Letters to the Editor of the Pahrump Valley Times

Pahrump is in dire need of homeless shelter

This past Sunday my niece and I took many bags of winter clothing and shoes to the Winter Warm-up Event at Pahrump’s Faith for Action for the homeless. It is wonderful what Angela Reinold and her folks are doing.

My niece and sister-in-law bought tents this past summer for those that were behind Albertsons. Tents that would cool in the summer and be warmer in the winter.

As we know there are many homeless that choose to be because they are drug addicts, alcoholics, etc. BUT there are many in Pahrump that are good people and simply down on their luck and need help.

Why can’t a shelter be in place for them? Maybe there has been and maybe not. This is a touchy situation that needs to be addressed. There is so much empty land in town and so many caring people. Can’t a spot be designated and a shelter built to be there for those that are truly in need?

What can we do, Pahrump?

Thank you.

Sharon Sheppard

Reader lists positive reasons for Nevadans to choose veganism

All eyes were on Nevada as voting results crept in over the last week—but many of us were interested in more than just the presidential election. Environmentally focused citizens noted that the Nevada Renewable Energy Standards Initiative got the state’s thumbs up. This mandates that, by 2030, Nevada must get at least half its electricity from renewable sources: a bold step for emissions reduction … until meat and dairy industries come along.

A new study has found that worldwide consumption of animal-derived ingredients is ruining emissions-reduction efforts before they truly take off. Researchers determined that—even if we immediately eliminated all fossil fuel emissions from our energy sector—we will not meet Paris targets, thereby preventing excessive warming, because of our growing agricultural emissions. Major culprits are the meat and dairy industries: These emissions-heavy, resource-intensive sectors demand space, water and energy, while condemning sentient cows to a lonely life, and a painful death.

Let’s vote for a kinder, healthier world by going vegan today. Visit PETA.org for more information, and a free vegan starter kit.

Sincerely,

Jessica Bellamy

Forget broken promises and work together to unite

After reading Mr. Blackstock’s Letter to the Editor, it’s apparent that he has a case of selective memory loss unlike the “long memory” that he hopes Biden voters will have in four years. Let’s go back four years to the beginning of the Trump era. His promises at that time:

■ building a wall that Mexico would pay for (only four miles of NEW wall has been built and Mexico didn’t pay a dime for it)

■ that he wouldn’t have time for golf (he has spent almost 300 days golfing which is about 22% of his time in office at a cost of over $100 MILLION tax-payer dollars)

■ replace ObamaCare with a better health plan (we still have ObamaCare, thankfully, and no plan has ever been seen by anyone)

■ making student loan repayment more affordable (nada done)

■ pledged to push a constitutional amendment to impose term limits on members of Congress (again, nada, nothing done)

■ $1 trillion to rebuild nation’s infrastructure (nope, didn’t happen, nothing even attempted)

■ decrease the U.S.-China trade imbalance (hasn’t happened AND the cost of his tariffs against China have cost American consumers $57 billion annually!! We all know the cost of tariffs are added to the price of the products by China so we, the American consumers, are paying all those tariffs)

I could go on and on about the promises made by Trump four years ago that never happened but there’s only one page dedicated to Letters to the Editor so I have to stop here. I think I’ve mentioned enough broken promises to jog Mr. Blackstock’s selective memory loss.

Mr. Blackstock also raises doubts that Biden’s promise of “no taxes for people making under $400,000 a year” will happen. Well, Mr. Blackstock got that one right. The only problem is that Biden never said that!! He said he would RAISE taxes for those with OVER $400,000 of income. That’s very different than NO taxes for people under $400k. Clearly Mr. Blackstock’s fact checking is as good as his selective memory loss of promises broken.

So to answer Mr. Blackstock’s question “So who really was dividing the county?” (I think he meant countRy) I would say he is by throwing more misinformation out there as a way of bashing Democrats. Dividing has no place if we want to be great again. Note that many nations have congratulated Biden and Harris and are happily looking forward to working with them.

It’s time to unite and work together to build us back to the country we once were; to build back all that Trump destroyed, including our reputation around the world. Biden is the man who can do that.

Someone who has a very long reputation of working across the aisle rather than bashing the other side, is what we need and will get from Biden. The lies spread by the right need to stop. And, yes, he isn’t even in office before you start to condemn him. We’ve had it with lies, division and name-calling. It’s time for a real president to run this country - one who is positive and cares about the people more than he cares about himself.

CJ Stevens