What happened at Red Rock is a crime and a tragedy. I have traveled widely throughout the Southwest and it seems that anything natural and beautiful is fair game for the graffiti artists. I have seen graffiti in caves, on unique rock formations, natural arches, plants and at least 80% of the pictograph and petroglyph panels that I have had the privilage to view. These beautiful art panels are also frequently used for target practice by gun toting vandals. Unfortunately, as the population of the U.S. has increased so has the destruction.

I wonder if any of the government agencies charged with the protection of our lands have ever considered placing hidden video camers powered by solar energy and connected to wireless transmitters so they can be remotely monitored near our priceless artifacts. This might discourage vandals from inflicting senseless damage to our beautiful country.

The title of this story should read The Death of the Slot Machine. A video gaming terminal is NOT a slot machine! I do not live in Las Vegas but I have visited many times and on my most recent trip it was difficult if not impossible to find a slot on the strip that actually used coins or tokens. If more younger users actually experienced the anticipation of watching mechanical reels line line up like the colors of a rainbow followed by the symphonic music of coins gushing out of the chute they might be more interested in playing traditional slots. Some of the major casinos should try an experiment and set up an area populated with real (or reel if you prefer that spelling) slots manufacturered between 1950 and 1990. They might be suprised at how much attention and money the machines would receive.

I am not in the medical profession and I am certainly not a narcotics addict but I have visited a doctor recently because I was having very serious back pain. I was x-rayed and the problem was diagnosed as a "displaced disk". Even though my problem was clearly visible in the x-ray the doctor would not write a perscription for a pain relieving drug. I was told to go home and take an asprin. The only insurance that I can afford requires that I pay $130.00 for an office visit so a second opinion was out of the question. The result was I suffered in pain for 3 weeks until the problem resolved itself. I'm certain this has happened to many patients. The point is many doctors have been intimidated by all of the negative publicity about pain medications and won't perscribe them even when they know they should.