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Sunday, Feb. 3, 2013 | 2 a.m.
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The Sun's opinion page provides a wide range of opinion about the start of the 2013 Legislature.
From the Sun:
The Sun's editorial Break the status quo.
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Elected officials
Senate Minority Leader Michael Roberson
Assembly Minority Leader Pat Hickey
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Political scientist
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Political journalists
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Have your own opinion?
Write a letter to the editor.
Where are the pitchforks? Where are the torches yearning to burn? Where is the angry mob?
To some of you, the idea of a mob of frightened townspeople is an unfamiliar concept. I would suggest old Frankenstein movies, during which whatever electricity was available was concentrated in the laboratory of the monster-making mad scientist.
To others, I suggest “Network,” in which the lead character, played by Academy Award-winner Peter Finch, showed the same level of disgust with current events by screaming to anyone who would listen, “I’m mad as hell, and I am not going to take this anymore.”
The point is the same. There comes a time, or there should come a time, when the level of disgust with the way things are, or the fear that grips us about impending actions, causes us to rise up in our own way.
I am saying this because the 2013 Nevada Legislature is about to begin. And if most legislative sessions in the Silver State are any indication of how this one will start and end, now is not too early for the good voters of Nevada to take to the pitchforks, cry from the windows and do whatever they can to make their voices and wishes known.
There is a reason the Legislature meets hundreds of miles away from Clark County — that’s where the state capital is located. But that’s no reason why the legislative session, which takes place for four months every other year, is not centered where more than 70 percent of the state’s population lives and 90 percent of its challenges take place.
No, the only reason why that continues to occur is that the legislators need peace and quiet while they do the people’s work and, more importantly, they need to be far away from the maddening crowd. You see, if it is easy for people to address the Legislature for one grievance or another, history has shown that they will do that! And how would that look if everyday people concerned about the way state government works, or doesn’t work, actually showed up to tell their elected representatives what they thought?
I will tell you how that would look.
In today’s world, in which major problems continue to be swept under the rug, pushed out another two years and then another, the people coming to the legislative halls would resemble a frightened crowd carrying pitchforks or Peter Finch screaming at the top of his lungs.
There would be no room to run and hide from appropriate action. The elected officials would have to act.
I think now is a good time for the people to get in the right frame of mind when it comes to the demands they make and the expectations they have of their elected legislators.
As I am sure you understand, I am really not advocating pitchforks or torches or even screaming at the top of one’s lungs — although it’s not beyond the realm of reason to imagine a level of frustration great enough to cause such theatrical stunts.
What I am advocating, and what I believe is foreign to most Nevadans, is that we pay attention, real deep and sustained attention, to that which is taking place in Carson City. What happens could determine whether our state regains its place as an economic model for the rest of the country and a beacon of hope for the other states mired in the muddle of every quality-of-life indicator.
I am not going to pick on any particular legislator at this point, or even the governor and his State of the State address. There is plenty of time for that.
What there is not enough time for, though, is for the people who live and work in this state — the people whose futures depend on a vibrant, growing economy, whose children require a first-rate education, and whose parents need a first-class medical community to make their futures as bright and dignified as possible — to get involved.
That should be almost all of us. We need to focus and get engaged because the challenges are daunting — Nevada was devastated by the 2008 economic disaster; it has a revenue system designed for a time that has come and gone and is wholly dependent on the goodwill of others rather than ourselves; and the state consistently is at the bottom of every quality-of-life indicator in the nation — behind Mississippi, for God’s sake.
What the 2013 Legislature does — or doesn’t — do will determine what happens to Nevada for the near and long term.
Nevada was always a state with a bright future because we had people who were engaged and active and who made it their business to make sure that those in positions of power did the right and bright thing to advance this state.
I have the sense that there are too many people today who either don’t care, don’t care to know or don’t know how to send a strong message to Carson City to fix that which ails us.
And unless the legislators, tucked safely so far away from the overwhelming majority of Nevadans, hear us and act upon our wishes and our needs — as opposed to just kicking the problems down the road again — we will continue to suffer in much the same way we have since the economic meltdown first happened.
In typing class, there was a drill that began, “Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party.” Even though the newer generations have learned to type only with their thumbs, the message to them — for they are whom this whole effort is about — should be loud and clear.
Now is the time to act to make sure the people’s work is done. And if there is no action, if it is just more of the same games with the same rhetoric, it may be time to consider the pitchforks.
Good luck, legislators. Do your best. No, do better than that. Do what you were elected to do!
Brian Greenspun is publisher and editor of the Las Vegas Sun.
Excellent article, excellent advice Mr. Greenspun! However, there is one very important attachment to state government that was left untouched for angry citizens to march at with pitchforks and burning torches. That would be some Nevada State employees, their managers, and agency directors who not only waste, but out-right steal, rip-off, bargain with, and squeeze out millions of dollars from inflated state department budgets that are allocated by the legislature every two-year session.
PART ONE
I WAS READY FOR STATE GOVERNMENT, BUT THEY WERE NOT READY FOR ME
Let me start out with small potato's that of course do add up to high numbers quickly. Then, I'll give you the big spuds. And finally, I'll expose the seed and the real root of the problem with state government.
Working for the prison system, as an officer, I submitted a self-made worksheet to my shift lieutenant weekly that detailed during my tours of inspection, security breaches and conservation violations.
Think of all the huge amount of floodlights that it takes to light up a professional baseball diamond at night and the cost of this electricity if, for just a few hours every day of the year. Okay, on a prison yard, those same lights will actually need to be running from the time the sun sets till the sun rises in the morning. What would you think when these same lights are turned on consistently 2-3 hours before sunset every day, and left on anywhere from 1-5 hours every morning when the sun rises?
I was stunned when I walked into a large prison building in our institution that was utilized for visitation where there are officers, inmates, and their approved guests were allowed to meet five days a week during normal working hours. I found the multiple air and heat industrial systems running 24/7. The inmate and visitor section of visiting was being iced, while the staff section was blasting heat to combat the cold air being thrown into the other side of the room. One would have thought, at a minimum, with these childish, but expensive games being played, that at least these systems would have been shut down at the conclusion of business each day. Nope, it was not to be. I couldn't even get this accomplished. Needless to say that the slew of less eventful conservation violations throughout the institution that chronically persisted got no attention either.
PART TWO
Even though our institution had by far, the most expensive electrical bill of any other penal institution in the state, and by nearly twice the amount from other state prisons, this institution that I was employed by, was also one of the smaller prison yards. However, the response from my shift commander was, "I don't pay those bills. I could care less." When I reported my findings to a higher authority, I was removed to a less responsible, more "trench type" working position.
Now, let us upgrade to where the "big bucks" of the tax payers are either pilfered, appropriated, embezzled or squandered since I will definitely establish ineptness, negligence, and corruption in some of our state employees, managers, and directors that are seemingly so often being honored by our governors for their dedicated state service. (I'm feeling sick).
The cost of training and maintaining an entire agency state-wide of prison officers to meet federal standards is a quite expensive process for the tax-payers. What if I was to tell you it was all a sham? Would you believe it? For many, they probably will not.
However, even I was stunned when I was taken off the list of instructing incoming students in scheduled academies. The training managers decided that since I refused to give standard department tests on lectured material, that I no longer belonged at the teaching podium. Why did I refuse this? What was the standard department test? The answer is simple; academy instructors typically gave a course included multiple choice test prior to instruction being given at the beginning of class. It was graded in the hands of the students, themselves. The examination was reviewed and the correct answers were given to the students. The pupils were allowed to correct their own test sheets. The class instruction was then given to the students. At the conclusion of the class instruction, the same exact examination was given to the students, once again. I termed this as academic fraud. Of course, this accusation was not met with friendly attitudes and faces from either management or officers.
PART THREE
In 2008, I was getting ready to retire after over two decades in the prison system. It was time. I was beginning to experience health issues that would keep me from being in the physical shape that is required of an officer. I was quite surprised the advice I was receiving from mid-level management. First, I was advised to medically retire. No doubt, this would have substantially increased my retirement payments and benefits. I was constantly witness to a significant portion of retiring staff that "seemingly" did not meet established mandates of medical retirement. I was also advised by these same prison managers to not turn back into the state, upon retiring, the unused portions of my sick leave. There, in my opinion, this criminal advice was," just burn it all off and get paid your full salary. Everybody does it. Enjoy your extended vacation"
I refused to take either route as proposed by mid-level management. Of course, making a report to state authorities fell on deaf ears.
Doing the math of these purely avoidable costs to taxpayers would just be absolutely astronomical in terms of our state budgets that are approved by our legislators.
The fact is, our legislators, to some extents are not always the ones that we should be coming at with pitchforks and burning torches. The agency directors that are appointed by the governor are really, in essence, the true culprits. They know the ins and outs. They conceal in their testimonies to our legislators the dishonesties, the exploitations, the briberies, the fraud and the incompetence of their organization that they oversee and are responsible for. They concoct and speak all the lies to our elected officials. State agency directors swindle legislators, and legislators approve the ultimate fleecing of the taxpayers of the state of Nevada.
The pitchforks and burning torches, legally speaking per se, need first to be redirected at the primary source of our financial destruction. The legislature should not be our only whipping post!!!
I will never forget the question that an inmate once asked of me.
He asked, "Officer Chap, I know we are just convicts, and we need to be watched. But, just who is watching you guys?"
I thought for a second, and replied, "Sadly, in many ways, the truth is, I don't think anybody does."
Absolutely agree with Las Vegas Sun's Publisher and Editor, Brian Greenspun and Commenter Bradley Chapline!
Accountability goes all around. Too many, alienated, and abused Citizens, become villified when they take a stand, often before 'authorities' and will become quiet and basically give up. (I appreciate Bradley Chapline for his courage to do the right thing, and pray that justice will be served for those who ignored doing the right thing, and unjustly caused this good Citizen any harm.)
For change to happen, you must continue to take that stand, and not be moved! Can we hear and learn from the voices in history (the peaceful marches with Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr., come to my mind) singing, "We shall overcome..."?
What those in government hope for, is that they get your support to be elected, and that once they are in office, you will simply TRUST them to do the work you originally expected them to do. How many of you are satisfied that process is really working? We must be on their heels every inch of the way, lest those with financial means detour them into avenues that do not serve US everyday, little guy Citizens.
How can we be effective with our elected political representative? By calling, writing letters/emails, and if possible, showing up in person to communicate our concerns. NOW is the time. Start NOW, and keep on it until the Nevada State Legislative Session is complete. Thank you!
Blessings and Peace,
Star
"I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!"
Welcome to the Tea Party!
In reply to "staralioflundnv Star Ali Mistriel-Kogan"; thank you for a very supportive commentary that has solid advice for all the citizens of Nevada.
"Allow those that you pay to run rampant, and that's exactly what they shall do."
>B. Chapline<
In reply to "JudgeRoyBean"; respectfully, no political party has an exclusive claim to lack of integrity. They have all participated.