Letter: Natives like state just the way it is

Friday, Aug. 15, 2003 | 8:54 a.m.

My parents moved to Las Vegas in 1940 and I was born and raised here. My children were born here and we've all come back to live here after trying a few other places. We didn't like living in states that had an income tax. We voted for the supermajority to keep Nevada from turning into another California.

Imagine my shock when I opened the Sun a few days ago and read a letter from an admittedly "new person to the area" stating that he is a schoolteacher, a good and honorable, but poor, man who served his country willingly, and that we, the "old money" should leave here and go someplace else and become the "local aggravation and new money" someplace else.

Well, excuse me, but a good and honorable man does not move to someone else's hometown and tell the natives they should go elsewhere because, "That ain't the way we did it in Oklahoma" or because California does it differently.

My question is, if it was so good where he came from, why is he here? And my reply is: No thank you, I like my home as it is. If I want to pay a state income tax, I'll move to a place that has one. Just because he chose to move here and become the new money and local aggravation doesn't mean the natives must do the same.

MARY MORGAN