Thursday, January 01, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Letters

Pedicabs are common transit mode elsewhere

I have been a professional pedicab (three-wheeled bike as opposed to a bicycle and trailer) driver on the Strip for the past year and have been involved in this mode of transport for the last 10 years in nine different cities around the world. After we introduced the concept of rickshaws to Europe, the idea of a zero-emission vehicle for the masses became a reality.

Pedicabs are safer than walking; not a single fatality has ever been recorded in Clark County in four years of operation. In 2000 alone, the county recorded 37 pedestrian fatalities. (Las Vegas Review-Journal, Dec. 31, 2001).

As pedicabs are becoming more popular around the world, many cities have put laws into place that could essentially be adopted here. The two pedicab companies remaining have drafted such a set of rules and guidelines to govern the market based on existing legislative examples.

Don't we have the right to provide this vital public service? They are already confiscating our bikes and plan to ban all bicycles and pedicabs on the Strip in January. A letter or phone call to Bruce Woodbury, Mary Kincaid-Chauncey, Chip Maxfield, Yvonne Gates, Myrna Williams, Mark James and Rory Reid, your county commissioners, is all it takes. Their individual contact numbers can be found at www.accessclarkcounty.com and the County Commission number is 455-3500.

--W. Christoph Fuhrer

Director of operations,

Las Vegas Pedicabs Co.

Reid, Ensign right on Medicare bill

Thank you, Sens. Reid and Ensign, for standing with Nevada seniors and voting against the president's so-called Medicare prescription drug bill.

As if sending nuclear waste to Nevada wasn't bad enough, President Bush has broken his promise to help seniors with the high cost of prescription drugs. Under the pretense of adding a prescription drug benefit to Medicare, the president signed a law that will give billions of dollars to drug companies and the HMOs while shortchanging seniors. If that wasn't enough, the bill allows drug companies to keep prices high because it forbids Medicare from negotiating lower prices for drugs that many seniors need to survive.

Thankfully, our senators know that Nevada seniors deserve better. Please keep up the good work and continue fighting for Nevada seniors.

--Michael T. Aupperle

Bush sending mothers into battle

Army Specialist Lori Piestewa, a Hopi woman killed while driving the Humvee carrying Jessica Lynch, was a single mother who left behind two orphans--Brandon, 5, and Carla, 3. According to Lori's mother, Priscilla, Carla "saw her mom's picture on the computer one day and she said, `Grandma, my mom has been in heaven too long, it's time for her to come home.'"

The neglected final verse of our national anthem refers to the duty of "free men [to] stand between their loved homes and the war's desolation..." We are now a nation that allows male cheerleaders in high political office to send women--mothers like Lori Piestewa and fragile little girls like Jessica Lynch--to fight the foreign battles of an entrenched power elite.

Our men and women in Iraq are not killing and dying on behalf of our nation. As George Bush has explicitly said on scores of occasions, the war on Iraq is intended to validate the U.N.'s authority and prestige by enforcing its disarmament decrees.

With American men and women being killed and maimed in Iraq, and the advertised rationale for war exposed as a tissue of lies, King George and his retainers have a lot to answer for.

--Frank M. Pelteson

Save Red Rock from Red Rock Station

First of all, I'd like to thank Commissioner [Mark] James for taking a stance against Station Casinos' proposed 300-foot Godzillian resort at Charleston Boulevard and the 215. A preposterous eyesore on the brink of our greatest beauty is the last thing we need in the Vegas valley. Let's leave our casinos where they belong--on the Strip, not in our back yards. Let's remember quality of life and the quality of the environment in which we live. Are slots, over-priced restaurants and neon-blindness our top priorities?

--Courtney Purcell

Declare Bush an enemy combatant

Let's see what our incompetent-in-chief has been up to this week regarding the great "Axis of Evil" he spoke of in his State of the Union address. We all know that since the SUDDEN capture of Saddam Hussein, we haven't heard another word about Super Dick's buddy Halliburton and its $61 million overcharge of the taxpayers (my, wasn't that convenient!). But we can now rest easy knowing we are safer and so are the citizens of Iraq. Like that pathetic rat coming out of his hole was a real treat to us.

Chapter 2: North Korea. This week it was announced that we are sending 60 tons of food to this country because some Koreans are hungry. Excuse me! How about hungry Americans? People in this country haven't kept families separated for decades like North Korea. The only way people will rise up against their oppressors is to be hungry, so let them be that way. I say feed our own and let North Korea sell its weapons to us for food.

Chapter 3: Iran. Although the earthquake is terrible it is not our job to send medical supplies and rescue workers to help our enemy. Maybe we got lucky and many of the people buried were terrorists. What is G.W. thinking?

I believe George W. should be declared an "enemy combatant" for giving aid and comfort to the enemy and thrown into a cell without any legal representation and no contact with the outside world. Under the wonderful PATRIOT Act (his gift to Americans), G.W. would qualify for that status and be eligible for our four-star treatment.

G. W. has been far more dangerous to American's liberty than the "Axis of Evil."

--Dawn Pizzorno Hansen

Surviving flu season--cheaply

Living in a cardboard box on Fremont Street has taught me a lot.

Most of us cannot afford the luxury of inoculations, and those who can usually get pneumonia waiting in the cold, damp lines for a flu shot. Therefore, we learned to survive on our wits! We put our heads together and realized that most people get the flu "from putting their heads together"! It's passed on from person to person by close contact. We quickly agreed that, if that were true, the reverse must also be true. Therefore, our defense against the affliction is to get someone to sneeze on you who has already had a flu shot!

--George E. Albitz