Letters to editor of the Pahrump Valley Times
All men are in search of their freedom
Freedom is one of the greatest attributes a man possesses. This is why everyone and every nation are searching for freedom.
By means of freedom, will is applied, and it must be prone to good and not to evil. Man could do evil because he has capacity to do it, but he mustn’t do it, because he corrupts himself by doing so.
Real freedom means not to commit offenses, such as homicides, thefts, adultery, fornication, sacrilege and others. When man starts to avoid offenses, he starts to walk to the real freedom.
Perfect freedom is the saints’ one, because although they could do evil, they choose not to do it, and therefore they ignore the slavery spawned by sin.
If each citizen is absolutely free, social life will be a coexistence of freedoms, where the actions of each one are limited by the others’ and freedom to choose is not imposed - because it would cause the tyranny of the strongest or the meanest.
Arturo Ramo
Writer wants full-service grocery shopping option
A couple of weeks ago I filled my grocery cart with around $200 worth of groceries only to find that I had the privilege of checking myself out and bagging the groceries myself. I found this surprise very irritating.
Yesterday I went to Albertsons to purchase another $200 in groceries. I was delighted to find that they had seven full-service aisles available to their customers.
I guess Albertsons actually cares about their customers. I will continue to shop there as long as they ring up and bag my groceries.
Mike Hickey
Based on past, how long do you think we have left?
About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new Constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years earlier:
“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government.
“A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.
“From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy finally collapses due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.
“The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, those nations always progress through the following sequence:
1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
3. From courage to liberty;
4. From liberty to abundance;
5. From abundance to complacency;
6. From complacency to apathy;
7. From apathy to dependence;
8. From dependence back to bondage.”
With those in Congress and candidates for president today talking about free giveaways, where do you think we are on this scale?
J. Paul Taylor
Was VEA smeared by false rumors and accusations?
The latest information from Valley Electric, as reported in the PVT, assures us that they, the electric co-op, did no wrong. This was established after their governing board hired a private detective to look into alleged financial improprieties. Lo and behold, their investigator found no indication of malpractice or anything of a criminal nature, to include that corporate funds in excess of $70,000 were not unlawfully appropriated for work at the home of their CEO, whom we are told, will remain on paid administrative leave while everything is being sorted out.
According to Valley Electric, the hullabaloo was stirred up by rumors and false accusations. Much ado about nothing? If that is the case, their customers will be relieved to know that all is well within the offices of our electric service provider. It would also mean that the Nye County Sheriff’s Office could save further time and expense by dropping their criminal investigation.
Are we really on the road back to business as usual? Well, maybe not quite.
In Nye County, some of us have learned to expect the unexpected. But I would be very surprised if our sheriff’s office walks away from their probe into serious criminal allegations. Of course, after reviewing all facts and circumstances, the district attorney may decline to prosecute. We’ll have to wait and see.
Meanwhile, it would be a welcome expression of good faith if the electric cooperative reduced our power bills by at least the amount they were raised, just before all the uncertainty came to light, although I imagine the California lottery offers better odds.
Ralph Bazan
Opinion from the Nevada Republican Assembly
Last month, Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford decided he could represent all of Nevada when he joined a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s decision to declare a national emergency to fund a border wall he has promised to build dating back to his presidential campaign. According to Ford, “President Trump cannot side-step our Constitution for a political ploy.”
According to the Washington Post, there have been 30 national emergencies declared in recent years. There are 28 currently active. During their presidencies, Obama declared 12 and Bush declared 13 of these emergencies. Some of them have had to do with the Sudanese government, the Western Balkans, Albanians in Macedonia and Zimbabwe. All protections for people of these countries. To our knowledge, there has never been a suit to stop a president’s declaration of a national emergency.
In all actuality, Trump’s declaration of emergency isn’t for a wall; the emergency is that we have a dysfunctional Congress, whose House refuses to work with the president. Democrat members of Congress and even past Democrat presidents including Obama, have all wanted to secure our southern border with a wall. But now that Trump finally wants to protect the American people, rather than spending most of our defense dollars overseas for other countries’ protection, the hypocrites in Congress come out in force against him.
It’s particularly unconscionable for Ford to have signed on with this suit, considering the recent murders by an illegal alien, of Jerry and Sherri David, and Connie Coontz and Sophia Renken. If a stronger, more secure border wall had been in place, the murder of these four innocent people, in three separate incidents, may very well not have happened. The Angel Families in this country would agree.
For those who say there’s not an emergency, Border Patrol agents and property owners along the border would disagree. Just one sector is getting 1,000 illegal entries a day. That’s 7,000 a week! How is this NOT an emergency? In just 2018, there were 266,000 criminal record arrests at the border, 100,000 assaults, 30,000 sex crimes, 25,000 burglaries, 4,000 kidnappings, and 4,000 violent murders, committed by illegals who were trying to sneak into our country.
The incarceration rates for illegals is THREE TIMES as that for American citizens. Do we really want our tax dollars spent on putting these illegals in prison here? Wouldn’t it be better if they just NEVER got over the border to commit crimes here? EVERY crime committed by an illegal, is one that should have NEVER happened.
Who gave Aaron Ford the right to speak for Nevadans? He does NOT speak for us! His action tells Nevadans and the rest of America, that he cares more for illegal aliens than U.S. citizens.
Sincerely,
Juanita Cox,
President, Nevada Republican Assembly
Dr. William Tarbell,
President, Washoe County Chapter of the Nevada Republican Assembly
