Opinion

A number of Nevada’s rural county commissions have passed or are considering resolutions expressing their opposition to mail-in voting. Taking their cue from President Trump, they base their opposition on claims that mail-in voting is rife with fraud. It’s no coincidence that these exclusively Republican officials feel threatened by mail-in voting, and it has nothing to do with fraud, real or imagined.

Don’t spew your hate at me.

On Saturday, July 4, 2020, Independence Day, I was on the Nevada State Capitol Grounds in Carson City. This is where I was the target of a hostile verbal assault: “Get out of here! You don’t belong here! You’re not welcome here!”

Golf was invented or discovered, whichever you like, in Scotland in the mid-1400's, and became hugely popular almost overnight. Golf in Scotland in 1460 was so popular that one could not walk to the post office without getting hit by a golf ball.

I recently watched the critically acclaimed and award-winning 1998 film "Saving Private Ryan" on television the other evening.

I'm not a combat veteran, or a military veteran of any stripe for that matter, and that movie still gives me chills each time I see it.

I believed it when some veterans reported experiencing emotional flashbacks while viewing "Saving Private Ryan" on the big screen. The film's combat scenes were so disturbing that they triggered post-traumatic stress reactions from those who had lived through the real thing.

As we recite the Lord's prayer, it's time to look a little deeper. Presented below is a version of the meaning of each of the lines of the Lord’s prayer.
1) Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Before the pandemic arrived I used to get to read the Declaration of Independence as Mark Twain, orchestrated to a Marine Corps flyover upon finishing with these words, "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our Lives, our Fortunes, our sacred Honor." Va-voom!

Well, here we are, alive and mostly well, after almost a third of a year without sports. I didn't think it was possible. Thank goodness I've had Mark Twain to keep me in a state of moderate good cheer.

For over four decades I have formally observed hundreds of successful (and unsuccessful) candidacies expressing hopes, ideas, and plans for the voting-market to evaluate as possible policies and governance. All candidates —especially at this time and place — are to be complimented for having the chutzpah required for this endeavor. Running for office is too often an unpleasant challenge. Period.

It’s been months of challenging circumstances for our community, businesses, families and schools, but I saw us beginning to emerge from the darkness. Then, without warning, the horrific death of George Floyd reignited the unresolved wounds of racism, police use of force, and unequal treatment of minorities in this country. The frustrated public demanded answers, change, and resolution, not later but now.

Yesterday while out for a walk, I ran into four middle school boys on skateboards and hailed them, "Okay, men, I know you've been out of school, but I've got a pop-quiz for you."

My father was of the Model T Generation, born the year the Titanic went down, 1912. His was a sober generation, living through the flu pandemic of 1918, Prohibition, the Great Depression and WWII. If that won't sober up a generation what will?

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.

The first time I had ever heard "Taps" played in person, I was visiting Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, VA, just outside of Washington, D.C. A Navy funeral was concluding and bugler "Taps" signaled the sailor's final farewell.

Farmers have always been the world's busiest, hardest-working people. Farmers are perhaps the only people whose profession commands universal respect. Between milking the cows in the morning and getting that milk to market, and collecting the eggs at day's end and getting those eggs to market, who has time to date?

It is hard to believe that two months ago we were all going about business as usual, going to the mall, to the gym, seeing family and friends and having dinner together at our favorite restaurant. Now, with life in lockdown, the way forward feels uncertain and bleak. We are faced with a pandemic we didn’t see coming, which has caused an economic crisis and cost many lives. This is particularly difficult to think about when you consider those most affected are the elderly and people with pre-existing medical conditions.

Since I started walking instead of running I'm enchanted by the simplest things. I guess trading "runner's high" for "walker's enchantment," is not such a bad trade.

The polarizing attitudes and ideology that has taken over the American political environment -- as witnessed in recently-held political debates and rallies, nationwide -- is a danger to traditional American democratic values of diversity and respect of the “marketplace of ideas”, where people are not listening to each other, where respect for diversity is lacking, where the prevailing political attitude seems to be “my way or the highway”.

Since when does the Carson City Chamber of Commerce promote and back a political candidate. Is it ok that almost every Facebook post the Chamber makes is immediately posted on Ronni Hannaman’s election Facebook page. Is it odd that Hannaman’s page has virtually nothing about her campaign.

America's Red Light District originated in Dodge City, Kansas, where train crews would leave their red lanterns outside when entering a bordello so they could be located in the event of an emergency, and America's madams were quick to embrace this tradition as an excellent way to advertise.

Trousers came into being when it was discovered, before Christ, that hand-to-hand combat was most unpleasant while wearing a robe, not to mention the discomfort endured while riding a horse while wearing a robe.

We all remember our first, our first love, our first kiss, our first colonoscopy. The procedure was developed in 1969, but was overshadowed by the moon landing. There were no headlines, "Colonoscopy Arrives! What is it? Don't ask."

Staying at home alone gives one time to pause and ponder. Today I'm evoking the war in Vietnam. This was an American booboo that was partly my fault. I was in college, 1966, majoring in pizza and beer, when I received a lottery number in the mail.

At this time with so many having so little due to the pandemic’s impact on the economy, I have decided against purchasing campaign yard signs. If you are inclined to donate to my campaign, I ask that you, instead, donate to the Food Pantry, Food for Thought, FISH – or possibly help a family by providing them a card for Smith’s, Save Mart, Raley’s, Walmart or Grocery Outlet.

We all know who our Governor Steve Sisolak is, but we did not know him until he did his press releases during this COVID-19 Crises.

A gifted poet friend of mine, Jack Wright, penned a verse to welcome a flattening of the COVID-19 curve.

Like everybody else nowadays, I'm lugging a heavy heart around in my chest. So I like to escape into the past now and again, and dream about how things might have been. I would like to have been in Boston for the Tea Party for example, and I picture myself at the Bell In Hand Tavern, holding forth in front of my fellow Bostonians.

In full disclosure, I opted out of pre-med when confronted with analytical geometry, but have never lost my interest in good health. So I stand in awe of our country's show of courage in our sudden shift of values. A new energy is emerging in America, a new altruism. With the arrival of COVID-19, mastery of fear is our new normal, bravery our new mantle.

They told us the C-rations they were delivering to us leathernecks in Vietnam were prepared and canned for troops fighting long before us in Korea.

This morning we wake up to a new reality in Carson City.

Last night at midnight, by order of Gov. Steve Sisolak, all casinos and gaming machines in Nevada shut down, and with them a large chunk of the state's tax revenue.

Today at noon, all non-essential businesses are supposed to close their doors. A majority of the state's workforce is starting today not knowing if they have a job, if they will be paid, or how they will pay their bills.

Feeling it the right thing to do, the only thing to do, really, I scratched out a short letter and delivered it to our community hospital.