10 Thursday, September 4, 1997 Pahrump Valley Gazette
Bob Coad for commissioner i voices from Pahrump
Every now and then something comes along that simply
astonishes me. A recent letter to the editor has done just
that.
I've been reading letters to the editor in the four Nye
County newspapers for years. I've gotten used to the
radical opinion being expressed and have long since held
the opinion that one heck of a lot of people in this county
are, simply put, nuts. This is particularly true, in my
opinion, of letters from the southern county.
Last week a letter appeared from Mr. Bob Coad, Pahr-
ump, under the heading, "Register and Vote." My first
thought, upon reading the headline, was that here was
another radical proclaiming that if you didn't vote you
have no right to complain about how things are going. This
has always been a pet peeve of mine. In this great nation
you also have a right not to vote. (Some countries will jail
you if you don't vote.) Just because a person elects not to
vote certainly does not preclude his right to complain
about local or national government.
Ooops. It was a poor headline
Mr. Coad gets my "citizen of the year" vote. Coming
from a Pahrumpian is absolutely incredible. By gosh, there
is intelligence in Pahrump!
Mr. Coad writes, "Since I am far from the most intelli-
gent soul in the world, I will not try to make your decisions
for you, but I do have a few thoughts to p::t fourth."
Don't put yourself down, Mr. Coad. Anyone that writes
with such profound thought is, indeed, intelligent.
Mr. Coad proclaims, "Many folks write about the money
the county has poured into NRMC [Nye Regional Medical
Center], and I feel they have every right to do so, but none
has come up with a viable alternative.. (except to close the
facility and leave a lot of people without first class medical
care). 1, for one, do not profess to play God, nor do I desire
to do so. Somewhere out there is someone with the answer
or answers to the problem who has, so far. failed to come
NORTHERN EXPOSU00
by Dave Downing
forth. Please, if you read this, at least write
a letter to the papers with a workable
plan."
This paragraph simply bowled me over.
l
I'm still shaking my head in disbelief that this letter came
from a resident of Pahrump. My faith in the average citizen
is restored. I hope that more people in this great town feel
the same way. Yes, there is a problem with monies spent on
NRMC. No, we can't close it down and still maintain we
are part of the human race. There must be an answer and
someone out there has it/
Other comments in the letter are far reaching and well
thought out. The census, problems with local government,
small town versus large town and the problems found
therein.
I don't know who you are, Mr. Coad, but someday I
would like to meet you and compare notes. I wish more
people would have the insight to contemplate what was
going on around them and develop an attitude that was
positive in nature. Let's solve the problem, not kill those
involved.
On the other hand, we do have a lot of radicals in this
county. They rant and rave and generally raise hell about
any little thing that goes on. County Commissioners are all
crooks, according to them. Anyone and everyone that
supports them should be taken out back and shot.
Newspaper columnists, including this newspaper, find
a conspiracy behind everything from the TWA flight 800
crash to an absolute belief that the federal government
themselves blew up the federal building in Oklahoma City.
There are those that believe the Holocaust is nothing more
than a Jewish attempt to thwart attentions from the "just
and right rule of Adolph Hitler." That the NASA landing
on the moon was nothing more than a fake, made in a
movie studio.
But it is the radical that seems to receive the attention.
There are constant letters to the editor that extend kudos tq ,
those columist for "exposing the terrible attrocities that
exist." This is particularly true on local issues.
This column, admittedly, generates no interest whatso-
ever. I maintain there is balance in the county and extend
a positive approach to county government and affairs. The
result is that this column is very near cancellation. It
doesn't expose corrupt government officials -- rather, it
has the audacity to compliment them! Humph! The
"Chicken Littles" that constantly scream that the sky is
. falling may win. I would hope that the "silent majority"
may yet prevail.
Amidst all this comes the refreshing letter from Bob
Coad. An intelligent voice from Pahrump that, essentially,
says, "Stop. Smell the roses. Take a look around you. It's
not all that bad and what is difficult can be fixed."
Take a run for commissioner, Bob. You've got my vote.
The benefits of moderate drinking
In 1972, Harvard epidemiologist Carl Seizer ex-
amined data from the Framingham Heart Study and
found that drinkers were less liable to heart disease
than abstainers. But the National Institutes of Health,
which had funded the research, refused to let Seizer
publish a paper about this result. An NIH official
said: "An cle which openly invites the encourage-
ment of drinking, with the implication of preventing
coronary heart disease, would be-scientifically mis-
leading and socially undesirable in view of the major
problem of alcoholism that exists in the country."
A quarter of a century after the NIH banned Selzer's
paper, the connection between alcohol consumption
and a reduced risk of heart disease is well established.
More than 50 epidemiological studies have confirmed
the link found in the Framingham data. This research
indicates that the risk of heart disease for moderate
drinkers is 40 to 80 percent of the risk faced by
abstainers. Moderate drinking is defined as two
drinks per day for men and one for women.
With evidence like this accumulating, at some
point the government had to take notice. But the
process has been achingly slow. In ! 990 the govern-
ment asserted that drinking had no health benefits. In
1995 a small concession was made that "moderate
drinking is associated with a lower risk of coronary
heart disease in some individuals."
U.S. pronouncements differed in significant ways
from the conclusions of a British study entitled "Sen-
sible Drinking." The British results suggested elevat-
Changing Patterns
by Richard Reul
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ing the acceptable level for women and that moderate
drinking during pregnancy was not dangerous.
A 1995 poll by the Competitive Enterprise Institute
found that only 42 percent of Americans were aware of
medical evidence that moderate drinking reduces the
risk of heart disease. Efforts by manufacturers to
deliver this message have been stymied by the Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. The BATF has
consistently rejected all therapeutic claims, regardless
of truthfulness. It argues that "such claims are inher-
ently misleading, given the harmful societal effects
arising from the consumption of alcohol and the dan-
ger to those who, for psychological or physical rea-
sons, are adversely affected thereby."
Since 1989 federal law has required that every
container of beer, wine and liquor sold in the U.S. have
a warning from the surgeon general about the hazards
of drinking. Every attempt by importers and manufac-
turers to balance this statement has been rejected by
the BATF.
The temperance movement, which' depicted alco-
hol as a demonic substance, is apparently still a strong
force in the federal government. More than 60 years
after the end of prohibition, it is time for our govern-
ment to acknowledge that alcohol does have benefits -
social, psychological and physical - as well as its
known hazards. Surely this is a truth with which the
American people can be trusted.
Author's,lote: This column was condensed from an
article by Stanton Peele in the National Review.
Have a good one, I know I will
I was recently asked by one of my readers why I
close my column with the three word sentence "Have
a Good One?" One sometimes sends me stuff to use
in my cQlumn. My closing is actually four words if
you count the "a." The reason the "a" is in there is
that I ain't into ebonies yet. But this could change
and we will have to walt til the end of this to see if
I end it with "have a good one."
What got me into this closing sentence was the
common phrase a person hears all the time which is
"have a nice day." I don't care what the situation is
somebody is gonna lay this on you. A policeman
could just be getting on his bike or back in their car
after giving you a ticket, a process server who has
just serv you with a subpoena or it could be the
clerk who finally got around to waiting on you. The
list could go on and on and I'm sure you have some
incidents in your own experience that have ended with
Slim Sez
by Slim Sirnes
"have a nice day."
There have been times when I
have responded to this phrase with
"Thanks, but I got other plans." But this is kinda
negative and mos.t of the people aren't listening any-
way. They could care less how your day was gonna go
they already got your money.
Now you take the phrase "have a good one." This
can apply to anything or situation. Your day can be
going lousy which they sometimes do and we kinda
lose sight of the good things that did somehow man=
age to creep in. Although at times they're kinda hard
to see. But they happened if you stop to think about
it.
Of course you have to be a little careful when you
use this phrase. Seeing someone off on a trip or
vacation or a night on the town is good. But you
wouldn't want to use it when someone was obviously
headed into a IRS office for an audit or a dentist's for
a.root canal. These being "have a nice day" deals
although in at least one of these happenings the term,
"have a good one" would work. So I leave you with
have a good one. I know I will.
