Letters to the editor for Sunday, May 25, 2014

D.C. Vietnam Veterans Memorial worth the trip

I have heard all my life about what the veterans have done for this country and how grateful I should be for our service members. Nothing could have made me feel this as profoundly as I did in Washington, D.C., when I went to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

I happened upon a scene that lasted only seconds but will forever be with me. There was a woman who had her camera pointed at someone standing at the wall just a few feet away. In that instant I glanced at the woman in her 70s or 80s who was having her picture taken. I am not sure of her age because the raw grief on her face. She stood there looking at the camera with her finger on a name, oblivious to all those around her. The tears were running freely down her face. The grief was so potent that I turned away in shame because I was intruding on such a personal and sacred moment. It lasted only seconds, but it seemed like a lifetime.

I became profoundly aware that I did not understand what it meant to have true gratitude in my heart for our service members. Most importantly, I never thought to have gratitude for the family members who lost their loved ones. I think the significant part of it was it could have been my mother standing at the wall with her finger on my father’s name while I captured a minuscule picture of her grief through a camera lens.

How grateful I am to the service members of this nation, to their families, to the families who have continued on, to the service members who pay the ultimate price. I am humbled and grateful to the woman at the wall who unintentionally shamed me from my box of “platitude gratitude.” She let me know that I am blessed to live in a country so free; bought for me with a huge price tag that was, by no means, free.

Marina Crounk

Carson City

No faith in American government

All the problems we have in this country such as NSA, IRS, VA, and Benghazi and who does our Attorney General investigate? Lois Lerner of the IRS? No. Gen. Shinseki of the VA? No. Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State when Benghazi occurred? No. He determines some Chinese hackers are what needs investigating.

If they’re determined to be a huge problem they’ll probably be found in contempt of Congress so nothing further will happen to them. Amazing government we have. Doesn’t it make you feel safe?

John Devenish

Carson City

Don’t put ‘Big MAC’ at Mills Park

John Barrette’s informative update on the proposed “Big MAC” athletic center on May 11 mentioned an interest in Mills Park as the possible site. I hope many Carson City residents share my concern that the remaining grass-and-cottonwood acreage at Mills is an almost “sacred” civic resource that should not be compromised further by substantial new construction and paving.

I implore the supervisors to re-focus regarding the location of this “big-box-and-pavement” complex. In fact, couldn’t the existing, long-vacant Kmart structure in north Carson (with its ample parking resource) be adapted as a suitable new indoor athletic center? Perhaps not, but that’s only one of several alternatives to Mills Park.

Steve VanDenburgh

Carson City

Local library is a gift to community

Have you ever walked into your local library and just taken a moment to look around, not only for a book, but rather to marvel at what a wonderful gift your local library is? Granted we pay for it, but we pay for drainage ditches and sewers also and never give them a thought, unless they stop working.

I truly wonder what I would do without a good book from time to time. Our friends sometimes greet each other by asking, “Oh, have you read such and such?” It seems when we are young we don’t have enough time to read as much as we would like. Now that we are elderly, we have more time than we do sense or money, so our library is more appreciated than ever before.

The next time I visit the library, which will be this afternoon, I plan to take the time to tell them how much I appreciate it and how much I enjoy the friendly people who are so helpful when I need to find a particular book. Thanks again. I’m on my way now.

Judie Hartwick

Gardnerville