Thursday, April 10, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Letters

Plant security not a high priority

I just read your piece, "Ingredients of Terror" [April 3] and I would like to answer your question on how a place with such high security can allow someone to get in. I am from Ohio and got this story from a friend who thought I would be interested:

"I work at an automotive plant as a security guard, and there are several dangerous chemicals that are stored and used there. I work midnight shift with four other guards. One of them doesn't even see the plant because he is the dispatcher. The other two are not required to patrol the plant. I am the only one who has that job, and I am only required to go through it once (I have three tours but they are all through different parts). Yeah, we have fences, we have cameras, but what we don't have is a large enough staff to secure the facility, which takes up a lot of real estate. The reason: money. People at this company don't see the necessity of having a large guard staff. The people who pay us think we don't do much, but they will be sorely mistaken when we find ourselves underpowered."

--Ed Gaither

Old-time performers preferable to youngsters

I found Bob Shemeligian's story, "Of Florida and Cruise Ships" [March 27], to be quite interesting--and a bit sad. As an entertainment lover and 26-year Las Vegan, I have a comment on "old-time" performers, or, as I prefer to call them, "pros."

Prior to the demolition of the Circus Maximus showroom at Caesars Palace, I took a friend, young enough to be my son, to see Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme in one of their last local performances. He still talks about it three years later.

I have to wonder how many people will be talking about Queen Celine's show in the $95 million Colosseum at that very same hotel, and for how long. If there are memories of that over-hyped experience three years after the fact, will they be positive or negative? Will audience members feel they got their money's worth? Will they leave feeling thoroughly entertained? Only time will tell.

As for me, you can keep Britney, Christina, Eminem and 50 Cent--how long will their 15 minutes of fame REALLY last anyway? Bring back Steve and Eydie!

--Esther Lynn

Soldiers get rude awakening back home

Four wars and seven U.S. presidents ago, I became a disabled American soldier. After weeks in military hospitals and two surgeries, I became a forgotten soldier. I was denied medical treatment for my service-connected injuries because I was treated by a civilian doctor. I was denied proper compensation because of no medical records (records conveniently lost to cover up command mistakes). The denial of compensation reads like Saddam Hussein's weapons declaration, full of incomplete statements, deception and lies.

There are 453,000 disabled veterans with pending claims for compensation. The cost of one day of war with Iraq would pay every claim at 100 percent for three months. Forty days of war or 10 years of compensation for the current disabled American veterans?

I feel so sorry for the soldiers who will come home from their heroic mission and find the same response as I and thousands of others have received--benefits denied.

--Dan Lowden,

Willits, Calif.

Liberals make poor case against Iraq war

Why are we at war with Iraq? Is this war justified? The treatment the liberal media, including the Mercury, has given these questions has not only been one-sided, it's been one-dimensional.

Instead of evaluating the administration's reasons, the liberal media have only repeated the same few sterile insults in their tirade against the war. Yet the bulk of the evidence bears out the veracity of President Bush's motives.

It's unclear why the anti-war activists who write for the Mercury, who so righteously claim the U.N. as an ally, refuse to admit that Bush is actually enforcing a directive that the U.N. itself delivered. What use is the Security Council if it allows itself to be neutered when it's time to act? I have yet to hear a liberal commentator protest the war in the context of the generous and patient Resolution 1441, and Bush's courageous enforcement of it in the face of U.N. cowardice.

If you are truly open-minded, you must be willing to at least consider the validity of this war, no matter how it makes you feel. If not, perhaps you could run this article in your World Report section: "Darth Vader Prepares to Attack United States from Death Star. Millions Protest Preemptive Strike." Or maybe that's not too far from the truth.

--Jamie Huston