Feb. 26, 2025, Letters to the Editor

Nothing will get through

Editor:

Response to Alice Meyer, whom I’ve read several times in letters to the editor, has made it abundantly clear she hates Trump.  Any fact I cite to refute her statements based on her bias, imagination, and lack of evidence will never allow her to accept any positive fact about Trump.

Response to Ana Brantmeyer regarding food dye red No. 3.  The FDA has already enacted the ban on this chemical that is shown to cause cancer. I assume she is aware in 1994 Europe banned it in its food products.  Full cessation of the use of red No. 3 food dye is by January 2027 and January 2028 depending on food types. Still time to stock up on maraschino cherries.

Response to Kendra Wilson’s deep dive and her statement the Trump administration is targeting schools and churches for immigration enforcement.  The directive is not to target churches in schools directly, but rather removes a prior exemption that allowed “criminal illegal aliens” to avoid arrest in these locations. In my opinion, an arrest of a criminal illegal alien hiding out in a school would be rare indeed.

Ms. Wilson mentions Trump’s executive order “to keep proper history from being taught in school.” Hyperbolic to say the least. The order ends radical indoctrination in K-12 schooling.  The order directs federal agencies to develop a strategy to withhold funding from schools that engage in what it calls indoctrination based on gender ideology and discriminatory equity ideology.  It reinstates the 1776 commission. The EO lacks direct authority to dictate local curricula, which is controlled by states and school districts.

Cathryn Kotler

Minden

A chainsaw?

Editor:

Elon Musk waving a chain saw while dancing on the stage at a CPAC meeting is a picture worth a million words. What does it say to us who depend on services and the fired government workers who have a mortgage payment or a grocery bill, or a medical bill due? Is this a picture of the USA or some wannabe tyrant who delights in seeing others suffer? Is this dance celebrating the culmination of a reasoned process that uncovered wasteful spending or fraud? Were any of these fired employees engaged in important work like medical research or nuclear material protection or air traffic safety? Exactly what were the criteria for selecting the positions for elimination? What are the metrics to measure the effectiveness of this process?

It seems that a lot of emphasis is on disruption, disruption does not require much talent, but problem solving does. Looking at many recent appointments to leadership positions is discomforting and that talent is not obvious, cabinet secretaries who seem unqualified, unvetted people who have access to very sensitive information, or people who have agendas not consistent with good governance. I don’t know the answers to these questions, but you might be able to get answers from your congressional representative if they are willing to address them.

I realize why some politicians are afraid to address these issues, so if they are, they should visit a military cemetery and understand that beneath those grave markers is someone who was afraid, but they still did their job.

Bob Taormina  

Gardnerville

Maybe provide some examples

Editor:

Kendra Wilson’s editorial published in the R-C’s Wednesday, February 19 edition alarming us all of “The Trump Hellscape” being inflicted upon us all but specifically at our schools, is alarming and insightful. Trump’s Executive Order reversing immigration enforcement at our schools is highly disturbing to this author and I am sure many others. Kendra asks us to protest by shouting from our rooftops, make social media posts, email everyone and anybody and talk to our children’s schools and get loud.

She cites the horrors of children being pulled out of class and classmates witnessing this atrocity with children never being seen again as to why we need to stand together and keep immigration enforcement out of school. The visual she paints is deeply disturbing! I don’t think anyone would disagree with the idea of ICE agents dressed in black fatigues storming the classroom while yielding their batons and grabbing screaming children by the wrists and hauling them out to never be seen again is truly a horrible depiction. So that we can all help and sound the alarm to Kendra’s cause I think we should arm ourselves with facts and cite examples so that we don’t sound like hysterical children making accusations that are just not true. If Kendra could please write another editorial and include all the cities and states and the names of schools where this is occurring it would give us the ammunition to stop this travesty. Perhaps she could start by listing those schools here in Douglas County and then add those throughout the state where this has occurred and put them on the top of the list. 

Also, I would hope that the RC would extend a humanitarian exemption to their policy of editorials being allowed only 500 words or less as I am sure this list will require pages of examples. 

Sanctuaries, whether they be schools, cities, states, or places of worship become the safe haven for those that refuse to conform to the rules and laws put in place by its citizenry or elected officials. Having a policy stripping sanctuary status puts those on notice that there is no place for those that break our laws to hide. It does not necessarily mean enforcement will take place, but it tells the offender that should it be deemed necessary enforcement can take place.

Willi Ruppel

Gardnerville

Agreement?

Editor:

I agree with Alice Meyer, what is Trump doing in the month he’s been in office?

I mean look how fast Biden raised gas prices. Impressive.

And, wow, he got inflation up in a couple of years. Impressive.

Come on Trump, quit being lazy. All you have to do is the opposite of the Biden Administration, like Biden did to you.

James Moore

Indian Hills