Letters to editor of the Pahrump Valley Times

Reader thanks community GriefShare program

Your fine newspaper was kind enough to publish a letter from me in December last year praising an organization called GriefShare that helps people through the grieving process following the death of a loved one. I responded following the death of my dear wife, Susan, who had enjoyed a last vacation (we call them holidays!) with her family in your beautiful country in July 2017.

Today, in my small bungalow in a West Yorkshire town called Huddersfield, I received a sympathy card from members of GriefShare, personally signed by twenty extremely kind people expressing their sincere condolences for my loss.

The card and the sentiments expressed mean so much to me and my family at a sad time in our lives and I would respectfully request that you publish this communication expressing my sincere thanks and appreciation for the kind gesture whilst bringing to the attention of your readers what kind and thoughtful people reside in their community and that help and support is at hand for those unfortunate enough to suffer a bereavement.

My sincere and grateful thanks to you all.

Kenneth Farrington

West Yorks, Great Britain

One answer to the extreme weather patterns

There is so much confusion surrounding our weather, both locally and worldwide. It’s less confusing once you research the scientific and military applications for the increasing extremes we witness each season.

In the 1950s, then-Senator Lyndon Johnson is recorded on video stating the chilling sentence, “And he who controls the weather, controls the WORLD.”

His emotional rendering indicates the continuing efforts to use our planetary resources for human goals. It is called “geoengineering.” Learning the technologies can explain our droughts, freezes, and natural disasters that are beyond past geological recorded normal ranges.

Locally, geoengineering efforts are seen in the “persistent contrails” that form white lines that never dissipate but linger and spread. A promising sunny, blue sky day within hours becomes a hazy, diffuse mess of cloud-like formations. They have stolen our natural weather.

Of course, there are many factors that contribute to the poisoning of the air we breathe. But the ramping up of climate mitigation strategies, such as aerosol particulate injection, adds a dangerous level of pollution that falls onto our land, lungs, rivers and the web of life.

My heart breaks for the generations that have never known a truly blue sky, or fluffy white clouds that were once our heritage. It appears that our atmosphere is gigantic and never-ending. But a Harvard scientist reminds us that our entire atmospheric realm can be compared to the thickness of gold foil on a basketball. Like a goldfish in a bowl that no one cleans, we are running out of time and fresh air.

Patty Vinikow

Politicians not thinking about America’s good

Many in the House and Senate need to realize this is about America, not about them and their morally corrupt political parties. They are paid high wages to work for America in a fair, sensible, and godly way.

That is not what we are getting for our money now!

The safety of America should be the most important thing to our legislators.

Is there any common sense left in city mayors and state governors? What has happened to the education systems across America that turn out such irresponsible leaders?

These leaders cannot take care of their own, yet most offer sanctuary to illegals, even if they are known criminals. By doing so, they are encouraging the world to migrate to America, against our immigration laws.

Anyone who encourages others to break our laws is, or should be, considered a criminal themselves.

Those who claim it is immoral to use barriers to stop illegals from entering our country happen to be the most immoral people around.

The most recent example is the ungodly state of New York, which passed a new bill, and their proud governor signed into law, allowing that state to legally murder babies “up to the due date.” Unless they repent and turn back to God, America will get sicker than that!

The guilt rests on unbelievers, and on believers too. On believers, because we failed to stand on God’s Word.

That Word of God tells us that “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” Yet we remained silent!

A murderous heart requires repentance, or Hell will be the judgment. Saying the wall or barrier is immoral does not cancel the horrible immoralities you support.

Manuel Ybarra, Jr. Coalgate, OK

Our country is not ready for socialist society

I believe that the new “Democratic Socialist” members of the U.S. Congress have their hearts in the right place, but not their heads. Like them, I too believe that our federal government should do more and spend more to help make the lives of our citizens better just like our traditional allies do.

However, there has never been a truly “socialist” economy in the history of the world which was ever able to produce enough wealth to meet the survival needs of its citizens. It has never worked. So, it is foolish to call yourself a socialist. You are just giving conservatives a new insult and put-down to call you.

A lot has been said about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal to tax the income of those earning over $10 million a year by 70 percent. The problem with this is that we need to start taxing wealth because that’s where we can get enough revenue to pass a Canadian-style national health insurance program to cover and greatly help 99 percent of Americans (except for the richest 1 percent). Her income tax won’t raise anywhere close to what a “National Wealth Tax” on all those individuals with a net wealth and net worth of $10 million and higher would raise.

It is possible that we might have a much more equal and a truly “socialist” society one day, but that day is at least 1,000-2,000 years away. We will all have to evolve and transform spiritually, emotionally, and mentally into much more loving, caring, empathetic, compassionate, and altruistic human beings before we are ready for that. Right now, we are simply too individualistic, too selfish, too self-centered, too self-absorbed, too “full of ourselves”, and too much into believing that we are “all that” for it to work.

Because, as the philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin observed, humankind is presently at the spiritual, emotional, and mental level of a 12-year-old child. Sometimes I think that it is more like a 7-year-old child.

And, I include myself in that because every day I fall short of being the kind of human being that I know that I can be and should be. And, I make mistakes every day of my life.

So, I am not judging anyone else here.

Sincerely,

Stewart B. Epstein

Rochester, New York

P.S. I am a retired college professor of Sociology and Social Work. I taught at West Virginia University, Slippery Rock University, and SUNY-Brockport.

Governor may not have Nevada’s interests at heart

Once again I “figuratively” take pen in hand to write, this time about the content of the OpEd page of the January 31 issue.

I find it amusing that Dennis Myers is complaining about the apparent inexperience that he sees in reporting from the state capital, when he say’s “It’s amazing how often reporters get things like this wrong…”

I guess he missed Ben Rhodes’ startling revelation:

“… The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old, and their only reporting experience consists of being around political campaigns. That’s a sea change. They literally know nothing.”

I’d laugh, but it hurts too much.

Then, we drop down to Victor Joecks:

I must admit that he nails the new governor, and probably is Gob-smacking many of the people who voted for Gov. Sisolak with the revelation that much of what the governor wishes to implement can be seen across our western border in California - though I don’t think he mentions that much of our governor’s program was initiated by Jerry Brown over his split-shift terms as California’s governor.

A few examples:

Public-employee Collective Bargaining: Jerry did that back in either his first or second term;

Same Day Voter Registration: Jerry’s last term - and we see the result in the complete destruction of the GOP in Orange County, and the fact that Los Angeles County has a registration figure of around 106 percent of the eligible adult population;

Raising Taxes: Jerry again, on both sides of this split-shift - refusing to rebate excess taxes back to the voters got him Prop.-13 in ‘78, and his increased fuel taxes in ‘17 are “driving” California into a serious recession - one that he predicted on his way out the door.

So, as a California native who left after 75 years as the state evolved into a third-world ….hole, take my word for it that Gov. Sisolak does not have the best interests of the average Nevadan at heart in his proposals. He just wants to make Nevada another solid blue, two-tier state where the 1 percent prosper, and the middle-class/bourgeoisie leave to search for a life they can afford, leaving behind the lower classes to serve the 1 percent and the political elites.

Sorry, but that’s not what I was looking for when I came to Nevada, and I doubt that many other recent arrivals did either.

I yield back the remainder of my time on the soapbox.

Respectfully,

Drew Kelly, Proprietor

Goldfield Small Arms – Goldfield, Nevada