Letters to the editor

People's actions are between them and God

Bravo Marilee! Her recent commentary about Mary Santomauro's frequent letters to the editor echo my sentiments exactly. I am a devout Christian who has read the Bible cover to cover several times and I know all the references to sins, what they are and what they aren't.

Jesus' message throughout the New Testament is one of a loving Father. Jesus never condemns the sinner, only the sin. Ms. Santomauro could better serve her faith by re-reading her Bible with a more open and loving mind.

It is not my place to judge the gay and lesbian community. I have both relatives and friends who are gay and lesbian and I love them and accept them for who they are, just as I try to do with all people. And, as with all people, their actions are between them and God. Jesus said "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone," (Matt. 8: 7).

We as parents often have occasion to question the behavior of our children, their choices and their actions. But do we love them less because of those behaviors? As the mother of three, the grandmother of eight and the great-grandmother of two, I can say loudly and proudly, "No, of course not."

If there is one thing that would improve this country and this world, it is that we would all learn to love as unconditionally as our loving Father.

Joycie King

Carson City

My plan for streets of downtown Carson City

Regarding the narrowing of Carson Street downtown, a number of years back, when I was a member of the RTC /Campo and retired NDOT employee, this idea came about.

I was approached by a board member to see if I had any ideas regarding this idea. Having access to copies of the "original" alignment/construction plans, I came up with a plan, but not without maintaining a four-lane facility through and around the downtown corridor. That would be to divert the Carson Street four-lane from William Street over to Stewart Street, an existing four-lane street, thus maintaining the through four-lane access, and narrowing Carson Street from William to Tenth Street. So the concern about four-lane movement, in this design, would be mute.

I would state that this was just my concept for downtown, and completing the freeway to Spooner Junction would be paramount prior to any such endeavor.

Mike Zola

Carson City

Materialism drives families to have dual incomes

In Sunday's paper Carol Perry blames the need for two incomes on abandoning the gold standard, but what about our modern lifestyle?

We used to live in smaller houses (cheaper to buy, heat, furnish and maintain), had only one or two cars, one TV that got half a dozen stations, a hi-fi, and a land line phone - no dish, cable, computers, cell phones, iPads, Xboxes, etc. Wages stayed flat while profits, health care and insurance costs went up, mostly due to greed. And today many women prefer to have a career rather than keep house.

Then there were the letters writers. One warns against becoming a pedestrian- and bike-friendly community because it's part of a UN plot to depopulate the world. Huh? How about it would mean less traffic, less air pollution and healthier citizens?

The next writer claims an assault weapon ban is an effort by "the regime" to disarm us, and that we need to have equal firepower. So everyone should have access to rocket launchers, mines, tanks and attack helicopters too? It would make neighborhood disputes interesting, but we will always be outgunned by the government. Military-style weapons should be for "well-regulated militias," not our neighbors.

I feel bad for people who live with this kind of fear and wish the malicious of the world would quit infecting them with such poison. I worry more about the paranoid and delusional than the government or UN.

Vicki Bates

Minden

Gun privileges should be like driving privileges

The solution to responsible gun ownership is already done and works pretty well. The gun is a machine and the shooter is nothing but an operator of that machine. This whole question was addressed by how we operate our cars and trucks and the responsibility that comes with it.

In owning a vehicle you enter a social contract to exercise your very best to avoid injuring me or damaging my property or public property. We take tests, prove our physical capacity, await a time when we are considered mature enough to operate the vehicle, provide all sorts of insurance coverage in case of our inflicting injury, death or damage on others. We submit to the laws that if we are impaired by drugs, drinking, physical or mental conditions that the right to operate a car is revoked. The automobile, its fuel and maintenance, generate all sorts of fees and taxes that have paid for traffic lights, traffic controls, roadways, bridges and their maintenance, and safety features for us and the public in general. Over time we and the automobile itself have paid for a lot of the problems it causes.

Let's start dealing with guns the same way. Prove you are a capable operator, get a license and a title, get insurance, be responsible for yourself. Let's start working on the problems shooting guns can cause. If the NRA needs a role, let them become an insurance company for guns and gun operators. They know the business.

Jim Woods

Gardnerville

They aren't 'wild' horses; they're loose livestock

In the Feb. 2 article about BLM round-ups of feral horses, we have more whining by the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign (50 groups).

These are not "wild" horses, they are loose livestock gone feral that overgraze the land. The "wild" horse lovers are not ranchers, they are usually suburbanites that like to drive Nevada highways and look out their window and admire the horsey.

If a rancher leasing BLM land was irresponsible and let cattle overgraze and ruin the land, they would lose their lease rights and be forced to remove the cattle from BLM land. These feral horses were let loose over the years and are not natural to the land. I think it is ridiculous to keep 35,000 feral horses as pets, penned up and fed because the bleeding hearts don't understand that they are meat, just like cattle. BLM has to remove the horses because they overgraze and ruin the land.

Why do the horse people make all this fuss about feral horses while they bite into a juicy T-bone steak?

Ronald Adams

Dayton