Letters to the Editor

If you need some help, don’t ask the government for it

During a news conference in 1986, Ronald Reagan famously said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” That’s the backdrop for this little tale I will relate as told to me by a friend and frequenter of Saline Valley Warm Springs (SVWS).

Saline Valley, previously controlled by the BLM, is located near Death Valley, which used to be a national monument. In 1994, Congress swooped in and gobbled up Saline Valley and Death Valley to create Death Valley National Park (DVNP).

Saline Valley Warm Springs has long been visited by a small group of rough and tumble folks who drive miles over dirt roads strewn with boulders to soak in the natural spring waters and believe that sleeping on rocks beats white sheets and pillows at the Hilton all day long. They are careful and tidy with the land, leaving no trash behind and always caring for Mother Earth. To that end, they dug holes and built 3-sided latrines with one open wall that faced the snowcapped mountains for meditation purposes. Humor was part of the equation, with a few magazine racks and seatbelts installed for no good reason and a white flag to raise indicating occupancy. Nearby, a little jingly bell was handy to indicate, “Hey pal, there’s a line forming out here!” When the pits were filled to capacity, they rolled up their sleeves, dug again and relocated the structures. It was a satisfactory arrangement for all. The soakers minded their own business and the BLM minded its.

Enter the DVNP Service (DVNPS). Soon after, the soakers arrived at SVWS for their next outing and found that the latrine structures, complete with all the comedic décor, had been dismantled and destroyed. In their place, on our tax dollars, the DVNPS installed those government-issue vault toilets with concrete holding tanks that do not leach. You know what that means, right? The tanks must be pumped on occasion when they fill to capacity. For a while, that duty was mostly fulfilled.

But here we are, now:

The tank at one site is full and others are near capacity. The visitors have been requesting them to be serviced for the upcoming holiday weekends and camping season. Can’t happen, the DVNPS says, because of budget cuts and personnel shortages. “They can’t be pumped at this time! Period!” And so, the resourceful people who just wished for peace and quiet and creative digs at the hot springs, a population that has grown exponentially, are left with no privacy nor decency and the option to head out into the desert with a bucket and/or shovel. How nice. Our tax dollars installed government-issue toilets that can’t be maintained, in lieu of the pleasant installations that the visitors had constructed and maintained themselves. The government moved in to “help!” Thank you for everything DVNPS, and if there is anything else we can do to ease your jobs, let the Saline Valley soakers know. (I myself will stick with the Hilton. They have bathrooms, don’t cha know.)

Linda DeLaMare

(for the soakers)

Reader says Republicans are not the party they used to be

In a recent edition of the Pahrump Valley Times, I noticed that we have a rebranded group of the same people expressing their fealty to the current occupant of the White House.

Members of this group gave us the current convicted felon who accepted a pardon from Trump after looting the memorial fund of a fallen police officer and used that funding for personal expenditures. She recently confirmed her candidacy for the position of justice of the peace.

Others of this same group were also complicit or at the very least supported Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election and supported the slate of fake electors. Currently, these felonious fake electors are about to be tried in a court of law. A recent conclave had as their keynote speaker one of the fake electors facing a conviction for his part of the Trump scheme to overturn the 2020 election.

When asked about their thoughts on the Trump cabal’s attempt to federalize the 2026 midterm election in 15 states the respondent went all in on that position. Evidently, this person has no issues trashing the Constitution.

How I long for the days when the Republican Party actually stood for something - the Constitution, the office of the presidency instead of the occupant. Loyalty and honor, strengthening and protecting the institutions that made America great? Do not make me laugh. The current abominations masquerading as Republicans are a mere shadow of that once great institution.

Henry Humbert