Letters to the Editor

Stereotyping and labeling are not proper for real truth

Turnabout is fair play. Mr. Thomas has called me a “socialist.” My opinion of Mr. Thomas is that his writing looks more like that of a redneck school dropout than that of a college professor of government studies. I doubt if he even knows the definition of socialism. We have had elements of socialism in our government for many years, and the masses, including many Republicans and Democrats, gladly support these policies.

For example, we have Medicare, Social Security, public education, public law enforcement, a graduated form of tax revenue (the wealthy pay more than the poor), public transportation, government regulation on cost of utilities. We also have streets, highways and bridges paid for and supported by government, and a socialist type of military service personnel. In the military the private and the general share the same doctor. The same allowance for housing is provided to enlisted personnel. Basically, all pay grades get equal pay.

How many Republicans want to give up Medicare and Social Security? How many want to take their children out of public schools and put them in private schools? How many want to pay twice as much in taxes? For those who can’t drive, how many want to pay for private transportation? How many want to pay for private law enforcement? How many want to pay twice as much for utilities? How many want one lane on Highway 160 when traveling to Las Vegas?

Mr. Thomas, it might surprise you to learn that Karl Marx supported these adaptations of socialism. If you don’t believe me read, “Das Kapital.” Also, I assume you are receiving your pension and health care benefits from us, the taxpayers since you indicated you were retired from the Navy. I am not saying you did not earn it. But it is from our government, not private enterprises like Ford or General Motors. Therefore, it is an element of socialism.

Stereotyping and labeling without giving specific facts is not responsible writing. Learning the truth requires us to present facts.

Jim Ferrell

Community thanked for love and support during sale

I am writing this letter on behalf of seven-month-old Hadley Murphy, her entire family, my wife, Paula and my dear sister-in-law, Joyce Higginbotham.

The outpouring of support and LOVE for our event for Hadley over the last two weekends was nothing less than incredible. Especially since we didn’t know what to expect. Originally, Paula and I were going to have our sale without telling Hadley’s parents of our intentions to gift them 20% of our sales. That changed when we saw photos from her FaceBook page, “Hadley’s Journey”. We asked permission of the Murphys to use their names…the rest is now history.

A huge shout-out must also go to reporter Selwyn Harris, and the editors of this newspaper for publishing Hadley’s story in last Friday’s edition of the Pahrump Valley Times. Because of said article, many “Pahrumpians” simply came by our “garage” sale just to put some cash in the donation jar.

By way of continued support for Hadley, we are planning to have a booth at the Fall Festival featuring our other registered trademarked products, AMERICAN CHAUVINIST (Est. 2007). And we will have another two weekend event like the last one, once it cools down after the summer heat. As before, 20% of all said gross sales at said events will go to Hadley.

In between, we will continue to sell men’s clothing items from our former store in La Jolla, California, “Le Chauvinist Consignment Store for Men” (2001-2020), by appointment. For that, please call or text me directly at 619.200.1684.

I am compelled to thank Joyce Higginbotham, once again. Without her loving support and the use of her warehouse for storing our items and then making her property available for the two weekend event, it simply would not have happened.

GOD BLESS,

Salvador J. Viesca

Senior citizens need help when dealing with DMV office

In response to a gentleman’s letter last week regarding the “less than desirable” conditions at the Pahrump DMV, I am sure 100 percent are in agreement. The DMV is for tax-paying citizens … all of us who drive our own vehicles have many transactions there.

Is there ANYONE in Nye County who can do something? I’m a disabled senior who does not own a computer. It is 1000 percent impossible for a person like me to reach the DMV! To stand in a line for hours to get an appointment and then come back and stand in line for hours again is literally impossible for me or others like me.

There’s safety in numbers so all Nye County people who need to go to the DMV in Pahrump need to get together and do something positive to give drivers a break.

If anyone has any good ideas, let the citizenry know. I for one will help in any way I can. Are all DMVs in Nevada like this? How can this even happen in 2021?

Katrina Silva

Sometimes ‘promoting general welfare’ gets abused

Everyone who works for the U.S. government is usually required to take an oath of office. This oath is related to protecting and serving the U.S. Constitution, which includes the Preamble, which outlines the reasons to have a constitution in a few lines. One of those lines is “to promote the general welfare” (of the U.S.) Sometimes it gets abused to enact the ideological desires of officeholders that may even be adverse to the Constitution itself, but sometimes it is used well in the scope of the main duty of our government, protect its citizens. For example in our nation’s infancy, piracy was a serious problem of trade around the world. Some countries had strong enough navies to protect their merchants’ vessels, but those that weren’t had their vessel captured and ransomed, which if they had the money, they paid. If not, that vessel’s cargo was lost, and the crew was killed or enslaved.

Jefferson as president knew our merchant vessels couldn’t afford the ransom payments and we certainly didn’t have much of a navy, so he started putting soldiers on our merchant vessels, which began the U.S. Marine Corps. As a force at the time, it didn’t totally solve the problem but many of these pirates started feeling the sting of resistance that became more costly as our Marine forces grew.

Some of the best-organized pirates were the Barbary Coast Pirates (of North Africa) that were backed by Muslim leadership. That’s where the Marines being called “leathernecks” came from, due to these pirates liked to cut their foe’s heads off with their Scimitar swords so the Marines started wrapping heavy leather around their necks for protection in battle.

Today we face different pirates, like computer pirates that can shut down commerce in other ways and may actually be more devastating than the former pirates. The recent Colonial pipeline outage is a good example of ‘disrupting the general welfare’.

This new administration has taken the “it’s a private corporation, so we’re just going to monitor the events” stance, which flies in the face of “promoting the general welfare” as well as “protecting its citizens”.

If the breach was backed by a foreign state or not is not the question. The question is why are they sitting on their hands at times and at other times willing to use even questionable tactics at other times against the citizens of this country?

David Jaronik

Reader responds to several letter writers’ criticisms

The recent letters to the PVT criticizing me is just another example of people not hearing what is said. I never once supported or encourage socialism, yet David Jaronik and Linda Delamare kept stating that I did. What I did do was explain the difference between socialism and democratic socialism. But, oh no, they need to try to defeat me by the only way they can: misstate what I said.

For David, our helping those countries is helping us. We need them to have a strong defense to thwart off the aggression of countries like Putin’s Russia. By helping them do that we protect democracy in Europe and the whole world. Again, it is the richer helping the poorer, a philosophy of democratic socialism. Please hear that I said, “democratic socialism” NOT “socialism.” So, yes, we are helping the economies of their countries which, in turn, helps us.

David took my comments about packing the courts totally out of context. It was a reply to a prior letter which blamed the Democrats for court packing, when, as I pointed out, it is being packed by the Republicans. Please stop twisting my words to your advantage.

As for energy independence, we were 86% to 91% self-sufficient in 2016, BEFORE Trump took office, and moving toward 100%. So, to give Trump credit for us being energy independent is just plain wrong. As for the tax revenues at record levels, that is normal. Revenues go up every year just as salaries, home prices, cost of goods, etc. go up every year, with a few exceptions. I am not sure what your point is. Surely, it cannot be that it should be credited to Trump. Yet, you failed to mention something that we CAN give credit to Trump: the national debt rose by almost $7.8 trillion during Trump’s time in office. And the deficit under Trump was the third biggest, relative to the size of the economy, than any other president (Bush and Lincoln being the other who were paying for a civil war and two foreign conflicts). Yet you say I was omitting facts?

To Linda Delamare, democrat socialism has nothing to do with altering our Constitution. In fact, our government is already applying the principles of democratic socialism, ones that you probably enjoy and are taking advantage of. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, public education, food assistance, energy and utilities subsidies for low income and seniors, child care assistance, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and many more are just a few examples. Did you accept your “Covid” checks from the government? Then you participated in democratic socialism: the government helping people during these hard times. Democratic socialists also believe in a strong democracy and are against authoritarian government systems that you and many other Americans associate with socialism (something Trump trumped up to give you another excuse to hate Democrats). Hear this: Democratic socialists do not want to create an all-powerful government bureaucracy. But we do not want big corporate bureaucracies to control our society either. Maybe that better explains it to you. Nowhere did I suggest we live under socialism – in fact, I am totally against it. Stop fighting it and learn about it instead of shaping it into something that fits your needs rather than tells the truth. Period!!

Finally, Dave Thomas: Democracy is NOT leading us to socialism. You need to stop drinking the Fox Kool-Aid. But then again, all of you are just helping the implosion of the Republican party. Fractured, failing and being led down a rabbit hole. Cheney gets the boot because she tells the truth but Marjorie Taylor Greene is OK? Really? It is clear and it is being led by the Republican leadership: we don’t want to hear the truth; we just want to kiss Trump’s ring – at any cost.

CJ Stevens

Shout-out to our sheriff’s office for their efficiency

You know, you hear so much negative about law enforcement agencies lately, most of it not deserved. They have a really tough job and deserve our respect. We are especially lucky here in Pahrump.

I have always thought our sheriff’s office did a great job but I got some real evidence of that this week. My granddaughter’s car was stolen from in front of her house. The detective’s division of the sheriff’s office sent someone out to investigate right away. He was pleasant, thorough, and called regularly with updates. In short, we have some real professionals working for us in our community. So thank you to our amazing sheriff’s office!

By the way, the car was found quickly (it was trashed) but not the scumbag who took it (yet). Karma, buddy, karma.

Pam Christie