Conditional luck for the Golden Knights

I just wanted to say congrats on the new NHL team. When I was a kid on vacation from Minnesota, I remember searching for a Las Vegas Thunder ballcap from the old minor league team in the 1990s. I found it at a Foot Locker and still have it.

So good luck with the Golden Knights next year. That is, when they are not playing the Minnesota Wild.

William Cory Labovitch

South St. Paul, Minn.

Rail lines

We want to comment on the very important topic discussed in Paul Harasim’s Dec. 2 column.

The topic of “driverless trucks” as well as other “driverless vehicles” has been in the news lately from the standpoint of safety and other considerations in addition to job creation and preservation. One wonders why the persistent effort to place driverless vehicles loaded with freight on our highways exists when the nation’s railroads criss-cross the country inviting their use for hauling such material.

These railroads are fixed in route needing no “drivers.” Railroad cars follow the railroad tracks and long interconnected segments of these cars can be pushed or pulled by a locomotive operated by one or two people wherever the tracks are installed. Other vehicles are not competing for space on the tracks, limiting collisions, road rage or accidents caused by inattention.

While job creation is an important part of this, it should be co-mingled with other considerations. Examples are air pollution and heavy-laden multi-trailer vehicles competing for roadway with more maneuverable passenger-carrying vehicles. Roadway deterioration due to heavy truck usage and the additional safety afforded by properly maintained railroads are also factors worthy of considering.

Maintaining and operating these railroads, related equipment and the freight management systems involved will provide jobs we need in our balanced economy.

We submit that freight could be more efficiently moved on freight trains and people could be handled more safely and efficiently on highways.

Kenneth F. Hines

Mary Lindsay

Las Vegas

Domestic jobs

In his Sunday commentary, David Hoffman of The Washington Post states that Mr. Trump was not elected to push corporations around in order to save jobs. Obviously, Mr. Hoffman is insinuating that the new president-elect shouldn’t fulfill his promise to keep jobs here in America.

In their quest to create jobs here, Nevada’s own politicians have spent gazillions on a new hockey team, Faraday batteries, solar companies, a car manufacturer and so on. I haven’t heard any complaints about that — but, then again, we are in a blue state.

I think Mr. Trump will do just fine for the country. I also think Mr. Hoffman would change his opinion on the importance of keeping jobs right here in the United States if The Washington Post were to move to China and his job were on the chopping block.

Ron Moers

Henderson

Pearl Harbor

It’s quite sad that the leader of of Japan is coming to the Pearl Harbor Memorial and seems to show little to no repentance for his country’s attack 75 years ago. Yet there seems to be no let up in the criticism of our bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki — which proved in the long run to reduce casualties of both Japanese and allied soldiers and civilians.

All I can say is what I saw on a bumper sticker here years ago: “If there hadn’t been a Pearl Harbor, there wouldn’t have been a Hiroshima.” That about says it all.

Neil A. Dickinson

Henderson