Sherman R. Frederick/Properly Subversive
Even though my old newspaper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, spent many-a column inches chronicling (and sometimes exposing) the self-serving duplicity of Nevada’s late U.S. Senator Harry Reid, I didn’t say a thing when McCarran International Airport was re-named after him.
McCarran was a scoundrel in his time, so why not keep the tradition going. Plus, if we’re going to be honest (and I always strive to be when writing to you in these columns), Reid was, without doubt, a big deal for Nevada. Perhaps the most influential Nevadan ever to serve in Washington, D.C. Yes, Sen. Howard Cannon was influential in his day, as was Sen. Paul Laxalt. But Reid eclipsed them both, in my view. Of this, I believe historians will agree.
So sure, if you want to call the airport “Harry Reid” instead of “McCarran” airport, I’m not going to whine (too much) about it. But I may have to draw the line at the naming of a youth football field wedged near the flight path of the airport.
Last Saturday, our son let us know that grandson, Clark, was playing football at 4 p.m. He gave us the address and we went. It turned out to be a football complex named after, you guessed it, Harry.
“This is too much,” I whispered to my wife. “Does this mean that the refs are open to influence and that the goal line can be moved periodically?”
She said, “Hush, honey. Enjoy your grandson’s football game.”
And so, I did.
Subtle.