually on the same page on this, so maybe there's hope after all. Of course, any solution requires intelligent implementation, and that may be another story.

Betty Buehler

Las Vegas

It's the record

To the editor:

Reading the Tuesday article "Titus vows to keep fighting," I was struck by how deeply out of touch some Democrats are about the recent election.

Defeated Rep. Dina Titus says, "It was a tough year for Democrats. My legislative record didn't seem to matter." No, Ms. Titus, it was exactly your record that mattered. You voted for Obamacare, cap and trade, and the failed stimulus, despite the objections of constituents -- and you knew you couldn't run on that record. So instead, you ran a dirty smear campaign against your opponent, Joe Heck, packed with lies and half-truths.

Why would anyone support a health care bill that raises costs while devastating Medicare? Why would we support a bill that would make energy prices skyrocket while doing nothing for the environment? Who would support a stimulus (aka porkulus) bill that sends billions of dollars overseas even as our unemployment rate continues to rise?

That legislative record is what defeated you.

Ellen Shaw

Henderson

Saddam's game

To the editor:

I read Jane Ann Morrison's Monday column regarding her interview with FBI Special Agent George Piro with great interest. Mr. Piro related his experiences as the sole person responsible for the debriefing of Saddam Hussein. After many months of developing a relationship, Hussein related to Mr. Piro the actions he took to convince the world that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

He did a superior job of it, as evidenced by the fact that all western intelligence agencies and world leaders believed it to be true. This included former President Bill Clinton, Sens. Hillary Clinton and John Kerry as well as almost every other Democratic Party leader of the time.

From Sept. 11, 2001, until the summer of 2002, the majority of Americans supported our president, George W. Bush. And then the Democratic Party chairman, Terry McAuliffe, stated that if this continued the Democrats would not win back power for decades. This is when the slander about President Bush lying to the people about WMDs in Iraq started.

Despite this information from Mr. Piro, we continue to get the misinformed letters to the editor about President Bush lying to the American people and the mainstream media letting this slander continue with no rebuttal. And why did not the left-leaning Ms. Morrison point out this obvious fact?

Gene R. Empey

Las Vegas