Thursday, April 30, 1998 | 10:51 a.m.
ALMOST 42 YEARS have passed since I first crawled around the mountains overlooking the canyons below. Mount Charleston, the gem of the Spring Mountains, has always been a special place for the people of Clark County to enjoy the outdoors and get away from the fast pace of life in the valley. A few have enjoyed it so much they have moved up there to live and help preserve the area for the rest of us.
As the valley continues to grow in population, the value of the Spring Mountains as a place for relaxation and enjoyment becomes even more important to Nevadans. Long, hot days in Las Vegas drives thousands of locals to the cool, fresh mountains during the summer months. A loaded picnic basket and some time in the shade can change the entire mood of the family. Why ruin a good thing that so many of us have enjoyed over the years?
The very idea of putting a shopping center and convenience store on Kyle Canyon Road near the Deer Creek Road junction is repulsive. It's also unnecessary and destructive to the environment visitors come to enjoy. I couldn't believe the arguments an attorney gave in support of the building project. "I can understand why the residents of Mount Charleston would want to keep this precious jewel to themselves. But for the people who need more passive recreation, this is something our community desperately needs," he argued.
That precious jewel isn't kept from the rest of us who go there for enjoyment. We have full access to it and the people living there have always been friendly and more than willing to help fight fires started by careless campers. I can't think of any more passive activity than having a picnic beneath the pines. If a fella wants to relax any more, he can always go to bed, drowse off in front of the tube or play bingo at a casino.
Certainly I can't imagine spending my hours in a shopping center or convenience store in the mountains. I have more than enough air conditioned facilities and good places to shop within walking distance of my home. The fresh, cool air, clean snow, cold water, trees, wildlife, whispering breezes and a degree of solitude are the values the Mount Charleston area of the Spring Mountains has for Southern Nevadans. Belching fumes from cars gathered around a shopping center and the hustle bustle of people is just another distasteful extension of Las Vegas.
Why should our elected officials allow our mountain respite to be further damaged? When they allowed the building of a golf course up there, they were stretching the reasonable guidelines for good taste and common sense. Now the Kyle Canyon shopping center?
How many elected officials want to stand up and take credit as they engineer the destruction of a valuable Southern Nevada respite from the hot streets? Will they all show up with their planning commissioners for the ground-breaking ceremony for a facility entirely out of sync with the surrounding environment?
The Arizona Supreme Court did what I hope the Nevada Supreme Court never has to do. Two days ago the high court of our southern neighbors struck down that state's 1988 "English only" law. Why it took 10 years to put the law in the trash can is beyond the comprehension of fair-thinking individuals.
Although 23 states passed similar laws during the 1980s and early 1990s, few of them had the sharp teeth of Arizona's law. The high court ruled that the law "chills First Amendment rights that government is not otherwise entitled to proscribe." Might I add that Arizona's and all other language-restrictive laws have usually been the product of racism and in the West a direct slap at our Spanish-speaking friends and neighbors.
During the 1987 Nevada Legislature, Assembly Joint Resolution 11 was presented to declare that English is Nevada's official language. I didn't really see any need for AJR 11 and rapped it as being mean-spirited, which it was. I asked "So why stir up a controversy and create hard feelings by even suggesting we should constitutionally designate English as an "official" language? It appears to me to be just one more expensive and unnecessary bill and/or resolution presented for the Legislature to yet consider before taking action on the really serious problems confronting our state. This after being in session for two months!..."
Then this column nailed AJR 11 for what is truly was, "Despite what a few promoters of the English-only amendment may say, it is aimed at Spanish-speaking Nevadans. For them it is an unnecessary and undeserved slap in the face from the Legislature which could do much more good by properly funding our schools where reading, writing and speaking English is taught to young and old alike..."
That column drew all kinds of fire from a couple of Las Vegas veterans groups and some of their rhetoric was more than a small display of bigotry. The fat was in the fire and soon the resolution's author, Assemblyman Virgil Getto, R-Fallon, withdrew it from consideration. Getto had no personal hatred nor bigotry and the conflict showed him the hidden agenda of some people supporting it. Virgil, a good legislator and decent human being, killed what could have been an embarrassment for the Silver State.
The Arizona Supreme Court has now moved to get that state to get back into line with what's right and just.
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