Columnist Ruthe Deskin: Primary thoughts on voting

Ruthe Deskin

Thursday, Sept. 19, 2002 | 8:11 a.m.

It's confession time.

In spite of the inducement of early voting, I failed to cast my vote in the primary election.

As one who has voted religiously in every election since I became eligible many years past, I have had a guilty feeling about this dereliction of what is a privilege and a duty.

Everyone should vote, the pundits tell us. I do have ambivalent feelings about the campaigns to encourage people to get out and vote.

A few years back an old friend, Jack McCloskey, the late publisher of the Mineral County Independent in Hawthorne, once wrote:

"One phase of our election laws that has been sadly weakened in recent years is the almost hysterical movement to lower the standards for registering voters -- sign 'em up whether they want to vote or not, then put on the pressure to drive them to the polls on election day, even though they are not interested in who gets elected. Grab them when they go for a driver's license, let them mail in a postcard, or fax an application to register."

McCloskey said that government is best served by the voter who willingly goes to the polls with background knowledge to justify his or her selections.

A former Las Vegas mayor once expressed his concern about the "get out the vote" campaigns: "Give me one concerned, informed voter over dozens who have been corralled and enticed to the polls without enough knowledge to vote intelligently."

With all the modern conveniences for voters -- absentee ballots and early voting -- there's no excuse, other than illness and incapacitation, not to vote.

Just be informed, however, and pass on candidates about whom you have little knowledge.

It's all about oil.

A story in the Washington Post is of great significance in the understanding of the Iraq situation.

"A U.S.-led ouster of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein could open a bonanza for U.S. oil companies long banished from Iraq, scuttling oil deals between Baghdad and Russia, France, and other countries and reshuffling world petroleum markets according to industry officials and leaders of the Iraqi opposition."

According to the story, the president and senior Bush officials claim they have not begun to focus on issues involving oil, but "U.S. and foreign oil companies already have begun maneuvering for a stake in the country's huge proven reserves of 112 billion barrels of crude oil, the largest in the world outside of Arabia."

The question we should be asking is, "Who will benefit most in a war with Iraq?"

A bit of Las Vegas trivia: Twenty years ago the annual publication of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce featured an article by then-Chamber President Tom Wiesner.

Clark County had 462,012 residents.

Water was the big concern, as it is today.

In 1980 the Convention Center hosted 449 conventions that attracted 656,000 delegates.

There were 92,756 students enrolled in public and private schools. Construction had begun on the 55,000-square-foot Alta Ham Fine Arts building at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

On aging, look at it this way: If people have to get old, they should get as old as they possible can.