Letters to the Editor

Reflections on the true meaning of Memorial Day

This is the quiet time.

This is not a time for joy and parties and festivities. I do not want to hear about your special sales and deals.

It is a time for reflection; to honor, to remember, to grieve.

We who remain feel loss, anguish, sorrow, emptiness, guilt.

These feelings do not diminish with time. If anything, they overwhelm us at this time of year. All the “moving ahead” and “carrying on” and “dealing with it” we do for 51 weeks a year comes crashing down leading up to this Day of Remembrance.

We can pretend we are strong and put on a good face as we march through Life. However, beneath the calm exterior, the grief is building pressure, looking for a way out.

So, when we look upon a grave or a memorial or statue of a hero, the floodgates open and it all comes out.

Do not think me weak when I cry at a grave of an unknown warrior. You do not know the effort it takes, the strength it requires, to hold back the tears the other 364 days a year.

I find strength in the fellowship of my Brothers in Arms, for they have the same feelings, the same memories, the same sorrow. And I will support and love them as they support me.

No, I will not “celebrate” on Memorial Day.

This is the quiet time.

Stephen M. Pitman IV

First Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corp (Ret)

GOP gains ground, but Dems still in control: Reader

I’d like to comment on both state and national political structure starting with Nevada lawmakers that recently made the laws for us in this Legislature. I’ve been a political junkie and constitutional conservative involved in both Democrat and Republican strategies. For decades the Democrats’ grass roots approach was to recruit and support their members into offices using non-partisan races with little to no Republican opposition. There were over 70,000 nonpartisan races in 2025, such as school boards, council members, etc.

I know firsthand nonpartisan elections are the Democrats’ bread-and-butter plan to springboard their members into offices. They understand notoriety, political experience, and in many cases incumbent advantage to springboard candidates into higher offices, especially legislatures that make our state laws. Republicans do win partisan races, they even elect governors, to be subjected to Democrat legislatures. In my opinion, it remains a blue state, as Democrat legislatures still make our laws, Nevada is a prime example! The Democrats control the office of attorney general, secretary of state and both houses of the Legislature for a reason. The good news is, at least locally, the Republicans finally seem to be seeing the light.

As for the national political ideology, both parties differ in views for size, scope and power of government. Both have professed the need for government efficiency, as does the electorate majority. Knowing most of the citizens are for weeding out corruption and inefficiency in government, it boggles the mind why Democrats would fight against DOGE, especially after their stunning loss in the last election. The Republicans have gained registered voters over Democrats for the first time in decades. Democrats should review history when they suffered a mass exodus to the Republican Party after losing in 1968 and 1980. Yet they doubled down on their Marxist left-wing woke agendas that cost them the election.

As the moderates leave, the left-wing power base will finally be in complete charge pushing the party base even further left. Bernie Sanders has a lot of followers, but will be too old, unfortunately leaving AOC to win the primary enabling a run for president in 2028.

Gene Fisher

USN Retired