Why build a venue for a dying game?

Everyone supporting the new stadium and hoping for an NFL team should read the article “The NFL in Decline” in the Oct. 31 Weekly Standard. And also the article in Tuesday’s Review-Journal, “$1 billion concussion settlement finally set.”

If you watch TV and look at the stands of a non-competitive baseball or football game, you find that they are very empty. It costs too much, it’s too much hassle to attend and you get a better view on the modern TVs.

NFL football is in decline. It is violent by nature — and that is some of the appeal. But the evidence is growing that there are permanent injuries and even brain damage to the players. But you take away that violence, and you diminish the appeal.

Many, if not most, of the people who live here came from somewhere else. They are loyal to their college or they are loyal to the team they have always been fond of. And size matters. How long before we have genetic engineering and have giants — gladiators? — out there?

No, let’s invest our money into things that are unique to Las Vegas. Don’t pledge our future to a venue for a dying game.

Charles Gould

Las Vegas

Wonderful world

In response to the Review-Journal’s Saturday story, “Lawyer: Teen shot defending himself”:

I find this entire travesty unbelievable. On one hand, you have young people who need safe spaces, days off and Play-Doh to deal with the loss of their “anything goes, we’ll pay for all of your needs” presidential candidate. Yet they all show up, phones in hand ready to shoot videos, to watch some poor kid get the crap beaten out of him.

He’s been bullied to the point of irrational thought and reaction, while no one — the school or a decent fellow student — has his back. Then he gets shot. What a wonderful world.

Carole McClendon

Henderson

Education priorities

As a parent plaintiff in the lawsuit, Lopez v. Schwartz, I was relieved and elated when the Nevada Supreme Court decided in September that the state voucher program’s funding mechanism was unconstitutional and the program could not be implemented.

But imagine my surprise when I learned that state Treasurer Dan Schwartz had reopened the application process and told my fellow Nevada residents to keep signing up for a program that the court blocked. I struggle to understand how anyone can argue that proceeding this way isn’t blatant deception.

Many Nevada taxpayers still have legitimate concerns about cost — the projected cost of the program if implemented, the exorbitantly high bill the state ran up defending the program, and the significant sums of taxpayer money Mr. Schwartz continues to spend to promote “education savings account” vouchers. How will he repay Nevadans for these wasted expenditures?

Plainly stated, Nevada can’t afford vouchers for private and religious education when we’re facing a $300 million budget deficit and our chronically underfunded public schools are desperately in need of more resources. Concerned parents like me vote. We are watching with the expectation we will see our legislators focus their attention on doing everything in their power to address the real issues affecting student achievement.

Let’s stop wasting time on an unconstitutional privatization scheme that will not improve educational outcomes for the majority of students. Instead, let’s center our efforts where they will do the most good. Let’s get serious about supporting our public schools and improving education for all Nevada students.

Electra McGrath-Skrzydlewski

Las Vegas